(I, Monster)
Spectacular Webhead 11: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. I wouldn't count on Black Cat reappearing for awhile at least.
Superjoeyf721: No, May knows about Peter hanging out with Splinter and the Turtles, but not about him being Spider-Man.
Vfc15650: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. Yeah I know what you mean, going back to school means that the rest of Peter's classmates are bound to return, which means a lot of drama is inevitable. I wouldn't say that we'll be getting less of the Turtles, keeping in mind that I'm trying to balance the elements of both series, but yeah, it is primarily as Spider-Man story. I do have a few ideas for the dynamic between Hobie and Peter, so you'll see how that pans out soon enough. Like I said, if Miles does show up then it won't be for awhile. I always enjoy writing out the relationship between Peter and Mikey, and Leatherhead is a fan favorite character for a reason. I do have plans for the Symbiote, but you're not going to see what those are for a good while. As for May noticing Mikey, like I said, that's not ninja skills, that's parenting skills.
Guest: I like the way you think. Even without any sort of enhancements, Shredder is incredibly dangerous in his own right, perhaps even up there with the likes of Venom and the Green Goblin as he is. But be sure to keep that idea of yours in mind. Who knows, I may very well end up doing something like that later on.
Guest: The next update is a work in progress, so please be patient.
Tortugafash2002: Yep, and the number is only going to get bigger as the story goes on. I mean granted it's not going to be one of those things where his identity is revealed to the entire world, but a fair number of people will find out. That little fact about Hobie being Spider-Punk is pretty interesting, I'll have to look into that at some point. I have a few ideas for other people having spider powers, but I'm not going to spoil anything just yet. I never heard of the Leopardon before, or Takuya Yamashiro, but I'll be sure to check those out at some point in the future. Just because Leatherhead was able to access Peter's memories doesn't necessarily mean he gained his intelligence. We might see nods and references to other TMNT media, but keep in mind that this is mainly based on the 2012 series.
Guest: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. Of course I couldn't not bring back the Symbiote at some point, and I thought combining it with the Leatherhead episode would be a unique way of doing that. As for your other comment, since Peter will be going back to school soon, it's only a matter of time before the problems from his social life come up again. You are right though, he's got enough working against him as it is. The guy needs a break.
SamusTheHedgehog: Thanks, I'm glad to see you like it so far. As far as the Spider-Man side of the story goes, I have already introduced a few villains that didn't get a chance to appear, such as the Beetle, the Prowler and Hydro-Man, the last one being one of the villains they did plan to introduce. I have ideas for a few more villains, but you'll have to wait and see who those are and when they'll appear. As for my plans regarding Gwen, I'm not going to spoil anything just yet, but she will play an important part in the story when the time comes. I will say that if you do the story you mentioned, let me know. I'd be pretty interested in reading it.
Guest: I did say that I have plans for Gwen, ones that don't involve her dying, but I'm not going to spoil anything just yet.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
During a stormy night in an abandoned warehouse, Victor Falco was trying to use the last of his stash of Mutagen recreate the psychic neuro-chemical. It appeared that he came close to reaching this goal, but some of the lab rats he had been using in his experiments chewed through the power lines hanging near the ceiling, causing the lab to subsequently catch on fire. Falco was injured severely by the fire, but thanks to his neuro-chemical, he was able to communicate with the rats telepathically, using them to save himself.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The night was calm, and training was once again underway.
'No signs of any openings…' Spider-Man glanced over to where Splinter stood at the far end of the dojo, with the Turtles watching from the sidelines 'Splinter says he wants me to practice fighting one-on-one against an opponent without any kind of superpowers or advanced tech or gear at their disposal, and he asked the guys to stay on the sidelines so we could turn this into a one on one session, which is probably for the best/which works out just fine for me, because god knows Shredder didn't have any sort of powers or gear like that, and this way I can guage how I would fare against someone on that level after the past few weeks of training. Just remember, be careful not to let down my guard, make use of my Spider Sense and keep an eye on every side at all times. If I remember all of that then I should be fine, if I don't then I'm gonna get my web hole handed to me. Okay enough brooding, time to do this.' he slowly pulled himself to his feet as he dropped into a stance.
"I take it that means you're ready to begin?" Splinter spared him a quick glance back while his eyes remained closed.
"Yep."
"Then let us begin. Hajime."
"All I need to hear." so Spider-Man leapt forward with a kick aimed at the back of Splinter's head.
Splinter simply grabbed Spider-Man by the leg and threw him to the ground in an instant.
Spider-Man rebounded in a second and dodged the follow up kick, then tried to hit Splinter in the face with a stream of webs.
Splinter weaved around the stream of webs, as well as the attempted punch and kick that came next, and knocked Spider-Man off his feet with a spin kick to the legs, then moved to grab him by the arm.
Spider-Man ducked underneath the grab and rolled to avoid the next strike, and then he moved and managed to strike Splinter with an uppercut knee to the jaw, sending him stumbling back a few feet, as well as taking him and everyone else by surprise 'Holy crap, did that actually just happen?'
Splinter took advantage of this moment of hesitation, in which he grabbed Spider-Man by the arm and threw him to the ground in an armlock "You did well, and you have shown significant improvement in your level of skill since your training began. However, just when you gained an advantage over your opponent you hesitated, and that made you vulnerable."
"Yeah, I'm kind of noticing that. I'm also noticing that your foot is on my spine."
"That it is. Remember that any form of hesitation can lead to vulnerability that your foes will not hesitate to exploit. When you dedicate your life to saving others, that is an error that you cannot afford, or else the consequences can be deadly, and not just for yourself."
"Right… I'll be sure to remember that."
"Good, then that will be all for today. Unless you care for a rematch."
"Tempting as it is to get slammed into the ground again, that's not really on the table for me right now. I've gotta get home and prep for what's coming tomorrow.
"I see. So be it then, I will see you for tomorrow's training." and so he made his way into his room, the door sliding shut behind him.
"Okay, so that happened. I'll be seeing you guys." Spider-Man gave a simple wave to the Turtles and started making his way out of the Lair.
"Yo dude hold up." Mikey was quick to rush up alongside him "You realize what you just did in there right?"
"I got my web hole handed to me by the ninja rat master?"
"The shell with that bro, you actually tagged sensei! That was a whole new level of epic, I think I'm gonna need to make up a new word for how awesome that is! That knee of yours actually drew blood from Splinter. You know you can never wash that knee again right?"
"First of all, I didn't actually draw blood from him. Second of all, contrary to your belief, people who don't live in the sewers do bathe on a regular basis. Actually so do people who live in the sewers, I'm pretty you're the only odd one out there. Besides, it might be progress in actually learning how to fight, but it's nowhere near enough yet. I've got a long way to go if I want to stand a chance of beating someone like the Shredder." Spider-Man released a long breath as the two of them reached the entrance of the Lair and he took off his mask, revealing the face of Peter Parker "But in any case I don't have time to worry about that right now, I've gotta hurry and get home. I promised Aunt May I'd be home by 10:30 in correspondence with the new curfew she set up with you guys in mind."
"She cooking again?"
"She always cooks, and frankly her cooking is a godsend. But in any case, this is the last night of me being a free man."
"What the shell does that mean?"
"Mikey, I've spent the past year battling against all sorts of crazy supervillains and madmen with all kinds of crazy plans or ambitions, or just plain psychopaths who want to conquer the world or something like that. I've also spent the last month pushing myself to the limit, training with Splinter and you and the rest of the Turtles until my bones crack. I've done all of that, but nothing will be enough to prepare me for what I'm about to go through."
"What is it?"
"Starting tomorrow, I'm gonna return to a soul-bruising, confidence crushing and apocalyptic environment. High school."
"Ooh."
"Yeah. I'm gonna be going back to school tomorrow… and I'm gonna have to deal with all of the crap that comes with it."
"A lot of baggage and stuff?"
