Part Six
When he woke up, Peter found himself on a bed. He was groggy and tired but growing ever more alert. At the edge of his vision he could see somebody he knew very well. His mask had been removed but the rest of his costume had been left alone except for a few rips where injections had been delievered.
The Vulture was peering at him wickedly, "He's awake." He turned at Beck, dressed as he had been earlier, "Your plan failed, Quentin."
Mysterio frowned, "His will proved more powerful than I had anticipated. I can no longer keep him sedated; his system is resisting the drugs."
"Then I'll do what I should have done when we first captured him." Adrian armed the gun port on his wrist, "Let's be rid of him."
Peter's reflexes took control fighting past whatever residual effect the drugs had over him. He kicked Adrian's arm away, "I thought you were in jail." Peter said a little dizzy.
"I would never be captured so easily nor would I allow myself to become such a joke."
Beck rose from his station, "Deal with him, Adrian, I'll be on the roof." He said slipping out.
Peter was on some sort platform located at the top of a church tower, only now beginning to learn where he was. "What is this? What did you do to me?"
"Me? It was Quentin's idea." He began to hover over the ground, "We captured you five days ago while you were on patrol. I intended to use you as a bargaining tool to get a pardon from the state but Quentin, an old associate of mine, believed that you're mind could be broken through a form of mental death and then you would become a literal slave controlled by drugs and illusions that Quentin would fabricate. Unfortunately, your willpower had to have been totally shattered and to accomplish this Quentin used drugs that tapped into your darkest fears and made them real through amazingly vivid nightmares that we could help direct. I...thought it was a stupid idea."
Memories were flooding back to Peter of the illusions he had suffered under, "I remember being in a lobby, dead, surrounded by police."
"That was our first attempt. We tried to destroy your mind ourselves but we quickly learned you would have to be the one to do it for us. Still, we failed."
Peter closed his fist, "None of it happened, why did I get gassed in my dream and I remember something about Osborn?"
"Many of things that happened in your illusion were likely Quentin being the sadist that he is, and may I add he seemed to take a great amount of enjoyment in what he called giving you red herrings so don't try and think about it too much." Adrian remarked, "Now that you have your explanation I pray that your earthly matters are in order." He lobbed a rocket from one of his shoulder launchers.
Peter dodged it the best he could only avoiding the actual explosion while the force of the impact threw him into a wall. The Vulture dived in and clipped Peter across the jaw. He fell down the tower's main chamber clumsily. He grabbed a beam that extended outward and held on tightly.
The Vulture grimaced, "What a lucky bastard." He dived for Spider-Man confident in his upcoming victory.
On the other hand, Peter fired a burst of webbing that hit the Vulture's visor forcing the old man to deviate from his path to avoid a collision.
"What's wrong, Vulch?" Peter raised himself on the beam and fired a web-line, "Eye-sights going?"
The Vulture ripped the webbing off his visor only to be kicked in the gut by Spider-Man as he swung by. "Come on, let's get a sweat going." Peter exclaimed landing on an adjacent wall.
"Shut up!" Adrian fired another missile to which Peter escaped by jumping across the length of the tower. However, the explosion caused a breach in the wall that seemed to rapidly deteriorate. "No." He murmured, "Look at what you've done!" Adrian slammed his shoulder into Spider-Man's gut throwing the web-crawler straight through a wooden beam.
Peter managed to grab a hold of a crevice but the damage was done, the tower was going to collapse and there was nothing that could stop it. He fired another web-line and swung by Adrian laying into him with a punch and kick as he passed through.
The Vulture's armor began to show cracks to which Adrian began to become desperate. He fired an entire volley of missiles wasting his whole supply in one last effort to kill his foe.
Peter escaped the first few but another exploded close, singing portions of his costume and throwing him hard into a wall to which he clung on.
Adrian charged in again firing his gun ports wildly. Peter dodged the bullets as they ripped the entire wall apart. Peter waited for the final moment to come and took it. He escaped the Vulture's charge and dived into the now flaming wreckage of the lower half of the tower. He fired a web-line and caught Adrian dragging him in as well.
Both men landed on a burning wooden beam that had been lodged in between the ends of the tower. The Vulture quickly got back to his feet only to find Spider-Man rushing forward.
The Vulture swung his fist landing a good hit on Peter's jaw to which he reeled back.
Peter however went with it and with a somersault flip landed on his feet. He moved in again dodged another of the Vulture's attacks and landed an uppercut to the visor smashing it away.
Underneath the mask, Adrian's bloody and irate face was visible. "Your living is a testament to blind stupid luck."
