Alright so I probably should have done this a lot earlier. For those who might be confused, what you're reading here is the edited version of Chapter 26 ''Damage" over the original. The reason I'm doing this is cause my Co-Author pointed a bit too many mistakes in this one, along with a mild inconsistency as well. So it's my job to rewrite this to make this better.
"You sure you can still keep going?!" Black Cat asked, as she was running and hopping from rooftop to rooftop in Karakura Town while keeping her gaze at the black suited Spider-Man, who was keeping up with her. "If you're feeling exhausted again, I can just take over like before! Really, it won't be a problem for me!" she exclaimed. 'As long as my college work doesn't keep me busy, I should be fine'
"Don't worry about it so much, I still have some energy in me left!" the black suited hero replied with reasonable confidence in him, believing that he could still go on. "Besides, I was gonna stop pretty soon anyways!" he, and her hopped off another rooftop now.
"Well, if you say so..." she leapt towards another rooftop in front of her, and so did Spidey. "So I've been meaning to ask you something, have you been feeling alright lately?" she asked her partner.
Spider-Man looked at her with confusion coming off from his lenses. "Well, yeah! Never better actually!" he answered her back in an imitating cheerfulness in his voice. "Why do you ask?!"
"Nothing! It's just…you've been acting a bit odd. Whenever you fight now, you always look like you're in such a hurry, and you do look annoyed while you're doing that as well." Black Cat remarked, as the wind blew her hair gently before she made stopped as she stood on another rooftop, turning around to see Spider-Man stopping as well. "Has something been happening to you behind that mask of yours that I should know about?" she asked with concern tinted in her voice. If something serious was happening to her partner, then she had to know shouldn't she? "Some social issues? Family problems? Financial struggles? Anything like that?"
Spider-Man made a small, frustrated sigh escaping from his mouth, tilting his head back before looking at the older woman in front of him. "Look, nothing is wrong, alright? Everything is going just fine, so I don't see why you're asking me this."
Black Cat gave a skeptical look. "If things were going alright, you wouldn't have sounded so annoyed would you? I'm serious, is something big going on that I don't know that's making you like this? Or is it something else?"
"For the last time already, I told you that everything is alright! How many times do I have to say everything is actually fine for you to get off my back!" Spider-Man snapped at her. "And why do you care anyway?!"
Black Cat was stunned by his sudden outburst, not expecting a reaction like that out of him which caused some of her anger to show up on her facial features, giving the web slinger a glare. "What, so I'm not allowed to care about what's happening to other people?! I'm asking you if everything is alright because I actually care as a human being! What is it with you right now?!"
Spider-Man was about to reply back to her, but their argument was cut short when there were the sounds of windows crashing that seemed to be coming nearby. This made both of them look at the upcoming danger they were gonna head to, "Don't think we're done talking about this." he heard her say this which made him reply with a grunt.
Spider-Man landed with his hands and legs, crouching down on a lamp post, and Black Cat landed on the ground that was below him, but still did stand next to the lamp post. Both of them looked at Doctor Octopus, who stood behind a building looking back at them.
"Well, well, look who we have here, I'm surprised how fast you got out of jail, Ock. How the hell did you get your arms to work again? I thought they don't work without a power source?" asked the web slinger.
"You underestimate my intellect if you think that a mere prison I was trapped in would hold me down that easily, and I have my ways to get what I want." the octopus villain stared at the black costume his enemy wore, and it made him frown. "And, it appears that the rumors about you gaining a new black suit were true after all. I was hoping that wasn't the case, but it appears that I'll have to get rid of that thing from you by myself."
Black Cat looked at him in confusion, "What are you talking about?" she didn't understand what the villain was on about. "What thing?" she wanted to know what he meant.
Instead of answering her, Doc Ock launched two tentacles at both their directions, to which with enough reaction time, both of them dodged out of the way. Spider-Man fired a web at one of the metal tentacles while being in mid air, and he was about to pull Doc Ock but he was the one who got pulled back instead, and got slammed by the tentacle which sent him right through a car.
"That thing, woman, is something that I, along with a group of scientists were working on when I was still working under Norman Osborn in Oscorp. It is, to put it simply, a symbiotic life form that can act as a weapon." Doc Ock informed her.
Black Cat was shocked to find out about this information. "Hold on a second… you mean to tell me that the black suit Spidey has been wearing this whole time, is a living alien?!"
