spiderman:dreams and nightmares

by superman42

This is one of my harder hitting stories. This one delves into the depths of peter's psych, showing a far more vulnerable mindset. the cast includes a few more obscure characters as well as the mainstream. basically, I threw spider-man, Crane and batman into a blender, added the Arkham setting and a few personal touches and came out with this. I'm still suffering writers block.

Spider man: Dreams and Nightmares

Horror

Chapter 1: Puppet

Peter woke up, his head pounding. His surroundings, despite being modeled after his bedroom, were not his own. The room he was in, stank of decaying flesh and rotted corpses. "Where am I?" wondered Peter as he explored his room. The window was cracked and appeared to be full of dust and had a blood splash. He heard a twisted laugh and turned to see Aunt May, her body bruised and bleeding. The vision faded and Peter had to sit down and think of his situation. The whole room was rocked by a tremor and Peter saw the silhouette of something shambling towards him. It looked like a zombie but wasn't rotting. Its skin was rotting but somehow, it managed to stand up, despite lacking any bones in its legs. "What is that thing?" wondered Peter as another Silhouette appeared, a hulking beast the size of a tank. It was skinless, a mass of blood and sinew and bones. Peter saw another sight. It was Frank, Battling the creatures. As his ammo ran low, Frank turned and motioned to Peter who tried in vain to smash the window. Eventually, it gave way. Peter raced to Frank and began webbing up the corpses. The corpse turned to him and began screaming. It sounded like a small child. Peter snapped awake. There was a little girl on the ground, motionless and asphyxiated, webbing stuck to her lips. Her mother screamed for peter to stay away, as he was tackled to the ground by cops. "Baby, please wake up" said the panicked mother, desperately cutting away at the web. It was of no use, the girl died an hour later.

Peter could only see a wasteland of skinless flesh. Hour after Hour, Peter tried to get the cops to see that he wasn't crazy. Eventually, Batman came to visit him, noticed that Crane had gassed him and sent Peter to the Bat-cave for Treatment.

Chapter 2: Parasite

Peter awoke to see his feet and hands strapped down. Bruce walked over to him and sat down. "I know what happened, it's Crane. He gassed you. What do you see?" asked Bruce. "A wasteland, Flesh, Fleshless things everywhere!" screamed Peter. Bruce thought for a minute and ran a program. "Computer, run a trace for wasteland, Gotham". The search revealed a nearby graveyard. The grave was dedicated to Bruce's mother. Peter began screaming about Frank Castle and massive creatures. Batman put the pieces together. Peter was being stalked by Shapeshifters originating from New York, Taking the guise of the undead, furthermore, Frank Castle A.K.A the Punisher, was in danger. Batman put in a call to the NY police. Frank was warned in time, just as a massive Shapeshifter broke into his apartment. It ripped into Joan and killed the tenants and charged Frank, who responded by unloading 4 pounds worth of bullets into it. When that failed, Frank used Oil and lit a match. The thoroughly roasted creature fell dead, its flesh falling off from the heat. Frank agreed to meet Bruce and headed for Gotham.

Frank knelt by Peter, holding his hand. "You can get through this Peter, you're stronger than this!" Batman left to find Superman.

Frank got up, loaded his weapons and headed out. Batman looked at him and asked where he was going. "to kill Jonathon Crane" said Frank, in a low voice, almost to a whisper. Batman tried to dissuade him, to no avail, and watched Frank head into the night.

Chapter 3: Vengeance

Frank found Crane in Croc's Sewer and proceeded to fill the sewer with bullets, intent on killing Crane. Crane only survived due to a jam in Frank's gun. Crawling back to his lair, Crane bled out and died, his blood seeping into the water and awakening Croc. "Why have you awakened me trespasser?" Croc growled.

Frank reloaded, loading his Guns with AP rounds and responded with 3 words:

"Leave me alone" before attempting to leave. Croc smashed the door shut and attacked Frank. Croc stopped, clutching his chest. "Remote charge Croc. You ought to be more careful with what you swallow" said Frank before detonating the charge and sending Croc's dismembered body downstream.

Frank then called Bruce and sent the fear toxin to him for analysis. A cure was made in 2 weeks. When Peter came to, His mind had been shattered and it took a month for him to recover. Deep in the sewers, something could be seen moving. It was Man-Thing. It dragged Croc's carcass away and disappeared into the darkness.