Enjoy, Review, etc.
A quick thing, whereas Spidercide — in his comic origins — was a clone of Peter, this is a man whose lost the best things in his life to a plague that his family was a bad-luck lottery casualty of. He's lost his sanity in grief and anguish, and there is nothing left for him after his crusade. He's not a bad person, just a devastated person hurting to the point he'll never heal.
(This Spidercide's story is heavily influenced by the Back-In-Black storyline [In case my previous AN's didn't make that abundantly clear that I really liked that storyline]. In it Peter is basically homeless, his wife and him are hunted by shield, his aunt is dying, and his entire world is a nightmare he can't wake up from. He commits felonies — enough for a life sentence — and is terrified and desperate enough to talk to his contact in the force to turn himself in if his wife and aunt get immunity. Peter spirals into a darker and angrier person, who breaks into a prison to beat the Kingpin half-dead and promises that the moment that his aunt passes, Wilson Fisk will die right after.)
This time, Spidercide is that Peter Parker without the lessons, without the restraint of 'hero', without support of his friends and family.
-Y.A.R.N.
P.S. All credit to respective owners.
Warren snapped the neck of one of the wandering Maggia goon before reaching out and spearing another one through the chest with clawed hands.
"Damn Zabo and these annoying bastards..." He grumbled, "I supposed I should be thankful that Zabo had the good sense to make sure he had proximity sensor that read when wanders got too close. I didn't expect the Maggia to move their operations into the derelict areas of the underground."
He dropped the two bodies and collapsed the opening in front of him with a quick swipe of his claws, barring the way from any more intrusions. While his thirst for vengeance was only deepening, he admitted he was being impatient in immediately attacking the Spider Heroes of New York. In terms of availability, Norman Osborn was easiest to reach and kill, The Sinister Six that were incarcerated in the Raft as well as the many lesser criminals would be the hardest to reach but easier to kill and finally Spider-Man and his protege would be the easier to find to than the Sinister Six but much more difficult to kill if their ability to incarcerate the Sinister Six during the whole Devil's Breath incident was to have any indication.
He felt his anger bubble at the thought of his wife and child laying in their hospital beds.
He could still feel ALL of it.
The sounds of them coughing harshly grating at his ears as the doctors desperately tried to keep them alive. How they both withered away into husks of themselves front of his eyes and he could do nothing. How he could only grasp their cold hands in hands and pray for a miracle that would never come. The smell of sterilized sheets covering them and the antibiotics that were being pumped into them. The acrid taste of bile in the back of his throat as the doctors told him when they passed, launching himself at the man screaming how it was his fault. All the despair and pain of sitting in a cell and the pitying looks of the staff as he was locked away to keep himself from slitting his wrists.
If only Norman had never created this plague, if only Otto Octavius never released it!
If only Spider-Man had focused on the anti-serum over the villains...
Either way, he felt it be best to leave the city alone at the moment, as much as he would love to jump into fray and get his revenge, he felt it would be better for the heroes to tire themselves in dealing with Silver Sable and the Maggia before he struck. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility for the Maggia to catch and kill him if they couldn't control him, and he wasn't about to be any gangster's lapdog. Zabo was only being spared due to the debt he was owed for stabilizing the mutagen in his body.
He was going to try to improve his odds as much as possible.
Spider-Man's spider-sense flared as he looked up; in time to see a piece of debris hit one of the rotors on the jet — its stability already compromised by the ambush that Sable had barely managed to escape from — and black smoke erupt out in response. Sable cursed as her jet began to tremble and list to the side, nearly tossing Spider-Man off as it twisted and turned.
Peter shifted his weight as he looked upwards and his jaw dropped.
Hammerhead was standing atop the Colexco building and glaring down at the jet. He wasn't exactly what Peter remembered and he felt his confidence to handle Hammerhead like before begin to wane. The mob boss' skull was now a shining chrome silver; exposed in the area that he had been shot by the rifle Yuri had been using before her administrative leave. His body was completely made of metal and was now entirely cybernetic in nature, leaving his head as the only thing even remotely human. Whereas before, he had been wearing Project Olympus armor over his body to both enhance and protect him, this was him completely discarding his body in exchange for one made of — presumably — Sable tech.
Spider-Man forced down his revulsion of the idea of mutilating his own body like that as the Maggia boss leapt from atop the building to land on the jet, causing it to shake even more violently under the weight. Peter leapt at him only to be smacked away by the Don's mechanical hand. He fired a web-line at the jet and used it to swing under and over as he slammed feet-first into Hammerhead. The mechanical mob boss tumbled over the cockpit and almost fell off before managing to catch himself. He glared at the hero only for Spider-Man to dash forwards and slam two punches to his jaw. The cybernetic Mob boss grunts — his voice now overlaid with a tinny and mechanical quality in response to vocabulator that replaced his vocal cords — before backhanding the arachnid-themed hero and chuckling. He grabbed the hero before Spider-Man could regain his footing and slammed him into the jet, stunning Spider-Man. He looked over to the still functioning rotor and grinned as he wrapped one his hand around Spider-Man's neck and began to drag him over to it. Spider-Man fired a web-line to one of the fins on the jet, trying to keep Hammerhead from slamming his head down on the rotor and killing him. The Don tugged at the hero when he couldn't drag the hero farther only to frown at the web-line and then try to press his forearm against Peter's head. Peter's free hand shot up and against the mechanical limb, holding it at bay.
