And onto the next one!
P.S. All credit to respective owners.
P.P.S. Reviews are loved.
-YARN
Peter ran a hand through his hair and over his eyes as his exhaustion tried to pull his eyelids shut.
Even so, he had every reason to feel a spark of accomplishment.
He had finally gotten the arm back to where he had before Otto used the imperfect neural interface and gone mad. It wasn't too hard, Otto and Peter had both worked on the project together and while Otto had finished a imperfect prototype while Peter was dealing with the demons and Martin Li at the time, Otto detailed all his work meticulously. For all that Peter hated what had happened between them, he refused to let Norman get his hands on any of Otto's work and stored everything in his coded lockbox. Using those notes really helped Peter to streamline his work and not make it unreasonably difficult for Peter to get to the point where Otto left off. For the time it took to get here, all that was left was to actually fix all the problems that caused Otto to go mad in the first place.
'This will definitely bring you one step closer to some closure over what happened. I approve of your plan and actions.' Viri stated fondly.
Peter smiled, 'I thought you might. As soon as this is ready... I can finally let go.'
It wasn't going to be easy, but he already knew what might happen if he didn't make absolutely there wasn't any power surges or cascade failures. Also, Peter had no intention of ever making the arms into a weapon as Otto had. Otto had spent a significant amount of time reinforcing the arms in secret so that they could do some serious damage; it had taken Peter no small amount of strength to rip an arm off Otto's back with one leg during their fight on the building top (and the arms were already damaged after Peter had tossed Otto multiple times into the roof and hurled debris at his former mentor). Peter simply made the arm sturdy and functional, the initial design they had tested before Norman came in an attempt to shut those down.
Peter shook off the memories, it was no use to wish things had been different, the past would always remain the same no matter what.
People screamed and scattered as explosions raged around the bank, raining bits and pieces of destroyed stonework down on the terrified people. A serpentine dragon stalked through the building snapping and spewing gouts of flames while a figure stood on the dragon's forehead as its master. The dragon had devoured countless numbers of bills and whatever currency was in the bank. One young woman tripped over a piece of rubble and fearfully tried to scramble away from the beast. It had only been a couple of minutes since the illusion master had come, but it hadn't much time for the roaring beast to tear the vault open and the woman did not want to be in its sights.
"Cower beneath me!" Mysterio cackled as he raised his hands like a orchestra conductor.
It had taken longer than he would've liked to get all the parts together, but people were finally ready to witness his return. He had spent the months in hiding when he had the opportunity to join the sinister six but Otto hadn't seen any use in him. Even with that dismissal making him furious, he knew that attacking the doctor was a fool's errand. Otto Octavius had already individually tailored suits for each and every one of Spider-Man's most dangerous foes to form the Sinister Six (as the bugle had dubbed them).
The dragon reared on its hind legs and opened its maw as it prepared to bite down on the woman, cutting her in half. Before it could move down, two web-lines shot past Mysterio and connected to the snout of the beast. A shout of effort and the dragon roared as it was pulled off balance and Mysterio let out a cry of shock as they both fell to the earth. The form of the dragon rippled, revealing the complicated machinery that was actually underneath the 'skin' of the fearsome beast. Mysterio rolled to his hands and feet as he saw Kid Arachnid perched on the wall next to the entrance to the bank.
"So you're the infamous fish-bowl head?" Kid Arachnid taunted, "Not impressive at all."
It had been pure luck that Kid Arachnid's current patrol had been so close to the bank when he got an alert from his police cut in switch, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to get here as soon as he did. Maybe it was just something about scheduling, but what was it about after-school evenings that was perfect for crimes? Miles day had been not too great, he was tense and irritated all day, want to do nothing more than switch his out for his suit and knock some heads together. His mother was also worried, and for all his simmering annoyance, he would never be mad at his mom and had to assure her it was just school being a pain. Peter hadn't been too vocal, but it was clear that he was apprehensive about Miles wearing the symbiote suit too.
'They don't know how we are fine.' Miles grumbled inwardly, "We are better than fine ever since we got our new suit.'
"My name is Mysterio!" The villain growled as he got to his feet.
Mysterio reached out and the dragon righted itself before it spewed flames at Miles. Miles eyes widened and he flung himself out of the way with even more force than he intended, the phantom heat of the flames making him feel uneasy. Miles then realized that his suit was probably reacting to the threat as the symbiote was weak to sonic and fires. Miles fired an impact web at the 'dragon's mouth' fastening the jaw shut before Miles leapt up and slammed a fist into the dragon's chin. The mechanical beast fell back and the form rippled once again revealing the mechanical part beneath the illusion. Mysterio held out a hand as a robotic sword unfolded from his wrist and fell into his hand. Miles didn't even have to turn to dodge Mysterio's swings before slamming a foot into the man's gut and sending him sprawling on his back.
