Chapter 10: A City at War

My body was spent, every pour and every inch ached with debilitating pain, every attempt to move my beaten carcass was met with resistance in the form of agony. The Ape King's blade hung over me, threatening to end my very existence with every second passed. Part of me wondered why he didn't just do it already? Was he savoring it? Or was he simply trying to drive me insane before killing me? Neither would surprise me to be honest.

I suddenly felt the ground shake underneath me, I felt myself lifted, the Ape King lost his balance and fell over as the ground underneath me literally floated away. I was too beaten to even theorize what was happening, all I really knew for certain was my body really hurt right now. I managed to force my eyes open again to see the rocky platform I laid upon being floated towards a familiar looking earth dragon, "Spider-Man? Are you alright? Can you hear me?" asked Terrador, I was so tired, in pain… I felt positively drained.

"S' okay Terrador… I'm jus' nappin," I said groggily, in fact, sleep sounded divine right now, I felt myself drift, before only blackness remained.

Spider-Man was injured, badly, I hadn't expected the Ape King to attack the city directly, nor did I expect him to best Spider-Man so convincingly, the masked hero laid beaten on the chunk of earth I floated him upon, I had to get him out of here before the Ape King tried to finish him off. I turned to Cyril, "Think you can hold off the Ape King while I get Spider-Man to safety?" I asked him.

Cyril nodded, "That overgrown mongrel can't hope to match me," he said proudly, I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at such boasting, there were more important things at play here than a rampant ego. I trusted Cyril to be able to fight the Ape King regardless, so I let the chunk of rock lower to the ground, before hoisting Spider-Man upon my back and flying towards the temple.

Spider-Man just drooped over my back, if it was not for his rising and falling stomach I would be certain he was dead. The man who had saved my life not only once, but twice was now a broken heap, it was almost heartbreaking to see such a strong warrior reduced to such a state. But at least now he was out of danger, so he could heal in peace.

I landed in the temple hall, I lowered myself, allowing Spider-Man's body to slip off and onto the ground, "MEDIC! I NEED A MEDIC!" I called out, I didn't know how bad Spider-Man's injuries where with that costume of his. I debated unmasking him, if only to check his injuries, but he wore it for a reason, I still had my suspicions of who was under that mask, but I knew I had to respect his wishes regardless of how I felt.

I heard claws clicking against stone, Volteer hobbled over, his injured leg slowing him down considerably. It was hard seeing him like this, such a jovial dragon made to be so broken by a greedy bounty hunter. But as typical for Volteer, he never seemed to let it bother him, never losing his optimistic personality. However seeing the injured Spider-Man on the floor seemed to inhibit that a bit. "Terrador, what happened?" He asked me.

I looked to the injured hero again, he just laid there, still as stone apart from his rising and falling stomach, breathing but barely alive, "The Ape King overpowered him, would have killed him too if I hadn't intervened," I explained before turning to leave, "Take him to the infirmary, I'm going back out there to help stop this attack," I added.

However, Volteer wasn't so keen on the idea, "Terrador, you're forgetting The Shocker injured you too, if the Ape King was able to defeat Spider-Man so easily..." He began, I knew full well the risks, normally I'd be able to defeat the Ape King rather easily just like the rest of his ilk, but the injuries I sustained during The Shocker's attacks would hinder me greatly.

However, "It's a risk I'm willing to take, we've worked too hard to integrate the humans into our city, to promise them safety and protection, I will not fail them now!" I said, as a guardian, it was my job to protect the city at all costs, every living being within it's wall was my responsibility, I would die before I allowed those heathens to claim even one human from our city. "If anyone tries to get into the temple, you know what to do," I said before flying off, leaving Volteer with the injured Spider-Man.

Meanwhile…

I hadn't expected to be fighting the Ape King today, nor did I expect him to be as strong as he was, but in typical ape fashion, he and his cohorts had decided to gang up on me. It was so typical of these dishonorable twits to cheat to win. By themselves these mongrels were as easy to dispatch as a common house fly, but in large numbers they were much more formidable.

I was found myself being overwhelmed as they swarmed me from all sides, I fought as hard as I could, freezing as many of the savages as I could, at least if I died here, I'd take as many of these heathens with me as I could.

The Ape King laughed, "Well, if it isn't the "mighty" ice guardian, what was it you said before the earth dragon left? That I was not match for you? Seems to me it's quite the opposite," He smirked.