Hammerhead grinned in triumph as he bore down on the hero, who groaned at the force as his head was pressed closer to the rotating blades, "See ya in hell, bug!"
Within a instant, Spider-Man's mechanical legs erupted from his back and stabbed into the area around the rotor to help hold him up — managing to match the might of the cybernetic Don — but even then Peter knew that this stalemate couldn't last with the jet already out of control. They could hit the side of the Colexco Building, the jet could swerve in the wrong direction, or it could just plain explode as the damaged rotor had already caught flame.
'Peter!' Viri screamed as his host struggled.
The symbiote rushed out as it instantly began to bleed through the suit and — as an added bonus — crawled over his mechanical limbs. The suit soon covered the Iron Spider's entire suit and formed the symbiotic suit. Peter felt his strength skyrocket and began to push up against the Don, well and truly overwhelming the android. His mechanical limbs straightened as Viri bolstered their structure and strength and Peter's one arm that had been keeping the Don's arm from crushing him was now enough to push away the arm that had been pinning him down.
Hammerhead eyes widen as he 'felt' himself being pushed back and grunted, "What? How are you—"
He never managed to complete his query as the web-line that had attached to the fin of the jet was simply yanked too hard and bent the metal flap to the side, sending the jet spinning. Both the hero and the Don held on for dear life as the jet whirled. Peter thought he might be able to incapacitate the android only to groan in annoyance as the cockpit opened and Sable climbed out, a furious scowl on her face and two pistols in her hand. She began to shoot Hammerhead who grunted in surprise before reaching out and swiping the guns out of her hands before grabbing Sable bodily in one hand and Spider-Man in the other. Spider-Man struggled as his waldoes began to jab at the Don's arm in a shower of sparks as he was held next to Sable.
Hammerhead refused to let go as he grinned, "Two for one? My lucky day!"
He reared his head back, ready to crush their skulls when a black and white blur crashed into the trio and grabbed the front of the spider-themed hero's suit before yanking him out of the Don's slackened grip and swinging them both into air moments before the jet crashed to the streets.
Peter eyes widened as his waldoes caught him as he landed on a rooftop next his savior, a supposed-to-be-dead cat burglar.
The Black Cat aka Felicia Hardy.
"Felicia?" He sputtered, "You're alive?"
"Did you honestly think I was dead?" She scoffed.
"How did you find me?" Peter asked.
"Wasn't easy as I'd have liked." She admitted, "I was initially going to piggy-back on the tracker she had tagged you with, but you found it quicker than I thought you would and broke it. After that, I had to be discreet while I tracked Maggia goons to see the setup they were planning at the Colexco Building. I waited for the explosions to start and took a guess at who might be there, turns out I was right."
Spider-Man sighed, "Yeah well, I didn't have much choice in the matter. Sable wasn't exactly willing to wait."
Black Cat rolled her eyes, "The girl has trust issues."
"How long have you been tailing us?"
"Long enough to know you're making a mistake. Hammerhead's gotten too powerful. Then again..." She hummed, "You seemed to be able to do pretty well considering what I thought about his new 'tech'. I'm guessing it has to do with the new suits you got? Shame, my little present may not have had what makes those special, but it definitely showed you off."
Peter silently lowered himself to the roof as he retracted the waldoes back into his suit before he frowned at the banter; he didn't feel like replying to her comments, "Do you really think I have a choice?"
She sighed and tugged him closer before pulling out a flash drive, "Here."
Peter's eyes widened as he took it, "Wait. Is that...?"
"Everything you need to know about that ugly... thing." She answered before she looked at him and softly said, "Sorry about what I did to you."
Spider-Man frowned at remembering the lie about her having a son, the child possibly being his, that possibility had stressed him out of his mind but then to find out she was lying was a relief,"Sorry? You're sorry?"
But underneath all the relief that there wasn't a small kid that was his caught in the crossfire of a brewing gang war, there was the tiniest flicker of disappointment and betrayal.
She placed a hand on his cheek and pressed a small kiss to his cheek before moving away, "But now we're even."
Peter rubbed at his cheek, "Cat..."
"One more thing," She cut him off, "His head? Not as strong as you think it is."
She tossed herself off a building before using a grapple gun to swing over a building nearby and disappear from sight.
"By Felicia." Peter whispered, before shaking his head, "Let's see what's on this thing."
He placed the flash into his suit and using a new software hack that Miles made, began reading the first of the files.
