Act III (Part 5)
As he enters through the window of his apartment, changes from his suit to his regular clothes, and then lays on his bed. He tries to fall asleep for a bit, but his phone rings and it's a unknown number. Peter sighed knowing who this is.
He answers it and says, "Yes?"
"Rooftop now." A familiar voice says back. That was Nick Fury.
Peter sighs again while ending the call and heads to the roof top.
"What do you want?" Peter asks aggressively as he approaches Fury.
"Calm down, kid. Just calm down." Fury says while raising his hand up.
"Calm down? Calm down! You have some nerve you know that! I could've used your help! I could've used your help to stop Damage Control from shooting at me!" Peter shouts as he starts to clench his fists and raise them in the air.
"Ok, ok… I understand you're angry… I do… but I don't have a lot of power that you think I do… I am after all human…" Fury starts.
"What do you want, anyway, Fury?" Peter asks again as he's still angry at him.
"I know things have been rough for you," he starts.
"Yeah, you could say that again," Peter mutters under his breath.
"And I know things haven't gotten exactly easy for you as Spider-Man. Everyone thinks of you as a menace to society. I also think the Kraven situation is getting out of hand." Fury states.
Peter perks up at the mention of Kraven.
"Who is he exactly?"
"I already told you—"
"Yeah, yeah I know what you said last time, but I went against you anyway, might as well tell me about him." Peter suggests.
Fury laments and asks, "You sure you want to know?"
Peter nods.
"Ok, the story of Kraven is rumored to believe he comes from an aristocrat family that lived during the time when the Soviet Union was founded. It is said he loved travelling around the world, loving, and taking care of animals. Then one day, an accident occurred with him and a woman. The woman died and he began his hunt ever since then. The day that accident happened is when the United States government first heard about Kraven. As to when and how is still unsure to this day. He's been known to become a nuisance to the Wakandans for hunting their animals and sometimes stealing their vibranium. Although, no direct evidence ever was found of him stealing it. Now every now and then, we hear about him and wonder, 'is it really him?', only for the Feds and SHIELD to be led into a dead end. Kraven's dangerous because of how much human he is and is able to take down certain animals he hunts, such as the case with him taking down a rhino. And he won't stop until he has his prey. There's been several incidnets with him the feds have him linked to. And that's all you're going to know about Kraven." Fury explains.
"That's all. It didn't really say much other than he's dangerous and I already know about the Wakandan thing." Peter points out. Though, he was a bit surprised about the confirmation of Kraven takin down a rhino.
"Oh, good I guess we're done with that." Fury says casually, trying to change the topic. Peter struggles to speak, but Fury interrupts him.
"Listen, Parker, I came by to tell you about the imposter Spider-Man and congratulate you on that." Fury said.
Peter was surprised by that, someone acknowledging him. "W-what?" was all he could ask.
"I congratulate you on beating the imposter, if someone was doing that with me, not counting my shapeshifting friend, I, too, would've kicked their ass," Fury points out.
Peter nodded.
"However, I did hear that about you almost killed the man and that I am very disappointed in you in doing that," Fury says.
Peter was about retort, but Fury holds his hand up again.
"I'm not done," he said. "I've watched a heavy amount of your life, Parker. And it's because I'm a study of human moves, kid. With all that's happened to you, with all that's been said and done to you and by you... it looked to me as if we were all witnessing the birth of a new enemy, a new super-villain. And I wanted to be ready. In fact now, I see the opposite is true. Now I see I'm watching the birth of someone really special..."
Peter's eyes widened. Nick Fury was complimenting him. He hadn't gotten such recognition in a long time ever since the whole fiasco with Mysterio.
"I... I don't know what to say... Mr. Fury," he gulped before speaking again. "Th-Thank you."
Fury smiled, "No problem. However, if I do see you go down on that killing path again, I don't think anyone in the Avengers would ever forgive you, plus my team would've arrested you or someone way worse would come after you. Now, I'll see you around next time."
He walks away as Peter stares at him leaving before heading back to his apartment.
As he entered in his apartment he started to wonder if things would get better for him. He proceeds to study a little extra for his GED. No patrol for today.
