[A few minutes earlier, Bayside, Connor Residence]
In the luxurious living room of Connor Residence, Martha Connor was calling the police about Curtis. And she wasn't happy with the reply from them.
"What do you mean by 'we did not find him'?" She said sternly through the phone, furrowing her brow. "It's been almost a week, and Curt should be here right now."
"I'm sorry ma'am, but your husband disappeared without a trace," The policeman replied apologetically, "We couldn't find any clue about his whereabouts."
"Didn't you checked Oscorp's CCTV?"
"They didn't comply, ma'am."
"Fucking hell..." The woman cursed to herself, pinching her nose-bridge in annoyance. "Just... Whatever, thank you, officer."
"Yeah..." With that said, Martha cut the line and sighed heavily, leaning back to the sofa she was sitting on.
"Curt... where have you gone..." She whispered to herself, staring at the plain ceiling above.
However, she didn't notice the Lizard outside of the window, watching her silently.
What was it thinking? Meeting them again? Crash into the house and terrify them? But no matter what it's thinking, Lizard didn't move, not even a muscle. It stared at Martha with an unreadable face.
No, it wasn't staring at Martha. It was staring at its reflection in the window. Or both?
Unfortunately, all those thoughts were cut short by the sirens outside. Growling in anger, it turned around and started to walk toward the street, picking up the speed as he walked.
(Ethan's POV)
Once I left Rachel's room, I instantly leaped and dashed along the rooftops toward there. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the screaming from the pedestrians helped me to locate the Lizard.
Web-zipping to the edge of a building next to it, I did a point launch across the rooftop. And then I saw it.
The Lizard was rushing down the street, flipping cars on its way to aside. Without another thought, I instantly webbed the cars in mid-air and avoided the escaping pedestrians. Then I fired another web-bullet and stuck its tail to the ground.
"You're not going anywhere, Lizard!" I yelled at it, catching its attention. "I know you want to get to your family, but that's not happening tonight."
"L̶͕̀e̴̳͂a̶̗̚v̸̜͊e̸̼̐.̷̝͆.̴͉̔.̵̱̔ ̷̺̑M̴̨̔e̵͕̓.̷͔͐.̷̱̑.̷͓̈́ ̶̘̍À̶͓L̷̰̃O̶͖̽Ṇ̵̔E̶̙͐!̷̗̆" It shouted in its distorted voice, easily snapping out of my web and charged at me.
Narrowing my eyes under the goggles, I readied myself before dashing forward, attaching two lines of web to a maintenance hole cover beneath before leaping up to the air. Then I avoided its slashes and landed behind it, pulling the cover with all my strength.
The iron plate flew up and clashed to its face, breaking into pieces before falling onto the ground.
...Holy shit, it's skull is harder than I thought! Well, with its strength and endurance, I couldn't just use brute force my way to victory. I need to think of a new way to stop its rampage.
Glancing at the light pole behind me, I leaped and clanged on it and thought of a way to fight it effectively. Wait, I could web it up like how Peter did in the school fight.
Guess I'll try it.
Taking a deep breath to calm down, I jumped from the light pole and fired two web-bullets to the Lizard's foot, then another two to its hand. Then I leaped over its head while positioned its hand to be right in front.
If I couldn't use my own fist, let's try yours!
I instantly pulled the two lines of web with all my strength, but another force suddenly stopped me. "What the hell-" Before I could even finish my sentence, Lizard suddenly pulled back, sending me flying straight to his back.
Its leg snapped out of my web and turned around, grabbing my torso before slamming me to the ground. "I̴ ̷t̵o̵l̷d̵ ̸y̶o̵u̶ ̸t̷o̷ ̵s̸t̵a̵y̷ ̴a̴w̶a̵y̶ ̸f̷r̶o̵m̶ ̸m̷e̷.̸.̷.̷" It growled, clutching my neck with its tail.
I-I co-cou-couldn't b-br-breath...
Noticing my struggling against its tail, Lizard threw me into a concrete wall nearby. "N̴o̷w̵ ̷y̸o̶u̷'̸r̷e̷ ̷g̴o̵i̴n̵g̶ ̵t̴o̸ ̴d̵i̸e̸ ̸b̴e̴c̴a̴u̷s̴e̵ ̷o̴f̵ ̷i̵t̷!̸" It roared.
Quickly getting off from the wall, I fell onto the ground with a large 'thud'. "F-fuck..." I moaned in pain, staggering to get up and leaned against the light pole.
C'mon, where the fuck is Peter...
Shaking my head to clear my mind, I took a deep breath and ran toward Lizard at full speed, or as fast as I could. Using my Spider-Sense to predict the attack, I jumped and avoided its tail. Then I used my arm to block Lizard's arm, firing as much web as I could to keep its right hand to the ground.
