6.

Alone on the destroyed rooftop, both masked vigilantes stared each other down. Exposed girders continued to burn off what once encased them with large chunks of concrete rubble littering the area. Despite the smoking ruins, both Spider-Men had no problem finding and keeping an eye on the other.

"One question," the red and black Spider-Man said. "Why?"

"Why, what?" the red and blue clad Peter asked. "You don't think I did this do you?"

"When I see you attempt to kill hostages and throw bombs at me, yeah, I kind of think you're responsible."

"I threw bombs? You're the one who tossed those party poppers at me."

"Yeah, right. Man, I looked up to you. I wanted to be you and you fake your own death to do stuff like this? I'm gonna take you in and people are going to see the real you." Diving headfirst, Spider-Man attempted to tackle Peter but missed as he leapt over him.

"Whoa, hey, slow your role a minute. I didn't do this. I…" Reeled from a quick punch to the face, Peter barely managed to catch in incoming kick to his midsection. He tossed the other Spider-Man aside into a nearby girder and rubbed his jaw. "You really want to do this? Fine. Bring it!"

The spider themed vigilantes charged at each other and met in the center of the rubble. Rights and lefts were thrown with such ferocity that a normal person's bones would easily have broken from the impacts. It was soon realized by the black and red one that his opponent was stronger than he was but was also being slowed down by his injuries, a fact that he took advantage of.

Blocking a punch from Peter, Spider-Man flipped over him and landed kick to his injured leg. The attack was enough to stagger him and left Peter open for another attack. Half stumbling and half limping away, The red and blue Spider-Man was snagged with a web line and yanked backwards when he was kicked hard in the back. Hitting a support beam, he had little time to react as his opponent continued to advance on him.

"The people trusted you," Spider-Man said. "How could you do this?"

"I didn't do anything, you idiot. I just got here. You're the one with the bombs!"

"Liar!"

The two made the entire building top their battleground as they tried to bring the other down. What was left of the walls were soon broken down by them crashing into them with girders ringing from their bodies colliding into the steel structures. With his leg aching and slowing him down, Peter knew he couldn't keep the fight up much longer. Having luring him in, Peter dodged an attack from his opponent and used a support beam between them to hoist himself up, rotate around, and plant both feet in the back of Spider-Man. Landing several yards away and crashing through what was left of a wall, Spider-Man slowly managed to get to his knees with a grunt. He rubbed his neck and was quite positive he had suffered whiplash from the attack.

"Alright, it's extremely obvious you haven't done this long like I have, so why not just give up and…"

Peter's Spider Sense blared a moment before he was hit across the face with a metal object. Had he not been injured, he would have moved fast enough to avoid the attack but since he could barely put any weight on his left leg, he found himself on his back against a large slanted slab of concrete.

"I said I'm gonna take you in," Spider-Man said as he discarded a piece of metal pipe. "And that's exactly what I'm going to do."

Fighting the dizziness he felt, Peter looked through a broken eye piece in his mask. The sliver of Plexiglas was shattered on the left side and the right was fragmented. As he moved to get to his feet, the other Spider-Man fired two weblines, one on each side of him, and launched himself in a slingshot like manor to deliver a knockout blow to his opponent.

The moment before the red and black Spider-Man made impact, Peter put his foot up just in time to stop his momentum. At point blank range, he shot a glob of webbing at Spider-Man's face and kicked him away. With his counterpart hitting the ground hard and struggling to get his face free of the webbing, Peter had time to collect himself and get back to his feet.

"You know what they say about copies?" Peter asked as Spider-Man ripped the webbing off. "They're never as good as the original."

With the webbing off his face, Spider-Man reacted just in time to block a punch by Peter. When he threw one of his own, Peter ducked it and moved behind him. When the other turned to face him, Peter leapt up and connected his knee with Spider-Man's chin. With as much strength as he could muster with his injured leg, Peter sent the red and black vigilante halfway across the building where he landed unconscious.

Falling to a knee, Peter grunted in pain from his leg. It throbbed relentlessly under the webbing double slowly turning red. "Damn, that hurt."

"Well that worked out better than I thought," Chameleon said from two buildings over, looking through his binoculars. "But it's time to end this. Say goodnight bug boys." With the sickening lipless smile still plastered on his faceless head, he pulled out the metal device once more and pressed a second switch on it.

Moving over to the unconscious Spider-Man, Peter wanted to check to see if he was okay when his Spider Sense went off. When it was this intense it meant to move away fast. Grabbing the unconscious vigilante, Peter dove off the side of the building and swung across the street to another building a moment before the floor he was on, as well as the one below it, exploded. The people on the street panicked as more debris fell around them.

With his costume in tatters, Peter watched as the building he was on burned from the resulting explosion. The other Spider-Man seemed just fine despite being unconscious. Tempted to pull his mask off, Peter thought twice and left the other's identity a secret; something he himself had a hard enough time doing when he started out.

"You," a voice from behind him said.

When he turned, he saw a group of people staring at him. "Where did you come from? Who are you?"

"Get him!" another hostage yelled.

"Wait, what?" Peter said as they charged him.

"Get him, he took us hostage!"

"And call the police, he hurt Spider-Man!"

"You people are crazy, you know that?" Before they could catch him, Peter leapt off the building and swung away as the people checked on the other Spider-Man.

"That's it!" Peter yelled as he shot between buildings to get as far away from the scene as he could. "I've had enough of his damn costume. It's over. I'm done."

To be continued