"Let's see here, just to name the few bits off the top of my head… I broke up with Liz so that I could get together with Gwen, but then she decided to stay with Harry-"
"Which you gave her the okay to do."
"-after his dad died and now Harry hates me but doesn't know it's me. Liz probably hates me now for breaking up with her, and I'm pretty sure that everyone else at school still hates me for whatever stereotypical crap comes with me being a nerd."
"Ah. So high school drama huh."
"April wasn't kidding when she said that ninja training with a master like Splinter can't be as bad as high school."
"Hey I'm not doubting you. So what are you gonna do about all the drama?"
"Absolute honesty? I don't have a damn clue. I'm half expecting Liz to storm up to me and kick me in between the legs for breaking up with her like that."
"Huh. So you regret dumping her?"
"I… I don't know, I never really stopped to think about it."
"You think you did the right thing by dumping her?"
"I wasn't really thinking about that at the time. Gwen and I made that agreement to break off our own relationships so we could be together. I held up my end of the bargain, and Liz was pretty upset about it. Actually, I think she was upset about a lot of things." Peter stopped in his tracks as his face fell "And she was right to be. Looking back, I was always running out on her for one reason or another, usually Spider-Man stuff under the guise of work for the Bugle."
"You do work for them."
"I know, but that's not the point. What makes it worse is that I was thinking about Gwen most of the time too. Even when I didn't realize it, she was the one I wanted to be with. Dammit her brother was right, she is too good for me."
"Come on bro, don't be like that. We both know you just make stupid mistakes, but you gotta learn from them and move on, and that's what you're doing. Plus if you wanna take it a step further than that, why not try apologizing to the girl next time you see her?"
"You really think it's going to make a difference?"
"It couldn't hurt right?"
"...Fine I'll think about it, I mean what's the worst thing that can happen right? Anyway I really gotta get home. I'll tell May you said hi."
"Works for me, later dude." the two of them shared a quick fist bump, and then they went their separate ways.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Morning came, and the sun was rising over the skies above New York.
'I never thought I would be so terrified of the first day of school.' Peter let out a sigh as he put on his typical attire, consisting of the grey long sleeve shirt underneath a blue t-shirt, as well as brown khaki pants, over his Spider-Man suit and made his way down the stairs 'To think that so much has changed over the past year. Becoming Spider-Man, fighting off madman and monsters to save the city and all the good stuff… and I basically ended up losing my two best friends, the ones that have always been by my side since seventh grade… especially Gwen. Then there's all of the other drama, like with Liz and MJ and all of that… oh yeah, and the fact that the Prowler is one of the goes that goes to the same school as me. Yep, like is about as awesome as it can get for a guy living in the Big Apple, and yes I'm being sarcastic.' he was about to round the corner into the kitchen, only to stop when he heard a few voices and quickly poked his head around the corner 'Okay so Aunt May is there, and… Is that April?'
"I'm worried about Peter, I really am." May let out a sigh as she picked up the cup of tea in front of her and glanced over at the red-haired girl sitting across from her "He's been rushing around all over the place for one reason or another for ages, he's barely sat down for more than a moment all Summer. On top of that, the poor thing has been having nightmares for weeks about Heaven only knows what. Honestly, it's moments like these that make me wish that Ben were still around to talk with him. He could always reach Peter better than I could. I still miss him more than anything." but then she forced on a smile "But listen to me go on, I wouldn't want to hold you up on a day like this."
"Hey it's completely fine, I'm always up for a talk woman to woman." April gripped May's hand and gave a reassuring smile "But you don't have to worry about Peter, I'm gonna look out for him while we're at school okay? And MJ is gonna be there for him too."
"And believe me dear, I'm both relieved and grateful for that. Also, why don't we keep this little chat between us women? I don't want Peter to worry or fret over me or anything."
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Besides, I've only known Peter Parker for about a day, but if my hunch about him is right, and they usually are, then I owe him for a lot."
"I'm just glad that he still has other people looking out for him."
"Ahem." this was when Peter made his way down the stairs and into the kitchen, where he promptly greeted May with a kiss on the cheek "Morning to you Aunt May, so how is the most beautiful woman in Forest Hills doing on a day like this?"
"Oh come now Peter. Now you'd best hurry up and run along, you don't want to be late on the first day."
"That I don't. Speaking of which, hey April, what are you doing here?"
"Well like May said, we don't wanna be late, especially not on my first day at a whole new school." April gave a shrug as she stood up and grabbed her back "But thanks for the tea and the girl talk Mrs Parker, but we'd better get going. Speaking of which Peter, part of me was hoping that you'd be up for showing me how to get there?"
"Sure no problem. You know in hindsight, we probably should've done this the other day when we went out with MJ."
"That was my first thought, but hey, live and learn right?" the two of them made their way out the door and started walking down the street "But if I'm gonna be completely honest with you, another reason why I'm here is because I had something I wanted to talk to you about, just one on one."
"Um… okay, so what's up?"
"Well here's the thing. I don't know if MJ ever told you about this, but ever since I was a little girl, I've always had a certain… instinct I guess you could call it. Sometimes I just get… well a really weird feeling about certain things, and it lets me… notice things. This is the part where it's gonna start to sound really ridiculous."
"You live in New York City, really nothing sounds ridiculous anymore."
"Fair enough. Anyway, this is the ridiculous part I mentioned… Those feelings I had? My teacher that's helping me to learn about them, he called it a rare sensitivity to certain things, and they were what helped me to figure out that one of the missing scientists had been turned into a psychic mutant monkey."
"Uh huh. Well that explains what she and the other Turtles were doing while Mikey and I were fighting off Kraven. So… where are you going with this exactly?"
"I'm just gonna come right out and say it." April stopped in her tracks, prompting Peter to do the same "This feeling I get, it lets me recognize certain people, no matter where we are or what they wear… or if they have a mask on or not."
"Uh… uh huh."
"I'm just gonna come out and ask it. Peter… are you Spider-Man?"
"...Aw crap, we're doing this now aren't we?" Peter grabbed April by the arm and pulled her into a nearby alley, his voice low and urgent "Not a word about this to anyone at school, got it?"
"Right right, but seriously, you are Spider-Man?"
"I thought I was keeping it a secret from everyone to keep them safe, but apparently people are figuring it out faster than the mating process of rabbits at this point."
"I think it's safe to say that I have certain special circumstances going for me, but seriously, you're actually Spider-Man?"
"Will you stop saying that out loud?"
"Well it's a lot to take in. I mean who else knows? Does your aunt or MJ know, and what about the Turtles and Splinter?"
"Okay, in order: Aunt May doesn't know that I'm Spider-Man but MJ does, she's actually been helping me out by keeping tabs on my aunt for me. Splinter knows, apparently knew both May and my Uncle Ben, which is a whole other story for another time. As far as the Turtles go, the only ones who know who I am underneath the mask are Mikey and Donnie."
"So that means the only ones who don't know are Leo and Raph?"
"Basically yeah, and before you ask, no I didn't tell the others. Everyone who knows figured it out on their own and later confronted me about it."
"Fair enough, I guess."
"Yeah. So this sense of yours that you were talking about was what let you figure out who I really was?"
"Well that, and something that you said to me the other day. You mentioned how a man in a mask didn't have something to hide, but really something to protect. Mikey mentioned that you had said something along those lines to him awhile back, during the whole incident with Dr Falco and the psychic monkey."
"Ah. Okay then, so that one's on me. And so are the others actually. Crap, I'm really bad a the whole secret identity thing aren't I?"
"Think of it this way, at least you try to keep your identity a secret. That's more than can be said for those who just flat out tell the whole world who they are. Take Tony Stark for example."
"It's not exactly the same thing. He's a genius, billionaire, playboy and philanthropist, and I'm a broke as hell high school student living in Queens and barely making ends meet. Speaking of which, we gotta get going or we actually will be late for school."