This time, Lizard couldn't just tear the web apart. OK, that's some progress.
I leaped over its shoulder again and webbed both of his tail and left hand to the ground. However, as I was about to web its mouth shut, nothing came out of my web-shooter.
"Shit, I forgot to change the cartridges..." I murmured, hastily pulled out the old cartridges and switched to a new one. "C'mon, where the fuck is Peter..."
And coincidentally, Peter finally came in for the rescue, swinging down and kicked Lizard in the head. "Spidey to the rescue!" He quipped, landing and rushed to my side.
"What the fuck was you..." I murmured, a weak smile crept under my mask.
"Hit a little traffic, sorry 'bout that," He replied apologetically.
"...Whatever, I think I can still fight," Sighing, I straightened myself and put on my fighting stance.
Giving me a hesitated nod, Spidey fired a web and pulled himself to Lizard, punching it on the face again. Ignoring the pain throughout my body, I rushed forward and pinned its tail to the ground.
Roaring in anger, Lizard broke its hand free from my web, doing a wide slash toward me. Thanks to my Spider-Sense, I barely avoided its slash with a side dodge. Meanwhile, Peter rapidly fired web-bullets and pinned it in place.
"You know those webs aren't going to do anything, right?" I asked, dodging another strike from it.
"I know, but it's the only thing we can do," Peter replied, his eyelids slightly narrowed. "Karen, what can we do?"
"Analyzing..." The AI answered, "Your strength is about its level, but there's no way you and Noir to defeat it without any serum or sort."
"Serum?"
"From my analyzation, the Lizard is created from serum, and we need an anti-serum to defeat it truly."
"...Shit," He quietly cursed, noticing the web tearing on its back. "Karen, what can we do now?"
"Keep him away from damaging anything or anyone nearby. I'll find help."
"Easier said than done," Sighing, Peter dashed forward and jumped over Lizard. "Noir! Try to keep him at bay!"
"I've been doing this from the beginning!" I yelled in return, dodging another slash from Lizard. "And I can't stand a chance again-"
Before I could eve finish my reply, Lizard's tail suddenly grabbed my torso, tightening its grip on me. F-fuck! It's explicitly targeting me!
Gritting my teeth from pain, I tried to struggle against its tail. "...Dammit..." I murmured, totally failing on escaping its grip. "Spi-Spidey!"
"Shit!" Widening his eyelid, the Webhead instantly fired a few web lines and pulled. Freeing from its grip, I fell onto the ground and clutched my wrist in pain.
"It's targeting me..." I muttered out loud, struggling to get up from the ground. "And it's not going to stop until I'm dead."
"Then what should we do?!" He asked, kicking Lizard in the chest and knocked him back. "Karen, Any luck on helping hand?"
"I think she's about here, Peter."
"She? Don't tell me your calling..." Murmuring under his breath again, Peter was about to step forward when his sensor picked up someone. "It's really her..."
Huh? Hearing his mutters, my eyes followed his sightline and saw... Black Cat?!
"Spider, here!" She exclaimed, throwing a serum to Peter while jumping from a rooftop nearby and landed in between us. "Your AI girlfriend just called me here to give you this... something."
Catching it with ease, Spidey examined it for a second. "Karen, what is this?"
"sedative," The AI answered. "Since we don't have a serum to take care of it, so we can only compromise."
"In other words, it's the only way for now," Peter murmured to himself, taking a deep breath before looking at Lizard again.
Before he could even turn around and face Cat and me, Felicia talked first and startled him. "Just go, I'll take care of Noir."
Nodding, the Webhead dashed forward and dodged a few desperate attacks from Lizard, webbing its hands and more to the ground. Meanwhile, Cat instantly turned around and helped me straightened up.
"Noir, you're fine?" She asked, her eyes filled with concern.
Even though my body was still in pain, I gave her a weak smile under the mask and replied. "I... I'm tougher than I look."
"It doesn't seem like it," The platinum thieves deadpanned at my response, noticing my subtle wincing in pain. "Please, don't lie about it."
"Fine..." Sighing in defeat, I leaned back and used a light pole as support. "I'm kinda not fine."
"Well, glad that you admitted it," She sighed, putting my hand around her shoulder while holding my wrist with her left hand. "Spider got this, don't worry."
"I hope so..."
In the meantime, Spidey dodged strikes and strikes, pinning Lizard's limbs to its torso when he saw an opening.
"Let's hope this will work," He thought out loud, knocking it down with a spin-kick before hopping on its back, forcing its head aside and exposed its neck. Without any hesitation, he stabbed the sedative into Lizard's neck and pressed. The content inside injected into the monster in seconds.
Even though Lizard's eyelid widened for a second, its eyes quickly focused on something... me. Curtis' not going to give up on me, right?