"Come on." Miles taunted, "That the best you got?"
Mysterio growled and swiped his hand at the hero only for Miles to flip out of the way as the dragon smashed its tail right where he had been standing. Miles was no fool and saw how each motion of Mysterio's hand seemed to coincide with the dragon's movements, which left him with two ways to go about stopping the illusionist. Either he smashed the dragon to pieces and then went after Mysterio or he could break Mysterio's arms and then deal with the dragon. A darkly pleased smile crossed Miles' masked features as he rebounded off the wall and launched himself at the green-clad villain. Mysterio's eyes widened behind his helmet as the hero rocketed towards him with a fist cocked back.
Too fast!
Miles fist drilled into the arm that Mysterio threw up to protect his head, the villain howling in pain as his arm's bones cracked like brittle drywall. Mysterio crashed into the wall and slumped against it, cradling his injured limb as the black suit clad superhero stalked towards him. Miles raised a fist to knock the villain into unconsciousness right before Mysterio fired a burst of his signature green flames to force the hero away and stagger to his feet. With his uninjured hand a whip made of green fire erupted and he swung it at the spider. Miles twisted and flipped away as he had no doubt that those attacks would hurt even without his symbiote induced weaknesses coming into play. Miles webbed a loose piece of rubble and flung it at the enraged illusion-based villain.
Mysterio scowled as he flung him self out of the way of the rock flying at him. Even with all the advancements he made to his suits defenses and abilites, he was still being mdae light of! By the wall-crawler's less experienced protégé, not even the web-head himself. Why was it that he constantly was made a fool of by both villains and heroes alike? In fury, he waved his hand and the dragon turned to some of the escaping civilians that were cowering behind slabs of stonework that had fallen to provided cover from the dragon's flames and body.
Miles turned to see the dragon wrench its jaws open before it began to spew flames and hesitated for a moment.
'We can kill Mysterio!' He thought darkly, 'And no one will ever suffer from his theatrics ever can end him right now and he will never terrorize anyone anymore. A few can be sacrificed for the greater good.'
Miles wavered.
A civilian screamed in fright as the dragon loomed over him, "No! Please!"
'The civilians need our help right now!' Miles screamed in his head, "We are not sacrificing other people! Not now, not ever!'
Miles sprinted back into the fray and used a web-line to launch himself at the mechanical beast and smash it into the wall. The creation flailed as the hero began driving his fists into the robot's face and neck, each blow resounding with a sound of metal crumpling. The hologram concealing the machinery faded as the robot suffered more and more damage under the flurry of blows that were damaging it. The machine still tried to fight off the hero, but twisting around and trying to coil around the hero wasn't working as the spider-themed hero would slip out of the coils before they could tighten. Miles grabbed a flailing claw and ripped it free of the main body before driving it into the skull of the dragon. The body stilled as the the claw destroyed the head and the metal body crashed to the ground. Miles webbed it down to the floor just in case it was going to restart its attack.
The trapped civilians breathed a sigh of relief and Miles quickly rushed after Mysterio, who had been trying to distract the hero in order to escape. Miles swung outside to see Mysterio clamber inside a nondescript car and start the vehicle and speeding away. Miles took the skies in pursuit as he chased after the fleeing villain, swinging faster and faster as he suit bolstered his strength and speed to easily catch up. Mysterio groaned in annoyance and fear as Miles got closer and closer.
Mysterio was no stranger to tussling with the web-head in the past (and losing) but he had never had his bones that badly damaged in a single blow. Mysterio knew that Spider-Man was strong, but a chilling realization hit him as he realized that if that was the protege's strongest blow, Spider-Man could have very easily killed him multiple times over. Mysterio hadn't felt this sort of fear in a very long time as he gunned the throttle on his vehicle. Unfortunately, the villain was so focused on Miles he didn't notice he was on a collision course for a truck in front of him. Miles' eyes widened as he t-boned a truck and bowled the vehicle on its hood; Mysterio himself struck the dashboard and was too disoriented to move
Miles landed and sprinted over to the truck to see a groaning and bleeding woman in the vehicle, completely blindsided by the fleeing villian. With a grunt, Miles ripped the door off and quickly unbuckled the woman and lifted her out of the car before jogging to place her on the sidewalk.
"Are you okay?" He asked, "Someone call and ambulance and the police!"
The woman moaned, "What happened?"
"A villain decided to speed in New York traffic without paying attention." Miles muttered grimly as he gently checked the bleeding before sighing in relief at the shallow wound.
The lady seemed to relax and pressed a hand to her head to stem the bleeding, "I'm okay... Just... stop him...before he can hurt anyone else."
