CHAPTER 22: LAST DAY IN TOWN
Peter finally got back to Harry's late at night he had tried looking for that Goblin character but so far no luck for him. So he went back to the high rise and slipped into the window, he was careful to be silent just in case and changed out of his costume and placed it all in his backpack under some other stuff as well.
After that he just put on his sleeping pants and just crash on the guest bed. It had been a long night and he was aching for some rest. He fell quickly asleep too just soon after he hit the pillow.
It wasn't long until he was dreaming too, so far in his dream he was over the streets in broad daylight. He wasn't along though since in his arms was Rogue. Another odd thing was that he wasn't in his Spider-Man suit or his Spider-X one he was just in jeans and a shirt with web shooters. But either of them seemed to care as Rogue was happily had her arms looped around his next with one of his arms around her waist.
He felt at peace here as they swung over the city. He noticed she was in that purple top and black jean pants. The wind moving through her hair and that she was smiling, he loved seeing her smile. "Peter let's set down for a moment okay?" She asked him.
"Sure thing and I got the perfect place in mind," He told her as they moved over the streets oddly enough it was like the entire city was theirs like they were the only two in it. He landed on the side of a building as he shifted her on his lap for a moment. He fired out his webbing making a 'bridge' to the other building.
"Here ya go," He said gently setting her on the webbing, it was like walking on a water bed but it was strong material. She sat down and was about to ask why here when she looked to her right and saw the landscape of the waterline. It was a great view one Peter had found on his way through the city once.
He sat down next to her as she cuddled up next to him and leaned her head on his shoulder, "It's beautiful Peter…"
He lightly took her chin to make her look up and him, "Only half as beautiful as you are." He told her from his heart she had a slight blush on as they leaned forward kissing him lightly. Soon the light kisses became harder and more passionate as she started to run a hand over his chest. He rubbed her back as they fell onto the webbing as they started to make out with each other.
Rogue was moaning out lightly enjoying the touching of each other, Peter loved it as well all these years nothing and all of a sudden he had a hot girlfriend and here he was making out with her. He moved down to her neck as she gripped his head moaning out his name. "Oh God Peter…Ah love ya so much."
"I love you too Rogue," He said although it was slightly strange being in love with a girl that he didn't even know her real name. But he didn't care to him Rogue was her name it was the name that he fell in love with. He felt her hands on his chest as she lightly pushed him off, "Rogue?" He asked a bit confused.
She grinned up at him with an expression he hadn't seen before on her as she crawled back a bit so she was slightly sitting up at bit. Her hands went to the knot in front of her top as she slowly started to undo it, "Do you want me Peter?"
His eyes nearly bulged out of his head at this, he felt like there was an angel and devil on each shoulder. The devil was telling him to go for it but when he waited for the angel one to talk it was too busy staring as his girlfriend was about to take her top off. He swallowed hard as she had undid it and was about to open it up to him when-
WHAM! "Peter!"
"AHHH!" Peter jolted awake in his bed nearly jumping out of it totally. He was confused and disoriented as he looked around wondering where all his stuff wasn't there when he remembered where he was. He noticed Harry and he just groaned and fell back onto his bed.
'God hates me…I can't even have a nice dream about her without something screwing up, maybe I'm just a jinx,' He thought bitterly, that was one of the best dreams of his life and here it was stopped just as it was getting good. He hated his life sometimes, even his dreams were against him it seemed.
"Peter, were you still asleep?" Harry asked him the excitement in his voice.
"No I was doing my impression of one…" Peter mumbled as he threw a pillow over his head.
"Peter it's ten in the morning," Harry told him as he watched Peter look at the clock and then groaned and his face hit his pillow. "If you have trouble sleeping you really should get that looked at. I mean you really should be getting better sleeping habits if you keep waking up or something."
'I will not kill him, I will not kill him, he's my friend just cause he ruined your dream it's no reason to kill him…no matter HOW good the dream was…' He thought to himself before getting up and looking at him.
"Is there a reason you came in here?" Peter asked him while silently asking why he couldn't wait ten more minutes.
"It's my dad Peter!"
At that Peter got up and out of his bed, now he was fully awake at that as there were several things that could have happened. He looked at Harry and he wasn't distraught so his dad wasn't dead he hoped. "He woke up! My dad just woke up last night!" Harry cried out.