With an ear-deafening roar, the Lizard freed itself from Peter's web and threw him aside into a house, dashing toward Cat and me. The world became slow motion at that moment.
Without another thought, I freed myself from Cat and dashed forward, pain exploding throughout my body. However, I tried my best to endure the pain, and caught its claws with my own hands.
...And I only thought of one thing.
"Noir!" I heard Cat's yelling behind me, but I ignored it.
Instead, I stared at Lizard in the eyes. "It's targeting me. I can't let you get hurt!" I yelled back to her.
At that exact moment, I noticed Lizard's strength started to weaken. Taking this as my opening, my hands tightened to fists and delivered punches and punches.
However, with a final headbutt with all my strength, the Lizard stumbled for a bit before noticing a manhole behind. The iron cover was gone, smashed into pieces... by me.
Shit, it's my fault.
I wanted to stop it from escaping, but my head was still fuzzy. I shouldn't use a headbutt... Fuck.
Meanwhile, Spidey finally got out from the rubbles and instantly rushed forward, but he's still too late to catch Lizard. And it's gone, into the sewers.
"It's my fault..." I murmured, stumbling back as I started to lose my balance. "I used the cover and shattered it..."
Snapping back to reality, Cat Widened her eyes in shock and caught me. "What the hell were you doing?!"
"I just... sorry..."
"It's fine," Spidey said, walking up to the two of us. "At least we find out what's effective against it."
"Yeah..." I muttered, feeling my consciousness started to give out. "And it'll probably stay in the sewers..."
I'm going to lose my consciousness again, right? Just like that one time with Rhino...
(3rd person POV)
Hearing my voice trailing off, Black Cat noticed my body gave out and slumped. "Noir? You're there?" She asked, shaking his conscious body. "Hey, answer me!"
"Karen, what happened to Noir?" Spider-Man asked, tapping the side of his mask. "I need a report, fast."
"Multiple bruises, serval broken bones, concussion, extreme exhaustion, bleeding..." Karen trailed off, as if she was holding her mouth in horror. "How did he able to fight in this situation?"
"It doesn't matter right now," He replied, crouching down and helped Cat to get Noir up. "Cat, I need to get him to a hospital."
"No, it'll be too late, Peter."
"Yeah, my penthouse is closer," Felicia nodded, carrying the vigilante on her back. "I have some first aid kit over there."
Seeing there's no other way now, Spider-Man sighed and nodded. "I'll carry him," He said, taking the unconscious Noir from her back. "Let's go."
Without any hesitation, the two masked teens pulled themselves to the rooftop, swinging and leaping through the street. However, they didn't notice a certain raven-haired PI on the ground, taking pictures of them.
"...As a masked vigilante, you really don't know how to hide your traces," She murmured to herself. "But fighting that Lizard thing when you're this underpowered... That's something only a god-tier idiot will do."
Sighing, Jessica Jones turned around and entered her car.
After a few moments of swinging at full speed, the duo finally arrived at Felicia's penthouse, a luxurious-looking apartment in Astoria district. Once the two touched the balcony, Black Cat instantly opened the door and leaded Spidey to the couch, placing Noir down carefully.
"Karen, notify me of the locations of the injuries," Peter said, his eyelid narrowed at the multiple red spots on his torso and head.
"First-aid kit here," Felicia announced, grabbing a box of medical supplies and placed next to the couch. "Peter, where are the injuries?"
Taking off the mask, Peter pointed at the points highlighted by Karen. "He got some bad hit on the head. We need to take off the mask."
"I don't think he'll be happy about this," She deadpanned, taking off her mask. "Let's see how bad is his body."
With that said, the silver-haired thief pulled the zipper and removed Noir's jacket, then his black undershirt. "...Oh my god..." Murmuring to herself, Felicia's eyes widened at the state his body was in.
Bruises are all over Noir's toned, but still skinny body. Blood was leaking from some wounds, and it was evident that he had broken some bones. Trimming her lips to a thin line, she took out bandages and dressings and started to cover the wounds.
Meanwhile, Peter was scanning for more wounds on the other parts of Noir's body, telling Felicia places she missed. The two continued the work for a good few minutes, and there were only his head injuries left.
Glancing at each other for a second, Felicia grabbed the edge of the modified ski-mask, internally hoping that he's someone she didn't know and pulled.
However, as she was about to lift the mask over the nose, Noir's phone suddenly rang, taking them both by surprise. "Jesus Christ..." Sighing in relief, Peter took the phone out of his jacket and checked who's calling.
"Rachel?" Narrowing his eyes in suspicion, he exchanged a glance with Felicia before pressing the 'accept' button and turned on the speaker.