"Come on, man, don't give me that!" complained Flash Thompson.
"Look, all I'm saying is Spider-Man is a little hectic for someone to be a fan of," said Brad Davis.
"I'm a fan because he protects the neighborhood and inspires me to be a better man," Flash retorts.
Brad scoffs at this and then shakes his head. "Ok, but what about that incident with the Statue of Liberty? Or the tentacle guy on the bridge? Or that flying monster that attacked that apartment? All I'm just saying he's a little bit controversial to be a fan of."
"I don't understand your argument bringing those up. Are you saying Spider-Man is responsible for bringing those villains tor hose locations or... what exactly?" Flash asks.
"Well, he admitted it on that Daily Bugle call with his mask off... wait why don't I remember what he looks like?" Brad asks himself and Flash wonders about that as well. They both quickly dismiss this and get back to arguing about supporting or not supporting Spider-Man as a hero.
Jason Ionello walks by to meet his two friends and shakes his head. "You guys are still arguing about Spider-Man?"
"Yes." The duo answered simultaneously.
Jason shook his head and the three of them were walking around the neighborhood.
"What are we even doing here exactly?" Jason asks being a bit impatient.
"My parents are going to that Planetarium party, so I asked if I could come and they said 'Yes'. However, I'm planning on inviting old friends from Midtown High only because I think they deserve it." Flash explains.
"You mean..." Brad starts but doesn't finish.
"Yep, my old Academic Decathlon team before the Blip occurred. Except maybe for Liz because she's still in Oregon." Flash states.
"So like Abe, Sally, Cindy, and Charles?" Jason asks.
"Yep, I haven't seen those guys in a long time and I'm sure the Blip caused them to miss some of us." Flash said.
"But wouldn't they be a bit older than us?" Brad asked.
"Yeah, true. I feel like no one would want to reminisce about their high school years, especially ones that graduated during the Blip." Jason adds.
"Come on, guys. They're our old friends. Life is already going on hard enough with this situation in our world trying to repair itself after Thanos. The least we can do is try and get them to experience something that isn't too depressing or have to keep suffering every day because our heroes can't stop fighting bad guys who want to destroy our planet every once in a while." Flash explains.
They approach an apartment and take an elevator. After a few minutes, they approach the first door and knock on it.
Abe Brown opens the door and is shocked to see his former classmates. "Flash? Jason?" He begins, then he sees Brad and looks at him likes he's unfamiliar. "And you are?"
"It's me, Abe... Brad Davis..." Brad re-introduces himself.
"Brad Dav-the one that kept getting nose bleeds. Small kid... jeez you have one glow-up my man..." Abe complimented.
Brad chuckles at that and Flash proceeds to explain on how he's inviting everyone he knows and knew to the Planetarium party and the reason he's doing it.
"That's considerate, Flash... but don't you think I wouldn't have the time to go to parties? Like I have a job and a future to consider?" Abe asks.
"Listen, these times are rough... I figured I want to do something good for once in my life. My family was distant to me even after I got accepted to MIT... and then I just saw myself and felt inspired by Spider-Man to do the right thing. To give people hope, a second chance. I feel like this party could do that for everyone. And maybe not just his party, but other things in the future like you going to the military or I do it," Flash explains then he thought about what he just said about joining the military.
Abe shook his head and said, "I might come, but it is thoughtful of you, Flash, to do that, especially after everything that happened to our planet. Even the crazy incidents with Spider-Man at Washington."
"Yeah, Washington was insane," Flash utters.
"Anyway, I'll see you at the party." Abe confirmed.
Flash cheers this on, but Jason and Brad just shook their head.
"Wow, you really changed since high school, huh?" Jason remarks.
"And what is that suppose to mean?" Flash shot back.
"It's just you used to be more about yourself and now post-high school you want to be a better man. Sounds like you're changing to make up for your past mistakes." Brad suggests as the trio start to leave the apartment building.
"I told you, guys. I've been inspired by Spider-Man to do the right thing. And to me this is the right thing. As a matter of fact, I'm gonna go invite Ned and MJ to prove my point." Flash adds as Brad and Jason we're pleasantly surprised by this.
