The Invincible Spider-Man
Chapter 73: A Dark Reflection
"Peter? Peter are you there?!" asked May, as Peter's blurry vision began to disappear. He rapidly blinked, as the world around him stopped spinning. He found himself lying on the couch with everyone staring at him.
"What?" asked Peter, dazed as he touched his forehead only to feel beads of cold sweat. He found himself involuntarily hyperventilating, as he quickly stopped himself.
"Drink some more water," said MJ, handing him another glass.
"Wait, what happened?" asked Peter, still confused.
"You were stumbling all over the place and fell unconscious, for almost 10 minutes," said Harry, as all the memories came flooding into Peter's head, causing it to sting again.
"Yeah, I guess I haven't been eating enough," groaned Peter, rubbing his forehead. "But I'm fine, trust me," he continued, getting back onto his feet, which felt like pins and needles.
"Are you 100% sure?" asked Liz, while May still looked concerned.
"Yeah, this happened before, it's just temporary," said Peter.
"It's happened before?!" exclaimed May, looking even more worried.
"No, I meant I got it checked by the doctor, he just said need to not over-exert myself," explained Peter.
"Guys, trust me, it's nothing," chuckled Peter, as he walked to the dining table and placed his glass there. His head was still ringing, but he was at least able to walk, and his head didn't feel like a boulder.
"Okay…so, shall we start dinner?" asked Peter.
"Yeah, sure," said MJ, a little quieter. Everyone still seemed a little off about Peter's sudden unconsciousness, as they made their way to the table.
The night moved by normally, as everyone began conversing with each other.
"And then we convinced Miss Kyle to narrate the time she was saved by the X-Men! The whole class went by with her talking about her crush on Cyclops," said Mary Jane, as everyone laughed.
"Oh my God this one time Jameson went on this massive tirade about how Spider-Man is an indirect result of imperialism in the 1600s," said Ned.
"What? How did he even manage to connect the two?" asked Harry, laughing even louder.
"He's Jonah Jameson, he could connect tacos to the Civil War," replied Peter, as everyone continued laughing.
"Man if only Flash could've come, would've been pretty cool," said Liz, as she took a second helping of soup.
"Yeah, but apparently he's been putting all of his time in the army. Hope he's okay," said Harry. "Heard he met a girl too," he continued, as Hobie dropped his spoon.
"Who is it?" he asked, chuckling. "My boy Flash actually got a girl for more than 2 weeks?"
"Benton something I believe. Remember when he was into Sha Shan Nguyen?" asked Harry.
"Oh yeah! She told me he was a terrible dancer," replied MJ. Peter took another sip of water. Time seemed to fly on Christmas Eve.
"Guys…it's 2 o clock, I'm gonna head out," said Harry, yawning loudly.
"Staying at the old place?" asked Peter.
"Nope. Did I mention I don't go by Osborn anymore?" asked Harry.
"I don't think you did," replied MJ.
"Yeah I've decided to go by my maiden name. I'm Harry Lyman now," said Harry. "I wanted to honor my mother, and distance myself from my father," he explained.
"Yeah, that's understandable," replied Ned, as him and Betty got up from the chairs, as did everyone else, heading to the door.
"Thanks for the Christmas, Anna and MJ!" said Aunt May, hugging the two of them.
"Our pleasure!" replied Anna. Ned and Betty got into their car while Harry walked up to his, while Carlie was staying over with MJ.
"So tiger, any plans for Christmas break?" asked MJ.
"Eh, not really. Like none at all, I'm probably just gonna work on some projects," said Peter. MJ shook her head.
"Okay. Day after tomorrow, I'm booking tickets for us to Starkland," said MJ.
"Starkland? Hold on, the amusement park or the country named after him?" asked Peter, while MJ chuckled.
"Yes, I'm able to afford a trip to another country. It's obviously the theme park, genius. You desperately need a break," said MJ. "So what do you say? You gonna come willingly or do I need to drag you there?" she continued.
