Answers to reviewer's statements or questions:
Sithlord king: You hit it right on the nail
treyalexander63917: What happened to the Teen Titans will be brought up during year two and yeah Batman's side didn't kill anyone on Superman's during the whole debacle but in this story… things will get bad and they will get desperate, especially in the fifth year… all I'm saying at the moment
Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel or DC characters seen, mentioned or used in this story
Year one…
Diana landed in a crouch and saw Grundy began to shake Peter around like he was some sort of piece of meat, she vaguely noticed Robin in his grip but right now Peter was her main concern. Her fury rose to terrifying levels as she let out a savage war cry and lunged for the massive zombie
"LET HIM GO!" Diana shouted as she lunged her blade into Grundy's chest, where his heart should be
Grundy grunted as he reared his fist back and rammed it into Diana who was unprepared for the amount of strength behind the blow. She was sent into the wall and through several more that were on this level before she came to a painful stop
Peter who was just able to make out Diana getting smack away felt his vision darken until it was like he was looking through ink. He grabbed the lower and upper parts of Grundy's jaw and pushed upwards and downwards with all of his rage fueled symbiote enhanced spider strength
The Result was Grundy's lower jaw being torn off just as Superman used his heat vision to slice off Grundy's hand that was holding Robin. Spider-man pulled his head out of Grundy's mouth and gave the undead criminal a powerful punch to the head that sent the brute stumbling back
Grundy growled in anger and was about to attack when suddenly Superman flew through his chest, causing Grundy to fall over in a heap. Spider-man looked down towards the tunnel that Grundy made by punching his wife before turning an enraged glare back at the still down zombie
"Best part about you being dead Grundy… I won't have to pull my punches" Spider-man hissed out darkly as he began to approach the slowly rising form of Grundy
Grundy saw Spider-man approaching and let out a sort of growl as he rose and lifted his one good arm up in an attempt to smash him. Spider-man leaped over the blow and drove his knee into Grundy's face, causing it to cave in slightly and knock the immortal on his back
Peter's vision was murky, he could barely make out anyone else but Grundy with a voice in the back of his mind that sounded both like Venom and not Venom whispering into his ear at the same time
'He hurt Diana, hurt him!'
'Don't let another monster take your love away'
'No mercy!'
'Kill him!'
Peter gritted his teeth in rage as he suddenly jumped and landed on Grundy's chest, just above the whole Superman left, he could just faintly make out Batman calling him and telling him that was enough
'No it's not enough!' Peter mentally hissed as he began to punch Grundy in what was left of his face with every ounce of strength he possessed
KOOOM!
KOOOM!
KOOOM!
KOOOM!
His impacts created small shockwaves as he hammed his fists into Grundy over and over again, his vision nothing but inky black and the whispering urging him on in sadistic glee
Diana with the aid of Flash had just emerged from the tunnel in time to see Spider-man viscously beat Grundy into he ground. Her eye's widened at the savage display as chunks of concrete and Grundy's head and blood began to pelt his form with every punch he delivered.
"By Hera…" Diana said in shock at seeing how brutal Peter was being
Superman, Batman and the Flash were in a similar state of mind as they finally got to see why it was that Spider-man in the black suit was something to be both respected…
And feared…
"Should we uh, step in?" Flash asked nervously to see the guy he's come to idolize practically beat Grundy's head apart with his bare hands "I mean Grundy's beaten, there's no point in keeping that up"
Batman narrowed his eyes at the scene and looked towards Diana "Can you get him under control?"
Diana looked to him uncertain and disturbed by Peter's relentless onslaught "Perhaps, why?"
"At this rate Grundy won't be able to keep your husband occupied for long and in his state I don't know if he's capable of distinguishing friend from foe" Batman said as he pulled two explosive disks from his belt "I'd rather not find out the hard way"
Diana looked back towards Peter to see that he was no longer punching Grundy's head, he was now punching the ground that was beneath the now headless zombie's skull and causing the ground to shake ever so slightly. Diana took a deep breath and slowly began to approach her husband
"Peter…" Diana called out carefully, hoping to see if her voice could cause him to snap out of it "Peter, that's enough!"
Peter's arms became a blur as he kept punching the ground, seemingly unaware that Grundy has been dealt with. Diana steeled her resolve and quickly appeared in front of him and grabbed Peter's fists with her own and get him to stop. She was surprised by how strong he was, she was aware that the symbiote enhanced his strength to higher levels but she didn't think it'd be this much.