"Oh man that's great news!" Peter was happy for his friend so he could forgive him for waking him up early at least. He went to get dressed as well since he just woke up, "Let my just change then and we can go to see him okay?"
Harry left him to change as he went to call the others about the news. Peter put on a pair of jeans and a red shirt on as he got himself ready in the bathroom, combing out his hair for starters since it looked like a mess. He wished he could take a shower but he'd do that later.
Peter walked out into the large hall to meet Harry by the elevators he saw him there with a cell phone, "Well I'm ready to go man let's see how your dad is doing then."
Harry grimaced he had just called the people at the medical ward that his dad was in and they told him that he could see his dad but for security reasons only Harry would be the only one to be allowed to see him. He wished that he could take his friends but they were pretty adamant about it, he explained all of this to Peter.
He just shrugged with a smile, "Hey no problem buddy, I can at least take a shower and get some breakfast ever see some of the city by the time you get back."
"You don't mind?"
Peter placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, "Course not now go on and go see your dad okay?"
Harry smiled at him glad to have a friend like Peter in his life.
-Xavier's Mansion, Lower Levels-
Rogue at the moment was thinking of Peter and what he was doing, well while Hank was running her through her physical checkup. She was in her workout clothing with gloves since the new device was being calibrated thanks to Forge stopping in to help make her a new bracelet.
She was in a small medical room not used that often mainly for physical exams like now.
So far she was on a treadmill jogging on it so they could check to see how she was doing. She felt fine, in fact better then normal although her mind kept going back to things like Peter, and what happened to her.
She remembered when Jean went through her own little episode that hadn't been pretty in fact Jean had actually stopped in yesterday and told her that if she ever wanted to talk about it then she would be there. Sure Rogue hadn't gotten along perfectly with Jean, okay so maybe that was partially due to jealously wouldn't you be?
Here she was living with a girl that was beautiful, talented and seemed to have it all and she had Scott's affections. Sure Jean never flaunted it so Rogue never hated her but it was just kind of hard being around someone like that at times. But now things were different, she was over her crush over Scott thankfully and now she would be able to touch again soon, her own great guy in her life as well.
She also had a brother which was strange but in a nice way. 'God when did mah life turn into a soap opera?' She thought to herself this week had just been on hell of a week that was for sure.
Hank was timing her as she her mind was elsewhere, he was also monitory her heart rate from a device on her chest. He was looking at the readings on a computer that was set up against the wall next to the treadmill. He was confused by the readings about this as he was also waiting for her blood work to be finished up elsewhere.
"Rogue how are you feeling?" He turned in his chair to ask her.
She had worked up a slight sweat and was breathing a bit hard but otherwise she looked fine. "Okay, why?"
"You're not tired?"
"Well…not really, why is somethin' wrong?" She asked him knowing full well that he never asked anything without reason.
"Not at all in fact you're performance is excellent way better then you have ever have done in fact." He pulled out his stopwatch seeing the time, "Are you aware that you have been jogging at a steady pace for over thirty minutes? You've already gone a few miles as it is."
Now that surprised her and she nearly tripped over her own feet, "What? That's not possible, ah barely feel tired and ah've nevah done this well before."
"Perhaps we should check your strength then," Hank stood up saving the bio readouts on the computer for future study as Rogue slowed herself down, "I have a hypothesis on what is going on but I need to be sure if you don't mind."
"No of course not," She was just as eager to get to the bottom of this. They headed for the gym in the mansion it was small since most exercise was either down outside or in the Danger Room. She when to the bench press and sat on the small flat surface as Hank loaded up the bar with some weights.
She gripped the bar over her as he spotted and she lifted it up, it felt a bit light to her as she finished ten reps of it. "How much was on there?"
"About fifty pounds to be exact," He told her and she was surprised by that, it felt more like only twenty to her. He put on more and more, she went to seventy-five, then ninety, one-hundred. She topped out at over one-hundred and sixty pounds. "Remarkable, truly remarkable."
She sat up panting feeling the aches in her arms, "What's goin' on here? Ah could nevah do that before."
"I think you're blood testing will be done, go take a rest and meet me in the medical room when you're done I think I know what is going on."
Rogue wanted to know now but she figured she could wait a few more minutes. She passed by several of the others as they asked her how she was and she said fine. The shower felt good as she then changed into her regular clothing and headed once more into the medical ward. She was really starting to hate this room she was starting to spend more time in it then in her own bedroom.