He was swinging through the city when his hands-free rang, he answered and was quickly barraged by MJ's voice
"Are you okay?" She asked worriedly, "I saw people posting pictures of you, and Sable, and Hammerhead, and—"
"And Black Cat." Peter finished for her, "Normally she brings bad luck, but not this time."
"I knew she was still alive," Mary Jane sighed, "What was she doing there?"
"Saving my skin," Peter replied, "and giving me a lead on Hammerhead's hideouts. Turns out he's beens stashing all the stolen Sable tech underground."
"What? How?" Mary Jane inquired.
"I'm on my way to find out," Peter responded, "And hopefully rescue Sable, if she's still alive."
Mary Jane paused before speaking, "Listen, I've been digging into this Symkaria thing. It's a big story, something I feel I need to be a part of. My boss agrees."
"Wait," Peter stopped in his web-swinging to land on a rooftop, "you're going to Symkaria? When?"
"Tonight." She responded quietly, "It's a rapidly developing situation. You and Sable can take care of Hammerhead. You don't need me."
Peter was almost at a loss, "Just because I don't need you, doesn't mean I don't 'need' you."
"That's sweet." Peter could hear the smile in her voice, "But listen. Other countries are ignoring this crisis — including ours. These people are helpless, all alone, and in the middle of a war zone. If I document what's happening and share it with the rest of the world, it might change things. Maybe even save lives."
Peter closed his eyes for a moment and sighed, "Spoken like a true hero. But the thought of you heading into a war-zone — it worries me. No. It scares me, MJ. If you get hurt I don't know what I'll do..."
"Do you trust me?" She asked him quietly.
"You know I do." Peter responded softly.
"Then we're good." She said simply, "I gotta get home and pack. I'll call you tomorrow when I get there. I love you."
"I love you too." Peter said.
He tried to ignore the pang of worry and fear in his chest.
Miles ducked away from a jetpack rush and caught a grave-dust-enhanced fist before twisting the arm behind the attack and stomping the attacker into the floor. He rolled away from the dazed goon before he could retaliate and fired a barrage of webbing at a charging thug that anchored him to the floor. With two strides he smashed a venom-enhanced fist right into the thug's nose and sent him crashing to the floor and into unconsciousness. He knew that this was the last challenge that Screwball had laid out — and while it felt good to be cleaning up so much of the various criminals and other members of ill repute that decided to fight him on these streams — Miles was downright annoyed.
Peter had been dealing with the Maggia all day and while Miles initially thought that was way more dangerous than Screwball, now he wasn't so certain. It was one thing to host a challenge in which he had to race through obstacles or try to look cool (and while it was galling to have to act like a performing monkey, is it wasn't causing any actual harm to people), it was another matter entirely to go to an area to realize she rounded up criminals to fight or to have explosive drones fly through the city that would damage the city if not stopped. The worst part about it is she didn't seem to realize what she was doing was wrong and stop because all that mattered to the deranged woman was the number of subscribers and followers she got. Miles could appreciate seeing Spider-Man stopping crime and saving the day — before he got his powers, he loved to videotape Spider-Man in action and doing his thing whenever he got the chance — but causing crimes in order to force Spider-Man to act? That was stupid, insane, and if people had idea of the danger they were in, they wouldn't be so supportive of her channel.
(At least Miles hoped that was the case, the alternative was frankly terrifying of how stupid it would be)
He twisted over a pale fist and slammed his knee into the drugged-up goon's face as the man let out a sharp cry of pain at his nose being crushed. As near-impervious as the grave-dust made skin — if you knew where to hit — you could still cause damage and while Kid Arachnid may not have been as strong as Spider-Man due to his still developing body, he wasn't weak by any means (Peter's estimate of Miles' limit being about ten to fifteen tons was not something a normal person could shrug off and while Miles wasn't hitting people with all ten tons, he could afford to cut loose a bit on the grave-dust enhanced gang members). Parts of the body weren't made of bone everywhere, the nose and throat were made of cartilage and much easier to damage and Miles' advantages also included bypassing the grave dust entirely due to his use of bio-electricity. Either way, it made the whole deal of fighting these groups a bit easier and let the police collect the criminals faster.
He caught a charge from jetpack goon and dug his heels into the ground as the jetpack pushed him across the ground. With the goon wearing it hand caught Kid Arachnid's shoulders in an attempt to keep him from escaping, only to for his jetpack's energy to wane and a hand to place itself on his chest. With a sharp shout, Miles lifted the goon over him and slam him into the ground on his back, breaking the jetpack. Another kick to the face and the goon lapsed into the blissful sleep of unconsciousness. Miles webbed the goon to the floor and brushed his hands as he surveyed the area covered in groaning or unconscious thugs all webbed to various surfaces.
His hands free buzzed and Miles tapped the earpiece, "Hello?"
"Nice one junior!" Screwball screeched, "I finally have gotten the last few people to subscribe to me as I wanted!"
She hung up.
Miles smiled darkly as he swung towards the nearest isolated area.
Time to don the civilian outfit and fire up some social media.