I growled, "Easy to win with the numbers game you brute!" I snarled, "If you really believe yourself to be stronger than me, why not take me one on one!" I added.

The Ape King laughed, "As much as I would enjoy killing you myself, I have far more important prey than you to catch," He said, "Such as the spider you denied me the right to execute," he growled.

I had no love for Spider-Man, but I hadn't forgotten how he stuck his neck out for my friends in spite of what we had done to him, I would never allow this grunting neanderthal to have him. "You'd best forget it you savage! Even if you kill me, you won't get past Terrador!" I said.

And almost as if on cue, a rock blast cut through the horde of apes that pinned me down, Terrador then landed beside me, "Are you alright Cyril?" He asked me.

I brushed myself off, "Please, these brutes could hardly hope to harm a dragon such as I," I said with confidence, Terrador smirked a little, "Now then, shall we?" I asked my earthen compatriot, he nodded, and we both began to tear through the apes, who could only hope to run back to their little holes in order to survive the onslaught.

Meanwhile…

My eyes slowly began to open, I was met with the stone ceiling of the dragon temple, my body was still aching with horrible pain, hell I think a rib might even be broken. I looked around and saw that I was alone in the infirmary, it seemed Terrador had brought me back to the dragon temple while I was passed out. There was a pile of spirit gems sat in the far corner, glowing brightly, I couldn't explain it, but I almost felt… drawn to them, like something in the back of my mind really wanted me to reach out to them.

However, one stinging pain flowing up my spine prevented that from ever even coming close to happening. I was hurting, and still felt that strange fatigue I had begun to experience during my fight with the apes.

Out of curiosity, I tried to shoot a web again, but nothing came, was I losing my powers? Talk about terrible timing, the city was under siege! "Dammit!" I cursed as I laid back down on the gargantuan cot I woke up upon.

I then heard the familiar sounds of dragon claws scraping against stone floors, I turned my head to see Volteer walk in, "Ah splendid, you're awake, I was beginning to worry you might have perished," He said. "Dare I ask how you're feeling?" He then asked, sitting himself next to me.

I groaned a bit, "About as well as you'd think, everything hurts… and worse," I said, looking at my hand, "I think my powers are gone," I added.

Volteer tilted his head, "Are you certain?" He asked me. So I demonstrated, I tried to shoot a web again, and once again nothing came out, "Bizarre," Volteer puzzled, he took my arm in his claws and began to squeeze up and down my forearm, as if checking for something, "How curious, I can still feel the spinnerets in your arms," He said.

I have spinnerets? Well I suppose the webbing had to come from somewhere right? But this meant I was still very much Spider-Man, but why weren't my powers working then? "If I still have spinnerets, then… how come no webbing is coming out? And… why do I still feel so weak?" I asked, still feeling the weakness from before.

Volteer started to think it over for a moment, "Spider-Man, I know this question may sound odd, but when exactly did you start to feel this onset of enfeeblement?" he asked me. Enfeeblement? Okay, I considered myself a pretty well read guy, but who uses a world like "enfeeblement"?

No no! Focus Spidey, there's more important concerns right now than Volteer's weird vocabulary quirks, "It started while I was fighting the apes, I was using my webbing to trap as many as I could and I started to feel drained," I began, "It got worse as the fight went on, and by the time the Ape King had entered the fight, well you know the rest," I explained. Losing to the Ape King was probably more embarrassing for me than it should have been. I mean, he was the king for a reason, but still, losing to an ape didn't exactly sit well with me.

However, as I pondered my defeat, Volteer pondered something else, he then moved over to the pile of spirit gems, plucking a bright green one from the pile and hopping himself back over to me since his one free front leg was currently in a sling. What was he doing? Without a word he pressed the gem against my chest, "Uh… what are you doing?" I asked.

However, Volteer continued to hole the gem in it's place, "I'm testing a theory," he answered simply. You didn't have to be a dragon geek like me to know that spirit gems only worked on dragons, it was pretty common knowledge actually, so I had no clue what he was thinking right now.

However, to the surprise of both of us, the gem began to sink into my chest, as if it were being absorbed into my flesh. I felt a sudden rush of power course through my body, the fatigue had vanished completely. Volteer's eyes widened, "Extraordinary!" He commented, his eyes filled with wonder. "Spider-Man, how exactly did you acquire your spider powers?" He asked me.