Spider-Man got back up, leaping towards Doc Ock, who's tentacles had him get out of the way when an incoming punch headed at him. He missed hitting the ground that formed a small crater from the force of the launch. Doc Ock, while in mid air lunged three tentacles at his opponent. Spider-Man jumped out of the way before grabbing one of the metal arms, performing a backflip before letting it go. Spider-Man launched a web at Ock's chest, pulling himself closer before he landed a punch on his body making Doc Ock gasp in sheer pain. Feeling as though the wind got knocked out of him as he fell on the ground, putting his arm where he felt the punch on his chest, 'What the hell?! His punches hurt even more then last time!' he noted.
Doc Ock dodged out of the way when Spider-Man headed after him again, but this time he fired multiple webbing nets that were aiming at him to which the octopus rolled out of the way. He was about to head off for a counterattack, but unfortunately for him Spider-Man reacted much faster by rearing his leg kicked him in the face which knocked back Doc Ock to a house next to them. Pain shot through as Doc Ock was finding it hard to move his body now. 'And it's not just his strength, his speed has increased as well! I could barely react at all!' black webbing was now attached to his body and his metal arms as well, and along that his power source has been taken out as well but that was the least of his concerns at the moment.
"Tell me, how long have you had that suit of yours?" Doc Ock asked turning his attention at the wall crawler and the Black Cat who stood by him now.
"About 5 days. I don't see why you bother asking me that." Spider-Man answered simply.
"5 days? Huh, well consider me impressed that you managed to survive that long."
"What are you talking about?" Spider-Man quirked his eye in confusion.
"As I said before I used to work under Norman to work on a project known as the V-252, or otherwise known as the Symbiote. That costume you're wearing right now is the same life form that was in Oscorp, and you became it's host right now. I guess since I turned into this, I couldn't keep my tabs on it so it most likely escaped."
Spider-Man was about to retort as to what he said, but Black Cat beated him to the punch. "So what exactly does this Symbiote thing do when it comes in contact with a human then?" she asked the scientist, wanting to know if whatever this thing was the cause of the Hero's recent behavior.
Otto paused to think for a moment before he started speaking again. "Well I can't be sure on what happens exactly, but this is still most likely possible since during my studies with the Symbiote, my peers and I concluded that in needed to be in contact with another life on Earth so it could live. Since it strives to bond with someone, we have decided to use mice to see how it would work, and the results were… quite unpleasant to say the least." he shuddered at the memory of what happened. ''When the Symbiote bonded with them, it completely mutated their DNA in the most remarkable ways we've never seen before. We thought we hit a major success, but we were dead wrong. After several hours the mices became vicious, ruthless, savage, killing all other mices and eating them alive as well. They kept becoming more aggressive to deal with. We tried to control and tame it but it just wouldn't work, the only way we could get them under control temporarily was because it was sensitive to loud frequency noises, making it go insane." he explained. "After countless failures, we all agreed to never go with human tests. God knows that would be an ugly sight to ever look at, and as for why he's still normal for the most part, that I do not know. It probably found something interesting in him, what that is I have no clue."
Just then the sounds of police cars were getting a lot closer which prompted Doc Ock to hurry up and finish this. "You must listen to me, Spider-Man! You have to get rid of that thing before it's too late! It can't be controlled!" he warned the Wall Crawler.
"And why exactly should I? It's done nothing but help me! If I could last for 5 days then maybe it's because I didn't treat it like a lab rat!" Spider-Man retorted.
"You may have control now but soon enough that might just be taken away from you! You don't know what you're dealing with here! If you let your guard down for even a minute — mmmph!" a web now covered in his mouth, muffling Ock's voice.
"Yeah, I think I heard just about enough of you." Spider-Man said with annoyance expressed with his tone.
Both Spidey and Cat crouched down on a nearby rooftop, as they saw Doc Ock being taken away by the police. When they saw the cars go away far enough from them, Spidey sighed. "Well I'll be headed off now." he said, as he got up. "So I'll be seeing you later—"
"Hold on a second, you're not going anywhere." Black Cat got in front of him. "Why didn't you tell me the suit you had was alive?"
"Well, what was I supposed to say?! I didn't even know how you would react to something like that in the first place!"