"Uhhh yeah sure! I'll be there," said Peter, and MJ high-fived him.
"Perfect!" said MJ, as Peter walked away from the doorstep and back to May, who subtly smiled seeing Peter and MJ.
"You sure you'll get back to ESU safely, Peter? You know, without fainting again?" asked May.
"Trust me May, I'll be fine! I'll take the bus, I'm sure New Yorkers will be kind enough to lend a helping hand," chuckled Peter, as he walked down the street and out of the neighborhood, quickly ducking into an alleyway and changing into his outfit.
Spider-Man ran up the top of a building, covered in snow as he gazed at New York.
"Christmas is here, and I still can't catch a break," sighed Peter, as he pulled out the radio frequency jammer from his pocket.
"The "Spider-Slayer" used a very specific radio frequency. I bet I can modify this to track down that specific frequency as well," thought Peter, as he opened up the back of the jammer. He pulled out a small screwdriver and a couple of wires from one of the pouches on his utility belt.
"Just some slight modifications…" said Peter, as he began to tinker with it. Eventually, he seemed done with the new jammer/tracer.
"Needs a little bit of juice," said Peter, as he switched his web cartridge to taser webs and aimed it at the jammer. He shot the web at it as the device lit up, and it began to beep.
"Yes! Looks like the receiver at the end beeps faster the closer I get to that specific radio frequency. I should modify my Spider-Tracers that way," said Peter, as he held the jammer in his hand and began to swing, heading wherever the beeping seemed to increase.
"Am I ready to go against Smythe again? He kicked my ass earlier today…plus I don't want to hurt him," said Peter to himself, as he took a sharp right. "I need to convince him to give up this need for revenge, it never ends well," he continued, thinking about Carradine.
"I hope Carradine's doing okay after what I did. Never thought I'd say that. And then Eddie…" thought Peter, as flashbacks of Venom rushed back to him. Peter quickly disregarded the thoughts, as he reached a warehouse.
"A warehouse. Why is it always a warehouse? What is it like an unofficial supervillain lair?" asked Peter to himself, as he turned off the tracker and hopped onto the roof of the warehouse, pulling out a small part of the roof and jumped in.
He landed on a small catwalk that was suspended in the center of the warehouse, connecting two control rooms. Between the catwalk and the ground was about 20 feet worth of a fall.
There seemed to be some large things covered in blue tarp, but Peter couldn't make out what they were.
All of a sudden, a phone began ringing towards the other end of the warehouse on the ground, on top of some crates. Peter's Spider-Sense lightly tingled, as he hopped off the catwalk and approached the phone, cautiously picking up.
"You're smarter than I gave you credit for," said Alistair.
"Alistair, please just hear me out. Venom was influencing my decisions, altering my personality, everything! I swear I would've done everything in my power to save your father," said Peter, quickly before Alistair could interrupt him.
"It's easy to make promises when you have no obligation to keep them anymore. I do not care what was influencing you, if it weren't for you he'd still be alive," replied Alistair.
"Smythe just please listen to me! Believe me, revenge doesn't end well for anyone. And working with Venom is a massive mistake, trust me," said Peter.
"You ask me to trust you? The man who is responsible for my father's death, and hides behind a mask? No, Venom wants you to suffer. I just want you dead," said Smythe, as he cut the call.
All of a sudden, Peter heard a whirring sound, as his Spider-Sense began to go crazy. He turned around and saw the blue tarp begin to light up, as three massive, 15 feet tall drones began to hover under the tarp.
They seemed to be shaped like huge robotic spiders, as their mechanical eyes turned red, fixating themselves on Spider-Man.
"Ah shit," sighed Peter, as the first one shot out a massive laser towards him. Peter dodged at just the right time, as the laser created a massive hole in the warehouse, straight onto the street.
Before Peter could do anything else, a second Spider-Slayer slammed into him, sending him flying into the street. Peter quickly grabbed an empty taxi and used it as a shield against the drone with the laser.
