Peter Parker / Spider-Man

No freaking way. That guy has the exact same suit as me! Thought Peter in surprise as he stared at his doppelganger swinging past the New York City cops. He had assumed that people who thought they saw Spider-Man, they had mistaken, but now Peter could see they hadn't. There was no difference at a glance that the guy he was staring at, was in fact the Spider-Man. Did this mean that Mr. Stark make another suit? It was possible… but then he wouldn't have given something so powerful to someone so evil. No way. Maybe it was a stolen suit? But then Mr. Stark would have monitored something like that, maybe even shut it down remotely. No, this wasn't something Mr. Stark made. But maybe some stolen tech that was modified, like what Adrian Toomes and his people did.

Peter's eyes tracked the fast movements of his doppelganger. Wow, he was fast. But no matter what, Peter wasn't letting the guy out of his sight, not this time. This fake Spider-Man had tried to hurt a lot of people and he was going to do everything in his power to stop him. Problem was, Peter still had a target on his back. Suddenly, Peter's spidey senses told him turn around. It's a one way alleyway….why…oh, fantastic , thought Peter as he saw he did in fact have company.

Iron Fist had caught up.

Peter normally would have loved to talk himself out of the situation, but he knew that the other guy, the real bad guy in all of this, was getting away.

"Look, the guy who did all these terrible things, it really isn't me, he's out there," said Peter as he gave a half gesture to where he had seen his doppelganger go. But given that the guy was so far gone ahead, there wasn't any doubt in Peter's mind he was pointing to nothing. It was worth a try, anything really at this point was. The dead panned expression he was met with said otherwise, however.

"Now, you can either come with me willingly or this could get messy, Spider-Man," said Iron Fist as he lit up his fist like a Christmas tree. That would be such an awesome power to have, Peter couldn't help but think. But Peter didn't want to fight, not right now. Glowy fist, however, wasn't going to let him off so easy like last time when he had managed to out run him.

Iron Fist raced towards him and Peter raised his webshooters and fired them towards the man's feet. Peter for a second was afraid it would be jammed again like earlier, but thankfully it fired as it should, and locked down the Iron Fist.

The web didn't do too much to slow down the Iron Fist as he freed himself in moments with his glowing fist. But it was enough time for Peter to scramble up the side of the building in the alleyway.

"Sorry, love to chat, but got a bad guy to catch!"

When Peter reached to roof of the building, he wasted no time in getting himself across to the next building, trying to give as much distance as he could from the man chasing him. All the while, he kept scanning for his doppelganger who seemed to have disappeared from Peter's sight. This was seriously not going to be easy , he thought. "Where are you evil double… where did you go?" Peter mused aloud.

A sudden scream made Peter turn his head southbound, and just in the far distance, he saw the masked man literally toss a man off the roof of one of the buildings he was swinging by. Peter was sure the falling man was doomed, but somehow the man managed to grab hold of one of the secondary ledges. The guy was safe for the time being, but only as long as he could hold on. It was quite a fall down.

Peter didn't know if he could get there in time to save the man, but he had to try. The cool air whipped at his faced as he went full velocity, calculating in his mind the shortest distance and swings he needed to get there. He was close. Very close. Come on, dude, hang in there for another minute, please! He prayed silently as he desperately weaved his way towards the dangling man.

Peter wasn't the only one trying to get there, sirens were also sounding all along the main streets. He was pretty sure every cop in the district was on alert. Even from where he was, Peter could see the man was losing his grip, and he was going to let go. "Almost there, buddy, hang in there," said Peter under his breath.

Just as he said that, Peter saw the man finally loose his grip and the man fell.

The fall was short, however, because luckily, Peter was close enough to catch him. "Gotcha. Hang on tight," said Peter as he swung upwards towards the rooftop of the next building.

Once they landed safely, the man immediately backed away from him, fear written all over his face. Peter, after everything that had happened all night long, wasn't the least bit fazed anymore by the guy's reaction. Technically speaking, from the man's perspective, Peter had essentially thrown him off the roof and then moments later decided to save him. If he was the guy, he'd be just as freaked out.

