I'm working on Marvel's Spider-Man in American comics.

Chapter 44 The Spider Swarm Never Dies
"Damn it!"

The chameleon's curses were drowned out by the rustling tide, and countless spiders crawled out from the cracks in the ruins, their segmented limbs scraping against the ground like a vicious drizzle. He staggered backward, dragging his leg pierced by shrapnel, the muzzle flashes drawing brief arcs in the darkness—each bullet could blast a spider into a viscous green pulp, but more shadowy figures were crawling up his ankle.

"McDonald? Quentin? My damn headset's broken! Damn it!"

Chameleon fired as many shots as possible, but to no avail. Countless spiders had already climbed onto the chameleon's body, which was still disguised as Spider-Man. They opened their mouths and tried to bite, but found that the mimicry armor worn by the chameleon was quite sturdy. It only made a scraping sound of polymer tearing under the bites of the spider swarm.

But these creatures quickly discovered the bullet hole torn open in the armor by the armor-piercing bullet, and rushed to crawl inside. The first spider to crawl in opened its jaws and began to bite fiercely, and the tearing of flesh made the chameleon howl in agony.

"Don't be so anxious."

The Punisher's arm was across Spider-Man's chest, like an iron gate. He stared at the figure below, engulfed by the swarm of spiders, his knuckles rubbing the trigger: "Chameleons are going to die anyway, what difference does it make whether I shoot them or let the spiders bite them to death?"

"Let me make this clear beforehand, I will not control the spider."

Peter shook off his obstruction, the spider silk already clinging to the edge of the rooftop. The Punisher, watching from the rooftop, simply shook his head, took a vial of medicine from his pocket, swallowed it, and then, weapon in hand, went downstairs as well.

Spider-Man, who swung into the ruins, immediately launched his webs at the chameleon. A surge of high-voltage electricity then flowed from his web-shooters to the chameleon. As the chameleon let out a wail, blue and white lightning exploded, and the smell of burnt protein mixed with the wail rose up. The swarm of spiders bounced down like popcorn.

Whether it was a misperception or not, a large group of spiders that hadn't been struck by the electric current suddenly turned and looked at Spider-Man. Peter was a little confused: "Uh, hey, everyone?"

The spider swarm suddenly collapsed into a writhing black pyramid, followed by a splattering, skin-tearing sound. Secretions seeped from their bodies, weaving into pale skins and garments of spider silk—finally, faces emerged from this nightmarish mass, grinning from ear to ear, and a bastard Peter knew all too well appeared before him.

"Not 'everyone,' it's 'me'!" Cal King laughed heartily, taunting Spider-Man, "Did you ever think this day would come, Peter Parker!"

"Karl? So you thought it was me? So you killed him?"

Peter finally figured everything out: Cal King somehow acquired this strange ability, then found the chameleon disguised as Spider-Man and intended to kill him. The chameleon then detonated a bomb. Does this mean that Cal King was also impersonating Spider-Man?

The two fake Spider-Men are fighting, each believing the other to be the real one. If Chameleon is doing this to help his boss get rid of Spider-Man, then what is Kal-King's motive? To... replace Spider-Man?

"I thought you'd already gotten to the point of being disgusting, Karl. I never imagined you could go this far. Tell me how you acquired your abilities?"

"That spider! I was the one who put that spider on your neck, I was the one who made you Spider-Man! Now, I've eaten it and taken back what's rightfully mine!"

Suddenly, Kalkin's fingertip split open, a finger bone flying off like a bullet casing, replaced by a torrent of spider silk—not synthetic fibers, but a "rope" woven from hundreds of tiny spiders. Peter dodged the disgusting attack. But Kalkin's roar was not so easy to avoid.

"But you actually used the power I gave you to fight me?"

"First, you need to relearn logic. Second, I am not Harry Potter."

Spider-Man, who had dodged the attack, hooked a concrete slab and hurled it at Cal King. To his surprise, Cal King's body was exceptionally fragile, and he was smashed in two—from which countless spiders emerged and reformed themselves.

“You have no idea what I can do, Parker.” The newly formed Karl-Golden laughed maniacally, a laugh he hadn’t heard in a long time. When was the last time he laughed like that? Right, it was when he put that spider on Peter Parker’s neck.

"I am immortal!"

Kalkin ripped open his chest cavity with his hands, and swarms of spiders poured out from beneath his skin, piecing him back together. His skin slipped off like an ill-fitting costume, revealing the churning worms inside, which then wove a completely new set.

"I can become everyone I eat!"