"Yeah that's a good point, I really don't wanna be late on my first day." the two of them made their way out of the alley and started walking down the street once again "Here's to what I'm hoping will be an uneventful day."
"As far as I'm concerned, an uneventful day is one where I don't have some lunatic with advanced technology or superpowers trying to rip my head off for one reason or another. And now that I said it out loud, it's probably going to happen."
"Don't just assume the worst is going to happen because of one thing a person says. After all, you know what they say about assuming."
"And how many times have you almost died in the last week?"
"...That's not the point."
"I'm pretty sure it is."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A short while later, at the school…
"See, we're already at school and nothing has tried to eat us yet." April look ahead as she made her way towards the main building of the school, only to stop when she took a look back and noticed Peter standing at the gateway "You okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine, just expecting the universe to hit me like a bulldozer." Peter told her dryly, only to be grabbed and pulled towards the entrance "And now I'm being dragged against my will like a rag doll."
"Come on, you can't seriously think it's going to be that bad."
"Two points to counter that. One, we've both established with Splinter that his training from hell has nothing on going to a public high school in New York. Two, there's the fact that I'm in love with one of my best friends who happens to be dating my other best friend that hates me but doesn't know it's me, coupled with the fact that I dumped my popular cheerleader girlfriend to get together with the aforementioned best friend but it never panned out, and even before that I was already a social pariah. Oh yeah, and did I mention that a certain mercenary that used to work for the Foot Clan goes to this school?"
"...Okay yeah, that sounds pretty bad."
"I rest my case."
"But seriously, let's just go to class and get it over with. What's the worst that can happen just going to class?"
"It's more about what can and more than likely will happen before class." Peter paused and took another look around, to which he noticed a certain blonde in a cheerleader uniform (Sally Avril) storming up to him with a look of fury "Case and point."
"You got a lot of nerve showing your face here dweeb!" sure enough, Sally stormed up to him and grabbed him by the front of the shirt "Do you know what you caused?!"
"The complete collapse of the social order and completely disregarding any stereotypes relating to high school students that nobody really took seriously to begin with?"
"Oh don't even get me started on that! First up you totally screwed up the social order when you put some kind of geek spell on Liz, and things totally snowballed from there! Do you know how bad you screwed things up for me?"
"Not even remotely."
"Are you kidding me? He called it off! My man Rand Robertson, the two of us being Midtown's number one power couple after you screwed with Liz's head, broke up with me! This is all your fault!" and so she moved to slap Peter across the face in her rage, only for him to sidestep her on instinct.
'Huh. I didn't even mean to do that. I think.' Peter shared a quick glance with April, and the same thought came to both of their minds 'Thank you Splinter. I would be more grateful if it wan't for the fact that secret identities suck.'
"Hey what the hell dweeb, I was trying to smack you!"
"Yeah we noticed, I'm pretty sure that's why he dodged." April told her dryly.
"Yeah well… shut up red!" Sally shot a glare at April, then another dirty look at Peter, and then she stormed off.
"So that was…"
"The ever personable Miss Sally Avril." Peter noted dryly.
"Is that the one you said you used to have a crush on?"
"In my defense, I never said that I was proud of it. Anyway let's just get inside, the last thing I want right now is to deal with more drama-"
"Peter?" another familiar voice got his attention, this one filling him with a sense of dread.
'...Yep, I should've seen that coming.' Peter slowly turned around and found Gwen and Harry both standing before him, hand in hand 'And here I was hoping. Gwen, Harry. Hey. It uh… It's been a long time hasn't it?"
"Yeah, a pretty long time ." Gwen looked up at Peter, but struggled to meet his gaze "So… how did the Summer go for you?"
"Fine I guess, just trying to keep busy and all. How about you guys? I mean with everything that happened before…"
"Yeah well, it was pretty rough for me for awhile." Harry breathed a sigh as he gripped Gwen's hand tighter and pulled her close "I mean thinking about what happened to my dad, how we may have been able to help him if Spider-Man hadn't… Anyway I'm just glad I had Gwen by my side to help me get through it. I don't know what I'd do if it wasn't for her… For all we know, she might be the only thing that's keeping me from going back on the Green myself, and if I ever lost her…" he left the end of that sentence hanging in the air, leading to a tense silence between the three of them.
"...Okay, as fun as the standoff is, I should probably introduce myself." April was quick to get in between the three of them "My name is April O'Neil, nice to meet you guys."
"Oh yeah, Harry Osborn, and this here is Gwen Stacy, my girlfriend." Harry's tone held a bit of malice and smugness to it at the end.
"Right, so that's you guys. My cousin actually told me a lot about you guys, about everyone at this school actually."
"Your cousin?"
"She means MJ." was Peter's quick clarification.
"Oh."
"Yeah. Speaking of which, I'd better go and find her before class starts, so I'm gonna let you guys get introduced and all, so… bye." he moved to walk away from the group, only to be stopped by a hand grabbing his wrist.
"Peter wait." as it turns out, it was Gwen grabbing him by the wrist, her expression almost pleading as the two of them locked eyes "I know things have been… weird for us for awhile, but maybe when school is over, we can just… talking about everything?"
"Um… maybe. Look I really gotta go. I'll see you around." and so Peter released himself and quickly made his way inside the school building.
"Well… that was pretty awkward." April glanced over at the direction Peter fled, then over to see how downcast Gwen looked "Anyway I'd better go after him, he's the one that was showing me around this school in the first place. Nice meeting you guys. Sort of." she was about to make her way inside, only to spare another glance at them "You know, he doesn't really like to talk about it very much, but he really did miss you guys. You might wanna do something about that now that you've got the chance." and so she made her way inside.
All the while, Gwen just watched the two of them leave as her face fell further 'Peter… I never meant to hurt you… I'm so sorry…' she shut her eyes as she tried to force back a few tears.
"Gwen, Gwen what's the matter?" Harry tried to pull her into a hug, only for her to pull away quickly.
"I'm fine Harry, but I gotta get to class. I'll talk to you later." and so she made her way inside, with Harry following close behind her.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Meanwhile in the Lair, the Turtles were engaged in a training session with Splinter and had taken a moment to consult with one another as they prepared to engage Splinter in a coordinated free for all. At first, Splinter managed to dodge all of their attacks with ease, but Leo, being the last one standing, managed to get close and strike Splinter in the face, but he was so shocked by this that he hesitated, which made him vulnerable, something that Splinter pointed out, but not before defeating him with a single strike. After this training session was over, the Turtles were quick to let this victory (the term being used very loosely) go to their heads and go so far as to claim that they may not need Splinter to teach them anymore, something that Splinter overheard and left him visibly unsettled.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Meanwhile, with the other protagonist…
'Well if I'm trying to avoid anymore drama, at the very least I can take my time in seclusion to do something productive.' Peter breathed a sigh as he made his way down into a dark abandoned room and sat on the floor with his legs crossed and his eyes closed 'I don't know how long it's going to be before I have to fight him again, so I have to be ready.' he opened his eyes and his gaze hardened at what he was seeing.
"There is no place you can run, no place you can hide, where I will not find you." standing before him was the figure of the Shredder with his blades extended "You think you are ready to face me?"
"I think I'll be damned if I don't come at you with everything I've got." Peter pulled down his mask over his forehead, and then Spider-Man charged at the Shredder and launched a spinning axe kick.
Shredder dodged the strike with ease, then suddenly blitzed behind Spider-Man and slashed at him square in the back with his blades, causing blood to spurt into the air.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Meanwhile, with the two redheads…
"So that was one of the more awkward exchanges I've had in recent times." April sat down at a table on the school rooftop across from MJ, a tray in hand "And it's also about 5 minutes of my life I'm not getting back."
"Try spending the last 10 months dealing with that." MJ told her dryly "Compared to that you still have it easy, or you did before you transferred here."
