//------------------------------//
// The Cure, Part II 
// Story: Spiders and Magic: Edge of Time 
// by MetalJrock 
//------------------------------//

Rainbow Dash kicked down a robot standing in her path, aiding Spike in the process. The dragon used his breath to burn the circuitry of another, causing it to explode. "Nice job!" complimented Dash, grabbing another bot with her hooves and bringing it into the air with her. Spike sliced the torso of another android, exposing the wires and cut them apart, shutting it off before it could do more damage.

Aiming its turret at Trixie, another robot started to shoot at her, but she used her magic by teleporting and holding a forcefield to cover herself until she was able to destroy it with a powerful spell. The blue unicorn faced upward to see Rainbow Dash spiraling downward with a robot in her grip. The collision of the crash turned it to pieces. "Was that really necessary?" she asked the pegasus.

"What? As if you don't enjoy a little show-boating." Dash responded with a chuckle.

"Fair point."

Pinkie Pie and Applejack faced back to back, watching as the robot army seemingly grew. The farmpony kicked away two with her backhooves while Pinkie pushed some aside, knocking them into other robots and causing them to topple like dominos. "Yes!" cheered the pink party pony at the sight.

"Yer awfully happy." Applejack noticed.

"Heck yeah! I managed to do that!" she showed the orange earth pony her little domino game.

"Nice." was all Applejack muttered, adjusting her stetson and focusing her attention on the battle.

Rarity and Fluttershy were separated from the others, the unicorn deciding to cover for the pacifist pegasus. She erected a forcefield around Fluttershy whenever she could, and when the robots proved overwhelming for her, she managed to shoot them down. The white unicorn faced the group coming at her and used her magic to throw some stones she lifted from the ground, the barrage distracted them and allowed Applejack to finish the job.

Doc Ock 2099 lashed out her tentacles at Black Cat, who hopped out of the way of the holo-tendrils. Serena growled, slamming her back tentacles at Felicia, who did her best to hold them up with her hooves, "C'mon! Stay down!" she ordered.

"Never."

Before she could push further, Black Cat felt something cover her and the arm she was holding. Trixie had used her magic to help lift the tendril away from harming Felicia. "Nice save, blue." she complimented. Doc Ock scoffed at the sight.

"You got lucky!"

"Sure we did." Trixie replied sarcastically.

Serena grunted in annoyance, lashing out each of her tentacles at the unicorn and earth pony. "You had to say something, blue." grosned Felicia, who was focusing on avoiding each tentacle that was aimed at her. Trixie used a teleportation to move out of the way of each attack, taking time to help her friends with the robots.

Black Cat managed to land a punch on Doc Ock 2099, "Let's hope the others are faring better. I'm getting sick of this."





"Eddie Brock!?"

Spider-Man looked at the creature in disbelief, 'But... Osborn removed the symbiote from him!' he recalled. 'How could he have this Anti-Venom thing on him? What even is Anti-Venom!?'

Sloan smirked, putting his arms behind his back, "That's right, Spider-Man. During my test run of the gateway, I found out the method of travel was unstable. I knew your successor would come after me, so I had allied myself with someone, who brought Anti-Venom to my attention, I had brought them to this time to come up with a way to keep him occupied while I obtain the energy to create a rift powerful enough for me to rewrite history in my image."

"You're sick, Sloan!" Spider-Man 2099 grunted, clenching his fist after hearing the explanation. "You're messing with power beyond your control! The result can be unpredictable!"

"As if I care about what you think, Spider-Man." Sloan scoffed. "Anti-Venom..." the creature looked at rhe scientist. "Kill the opposition." he ordered.

"With pleasure!" Anti-Venom hissed, "I sense radiation within you, Parker. I'm the cure..."

"Okay, Eddie! I never thought we'd be doing this dance again. It'll be like old times!" Spider-Man declared, pointing at his old symbiotic nemesis with his right hand. "But I never took you for someone's slave, Brock!"

"Oh sure, keep calling him names. That's a good idea." Miguel scoffed, crossing his arms.

Eddie smirked, "No... This symbiote's different... It's not poison. It's a cure, a gift meant to rid the world of all its diseases... Starting with you!" after saying that, tendrils began to pop out of his body, each of them aimed at Peter, but they were cut off by something. Twilight held out her hands, using a spell that created a psychic knife strong enough to cut apart the symbiote tentacles before they could reach him. 

"Nice save, honey. I'm glad you followed me here."

"I know." Twilight replied.

Spider-Man 2099 scowled under his mask, seeing that Sloan was making a getaway into the labs of Alchemax. "Ah shock! Spidey! I'll be chasing Sloan before he can get away! You three can handle this Anti-Venom thing right?" he asked, each of them nodding.

"We fought off Luna with the Venom symbiote before." Sunset assured, "And with our magic, I think Brock is outmatched."

"Good to know." Spider-Man 2099 began to sprint before webswinging after Sloan, leaving Peter, Twilight and Sunset to fight Anti-Venom.

Spider-Man looked at his wife and his friend, "Okay. Does anyone here have a plan? Because something tells me Brock's not kidding around this time." he wondered, 'Then again, he became a psychopath when he bonded with Venom, so that's nothing new.' he thought, getting into a battle stance.

"I burnt it last time when we removed it from Luna. It would probably work again." Twilight replied. She shot out a spell hot enough to at least cause a small part of the symbiote to remove itself, but the parasite regenerated itself.