I blinked, "Would you believe a spider bit me?" I asked, Volteer gave me this confused look, so I elaborated, "After I had gotten bitten, The Chronicler summoned me… he said that someone had used some kind of potion on the spider that bit me, giving me it's powers," I said.

Volteer grew a shocked expression, "You saw The Chronicler? It must have been quite important if he went through the trouble of summoning you," He said, I still didn't get why he asked me about it though, "But more to the point, if what you're saying is true, then I believe that potion used on that spider might have been crafted using dragon magic," He explained.

I just stared at the spot the gem used to be, in shock of what had just happened, "You mean to tell me that my spider powers are based on dragon magic? If that's the case, then why aren't I breathing fire or something?" I asked.

Volteer thought it over for a moment, "The spider's abilities must be acting as your "element", when you were over using your webbing, it must have drained your mana, that's why you were unable to spin more webbing, because you had no mana in which to craft it from," he theorized.

It made an insane sort of sense, I was in some semblance, a dragon with a spider element, in a human body. So I was a three way abomination basically, how nice. However, I began to think about it more, remembering The Vulture having grown his wings seemingly out of nowhere, it made me wonder, "Come to think of it," I began, "The Vulture had grown a pair of wings and talons before he attacked the temple, you don't think the same person used the same potion on Toomes do you?" I theorized.

Volteer thought about it for a moment, "It's very possible, after imprisoning him he had mentioned someone splashing him with a strange substance, but we all just shrugged it off as nonsensical ramblings and left it at that," He explained, "But if what you theorize is true and this mystery person is still out there, this attack may be the least of our worries," he said.

Oh ancestors! The attack! Flame's still out there! "I have to go back out there! The city-" I began, trying to get up but despite having my powers back, that didn't mean my wounds were healed, so trying to get up caused a surge of horrible pain to course through my body.

Volteer shook his head, "You're not going anywhere in that condition," he said sternly, "You need to heal, besides, I'm sure Terrador and Cyril can handle the apes, and Spyro and Cynder are still out there as well, I think you can afford to rest a little," He said, trying to reassure me. He was probably right in fairness, but I still couldn't accept leaving my only real friend to the mercy of the ape armies.

However, my spider sense went off, Volteer noticed my sudden alertness, "What is it?" He asked me.

I scanned the room, "My Spider-Sense, it warns me when danger is nearby," I explained. However, no sooner after I explained this did said danger make itself known, as a loud crashing sound was heard nearby, and worse, a familiar voice crying out. "HARRY!" I called out almost instinctively, I sprang up, ignoring the intense pain this caused my body.

Volteer and I both rushed to the source of the scream, only to find the Ape King himself holding Harry by the arm, "Funny, I sneaked out of the fight with the two guardians in hopes of finding you Spider-Man, only to find the one little whelpling from Glimmer that managed to escape me," He said.

No way, I wasn't going to let this monster hurt Harry anymore than he already had, "Let him go Ape King! You want me? Well here I am!" I said, hoping his coming here for me was more important to him than Harry.

However, "Please, you think you can defeat me? I remember our last encounter didn't end so well for you Spider-Man," He said before tossing Harry aside, "But if you insist on dying today, who am I deny you your wish?" He said before charging me.

I barely managed to get out of the way before the hulking brute could flatten me, "You're outnumbered here Ape King! You can't possibly beat both me and Volteer! Just surrender now and you can walk away!" I said, hoping the idea of fighting both me and Volteer would be enough to get him to rethink fighting me.

However, of course, in typical ape fashion, "Please! You think a wannabe hero and an injured dragon are enough to get Klaw, the great Ape King to surrender? I'll kill you both easily!" He boasted.

Crap, well, I guess we do this the hard way then, I began to flip my way towards Klaw, managing to dodge one of his punches before throwing one of my own to his lower jaw, he staggered back, but quickly smacked me with a right hook, sending me flying into the far wall. "You've got guts spider, I'll give you that much, but you're no match for me," He said before getting struck by a lightening shot from Volteer.

I got up, "Look at you all lit up Klaw," I joked, "Bet you're really wishing you'd stayed home today huh?" I asked before throwing a spinning jump kick at Klaw's head, hitting him right above the temple, knocking him down.

However, Klaw got right back up, scoring a clean uppercut to my jaw, taking me off my feet and causing me to crash down onto the floor with a loud thud. Volteer took the opening and launched himself at Klaw, shoulder checking the large ape into the far wall, however the impact irritated his injured leg, causing him to clutch it.

