Daily Bugle

I'll have to think up of some excuse to explain my quick disappearance, Peter thought as he ascended the stairwell of the Daily Bugle ten steps at a time towards the roof, but that will be a problem for another day. Having a secret identity did have its problems. When Spider-Man was needed and Peter was in the area he always had to find some way to excuse himself which usually meant he looked like a total coward as he ran from the scene. And then there were those times that his need to disappear was so urgent that he didn't have time to come up with an excuse and would simply just disappear. And while he hated looking like a coward, he hated even more looking like a flake that no one could count on.

Reaching the roof, he stripped out of his street clothes, revealing his uniform underneath. Mary Jane was probably going to kill him after this. First his clothes had been stained with the webbing from the sack on his way to the Bugle and now he was in such a hurry that he did not have time to collect his clothes and put them in a web sack. They would have to sit on the roof and wait till he had a chance to come back for them. Yep, this time I am surely dead.

Pulling his mask on, Spider-Man looked out over the city in the direction of Time Square. Time Square was about fifteen blocks to the southwest from where the Daily Bugle was.

Running to the edge of the building, Spider-Man jumped off the Daily Bugle and dove to the street below. Shooting a web line out to an adjacent building he swung out over the streets of New York, skimming the heads of several pedestrians. As he swung back up he heard many yells of profanity in his direction.

Swinging down Second Avenue he let go of the web line and did a fancy twirl around the side of a building. Shooting a new web line out he was now headed west on East Fourth Street. After swinging several blocks down that street he webbed his way around another building and began heading north on Fifth Avenue passing by Bryant Park. Finally he turned west on West Forty-Fourth Street, the street that would take him directly to Time Square.

As much as he hated ditching Betty, he knew that had he stayed with here he would have reached the scene to late to help many innocent people. Web slinging was a much quicker alternative. As Spider-Man neared the area, he shot out a web line to the corner of a building to slow his progress. Swinging around the corner he landed on the side of the building and looked down over Time Square. He could already see the damage that the battle had already caused.

Several cars had been knocked off the street and one car appeared to have been smashed into, as the frame wrapped in such a way that suggested a body had slammed into it pretty hard. Looking around he noticed several people were hurt and a couple of them were dead. In an alley across the Square from him, Spider-Man noticed the lifeless form of a young adult woman.

Carnage will pay for this.

In the middle of Time Square he saw that Carnage had finally gotten the upper hand on the mysterious figure. Like Robbie had said, Spider-Man noticed that the figure did look a lot like Iron Man, but he could not tell if the person was male or female, or even human for that matter.

Carnage had already surrounded the figure in his tendrils and was clearly going in for the kill. Spider-Man had to attack now or another person would fall to Carnage's blood lust. Shooting a web line to the other side of the Square, Spider-Man ran across the building, jumped off, and angled his descent into the chaos so that he would kick Carnage squarely in the chest.

"Hey Carnage," Spider-Man yelled as he swung his legs forward to impact with Carnage's chest with such force that Carnage flew backwards several feet, slamming into the street creating a man-sized crater.

"Didn't you hear? You have to keep your dues current with the Super Villain Union if you want to touch the new merchandise."

Assuming a defensive position, Spider-Man spared a quick glance over his shoulder at the mysterious figure. "Are you okay?" he asked.

The figure looked up at him and nodded. "I believe so," it said. The suit had some sort of voice modulator and the visor from which the person looked through was mirrored, so even this close Spider-Man couldn't tell if the figure was male or female. Deciding to file that question to the back of his mind, Spider-Man turned his full attention to Carnage. He had to pay careful attention to Carnage since he was immune to Spider-Man's spider sense.

Carnage was already up and advancing on Spider-Man. "As a matter of fact, you despicable insect, my dues are paid up and I can touch the merchandise all I want." An ax formed out of his right hand and he threw it at Spider-Man.

Spider-Man did a back flip twisting in mid air and shooting a web line that connected with the sailing ax. With a quick twist of his wrist he sent the ax into a nearby wall. "Really Kasady, how many times do I have to explain it to you, spiders are arachnids, not insects."

"Either way you will soon be dead." Carnage sent tendril after tendril out of his body towards Spider-Man.