Miles hovered for a second before anger surged through him and he stalked over to Mysterio's car. He ripped the door off and grabbed the villain by his bad arm before tossing him out of the damaged car and onto the street. The pain caused Mysterio to cry out and he groaned as Miles punched his helmeted head hard enough to shatter the glass and slam him into the floor. The villain barely had time to open his eyes before Miles hauled him up to his feet and punched him in the gut, making him stumble back. Miles advanced a step for every blow to the villain, dark pleasure filling him at the sight of the blood and the feeling of bones breaking.
"Yes..." He thought, "Fear us! Bleed for us! Pay for our pleasure!"
Mysterio coughed up blood and leaned against the wall, lifting a hand to stop the hero, "Please...don't... don't kill me! I don't want to die! Please, have mercy!"
Miles froze at his plea and took a uncertain step back as Mysterio slid to the floor, panting and coughing as he couldn't stay on his feet. Miles looked down at his hands and the haze of dark pleasure was drowned by a wave of horror. He was going to kill him if he kept that up, and in the haze of pleasure he no intention of stopping until Mysterio's begging snapped him out of it.
Miles fastened him to a floor with a sheet of webbing and dusted his hands off (subtly trying to still the shaking of his hands). He walked over to villain and tore off a strip of his gaudy cape before folding it up. He jogged back to the woman and offered her the cloth that she took with a grateful smile. He didn't waste any time and swung into the air and ran from the area as fast as he could. He could hear the extensive injuries Mysterio sustained through his police cut-in and the pit in his stomach only grew.
What the hell was he doing?
Peter was furious at Miles' brutalization of Mysterio when Miles was on top of a rooftop away from where people could overhear.
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?" Peter shouted at Miles in the relative privacy of a construction building at night, "Mysterio was nearly dead! He's probably gonna be in a body cast until his body heals! If you had gone any farther he probably would've died on the way to the hospital!
Miles refused to meet Peter's eyes, even with the mask as a barrier.
"We're sorry." Miles murmured.
"Sorry?" Peter parroted, "You think saying sorry would've brought him back to life if he died?"
Miles balled his fists and remained silent.
Peter massaged his forehead in his agitation, "You know people already have taken notice of what's going on with you. They see this increased aggression and are starting to be scared of what'll happen if you lash out."
Miles growled in agitation, "We know! We know okay! We just don't know why we went so far!"
"Criminals hurt the innocent and don't expect retribution?" They thought, "They shouldn't be allowed to live!"
Peter eyes narrowed and Viri squirmed at his indignant anger, "You don't even know?"
Miles nodded slowly, "Before, I was eager to go on patrol and help even if I was a bit unsure, but now it's like venting on the criminals is the only time we can unwind..."
Peter frowned, "Miles how long have you felt like this?"
"Pretty recently." Miles mumbled.
Peter sighed, "Miles... I think you need to take a break. Calm down a bit."
Miles scowled but grudgingly nodded, "Fine... but if we see a situation, we won't let it just happen."
Oliver gently ran the wielding tool over the golden robot's plating, taking special care to not singe the wires that ran underneath. He scowled at the schematics and ran a tired hand through his hair at the same issue that lay in the design.
To be fair, the idea was downright revolutionary for someone to basically transfer their consciousness to a new body. But the problem was mainly how to overwrite the neural pathways after getting a way to 'plug in' to the brain they wanted to use. It was complex and completely unprecedented, but ran into a similar issue with the harness. They needed a neural interface that 'connected' to the brain in order to begin the process of overwriting the previous pathways with the new ones. From what he could tell, the original model was connected to the ganglia and therefore what made it possible for the arms to be connected as though and extension of the nervous system.
Otto couldn't help on that point, his deterioration was only worsening and they hadn't the opportunity to get him to their facility. Osnick needed someone who had intimate knowledge of the original interface and could modify it. From what the reports said, Otto Octavius and his assistant had been been the only ones who worked on the interface, which was far too advanced for any of the general interface models that Oscorp made. This level of work was at a level that was simply too specialized and beyond any of the scientists of Oscorp. They needed and specialist on the matter.
Someone like...
Osnick's eyes widened and a gleeful smile crossed his face.
"Peter Parker..." he whispered, "You robbed me of the partnership I rightfully deserved, it's only fair I deny you your life as it is now."
Miles scowled at himself as he looked in the mirror at his symbiote that enveloped them, creating his new suit. They were more than capable of helping people, why should they stop? Because Peter told them to? He was just worried that they would steal people's admiration! That was it, wasn't it? He was afraid of the people casting him aside as they became the city's protector! He wouldn't stop them! He couldn't stop them! No one could stop THEM!