I couldn't let Volteer stay in this fight, there's no telling what damage he'd be doing to his broken leg, not to mention poor Harry was at risk of getting caught in the crossfire, "Volteer! Get Harry to safety! I'll handle this guy," I said.

Volteer naturally wasn't keen on this plan, "I'm not leaving you!" He objected. "Don't think because I'm injured I need to be babied! I can handle myself," He added, seeing right through my words.

However it wasn't a risk I was willing to take, "You may be able to, but Harry can't! You have to get him out of here before he gets caught in the crossfire!" I argued before just barely dodging a right hand from Klaw.

Volteer looked over to the cowering Harry, realizing I was right, he turned to me, "I'm coming back for you," He said before grabbing Harry and running off.

With Volteer and Harry out of harm's way, I could focus squarely on Klaw, who was currently laughing, "How noble of you Spider-Man, getting the injured and the helpless out of the way, but you've also taken away the only advantage you had in this fight, you're an idiot Spider-Man, and soon to be a dead idiot!" He said, oh like an ape had any right to call anyone stupid, they were known to fire themselves out of cannons at their enemies! Truly my intellectual superiors these fine creatures!

Klaw and I began to fight, trading blows, me being more careful not to overuse my webbing if I could avoid it, but man was it making things a bit harder as, while I had super powers, Klaw had experience on his side, and power too considering he hit harder than a mountain. But I had speed on my side, all that hulking mass took him a while to move, giving me a few openings to exploit.

Punch after punch, blow after blow, we both kept wailing on each other until Klaw began to get the upper hand, he pinned me to the ground by the throat, trying to choke the life out of me, "I told you you couldn't beat me Spider-Man! Now die! DIE! Die like the worthless piece of trash you are!" He screamed.

I needed to think of something, wrenching myself free was out of the question, he was way too strong, I needed to take away his focus, I noticed a lit torch off to the side, I shot a web at it and yanked it towards us, the torch flew until it hit Klaw's side, setting his gnarled fur ablaze. He screamed as the fire burned his shoulder, it was an opening, so I took it. I hit him with a right hook, then a left, then a right again, then another punch, and another, and another, I kept raining blows on the Ape King until eventually, he fell onto his back, smothering the flames underneath his weight.

I stood over the now unconscious ape king, victorious, beaten to hell, but victorious. As if on cue, Volteer returned, seeing the Ape King defeated and on the floor, he seemed surprised, but relieved at the same time. I had to ask the important question, "Is it over now?" I asked between breaths, that fight had taken everything out of me, I doubted I could keep fighting right now.

Volteer nodded, "Once the apes find out their king has fallen, they'll retreat back into their holes like the cowards they are," he said, his cold expression quickly lifted into a more concerned one, "Are you alright? You look like you're about to keel over any second now," He asked.

I waved it off, "I'll be fine, after all… just another day in the life of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man right?" I said, if I weren't wearing a mask, Volteer would have seen a big dumb grin crawl across my face. However, I turned towards the Ape King, "What do we do with him?" I asked.

Volteer glared at the downed ape, "That remains to be seen, more than likely we'll simply lock him away, possibly even press him for information, either way we won't have to worry about him for a long time," He said.

After webbing him up and having Volteer carry his unconscious carcass on his back, we went back to the main hall to find the other dragons there waiting for us, Terrador approaching us, "The apes retreated the second the battle turned in our favor, the cowards," He said before noticing Klaw webbed up on Volteer's back, "Is that-?" He questioned.

Volteer smiled, "The Ape King? Why yes it is, our friend Spider-Man here managed to defeat him quite soundly I might add," He said, I disagree, I barely won that fight as far as I was concerned. But hey, I still won so who cares right?

Terrador smirked, "You never cease to impress me young spider," he said before turning to Volteer, "We should lock him in the dungeon, without their king perhaps the ape armies will cease their attacks on the human settlements?" he suggested, I'd like to hope so, but somehow I had the sinking feeling I haven't seen the last of the ape armies…

Later…

After the dust had settled and whatever apes remained had been either taken down or fled, a quiet calm had fallen over the city, leaving me and Flame to watch the setting sun, both of us hurting quite a bit from the fight, "So you actually managed to beat the Ape King? Awesome," Flame commented.