"There you go again, acting all annoyed now. What is it with you these days? You just don't seem like yourself much. I'm starting to think that octopus guy was right. I think you need to get rid of that thing."
Spider-Man clenched his fists, feeling a burning anger bubbling in him. "I can't believe you! Now you're taking on his side?!"
"Calm down! I'm just saying what if he's right? You haven't really been yourself ever since a day went by when you had that suit. Your fighting is more aggressive, you don't exactly crack much of your quips, and when you do, it feels like you're forcing it out. You're starting to sound tired as well, as if you haven't gotten sleep lately."
"I have damn it! I check through my memories and I don't have any recollection of my suit taking over at all!"
Black Cat didn't believe him. "So why do you still sound tired? Look, Spider-Man, maybe it's better for both of us if we clear some space between each other for now. Maybe you could start talking to me when you feel like yourself again." she fired a grappling hook while giving him a concerned look, "Please, I'm getting worried about you." she said before she took off leaving leaving him alone.
Spider-Man scoffed before he leaped in the air, taking off web swinging. "This is absolutely ridiculous… How could I not be in control? If I could manage to control my Inner Hollow, then this should be a cake walk for me." he let go of the web as he sticked his feet to a building running upwards on it.
"Crap, crap, crap, mega crap" Jameson kept tossing each picture that had of Spider-Man fighting Doctor Octopus, and with the last picture consisting of the webbed up villain
"Alright fine then, you're getting the usual paycheck. Take it and leave." he said with a shrug.
Ichigo objected to this. "Hang on a damn minute, don't I deserve to get paid more then that?"
Jameson looked at the boy in front of him with a dead eye which didn't phase Ichigo at all. He was expecting his boss to nag at him again but to his surprise he started laughing. "Hahahahahaha!" his hand slammed his knee he sat on continuing his laughter. "Hahahahaha!"After a while Jameson's laughter died down as he looked back at Ichigo. "Wait you're serious?!"
"Yeah, no shit. What did you expect?"
"And just why the hell should I do that?"
"Are you kidding me right now?!" Ichigo yelled out, feeling that anger boiling inside him again. "I risk my own life just to get these pictures for you!"
"Look, you want me to cut off your paycheck now right now or not?! Just take it and leave it!"
"You know what, fine..." Ichigo turned around to leave, giving a frustrated groan.
"What the hell is with you these days kid?" Jameson asked when he saw that the redheaded teen had his handle on the door as he was about to leave, but he stopped when his boss asked him this. "Why are you so on edge lately?"
Ichigo stopped grinding his teeth and he gave off a deep sigh giving Jameson a blank stare, "I don't know. I guess I've been a little under stress lately." he answered.
"Huh, stress… is that all? Well then, welcome to the world of adults!"
Ichigo said nothing as he turned around opening the door from the office and closed it. He got his paycheck from Betty before started to leave the building by going through the elevators. 'This is completely ridiculous. We deserve way more than what we're getting!' he thought in his head as he stepped out of the building.
'Agreed. You would think that if someone took pictures of two superhumans fighting each other or something similar it might be worth the pay, but no, it doesn't seem so!' the Symbiote remarked inside Ichigo's head.
Ichigo then made a frown. 'I think I need to cool my head from all this, I did lose it back there. I think my lack of sleep is getting to me more than I thought it would, but I feel so mad right now…' he thought.
'Maybe you could do a bit more work as Spider-Man for a little longer, you can't exactly sleep like this with this amount of anger you have right now.'
Ichigo stopped his tracks when the Symbiote said that. "You know what, maybe I could go on a for a bit longer, I gotta vent this out…"
"Listen to me! I can't keep doing this! I have kids of my own to raise, and I need to at least keep some money here!" a woman exclaimed, as in front of her was a man that held a gun in front of her, as they seemed to be in some sort of an alley with just the two of them.
"Well that's too bad, bitch! If you won't cooperate with us anymore, then I guess you're gonna have to die! Unless you give me what we want then we'll let you live longer!" he charged a gun, signalling that it wasn't empty.
"Fine, here you go." the woman grumbled in defeat as she handed out the money from her pocket giving it to him. The man smiled greedily as he took it for himself.
"Not as much as it was before but it's still pretty good."
Just then a thud was heard behind him which made the woman gasp. The man himself looked confused so he turned around and he saw Spider-Man, who crouched on the ground before he got back up. "Oh shit…" the man said.