"PETER!" Diana practically shouted into his head and caused him to stop struggling and turn his head towards her with his lenses narrowing in confusion
"…Diana?" Peter asked as he slowly looked around before he saw what he did to Grundy's head and the ground that was beneath it "W-What…?"
"It's okay Peter" Diana said gently as she helped Peter stand and began to rub his back "It's over…"
"I saw him hit you and…" Peter said unsure as he tried to remember what happened
"I'm fine, he just caught me by surprise is all" Diana said as she took his face and had him look her in the eye "Peter I'm fine… okay?"
Peter looked at her for a moment before he nodded "Okay…"
It was than Superman stepped forward "Sounds like the fighting upstairs hasn't stopped"
"Let's go then" Diana said as she went to retrieve her sword before grabbing Peter and slowly flew back up towards the hole that Grundy made when he broke out with Superman, Batman and the Flash.
When they got to the top Superman spoke up, causing everyone to stop "Enough! Grundy is down, everyone back to your cells!"
It was then that Batman saw that Nightwing was down and Robin was sitting beside him with tears coming down his face. Peter looked towards the first boy wonder and felt his stomach drop at his motionless form
'Oh no…'
"I-I… I'm sorry!" Robin choked out
Batman looked on horrified at what he was seeing "You… what did you do?"
Robin flinched at the shocked tone Batman spoke in "He always…"
"WHAT DID YOU DO!" Batman shouted in as he approached the two and shoved Robin aside
"I dint mean to-" Robin tried to defend himself before Batman yelled at him
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" the dark knight yelled with an intensity that caused Venom to stir at the negativity in the air
Robin backed away muttering to himself "I didn't mean to…"
Superman approached him and comforted the boy "I know son…"
Peter stared at Batman as he stared at the body of his oldest son, the second one to be taken from him.
'Can't imagine what that's like… to lose two children. One to a psychotic clown… the other to one of his other children' Peter thought sadly
'Such a pity' Venom hissed in his mind 'But alas it was inventible… the young one is full of rage and tainted…'
Peter shook his head 'It wasn't his fault he didn't mean to!'
'…Like how you didn't mean to mutilate Kraven's wife and his children…?' Venom asked quietly as he brought up Peter's last actions in the black suit all those years ago
Peter had no response as he watched as Batman carried Nightwing's body away, the heroes and surprisingly the inmates clearing a path. No said a word as the dark knight left or made a move towards him.
Peter watched him go before he made his way towards Green Arrow and leaned in to whisper in his ear
"Got a hundred or two on you?" Peter asked tiredly
The hooded archer looked at for a second unsure "You sure you should be having anything in your state?"
"One way to find out" Peter responded.
Green Arrow looked at him for a moment before he sighed and pulled out two hundred dollar bills "Spidey… stay safe"
Peter took the bills without a word and quietly snuck away from the people and made his way into the raining night. Thunder cracked through the dark sky as rain pelted his form. Peter looked up towards the city of Gotham before sighing
"This was not how I hoped my trip to Gotham would go…"
…
Over an hour and twenty minutes later Peter without his mask on was sitting on a random rooftop in Gotham with a half bottle of whiskey in his hand as the rain poured on him. The suit was keeping him warm but he could feel every individual rain drop slam into his body, his face felt like it was made of ice
He doesn't know how long he sat there until he sensed a presence behind him. Based on the armored foot falls and the slight scent of the person, he could tell it was Diana. She didn't say anything as she sat beside him, he didn't say anything as he held the bottle out for her to take.