I didn't feel awesome though, "Yeah, and I'll probably be feeling it until I'm forty," I joked, "Some good came out of it though, I learned a bit about the nature of my powers at least," I said, I had explained earlier to Flame about my little discovery in the infirmary, but I still found it a bit much to take in, knowing there was more to my powers than random chance didn't sit that well with me.

Flame seemed to feel the same way, "You think we'll ever find the guy behind the potion?" He asked me.

To be honest, I had no clue how I would even begin to look for the guy, I knew nothing about him aside from what The Chronicler had told me, and it wasn't much to put it nicely. "I dunno, I'm just hoping he doesn't decide to do any more experiments if you catch my drift," I said, I knew better than to think that the guy was done making super humans, something in my gut told me he was out there somewhere, planning his next move.

Meanwhile…

The raid was a failure, not only had we failed to take all the humans of Warfang, but we lost our king! Granted, it was a kind of blessing in disguise since I doubt any of us would have survived his wrath if he hadn't been captured, Klaw never tolerated failure, and this was a pretty big failure.

"What do we do now Argil?" One of the other apes asked me, I had no clue. There was no way we could take Warfang after losing so many apes, and without Klaw's leadership, I doubt we could take any other human settlement.

"I'll tell you what you can do,"

We all froze as a figure appeared from the darkness, a tall figure in a black hooded robe, "You can serve me instead of fumbling in the dark looking to get killed by the dragons," He said.

One of the apes laughed, "Who does this clown think he is? We don't serve nobody anymore!" He laughed, the others soon joined in his laughter, the nerve of this hooded weirdo, thinking he could just walk up to us and claim to be our new boss!

However, the stranger stretched out his hand, a fire ball forming within his palm, it shot out, making a chilling screaming noise as it made contact with the laughing ape, he screamed in agony as the fires burned him where he stood, reducing him to cinders almost instantly, "Anyone else want to object?" the stranger asked.

There was no more laughter, only fear, who was this guy? What was this guy?! The hooded man laughed, "I thought as much, you apes enslaved humanity for centuries, but I won't hold that against you for now, as you prove quite useful to me right now," He explained.

So this guy was a human? Somehow… he didn't look it, something about the way his eye glowed, the shape of his hand, it wasn't human, at least… not anymore, "Allow me to introduce myself, I am The Sorcerer, at least, that's my name as far as you lot are concerned," He said, "My goal is a simple one, the complete destruction of the dragon race, for too long we've all lived under their oppressive claws, their false benevolence," He continued.

This guy came off a bit crazy, but I wasn't stupid enough to antagonize the guy who just incinerated someone right in front of me, "However, someone has become a serious thorn in my side, you lot might be familiar with him? The Spider-Man?" He said.

I had heard some of the apes mention that name, I never saw him myself, I had been a part of the platoon attacking the front gate. But I knew enough about him to know he played a sizable part in this failure of a raid. The stranger produced some kind of vial from his robe, "I've been trying to empower my fellow humans with this potion, crafted from dragon magic, however, it seems the dark magic didn't take as much hold over Spider-Man as I thought, and The Vulture was too consumed by his own hatred of a certain dragon and found himself captured, needless to say I need time to perfect my formula," He explained before putting it away, "That's were you bumbling primates come in, I need test subjects, and aside from today's little blunder, you all seem quite good at capturing humans," He said.

I turned to one of the other apes, "Did we manage to get any humans during today's raid?" I asked, normally I wouldn't even be humoring this idiot, but again, he incinerated one of our apes so I really didn't want to get on his bad side.

"We did get one!"

We all stopped to see two apes drag a semi conscious human towards us, a blonde male in red leather armor, two swords strapped to his back, "We found him just outside the city, he managed to kill a few of us, but we managed to overpower him eventually," one of the apes explained.

The Sorcerer looked over the human, "I've seen your face before, Wade Wilson is it? The famous Merc with a Mouth, yes… you'll do..." he said before turning to the apes restraining him, "Bring him along, once we reach my stronghold I can begin my work," He said before walking off, intending for us to follow.

Not wanting to be killed, we all followed, we'd serve this lunatic for now, once we got rid of the dragons though… we'd be the ones filling the power vacuum…

A/N: Finally got this chapter done, have I mentioned before how much I hate cold season? Because I really do… hard to focus on writing with a stuffed nose and coughing all the time… god dammit.

Those who are comic savvy may already have an idea on what fate awaits Wade, but for those of you less familiar with Marvel comics, well… you'll see.