The man seemed to control his fear for a second he looked at his hands, there was red on it. Blood. Oh geez, thought Peter, did the doppelganger hurt him too?

"Hey, Spider-Man, you injured?"

The question threw Peter off for a second and then he realized it was probably because the guy had contacted with the burns on the back of his shoulders from the hospital fire.

"Just a little singed, but nothing to be worried about," said Peter reassuringly. "You okay on getting down from here?"

The man nodded, though he hadn't moved and showed no signs of doing so. He continued to stare at Peter, unwilling to move. Fair enough, thought Peter, the guy was still nervous about being tossed down another rooftop for fun.

"Um, okay, good, uh, have a good night then," said Peter as he continued his chase, swinging towards the last direction he had seen his doppelganger.

Again, just when he thought he couldn't find the guy, the other Spider-Man chose again to attack someone again, though this time Peter knew it was more than one person.

It's like he's leaving breadcrumbs for me to follow, thought Peter with great unease. Despite the misgivings he was feeling, Peter knew he couldn't not follow the man. Even if it was a trap, he had to still go there and try and stop his doppelganger.

As Peter thwipped towards the sound of where the screams had came from, he saw that the other Spider-Man had hurt officers this time around. Metallic web had left a number of officers on the ground incapacitated. The freaky web was burning through their skin. Peter was about to go down there to help, but a shout came out, and he realized it was about him – Peter was the target. The near miss of a bullet made Peter's decision a lot easier. Bad idea. Swinging upwards and away from the ground, Peter continued the chase as far from the ground as possible.

In honesty, he wasn't quite sure how he could help them, aside from getting caught of course. Peter had no way to counteract whatever that was in the acidic like web. On that matter, he couldn't help but wonder what made the doppelganger's web was acidic. Was he really wearing a suit that gave him options? Like Peter's multiple selections, the web grenade, taser web, etc. It also said as much that was why there wasn't a trail of metallic webbing from the man's swinging through Hell's Kitchen.

As Peter mused this in his mind, he saw that his doppelganger had stopped at a building that was still under construction. The man looked back and straight at Peter.

"Yeah, this is so a trap" said Peter under his breath making eye contact with the doppelganger before the man disappeared into the building.

When Peter landed on the roof of the building, he immediately had a sense of foreboding. This was not going to end well. His spidey sense was on high alert, but despite knowing the danger, he forged ahead. Peter had to stop the guy, there were way too many people who got hurt. Just seeing the cops earlier, a dozen of them, easily taken out by just web fluid alone. Did the suit also give the doppelganger super strength too? Wondered Peter as he made his way down the building, making his way to face his opponent.

It was eerie silent as Peter walked through the partially erected cement blocks of the site. So quiet that he could hear his own heartbeat. This was just so wrong . Where the heck did the guy go?

"Hey Mr. um, I get the feeling that you were looking for me. So, let's just, maybe sit down… grab a coffee and talk about this? Because this hide and seek game you're playing, it's not that fun."

Silence.

Okay, Peter. You know he's here. If he's not coming out, you have to find him. That was of course, easier said than done. While there weren't that many floors, there were still quite a few corridors on each one. As Peter walked through the open unfinished rooms, the dim light bulbs flickered, sending a sense of dread in him. He wasn't afraid perse… okay, maybe a little, but it was the suspense of not knowing, not seeing where his opponent was going to come out from. His spidey sense, it was through the roof, he could feel his doppelganger watching him for some reason.

It didn't help that Peter recognized the building, it was the one where three construction workers were found dead, molded into a cement block. They wouldn't have been found if it hadn't been accidentally chipped, and piece of an arm was discovered. Construction had halted and it had only recently started again. If things didn't go well tonight, maybe the building will never finish.

Brownie points on the optimism there, Parker, thought Peter to himself ruefully.

