49: Chapter 49 Battle Against Magneto

"Bite me," Peter switched his Web-shooters to web grenade mode and pulled the trigger, firing a series of small orbs.

"Pathetic," Magneto said, raising several pieces of debris in front of him. The grenades exploded, sticking all the debris together. He looked at the jumbled mess and sighed, "How annoying."

"Eat some web-in-the-eyes!" Peter shouted.

Magneto looked up in surprise, but Peter had already swung past the wall of debris using his Webbing. He pulled the trigger again, scoring a direct hit this time.

"What is this?!" Magneto struggled.

"That's called walking into a trap!" Peter hung from the side of the building, "Activate Repulsor Cannon, medium intensity!"

The device hummed, and two beams of force blasted out, slamming Magneto hard into the side of the building.

Peter breathed a sigh of relief and turned to look at the street. The girls had followed Felicia into the alley. Good, they were safe.

"You bug!" he heard Magneto roar.

Peter swallowed hard, watching him rise into the air again, his powers fully unleashed, surrounded by an increasing number of metal shards. The shards rained down like bullets, and Peter jumped desperately to dodge them.

His Spider-Sense was blaring wildly, and he used every ounce of his skill to twist his body at impossible angles to avoid them.

"What's going on?!" an old woman shouted from her window.

Peter swung past the window and fired a shot of Webbing, blocking a piece of concrete before it could hit her.

"Get inside and lock the window, ma'am!"

He shouted as he swung away. He had to lure Magneto to a place without metal, like a park!

He was swinging toward the nearest park when suddenly, a metal shard severed his Webbing, and he fell straight down.

Just as he was about to land, the metal bracers containing his Web-shooters were suddenly yanked upward, and he was dragged right in front of the hovering Magneto.

Magneto tore apart the cocoon of Webbing wrapping him. He studied Peter, using his magnetic powers to control the metal bracers and force his hands apart.

Peter struggled desperately, but it was useless; he could only hang in mid-air as if crucified.

"You are an interesting creature, I admit." Magneto tore the last of the Webbing from his suit, "Tell me, are you a Mutant?"

"No, not exactly." Peter said, his mind racing for a countermeasure, "So, I won't be joining your 'Mutant Supremacy' club, sorry."

Magneto's eyes widened: "How dare you?! Do you know who you are talking to?!"

"I'm talking to a boy who has seen the darkest side of humanity with his own eyes." Peter retorted, "And to a man who is afraid that Mutants will one day suffer the same fate."

Magneto growled: "Since you know all this, how can you compare my goals to those of my persecutors?!"

"Because you are becoming just like them." Peter spat, "Mutants are a superior race, right? Don't those persecutors always claim to be superior, too? They label the weak as outcasts and slaughter those who resist."

"Are you going to do the same next? Round up all ordinary people and do whatever you want with them?"

These words clearly struck a nerve with Magneto.

Magneto let out a low growl and clenched his fists.

Peter's eyes widened in pain.

"Ah!"

The metal bracers containing the Web-shooters were forced into his forearms, the sound of bones breaking clearly audible.

But that wasn't all. Magneto released his control over the bracers, grabbed Peter's suit, and lifted him up using pure muscle strength.

"I am nothing like those persecutors! Do you hear me, you insignificant bug?!"

He roared. Peter felt blood dripping from his hands, the damaged metal bracers falling to the ground as a pile of scrap.

"I would never inflict the suffering I once endured upon humanity! I am saving my people!"

Peter's breathing slowed, the intense pain gradually turning into numbness, with sharp stings every time blood dripped.

He gasped and said, "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

Magneto looked shocked: "You, what did you say?"

"You're right, Magneto. You want to protect your people, and that's not wrong. But you hate humanity too much."

Peter gasped.

"You hate us, but you are also a part of humanity. You aren't superior; you're just a little boy who can't see the good in humanity."

"I will make you die a painful death, Spider." Magneto growled, "I will drive metal into your bones, let you suffocate from the inside out, and make you feel every second of it."

"What a coincidence, I was going to tell you the same thing."

