Spider-Man's arrival was met with a chorus of mixed cheers, jeers, and the occasional expletive as he arrived on the scene to see a tightly-packed gathering of people outside painted alternating blue and red by strobing police lights, barely held at bay by the cordone set up around the area. He swung overhead, turning a flip before landing next to a sergeant barking orders into his radio who turned as he touched down, reaching for the gun holstered at his waist. Peter put his hands up, the universal sign of non-aggression and hoped he'd judged this guy right. His hand lingered near the retention holster before moving to support the sergeant's weight as he leaned against his cruiser.

"What the hell did you bring to my city?!"

Peter could tell that there was still a part of the officer that wanted to draw on him, but it was held at bay like the nearby crowd.

"Look, I wish I could explain everything right now, I really do, but it's complicated, and I mean Complicated with a capital 'C'." Everything he was talking about right now deserved to be in capitals, but Peter didn't think the lawman would appreciate being yelled at. "All I can tell you right now is that this crowd needs to be moved further back, by a lot, because I promise you: This guy is dangerous." Peter felt like he should be out of breath with the way he was talking right now, he probably would be if it were a movie. More dramatic that way. Here in the real world though he just tried his best to sound embarrassingly earnest.

"It's one guy. Sure, he's bulletproof or somethin', but we're already a good two-hundred yards away."

"Sure, just one guy. Just one, bulletproof guy, who can bench press a bus, and eat people, but sure." That got the sergeant's attention.

"You're telling me this monster eats people?!"

"Like I said, it's complicated , but pretty much yeah. It's-" Peter thought about things for a second, wishing he had more information to work with. "I think it's how he gets his powers but I'm not a hundred percent on that right now. All I know is he sucks all the… You know…" He waved his hands around as though that would somehow help him find the words he was looking for. "Nutrients out of people."

"Jesus, are you tellin' me we've got some kind of vampire situation going on here?"

Peter wasn't entirely sure how to answer that. On the face of it that sounded ridiculous, but dig down a few layers and maybe that wasn't so far off.

"I don't know, maybe? That sounds as close as anything else I've figured out since meeting him." He threw his hands up. "Why not? He's a vampire, he's a vampire and he's specifically after me, I just don't want anyone else to get in his way if this ends up outside."

The sergeant squinted at him, trying to figure out if he was being jerked around here. He'd been on the force a long time, there were ways to deal with people jerking you around, but they were usually dependent on the jerker not having superpowers.

"You think the end of the street's good enough?" He decided that whether he was being jerked around or not, it would be better to take the chance. Besides, even though he'd never admit he kind of liked the wallcrawler, at least as far as masked vigilantes turning his city into their playground went.

"I'm not so sure." Peter looked down the street. "But if you can get them out there quickly I'd appreciate it."

The officer glowered at him suspiciously, then without saying another word he picked his radio up again and started barking into it as he grudgingly waved Spider-Man forward. It looked like he had some cooperation, even if the cop didn't trust him as far as he could throw him. Now he had a decision to make, did he go through the window, the wall, or the roof? As he approached the music system inside seemed to click to life, blasting the opening bars of 'Stairway To Heaven' as a voice trembling with fear cracked over the guitar.

"Uh, Spider-Man? I- I think you're Spider-Man, but he just calls you 'The Spider', he says he can feel you outside. He, uh- He wants you to come in."

Peter had to push aside the paired anxiety and vindication he felt at that moment, on the one hand he felt pretty good about having figured out that Morlun could sense him even if he wasn't sure how far that ability would extend, on the other hand Morlun could sense him and he didn't know how far that ability would extend. There's something very disconcerting about someone who wants to kill you being able to know where you were whether you could see them or not.

Peter wasn't quite sure how he was supposed to approach this now, he definitely didn't have the element of surprise on his side here, all he had was himself and his wits. Frankly, he was a little worried whether or not either one would be up to the task right now. He at least knew Morlun wanted him, so that was at least one chip he held.

"Can you hear me?" His voice was quiet, if he could sense Peter then maybe Morlun had some other psychic-adjacent powers, that was how things usually worked with the X-Men at least. Maybe Morlun was just a mutant gone bad. There was no reply, just the continued music distorted by the cheap speakers it was playing through and the hurried, terrified breathing of the man with the mic. Morlun could not, it seem, read his mind or hear him through walls.