When she was there she found Hank and Xavier looking over the results, by now she was just frustrated with what was going on then worried, "Okay so please tell meh what's goin' on with meh. Ah don't know if ah can take not knowin' anymore."
Hank cleared this throat, "Well as you may have guessed this is in result of you absorbing Venom or more accurately the symbiotic life form. You've never had to use your powers against anything other then humans and mutants so this is unknown territory."
Rogue sat down on one of the beds as Xavier decided to take it from there, to try and ease her mind about all of this, "You see from what we have been able to piece together from a sample that Hank found of the…creature…and from what Peter said we believe that the suit enhances people."
"By using your powers you take a template of a person into you even their genetic information I believe is somehow stored in your mind. But because this wasn't a human or mutant your powers reacted differently. It seems that you've undergone a change not only physically but on a genetic level."
Rogue blinked a few times processing that wondering where all this was headed, "Am ah goin' ta be okay?"
Hank smiled at her and nodded, "Of course my dear, you see it seems that the symbiotic DNA merged with your own slightly enhancing you. You as you are aware are faster and stronger then before just as if the symbiote was attached to you."
"But ah'm not going ta go all black and stuff am ah?"
Hank shook his head, "No the process seems to have stopped and it only partially transformed you. Apparently you weren't just going through a power surge but an evolution as well that night. Your body was merging with the new genetic information as it was altering you to cope with it. The full effects we're not sure of but physically you are even better then ever."
Rogue wasn't sure how to take that, she was glad that nothing bad would happen to her and she did feel great. Even her aches were starting to disappear as well and she felt more full of energy then ever before. They continued on talking about this and having her take a few tests now and then to make sure nothing more surprising happened. She asked about her powers and they said that would be one of the things they would test to see.
Hank had a theory that if her body was enhanced then maybe her powers as well to some extend. She was eager to try it out but Xavier asked for some caution after all they didn't know the full effects and they wanted to be careful. Rogue guessed that made sense although a part of her wondered if with this she could learn control, she loved the nullifier that Peter made but she still would like total control on her own.
Well she just hoped that time would tell in just how far she had evolved, that and she couldn't wait to surprise the others with this as well. Especially Peter and when she played against Scott the next time, she wanted to see just how good her body would make her now in those weekly games of theirs.
-New York-
Detective George Stacy was with one of the other detectives that was still new to her position Jean DeWolffe. Sure she was young but she had a sharp eye and was good at her job after all, although her stance on people like Spider-Man being good was a little questionable.
They were currently working on a lead about the serial killer that was terrorizing the city. So far he had been very careful none of the victims seemed to have had anything in common really until you looked into their pasts. So far most of the victims had a link to them, a few hadn't so either there was another thing about them or they were actually to throw them off the trail.
But most of them had all at one time lived in the same orphanage it seemed, when looking into the records they found that the place had burned down as well, so many of the records were lost during that time and now they were looking up anyone they could find connected to it. George had come across one of the children there a boy named Cletus Kasady.
Looking into his past it seemed that his father died and he was put in the care of his grandmother who seemed to have fallen down the stairs breaking her neck. Then of course not long after he was sent to the orphanage it was burned to the ground killing several of the staff and children. He bounced around a lot and looking back through the various foster homes he found out that another of the victims had been one of those family members.
It all added up to him, either this Kasady guy was just very unlucky for those around him or he was the one they were looking for and had a longer history of violence then they thought. He was already sent to juvenile hall multiple times and his records there were filled with violence. They already had a search warrant for his place a loft it seemed that he had, they arrived at the building.
Detective DeWolffe looked around the area, "Looks like a fairly quiet neighborhood around here." The place looked a bit run down in an Irish area of the city that had some illegal housing in the area but no one really cared much for it.
George nodded as he went inside of the building with her not sure what to find.
Upstairs however there wasn't just one person but two, one of them was a female women in her mid twenties tied up and gagged to a chair the robes burning into her flesh as she had tried struggling. Her name was Sophia and she had just been coming home from work when someone had hit her with a stun gun to wake up in a dark room with what looked like homemade sound proofing and many terrifying objects.
It looked like something from a horror movie and then there was that man as well. He was tall just over fix feet, slim build with short red hair and terrifying green eyes. She had been crying since she woke up as she had never been so scared in all her life as she saw some of the red crusted stuff on some of the sharp things around them knowing what it was on them.