"ETHAN?! ARE YOU HERE?!" Before the two could even react to what happened, Rachel's concern voice rang through the speaker. "Ethan? Please don't pull a prank on me."
Finally snapped back to reality from the shock, Peter and Felicia widened their eyes at Noir. "Peter, you take care of Rachel," She said, grabbing the edge of the mask again, pulling it off.
Even though Rachel's voice already told them who Noir really was, but seeing it face to face... Only reinforced one thing.
Noir was Ethan, the one Ethan she cared about.
And the injuries and bleeding on his forehead was the only thing keeping her from staring him in disbelief. Gulping, Felicia instantly took out more dressing and bandages to treat his wounds.
She had a lot of questions right now, but she wouldn't get any answer.
On the other hand, Peter turned off the speaker and put the phone to his ear. "Rachel?" He said.
"...Peter?" Rachel stayed silent for a moment, as if she was thinking of what to say. "What happened to Ethan? Why can't he answer?"
"He's in bad shape right now. Felicia and I just got him to her house."
"Please tell me that he's going to be alright, please." She begged, her voice quivered with each word said. "Peter?"
"I can't make any promises, but I have hope in him."
Rachel didn't answer, but hints of sobbing could still be heard.
[Meanwhile, Midtown, Stacy Residence]
Even since finding out Peter Parker was Spider-Man, thoughts and thoughts popped up in Gwen's mind. But in all of those questions, one of them rang the loudest.
'I feel different.'
She didn't know what exactly happened to her, but there's something wrong with her, she was certain about it. "'I can cling onto walls'..." Gwen murmured as she typed the words to the search bar.
However, the result was only poorly-written fanfictions about Peter and the writer, or just posts about Spider-Man for clout. Sighing in disappointment, Gwen closed the tab and stretched her arms, yawning in tiredness.
Still no result?
Even since that day on the bridge, she had been hearing voices in her head. The voice didn't sound like herself, nor something distorted to feel like something sinister.
It was like there was a new mind inside of her head. But for some reason, she didn't feel disturbed or there's something wrong about it.
And this scared her.
'I'm going insane...' Gwen thought to herself, burying her face in her hands. 'I should be weird out by this...'
But you didn't, right? It's fine, and you don't need to be scared.
'Just stop!' She screamed inside her head, not noticing the white spider crawling to the table. 'You're just some voice in my head, just shut up and leave me be!'
I never told you that I'm just some voices in your head, Gwen.
Just take off your hand. It'll be fine.
Gwen didn't know why, but she followed the voice's word, taking off her hands. The white spider was sitting on the laptop's keyboard as if it was staring at her.
"A ... white spider?" It took her a few moments to realize what exactly is that spider, and she widened her eyes in response. "Wait, ain't this spider bit me back when I... was on the bridge..."
Remember now? I bit you so you're able to survive.
"You bit me? What does that even mean-" She stopped herself in mid-sentence, connecting the dot in her head. "You're not an ordinary spider, right? Just like the one bit Peter..."
I guess so. That Peter guy feels like what I felt after biting you.
"And that means..." Gwen trailed off, staring at her hands in surprise.
"I got power... just like how Peter did..."
AN:
First, some news: This fic is now cross-post on AO3 under the same name!
Now both Peter and Felicia found out Ethan's secret identity, how will the two react? What will Ethan feel when he finally wakes up? And what will Rachel do?
On the other hand, Gwen finally start to realize her power, how will her journey progress?
More questions and cliffhanger, this arc still has more battles and more things in general.
Review Response:
Existential ERROR: In short, yes. I will do something to make up for Noir being a lot weaker than Spider-Man. I had been thinking about different solutions. Like giving the venom symbiote to Ethan, or the modified Lizard serum to him.
But I won't make him too powerful like magic or too much tech in his suit. Or Ethan will just be a Peter clone.
Raidentensho: Yeah, with the help from everyone he knows, Ethan would expand his arsenal of web-type. And they'll pay off for the effort he went through to make them!
Death Fury: Thank you! And... maybe I did go overboard on it.
shugokage: Thank you!
Zoom99: Well... when I first created Noir/Ethan, I don't want him to be the same level as Spider-Man himself so he won't constantly steal the spotlight.
Also, I wanted to make him a character himself, not a proxy like an SI story would. And from this chapter, we can see his first trait: even though he knows that he's massively underpowered, he still fights on, but for what?
A character needs weakness to stand out, and I want to use physical weakness to make Ethan stand out, but not making Peter useless as if he didn't even need to show up.
But I'll admit, I... maybe did go a bit too overboard on weakening Ethan.
So, after reading through the reviews, I am now open to suggestions about Ethan's strength and more. I might not use every single idea, but I'll try my best to implement them.
In all and all, I hope you enjoy the story so far!
R&R please.