Small blessings.

"Okay, he wants me in there and I know he wants me in there, but he's gotta sweeten the deal a little. You let those people go and I'll walk right in, you hear me? Otherwise i'm just giving him appetizers." He was shouting now, drawing a few looks from the ever more distant crowd as the police worked their magic, herding them further from the building like overgrown border collies with megaphones. There was a series of hushed whispers, Peter strained his ears to hear but could only make out a few words over the sounds of the city.

"Like a… Y-Yeah… Before dinner…" Then whoever it was inside was speaking directly into the microphone again. "He says he'll let us out, he says you know that you can't run now."

Spider-Man barely had time to grimace under his mask, wondering if maybe Morlun could read his mind after all, before there was a line of people stampeding through the doors and outside to freedom. One older woman, her face the mask of craggy lines of an alcoholic complete with a nose bloated from burst blood vessels grabbed his arm.

"There's still someone inside, he's a bartender, the big guy said one person had to stay behind!"

Spider-Man nodded and ushered her down the street, the police had noticed the release of captives and were waving for them to come closer, a direction that the former hostages were only too happy to follow. Well that figured, didn't it? Peter had hoped he'd be able to approach Morlun on something at least close to his own terms, but Morlun wasn't going to let that happen, was he? Spider-Man supposed there was nothing else for it, it was time to make his entrance. Throwing one last look behind him at the milling crowd getting closer to the end of the street, took a breath to steel himself, and pushed through the glass doors into the entryway.

There another set of doors awaited him, this was probably where the bouncer sat and checked IDs on colder nights rather than waiting outside in the driving winds and snow of the New York winter. These ones were wood and swung easily on well greased hinges, seeing no point in being sneaky, he gave them a hard shove, banging them open, and strolled in as though he owned the place.

"Alright, boys and girls, last call is over, please gather your things, head for the exit, and remember to tip your bartender." He surveyed the area as he tried to keep his voice level. This was made more difficult by the fact that he was terrified, not something he liked to admit and certainly not something he was going to advertise. What he saw did little to allay his fears. A man was sat shaking on a small raised stage in the corner, a microphone, its wires leading into a mixing board was sitting discarded nearby. Sitting between him and the exit was Morlun, staring straight at Peter as he walked in. Blood stained the front of his shirt and jacket, his nose was still slightly askew on his face although nowhere near as flat as it had been when Peter had last seen him, and a thin smile was slashed across his face.

"At last you are here, Spider. I had wondered how long it would be before you accepted my invitation." Morlun lifted a glass of what Peter hoped was a very dark red wine and gestured towards him. "I've feasted on many of your kind before, but for them it was nothing personal, it was nothing more than survival. But you?" He sipped from the glass, making a face as he did so before throwing what was left to the floor. "You will be a pleasure ."

It was then that Peter noticed a crumpled shape lying nearby, something he hadn't seen at first in the typically low light common to most drinking establishments. Now with his eyes better adjusted to the dimness he could see it was a woman, had been a woman, either still in her twenties or wishing that she were judging by the clothes she wore. It was impossible to discern anything from the desiccated features and almost hollow eye sockets.

"You murdered her." It was a statement of fact rather than a question, his voice level, hardened. The fear that had been coiled up inside of him had fled, something far more chilling had taken its place.

"Her?" He didn't so much as spare a glance towards the corpse lying crumpled on the floor, but the vampire, what else could you call him at this point, did allow his voice to be colored by amusement. "You can't murder something that barely registers as alive, can you? Do you mourn for every bite of livestock you take? Every vermin you keep from eating your…" He gave an exaggerated look of concentration. "Grain? Do you still do grain? It was very popular last time." Something was different here, Morlun was no longer so emotionless, so detached. He'd taken an interest now, he'd made it personal. "She's not important though, what is important is you , and I, and… What was it you called them?" His eyes drifted towards the huddled man sitting on the stage and his eyes lit up with recognition. "That's right: Appetizers!" The word wasn't spoken, it was dribbled from his pale lips like honey, and Morlun was clearly savoring every syllable.