"Fair enough. So anyway as far as that whole thing goes, Peter pretty much went on his own way after that conversation. I'm pretty sure he's been avoiding the two of them since then."
"But as far as the initial conversation goes, he didn't let either of them have it or anything along those lines?"
"Nope, he was pretty civil with them until Harry started talking about the death of his dad and how Gwen was basically the only thing that kept him going. Actually knowing all of the context behind that, it's not wonder Peter wanted to get the hell out of there as soon as he could."
"When you say you know all of the context-"
"I mean all of it." April leaned closer to MJ, her voice low "I mean yes, I know that Peter is Spider-Man. I've known since the day you introduced us to him."
"Ah. Okay, I guess that cat's out of the bag. Anyway as far as the whole thing with his two BFFs goes, I say Tiger pretty much nailed it."
"You think so?"
"I think he played it cool with them, which is exactly what he should've done. Okay try and imagine a scale on this kind of thing, with the far end of one side being that he breaks down sobbing in a wreck about how he just sits in his bath tub sniffing it for hours on end while he's eating a bag of Cheetos, and the far end of the other side being that he shows up at school with his new girlfriend who's basically a French version of Gwen that has a set of cans the size of watermelons."
"That's… a pretty colorful description."
"I've seen it play out way too many times, that's way more accurate of a description than it has any right to be. Anyway, Tiger falls right into the middle of that spectrum, and the way I see it, that means he nailed it. Besides, it wouldn't really be right for him to chew either of them out over not talking to him over Summer."
"Because Harry's dad just died and he needed Gwen by his side to help him grieve?"
"That's more than likely what Peter is thinking right now. But what I meant was that… at one point over the Summer, I talked to Gwen and told her that as long as she was choosing to stay with Harry, she and Peter probably shouldn't see each other."
"Ah. Speaking of which, where exactly is Peter anyway?"
"Oh he said he was gonna head down to the storage room in the basement, said he wanted to try something out."
"Try something out? Oh, so he's finally gonna put that to use."
"You know what he's talking about?"
"Well if I had to guess, I'd say he's finally taking the chance to give image training a try."
"Is that one of those ninja techniques the two of you have been learning?"
"It's more of a mental exercise, which especially works for someone like him. When you do image training, you have to picture your opponent, in Peter's case it's probably someone like the Green Goblin, and he's taking the chance to try a bunch of different moves to see what works and what doesn't."
"Huh. Sounds pretty hardcore."
"I've only tried it once myself when Donnie showed me how it works, but it was pretty intense all things consiered. Though I will say that having a partner makes it work a lot better."
What none of them noticed was that another figure was listening in on their conversation from different positions on the roof, and they promptly made their way inside.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Meanwhile, with the meditator in question…
"Son of a-" Peter's eyes snapped open as he fell forward, but he managed to steady himself and stop himself from hitting the floor face first, though he did quickly take notice of the fact that his lip was bleeding 'Huh, I wasn't expecting that. Splinter was right, you get so engrossed in your focus on mental training that it might as well be the real thing. Too bad it isn't doing any real good here. No matter what I try, I still can't imagine myself winning against the Shredder in a straight up fight, at least not in a way that doesn't involve killing him.' it was then that the sound of his stomach growling drew his thoughts elsewhere 'Well since that was pretty much a bust, I might as well head up and grab something to eat before lunch period is over. I'm just hoping that I don't end up running into anyone else whose Sugar Honey Iced Tea list I'm on right now.' he moved to make his way out of the room, only to freeze when he saw someone else standing in the doorway, and the two of them came face to face 'Yep, I shouldn't be surprised by this.'
As it turns out, standing on the other side of the doorway was a certain brunette in a cheerleader uniform (Liz Allen), and she immediately froze when she saw Peter "Oh… hi Petey."
'I really have to stop tempting fate with every though. Hey Liz. Long time no see."
"Yeah, a pretty long while actually. So… how have you been?"
"Fine I guess, just pretty busy, had a lot going on over the Summer. What about you?"
"Not a lot I guess, just… trying to keep busy myself."
"Yeah I kind of noticed, I looked like you were… doing yoga?"
"Sort of. It was actually a mental exercise that I learned from a few new friends I made over the Summer. Plus I just wanted to get a few minutes alone. The crowd up there can honestly be kind of overwhelming sometimes."
"Yeah, I noticed that too. So how did it go?"
"It was… interesting, but I've still got a ways to go on all of that stuff." Peter quickly wiped the small strand of blood away from his lip before Liz could notice it "So what are you doing all the way down here?"
"Oh, I just wanted to find a place where I could get some privacy and make a phone call. I have some… personal stuff I have to deal with."
"Ah, fair enough. I won't get in your way then." Peter moved to make his way out of the room, but then he stopped and let out a sigh 'Here I thought I was gonna spend most of my senior year trying to avoid her, but here she is now, and I just spent a good few minutes talking to her, and she still hasn't bitten my head off. Going one step further can't hurt I guess. I hope. Mikey you had better be right about this, if you aren't then my ghost will haunt you forever.' so with a deep breath, he turned back around to face Liz "Actually Liz, you mind if I just say something before I go?"
"Um… sure I guess."
"Thanks." so Peter took another breath and began "Listen Liz, I know this isn't going to mean much in the grand scheme of things, or anything at all really, but I just want to say that… I'm really sorry for how things ended. I wish I could've sorted out the way I felt a lot sooner… and that I had been a better boyfriend to you in general. I never meant to hurt you."
"I…" Liz turned away from him, but after a moment she turned back and looked him square in the eye "I know you didn't Petey. I mean yeah, I was mad and embarrassed… and hurt. It was hard for me for awhile. But honestly, maybe it was better for things to have ended when they did than for it to drag out and be a lot worse right? Besides, it's not like there's any such thing as a good way to break up with someone. And honestly, I did get the feeling that you wanted to be with Gwen more than you ever did me. At least you didn't cheat on me or anything."
"...Huh."
"What?"
"Nothing, it's just… You're being a lot more rationale about this than I thought you'd be. I was honestly expecting you to kick me in the crotch. Not that I wouldn't have it coming, but…"
"Well the thing is Petey, after a guy breaks your heart, which leads to you cutting his head out of all of your photos, smash or throw out everything you ever got from him and spend a pretty good majority of your summer vacation crying into your pillow, you eventually get to rationale. Or really, you just get tired of being angry and feeling sorry for yourself. Plus I found out that it helps to surround yourself with a few good people."
"I know this is really overdue, but I also find that it helps to keep yourself busy."
"It does. Anyway I'm happy, and I think I'm in a… decent enough place. Now anyway. And I do want you to be happy, you're a sweet guy and you deserve it."
"Yeah well, I don't see much hope in that happening now. You know because of…"
"Oh. I see." Liz cringed at the thought, but then her face perked up "Say just taking a chance here, is there any chance you would want to… maybe give us one more try?"
"Wow… I didn't think you'd wany anything to do with me."
"Like I said, I was mad and hurt. But I was serious about how I felt about you. How I honestly still do feel about you." she moved towards him and slowly wrapped her arms around him "So what do you say Petey, are you up for giving it one more try?"
"I…" Peter was about to give a response on instinct, but then he stopped in his tracks as a certain memory flashed in front of his eyes.
"Two words: Gwen. Stacy. I saw the way you looked at her, and how you apologized to her for leaving. Well my sister's not gonna be your second choice. She's too good for that. She's too good for you."
'That's right… Valentine's day… God, what am I doing?' Peter stopped and slowly freed himself from Liz's embrace.
"Petey what's wrong?" Liz looked up at him with concern.
"Liz listen, you're great, you really are. But as far as us trying again goes… I just don't think that's a good idea. I don't want to make you my second choice. You deserve to have a lot better than that."
"Oh. I see." Liz wiped away a few tears and forced on a smile "Okay, I understand."