However, the laser seemed to cut right through the taxi, cutting it into two pieces. Peter threw the two pieces at the second drone, as he dodged under laser attack and kicked the third drone.
However, the third drone instead retracted a gatling gun from its mount, and aimed it towards Peter.
"Come on!" exclaimed Spider-Man, backflipping out of the way and avoiding the gunfire, and just barely missing the laser by a hair's width. That's when the first drone slammed into him and began to fly around.
"I don't think you have a license to fly, Drone Number 1!" exclaimed Spider-Man, as it slammed him into an empty office building. Peter webbed up a monitor and threw it at the robot, who managed to swipe it away.
"Neutralizing threat," said the robot in an automated voice, as its eyes went red again.
"Anyone else feeling very "Terminator" right now? No, just me?" asked Spider-Man, as he dodged another one of the drone's attacks and jumped onto its back.
The drone flew out of the building and crashed into another, sending Peter flying forwards into a desk. Peter scrambled up to his feet and shot two webs at the ceiling, bringing it down on the drone.
"Now, who was playing Call of Duty on the office desktop?" joked Peter, when his Spider-Sense began going wild. He quickly dodged as the second Spider-Slayer came crashing in, shooting lasers all over the place.
Spider-Man was sent flying out of the building, as he landed on another car on the street.
"I am…so sick of…fighting robots! You guys don't even appreciate my jokes!" winced Spider-Man, grabbing the car and using it as a shield against the gatling gun on the third drone.
The bullets tore through the car by the time Peter got close enough, as he webbed up the muzzle of the gun. Before he could do anything, however, the Laser Drone crashed into Spider-Man, and one of its arms grabbed him, raising him into the air.
"Alright maybe we can talk this out? We can stop by the…gas station and talk over diesel?" suggested Spider-Man, as the drone began to charge its laser, which would shoot out of its eyes. And that's when Peter noticed something.
"Ohhhhh you genius," he told himself sarcastically, as he switched his cartridge to taser webs and aimed straight at the eyes of the Laser Drone. Peter could see circuitry behind the eyes.
The electric shock began to overload the drone, as Peter jumped out of its grasp. As the drone began to seize up, it let out a massive laser blast, that hit an empty car near Peter, causing it to explode and sending him flying back.
Before Peter could get on his feet, the first drone slammed him into the ground with one of its robotic limbs, tightly clamped onto Peter's chest.
"Alright, looks like you need a timeout as well!" said Peter, as he got ready to aim another taser web. However, the first drone let out an EMP, causing Peter's web shooters to go haywire.
"Hey! Oh no!" exclaimed Peter, as his web shooter mechanism was based on electromagnetism, and the EMP essentially fried them. The drone then extended the gatling gun, aiming it towards Peter.
That's when Spider-Man grabbed the robotic limb holding him down and lifted it up with strength, its extended palm shielding him from the bullets. Peter quickly rolled out of the way and jumped onto the drone's back.
Peter grabbed the gatling gun and aimed it towards the first drone, and tore it to shreds.
"Word of advice, Smythe. Maybe don't design your drones that they can hurt each other!" said Peter, as he pulled out the gatling gun from the drone's head, destroying it.
"Now how do I destroy this one?" thought Peter, as he dodged attacks from the drone's limbs.
"Hey T-800! Ever seen The Incredibles? No, well there's this really awesome move," said Spider-Man, as he grabbed the limb that he had ripped off from the drone. He then rushed towards the drone and jumped onto its face, stabbing it with its own detached limb into its eyes, exposing the circuitry.
Peter reached his hand in and pulled out a handful of wires, as the drone began to seize up. Spider-Man quickly jumped out of the way, as the drone exploded.
Spider-Man was panting heavily as he checked out his fried web shooters.
"Good thing I always have spares," sighed Peter, as he began to run up a wall, ready to head back to ESU.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" said a student dressed as Santa Claus on ESU campus. Christmas break had finally started, but Peter decided to stay back at ESU so he could catch up on all the studies he had missed.