"What are you talking about?" Peter was walking forward slowly, ensuring that Morlun was maintaining eye contact with him and not making any moves towards the man cowering on-stage. "Livestock? Vermin? Who talks like that about people?"

"All of them. All of them do." Morlun pursed his lips, narrowing his eyes as a thought occurred to him. "They did . You are mayflies, living and dying in the blink of an eye. You were nothing but a distraction individually but every day there were more and more and more of you! And then they discovered that what to them was a blink of an eye was an entire lifetime for you, a lifetime full of tiny emotions! Tiny losses! Tiny love! And each with its own very distinctive flavor, and who wouldn't want to take some time to taste that? To slow down everything and suck up all that you could offer them in exchange for the slightest scent of power? To them it was nothing more than handing you a nail clipping in return for the fattening of experience and belief. They would dwell amongst you for a time, gaining and losing power, upsetting an entire delicate balance that you couldn't even begin to comprehend. They were strong, fit for worship perhaps, but they were always meant to be separate from you, not to come and devour your resources." His lips parted, displaying those gleaming television teeth. "But come they did, and then I was born, or perhaps I had been born long before and woke up, or-" Peter thought he could detect a note of genuine curiosity in Morlun's voice, but it was only an instant before it was discarded. "It's no matter, I exist because someone had to restore balance and order, to keep both Them and those like you in check. And you?" He stood, and Peter was again taken aback by just how much of him there was. "You have no idea what you are or what you could have made of yourself..." He closed his eyes and gave a deep chuckle that sounded less like a laugh and more like an approaching rockslide. "At least before I arrived."

"That's it? You're one of those guys?" Peter's advance had been bringing him closer to Morlun slowly, but steadily. "You're just another crazy person, probably angry at the world, who got a little bit stronger and now you think you can just take what you want. I've met a lot of people like that, and I'm warning you right now: It always ends up the same." Morlun's eyes were still closed, as though he were savoring something that he didn't want to release the taste of, and Peter felt confident that he was close enough.

It was time.

Peter leapt, bringing his fist around with all the speed and momentum he could muster. He couldn't kill Morlun, he'd learned that much, but that just meant he didn't need to hold back. Deep inside of him there was an angry small part of him that hoped it would hurt, hurt bad, because if anyone deserved a bit of pain it was Morlun. He didn't get it though.

Morlun, his eyes still closed, laughed again, not a chuckle this time but a full-throated roar of laughter. That was Spider-Man for you, master of the ol' knee-slapper. Peter's wrist was in a grip tight enough that he was worried it might break, he wasn't sure if bones were capable of creaking under pressure but if they could then his were. He pulled Spider-Man in close so that they were face-to-face and finally his eyes reopened.

"Child, when it comes to those like you and I, you can rest assured that there is nobody who can be the same."

At least his breath smelled nice for once, he'd gotten enough face-fulls of carnivorous monster breath to know it could get far worse than spearmint-scented. Knowing he didn't have enough time he turned to the cowering man watching the proceedings with rapt attention and shouted.

"Run!" The man didn't need to be told twice, he reacted with a speed that would have made some question his superhuman status, kicking the microphone free of the stage and rolling onto the ground. It clicked on, relaying the pounding of his retreating footsteps on the hardwood floor to the speakers which in turn was picked up by the mic again and causing a shrieking feedback loop.

Morlun swung Spider-Man around over his head like some Saturday morning cartoon character who outmatched his opponent to a humorous degree before dropping to a knee and shoving his face into Spider-Man's once more.

"You will submit to me, no matter how long it takes, no matter how you must suffer, you will submit."

"Is this... You know a thing?" Peter's head was fuzzy from the impact, but he still managed to keep talking. That was the key: Always keep talking. "Because that sounds like a thing and I'm sorry but I'm happily married." His anger was still simmering inside at the callousness with which Morlun viewed the less powerful, but he had to set that aside right now. Not forget it, never forget it, but let it simmer without boiling over, otherwise he'd make mistakes.

And he didn't have a lot of room for error here.

