"Advent of Midnight"
Chapter 7: "My Curse Is My Strength"
Disclaimer: Spectacular Spider-Man belongs to Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios. Darkstalkers belongs to Capcom. I make no money or other material profit whatsoever from this story.
Author's note: Sorry for taking so long with this, but I hadn't been feeling inspiration for this story in a while. Listening to some music late at night, though, gave me back that inspiration, and I am ready to resume this story. You'll be getting a taste of what Michael Morbius is capable of with his pseudo-vampiric powers, and the final showdown (for now) with Venom won't be long in coming. There'll even be a special appearance from another demonic Capcom hero . . . but what am I doing delaying like this? Let's rock!
Peter slipped back into ESU, changing into Spider-Man as he skulked along the ceiling. He made his way back into the lab, but kept himself concealed in a corner. While in that corner, he saw Miles Warren talking to the darkly clad man, who'd taken off his fedora and turned down the collar of his jacket to reveal his face.
"I can't . . . I can't hold it in anymore . . ." the man whispered.
"What do you mean, Michael?" Warren asked.
"The thirst is unbearable!" Michael exploded. "Every day, I hear their hearts pumping blood through their veins, blood that I crave now more than ever! I can't be near people anymore!"
"Something must have happened to get you this upset," Warren mused aloud. "Have the treatments not been helping?"
"No!" Michael replied. "I need real blood! Living blood! And I'm thinking my first taste ought to come from you."
"Michael, we can talk about this," Warren said. "I am the one who gave you your second chance, after all."
"Second chance?" Michael mocked. "You made me a monster. It's only fair you reap the fruits of your wicked labors."
"Wicked? I am a man of science, young man. Science is a process of trial and error, figuring out what works and what doesn't through experimentation. There is nothing wicked about what I've done."
Michael lunged at Warren, unable to bear the self-important man's smugness any longer, only to be stopped by a binding web from Spider-Man. "Hey, the man creeps me out, too, but that's no reason to kill him," Spidey quipped.
"Stay out of this!" Michael roared, ripping free of the webbing and attacking Spider-Man, who collided with him in midair and brought him to the ground. The two superhuman young men wrestled on the floor, only for Spider-Man to kick Michael off him and assault him with exploding web bullets that trapped him against the wall.
"What's going on here?" Spider-Man asked. "What'd you do to piss this guy off enough for him to try to kill you?"
"It was an experiment," Warren replied. "It went wrong."
"Don't you mean 'right,' Doctor?" Michael mocked, just as he ripped his way loose from the web cocoon.
"What are you talking about?" Warren asked.
"Don't insult me," Michael sneered, stalking toward the not-so-good doctor. "You wanted me this way. Adapting a vampire bat's abilities to a human genome for enhanced night vision and agility, making the perfect infiltrator."
"How do you know this?" Warren asked.
"Let's just say a little kitten told me," Michael replied with cold satisfaction. "And she's been here before."
I should have known, Spider-Man thought. Nobody recommended by Osborn can be trusted to have actual ethics. Aloud, "Well, now that we all know that little detail, what do you suggest we do?"
"Kill him, of course," Michael replied tersely.
"Sorry, we can't do that," Spider-Man denied. "He might be scum, but we can't kill him."
Just then, Michael seemed to disappear from sight – only to reappear grabbing Warren by the neck. "And what makes you think we can't?"
"Because outright murdering someone isn't something decent people do," Spider-Man answered. "So drop him. Or I'll drop you."
"Listen to him!" Warren pleaded.
"Shut up," Michael hissed. "You just want to save your own pathetic life!"
"Nothing wrong with wanting to live, even if he doesn't particularly deserve it," Spider-Man quipped, shooting a web right in Michael's face to momentarily blind him. Michael dropped Warren and ripped the webbing off his face, while Spider-Man caught Warren. "Run for your no-good, worthless life, or I'm going to feed you to him."
"There is a way I can fix this, Michael!" Warren exclaimed.
"Don't lie to me!" Michael snarled.
"Great, you still wanna push your luck?" Spider-Man muttered as he interposed himself between them. "What the hell's wrong with you?"
"Listen to me!" Warren insisted. "Doctor Connors created something called the gene cleanser, a chemical substance that can remove impurities from human DNA. I can give it to you . . . but only if you do something for me."
