A Ranma ½ / Spider-man fusion
Chapter 10:
Here's Bennie
Peter Parker didn't stay unconscious long. The thought of his wife triggered by the red-headed vision rattled around inside his head until it latched onto the Goblin's veiled threat and connected the two.
With that, it drug him back to the conscious world. The wounded hero sat bolt upright. Pain lanced through his hands and feet, aborting his automatic attempt to stand. Through the pain in his bandaged extremities Peter Parker, the amazing Spider-man, took stock of his surroundings - a hospital emergency room.
How? He tried to connect the last thing he remembered to his current situation. He'd been at the George Washington Bridge on the anniversary of Gwen's death. The Goblin had been there! Now he was sitting on a gurney, an IV line in his arm. His feet and hands were bandaged and there was no sign of his Spidey suit.
A young woman with hair almost the same color as Mary Jane's watched him from an adjacent gurney. A bandage circled her left elbow. She appeared to be about his own age and reminded him of someone. He couldn't quite say who.
"Whoa, Pete. Chill," the young woman said as she hopped down from her gurney. She pressed him back onto the table with her right hand. Bending close to his ear, she whispered, "Be quiet and relax. Mary Jane and Aunt May are fine. They should be here soon.
"Sorry I couldn't get there sooner, but I had to take care of the goons at your apartment and make sure MJ and Aunt May were all right," the girl apologized. "When I got to the bridge, you were taking a header off the tower and Gobby was laughing his head off. I had to take care of him before I could get you help. Turned out you were worse off than I thought so I brought you here."
Questions swam through Parker's head. Who was this woman? She obviously knew his secret identity. How'd she know about the threat to his wife and aunt? Where was the Goblin? What happened at the bridge? His memory of the evenings events kept evading his grasp.
Before the torrent of questions could overflow the dam of his lips, a hand rattled the curtain surrounding the pair and a man's voice said, "We're ready to move him now Ms. Reilly. Ok to come in?"
"Ms. Reilly?" Parker groaned. He looked hard at the woman and saw the resemblance he didn't want to see. "Here we go again," he thought.
The pig-tailed woman answered the both the attendant"s and Parker's questions with a simple, "Yes."
She rolled the sleeve of her blouse over the bandage, as the curtain slid back to reveal a young attendant. He paused briefly, noticing the patient was awake.
"We'll get you transferred upstairs right away, Mr. Parker," the young man began to rattle as he pushed Parker's gurney out of the emergency room and toward a bank of elevators. "I think your family is already there and maybe some reporters too."
"Reporters?" Parker choked.
"Couldn't be helped," the woman said as she walked beside the rolling table.
"Well, what did you expect?" the attendant prattled on. "You got carried in here by Spider-man and that guy snapped your picture. Besides it's not too many people get crucified by the Green Goblin and live to tell about it."
Looking down at his stunned expression, the young woman laughed. "Close your mouth, Pete. I'll explain in a little bit. In fact, why don't you go back to sleep so we don't have to deal with the reporters right away."
§☼§☼§
To Parker's amazement and relief, his wife and aunt were already in the private room that awaited him.
As soon as the attendant was gone, he opened his eyes. Mary Jane and Aunt May were on either side of his bed.
"Looking a little rough there Tiger. Don't make a habit of this," Mary Jane said as she leaned over and gave him a kiss.
"I'll try not to," he responded.
"You have to be more careful, Peter," Aunt May chided.
"Point taken," the wounded hero said. "But it seems somebody had my back tonight, even if I don't know exactly who she is." He raised an eyebrow and stared pointedly at the auburn-haired woman standing at the foot of the bed.
"Don't recognize me, huh?" the woman laughed. "Well I wouldn't either if I was in your shoes. It's been a long strange trip for me too, to say the least. Care to hazard a guess?"
"A clone...?"
The resemblance snapped into focus for Mary Jane and Aunt May. The planes of the woman's face were softer reflections of their husband and nephew, and Peter's eyes twinkled in her grinning visage.
"Yep. Just call me Bennie. Told the meds I'm your cousin. Had to give you a unit of blood too. You'll thank me for that later."
"The attendant said Spider-MAN brought me in. How many clones are running around this time?
"Just me."
"Just you? How?"
"It would take too long to explain right now. Just never underestimate the mysteries of Chinese magics. Right now I want you three to have your stories straight when you have to start talking to the media. Pete, I suggest you give the Bugle an exclusive to cut down on the numbers.
"I'll tell you my story when we get you home. Here's what you tell them..."
The details of Bennie's cover story dovetailed nicely into Peter's returning memories of the previous day. Instead of being there as Spider-man, he was there to take pictures of Spider-man. The Goblin captured him and crucified him to the New Jersey tower before Spider-man arrived. But the friendly neighborhood superhero appeared for his appointment with his favorite photographer, kicked the Goblin's butt and finally brought his friend to the emergency room.
The trouble was that a reporter from one of the Bugle's competitors was prowling the hospital when Spider-man arrived and snapped photos of the masked hero and his unconscious burden.
§☼§☼§
A puzzled Ben Urich looked down at the photo of Spider-man carrying Peter Parker into the emergency room. It was a lead picture on The Daily Globe's "second" front page, but wasn't good enough to make the true front page of the Bugle's competitor. It wouldn't have made the Bugle either. Showed Spider-man in a good light.
The veteran reporter, now an editor, folded the paper and stuffed it under his arm as he got off the elevator on the seventh floor. Room 707. At least Parker had the loyalty to give the Bugle an exclusive.
He knocked on the slightly ajar door and a familiar voice said, "Come on in, Ben."
A young woman with auburn hair in a braid opened the door. She smiled at Urich, before turning to the man in the hospital bed. "Pete, I've got some errands to run, so I'll leave you and Mr. Urich alone, Ok?
"Sure, I've been grilled by this reporter before," Parker said.
"Hey, Peter. Looks like you got a little too close to the action this time." Urich watched the door close behind the woman. "Who was that?"
"You remember my cousin Ben? She's his twin sister, Benita. We call her Bennie."
"Really? Haven't seen Ben around in quite a while. What's he doing now anyway?
"Uh, Ben was killed in an auto accident."
"Oh, sorry. Well, let's get down to business. Seems the Goblin is back, again," Urich moved on uncomfortably.
"Yeah, he's back," Parker agreed, raising his bandaged hands for emphasis. "And unfortunately I got in his way."
"You know, as much film as you've shot of the web-slinger, I'm amazed something like this hasn't happened before now."
"Guess you're right. I'm going to be a lot more careful. I don't want this happening again. Once was way more than enough, and I can't afford the time off."
"So what went wrong this time?"
Ben Urich had the stock version when he left Parker's room. He wondered where the story would play in the next day's edition. Other than Parker's history as the main photographer of Spider-man and the return of an insane costumed criminal, the story was pretty mundane in marvelous New York. Common citizens were constantly collateral damage in the conflicts between costumed crusaders and criminals.
Urich shook his head. The questions he'd long harbored about Spider-man and Peter Parker wouldn't go away despite The Clarion's photograph. His years dealing with characters like Spider-man and Daredevil told him he didn't have the whole story.
(EoC10r2)