With barely a grunt of effort Morlun hurled him towards the back of the bar where the wall lined with bottles filled with liquids of various shades of amber put up little resistance as he crashed through in a cacophony of shattering glass, splintering wood, and twisting metal. He was dazed, but still smart enough to keep moving even if he didn't have a clear idea of where he was going yet. Proud that he hadn't landed on his butt, he took a quick glance around the room. He could see a number of stainless steel prep tables, mostly cleaned for the night and devoid of anything but a wooden cutting board where someone had been rolling what could be called a joint if you were a kind person, next to it rested a lighter emblazoned with the words "Pizza Time!", behind him there was the jagged hole in the wall where he'd made his entry, the large oven that had once stood where the jagged hole in the wall sat now. It was twisted by the force of both his impact and the following impact when it accordioned against the wall, but it was still recognizable. There were also the swinging doors, which would have been someone's normal means of entering the kitchen, which Morlun now pushed through, ducking his head so as not to hit it on the entryway frame. He stood there, regarding Spider-Man disdainfully.

"I don't even need eyes to know your every move, I don't need ears to hear your thoughts, all I need is for you to remain alive. As long as you are I will continue to chase you, I will hurt who I must to get to you, there is no obstacle you can place in my way that I will not pass through as though it were nothing more than the web of an ambitious spider. So tell me why you drag this out. Is it the selfishness of self-preservation even at the cost of others?" Morlun sniffed at the air, detecting something new, then disregarding it as unimportant. "That, at least, I can understand."

At least Peter had a destination now, a target. He lunged again, off-kilter and still somewhat woozy from his trip through the wall. He knew how it would end up before he'd even clenched the fist that Morlun now held almost delicately in his own enormous hand. He struggled to free it, but if Morlun was having any trouble maintaining his grip he sure as hell wasn't making it obvious. Spider-Man followed up with an elbow, bringing it down from overhead again and again until he showed signs of lagging, his strength being sapped away by his fruitless exertions until finally he sagged, his elbow resting on the larger man's shoulder almost comfortably. All the while Morlun showed no signs of trouble, a father letting his bratty child tire himself out with a temper tantrum.

"You know…" By all appearances Peter was out of breath, his chest heaved with every sucking inhale of air. "I've been looking at this all wrong, haven't I?" Morlun raised a brow, encouraging him to go on. "I've met guys I could go toe-to-toe with, I've met guys I had to get sneaky with, but you? You're a whole different beast, aren't you?"

"So at last you understand?"

"I know that no matter how many punches I throw at you it's not going to make a dent, and a man's gotta know when he's beat, right?" He scraped his head against his arm, as though he were wiping sweat from his brow. "So tell me what it is that you want, just tell me what I can do for you to make you leave me and this city alone."

"Totem of The Spider, understand that there is nothing that you could give me. There is only one thing that I want and you can't offer it to me, I can only reach it through you, the font from which your powers spring: I seek to gorge on The Spider itself. Only then, perhaps can I be satiated. Instead, let me offer you something," He pulled Peter closer using the fist he held as leverage. "The gift of oblivion."

Once more that sanguine glow started from deep behind the whites of Morlun's eyes, intensifying until the window to his soul was clouded entirely by burning crimson, once more Peter could feel the pain of something deep inside him being tugged at, once more Peter prayed to whoever was listening that this would work the way he hoped it would.

"Waitwaitwaitwait!" The tugging paused, but Peter could still feel something inside probing around, looking for a way to pull whatever he held there free. "If you're certain that you want to do this then I know there's probably no way to stop you, so let me just say this:" Morlun was a monster, he knew this, but not such a monster that he would deny a defeated enemy his last words. He nodded for Peter to continue, and when he did his voice was low and raspy. He knew what was coming and he was worried. "Pizza Time." He whispered.

Morlun heard a click behind his head where the Totem's fist had dropped after his fruitless flurry of attacks. He knew a great many things, one does much learning in a life unending, but one thing he hadn't learned was that natural gas released into a room by an oven that's been torn free of the wall is highly, highly explosive when exposed to a lit flame.

Today's lesson would be very hands-on.