Suddenly, Peter stopped. It was only for a second, but he heard it, a footstep, a shuffling sound, and it wasn't too far from where he was standing. And this person… it wasn't his doppelganger for sure. No. This person was wearing a pair of boots. He or she was also very quiet and stealth, but not enough to escape Peter's heightened senses. There was a click, and Peter moved immediately fast as a cascade of bullets came at Peter in rapid succession. .

This dude really shot first and asked questions later!

"Hey Mr.!" said Peter managed between dodges.

"You – "

Pftt

"Really – "

Pftt

"Have –"

Pftt

"The –"

Pftt

"Wrong –"

Pftt

"Guy!"

There was suddenly a break and for a moment, Peter thought he may have gotten through to the man. Instead, the guy actually emerged from the shadows. In the dim light, Peter saw the a white skull against a black shirt long before he casted his gaze on the man's face.

"Oh God, you're the Punisher," said Peter, unable to hold back his surprise, and his voice went a pitch too high for his own liking.

Staring at the man that Peter knew to be Frank Castle, the notorious killer of more than half a dozen criminals, he couldn't help but feel a mixture of fear and awe. The fear, obviously was that Peter was his target, the awe, being that this was the Punisher, the guy who took out a lot of really bad guys, standing in front of him.

While Peter admired the guy's tenacity on taking on bad guys, killing them, that was a different story. He remembered listening to a segment on "Trish Talk" about Frank Castle. The man was a war hero, fought for America, laid his life on the line to save his fellow comrades. But when he came back, he lost his family in a gang related violence. So, he went to take out all the guys involved, for vengeance for his family. Peter would classify the man not as evil, not like his doppelganger, but more like… an anti-hero? Something along those lines.

"If you know me, then you should know you're a f*cking dead man for what you've done," said Castle, his voice low. Click .

Peter knew he was going to let out another round and it didn't help that he was starting to close the distance between them. Lowering his voice an octave or two, Peter took what he knew was probably the only opportunity he had to explain things before got pretty violent.

"There's another Spider-Man out there, that's the one you're looking for. Not me. I'm trying to get that guy too. I didn't hurt anyone. Um.. maybe you know, we could work together, and catch him?"

"I know there's another one of you," was the deadpanned response.

Okay, not what I was expecting, but I'll roll with it, thought Peter uncertain how the conversation was going to go. So the guy knew that there were two of them… but he was still going to shoot him?

"So, um, you're just going to shoot me too?"

"I'm going to shoot both of you."

"But I'm the good guy!"

"That's what they all say."

"Aw, no. Seriously…. Uh, wait, that's not …" Peter realized that Castle wasn't holding a regular gun. No, bloody hell, it couldn't be –"

"Yeah, borrowed this from the officers, thought they would appreciate me taking you down a bit quicker. I saw how you went down you got hit with this," and he patted the electric shocker thing. "Packs quite a punch, doesn't it? Besides, I've wasted a lot of ammo on you."

"Yeah, just a bit," responded Peter by reflex. In his mind, he was starting to map out his escape. Castle and the shocker gun was a problem, but not the main one. While his spidey sense had been tingling of danger the moment he stepped into the building, it was going haywire right now. His doppelganger was here, and he was watching this. Was this the trap? To get him and Castle at each other? Peter didn't get it. If the doppelganger was as powerful as he was, why do this?

"Look, please listen to me. The other guy, the one that's been doing all this, he's here. He's watching us, he's going to do something –"

"Not before I handle him. Spider-Man, you should really be more worried about yourself."

Oh, I am. I'm very worried right now . I'm also really worried that my spidey senses have essentially gone crazy on me .

Peter felt danger all around him, and he realized that maybe it wasn't that he was being watched. But the fact that it wasdanger surrounding him. But… where? And what was it?