"No dice!" Spider-Man shouted. "Michael, he's just trying to trick you!"
"I'm not!" Warren exclaimed. "The gene cleanser really does exist!"
"Doesn't mean he's gonna give it to you!" Spider-Man rejoined. "It's called the carrot and the stick! He dangles the cleanser in front of you to keep you loyal, and makes you do his dirty work!"
"Actually, it's something that concerns you as well, web-slinger," Warren added more calmly. "Remember that black costume of yours? The one that miscreant Venom seems to be wearing now? I know where it came from, and it came from this lab. Would you like that to come out, Spider-Man?"
Spider-Man snarled low in his throat, as the symbiote began to flare up inside him. Kill him! Kill him now!
No . . . As he fought down the symbiote, his costume briefly darkened, the blues turning a particularly dark indigo and the reds taking on a wine-like shade.
"What do you say, Michael?" Warren asked. "Do you want the chance to get your humanity back? To be as you were? Dying of an incurable blood disease?"
"I'd rather die human than live like this!" Michael snarled. "You're going to give me that gene cleanser now, or I'm going to rip your throat open and drink deeply!"
"Actually, I'm not . . ." Warren replied with a smirk.
"And what are you smiling for, Doctor?" Michael interrogated angrily.
Spider-sense! Spider-Man thought. Aw, crap.
Just then, campus security came in, having heard the noise of the fight between Spider-Man and Morbius. "What's going on, Doctor?" one of the officers asked.
"These two broke in here and tried to steal some important specimens from my lab," Warren replied. "As for the case of a particular alien specimen that went missing some months back, ask the web-slinger about that."
"What does he mean, Spider-Man?" the officer asked.
Just as Spider-Man was trying to come up with an answer, Michael blitzed the officers, easily outrunning their bullets. He grabbed one officer by the throat and, just like he'd said he was going to do to Warren, ripped it open and drank while using his body as a shield. And all that had happened so fast even Spider-Man couldn't react in time.
"Michael, no!" Spidey yelled. "Think about what you're doing!"
Michael threw the officer's body aside once he'd drunk his fill. "I'm a monster. I don't have to think about what I'm doing."
"You son of a bitch!" one of the remaining officers yelled, shooting furiously at Michael.
I've gotta stop this, before anybody else . . . Spider-Man thought. He fired a web to clog the officer's gun and another web to grab Michael. Just before Michael could break free, he grabbed a stool with yet another web and slung it at the window, breaking it. He jumped out with Michael and swung away from the lab as fast as he could while outrunning gunfire.
Once the two were a safe distance away from the ESU lab, Spider-Man threw Michael at a wall. Michael ripped free of the webbing and landed on the wall in a crouch, then vanished from sight. Spider-Man's spider-sense went off, just before he got punched in his masked face by Michael. Spider-Man twisted in midair and landed on the roof of a car as Michael jumped down for him, only for him to flip off the car and onto the street.
"What the hell's going on with you?" Spider-Man asked.
"Your Professor Warren," Michael snarled. "He made me like this. Do you understand?"
"Killing him's not gonna solve your problem!" Spider-Man yelled.
"No," Michael admitted, "but I'll feel better knowing he can't do it to anyone else."
"Vengeance isn't justice, Michael," Spider-Man insisted.
"It doesn't matter what you call it," Michael snapped. "Warren is an evil man. He needs to be stopped."
"And he will be. Just not like this. Not by killing him."
"Don't try to stop me. If you do . . . you'll be my enemy, too . . . and you'll end up just like that guard."
"Yeah, speaking of that, what the hell is your damage going after an innocent guard? Warren lied to him about what was going on! That was no reason to chomp on him!"
"From the moment he raised his gun to me, he was my enemy, and I don't believe in showing mercy to my enemies. Do you? Isn't that why they keep coming back for you? Isn't that why your precious aunt is still in their clutches?"
Spider-Man snarled, as the symbiote flared up once again, forming the twisted black spider-suit over his body. "How do you know about that?!"
"I smelled you, snooping around," Michael replied. "Parker."