—

Peter woke up in the dark to the sound of voices. One, louder than the rest, was shouting orders. What had happened? Morlun had had him by the throat, at least figuratively speaking and then… Everything clicked into place. The gas leak, the lighter, the last move he'd had to play when backed into such a tight corner. Morlun! Where was he?

He pushed himself into a sitting position, giving a wince and a groan as his ribs protested against the move, and wondered if he was going to have to dig himself out of yet another collapsed building. This concern of his was quickly put to rest as the voices drew closer, near enough to see him now.

"Spider-Man!" It took Peter a bit to recognize the voice as belonging to the sergeant he'd spoken to before entering the bar. "Jesus, I'm not gonna lie, I was expecting to find one squashed bug in here! How'd you survive that? And, uh… Why are you wearing your mask like that?"

Spider-Man reached a gloved hand to his face, touching at it gently, and realized that his mask had gone askew at some point. Embarrassing, but at least he wasn't blind or buried again. All things considered, he was lucky his pants were still on and it was just his mask that had found itself into a weird position. He righted it on his face, arranging it so he could see properly out of the now scuffed lenses.

"You didn't hear or feel that explosion? Never mind. That's not important right now, where's the other guy?!" Able to see again, it was clear that even though it hadn't been a massive explosion, it had been large enough to blow a hole in the nearest wall outside, and there was no sign of Morlun.

"Yeah, that guy… He made a run for it. Guy looked like he was charbroiled from the back, still smoking when he ran off. I was gonna send officers in pursuit but it seemed like a better idea to make sure everyone here in the area was okay."

No, Peter thought, You figured anyone who could walk away from something like that could probably walk through a whole troop of beat cops, and you were right.

"Well I'm glad you did, I think I got everyone out except-"

"Yeah," The officer's voice took on a distant quality. "We saw the woman, her body anyway. You tellin' me he did that?" Peter nodded, his grimace invisible beneath the mask. "You weren't joking, huh? An honest to God vampire. What the hell is going on here?"

"I don't know, Sarge." Peter finally found the strength to push himself to his feet. "But I'm putting a stop to it tonight." He took stock of himself, his webshooters seemed good to go, and although he could feel the tingling of some first degree burns it looked like Morlun had at least made an effective meat shield. Peter had learned something too, even in his vulnerable feeding state the guy could still take a hell of a wallop. Confident that he was good to go, Spider-Man stepped towards the gaping hole blown through the concrete wall and the dull glow of streetlights beyond it, almost losing his footing.

"Spidey, I can't let you go."

Peter turned.

"Are you seriously… " He paused. "You really know how to kick a guy when he's down."

"That's not what I mean." Even through the scratched lenses and the dim halflight Peter could see the sergeant trying to mask his concern. "Look, maybe I had the wrong idea about you, but I can tell you're feeling…" He gestured to the blown out room, at least they'd cut the gas to the building before approaching it. "That. You're grunting and groaning and he sprinted out of here like his tail was on fire and that's because it friggin' was."

"You're right." He was right. "But between you and me, I've got a plan to deal with him that I'm really crossing my fingers will do the trick, because if it doesn't…" Peter trailed off, letting the possibilities play out in his mind. None of them were looking great.

"You're not sure how many more explosions you can take?"

Spider-Man nodded.

"Alright. Look, we're gonna take care of things here, you just concentrate on dealing with him. And Spidey," He saw that Spider-Man had already turned to leave, but stopped himself again to turn his head toward the officer giving him his cue to continue. "You take care of yourself, you don't seem like such a bad guy. I might've had you wrong."

Peter nodded before pulling himself skyward on a webline, not looking back.

Take care of myself, huh? Why would the Parker boy start doing that now of all times? He had to admit though, he really had been running himself through the ringer lately. Maybe not as bad as he had when he and MJ had separated, he actually saw a future that held something for him now, but he hadn't had to deal with Morlun back in the bad old days. If he had he probably wouldn't have had the chance to set things right. He knew Morlun's weakness now, or he thought he did, he was extrapolating based off of an extremely incomplete data set. He didn't even know what Morlun was, but sloppy science or not it was the best shot he had at dealing with the tall man.

By the time the sun rose today there would only be one of them left, and as he swung his way through the city all he could do was hope that his one shot would be an accurate one.