"Good. That's good. But listen, if there's anything that I can ever do for you, just say the word and I'll make it happen."
"I'll… I'll be sure to remember that. And Petey? Thank you."
"No problem. Anyway I think I've held you up long enough, I'll leave you to make that phone call you mentioned. You take care now."
"You too. Bye."
"Bye." and so he made his way out of the room, though he stopped when he heard the sound of quiet sobs behind him, to which he visibly cringed 'I'm sorry Liz. Again.'
"Like I told you before, sometimes we have to do things we don't like if we want to do right by the people we care about."
Peter's gaze snapped forward and he found Hobie standing in front of him "Oh… hey."
"Sup Parker. How have you been?"
"Well…" he took a glance back "On the one hand, I've had way better moments. On the other hand, I've also had way worse."
"Fair enough. Which category does this fall into?"
"I'm… not really sure right now." there was a brief pause, and then he looked back at Hobie "So about this one time where-"
"How about instead of you fumbling over trying to figure out what to say, you and I just cut to the chase. I won't tell about your secret so long as you don't tell about mine."
"Um… yeah sure, that works for me." the two of them promptly shook hands to make their new agreement official.
"Good. So I overheard a little bit of your conversation with Allen in there. Was that really yoga you were doing?"
"No it was more of a mental exercise."
"You mean image training?"
"You know about it?"
"I like to do it when I have some free time, but as a piece of advice, I'll tell you that there's one way to make it even more effective."
"Which is?"
"To do it with a partner. Are you up for it?"
"Um… yeah sure, why not?"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
At the same time, Falco was now severely deformed and living underground amongst millions of rats, to the point where he started to call himself the Rat King, and he plotted to subjugate the city to claim it for the rats themselves, under the belief that the humans had been holding out on them for centuries. So as part of this plan, the rats were quick to start invading the city, which resulted in massive panic and havoc across the city. To make matters worse, using the telepathic link he had acquired with rats, the Rat King became aware of Splinter, coming to see him as a sort of kindred spirit, and decided to try and control him. He even made contact with Splinter using his telepathy, causing Splinter to scream in pain and fall to the ground, which led to the Turtles rushing to his side to check on him.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Hours passed, and the school day was about to come to a close.
"Well that was a full day of my life I'm not getting back." MJ breathed a long sigh as she made her way through the halls of the school, only to end up running into Flash and a large bald student (Kenny Kong) poking their head around the corner "Son of a- What the hell are you two doing?"
"Huh? Oh hey Watson." Flash just gave her a backhanded wave and turned his attention back to whatever was around the corner.
"...Okay what do I need to know about this?"
"Depends on whether or not you want the migraine."
MJ glanced over to see a bulky dark-skinned teenager (Randy Robertson) standing in a nearby doorway "Oh, hey Randy. Well my cousin said she wanted to get some shopping done on the way home, and something about getting some girl talk in with one of the other students. So I say go ahead and give me the details, see what happens."
"Fine by me." Randy gave a shrug as he leaned against a nearby locker "Well it started out as Thompson overhearing that Osborn got called into the principle's office for a meeting about all the stuff that went down last year, like him being juiced."
"And how did that go?"
"Thompson only overheard a little bit, but from the looks of it, Osborn is banned from being part of any sports teams or athletic extracurriculars this year. From what we know, he wasn't too happy about it, but there's nothing he can do about it. Last I heard, the Stacy girl is trying to calm him down now."
"Uh huh. So what does that have to do with those two idiots?" she jerked a thumb over at Flash and Kenny.
"Oh that? See after that we figured we'd give Brown the heads up, especially since he was the first one to side with Thompson when he spilled about Osborn playing juiced and getting us disqualified. And that led to us finding out about that." he opened the door to the gym and showed her the sight of Peter and Hobie sitting on the ground, legs crossed and eyes closed, both of them deep in concentration.
"So he's in there with Tiger? Why is that such a big deal?"
"You mean aside from the whole thing about one of the "geeks" hanging out with a member of the footbal team? I don't really care about those kinds of things personally, but apparently all of the others do. Case and point." he jerked a thumb at Flash and Kenny.
"Ah, so it's the whole stereotype surrounding the in crowd then."
"Pretty much yeah. Personally the only thing I'm really interested in is trying to figure out just what is is they're doing. I think it's some kind of yoga."
"Actually it looks more like something my cousin told me about."
"So is it yoga?"
"All I really know is it's some kind of exercise for the mind, and when you think about it, that's actually perfect for someone like Tiger in there. Anyway hang on, I think they're about to finish in there."
"Son of a-" Hobie's eyes snapped open as he fell forward, panting heavily as he stopped himself from hitting the ground "Okay not going to lie, I didn't expect you to do that. I thought you said you never actually trained before meeting Splinter and the others."
"Not if we're talking proper training." Peter opened his eyes and pulled himself to his feet, then helped Hobie to stand up as well "But my Uncle Ben was a huge fan of the Rocky movies, and I spent years watching them with him. And I like anime."
"Fair enough. Combine that with the training you're getting from Splinter, not to mention a few other factors that are already pretty obvious to either of us, and you're bound to be a force to be reckoned with."
"Yeah well it's been made glaringly clear that I've got a long way to go before I get to his level, and frankly that's where I need to be."
"Well that's why we have to keep doing it, so that we reach the absolute peak. But it helps to have good motivation, and you've got plenty of that."
"And thank god for it. Anyway I'd better get going, I've got a lot of other stuff to deal with aside from school." the two of them made their way out of the gym, only to stop when they took notice of MJ and the others standing there "Um… hey, did you guys need something?"
"Just watching the two of you give a middle finger to stereotypes." MJ gave a shrug and then gave Peter a simple pat on the back.
"Okay then, I guess. So where's April?"
"She said she wanted to do some shopping once school let out."
"Fair enough. Anyway I'd better get going, I've got a lot to deal with. Later." Peter gave a simple wave and went on his way 'Huh, a whole school day without any drama, at least nothing that's gonna leave me emotionally crippled. Not even a supervillain or anything. I guess I'm finally gonna get a relatively low-key day.'
"Mr Parker, can I have a word?"
Peter turned and found George Stacy standing in the doorway of a nearby classroom "Is this gonna be good or bad?"
"I think that's gonna be up to you, but it's something I could use your help with." he quickly ushered Peter into the classroom and closed the door behind them, his voice low "Or to be more accurate, it's something we could all use Spider-Man's help with."
"What are we dealing with then? Doc Ock back on the prowl, reforming the Sinister Six, or is it just Tombstone doing his thing?"
"None of the above. From the looks of it, I'd say we're deaing with something new, at least if this is any indication." George pulled out his cell phone and pulled up a certain piece of footage for Peter to look at.
"Citizens have begun to flee the city in droves, but the authorities have gone on record to say that while recent amount of activity by rodents is unusual, that's no reason for the rest of us to get so rat-tled. Ha. For channel 6 news, I'm Carlos Chian O- Oh sweet mother of god, they're in my hair! Get them off me! GET THEM OFF ME!" and then it cut out.
"And that's the most recent bit of news we've received so far." George promptly pocketed his phone and glanced back at Peter, only to see him taking off running out of the room, to which he gave a small smile 'And just like that, I know that this crisis is going to be resolved before the sun goes down. Good luck Pete, and remember to trust in the people that have your back at times like this.'