Spider-Man lunged at Michael, catching him by the chin with a brutal kick. The web-slinger pressed his advantage, pelting Michael with a series of rapid-fire kicks and punches. Just then, Michael caught his wrist and squeezed, which merely made Spider-Man spray him in the face with chain webbing. Spider-Man kicked Michael away from him and flipped back, pressing his advantage further with a mass of web-chains that bound the vampire.
"Amazing," a familiar and hated aristocratic voice remarked. "Human science can even create hollow facsimiles of vampires."
Spider-Man didn't even hesitate, whirling around in hateful fury and punching Demitri hard in the chin. Seeing that his blow had staggered the vampire lord, Spider-Man pressed his advantage by jumping into the air and drop-kicking Demitri in the chest. He delivered a series of vicious high-speed punches to Demitri and finished his assault with a spin kick . . .
. . . that Demitri caught.
"Not bad, child. It's amazing what a human can do given sufficient motivation."
"I'm not here to impress you," Spider-Man growled, shooting Demitri in the face with a web bullet. The shock of the strike forced Demitri's grip to loosen just enough for the wall-crawler to pull his leg out and twist into a series of rapid-fire aerial kicks to the vampire lord. "Now where's my aunt, you son of a bitch?!"
Just as he was about to strike him again, Demitri vanished, and reappeared behind Spider-Man, smashing him in the back of the head with a two-handed fist. The hit knocked Spider-Man for a loop, which allowed Demitri an opening that he ruthlessly abused. Demitri punched Spider-Man again and again at insane speed, each hit landing with the force of a locomotive. He finished the assault with a snap kick that threw Spider-Man into a car, the force of the impact making the car crumple around him. Just as Spider-Man was about to get up, Demitri sped over to him and crumpled the car around him, making a kind of coffin for him.
"Would you like to know?" Demitri taunted. "Your aunt makes a lovely bride. She's also quite passionate, particularly when we're in bed." Picking up the car-cum-coffin as Spider-Man struggled wrathfully inside it, Demitri shifted into his gargoyle-like demon form and flew ahead to the Hudson River, where he deposited the heap of metal . . . with Spider-Man still in it. "Goodbye, spider-brat. In the end . . . you were nothing more than temporary amusement."
He flew away from the Hudson River, ready to break the news to Morrigan that her latest toy wouldn't be showing up for any more play dates. All in all, he supposed it hadn't turned out that badly; he'd still gotten a concubine out of the arrangement, and he was going to get more. Maybe he could add that thief who called herself the Black Cat; she'd certainly provide amusing company.
As the car-coffin sank deeper into the Hudson, the symbiote exploded into a mass of chainlike blades that ripped it open, freeing Spider-Man. He swam up to the surface and then moved on to the nearest bridge, shooting a web-line to pull himself up on. Once safely on top of the bridge, he rolled onto his back, breathing heavily. In that respect, at least, he was still human.
Two vampires, he thought. As if one wasn't bad enough, and now I'm gonna be a hunted fugitive again. Not to mention that bastard's doing things to Aunt May that I'd really, really like to not think about. He let the symbiote retract, reverting to his normal red and blue. Well, I might as well cut my losses and get back to Mary Jane and Mrs. Watson. They're probably worried. He fired a web-line and swung off the bridge.
Indeed, the Watson women were worried about Peter, as they both hugged him tightly when he came back. (He wasn't in costume, by the way; he'd made sure of that.)
"Peter . . . you shouldn't be staying out so late," Anna admonished him.
"Sorry, Mrs. Watson," Peter replied. "I had to do something."
"None of this 'Mrs. Watson' nonsense," Anna demurred. "It's Aunt Anna to you."
"Sure, Aunt Anna," Peter assented.
"Your dinner's in the refrigerator, you can warm it up if you're hungry," Anna offered.
"Thanks, Aunt Anna," Peter said.
As Peter ate his dinner, Mary Jane hung around, watching him. Peter smiled almost ironically. "See something interesting?"
"Tiger, I'm worried about you," Mary Jane replied. "Running around in that costume, it's gonna get you killed."
"I don't exactly have the option of putting the costume away and living a normal life," Peter answered dryly.
"Of course you do!" Mary Jane insisted. "Just hang up that thing."
"I can't," Peter retorted.
