I don't know how much time had passed, but when the Jackal, Miles Warren, finally regained consciousness, he heard voices arguing.
"So this guy is the mastermind? Unbelievable. I haven't seen him in years, yet he was planning to kill me. This world really is too insane."
In his dazed state, he recognized that familiar, loathsome voice—Spider-Man. That guy had been hounding him like a ghost. Wait, that wasn't right. It felt more like he was the one trying to hound Spider-Man like a ghost, but for some reason, he had failed.
Why did he fail?
Even the Jackal couldn't find an answer.
But he knew his plan had failed. When he opened his eyes, he saw Spider-Man—that damn loser, the deadbeat, the middle-aged failure—along with the Scarlet Spider—the clone who should have been dead—all staring down at him. As for himself, he was tied to a chair with rope.
There was no need to worry about him breaking free. Peter had already used the "cure" from the Anti-Venom to erase his superhuman genes, reverting his DNA completely to its state before any modification. He had essentially lost all ability to cause any more trouble.
"Oh, he's awake."
The first to approach the Jackal was Ben Reilly. After carefully scrutinizing him, he asked with curiosity, "How is it? How do you feel? Are you surprised I'm still alive? Come to think of it, what should I call you?"
"I don't think now is the time for ethics jokes."
Peter walked over, stopped in front of Miles, and stared at him curiously. "I'm more interested in one thing: where exactly did you get all that villain gear? If you had managed to scrounge up one set, or even three or five, I could understand. But you have nearly a hundred sets. There's no way you could have acquired them on your own; this world isn't even capable of producing them."
Hearing Peter's question, the Jackal simply smiled, having no intention of answering. Peter looked at him, shook his head, and said, "You don't want to talk? That's fine. There are ways to make you talk. For instance, in my world, there are psychics who can read thoughts. Once you get into their hands, no matter what secrets you have, you'll spill them obediently."
The "Deadbeat" Peter was stunned by this news. "Mind reading? Your world has stuff like that?"
"Maybe there aren't many universes that don't... though, actually, it doesn't need to be that complicated. Your clones all have their own memories, and you tinkered with their brains. In other words, your cloning device can extract memories directly based on your genetic equipment."
The Jackal laughed, staring dismissively at this Peter Parker from another world. "Useless, Spider-Man. Even if you guess that much, do you have any way to figure out how my devices operate? This is the work of decades of my blood and sweat. And you?! You lot?! Do you think this is some trash picked up on the side of the road that anyone can just pick up and use?"
The two Spider-Men of this universe exchanged glances. This was indeed a massive problem. As locals, their expertise was quite limited, and this system was far beyond their ability to operate. If they were to rely on themselves to figure out this device, it would likely take a very long time, and they might not even succeed.
However, that was only true for the Spider-Men of this universe.
"True, I can't do it. After all, I'm not an expert in biology or gene editing... but unfortunately, there are simply too many people around me who work in this field. And I don't need to know the principles behind your work; I only need to know how to operate it, so the knowledge I have is sufficient."
As Peter spoke, he cleared a spot and reached for a strand of the Jackal's hair. The Jackal watched helplessly as his computer firewall was torn down by this otherworldly guy using some unknown method, and then Peter simply began to operate the system.
Very soon, the Jackal's first-person perspective appeared on the computer screen, and even details of memories he had forgotten began to surface one by one. It was from five years ago—the day the last of Spider-Man's supervillains had been thoroughly defeated, and not a single one had appeared for months.
At the time, Warren had collected the DNA of every villain and was preparing his grand plan for revenge. He hadn't yet prepared to destroy Peter Parker's life, as he didn't even know Peter was Spider-Man. His only intention back then was to use an army of cloned villains to kill Spider-Man outright.
But, one day, while he was executing his plan in a basement—
"You can't kill Spider-Man like that. He always manages to persist—he falls, he gets back up, and he falls again, only to stand up once more, until you find that you can never truly defeat him."
Another Spider-Man appeared before him, though his suit was slightly different. It was only black and red, the webbing on the suit was chaotic, the entire lower half was pitch black, and even the lenses were black.
Looking at the strange Spider-Man appearing before him, Warren initially thought he had been discovered, but the stranger quickly subdued him and revealed two massive secrets.
First, he came from another universe and was not the Spider-Man of this reality. In fact, he was colder, more efficient, and deadlier, and he held the Spider-Man of this universe in contempt.
Second, Spider-Man's true identity was Peter Parker, the lover of Warren's student, Gwen Stacy, who had passed away.
"So, the technology for those villains was provided by this person." The "Deadbeat" Peter was stunned watching the playback. "But... but why would a Spider-Man from another universe want to harm me?"
"How would I know? Ha! I only know he certainly isn't you, Peter Parker! You, who killed..."
Peter casually stuck a glob of webbing over the Jackal's mouth, then turned to Ben Reilly. "I have a theory. Once this individual provided the information, Warren came up with the idea to use Spider-Man's clones to destroy Spider-Man's life. Perhaps that was his goal. No, maybe it goes a step further... he was creating 'kin'."
Ben Reilly looked at Peter with surprise. "How come you sound so familiar with the other guy?"
"Not exactly, but I know who this guy is. This is Otto Octavius from a certain universe, who successfully took over our—that is, Peter Parker's—body. He saw the meaning of Spider-Man's battles after the body-swap and found enlightenment—at least in some universes."
"He calls himself the 'Superior Spider-Man'."
And clearly, this Superior Spider-Man was also busy building his own team from across the multiverse.