Peter sensed the electric discharge from Castle's weapon and made a fast movement to the right, barely missing it. He crashed into a pile of thin pipes before landing hard on to the cement floors. The ringing sound of the pipes rolling along the floors echoed, making Peter realized just how alone he actually was. Alone with three people and half of New York City's cops chasing him down. Suddenly he felt a burn on his arm. No way, I didn't even get hit, why is my arm ... and then he saw them. Hundreds. Maybe thousands of them. It didn't matter because it was a freaking nightmare. Spiders, tiny little ones, they were skittering around on the floors. The ones that Peter had accidently crushed in his fall, they had released what he had seen at the hospital, metallic webbing. Oh God . So this was how the doppelganger had managed to seal off the windows like that. So did this mean, the guy had powers … what did Ned say, " to summon an army of spiders"? This was so not good.

Castle fired the weapon again, but missed again as Peter dodged it.

"Mr. Castle," started Peter, but then he saw him , perched upside down on the ceiling above the Punisher. Crap.

"Look out, above you!" cried out Peter in warning. But it was too late and everything happened at once.

Castle fired his weapon at Peter. Peter made to dodge the blast. The doppelganger dropped down from above Castle. The freaky spiders exploded where Peter's feet were, the webbing was enough to trip him up for a second. And it was enough for Castle's fire to meet its mark. Peter crumpled to the ground from the shock. Doppelganger threw Castle like a rag doll, smashing him into a half erected concrete wall. He followed it with shooting his webshooters, webbing Castle to the spot.

Peter, meanwhile, laid on the ground, head spinning, ears ringing and body seizing from the shock. God, this time it hurt even more than the last time , thought Peter. Still laying half curled up in pain, Peter stared at where Castle had dropped the weapon after he was attacked by the doppelganger. Even in the building's dim lighting, he could make out the words STARK printed clearly on its side. Well, irony aside, it at least explained why it was so efficient taking Peter down. It was a weapon that Mr. Stark must have developed for dealing with inhuman threats.

Speaking of inhumans, Peter was starting to think that his double wasn't exactly human. A person could control spiders, sure. But these spiders… they weren't normal. They had acidic webbing. And they freaking exploded on command. If things weren't so serious, Peter would have laughed. Exploding spiders. Ned would have a field day when he heard about this. More the reason Peter had to live by the end of the night, just so he could see his friend's reaction to his adventure. Well. Adventure might not have been quite the word for it.

His doppelganger turned his attention to Peter, and then picked up the discarded STARK weapon and fired it again at him. Still unable to move from the initial stun, the weapon's discharge struck Peter head on. The man wasn't finished. He fired the weapon again at Peter.

God, Peter felt sick. His vision was swimming, ears were ringing, and his head hurt like a ton of bricks had fallen on it. As for the rest of him, his muscles and everything, they were still in shock, paralyzed by the electrical charge.

Man, this dude is not taking any chances.

Just as Peter thought that, the doppelganger webbed him to the spot. Crap. This was the same type of metallic webbing that he had seen at the hospital. The one that was used on Castle, was different. So the double could definitely produce this acidic webbing on command. Fantastic.

Still in his line of vision, Peter could see that his doppelganger had turned his attention back to the Punisher. A pipe in his hand, he watched as the man strike Castle in the midsection with it. Castle gritted his teeth, but refused to cry out, so the man hit him again. It was hard enough for Peter to hear a crack. Shit, the guy was going to kill Castle.

You've got this Peter. Come on. You can get up. This is nothing. You've had a building fall on you! You even got shot. This… this is nothing. What would Mr. Stark say? No laying down on the job. That's right. Up. Come on. God it was difficult, especially having to also get the metallic web off of him. Ignoring the pain he felt from the acidic webbing, Peter peeled off the webbing that covered his body and legs, which the latter had already half solidified. For the leg section, when he got it off, it also took some of the Spider-Man's suit's fabric with it. Crap, Mr. Stark was going to be so mad at him for damaging the suit. But Peter would worry more about that later, he had take this Russo guy down first. The rest on his body, thankfully, had marginal damage to the suit. Pushing himself upright his first plan was to grab that STARK shocker weapon. If it could take Peter down, then it should work the same on his doppelganger. Aiming his webshooters at it, he tried to grab it.

