Despite their vehicle coming to a landing back at their base, Spider-Man didn't move right off the bat, his mind still swirling harder and faster than a whirlpool.
"Okay," Mysterio said as he hopped down from their transportation. "It wasn't pretty, but by all accounts, it looks like the mission was accomplished. So, how about we...Spider-Man?"
He heard his supposed ally, but Spider-Man made no attempt to even so much as turn his head to face Mysterio. He was still upset at what he had done, a hot anger that had been boiling more and more during their return trip. He soon forced himself to move though, hopping down next to the man with the device from Alchemax still in his hands.
"Look, I know things didn't go as smoothly as we had hoped," Mysterio spoke up, "but we still got the job done, and that's what really..."
Unable to keep his growing rage in check any longer, Spider-Man turned on Mysterio, pinning the man to a nearby wall with his arm.
"WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU!?" he yelled, yanking off the man's helmet with his free hand.
"Woah, easy!" Mysterio said, holding his hands up in surrender. "What's this all about?"
"Are you kidding me!?" Spider-Man replied, his tone only slightly lower than before. "Why did you stick those...things on all those cops?"
"They had you pinned, and they had caught onto my initial illusion," Mysterio explained.
"So, what, you just opted for the most violent option necessary?" Peter questioned. "Those guys could have been killed; how do we even know that one of them isn't bleeding out right now?"
Mysterio didn't say anything initially, his face looking slightly somber.
"Look, I didn't want you to have to learn this the hard way, especially not this soon after your accident," he finally spoke up, "but these kinds of decisions sometimes have to be made out in the field. You might not believe this, but you were the one who taught me that."
His rage slowly being replaced by shock, Spider-Man finally released his hold on his ally, taking a step back as well.
"What?" he questioned.
"It's something that you've always emphasized," Mysterio explained, "that being a superhero means that you have to do whatever it takes to finish the mission. Those people who were trying to stop us couldn't be allowed to do so; if they had, many more lives would have been at stake, but now they're not."
"What, no!" Spider-Man refuted. "We could have found another way!"
"Maybe, but it was a chance that we couldn't take," Mysterio said. "Also, what kept you in there anyway? You should have been out of there long before the other Spider-Man ever arrived on the scene."
"I saved a security guy from falling off the railway," Spider-Man answered.
"You what?" Mysterio asked.
"I'm sorry, was that a mistake too?" Spider-Man questioned, stepping closer so that he was face to face with his ally. He recognized that he had a lot to learn still about the whole superhero thing, but he was not about to back down when he KNEW he was in the right.
"No," Mysterio replied, seemingly dialing it back a little. "But it still set us back. We were lucky this time, but in the future, something like that may be the difference in whether a mission is successful or not. That's what it means to be a hero, Spider-Man: sometimes, you must think of the many over the few."
"Really?" Spider-Man said, "because if that's the case, maybe I'm not cutout to be a hero after all."
Shoving the power source against the man's chest, Spider-Man then turned and stormed off, eventually ending up back at his room. Opening then just as quickly closing the door behind him, he sat down on the side of the bed, trying to relax. The effort proved fruitless however, as his mind just wouldn't settle down, so he instead began pacing the room, attempting to at least organize his thoughts in some capacity.
He was still just so heated about Mysterio's decisions out in the field and the man's apparent outlook on heroism in general. He understood why his ally might believe that, but it just...it felt wrong. Spider-Man knew that there was no scenario where he would just leave the security guard to fall to his death, no matter how many ways he tried to play the situation out in his head. The guy needed help, and he had the power to help, and with that power came an innate responsibility to...
There it was again: that feeling, that MEMORY. There was no image that played out regarding who said this to him or what circumstances made him learn this, but Spider-Man just knew that, at some point, someone had taught him this lesson. It felt important too, like it went beyond just a simple Sunday school lesson or something. Rather, it felt like a principle that he lived his life by; somehow, he just knew that it meant that much to him, but he still couldn't remember why.
This line of thought brought him back to his second encounter with the other Spider-Man. He replayed the whole thing in his head, from the initial encounter to the fight and even to parts of their conversation. He'd been really upset at the time, which had helped him block out a lot of what his previous attacker had said. However, there was one key thing that stuck with him: the young man had called him by name: "Peter." More than that though, he referred to him more casually first as just "Pete," as if they'd had a history together, which he knew that they supposedly did, but still...
A terrifying question entered his mind: what if the other Spider-Man was the one who had actually been the one telling the truth? At first, it was easy for Spider-Man to dismiss the idea; after all, the other Spider-Man had attacked him on that first encounter, boldly and seemingly without remorse, not even saying a word in the process. Plus, this all went with what Mysterio had warned him would happen initially, that the young man would lie and do whatever he could to get him to lower his guard in order to finish him off.
This line of thinking seemed to make sense to him at first, until Spider-Man thought through their encounter a little more. His previous attacker had said that he wasn't going to fight him, and now that he thought about it, he couldn't recall even one time when he'd broken his word on that. Well, he jumped and grabbed his leg as he tried to leap to the wall that one time, so that was something. Still, when the cops had their guns trained on him, the other Spider-Man had gotten in front of him. Granted, he tried to take the power device out of his hands, but at the same time, he did web the guns of the cops away...