Ned looks outside as whose coming to Peter Pan's and sighs, "Oh, boy... look whose coming."
MJ turns to see Flash, Jason, and Brad entering in and she rolls her eyes, especially at the sight of Flash and Brad.
"Uh, Ned and MJ. My two best pals from Midtown." Flash exclaimed.
"What do you want, Flash?" Ned asks in an annoyed tone.
"Yeah, and we weren't even friends in high school," MJ remarks.
"Whoa, whoa, don't get all hasty with me. I'm trying to do the right thing. I'm inviting you guys to the Planetarium-"
"We've already been invited," both said simultaneously.
Flash was flabbergasted, "By who?"
The door opened and everyone turned to see Peter enter who looked at Flash, Brad, and Jason with an astonished face.
"I-umm, am I interrupting something?" Peter asks.
"Do you know this guy?" Jason asks Brad, who shrugs his shoulders.
"Let me guess by him?" Flash remarked sarcastically.
MJ nodded at that and then retorts, "Now if you guys don't mind ordering something or get out-"
"I'll order something," Brad says and proceeds to order a doughnut and coffee.
After a few minutes of setting up his order, giving it to him, and taking his payment. Jason, Flash, and Brad went their way.
"Weird," Peter commented.
"Yeah, you're right, it's weird seeing Flash trying to invite us to a party." Ned remarked.
"You know it's times like these why I don't go around telling everyone I'm the hero Flash admires. Kinda defeats the whole anonymous superhero thing." Peter states as both Ned and MJ chuckle at that.
"What?" Peter asked confusingly.
"It's..." Ned couldn't stop chuckling at the deja by, "When we met your multiverse counterparts, me and MJ asked them if they're Peter Parker and why don't they prove it, you know. And then they'd respond with you just said. It's still weird to see someone look different yet hear the same thing they say. The whole 'kinda defeats the whole anonymous superhero thing.'" Ned explained.
"Oh, Peter-2 and Peter-3..." Peter said with realization.
"Is that what you call them?" Ned asks excitedly.
"Yeah... I consider them to be my big brothers and I still can't believe one of them has organic webbing." Peter shakes his head out of jealously.
His best friend and girlfriend scrunch their faces in disgust.
"I'd rather you'd not have that power," MJ expresses her disgust.
"Yeah, dude. It would confirm a stereotype about you," Ned adds.
"Well, it beats trying to make web fluid with the amount of money I have." Peter remarks while shaking his head, still jealous of Peter-2's organic webbing.
Ned and MJ still scrunched their faces in disgust while Peter chuckled at this.
Ned then asked, "How are you holding up after the whole imposter situation?"
Peter blinked for a second, reminded of his terrible mistake of almost murdering someone. How could he look at his friends while they watch in terror over his crazy vigilantism? Of all the things Spider-Man causes to the people of Queens? His self-doubt increases in his mind wondering what if he was never Spider-Man? Or even existed? Maybe, his existence was just a big nuisance to the world of it was going to treat him like this. After all, who needs Peter Parker and Spider-Man-
"Earth to Peter?" Ned asks as he waves his hand in front of his face interrupting his inner thoughts.
Peter blinked again, "What? Oh yeah... I'm not sure how to answer your question... I feel," he's reminded himself of Peter-2's story of how he caught his Ben's killer, "like the darkness of that is... hard to let go... because..." he bit his lip and clenched his fists.
MJ and Ned looked at him in concern of his wellbeing. Ned was about to say something, till Peter continued on, "I just feel like my anger creeped up on so fast... I don't want to get that angry ever again... ever. It scares me."
His friends blinked as their minds flashed back to when he was beating on Goblin. The anger, the hate, the sadness of it all as he was giving his enemy his all. Goblin broke their friend to unbelievable levels, it was almost like night and day.
Ned's mind wandered into about Mysterio and his supporters (outside and online) and they've been growing. Sometimes protesting Spider-Man even though he was proven innocent. He wasn't going to lie that he was worried that his friend was going to end up in a federal prison and he'd never see his friend again ever due to accusations of murder and terrorism.