Nothing. It was still jammed. Geez, this was so not his day. Finally at least the ringing stopped and he heard the doppelganger speak. So dude can talk too. But he was also batshit crazy, beating down on Castle like no tomorrow.

"…want to tear up my face, you little assh*le, well then right back at you," said the masked man as he struck Castle in the jaw. And then again. And again.

"Russo, you mother f*cker, I should have killed you," Peter heard Castle growl at the doppelganger as the man gripped him by the neck, raising him upwards like a ragdoll, tearing him from the webbing. Peter knew the man wasn't using his full strength, he was just toying with the Punisher. However long the guy could continue the assault on Castle, Peter didn't want to wait and find out. Not only that, but new information was given; Castle knew this 'Spider-Man' – a guy named Russo.

Since his webshooters were still down for the count, Peter had to handle it the old fashioned way. Rushing forward, Peter knew the only way to deal with Russo was by tackling him down. The weapon was too out of his reach, it was actually closer to the Punisher than to Russo. As he was about arms length to man, Russo suddenly turned around to look at Peter. No way, this guy had spidey sense too? So not fair. Russo didn't hesitate to fire his webshooters again to reattach the Punisher to the wall in a split second while also striking out with the pipe at Peter. Thankfully, Peter was able to duck away from it.

Well, two can play this game .

Russo came at him again, and Peter managed to maneuver away from him as well, surprising the other man. The surprises didn't seem to end there. It seemed that neither of them seemed to be able to really land a punch on each other.

The man took another swing at Peter, which he avoided easily. For the next few minutes it was just dodging of punches from both sides. At one point, Russo had abandoned the pipe, using instead his bare fists.

While Peter was more defensive than offensive, the complete opposite of Russo, whose punches and swings grew exponentially more aggressive and powerful. There were literally cracks in the concrete where he missed hitting Peter. Peter guessed it didn't help that he was a bit too talkative as well. He had been told he talked too much during fights – well, according to Falcon and Mr. Stark, but Peter couldn't help it, it was almost a reflex for him.

"So you military trained? How do you know Mr. Castle? How did you get your powers? Or are you wearing a suit? But I'm guessing you're not, cause that wouldn't make sense with the spiders…"

"Shut the hell up!" Russo roared at one point, tired of Peter's rapid fire of questions as they fought.

Peter had to admit one thing, the Russo guy was stronger than him, but it was probably because of the after effects of the STARK shocker weapon. Even though Peter had regained most of his senses, he noticed that he was sluggish in some of his movements, it was barely noticeable to the human eye, but to Peter, he could tell. This of course usually would be nothing against most of his opponents, but when you were fighting someone who had essentially the same power as you, any disadvantage could be used against you.

Thankfully, Peter was still holding his own.

At least he was.

They were in mid fight when suddenly, Russo in mid punch, switched gears and instead grabbed Peter.

It was so sudden, that Peter didn't register the danger until it was too late. His spider sense usually told him danger, but it was going haywire with all the little exploding spiders that Russo would set off every once in a while.

Russo tossed Peter right into the line of fire of the energy discharge from the STARK weapon.

Not again, was the thought that went through his mind as he went down again for the uptenth time by the stupid weapon.

"I am the immortal Iron Fist. Weapon of K'un-Lun. Sworn enemy of the -"

Peter didn't even need to look at who had fired the weapon since the guy was introducing himself. Great, Glowy fist guy was present now. Russo, however, used his little army of spiders to take down Iron Fist, kamikaze style. Which also interrupted the Iron Fist's indroduction. If this had been some sort of comedy, Peter would have laughed at how crazy it looked. But there was nothing funny about it at all. The exploding spiders left a blast of acidic webbing, distracting Iron Fist both by sheer abstractness and basic hinderance.