"You really ramble too much." Peter replied and landed another blow across the face causing Vulture to stumble and land awkwardly on the beam.
"Die!" He said flinging a grenade.
"Don't do it!" Peter exclaimed too late. He dodged the grenade by firing a web-line and escaping the inferno that was consuming the beam. For Vulture there was no such dramatic exit. The grenade rolled back down the beam stopping at Adrian's feet. With his last brief he exhaled before it exploded.
Peter watched the fireworks and slowly looked back towards an exit in the ceiling. He moved towards it and his inevitable confrontation with Beck.
Mysterio walked across the roof of the tower avoiding the bell carefully. With a sudden thud shaking the roof he turned to see Spider-Man staring back at him, "I see Adrian has failed." He looked at the smoke pouring out of the building through his dome helmet, "And that the tower will soon fail as well."
"You put me through a lot, mister." Peter said sternly, "But I guess I should thank you. You helped me figure out a lot about why I do this, ironic really."
Beck laughed, "You're welcome, Spider-Man." He reached into a pocket and slipped out several cubes, "Now if you would do the favor, I would appreciate it if you died."
He flung two cubes which landed in between them. The first exploded with smoke masking Mysterio. Peter's spider-sense led him past the second and through the smoke before the second cube exploded consuming his previous location.
"Impressive, I must admit." Beck said seeing Spider-Man emerge from the smoke. "Let's see how you handle these, my friend." A flash of light exploded dazing Peter.
His spider-sense screamed to him to duck and he did trustingly avoiding a shot from Mysterio's handgun as it zipped by.
Peter flipped through the air, relying on his instincts. He kicked the gun out of Mysterio's hand and landed a second punch shattering the dome that covered Beck's head.
Mysterio tumbled towards the edge of the roof. He looked down at the cars in the streets, "So this is the last act, eh? You and I to the end is how it will happen."
"Nobody messes with me like you did. I almost did it, I came this close to pulling that trigger." Peter moved in carefully, "You've really gotten on my bad-side."
Beck brushed away the broken glass from the edge of his costume's neck-piece, "Forgive me, but as an artist I always think of the final vision never the actual path and now I have one last show to perform for you."
Peter's spider-sense began to scream again piercing his very being. He ran in the opposite direction at lightning fast speeds.
"Though it may be crude, it is the best I can do under such circumstances." Beck tapped a button on a small remote control detonating explosives he had set up in the tower. Peter jumped off the roof, firing a line and landing on the side of a building safely away.
Moments later Peter saw Mysterio appear almost magically on a rooftop several buildings away just as the explosives began to go off consuming the entire tower in seconds.
The force shook the street and the sound felt as if it was piercing Peter's ear-drum. Traffic suddenly jammed up at the sight of the wreckage.
"Spider-Man!" Mysterio's voice strangely sounded as if he were just beside Peter, "I've seen into your soul, I know your heart, so rest assured that when we meet again I will succeed, until then your secret will remain just that." Smoke whipped around him and with that he vanished as he had arrived into his life, an enigma to be solved.
Peter entered his room through the window, every muscle ached. Mary Jane was there sleeping on his bed, apparently waiting for his return.
He pulled his mask off and let it fall to the floor. Peter closed his eyes and let the purity of the moment take him.
Her eye-lids slowly parted and she looked at him, "You're here." She said eagerly and rose up from the bed, "You've been gone for days, what happened where were you?"
"I was out fighting demons."
MJ frowned, "What demons?"
"Mine." Peter replied. She wrapped her arms around him and they embraced, "I'm sorry for scaring you."
She raised an eye, "I wasn't scared, just worried."
Peter sighed, "I wish I could stop putting you through this; I know how much it hurts you."
"It doesn't hurt me anymore." MJ responded, "You being what you are carries certain burdens and so does loving you and I'm prepared to take a million moments of pain for just a moment where I can be with you like this. I love you, tiger; that overcomes any of the bad."
Peter smiled, "I was lost for a moment, I mean I was lost for good and then I remembered you."
She looked into his eyes and kissed him, "That's why I wasn't scared. You're different; something looks like it was lifted off your shoulders."
He rolled his head back and closed his eyes again, " It was, I know now that my strength has never come from that spider, it came from all of you, Flash, uncle Ben, Gwen, all of you give me a reason to fight. I'm thankful for that, eternally thankful and nobody can ever take that away."
"Just rest, Peter, rest for today, you've earned it."
"Talk to me." He said lying on the bed with MJ beside him, "I missed you in your play, how did that go?"
MJ smiled, he always found time for her even things couldn't be darker, he always made the time. She began to speak even as Peter drifted off into a deep slumber.