She reached for it and took it from his grasp and took a large chug from it and leaned her head against his shoulder
"…It's funny when you think about it" Peter said after a while, the rain was beginning to let up but not enough for it to stop
"…What is?" Diana asked tiredly as she brushed a few strands of her hair off her face
"There are a total of eighteen different muscles in the neck. There are also seven cervical vertebrae and it requires over fifteen pounds per square inch to break it depending on wheatear your neck is at an angle or not" Peter said as he took the bottle back from Diana and took a large gulp from it
"Peter…" Diana said worriedly
"It's odd when you think about it, that one little area is so fragile and yet our nervous system passes through there, our ability to breath, eat and drink goes through there and yet it only takes falling on it at the right angle or just a couple pounds of pressure to kill someone. Hell a sudden deceleration can cause it to snap" Peter said as he suddenly stood, still clutching the bottle
Diana watched her husband with concern and was about to take a step forward when her boot hit another bottle. She looked down and was shocked to see that there were over five bottles similar to the Peter was drinking from lying there
'How much has he been drinking?' Diana slowly looked up to see Peter taking another drink and stumbled slightly before he quickly righted himself
"I mean, I've teamed up with the guy back when he was still part of the Titans and they just established themselves in New York after moving from San Francisco, did I ever tell you this?" Peter looked to see Diana shake her head
"Oh well anyways me, Nightwing and the girl that's all emo was taking on Slade and the guy has like near superhuman level strength! He punches the kid repeatedly in the face and his head snaps to the side on several occasions and you know what? The kid keeps fighting" Peter said as he downed the last of the bottle before he slammed it on the ground, shattered glass scattering across the ground
"And yet, despite the fact he took a punch with at least one thousand four hundred some pounds of force and lives, it takes a fuckin brat with anger issues, a piece of damn metal and a small fuckin rock to do what the world's most dangerous mercenary couldn't!" Peter shouted the last part out as he rammed his fist into the brick wall behind him
The force of the blow caused the wall and the roof to shake and a large chunk to go flying off and into the empty street below. Diana immediately appeared by his side and held his shaking form
"Shh… it's okay… shhh" Diana said soothingly as she rested Peter's head under her chest
"And you want to know what's even worse about this" Peter said as tears began to fall down his face even though the rain was keeping them hidden "It's my fault it happened…"
Diana's eyes widened at that and she lifted his face up towards hers "What are you talking about Peter?"
"If I didn't let this damn suit get to me, if I didn't cause you, Superman or the Flash or even Batman to focus so long on me, you could have stopped Robin from throwing his damn stick or at least catch Nightwing before he fell" Peter said miserably
"Peter, what happened wasn't your fault do you understand me? Even if you didn't lose yourself to Venom's influence, Grundy still would have kept us distracted. No matter what, there was nothing we could do to prevent Nightwing's death" Diana said sadly
Peter didn't say anything as he rested his head against Diana's "I just want to home Di…"
Diana watched him for a moment before she nodded "Alright… just give me a moment okay?"
Peter nodded as he turned and began to make his way towards his mask that he left on the ledge. Diana used this time to contact Superman
It didn't take long for him to answer "Diana? Is Spider-man alright?"
Diana took a deep breath "No… he isn't. Pe-… Spider-man has always had a hard time dealing with death, not that I could blame him. That suit he's wearing… it's starting to take a toll on him"
Clark was quite for a moment before he responded "I'm surprised that it's affecting him this much. Before, I understood that it took months-"
"Clark the suit, the symbiote, it feeds off rage and negative emotions and enhances them and Spider-man… lately things haven't been exactly going well for us and now this…" Diana said sadly as she rubbed her forehead
"Do you want to talk about it?" Clark asked concerned
"To be honest no" Diana said with a sigh "I'm going to take him home an-" Diana stopped as she turned to see that Peter was gone!
"No…no no no no!" Diana whispered in dread as she quickly approached the ledge and looked for her now absent and drunk husband. Her drunk symbiote wearing husband
"Diana, what's wrong?" Clark asked over the com concerned "Is everything alright?"
"Clark I'll call you back" Diana said before she cut off the com and rose into he air starting to panic. In Peter's current state there's no telling what he'll do. He was drunk, angry, sad, and with the suit likely calling the shots he could end up hurting someone or worse himself
"Peter! PETER!" Diana shouted over the thunder
…
Peter looked down at the scene before him. He stumbled across the Red Hood attacking some guy and decided to wait and see what the lethal vigilante will do.
BANG!
Peter blinked as he saw the man the Red Hood had up against the wall slump to the ground, with a bleeding hole in his forehead.
"Shouldn't have done it Henry" the former Robin said as he holstered the pistol and turned to leave
It was then that Peter landed in front of him, the suit keeping him from stumbling as he righted himself and looked at the Hood with both pistols aiming at him.