Anti-Venom laughed, "Your pyro tricks won't work this time! The Anti-Venom symbiote is made up of my white blood cells! Combined with the symbiote remnants, I am unstoppable!"

'Wait... He's not saying 'we' anymore... Oh my God. He's bonded to it like Cletus with the Carnage symbiote!' Peter realized, "Guys! We can't remove it from him! Once a symbiote's bonded to one's bloodstream, it's pretty much with them permanently." he explained to the girls.

Sunset nodded, "How do you know?"

"Venom's been bonded to me. The symbiote explained to me that if possible, it can bond to your very blood, and it tried to do that to me when it wanted to make me its permanent host back when I wore the black suit." explained Spider-Man.

Anti-Venom roared, and charged after Spider-Man. Before he could react, tendrils began to pore into his body. "AH!" the hero screamed, feeling himself get weaker by the second. Sunset managed to keep Eddie still and removed the tentacles, but he threw Peter onto the metal wall. The hero staggered to his feet. He shot a strand of webbing from both hands and dug them into the ground, spinning around in place and managed to hit Anti-Venom.

"Peter! Are you okay!?" Twilight ran to her husband, wrapping an arm around him to help him stand.

"I'm fine... I just feel weak." answered Spider-Man.

"Ha! That's only a taste of the symbiote's power! Your radiated powers were being drained, Parker!" Anti-Venom revealed. Sunset shut him up by kicking him while he was busy talking.

"M-My powers!?" Peter blurted out. "Oh man... That explains a lot. But I'm not standing down!" he declared, getting back on his own two feet, with Twilight ready to blast Brock with anything she can dish out. 'I've defeated the Sinister Six without my powers while unprepared before, I'm not letting Brock bring the end to my story.'

"Just be careful, Peter." Sunset warned, "We'll hold him off while you recover!" she said, blasting Brock with small fire spells meant to distract him. Twilight held out both of her hands and shot Anti-Venom with a concussive blast, knocking him onto the floor. The monster fell to one knee, but he faced upward, lashing more tentacles their way. Spider-Man tried to flip over them, but he was too weak to move, and found out his superhuman agility was gone.

'Aw breadcrumbs...' grumbled Peter. Sunset and Twilight teleported in front of the wall-crawler, cutting apart each tendril aimed at the webslinger. "Thanks for the save, girls. I'm of no use right now. You're better off without me for now." he assured.

"He's just going to target you." Twilight whispered.

"I'm sure you two can keep him in check." Peter comforted. "But he's powerful. That Anti-Venom thing is obviously an upgrade. Heck, I don't even have my Spider-Sense anymore."

Twilight nodded, facing Brock, "You're a monster!"

Anti-Venom stretched his arms out, "No! I'm the savior that this world needs! I will purge everyone of their demons!" he declared grabbing Twilight by the throat and slamming her on the ground, causing Peter ro scream her name in worry.

Sunset tried to counterattack, but he wrapped his tendrils around her body, throwing her around like a ragdoll, the sorceress tried to move her hands to complete a concussion blast, but Anti-Venom lashed out ans threw her aside. "This is between me and Parker!" he ordered the two. Before they could get up, Brock sent out more tentacles after Spider-Man, the hero unable to avoid them.

'Hentai... Why have you forsaken me?' his mind joked. "AH!" he screamed again, feeling himself get weaker. Spider-Man fell to one knee once Brock was done, his costume torn to shreds from the purification. "You... Didn't need to-"

"I didn't need a reason. Other than to make it easier to kill you..." Anti-Venom hissed, morphing his hand into an axe and he raised it over his head, ready to kill Peter. But before he lowered it, he hesitated, holding his head as he screamed. Twilight saw an opportunity and shot one more burst of energy, hitting Anti-Venom in the back. The creature stopped and got up, facing the sorceress, who was back on her feet.

"If you want to hurt him, you have to get through me." she declared, getting a second wind upon seeing her husband unable to act.





"Alright, Sloan. Where the shock are ya?" Spider-Man 2099 muttered the question to himself, slowly pacing around the Genetics Lab. He turned to look at the capsules, but something strange caught his eye. He ran to the nearest monitor and noticed that there were Scorpion clones inside of the room. 'Jam it! These must be the clones that they mentioned earlier!' he looked at another screen.

"What the shock?!" he shouted, "Why is Parker's DNA on record here? How did they even get a hold of it!?" he noticed that the project could replicate Spider-Man's radiated DNA, giving the subject his powers. "Subject 1: Imperfect?" he wondered, "Subject 2: Complete, ready for Tarantula phase?" 

'Tarantula? That shocking spider monster is a clone of Parker!?'

Before Miguel could continue, something managed to catch him offguard. It felt like someone shot a strand of webbing on his back. Before he could say anything about it, he was yanked through the door. Spider-Man 2099 held his head, "Son of a glitch!" he shouted, standing back up. "Who did that?"

Someone hopped down from the ceiling. He had Peter's physique, but his costume was red, with a black mask and a spider insignia that matched the mask etching into his shoulder, his lenses were blood red. "Okay. Who the shock are you and why are you in my way?"

"I'm keeping an eye on the lab while the Professor is gone. My name is Kaine. The First Spider." revealed Kaine, unsheathing stingers from his wrists.

'The First Spider? Aw shock.'