"Why not?"
"I made a vow on Uncle Ben's grave. I promised that I would live up to the responsibilities that come with this power, because he suffered the consequences of my selfishness to begin with."
"What do you mean?"
"When I first got these powers, I thought I could use them to make money and get famous. Then I ignored a thief I could have stopped simply because I was pissed that I wasn't gonna get paid. That thief killed Uncle Ben. That's why I can't stop being Spider-Man, because stopping being Spider-Man means other people die that I could have saved. Does that answer your question?"
Mary Jane looked at Peter, utterly startled. She never would have imagined that he'd been carrying such a burden all this time. She'd suspected a little bit, but having seen him in action as Spider-Man answered a lot of her questions about why he was so flaky. No wonder he'd never seemed to have time for typical high school things; he was busy fighting monsters. Then again . . . there was something to be said about those who fought monsters, namely that they didn't end in such a good place.
"Peter . . . you have my word," she said, "that I'm gonna be there for you. You don't have to carry that responsibility all by yourself."
Peter smiled again, this time sincerely. "Thanks, MJ. You're a good friend."
Mary Jane kept her calm expression, even if the word "friend" slightly stung. Why should it have, though; she was the one who told Peter she wasn't interested in a relationship with him. What had changed? Other than her newfound respect for him, her admiration of his determination to live up to the obligations that came with his power? He truly was a good kid . . . too good for . . .
"MJ?" Peter asked.
"It's nothing, Pete," Mary Jane replied.
"No, it's something," Peter insisted. "What is it?"
"Venom's Eddie Brock, isn't he?"
Peter was taken aback by the blurted deduction, but couldn't find it in himself to lie to her. "Yeah, he is."
"That black suit . . . it does something to people, doesn't it?" Mary Jane mused aloud. "It makes them crazy. Makes them stronger, but it makes them crazier, too. And with someone like Brock, it's even worse."
"What do you mean, 'someone like Brock'?"
"I mean, Peter, that guy was messed up before he got that suit, and if it turned you into a total asshole, him turning into a total psycho willing to feed your aunt to a deranged vampire – not to mention what he tried with Gwen . . ."
Peter had to admit, she had him there. He and Brock had been friends for a long time, almost like brothers, but Peter couldn't help but feel that maybe, just maybe, he never really knew Eddie at all. And if Eddie had been suffering inside, feeling so alone, and Peter had never taken the time to notice . . . that made him feel doubly guilty. If he'd been a better friend, maybe Eddie wouldn't have turned to the symbiote for the love and companionship he felt he wasn't getting from the actual people in his life.
"You're beating yourself up, aren't you?"
"Yeah. He was my friend. I should have noticed, done something, tried to be there for him, but all I could think about was solving my own problems. And my oldest friend is now my worst enemy."
Mary Jane walked over to Peter and put her hands on his shoulders. "People make their own choices. Sometimes people drift apart. Sometimes they do stupid things to each other. If he honestly wanted to be your friend, he'd have tried to get the story straight before doing what he did."
Peter chuckled bitterly. "You are aware that I couldn't tell him what really happened, right? Not without telling him I'm Spider-Man."
"That reminds me, Tiger . . ." Her grip on his shoulders grew firmer. "Why didn't you tell us? It's not like we'd rat you out to the nearest cop or reporter. Gwen's crazy in love with you, so she'd be the last person to do that, and I know a thing or two about keeping secrets myself."
"I couldn't put you in danger like that," Peter replied.
"We're already in danger just from knowing you, if you think about it like that," Mary Jane shot back. "You could at least bother to give us a heads-up."
Peter chuckled self-deprecatingly. "You have a point there."
Mary Jane leaned down and gave Peter an affectionate kiss on the cheek. "Don't worry about it. You've got me and Aunt Anna, and Gwen, Harry, Liz, and Ben will be there for you, too."
"Thanks," Peter said. "You're . . . you're great, Mary Jane."
"I know," Mary Jane responded with a mischievous smile.
Feeling exhausted from the fights with Michael and Demitri, Peter went straight to bed after he'd finished dinner. No sooner than he'd closed his eyes to go to sleep, he heard a young female voice singing something oddly familiar.
