Episode Ten: Lost Cause

"Hey Aunt May do you know where I put my Camera?" Peter asked jumping out of his bedroom. "PETE!" Aunt May shouted out to her nephew as Peter quickly rushed towards the living room. "Whats up?" Peter asked worried that Carrie was back. "Look...you see that?" May said pointing towards the large puff of flames across Manhattan, illuminated by the night sky.

"Oh god..." Peter quickly rushed to turn on the TV a managed to catch a special news report on what exactly was going on. "Avengers Tower Under Attack" flashed across the screen as Peter began pulling out his phone in an attempt to call Stark. However hauntingly, a sudden power outage rippled across the city, knocking out everything including cell phones and computers. Rage was behind this she had to be.

Peter rubbed his hands through his hair fearing for what way happen to him tonight. "Aunt May I...I'm gonna just...be in my room okay..." Peter said as Aunt May nervously nodded back.

The power suddenly flickered back to life as Peter raced towards his room locking the door behind him. Peter kicked the foot of his feet as a mix of emotions phased through his head. These last few weeks have been a mistake. Tears ran down his face thinking of what his cousin has become. Peter glanced over at a fallen framed picture he knocked over with the force of his boot. He picked it up in order to set back on his desk before remembering who the picture belonged too. He flipped the frame around to see a picture of himself as a small boy cuddling up against a young Uncle Ben.

Peter set the picture back and reached over to grave his school bag, throwing it onto his bed. He pulled out his red and blue costume watching and practically admiring it, with tears in his eyes and a smile on his face thinking of his old Uncle.

"...Get Back Up..."

Later That Night

Rage practically had to drag herself out of an opened burning hole in the center of Avengers Tower, lazily floating across the sky. She held both Tony and his War Machine Friend by the throats while she tried not to scream in pain. Her cloths were almost completely burned off with only one shoe left on her feet. Her arms, legs, neck, and back where horribly burned with fresh cuts on the side of her face, cracked ribs, and a bruised right eye was forming.

"Oh Com'on Carrie...thought you were suppose to be the hero..." Tony taunted trying to loosen Carrie's superhuman grip on his neck. "STOP TALKING!" Carrie shrieked as she attempted to drop Tony from the sky. However, unexpectedly saved at the last minute by the young Spidey's webs. Irritatingly Tony quickly went from falling to his death, to being stuck a long way from the ground in incredibly uncomfortable webbing.

Swinging back around on top a nearby building. Peter was properly able to analyze what was going on. "Carrie What Have You Done?" Peter said to himself trying to catch a falling Rhodey.

Carrie landed painfully on to a smaller scale building nearby beginning to feel sick as she threw up all over the place, spiting blood and crawling on all fours. She had managed to rest up and catch her breath enough to be ready for her boyfriends arrival atop the building. Peter landed a few feet in front of her as she shakily got back her feet.

"...GO AWAY PETER...go away..." Carrie demanded weakly as she floated back into the air. "...Carrie...what has happened to you..." Peter replied in a defeated tone. "Whats happened...to this world Peter?" She replied spitting blood. "Trust me I ask the same thing myself but look Care...I'm really sorry...but I have to stop you...no more chances..." Peter stated before shooting a line of webbing at Carrie's legs.

He pulled her down and slammed her against a nearby generator crushing it under her force. To Peter surprise however Rage continued to stir screaming in agony, "...why...are you doing this to me..." Carrie pleaded clenching her fists. "No more talking Carrie, it's over..." Peter said with little emotion. "...wh...why are you making me fight you Peter..." Carrie replied gasping for breath.

Peter grabbed his cousin pulling her off the collapsed generator. Carrie's frustrations began to boil up to the surface once again as she shoved Peter across the street slamming him into a concrete wall.

"This entire world my whole life has been out to get me; but not anymore, not know that I'm out to get it. Aunt May and Uncle Ben were wrong to waste their time taking you in...you don't deserve them you don't Pete...With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility...a lesson I had to teach myself Spider-Man; If you really want me to be your enemy, than an enemy I will be..."