"Spider-man? Long way from home aren't ya?" the Red Hood said as he clicked the safeties of his pistols "Surprised that Batman let another hero into his city"
Peter quirked his head to the side as he looked back towards the body before addressing the younger man
"Killed him huh?" Peter said with an almost unnoticeable slur in his speech
"Yeah so what? He was a drug dealing scum bag that started selling to kids again. He knows the rules, sell to kids and your dead" Red Hood said as he kept his pistols aimed at the man in front of him
Even though he was calm on the outside he was a bit nervous on the inside. He recognizes the black suit that Spider-man was wearing. It meant that the usually happy wise cracking hero's gloves were off and the fact the man sounded drunk really wasn't settling his nerves
"What was he dealing? Coke, Meth, Heroin?" Spider-man questioned as he took a step forward
"What's it matter? He broke the rule" Red Hood said as he took a step back, keeping a fair amount of distance away from the stronger man. 'Not that it'd help, he can break both my arms in the blink of an eye and catch bullets out of the air from what I've heard'
Spider-man looked at the body for a long time before his lenses narrowed "You know… I have enhanced smell and well I can usually tell what a drug dealer or addict is on or around most of the time. You want to know what I'm smelling off that guy?"
Red Hood didn't answer as his grip on his pistols tightened
"…Weed" Spider-man said with a shrug "…You shot a guy, killed him for selling a bunch of high school punks a few ounces of a relatively harmless narcotic compared to most being sold on the market"
"Yeah Weed today, tomorrow it's Coke or Meth" Red Hood said "If the dealers see that I'm letting these guys get away with dealing to kids, they're see that as permission to start selling their shit again"
"Maybe…" Spider-man said as he approached the Red Hood who raised both pistols to his head "Really? You want to play this game?"
"Why, you gonna try to appeal to the good inside me?" Red Hood said with a snort
"No…" Spider-man growled out in a cold voice that caught Jason by surprise "I can already see that you aren't worth the effort, probably never were to begin with. You're just a punk with a gun trying to justify his actions because let me guess, 'Mommy and Daddy didn't love me' or the classic 'I come from a broken home and this is all I know'. Save it kid I've heard it all before, least the Punisher is more sympathetic"
"Fuck you!" Red Hood said angrily as he prepared to shoot the man when suddenly Wonder Woman herself landed in between them with a scowl on her face
"Jason… put the guns down and walk away" Wonder Woman said with a glare that made the most terrifying ones from Batman look like smiles in comparisons
Jason felt his heart skip a beat at the look the powerful woman was throwing him before he made a clicking sound with his tongue as he holstered his guns "Fine. Underoos here ain't worth my time anyway"
He turned to leave when Spider-man spoke again with a slight slur in his tone "Speak to me like that again Hood, and you'll be joining Nightwing in the afterlife…"
"Spider-man!" Wonder Woman rounded on her husband "That's enough, now let's go!"
Jason stopped when he heard Spider-man mentioned joining Nightwing in the afterlife 'What the hell does he mean by that?'
He turned to ask what the wall crawler met but saw that he and Wonder Woman were already gone. An uncomfortable feeling built up in his chest as he looked up towards the raining sky. He took a grappling hook out and shot towards the nearest building and zipped to the top in seconds.
Once on the roof he began to head towards Wayne Manor, something in the back of his head was telling him to head there as fast as possible.
…
It was half an hour later that Diana and Peter had landed on their balcony. Peter stumbled towards the door and pushed it open and no sooner did he take a step inside did the suit unattached itself and immediately headed for the closet. Diana watched it go with narrowed eyes as she quickly caught her falling husband and helped him to the bed
"Wow… the room is all… uneven… hehehe" Peter chuckled as he fell on to the bed in a huff
Diana looked down at him for a moment before she turned towards the closet and saw Venom's head poking out from in the darkness with its pale eyes almost glowing in the shadows. She growled at the symbiote that responded by making a hissing sound and retreated back inside, followed soon by the sound of a chest closing.
"…You gonna leave?" Peter mumbled as he laid on his front and turned to lazily watch Diana stand there glaring at the closet before she turned to him and her expression softened
"…No" Diana shook her head as she removed her boots, lasso and sword and placed them within reach before she laid down next to Peter and pulled him in close and kissed the side of his temple while she began to run her fingers through his wet hair "Not tonight…not ever…"
Several minutes passed before she heard Peter's breathing slowed as he snuggled against her and drifted off to sleep. Diana didn't join him as she kept her eyes on the closet all night for any signs of Venom emerging and quietly whispered
"I won't let you take him from me…"
...
...
...
"...I already have"
And done.