MJ thought about why Peter has this huge self-doubt about himself so much. She really wants to help him, but she's not sure if Parker can go for therapy right now given his mental state. She thought all the times they've hung out and talked. She just wish everything could be normal for them, but then again, how could Spider-Man have a normal life, she thought to herself. Not after what Mysterio said and "showed on video".
"Listen, dude, I'm sorry for asking the question-" Ned started, but Peter interjected.
"No, dude, it's..." he gulped. "It's fine, really. I'm glad you're concerned for my wellbeing."
They all smiled t that and discussed some casual stuff. Here Peter truly felt happy for a bit.
Doug was walking around the crew's room until he decided to walk out of it and peak around other areas and other materials.
Something caught his eye as he noticed the case labeled "Promethium X". He wondering why was it laying around with other dangerous weapons lying around like it's a weapons factory.
"Must be Janice's," he said to himself. He also wondered why she left it here.
He took the case, proceeded to open it, as everyone in the crew knows what the Promethium X case lock code is.
The case opens up, Doug lifts and takes what's inside it, the glass with the black goo in it. The one that's meant to kill Spider-Man.
"What are you exactly?" Doug asks as he stares at it. The black goo doesn't do anything just looking like regular goo as usual. He touches the glass with his first three fingers on it.
The black goo responds by mimicking the three fingers of Doug touching them back with the glass still in-between. This jump scares Doug into competently putting the glass of black goo back in the case and locks.
He then runs away from the case, only in a few minutes did he reach back to the main room, and locked the door. He sighed in relief and then turned to see Janice and Guterman staring at him in disappointment, but at the same time in concern.
"Having fun," Janice remarked.
"Haha very funny," Doug shot back.
"What's gotten you so spooked?" Guterman asked.
"You know black goo thing in that case?" Janice and Guterman nodded.
"Well, at first I was curious as to what t does exactly, so I went to touch it, you know, just grab the glass. But when I did... as soon as I put my three fingers on it, it looked like it mimicked me back copying the three fingers and touched back as soon as I did it. Freaked the hell out of me so I ran here," he exclaimed.
"You're saying that thing's alive?" Janice skeptically asked.
"Precisely that," Doug said back agreeing with her assessment.
"And the reason you wanted to touch it because?" Guterman asked.
"To see how it could kill Spider-Man, I wasn't gonna open and let it out. Besides, we called it Promethium X just so no one in our men touches it... and yet I feel as though we're unleashing something on the world that we may never forgive ourselves for." Doug fearfully said.
Guterman rman and Janice looked at the floor thinking about what their colleague said.
"You know I once saw our new ally eat a bunch of spiders as I walking by... he kept saying 'I must become the spider, I must become the spider.' It freaked the hell out of me," Guterman said casually.
Janice and Doug stared at their colleague in complete astonishment.
"What have we gotten ourselves into?" Janice asks herself.
Matt was busy walking as he was trying to locate Spider-Man. Peter has a very unique smell to him and that only Matt could pick up.
He needed him and wanted to tell him something important. This new info was hard to come by, but it's enough for him and Spider-Man to work together again.
He walked way past Hell's Kitchen and was able to smell his scent. It wasn't too far, yet so close. The smell was appearing to come from a doughnut shop. Now why would Spider-Man be here all of places, Matt thought to himself. Then he thought about it further and the answer came clear that it could be that's where his friends hang out. Where he hangs out as well.
He entered in to only smell only three people inside. One of them is Spider-Man. He had to act causal and not be so suspicious, most likely Spider-Man kept his identity a secret from his friends.
"Hi, I'm Matt Murdock and I would like a coffee please," Matt said as MJ who was weirded out by Murdock's request for coffee.
Ned and Peter were busy talking, but Peter wasn't paying attention as much. He looked at Murdock and wondered if he should follow him or not.
As Murdock paid for his coffee and left, Peter said to his friends, he'll be right back and that he'll come back as soon as possible.
Peter left, while Ned commented on that, "That was super weird."
MJ nodded in agreement.
Peter followed Murdock immediately trying to catch up to him. "Hey!" He called out to him.
"Hey!" He called out again catching up to Murdock who turned around instantly and greeted him.
"Oh, Peter, hi... how are you doing?" Matt said calmly.