Peter grinned, and four giant red mechanical arms suddenly sprang from his back.

While Magneto was stunned, the mechanical arms lunged forward. The top two pierced his arms, and the bottom two went straight through his side.

"Ah!" he cried out in pain.

But Peter wasn't finished yet.

"Unibeam, activate, maximum power!"

He growled.

Magneto looked down to see a dazzling light erupt from the spider emblem on Peter's chest. He let go and flew backward, but the Unibeam blasted instantly, sending him flying to the end of the street.

Peter began to fall, but he manipulated one of the mechanical arms to fire Webbing from its tip, swinging slowly down to the ground.

He landed and gasped, looking at his arms, and cursed under his breath. The wounds were bleeding heavily.

Peter used Webbing to bandage the wounds and stop the bleeding, then rotated his wrists. Fortunately, only his forearms were fractured—he was lucky. He hoped this layer of Webbing would help the bones heal faster.

He looked up, but Magneto was gone.

He had probably flown away, and Peter was relieved. If he hadn't relied on a surprise attack, he wouldn't have been able to hurt Magneto at all. If his opponent had known about his trump cards in advance, he would have been a dead man.

Peter tapped his helmet: "Calling Kitten."

The system automatically connected the call, and Felicia answered almost immediately.

"Are you okay?" she asked as soon as she picked up.

"I'm a bit hurt, but I'm fine." Peter looked at the ruined Web-shooters on the ground, "How about you?"

"We're at Jean's house, eight blocks away. Her parents aren't here, just us." Felicia spoke rapidly, "How long will it take you to get here?"

"I don't know, ten minutes?"

His arms were useless, and he wasn't used to swinging with the mechanical arms yet.

"That long? Wh-what happened?" she asked fearfully.

"My Web-shooters are broken." Peter cursed, "I'll be there soon, Kitten, I promise."

"I love you, Tiger. Stay safe," she said.

Peter hung up and sighed. He had to get moving.

He quickly gathered the ruined shooters and cleaned up the blood dripping along the way. He couldn't let these things fall into enemy hands.

Peter manipulated the mechanical arm to shoot a line of Webbing, snagged a street lamp, and swung away slowly. He still needed time to adapt to the mechanical arms.

But as he swung toward Jean's house, he pondered to himself: How on earth could he defeat this guy? His power was simply absurd; how could he control all metal?

Is it magnetism?

If it really was magnetism, then he shouldn't be able to control metals with very weak magnetic properties—like his mechanical arms!

Magneto hadn't been able to stop the mechanical arms from hurting him because they were made of titanium alloy, a metal with very weak magnetism.

And Peter's Web-shooter bracers were mainly made of steel and a small amount of other metals, most of which were iron-based materials easily controlled by magnetism.

He had to take advantage of this.

Peter didn't have time to build new Web-shooters. But just then, he passed a pawn shop, and an idea suddenly popped into his head.

Meanwhile, in Jean's bedroom.

Felicia came out of the bathroom and sighed.

Jean looked up from the bed: "Who was it?"

"Peter," Felicia said, "He called to check on how things were."

"What did you say?" Mary Jane asked.

"I said everything is fine and there's nothing to worry about," Felicia lied.

"Why would you say that?!" Liz Allan shouted, "It's not fine at all! A perverted Mutant who can control metal is coming for us!"

"That's exactly why Peter must not come here," Mary Jane retorted, "He needs to stay safe."

"Can't we get Johnny Storm or the Fantastic Four to help?!" Liz Allan asked.

"Yes, we have to do that," Jean said urgently, "I don't want Peter to get hurt, but Spider-Man can't hold on for too long, we need help!"

Felicia was backed into a corner and sighed: "I don't—"

"Felicia! We're going to die! We have to—"

BOOM!

The wall at the end of Jean's room exploded, torn apart and thrown away.

Magneto hovered in front of the breach, his cape tattered, his red chest armor shattered, blood dripping from his hands and chest.

"Jean," he narrowed his eyes, "This is your last chance. Join me, or die."