Russo used that momentary distraction to also fire off his metallic web towards the Iron Fist. The vigilante used his glowing fist to easily melt through the webbing, which by all means annoyed Russo. Peter watched as Iron Fist launched into an attack against Russo, and impressively actually caught Russo in the chest. Glowy fist guy had some pretty awesome skills!

But like Peter, Russo also had in-human agility and strength so the man was quickly up again, ready for another round. Iron Fist struck again against Russo, his fist lit up like fire, and this time the man waited the last second to dodge it, letting the fist hit the wall, which literally obliterated it.

Oh wow, that glowing fist is not a joke , thought Peter.

This went on for a minute or two, but after Iron Fist had destroyed more than half a dozen walls with his fist, Russo seemed to tire of the game. He shot out his webshooters to distract Iron Fist just enough so that he could close in and... toss him off the building.

Holy shit , thought Peter in horror. God he hoped Iron Fist was really immortal as he claimed.

Russo returned his attention to Peter.

"That was fun," and he picked up the STARK weapon again, "but a waste of my time."

Aw come on. Not again. Please no. Please –

Zap .

Peter felt the shock ripple through his body again. Whatever feeling he was starting to get back, it was back to square one again.

I hate that stupid shocker weapon , thought Peter rather angrily. How many times had he been shot with it?

"I was going to deal with you later, but you had to interrupt me from my little chat with Castle."

I don't think there was a lot of chatting involved, more like hitting, thought Peter, still unable to speak.

"You've been shocked a few times with this thing," mused Russo as he patted the shocker weapon in his hand. "Took you only a few minutes to recover. I wonder…" Russo set the weapon down and replaced in his hand the pipe he had used earlier to beat the Punisher with.

Damn, he knows I'm incapacitated right now , thought Peter. Was he going beat him down as he was doing with Castle? This was his most vulnerable state. The rest of Peter was still trying to get out of the temporary paralysis he was under. At least his attention was on Peter and not on Castle. The other man, he really couldn't take another beating, not with the super strength Russo had.

Russo's figure loomed over Peter, and though he couldn't see the man's actual face underneath the mask, he sensed it to be watchful. Curious. Purposeful. All of which spoke volumes on how dangerous a situation Peter really was in. The man knelt one knee down, pressing it firmly against Peter's torso, the pipe still playfully twirling on one hand, and his free hand went to Peter's neck.

Come on, Parker. Move. You have to move now! But no matter how much he forced himself to, he couldn't.

"Now it's time. I want to see your face."

That was such a weird thing to say, thought Peter, unease rippling through him.

In one swift motion, Russo pulled off Peter's mask.

There was silence.

The man kept staring at Peter's face, waiting for something. He put his masked face so close to Peter that he could feel the man's breath on him.

Just a little too close. Ever heard of personal space?

Peter wasn't sure what Russo was expecting, but he didn't expect the next reaction from the man – a crazed rage.

Okay, rage was understating it. He went straight out ballistic. Tossing Peter's mask to the side, the man started to howl in anger.

"What the f*ck. Why. Why. Why?! Why am I not changing?!"

Oh crap. Oh crap. This guy was seriously crazy , thought Peter feeling absolutely horrified. Russo teared at his throat with his free hand, at the seams of his mask, but it looked like he couldn't get it off. Or... oh God , thought Peter. Maybe… maybe he didn't have a face under there? Peter really didn't see a seam, or anything.

"No! God damn it! It should have worked. Damn it! I should have a face! I want to breathe, I want.. f*ck." The cursing continued, words that burned Peter's ears, but as long as the man was in a rage, he was buying Peter time to regain his ability to move again. Yes. There was a little tingling at his fingertips. Keep on … cursing? Whatever it was he was doing. Just a little longer…

"No. No. No! You… ! It's your fault. It's your fault I'm like this."

But just as sudden was his emergence of rage, he calmed just as quickly.