"Well my dear took a long time to fine you, yes it did," Cletus grinned at her like a predator his cold and evil eyes looking as her long black hair covered some of her tear stained face. "You may not remember me but I remember you oh so well."
He pulled a sleeve up on her shirt as she jerked and he saw a slight burn scar there, "Ah seems that I did 'touch' you though, did you like that pretty fire I made back then?"
Sophia's eyes widened at that, the fire from the orphanage scared her for life both physically and emotionally she was still afraid of fire to this day and now she was faced with the monster that started it. They told her it had been an electrical fire but now this man was telling her that he did it.
"I never liked the other children there you know, they were always mean to me. So they had to go," He laughed to himself picking up blade. "I make all those that hurt me or just piss me off go away. My grandmother used to hit me you know, so I took care of her. She never hit me again, then it was the kids at the orphanage. I hated that place so I thought to just burn it away, even got lucky and got a few of those I hated too."
He turned to her and ran the blade gently over her face as she whimpered, feeling the cold steel of the blade against her skin, "I also remember you as well, you took my teddy away from me and then told the grown ups that it was yours and I had stolen it from you." She remembered that day she had just been a child she wasn't like that anymore she looked up into his eyes pleading for mercy but she saw none in them.
"They hit me for that you know, I was punished!" He slapped her face hard with his free hand and then he composed himself, "But now after all this time I get to be the one to punish you. I think I'll start with the fingers and work my way up? What do you think?"
She broke down at that moment right there.
The two detectives were outside of the door to his place as they knocked, "Cletus Cassidy open up police!" George said in a loud voice to get the attention of anyone there. He pounded on the door again and still no answer.
"If this is the guy what if there's another victim in here?" Jean said to the more experienced cop next to her.
"Then I guess we have to find out," He was about to kick the door down at that moment when she stopped him.
"Whoa…here let me," She pulled out a device that looked like a small gun only it was actually a lock picking tool, "We got more subtle ways of getting into places now." She grinned at him and he had to admit it was smart, plus if the door was bared he might have broken his foot.
She managed to open the door as they walked in carefully, the place was kind of a mess really things all over the place then Jean walked over to a wall with something covering it and she pulled it down, "Oh hell…Stacey I think we found him."
He looked and there on the wall was a collage of paper articles all about the murders. "I'm calling this in," He said picking out his cell phone and calling for backup at this place. They slowly moved through it after the call with their guns out in the ready. The two of them moved through the place clearing each room, they came to a door that was slightly opened and both eased towards it.
George covered her as she opened it and looked in side, "Oh my god," she said and went in, he looked to see a young woman tied up. Her hair had been hacked off and there were a few shallow cuts but she was alive. Jean was trying to calm her as she untied her and to assure her it was over.
George Stacey took a step back out and he was just in luck because of doing that he caught a flash to his right. He spun and managed to get his arm up to block something that cut into his arm. He cried out in pain and his weapon fired, he fell back to see Cassidy there falling back and by the look of it the bullet just grazed his leg.
He also saw a knife with some of his blood on it, "Freeze!" He yelled and raised his gun up but the killer ran, he fired but missed.
"Are you alright?" DeWolffe asked him as the young woman was now free and holding on to the female officer for dear life sobbing.
He check his arm he was cut but not too bad, "Yeah I'm good," getting up and taking care of his injury.
"Go after him I got this!" She yelled and he nodded they couldn't let him get away not this time.
For Cassidy he was livid, he had just taken a bathroom break when he noticed that two people had entered his home, he was pissed when he found out they were cops. Oh well he had planned not to stay nameless forever anyway at least now he could get a few cops on his score card. He was about to just stab the man in the back of the neck but of all things he had to walk back out again.
Now he was shot in the leg, thankfully not bad, but now he had to run. He planned for this but still he didn't like walking away from this place or all the trophies he kept. Oh well he would just have to start over and that was the fun of it after all.
He got to the fire escape and ran up it and then across the rooftops he had his route planned out and he kept a small car stashed in an alley not far that he used to collect his victims in. He just had to get to that then he was home free for the time being.
He jumped over a small gap to one of the other buildings his leg flared up and he hissed in pain but ran on. He had just past one of those doors that lead people to the roof when a loud bang was heard as the wood of the doorway next to him exploded a bit, he looked over his shoulder to see that dame cop after him.