"So…dehydrochlorination of an alcohol and a chloroalkane leads to an ether linkage between the two?" asked Peter.
"Indeed. Take for example pentanol and trichlorobenzene. Could you draw the structural formula?" asked Dr Connors.
"Yes can do," said Peter, as he began to draw the formula.
"Peter, I have to ask, why aren't you at the Christmas parade instead?" asked Curt.
"Christmas parade?" asked Peter.
"I mean, you are a brilliant student, but if I were you I'd take a break. You look like you haven't slept in days," said Curt, with a worried expression.
"Ahahaha, I've been working on some other projects too, plus I'm planning on doing volunteer work at F.E.A.S.T. So yeah I guess I haven't had much time for myself," said Peter.
"We can continue this next time, you should head to the parade," said Curt, as he closed the textbook.
"I wasn't aware of a parade. Where is it happening?" asked Peter.
"I think near Central Park. Your friend Carlie was headed there too," said Curt. Peter's eyes went wide.
"Carlie? By herself?" asked Peter, his face going pale.
"That's what she told me, at least. It's partly why she isn't here catching up," said Curt.
"Yeah, I think I'll head to the parade now. Thanks for everything, doc!" said Peter, as he began to speedwalk out of the classroom, only to break into an inhuman sprint as soon as he was out of sight.
"Carlie's alone at the parade. Smythe may make a move on the parade while Eddie goes after her! I need to make sure she's okay," said Peter, as he dashed into an alleyway and quickly changed into his outfit, swinging out of the alleyway and towards Central Park.
The parade was massive, with a massive inflatable Santa balloon floating above the large crowd. Spider-Man quickly landed on a rooftop, beginning to survey the location.
"Come on Carlie, where are you?" asked Peter, but there were hundreds of people there, finding her would've been a needle in a haystack. Instinctively, he jumped to the ground.
"Cooper! Carlie Cooper!" exclaimed Spider-Man, moving through the crowd. However, everyone seemed fixated on the parade. That's when he saw a brunette wearing specs, and instantly recognized her, rushing up to her.
Carlie was taking pictures of the entire parade, engrossed in the grandiosity, when she felt someone tap her shoulder. She turned around, only to be met with surprise.
"Eddie! I haven't seen you in so long!" she said, as she smiled at Eddie.
"Yeah, it's been a while, how's it hanging?" he asked.
"Pretty good. How's Christmas?" she asked.
"Eh, so far so good. Ran into an old friend last night actually. Met a new one too," said Eddie. "Speaking of which, I need to make a phone call to him," he continued, as he walked away out of earshot and called up Smythe.
"Do it now," said Eddie.
"Sorry, I don't know a Carlie Cooper. Your cosplay needs work, by the way. That's not what Spider-Man looks like at all," said the woman who Peter mistook as Carlie.
"You serious?" he asked, when his Spider-Sense began to tingle. Before he could react, he noticed a bomb being thrown towards the crowd. Spider-Man quickly webbed it up and threw it into the air, as it exploded.
Spider-Man looked up and saw the Spider-Slayer. He began to swing up to him.
"Eddie! Eddie where'd you go?" asked Carlie, as she looked around but couldn't see him. However, the second she turned around, she was met with Venom, with a gnarly smile.
"Smythe!" said Spider-Man, as he landed on the roof.
"This ends today…" replied Alistair, as he flew towards Peter, grabbing him and throwing him onto the inflatable Santa.
"I agree," replied Peter, as he did a backflip and dodged his next attack. Spider-Slayer extended two long blades from his hands as he began to swipe at Peter. Peter dodged two of the attacks and grabbed one of the blades, pushing it away and kicking Smythe in the face.
Smythe stabbed the inflatable, causing the two of them to fall to the ground. Peter shot out a web and swung towards the ground, whereas Smythe landed perfectly on his legs.
"You can't convince me to stop, Spider-Man," said Spider-Slayer.