His mind now threatening to get overwhelmed, Spider-Man sat in his bed, removing his mask and burying his face in his gloved hands. So many things he was being told seemed to conflict with what he had seen. His first encounter with the other Spider-Man, he tried to kill him, but the next time, he wouldn't fight him at all. Mysterio claimed to be a hero and his ally, but he was willing to sacrifice innocent bystanders and severely maim their opponents when they didn't have to. On the other hand, the other Spider-Man had tried to make sure that no one got hurt in their encounter with the cops, seemingly protecting him and disarming the cops. It could've all been for glory, but that seemed like a lot of trouble and risk to go through.
On top of that, who was that random woman he saw just before he and Mysterio had fled the scene? She'd been far enough away where she likely hadn't been involved in any of the craziness, at least not seriously, and from what he could tell, she hadn't had on the outfit of a security guard, so what had she been doing there? Even though they weren't exactly close up on one another, there was something about the look she was giving him that he couldn't get out of his head. They'd been too far apart for him to properly get a sense of what she'd been trying to convey to him, but there had seemed to be an obvious intentionality behind it.
Had he known her before?
Closing his eyes, Spider-Man tried to concentrate, once more trying to bring forth any sort of memory. Just as before, his head seemed to resist, his brain beginning to hurt. He tried to push through, squeezing his eyes shut and clenching his fists while ending up on his knees on the floor as he did. He fought, but the harder he tried to remember, the worse the pain got until finally he let out a gasp of air as he ceased his efforts. His brain slowly started to feel better again, but his frustration remained.
He couldn't keep this up; he had to do something to help him figure out the truth, as he was uncertain of what it was anymore. He'd seen or heard too much conflicting information, so he had to find a way to narrow it all down. He also decided that he couldn't just rely on what anyone told him anymore, or even what that weird feeling in his brain. No, he needed to do research, to find out on his own who was who to him and what the truth was behind all of this.
But how?
Well, there was the room with all the secret computers that came out of the walls. Maybe he could start there? Yeah, that made sense. At the same time, Spider-Man felt he should wait just a little bit longer before venturing there. He wanted to make sure that Mysterio was not likely to intrude on his efforts, so he waited, trying to figure out ways to pass the time. He experimented with the web strands or whatever that came out of the devices on his wrists, trying a few different finger combinations until he remembered that it had been his middle two fingers that made it work. Initially, he shot a few straight lines before weaving a large web along the upper section of the walls, lying in it.
After a while, he finally decided to make his move, slipping his mask back on and making his way to the room with all the screens. When he got there though, he realized something important: Mysterio hadn't shown him specifically where the button, switch or whatever it was that brought out the computer screens and keyboard was in the first place. Trying his best to picture where Mysterio had been standing at the time, he moved over there, feeling along the walls until eventually he felt something that seemed like a small button.
Tapping it, the wall soon folded in, the screens and keyboard emerging before him. Rubbing his gloved hands together, Spider-Man moved over to the keyboard as the screen lit up before him, excited at the prospect of finally getting some straight answers. However, upon his actually looking up at the screen he realized that there was one small problem in his grand research plan: he didn't know the password to get in.
Faced with this new dilemma, Spider-Man considered his options. The easy choice was that he could try and ask Mysterio for the password, but that might be a bit awkward considering that he was essentially trying to do this behind his back. The other option was that he could try and guess the password, but he honestly had no idea where to start. Even if it was as simple as just one or both of their names and a significant date, such as the day Mysterio got out of prison or the day they started fighting crime together, he had no knowledge of what any of those numbers would be.
Man, amnesia really was just the worst.
Suddenly, that strange sense in his brain went off again, and he looked to see Mysterio coming into the room, helmet back on.
Well, guess there was only one option now.
"Hey," Spider-Man said as his ally approached him, "I was wondering if maybe I could get the password so that I could get on here."
"What do you need it for?" Mysterio questioned, his tone nonchalant.
"Oh just, you know..."
"To do a little research and see if I am who I say I am?" Mysterio spoke up.
"No, I mean..." Spider-Man stammered, desperate to figure out how he was going to talk his way out of this one.
"Look, after our little disagreement back there, I understand why would be questioning some things right now, but you have to trust me." Mysterio said. "Besides, I just figured out that we are having technical problems, so even I can't access anything until I find the problem."
"Okay," Spider-Man replied. "Well, maybe I'll just go out for a little bit then. Some fresh air would probably do me some good right now, help me clear my head."
"After what we just went through at Alchemax?" Mysterio questioned, "probably not the best idea."
"Relax," Spider-Man assured him, already making his way towards the room's exit point. "I'll find something to change into. No one's going to know it's me without the mask, right?"
Turning back to the door, Spider-Man watched as it suddenly closed; not only that, but the knob seemingly slid into a hidden section of the door, and bars came down in front of it. He turned back to see Mysterio, who was just standing in the center of the room, facing him.
"I should have known at some point that you'd get too curious."
If you've made it this far, I hope you're still enjoying it!
Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!
"Praise be to the Lord, for He has heard my cry for mercy." Psalm 28:6