"Living on the edge, fighting crime, spinning webs/Swinging from the highest ledge, he can leap above our heads/Ah-ah, ah-ah-ah/Ah-ah- ah-ah-ah-ah . . .
"Villains on the rise and the city's victimized/Looking up with no surprise, arriving in the speed of time/Ah-ah, ah-ah-ah/Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ha . . .
"Spectacular, spectacular Spider-Man/Spectacular, spectacular Spider-Man . . ."
The singing dropped into humming, only for actual words to become distinguishable soon enough. "Spectacular, spectacular Spider-Man/Spectacular, spectacular Spider-Man!"
Peter whirled to the other side of his bed and saw Lilith staring at him, her pinkish-red eyes twinkling with amusement and desire. In fact, she wasn't just staring at him; she was in the bed with him! "What are you doing here?" he asked.
"This is your dream, silly," Lilith replied.
"Why would I be dreaming of you?" Peter asked skeptically.
"Because you can't resist my gorgeous body," Lilith answered impishly, licking her lips teasingly.
"Right . . ." Peter drawled.
Lilith smirked sexily at Peter. "Succubae can do this, you know. Walk into men's dreams and all. I could give you a really nice dream right now."
"Not interested," Peter replied. "Now, why are you here?"
"Can't a girl just want to give the boy she likes some comfort?"
"When that girl's you? Forgive me for being skeptical; I just happen to like living."
"I won't take that much . . ." Lilith pouted cutely.
Peter just stared at her skeptically, completely unconvinced. He was starting to believe that it was more trouble than it was worth to try to date outside the human race, and when he said "human," he made allowances for mutant freaks like himself. Science, at least, was something that made sense. Demons, magic, that sort of thing did not make sense to him at all.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"Big sis is playing with one of her boy toys again," Lilith replied. "I'm bored."
"So I'm supposed to help you alleviate your boredom?" Peter remarked, the question sounding more like a statement than an actual inquiry.
"Yeah, and I like you," Lilith added. "You're sweet."
"Wait, who's this guy Morrigan's messing with?" Peter asked.
"Are you jealous?" Lilith asked teasingly.
"No," Peter replied with a straight face.
"Hmm, he's supposed to be this big-shot demon hunter," Lilith went on. "And I say you're totally jealous."
"Well, I say you're full of it," Peter retorted.
"Is this pre-make-out banter? I like it," Lilith quipped.
"Wait, wait, wait! 'Demon hunter'?" Peter asked. "Morrigan's messing around with a demon hunter?"
"It's ok, he's a nice guy," Lilith replied airily. "Kinda reminds me of you when you're Spider-Man. Big mouth on him, can't shut up to save his life . . ."
Peter chuckled.
"I made you laugh. That proves you like me!"
"Fine, maybe I am a little attracted to you. Doesn't change the fact that you're trouble."
"You've got no problem with that thief in the catsuit," Lilith commented. "What is it? Is it because she has bigger boobs than me?"
"I had more important things on my mind at the time than her bra size," Peter answered stoically.
"Ha! You totally checked her out!" Lilith insisted.
"And you know this how, exactly?" Peter asked.
"I'm very good at reading people," Lilith replied. "You're not the best liar when you don't have your mask on. Now can we please start making out?"
"I don't even know you that well yet!"
"Oh? Are you holding out for someone? Like Liz? Or MJ? Or is it Gwen?"
Peter sighed. "I don't know. I honestly don't know. I know she wants to be with me, and I . . . but with the kind of danger my being Spider-Man brings into her life . . . maybe she'd be better off without me."
Lilith smiled sweetly at Peter. "Haven't you thought of asking her first? It's her life, too."
"And that's why I can't," Peter rejoined. "I don't want her to be thrown off a bridge by some lunatic with a grudge against Spider-Man!"
"Well, you'll be there to catch her if that happens, won't you?" Lilith insisted.
"Are you trying to seduce me or trying to be my therapist?" Peter wondered.
"Can't I do both?" Lilith asked innocently.
"Do you have a license?" Peter quipped.
"Do you?" Lilith answered back.
Meanwhile, Demitri had entered the Aensland Estate with the intention of telling Morrigan that her wall-crawling boy toy was very much permanently indisposed. He had another thing coming when he teleported into her room, namely that she was in bed with a man with tousled white hair, one that he recognized very well.