Meanwhile

Tony and Rhodey had managed to regroup while the kids began their little scuffle across the sky. "You up for this?" Tony asked his injured friend. "Just get it done Tony..." Rhodey replied feeling his leg. "Friday...get me Rhodes suit please...and load up The Rage-Buster while your at it..." Tony said talking into his com system. "Sir the new armor is not remotely prepared for a field test of this caliber..." Friday replied as Tony quickly interrupted her. "Okay great still load it up though."

Carrie chased Peter across the city, he desperately wanted to get the fight away from civilians. Carrie of course was too fast from her cousin tackling him into a nearby building. "I'm gonna say this once girl..." War Machine stated in a authoritative tone. "Stand Down...Now"

Rage's hair was wild and crazed like her psychotic facial expressions, she again clenched her fists and watched as the lights flickered and the glass cracked. "I'm done standing down Rhodey..." Carrie replied slashing him out of the newly created whole in the wall. Rage pushed Peter up against another wall also, slamming him into a table. Carrie prepared to finish her boyfriend off. Before suddenly, the sound of crying peeked into her ears. Someone else was in this room. She quickly tract the source of the crying and angrily tossed away any objects that hide the sobbing innocent.

A young girl unleashed a huge bloodcurdling scream once The Rage and herself meet eye contact. Carrie froze for a second, this girl, she was only a child, no more than ten or eleven years old. Carrie didn't know how to react. "What are you doing here?" Carrie demanded to know looking at the fear in this girls eyes.

Spidey again webbed his cousins feet pulling her to the ground hitting her head on the mat before Peter swung her against the wall as hard as he could. Carrie groaned in pain with blood running out of her mouth. Peter again graved his cousin badly burned back, tossing her up into the ceiling, finally knocking her unconscious. Peter gently wrapped his arms around his cousin, lifting her up into his grip. "I'm sorry this happened to you..." Peter said before jumping back down to streets reuniting with Rhodey. Peter set Carrie on top of a nearby car before tearing his mask off trying to catch his breath. "She still alive?" Rhodey asked retracting his face piece. "...Yeah barely..."

Peter and Rhodey took a second to breath. It was fortunate that they were able to stop her, before any real damage was done. Suddenly a extremely large Iron Man armor smashed down onto the street a few feet away. "Weapons Systems Online...Rage-Buster Mark II Prototype Testing Engaged." Friday announced as the massive armor lit up like a Christmas tree.

"No it's okay we got her man..." Rhodey informed him with a slight smile on his face. "What...but I...shit..." Tony replied like a deer in the head lights.

Peter watched his cousin intently fearing shed wake up at any second. Holding his cousin in his arms, Peter couldn't bring himself cry. Carrie had become a monster, she didn't deserve this, no one deserved this.

"...I'm sorry..."

Two Months Following

Chamberlain Maine Physiological Institution

Carrie woke up in her very comfortable like any other day. She could feel the wind brush against her face from her closely placed steel bared window. She manged to get up to her feet yawning and still feeling the chafe on her neck due to her so called dog leash practically choking her in her sleep. Her entire body from neck to toe was still wrapped in bandages while she wore a plane white jumpsuit over the top of them.

Slowly walking through the empty white halls of the Institution with her bare feet caressing the soft carpet. Carrie continued to bump and nudge into various ill patients staring at her with cartoon like large eyes as she headed closer and closer towards the so called playroom for the resistant looney tunes.

The playroom was filled to the brim with arts and crafts, books, and plenty of room for "understanding" outside visitors. "Carrie White!" A friendly security guard called out with smile putting his arm over the young girls shoulders. "Come on Carrie you got a visitor." He said surprising Carrie for a split second. "Don't fucking touch me..." Carrie demanded as the nervous guard quickly took his hand away from her.

Carrie looked around the rather large room before she eventually spotted a familiar face setting patiently on a small red couch. "Hey Cuz" Peter smiled waving at Carrie to get her attention. Peter noticed that Carrie's dirty brown dyed hair had been converted back too its regular blonde roots, almost reminding him of the shy innocent girl he use too love.