"Drop the act, man. Why were you in there? Obviously, you were trying to communicate with me." Peter said.
Matt sighed, "Caught me on, huh. Yes, I was trying to communicate with you. I have news about our," he adjusts his glasses, "mutual friends... Roxxon has a new 'shipment' coming tonight. We're gonna stake out and follow it."
"Time?"
"Meet me at the George Washington Bridge at 7:00," Matt suggests. "The truck will be coming from Jersey, so we'll have to act fast."
"Got it, see ya at 7," Peter waved at him bye, but then quickly put it down cause Matt's blind, so he didn't want to appear insensitive.
Spider-Man swings by the George Washington Bridge and lands where he can see Mur-eh Daredevil.
"Alright, I'm here," Spider-Man says. "Where's the truck?"
"Should be coming in the next five," Daredevil replied.
"Ok, in that case, I was wondering if we could call each other nicknames," Spider-Man suggests.
"Nicknames?" Daredevil confusingly asked.
"Yeah, you know I could you..." he kept thinking up of a nickname. "Uh... how about DD?"
Daredevil groaned in annoyance as Spider-Man retorted, "What? It's a great nickname?"
"It's a terrible nickname," DD said back.
Peter chuckled underneath the mask as Daredevil was seeking out the specific truck, they needed to follow. Then his spider-sense tingled.
"Oh, no," he muttered under his breath.
"What?" DD asked.
"Something is coming," Spider-Man warned as he took a defensive stance. DD did as well. They both saw that coming towards them was Vermin climbing up the bridge and ready for a fight, meanwhile, the truck was passing by as well.
"Shit!" DD shouts in anger.
"Go! I'll distract him and you get the truck! I'll come back after I've defeated him" Spider-Man shouts as he launches himself onto Vermin. DD nods at that and jumps far enough to land on top of the truck and let it go where it needs to go.
Spider-Man and Vermin collided with each other, with Spider-Man punching Vermin in the face and Vermin scratching his chest area. The arachnid hero fired a few web balls at Vermin who was taken aback by them.
Vermin quickly pounced on the hero who was holding off his hands from scratching him any further. However, his mouth was trying the hero's head off.
"Ugh... just wait your turn!" He shouts as he kicks Vermin off him and webs him on the bridge. He jumps out of the bridge and slingshots across using two webs.
Vermin cuts off the webbing on him and growls and starts to chase the arachnid hero.
Meanwhile, with Daredevil, he still on top of the Roxxon truck. He looks behind him to see Spider-Man swinging by, but also Vermin chasing him.
"Behind you!" DD shouts.
Spider-Man turns to see Vermin chasing him and groans, "Oh come on!"
He stops swinging and proceeds to spin spectacularly in the air. Vermin jumps high towards Spider-Man.
They're free-falling and attacking each other. Spider-Man starts to swing while Vermin hangs onto his leg trying to climb up on him.
"Not cool man," Spider-Man quips and proceeds to kick him in the face many times.
Vermin growls get angrier and angrier until he clings himself onto the truck where DD was.
"Oh no... no, no, no, no." Spider-Man utters as DD proceeds to fight with Vermin.
Vermin pinned DD on the top of the truck, while DD kept trying to hold Vermin's head from biting his head off as well.
Spider-Man lands on top of the truck as well, webs Vermin, and pulls him off DD.
DD threw in a few punches to Vermin, but to no avail Vermin ate them and enlarged his claws. He roared furiously and proceeded to attack DD and Spider-Man who dodged his attacks gracefully.
"We need a plan!" DD shouts.
"You got one!" Spider-Man shouts back.
"Kind of! I don't know if it'll work!" DD yelled.
He threw his billy club at Vermin only for it to annoy the creature any further. He did it about three times until Vermin tried to pounce on DD only for Spider-Man to kick him off the truck.
Vermin landed on the ground and proceeded to escape from the bridge as cars were almost coming to hit him. He descended back to the sewers.
"And who was that?" DD asked.
"Kraven calls him, Vermin. That means he sent him to us." Spider-Man pointed out.
"Does that mean he knows what we're doing? And is he enhanced?" DD asks.