"So you've moved on quickly," Demitri commented. "I should have known you never really cared for that pathetic arachnid."
"Who's he talking about?" the white-haired man asked Morrigan. "Your special project?"
"Yes," Morrigan replied, "and he's not quite as dead as Demitri seems to think, Dante."
"And you know this how?" Dante asked. "Never mind. You just know. Now let's kick this hombre out of here!" He sprang out of bed, completely unmindful of his nudity, and threw on a pair of leather pants while fighting Demitri, who threw him into a wall. Dante bounced back, pulling a double-barreled gun off the dresser and shooting at Demitri, who dodged.
Right into a corkscrew kick from Morrigan, complete with her wings wrapped around her legs like a drill. Demitri roared in outrage and moved to attack Morrigan, when Dante shot at him again. This time, Demitri caught Dante's bullet and threw it at him, only for Dante to deflect the bullet with the barrel of his gun, the bullet embedding in a wall. Demitri lunged at Dante while Dante was distracted by deflecting his own bullet, slamming him through a wall and into the next room.
Dante caught his other gun and back-flipped onto the far wall, springing off it in a tornado spin while firing like a madman at Demitri. For his part, Demitri shifted to demon form for greater resilience against Dante's bullets. To his surprise, the bullets were still hurting him and hurting him a lot. The storm of gunfire backed Demitri right into an energy blast from Morrigan's fist, and Dante sped up to the vampire lord to deliver a brutal uppercut that knocked him out of the Aensland Estate through the roof.
Demitri was quick to recover, but Dante had pulled out a sword and was now slashing rapidly at him. Getting angry, Demitri caught Dante's blade and tugged viciously on it to pull Dante over to him so he could choke the life out of him. Dante, not willing to play along with that scenario, just kicked him in the stomach and flipped away from him while proceeding to shoot him up all over again. He finished by going into a tornado spin while holding his sword, cutting into the vampire lord's steely flesh like a drill.
"Had enough?" Dante asked. "I mean, I understand if you have. I play rough, and not a lot of people can handle that. But if you still wanna party, club's open all night!"
Demitri spat blood at Dante. "Hmph. Sun's almost out, and I don't have enough time to kill you. By the way . . . your brother wanted me to pass a message on to you. He says, 'Hi.'" With that, Demitri ascended into the sky, flying away.
"What the hell?" Dante uttered in shock. He looked at Morrigan, who was now dressed in her usual outfit. "Do you know what he was talking about, because I sure as hell don't!"
"Your brother, or should I say, Nero Angelo, has made quite a name for himself in Makai," Morrigan replied.
"Just as he wanted . . ." Dante murmured. "Damn it."
"I'd better get ready myself," Morrigan said. "Have to make sure Spider's all right, although Lilith's probably taking care of him now."
"Lilith? You mean your Mini-Me?" Dante quipped.
"She's taken a shine to him . . . and so have I," Morrigan admitted.
"Didn't know you were into kids."
"He interests me more than most mortal boys, hell, most mortal men, anyway." She smiled slowly at Dante. "You are welcome to help me fix up the house if you want."
"I've got nowhere I need to be," Dante responded with a chuckle.
End Notes: There you have it. Michael Morbius seems to have given in to his vampirism, Demitri has been sorely disappointed by this most recent turn of events, Peter and Mary Jane have had some time to work things out together, Lilith is visiting Peter in his dreams for a little nighttime loving, and Morrigan's got herself a demon hunter boyfriend!
I should mention, though, that this Dante is the same Dante from the Devil May Cry videogame series and its manga/anime adaptations, which means that the usual cast – Trish, Lady, Nero, and Vergil – will be showing up, too, which just makes things more complicated for Spidey. Not to mention that Dante isn't the only demon hunter in town; you'll be seeing mainstays of Marvel's supernatural niche, too, guys like Blade, Hannibal King, Ghost Rider, and the Son of Satan, but revamped for the Spectacular-verse. Plus, the other Darkstalkers will be appearing, too, including a certain lovely cat-woman . . .
That's enough spoiler details for now. Hope you had fun reading this, and thanks for sticking with me this long, anyway.