Carrie sat down next to her cousin irritated by his stupid smiling. "How are you feeling...you're burns feeling better?" Peter asked as Carrie looked to her bandages in disappointment. "...What do you want Parker?" Carrie replied still feeling her stinging skin.

"Well you know you're lucky...at least you're still beautiful...in the face I mean..." Peter stated in his usual charming way. "You know it should be you...you and the rest of those Avengers in here instead of me." Carrie taunted clearly startling her cousin. "I bet these doctors in here are trying to convince you that your a...psycho right. So are you...a psycho I mean?"

Carrie smiled and glanced over at her cousin at the question. "Maybe I'm just as bad as Momma after all Peter." Carrie replied playing with her steel plated dog leash. "Well I don't know...I saw you that night...with that little girl...you didn't kill her...you froze up in fact when you meet eyes." Peter said smiling to himself. "Were you disappointed I didn't rip her head off?"

The two kids sat in a awkward silence for few moments as Peter thought for a second or two about what he'd say next to try and talk some sense into her. "Your not crazy...just angry...kinda like...The Hulk or something." Peter said catching her attention. "What ever you say Pete..." Carrie replied scratching at her burns.

Peter again smiled and reached into his pants pocket pulling out an old photo from when he was just a child. "You know something you said to me...really stuck with me...With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility...I'ma live by that little piece of wisdom...but look I...I think you should live by this Care." Peter said handing her a photo of a young Uncle Ben.

Carrie looked at the photo, and smiled her old smile. Uncle Ben and Aunt May was all she had left and clearly there's still a lot of love affection left in her somewhere. I idea the made Peter smile yet again. Carrie glanced back at Peter with a short moment of silence, and after one long breath. Carrie said simply "...If I ever get out of here...I will kill...you...and you're friends...I promise...I'm breaking up with you Peter." Carrie said as she got back to her feet, leaving her cousin in a state disbelief.

"...Carrie!"

Later That Day

Peter sat down on his bed with a heavy heart while Tony patted the young man on the back, eating a slice of Aunt Mays chocolate brownies and wearing a Santa hat. "You okay Spidey?" Tony asked trying to cheer him up. "I'm fine...thanks..." Peter replied thinking of all the damaged he felt he caused. "Right well...I gotta get back to the re-rebuilding of the tower...fell better okay...I mean look on the bright side...Homecoming's next year right...I'm sure they'll be...someone out there for you kid...Merry Christmas." Tony joked closing Peters door behind him.

Peter took a deep breath looking at his framed picture of Carrie with confusion. "Oh Rage, Rage, Rage..." Peter said resting his picture inside the cub of his bedside desk.

"What do have to do?"

Meanwhile

Carrie sat on her bed watching the snow fall from her single window. "Carrie...you got another visitor..." one of the older guards said pulling open her door. "Hello...Rage...how you feeling?" the stranger asked as friendly as he could confusing the young girl. "...Well...you know whats really frustrating about being in here is?...knowing that if I wanted to...I could break out of here whenever I wanted...expect I can't...because of this...freaking thing on my neck."

Carrie replied scratching at her leash. "Ha Ha...well sorry about that but it is for your own good...but here I got you a Christmas present..." The stranger said tossing her a black leather jacket wrapped in plastic, the same type of jacket that she wore in her Raging days.

"Thank You...who are you?" Carrie asked putting her new jacket to the side. "...Steve Rogers...it's nice to meet you...I just wanted to talk to you for awhile...like friends." Steve said sitting beside her on her small bed.

"I just wanted to talk to you about the path that your on Carrie."

Meanwhile

Spider-Man swung across the snowy New York City streets looking for trouble to stop. The sounds of police sirens rang out across the city to which Peter quickly reacted to. He may not have been able to save Carrie, but he will do his best to save everyone else. The Rage may not be a friend but no matter what Carrie will always be his cousin, and even though she has lost her path. Peter Parker and Spider-Man will always remember the greatest lesson that Uncle Ben, and now Carrie White, in their on ways standby.

"With Great Power, There Must Also Come Great Responsibility."

The End