Spider-Man ducked, jumped, and flipped over several incoming tendrils using his enhanced speed and agility. Spider-Man moved so fast that it looked like the two adversaries had choreographed the fight. To someone watching from afar the fight would have looked like an amazing dance. However the dance was not choreographed and the two adversaries were not dancing for their enjoyment. Eventually one of them would mess up and the other would take the upper hand.

Carnage formed a spear with his right hand and shot it out towards Spider-Man. Jumping out of the way, Spider-Man landed on a wall of a nearby building.

"Give it up Kasady, you won't escape from here," Spider-Man said as he raised his left hand and shot a glob of webbing toward Carnage. The webbing managed to make contact, adhering to Carnage's face.

Pressing his back against the wall of the building, Spider-Man raised his right hand as well and sent two streams of webbing towards Carnage's feet sticking him in place to the ground.

Carnage let out a vicious yell as he tried to pull the webbing off his face.

Spider-Man jumped off the building and swung towards Carnage, his intention to knock Carnage to the ground and web him to the street. But Spider-Man forgot that Carnage's symbiote also had a mind of its own.

The symbiote sent several tendrils towards Spider-Man and knocked him out of the air, sending him smashing into the roof of a car below. Carnage succeed in ripping the webbing off his face and turned towards Spider-Man who was picking himself out of the wreck of the car.

"I'm done with you," Carnage said. "It's time to kill the bug."

The dance continued as Carnage sent tendrils, spears, axes, and all assortments of weapons at Spider-Man as Spider-Man continued to duck, dive, and jump trying to get close enough to lay Carnage out. Unfortunately Carnage began to get the upper hand.

Spider-Man was having trouble keeping ahead of the tendrils Carnage keep shooting out of his body. He was so used to relying on his spider sense to warn him of danger that not being able to use it now was becoming a bit of a disadvantage.

He was also trying to keep his back free of civilians so that the hazardous tendrils did not hurt an innocent person. But his attention to his surroundings made it so he couldn't always watch himself.

That mistake cost him.

A stray tendril with a sharp edge caught him in the right leg and sent Spider-Man tumbling to the ground.

"Oh, insect," Carnage smiled, showing off his sharp rows of pointed teeth, "looks like I just made my checkmate move." As he walked closer his left arm transformed into a guillotine shaped object with a sharp, cutting edge.

"Not quite," Spider-Man replied, shooting another gob of webbing into Carnage's face.

At that exact moment a large, powerful beam flew past his left shoulder and hit Carnage in the right shoulder, spinning him around knocking him to the ground. Looking over his shoulder, Spider-Man saw that the mysterious figure had gotten up from the ground and a cannon attached to its right arm was pointed at the spot where Carnage had once stood.

Looking back at Carnage he said, "That's why when playing chess you always plan more than one move ahead."

"Now it's two against one," the stranger said walking up to stand beside Spider-Man.

"Oh, but how the tables can change," Carnage said as he slowly stood up. "Wow you pack a punch," he said looking at the stranger.

Before the newcomer or Spider-Man could initiate another fight with him, a tendril shot out from the back of Carnage and grabbed a bystander still in the vicinity. "You'll give me a pass out of here or this person will die."

"He'll kill him anyways," Spider-Man said under his breath to the stranger.

Carnage jumped up onto the wall and began to scale it with the tendril wrapped around the bystander.

"I can't follow him," the stranger said. "My suit is to damaged."

Well at least I know it isn't a robot, Spider-Man thought as he jumped up the wall and began running after Carnage who was now roughly ten stories above Spider-Man. Down below the stranger tried to hinder Carnage's progress by taking pot shots.

"Carnage let the man go," Spider-Man yelled.

"As you wish, insect," Carnage gleefully laughed. The tendril holding on to the man released and the man began falling to the street below.

Shooting out a web line to the top of the building, Spider-Man sent himself sailing upwards towards the civilian, meeting him half way, so that the break of the fall would not injury the man. Shooting out another web line, Spider-Man lowered himself and the man to the street.

"Thank you, Spider-Man," the man said. "I'm glad to say that from now on I won't be believing any of the trash the Bugle writes about you."

"I'm glad to win over another loving fan." Turning his attention to the stranger who had lowered the arm cannon and was looking at him he said, "You and I need to talk."