"I know, I'm done trying to convince you," said Spider-Man, as he shot a couple webs towards Smythe, who dodged both of them and threw a right hook towards Spider-Man.
Spider-Man took the punch but then ducked out of the way, punching Alistair in the chest. Alistair staggered back before ducking Peter's second punch, spin kicking him in the face. He then grabbed his arm and lifted him over his shoulder, sending him tumbling to the ground.
Spider-Man got back to his feet and webbed up Alistair's right leg, going for two more punches. However, Alistair dodged them with lighting fast speed and managed to tear off the webbing, with a massive kick to Peter's side, before grabbing the back of his head and slamming his forehead to his knee, and then punching his throat and throwing him aside to the ground.
Before Spider-Man could get up, Smythe punched his back and slammed his head into the concrete with his robotic fists.
"UP HERE!" growled Venom's voice, as Smythe grabbed Peter's head and angled it up to the roof of a building, where Venom was dangling Carlie off of his arm.
"What's wrong, Spider-Man? Too weak to save her?" mocked Alistair. But before Smythe could do anything, Peter elbowed his face as he quickly got to his feet and rushed up the wall.
Before Venom could do anything, Peter kicked him in the chest and staggered him back. He quickly grabbed Carlie before she could fall.
"GO!" exclaimed Spider-Man, as Carlie ran towards the entrance of the roof, and down the stairs.
"Almost too late to save her…remind you of someone?" taunted Venom, as Spider-Man clenched his fists and rushed towards Venom, who dodged to the side and grabbed Spider-Man's leg, throwing him across the roof.
Before Spider-Man could get up, Venom extended tendrils from his body that wrapped Peter up into a cocoon and pulled him towards him.
"We are not done with you yet, Parker…" hissed Venom, but Peter webbed up Venom's eyes as he broke free from the tendrils. He then webbed Venom's feet to the ground and punched him across the face, but he barely flinched.
Just then, Smythe slammed into him, pushing his face into the concrete.
Spider-Man broke free from Smythe's grasp, just at the edge of the roof. However, one of Venom's tendrils wrapped itself around his leg and pulled, causing Peter to stumble. Smythe flew into him at breakneck speed and up towards the sky, before slamming him back into the roof with a deafening thud.
Peter struggled to get up, as Smythe extended another blade from his right arm and got ready to stab Spider-Man's back. However, he was stopped by Venom.
"Not yet! We have yet to make him suffer," growled Venom, but Smythe pulled back.
"I'm done waiting," he said, as he tried to stab Venom, who stopped him in one move. Peter took the opportunity to spring back up to his feet, kicking Alistair away.
"I can't stop Venom, but I can defeat Alistair," thought Peter, as he grabbed Alistair and jumped off of the roof, before shooting another web and swinging into a building, slamming Alistair into a brick wall.
Peter stuck his feet to the wall and began to repeatedly punch a disoriented Spider-Slayer. However, Smythe stopped his next punch and kicked Peter down towards the street, who managed to swing off of a lamppost and land on the ground.
"How many times have we done this, Spider-Man? How many times will you evade justice?" asked Smythe, ripping off a car door and frisbeeing it towards Peter. Spider-Man ducked under it and turned towards Smythe.
"This isn't justice, Alistair. This is revenge," said Spider-Man, as he shot two strands of webbing towards Alistair, who managed to slice through them with his blades.
"What's the difference between killing the person who killed your father and justice?" asked Smythe ragefully, as he ran towards Peter.
"Believe me, it's two different worlds," said Spider-Man, as he dodged Alistair's first punch and jabbed his back, before ducking under Smythe's second blade attack and kicking his shin behind him.
Smythe elbowed Peter's face, before grabbing his chest and kneeing him in his solar plexus, extending the blade towards the back of his neck. However, Spider-Man dodged at the last second, as the blade struck the ground.
Peter uppercutted Smythe, before grabbing the blade and breaking it with the back of his elbow, causing Alistair to stagger back. Peter then shot two webs towards Smythe's chest, pulling him towards him and kicking his face.