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Meanwhile, with the hero in question…
'So much for getting a day off in this line of work…' Spider-Man breathed a sigh as he made his way onto a rooftop and webbed a line to start web-slinging 'I don't know, what did Captain Stacy call it, the never ending battle?' and then the sound of his Spider Cell ringing quickly drew his attention "This is your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man speaking. Oh hey Donnie. Yeah I know I just heard, I'm already suited up and out on patrol. April is stuck on what? Okay yeah, I think that's a new one. Where is she? Okay I'm on my way." he was about to change direction in his web-slinging, only to stop when a series of terrified scream got his attention "You know what I think I'm gonna be a little bit late, I think I'm gonna be tied up making sure people don't get eaten by the billions of rats. Donnie I know what the entire rat population of New York is, I was just exaggerating to make a point. Okay I gotta go, I'm dealing with the superhero gig up here and I'll meet up with you guys as soon as I can." so he hung up and stowed away his Spider Cell, only to stop in his tracks as he looked out towards a nearby street, and his face went pale under his mask at what he was seeing 'Gwen… Harry…'
"HELP!" as it turns out, Harry and Gwen were left huddled together in terror on the roof of a car, a large swarm of rats rapidly swarming towards them them "This isn't how I wanted to die!"
'...Oh rats. Thank god no one was around to hear that.' so he readied his web shooters and let a stream fly.
"Wait Harry, look over there!" Gwen was quick to notice Spider-Man on the scene, to which she breathed a small sigh of relief "Spider-Man!"
"I'd say don't go anywhere or something stereotypical, but there isn't exactly anywhere you guys could go right now."
"Yeah, yeah good point."
"Just great, thanks for stating the obvious." Harry's tone held a certain bitterness to it, earning him a disapproving look from Gwen "What? You know what he did!"
"I know what I'm doing right now." Spider-Man promptly web-slung his way down towards them and created a sort of barrier made of webs to prevent any more rats from closing in on the car, though that didn't stop them from trying to climb him "Well this is a fun way to spend a Monday afternoon, I bet Captain America never has to deal with rabies."
"Try not having the webs and superpowers, I'm getting really sick of these stupid things!"
"They're actually not stupid, despite rats having the small brain size they're really-" Spider-Man cut himself short when he noticed the incredulous looks he was getting from Gwen and Harry, and he let out a groan "Great, now Donnie has me doing it. This is why I stick with Mikey over him. Sorry guys, force of habit."
"Just hurry!" Gwen and Harry were left clinging to each other in terror as a group of rats leapt towards them.
"I gotcha!" Spider-Man quickly grabbed hold of both of them, his arm around Gwen's waist while her arms were around his neck and Harry holding onto his waist, and he web-slung them away from the scene "See as long as your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is here, there isn't a single thing you have to-" he paused as he looked up and saw a number of rats chomping on his webline "Oh this is gonna suck." and then the web-line snapped, forcing him to create a large web between two nearby buildings for them to land in safely "See it's times like this I love my web-shooters. You guys okay?"
"Do we look okay?!" Harry shot a dirty look at Spider-Man as he squirmed from his place stuck to the giant web "How in the hell is being stuck up in a freaking web like this better than being eaten by rats?!"
"I can think of a multitude of reasons, starting with you not getting rabies and also not getting torn to shreds by those things."
"So what, you're saying it's better that we just get blown to hell or something like you did to my dad?!"
Spider-Man fell silent as a cloud of tension began to fill the air 'You know the worst part is… he's basically right.'
"Probably not the best place to deal with teen drama out of some crappy sitcom."
Spider-Man glanced down to see a large torrent of sand engulf a large group of rats and flush them into a nearby storm drain "Yeah well apparently you can't avoid stuff like this no matter how hard you might try, so I say enjoy the single life while you can Sandman."
Sure enough, the figure of Sandman materialized in front of him and gave a smirk "Truth be told the single life can turn out to be kind of a drag after awhile, but at least with the hero gig you know you're doing some good."
"So you know about all of this?"
"I know enough to start getting people to high ground, so luckily nobody's died yet. Let's make sure you and these kids aren't the first." so he created a series of sand arms that freed the group from the webbing and carried all of them onto a nearby rooftops "Sand powers, you gotta love them."
"Can't argue with the convenience they've got going for them." Spider-Man gave him a nod of approval, but then he turned his attention back to the swarms of rats that were overtaking the streets below "So this is happening now. Honestly I figured if there were gonna be swarms of hideous creatures trying to devour anything they came across, it was gonna be zombies instead of rats. Anyone here have any experience with that?"
"Do zombie movies count?"
"Sure."
"What about the Resident Evil series?"
"I guess that could work, just don't tell me you actually enjoyed it."
"Fine, I won't say that."
"You mean you did enjoy it?"
"You said not to, so I won't."
"Fine fine, fair enough."
"So… do either of you have any idea what's going on?" Gwen finally spoke up.
"Not really sure, but it's pretty clear that this attack is well-coordinated. If I had to guess, then I'd say that there's some kind of higher intelligence at work here."
"Well that rules out a good chunk of the guys that want to kill you." Sandman noted dryly.
"Actually it doesn't, it mostly rules out lower level grunts I never bother to remember the names of."
"What about the ones you do bother to remember?"
"Nobody that could or would do something like this. Most of the guys smart enough to do it are locked up in the Vault or Ravencroft anyway, and Tombstone is still out there sure, but this sort of thing doesn't fit his MO. Actually my contact on the force thinks this is something entirely new we're dealing with."
"Must be a hell of a thing we're dealing with, this guy is controlling every rat in the entire freaking city."
"Yeah, every rat in…" Spider-Man cut himself short as a realization dawned on him, and his face went pale underneath his mask "Oh crap."
"What's the matter?"
"I gotta go check on something, you take care of these two teens and try to do some damage control up here." and so he started web-slinging away without another word, pulling his Spider Cell back out as he did so "Guys we gotta talk, where are you right now? Wait you're going where? Okay I'm on my way, I'll meet you there as soon as I can." so he stowed his phone away and changed direction, his mind racing as he did so 'Dammit Splinter, tell me you're not gonna end up as the puppet of some lunatic bent on world domination or something. I'm not gonna let the guys lose you like I lost Uncle Ben.'
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
As it turns out, during all of the chaos, the Turtles had been called over to help April since she was being chased by a horde of giant rats as well, and managed to save her from thousands upon thousands of them as they did so. Once they managed to get her to safety, Donnie came to the conclusion that someone was controlling every rat in the city simultaneously, which led them to realize that Splinter was at risk as well.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Back in the Lair, Splinter was fast asleep, but the Rat King actually managed to get inside his mind using his psychic connection, and it was clear that her intentions were hostile as he quickly reminded him of all that he had lost, that being the death of his family, his mutation, and his inner rat, but Splinter still refused to join him. The Turtles and April reached the Lair not long after, and after Mikey poked him a few times with a stick, Splinter woke up (throwing Mikey into a wall on instinct) and told the others about how Falco was behind everything and had begun to call himself the Rat King, and he would not rest until he had total control of not only the city, but Splinter's mind as well. He then went on to tell them where the Rat King was hiding out, which he had somehow managed to uncover when the Rat King tried to take control of him. As the Turtles prepared to head out to thwart the Rat King's plans, April offered to stay behind and take care of Splinter.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
And now to the present…
"So what's gonna happen to Splinter if we don't stop the Rat King?" Mikey and the rest of the Turtles made their way through the sewer tunnels towards the Rat King's hideout, though he was clearly reluctant to let go of a certain topic "And I'm just throwing this out there, that's by far the lamest name ever for a supervillain, I mean come on."
"Oh for the love of god, will you just let it go already?" Donnie let out a groan.
"What, I'm just spitting facts. Spidey would totally get it."
"Well Spider-Man isn't here, so stop talking about stuff like that." Raph snapped at him "And we're gonna take the Rat King down and Splinter is gonna be just fine. Right?"
"Wait shut up, do you guys hear that?" Donnie cut them off at the sound of squeaking, to which they all looked back and saw an enormous swarm of rats hurtling towards them.
"Oh you gotta be kidding me. Mikey if you saw "Aw rats" one more time, I swear I'm gonna throw you to them and let them use you like a goddamn chewtoy."
"Speaking of which, anyone have any ideas as to how we can avoid being turned into gigantic living chewtoys?"