"I don't really know. Until we can get to the bottom of this, we'll keep going back to square one," was all Spider-Man could say. He wishes he could have more hope about stopping Mysterio's crew, Kraven and Vermin.
The truck exited the bridge and proceeded to drive normally.
"Well, wherever we're headed to... can't be any good," DD said.
"I second that," Spider-Man remarked.
The truck stopped at an abandoned location as the duo leaped off it and stealthily snuck into the building.
There's barely any guards, but they still had to be cautious. They snuck around quietly and into a main room that appeared to have loads of files.
"Whoa, check this place out," Spider-Man commented on it.
There was files all around the floor and on the one main desk that was just in this room and weirdly no chair. Kind of gave it a horror movie vibe.
"This gives me horror movie vibes," he quipped.
"Let's just search the files one by one. We might get something out of it," DD suggested.
"Gotcha, DD." Spider-Man quipped again as he began rummaging through the files.
DD groaned and began to search through the files.
"Wait, don't you need braille?" Spider-Man asks out of curiosity.
"My finger tips are able to read words of normal print. It's an amplified touch, one of my powers," DD explained.
Spider-Man took with that explanation and proceeded to rummage through the files.
After a few minutes, DD found something. He signaled Spider-Man to come.
As he came, DD asks him, "Do you know someone named Edward Whelan?"
"No..." Spider-Man replied wondering where DD was going with this.
"You might want to read this," DD handed the file and Spider-Man took it and read it aloud.
"Edward Whelan. Born... it's not given but redacted... as well as his age... was partaken in genetic experiments by Arnim Zola... the guy from HYDRA!" He read and said aloud.
DD shushed him as Spider-Man apologized.
"Edward was raised in an average and a well-off family. Sadly, his father was abusive growing up leading Edward to live a life on the streets. He was captured by HYDRA and experimented on by Arnim Zola and became known the Cannibal Killer, Vermin..." he read aloud and dropped the file to the floor.
"Holy shit," was all he uttered.
"Exactly, this means Vermin has been alive for a long time and how Kraven has him is what we need to find out and solve," DD explained.
"And Vermin needs to cured and helped with... and Kraven using him like an animal when he shouldn't be..." This disgusted Peter to the core. He was going to find Kraven and make him pay for what he's doing to Vermin.
"Maybe there's a file on him as well," Spider-Man suggested.
"Maybe, but it's like Kraven doesn't want to be found out about," DD also suggested. "So, I highly doubt it'd be kept around here."
"So we keep searching in other ways?" Spider-Man asks in annoyance. God, he wished sometimes villains didn't have make things difficult about themselves.
"Looks like it," DD added.
"Hey, wait, the Planetarium party is coming up." Spider-Man starts.
"Yeah so?" DD asks not sure where Spider-Man was going with this.
"Well, I think you can come with friends since everyone in New York City heard about it. Most likely Kraven will strike that to get to me," Spider-Man surmised.
"I see and you want to be ready for him. It's a good starting point, but we need a plan," DD adds to that.
"Uh, we'll contact each other next time and talk about that. Wait..." his spider-senses starts to tingle and he looks back at the desk. He approaches the desk and picks up what his spider-sense was warning him about... a regular briefcase.
"Something the matter?" DD asks in concern.
"My senses are going over this briefcase and I don't know why," he tries to pry it open with his super strength and he's successful with it. Only he was looking at something he thought it wasn't a threat, but his senses were going haywire over it. It was just a glass container of a weird black ooze. He thought nothing of it as he picked it and then noticed the briefcase was labeled Promethium X.
"This... this is what they were transporting the other day," Spider-Man pointed out.
"And you think it's not promethium at all?" DD suggested.
"Yeah... they're covering up what they're actually transporting. But why this thing looks harmless. It doesn't look acidic or anything dangerous and yet... my senses are going crazy over it." As he's about to put it back, they both hear someone come in and Spider-Man accidentally drops the glass container of the black goo. DD sighs as they both jump out the window as a guard came by and opened his flashlight to find nothing.
Unbeknownst to the heroes that just left and the guard, the black goo saw Spider-Man the first time from its perspective and proceeds to move to find him.
I'll end it there. I hope you enjoyed the story so far!