As Smythe tumbled back, he rolled towards Peter and punched his chest, before kicking his side and hammerfisting his face, cracking a lens. He then grabbed Peter's arm and lifted him over his shoulder and threw him to the ground.
Before Peter could get up, Smythe kicked him into an empty taxi.
"This has been a long time coming..." said Alistair, as he punched the back of Peter's head, before lifting him up and slamming him through the window of the taxi.
All of a sudden, a gunshot rang out, as Smythe turned around and saw Yuri Watanabe standing with a gun in her hand, pointed towards him. The bullet had simply bounced off of his armor.
"Hands above your head!" exclaimed Yuri, but Smythe simply chuckled. "Leave while you can, I don't want to hurt anyone else!"
That's when Spider-Man webbed up the back of his legs, before jumping onto his back and taking out the jammer, activating it on his back. Before Smythe could do anything else, Peter webbed up the jammer to his back.
"DAMMIT, WORK!" exclaimed Alistair, as his exo-suit began to malfunction. Spider-Man jumped in front of Alistair, as he began repeatedly punching him, and pulled off his helmet, revealing an angry yet surprised look.
"You're done, Smythe," said Peter, as he knocked him out cold.
"Thanks for the help," said Peter, as Yuri approached him.
"You okay? You look like you went to Hell and back," replied Yuri. Spider-Man winced as he lifted the jammer off of Smythe and pocketed it.
"It's hard not to feel sorry for him. I don't think Ryker's is right for him," said Peter.
"Another Oscorp CEO breaks bad. We'll send him to Ravencroft," said Yuri, as she handcuffed an unconscious Alistair Smythe.
"Ravencroft? The asylum?" asked Peter.
""Institute for the Criminally Insane." Yeah, pretty much an asylum," said Yuri, as other cop cars showed up. Spider-Man swung away to the top of another building, as he began panting heavily.
"Venom's still out there, and I still don't know how I'm going to stop him," he said to himself.
Well, here we are! The next chapter will be the final chapter of Season 5, and then there will be a 4 parter event titled "Dimensional Apocalypse" where we'll see our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man fight alongside the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four and many more in an effort to save the planet from impending doom!
Things just seem to be going higher and higher for me! In addition to being in an amazing relationship, I'm also moving to a new house in the next 2 weeks, which has been under renovation for the past 3 years now. I'm planning on inviting a few friends over for a housewarming party too! Speaking of which, I made up with an old friend who I had been on rocky terms with for the past 6 ish months, it's never good to keep grudges, especially when you don't know what the other side is going through, which in this case is the exact same thing that I went through a couple years back. So I guess I could relate to that and realized that I should just give up holding a grudge! Anyways, philosophical talk aside, stay tuned for the end of season 5!
Marvel Nerd- Indeed I did, thank you! And yep, not having his Spider-Sense against Venom is definitely going to be a massive disadvantage!
redbirds12- Thanks! I think it's about time I reintroduce Harry Osborn into the story lmao
Geek4Life- Hmm maybe?
SpideyXBC- Certainly, and I'm planning on carrying that theme to future seasons too!
Teller-Story- It was meant to be more of a panic attack that Peter suffered, especially with all of the stress and guilt in his life, as a way to emphasize as a far greater threat than any other he's faced. But you can be sure that Peter has nightmares about Venom!
I am the Voice- Ahahahaha yep, a bald or a Harry Osborn with the waves would certainly be out there lmao
Guest- Indeed!
Mystery889- Thanks for everything! And yep Norman definitely has some beef with the Stacy's, especially since they're closest to Peter. Also about Venom, I wanted to ground the first 5 seasons of the story a little bit before we begin to explore the fantastical areas of Spider-Man's universe, so I decided to mix the two origins by making Venom a cure for cancer like in the Ultimate comics, and also sprinkling in some alien aspects like the enzymes coming from bacteria in space!
Yours truly,
Shadow Strike.