"He probably doesn't, but I've got a few." a series of weblines suddenly latched onto each of the Turtles by the backs of their shells, and then quickly hoisted them up onto the ceiling of the sewer tunnel, courtesy of Spider-Man from where he was perched right behind them "Hey guys, you miss me?"
"Not even a little bit." Raph told him dryly.
"Good to see you too. I would've been here sooner but I got a little sidetracked making sure that people didn't get eaten by rats. Lucky for all of us Sandman has that covered up top, so here I am to help you guys save the day. You're welcome for saving you by the way. Seriously, I had to fight my way through at least two waves of those things on the way here and I'm still covered in bite marks."
"You mean those things have got the taste for spiders now?" Mikey was left looking horrified by this "Does that mean they've got the taste for turtle too?"
"I wouldn't put it past them. Speaking of which, did you guys ever find out what's causing this whole thing?"
"Yeah Splinter told us, it turns out it was Dr Falco causing this whole catastrophe." Donnie told him.
"You mean the scientist with the psychic monkey?"
"And used the Kraang's Mutagen to create a psychic neurochemical. Now apparently he's learned to use his psychic powers to control every rat in New York, and he's adopted the name of the Rat King."
"And how's Mikey taking the whole naming thing?"
"His name sucks." was Mikey's input.
"I've heard worse personally, and actually given worse names. The first time I fought Electro, I tried to call him Lightning Butt. Anyway come on, we've gotta keep moving. We've got yet another psychotic madman to stop from taking over the city."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Unknown to our heroes, back in the Lair, the Rat King continued his efforts, and finally managed to gain full control over Splinter's mind, leaving himself to defend himself against this force in any way, shape or form. Splinter ended up snapping and attacking April while she was bringing him a cup of tea, but just as he was about to deliver the finishing blow with a sword drawn, the Rat King called him away, leaving April alone in the Lair and considerably freaked out by what had just happened.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Meanwhile, with our heroes…
"Okay seriously dude, I'm all for you showing off your unrivaled talent for naming things, but there's gotta be a time and a place." Spider-Man and the Turtles continued moving along the ceiling of the sewer tunnels, with the former trying to end the discussion of a certain topic that kept being brought up "And frankly I've dealt with so much drama today that I'm not in the mood to play another round of Name That Wannabe Crime Lord right now."
"But?" Mikey shot him a persistent raised eyebrow.
"But if I had to pick one, I'd personally go with the Verminator, if for no other reason than I approve of the reference it includes. I'm just gonna say it though, the Terminator franchise should've stopped after the second one."
"Alright you two, enough with the small talk. We're almost there." Leo was quick to cut into their conversation "The utility chamber that Splinter told us about should be right on the other side of that wall."
"You talking about the wall made up entire of rats?" Spider-Man gestured to where the tunnel ahead was blocked by a massive number of rats, as well as two barrels "Anyone here have some kind of plan?"
"I might have one. You see those barrels down there?"
"Yeah and I recognize the chemicals that are usually contained in those kinds of barrels, they're known for being highly combustible."
"You don't say? Then why don't we go ahead and ventilate them, see what happens."
"Well I've already almost been turned into rodent food today, I guess I might as well add getting blown the hell up to the list. Give me one second." so Spider-Man promptly shot a single stream of Electric Webs down at each of the barrels, igniting them and creating an explosion powerful enough to clear the way… by blowing away all of the rats in front of them "Okay… that turned out to be a lot more morbid than I was expecting."
"Such is the life of a ninja, at least according to the memoirs left by Splinter's father. Anyway let's get moving."
"Okay, but I'm pretty sure we just murdered god only knows how many rats. I'm not exactly okay with that, there's a certain sense of morality to consider here."
"Here's another sense of morality to consider, you either blow them up or let us get turned into living chew toys." Raph pointed out dryly "Along with just about everyone else in the city above at some point."
"...Fine, but the point still stands."
"Whatever, let's just move." and so the group made their way into the utility chamber.
"So you've come." looming over the group from a platform above stood the Rat King, clad in a black hat and trench coat with bandages over his eyes "At last the time has come for us to meet once again my Turtle friends, and with Spider-Man by your side no less. Not that such a thing will matter."
"Yeah well funny thing Falco, the last time we saw your ugly mug you weren't stuck wearing some sad Halloween costume." Raph was met with a few snickers.
"Be silent! I am the Rat King!"
"...Okay yeah, it is kind of gaudy." Spider-Man shared a quick look with Mikey "Anyway sorry to disappoint you big guy, but we don't have any treats for you. Tricks on the other hand, we've all got plenty of those." and then the sound of chirping drew their attention "At least up until they totally kill the mood. Word to the wise Donnie, keep it on silent."
"Fine fine, point taken." Donnie let out a sigh as he stepped away from the others and pulled out his T-phone "Okay April seriously, now is really not the best time. What do you mean he's gone, where the shell would he go?"
"Donnie seriously, if you're gonna flirt then do it on your own-" Spider-Man cut himself short as a familiar sensation started going off in his head "Um guys, I think we're about to be in some serious trouble."
"Never mind that right now, April says that Splinter is gone."
"Yeah, and I think I know where he is." Spider-Man pointed to where Splinter appeared on a platform overlooking the group, his eyes glowing red as he was surrounded by a large number of rats "Yeah it's official, this is gonna suck."
"No kidding, what the shell is wrong with him?" Raph muttered "It looks like his brain just got turned off or something like-"
"If you say like Mikey, I'm just gonna go ahead and web your mouth shut. I don't need to be able to read minds to know that."
"Dude are you for real right now?"
"You tell me, you're the one that was gonna say it. Anyway come on Splinter, you gotta snap out of it."
"You waste your words and your efforts." Splinter's voice was void of any emotion "This is where I belong now, by the side of my brothers."
"As you can see, he belongs to me now." the Rat King gave a smirk full of triumph "I'm sure you can only imagine how delighted I was when I came to the realization that controlling your master would not only make me invincible, but it would also be the key to your demise, along with anyone else who stands in my way. Now then Splinter, destroy them!" and that one simple command was enough to send Splinter forward.
"Sensei don't, you have to snap out of it!" Leo tried to reach out to Splinter, causing him to hesitate for a moment.
"I said destroy them, show no mercy." the Rat King pulled off his hat and the bandages over his eyes, revealing them glowing red, causing Splinter to continue forward, drawing a single sword from his kimono.
"Oh boy."
"Okay, so this is happening now." Spider-Man was quick to fill his web-shooters with new cartridges of web fluid "Am I the only one who thinks that this is gonna suck? I feel like I'm saying that a lot today."
"Well don't forget that you beat him once. Sort of."
"I landed one blow to his face and got drop-kicked."
"Well we did the same, so if the five of us combine our efforts then we at least have a chance to do this. Whatever happens, be sure not to hesitate."
"Because it makes you vulnerable."
"Exaclty." Leo drew his katanas as the rest of the Turtles brandished their own weapons "Alright you guys, take sensei down." and so the five of them charged forward and launched a series of combined attacks… only for Splinter to blitz out of view before they struck.
'What the-' Spider-Man's Spider Sense alerted him to a presence right behind him… right before that same presence sent him tumbling backwards in a heap, with the rest of the Turtles all being sent flying in numerous directions and in comedic fashions 'Okay seriously, why in the shell does my Spider Sense never work when I actually want it to?!'
"Okay, I think I just came to a horrible realization." Donnie let out a pained groan as he pulled himself back to his feet "He's been going easy on us for all these years!"
"Yeah I kind of figured that one out for myself. It's actually pretty obvious when you think about it."
"How do you figure?"
"Mostly based on the fact that he and Shredder are supposed to be on the same level, we barely even managed to scratch Shredder when we fought him, and we managed to land a solid blow that he really should've been able to dodge or counter. The bottom line is, I think we're pretty much screwed."