New skin coalesced, and then Cal King became another person, someone Peter had never seen before, but what was even more shocking was what he said.

"The person you ate?"

As if stumped by the question, Karl King, now sporting a new look, paused for a moment before finally understanding what was going on, and then grinned.

“Yes, not only will I become that person's appearance, but I'll also gain all of that person's memories, and everything they learned—I'll know it all! I'll get the compensation I want! I'm going to eat you, Parker! I'm the one who should be Spider-Man! I'm the one who got that spider! Once I eat you, I'll be the only Spider-Man!” “To be honest, you're really sick, Carl!”

Finally realizing that Kal-King had gone mad, Spider-Man decisively chose to start the fight. He shot out webs from both hands, then stuck a concrete slab to each of them and began to smash it hard against the bastard in front of him. After all, there are few ways to deal with a spider better than stomping it flat.

Peter Parker? That's Spider-Man's real name?

Having remembered this, the chameleon crawled on the ground with all his might. Luckily, he was still alive. As long as he could run to a safe place, he could find Spider-Man and get Kingpin's money.

Taking advantage of the fight between Cal King and Spider-Man, Chameleon endured the excruciating pain and slowly crawled out of the battle area. He knew he still had a sliver of hope; he just needed to crawl to that place, just to get to that place...

A pair of military boots appeared in front of him.

He looked up and saw a pair of tired but deep eyes, filled with an inextinguishable anger, an unkempt stubble, and a striking white skull on a black T-shirt.

That person came; no, he never left.

The Punisher raised a submachine gun and fired repeatedly at the chameleon's legs, arms, and palms, causing the chameleon to howl repeatedly. Then, he fired another shot into the chameleon's heart and finally poured all the bullets into its head.

"You got off easy, you bastard."

After finishing all that, the Punisher looked at the battlefield. Spider-Man, who had been slapping the rocks repeatedly, took a breath and lifted two stones. Underneath were countless spider corpses. He was stunned for a moment, but soon, a large number of moving spiders appeared among the corpses. In an instant, they devoured the corpses of their companions and then exploded, turning into countless spiders.

This time, instead of forming the shape of Kal-King, these spiders transformed into a giant fist made up of countless spiders, which clenched together and smashed towards Spider-Man. This giant fist actually overturned the large rock, causing Spider-Man to fall to the ground—though it didn't cause any damage.

"It was originally intended for Mysterio, but now it's going to be used on you, Karl. Try this!"

The spider silk instantly stuck to the giant fist, then a high-voltage current was released, scorching countless spiders until they were charred black and blue. Then, a grenade was thrown precisely at the disgusting giant hand, and a powerful explosion shattered the giant hand into pieces.

The Punisher pulled out two more incendiary bombs, setting the spider swarm that had fallen to the ground ablaze, before looking at Spider-Man.

"I don't quite understand what this monster is, but in that case, he probably won't survive, right?"

"Probably... if all the spiders die..."

Peter spoke between breaths, but soon both of them heard strange sounds, not from the burning spider swarm, but from the corpse of a dead chameleon. The corpse began to writhe eerily. Spider-Man was the first to realize what he had discovered and tried to pull the corpse over with his webs, but the mimicry armor, which had been hit by continuous fire, was already very fragile. Peter didn't pull it over; instead, he tore it off.

Inside were the skeleton of a chameleon, its flesh and blood completely devoured, and a large group of spiders. They moved in unison, fleeing towards the nearest sewer opening. Even though the Punisher had thrown his grenade as quickly as possible, a small group of spiders still managed to burrow into the sewer.

Spider-Man immediately lifted the manhole cover and jumped in, but just as he expected, he couldn't see any spiders anymore.

What do you think is the probability that a spider will die naturally in the New York sewers?

He asked the Punisher dejectedly, then climbed up.

"We need to think of a new approach."

　I originally wrote a version where Cal King was killed off in this chapter, but it felt too rushed in terms of both emotion and plot, so I decided to let him live for a couple more days.

　　Kal-King, the Spider Swarm, first appeared in *Spider-Man's Tangled Web* (2001). He was Peter Parker's high school classmate. After eating the radioactive spider that bit Parker, he became a sentient spider swarm. He devoured his parents, girlfriend, and over a dozen passersby before challenging Spider-Man. He was ultimately electrocuted by a high-voltage current, and the last spider was trampled to death by a passerby. His abilities include the ability to regenerate infinitely from a single spider, to devour and impersonate others, and to consume other creatures to enhance his own power.

　　A complete beast.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)