Stacey was moving as fast as he could he had taken a shot at him and it went wide it was hard to aim with just one hand accurately. He ran on though hoping that his partner was calling in this in and they would have the area blocked off. He saw the guy duck behind some cover and fired one more time missing again.
"Damn it, that's it after this I'm spending more time at the target range," He said to himself running after him his arm still hurt like hell as he chased him. They ran over the tops of a few buildings and each shot he either missed or went wide, Kasady was pretty slippery as they came to some place that looked like there was some construction going on the roof. There was some scaffolding going down into a large hole in the roof as well as lots of lumber and materials.
It seemed that no one was working this weekend as she stopped and slowed down, there were some sirens in the distance now and he knew that backup was on the way here. He just had to hold out as he slowly made his way through the area trying to find out where he was hiding. He just passed a large pile of lumber when his arm holding his gun was struck from behind a corner by a large piece of wood.
Stacey grunted in pain as he was then hit in the shoulder and fell to the floor looking up at the lunatic holding the wood, "You know you had to go and spoil all my fun, I was just in the middle of getting to know an old friend when you stopped me. Well there are plenty more people in the world for me to get to know at least."
He grinned sadistically at the fallen cop as he raise it over his head to slam it down but it was suddenly yanked from his arms. Cletus fell back and there behind them both sitting on top of the wood pile was Spider-Man.
Peter had been out web swinging since it was much faster to get around New York, since people knew about him he guessed that being in broad daylight was okay as long as it wasn't a habit. When he saw all the police cars going nuts to some place he decided to follow. He hadn't seen anything until some guy with a gun most likely a cop was getting his butt handed to him with some scrawny man with a piece of wood.
"Hey there sun shine you know I can't help but overhear the slightly crazy sounding rant there but I'm guessing you're the bad guy here," Spider-Man told him jumping down. The red haired man got to his feet and grinned at him.
"Oh this is just perfect I'll forever be famous spilling your guts all over the place. The world will remember me you know I wonder what your blood looks like, if it flows like a man or like a spider?" The killer said to him and Peter saw that crazy look in his eyes and he knew this was a full blown lunatic.
"O-kay there, you're definitely going for nut job of the year," Peter's spider-sense went off as he pulled a slightly bloody knife from behind his back at him. He dodged it fairly easily thanks to his powers and training although there were a few close calls.
"You sir need a time out!" He grabbed the guy's wrist and threw him several feet slamming hard into a pile of pipes that looked like they were going to be used for new water lines. Kasady groaned and tried to get up feeling the pain all over when Peter fired his webbing at his wrists and ankles holding him there.
"Oh no you don't your going to sit there like a nice little sociopath and think about what' you've done mister," Spider-Man said to him like scolding a little child.
"You freak! I'll skin you alive! I'll make you watch as I cut out your heart and-MFFF!" He was cut off as Peter webbed his mouth shut he really didn't need to hear anymore.
"Well glad that's taken care of," Peter wiped his hands and then turned to the other guy, "So are you…okay…" He stopped seeing a gun pointed at him.
"I should arrest you, you know." Stacey said looking at this guy for the first time in person. "I really don't like vigilantes."
Peter's shoulders slumped it was just perfect he guessed no good dead didn't go unpunished after all. He just couldn't get why doing the right thing always caused him trouble. The cop then actually put the gun down, 'Okay…now what's going on? I swear if the universe keeps trying to confuse me my I'll end up screaming one day.'
"So…What?" Peter asked him as the cop went over to Kasady holding his injured cut arm. "Not that I'm looking the gift horse in the mouth and all but did I just suddenly get a get out of jail free card?"
"Look…I owe you one, my arm is cut, my other arm and shoulder hurts like hell, I'm tired and at the moment I just don't want to deal with anymore more then just this sicko…" He sighed at the moment he just wanted to get patched up and go home and see his daughter. This had been one long day, "But don't take this the wrong way, I see you again I'm arresting you got it?"
He turned but Spider-Man was already gone, although looking as the TV news chopper was moving off he bet they were in pursuit of him. 'Great now people will know he helped to capture this guy and it might spark even more guys like him…'
He looked down at the struggling killer and he did smirk seeing him, 'At least I don't have to listen to him rant on, I hate it when the never shut up.'
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