"So what the shell does that mean?" Raph shot a dirty look at him "You're saying we just give up and run away?"
"Of course not, I'm just stating the facts. It's what you do with science. But anyway enough of the exposition, time to either kick some tail or get it handed to us." Spider-Man quickly launched himself forward as he unleashed a rapid barrage of Impact Webs, only for Splinter to dodge and weave around them with ease and slash him across one of his wrists with his katana, destroying one of his web-shooters in a single stroke, and then dealing him a solid elbow to the chest that sent him hurtling to the ground with a loud crash.
"Spidey hang on!" Mikey tried to bind Splinter using the chains of his kusarigama, only to find himself pulled in and thrown into a wall.
"Oh that is it, nobody gets to hit Mikey but me!" Raph charged at Splinter next, with Donnie right behind him, only for him to dodge their attacks with ease and knock them to the ground with a single blow for each of them.
"Guys!" Leo was left horrified at the sight of the others being taken down so easily, but he still brandished his own katanas as he saw Splinter approaching "Sensei please, I don't want to have to do this."
"As I told you before, your efforts and your words are wasted." Splinter brandished his sword as he charged forward.
"We'll see about that soon enough." Leo met Splinter's charge and the two of them began to clash at high speed, Leo managing to dodge and counter most of Splinter's strikes, albeit taking a few small cuts here and there, until he found himself forced to one knee and was forced to fend off another strike that knocked both of his swords out of his grasp, and then a single kick to the face sent him crashing to the ground, with a sword pointed at his face "Sensei wait!"
"Excellent, now finish him off." the Rat King's grin grew wider.
"You have to remember who you are: You are Hamato Yoshi!" Leo held up a certain picture, causing Splinter to hesitate "Pin him down now!"
"I've got him!" Spider-Man took the chance to pin Splinter to the ground using his enhanced physical strength, and then bind him with a thick layer of webbing for good measure 'It's times like these I'm really glad I have the proportionate strength of a spider to fall back on. You have to snap out of it Splinter, the guys need their sensei. They need their father. I won't let them lose you like I lost mine."
"Be silent you imbecilic arachnid." the Rat King made his way down to the ground level to meet the group in the eye "Don't listen to what they say brother, you know as well as I do that your place is with me at my side."
"My place…" Splinter managed to maneuver his way out of Spider-Man's grasp and the webs with a sudden burst of speed, and then he took a stance with his eyes closed "I know where my place is…"
"Yes, and it is by my side."
"I know where my place is… and it is with my sons!" Splinter's eyes snapped open, revealing them no longer glowing red, and he burst forward and dealt the Rat King a simple strike to the chest with two fingers, the force sending him hurtling back into a wall and then crashing to the ground with a loud thud.
"Sensei!" the Turtles gawked at the scene, immediately bolted upright and pulled Splinter into a tight group hug.
"My sons." Splinter returned the embrace, and he turned to Spider-Man and gave a smile "And my student as well."
"So he's back… yay…" Spider-Man let out a pained groan as he pulled himself back to his feet, only for the group to then notice the unconscious form of the Rat King being carried away by several dozen rats "And then there's that."
"Yep, but that's the last we're gonna see of Count Ratula!" Mikey was met with a series of groans from the others, and even Splinter shaking his head "No?"
"Again with the air of trying too hard." Spider-Man patted him on the shoulder "Personally I still vote for the Verminator."
"Yeah but… Aw the shell with it. Fine he can be the Rat King, but I'm totally gonna name the next one."
"Of that I have no doubt. Anyway let's get out of here."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A short time passed, and the group returned to the Lair.
Splinter looked up from his meditation and saw Leo and Spider-Man making their way into the dojo "Is there something I can do for the two of you?"
"We just wanted to check in sensei, are you sure that you're alright?" asked Leo.
"I am fine, and I have yourselves and the others to thank for that. Both of you did very well on this day."
"We just applied what you taught us." Spider-Man gave a shrug "We made you hesitate and that made you vulnerable. And the guys all played a pretty big part in that too."
"That they did. I am proud of all of you."
"And who knows." Leo gave a smirk "The day might come when we turn out to be even better martial artists than you."
"That may be the case, but there is one thing you must keep in mind my son. Everything you know now, I have shown you." he suddenly caught Leo in an arm lock and promptly threw him into a wall "But I have not shown you everything I know."
"Sounds like you're back to me, and we're all better off for it." Spider-Man breathed a small sigh of relief as he made his way out of the dojo and into the kitchen area, only to find Mikey and Donnie both sitting at the island waiting for him "Um… yeah?"
"Raph's off doing his thing with his pet turtle." Mikey slammed down a box of pizza on the island "Time for you to give us the details dude. How did it go?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You had that school stuff today right? How did it go?"
"Oh. That. Truth be told I was hoping you forgot about that."
"You mean because of the invasion of millions of rats, along with our sensei being controlled and almost killing us." Donnie asked dryly "Yeah that did work as a distraction, but that doesn't make us want to hear about it any less."
"Fine fine." Spider-Man breathed a sigh and took off his mask, revealing the face of Peter Parker for both of them to se "Well for starters, April knows who I am."
"As in-"
"Yep, she knows both Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Apparently she figured it out the same way she figured out that psychic monkey was actually a missing scientist, and her knowing actually works out pretty well for me since her cousin is a close friend of mine. So as far as you guys and knowing who Peter Parker is goes, now it's just down to Leo and Raph."
"Huh. Cool. But what about your girl?" asked Mikey.
"I know you're talking about Gwen, and she's not my girl. She can't be my girl, at least not anytime soon. The fact is that Harry needs her more than I do… and honestly she's safer with him than she would be with me." his expression turned downcast underneath his mask, but then he quickly changed the subject "Anyway I took your advice with Liz, I apologized to her for how things turned out."
"And?"
"Well she didn't kick me in between the legs like I thought she would. She actually asked me if I wanted to get back together with her."
"Was this the brunette that you saved from Doctor Octopus?" asked Donnie.
"And the one whose brother became Molten Man, yeah that's her. I turned her down. I wasn't going to make her my second choice. She deserves better than that." he breathed a sigh "So all in all, it could've been worse for my first day back. Could've been better too. I know Gwen is safer with Harry, and he needs her more than I do… But I still miss both of them. I miss her."
"Hey think of it this way dude." Mikey gave him a grin and patted him on the arm "Even if stuff doesn't work out with them, you've always got us and the rest of our bros, and Splinter and April too."
"Yeah, I know. And I'm grateful for that, I really am." Peter gave a small smile as he picked up a slice of pizza and took a bite 'So today was a lot more eventful than I was expecting it to be, some of it good and some of it bad. But we stopped the bad guy and saved the day, and nobody died. Even though I'm sure there's gonna be a lot more drama to come, at least I've got some good people watching out for me. Honestly, I don't think it gets much better than that.'
A/N:
Well, Summer vacation has officially ended in New York, and now Peter and the rest of his class are going into their senior year of high school, with April being thrown into the mix as well, so you can be sure that things are going to get… complicated, to put it in the nicest way I can. There's definitely gonna be more to come with them, so bare with me for the time being.
Not all of it is bad though, as proven by Peter's interactions with this classmates in this chapter, the most notable of which would probably have to be Liz. I wanted to include her in this chapter to give her and Peter some closure from their breakup at the end of the second season. Granted it was a painful one given how she reacted to it, but I don't think Liz is really the type of person to be bitter enough hold a grudge like that, at least not after a fair amount of time has passed. Harry on the other hand, the same can't exactly be said for him.
Now to wrap this up, let me address the elephant in the room. Yes, April knows that Peter is Spider-Man. I figured that if she could figure out that the psychic monkey was actually Dr Rockwell, she'd be able to figure out the connection between Peter and Spider-Man pretty easily. Now for those who don't know Spider-Man's identity, it's just down to Leo and Raph, but that will be resolved soon enough.