"No. no. It's you, Frank," Russo turned to the webbed up Castle, "Your fault. You could had just left things back in Afghanistan be, let sleeping dogs lie. But no. You. You're to blame for everything that happened afterwards. You took my life. My face. Left me in that hospital, dumb and clueless. No memory of what you've done. What you've taken. Your family. You f*cking miss them so God damn much, I'll send you off." And then Peter watched as the man rose, finally allowing him to breathe properly. "But just to let you know, everyone that's died, that will die tonight, that's on you."

"Go to hell Russo, you deserve every shit that comes your way," snapped Castle. Peter couldn't really turn his head, but he was sure that the Punisher was glaring daggers at Russo.

"Hell is relative," said Russo and then without any hesitation, he plunged the pipe that was in hand, straight through Peter's left shoulder.

Wasn't there a saying, to always expect the unexpected? Well. This was definitely on a scale of 1 to 10, an 11 on unexpected.

Peter blinked for a moment in shock, just stared at the long metal pipe that was now sticking out of him. The pain that ripped through Peter was rather incomprehensible. God. This… this was probably worse than getting shot, if that was even possible. Not to mention there was a slight concern that floated at the very back of Peter's mind on how rusty that pipe was.

Tears burned in Peter's eyes, but he refused to shed them. It hurt so much. It was even worse when Russo decided to wiggle the pipe, sending shockwaves of pain through Peter. This time, the tears involuntarily fell from his eyes. The world was on fire for him.

"Does that hurt, little Spider?"

God, it hurt a lot, more so each time Russo jostled or twisted the pipe.

"Hear that Frankie? You've been hunting this little spider all night. You should thank me that I got the job done for you."

Russo twisted the pipe again.

God, please stop. Please. It hurt so much, black spots were appearing over Peter's eyes. And Russo didn't stop, he kept twisting and turning the pipe. If there was a face under that mask, Peter imagined it held a sadistic smile.

Russo crouched down again and then reached for Peter's head.

No. Stay away! Cried Peter inwardly. He wanted to shrink away from the hand, but still his body remained still and useless.

Russo didn't do anything so much as turn Peter's head to face Frank Castle.

"Frankie, take a look at who you've been shooting at all night."

Peter could see the shock on Frank Castle's face, which then changed to anger a second later.

"F*ck you, Russo. You were after me the whole time, leave the kid out of it."

"Always the soft spot for children, eh Frankie? This one remind you of your boy?"

Castle growled something intelligible as he struggled against the webbing.

"You weren't my only target, Castle. This one, this one I had hoped to see his face, maybe it would make me back to normal again. Not like this masked face that I can't even breathe fresh air. I can't even f*cking eat, Frankie. All cause some nurse thought it be good to give me some supplements, help me get my memory back. God damn fish oils, Frankie. And the woman, she was a real fan of yours, Spider-Man. Liked to watch those opinion channels, speculating what super powers they think Mr. Spider-Man here has."

Again, Russo twisted the pipe in Peter.

God, please stop.

"And turned me into this thing, 24/7, I'm in this goddamn costume. Found her real quick though. Gave her some fish oils to try, don't think she took it as well. Then the rest of her staff. The docs. Kinda fun slicing and dicing."

Twist and jab.

Letting out an involuntary cry, Peter tried to keep his body from shaking in agony, knowing that it would only add to the pain. It was pain layered on top of pain.

Peter felt blood trickle from his lips and on to the hard concrete floor.

"Kid, hurts a lot eh?" Russo didn't expect Peter to answer, nor could he, not trusting his voice to crack under the duress.

"Did you get my gift, Frankie? Heard you had a real connection with Dave Lieberman's kids. Leo and Zach? Didn't take me too long to track them down. Tried roasting them twice. Second time did the charm. Nice and crispy."

"Leave the kid alone!" Snapped Castle to Russo, but the man just laughed it off.

Peter meanwhile was angry. Angry that he was stuck like this, and the fact that this psycho was goading Castle on a loss that no one had the right to do that. If someone did that to me about Uncle Ben, I wouldn't be able to stand it either . And damnit, Peter did not want to die in the hands of this guy who had committed so many murders, and in Spider-Man's name at that.

"Got enough red here to paint the town, kid," mused Russo. Peter knew what the man meant; he could feel the blood coat the side of his face, and it continued to grow. It was scary. Really scary.

If Peter had to act, it was now. He didn't know how much longer he could hold on. As with all bad guys, they loved to monologue, talk about their anger issues. Whatever worked. Keep talking.

While they did that, Peter tried again, pressing his two fingers against his palm.

Come one. Work! Begged Peter to his webshooters.

And he felt it, the tiniest sound of the webbing shooting out. It was all the confirmation he needed - they were back online.

He shifted the his wrists towards Russo's face. The man realized it, but it was a second too late. He got a face full of Peter's webbing. The momentary distraction was what Peter needed. Mentally preparing himself for the pain, Peter yanked out the pipe from his shoulder in one move, and let out a cry of agony as he did so.

Tossing the pipe aside, Peter went for what he knew could take Russo down. The damn STARK weapon. It was about time that someone used it on the guy. In truth, he really didn't have the strength to handle Russo. He calculated he had probably about a few minutes of consciousness before he really would passed out, whether he liked it or not.

In that time, Peter had to make sure that Russo was taken down. Especially now that he heard distant sirens. Someone must have reported hearing their fight. Good.

Peter lifted the weapon, which normally would have felt like nothing to him, but he actually felt a weight on it.

He aimed it at Russo, and shot the inhuman psycho with it. Not once, but three times.

"Yeah. Now you know how it feels, asshat."

Having finally knocked Russo out, Peter fired off his webshooters on to the man, making something like a cacoon, leaving only Russo's head unwebbed.

Okay. Done. Now, mask , thought Peter as he went to retrieve his mask.

With his mask back on, and still holding on to the weapon, Peter started to make his way to Frank Castle. As he did, he felt himself sway a moment before he regaining his footing. Yeah, I'm so not feeling good right now.

"Hey, Mr. Castle," said Peter when he finally reached the man, "I'll get you out in a minute."

The man remained silent for a moment before he spoke, his voice gruff, "Thanks, kid."

Kid? How'd he know -, oh right. The guy had seen his face. Blood Loss really makes you forget things , thought Peter.

Ripping the webbing away, which had quite a few layers, Peter finally released Castle from his very uncomfortable attachment to the concrete wall.

Now it was time for Peter to get the hell out of Hell's Kitchen, no pun intended.

"Uh, Mr. Castle," said Peter, his mouth was feeling really dry suddenly, "you should just keep on shooting him with this shocker thing. It'll keep him down until the cops come."

"Not sure if the cops are fans of mine."

"Well, I guess were on the same boat, sorta. But think I'm higher on the wanted list than you right now."

Peter received a concerned look from Castle.

"You need to go to a hospital, get that checked out."

That , which Castle was referring to, was the gaping hole in Peter's shoulder that was still bleeding badly. The man was right, Peter was in really bad shape. Peter didn't want to, but he had to call Happy. Not dying tonight. He'd do it once he left the construction site. He seriously didn't want to stay another minute.

Peter stumbled suddenly, unable to hold himself up. Fortunately, Castle caught him in time.

"Kid, I'm serious."

Peter nodded, too tired to really speak. Yet despite how tired he was, he felt his spidey sense suddenly flash danger.

"Seriously? There's more? Come on, can't a guy catch a break?" Peter didn't even realize he had said it aloud, nor did he notice the confused look on Castle's face.

The night wasn't going to be easy for Peter at all. He had only a second to react, and with energy he didn't know he still had, Peter picked Castle up in a fireman's carry, and leapt off the same direction Russo had tossed the Iron Fist not too long ago. Barely a second later, the world exploded above them as whatever Russo had rigged up in the building, levelled it to the ground.