Spider-Man started walking to him, making the man quiver in his position, "H-H-Hey man! Stay back, I'm warning you!" those white eyes pierced through him as a web was attached to his chest pulling him towards Spider-Man as he grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and slammed him to a wall.
"You think you can just mess with innocent people's lives?" Spider-Man turned him around and he gave an elbow to the face making the man bleed from his nose. "Whenever you want to, huh?!" he struck his knee to his gut, and he continued to give him punches to him with sheer brutality before he threw him back on the ground. "Thinking that you can just get away with it scott free?!" he picked him up and he threw the man on the wall. "You think it's just fun to you?!"
The woman had her hands on her mouth, looking horrified at the state the man — who harassed her merely a minute ago — was in. His face was full of battered purple bruises covered on him and add bleeding on top of it. She looked back at the hero who has rescued her from the mess she was in, who was walking to her handing her the money. She uttered a mumbled thanks before she sprinted out of the alley as fast as she could not daring to look back.
Spider-Man made a frown behind his mask. Something felt wrong in him. Those actions didn't feel right. It wasn't out of the actions on that criminal that bothered him, but more so the look on that woman's face.
Well maybe he did go over just a bit…
Wait, what was he thinking about again?
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Eddie?" a chubby man asked in the red and black Spider-Man costume as he was holding out some bags of fake money on it. "I'm really not so sure about this."
Eddie sighed as he positioned his camera. "Look, I'm going to be honest, I really don't like doing this at all, but what choice do I have here? My rent is due to today and if I don't give the money in time, I'm gonna get evicted for sure. And I won't be able to convince my landlord to wait any longer. So, let me just take a few last pics before I end this, alright?"
"You sure about that?" Eddie looked up in shock to see the real Spider-Man sticking to the walls above him. Eddie backed up to the wall behind him as the real Spider-Man webbed up his camera away from him, holding it within his hand. "Well, well, what do we have here?" the chubby man already started to run.
"C-Can you give that back, please?" Eddie asked nervously.
"And what were you gonna do with this?" Spider-Man remarked with a glare.
Eddie gulped. "I… I was gonna use those pictures to frame you and give them to my boss—"
"And why exactly would you do that?"
"So I could get the money to pay up for my rent."
"Oh, and framing me seemed like a good idea now didn't it?"
"I didn't have any other choice, damn it!" Eddie snapped at the Wall Crawler. "Listen, I don't have anything against you, I swear. This is nothing personal, I just need the money, nothing else. Come on man… you help people don't you? Can't you help me?"
"You gotta be kidding me…" he started to clench the camera tighter forming, cracks on it. "I can't help someone if they'll just damage my career in return. I need it to keep up my image here."
"No, don't!" it was already too late as the blond's camera got crushed to pieces by the web slinger's hand. Eddie looked in horror as his camera — or the remains of it — fell down on the ground. He went over to the broken pieces, "What have you done?" he murmured, as he fell to his knees.
"This is what you get for trying to frame me!" Spider-Man exclaimed harshly to the blonde man, "It's your fault!" he then leaped away from the walls and he started swing away.
"Come on man, hurry up! He might get here soon!"
"I'm going as fast as I can!" a thug replied back, carrying two bags containing money before he threw them in the back of the van, closing them as he got inside.
The other thug started to drive the van so they could get away, but unfortunately for both of them Spider-Man already got in front, as the van got stopped by his bare hands. Needless to say, the thugs were stunned by this as he started to lift the van with ease. Spider-Man started to shake it which made the thugs start panicking. "Wowow, easy Spidey! I-I think we're just gonna get off our own! So, could you just put the van down gently?"
Spider-Man slammed the van down before he shoved his hands through the cracked window, pulling the two thugs out forcefully and threw them out on the ground. Spider-Man turned to face them, walking over to them while cracking his knuckles. "H-Hey! What are you doing?! We surrender, alright?!" the other thug exclaimed with panic hinted at his voice.
Spider-Man got close to the thugs, but the answer he gave them only relied on kicking one of them down, and with the other one he went to hit him in the face. ''We feel that we should step up from our previous actions. We feel that we should teach this city what we're truly made of." he said.
"Wh — What the hell man?! Come on! We said we give up!"
"You're not quitting until I say so. We will only use more effective methods to make sure all of you underworld crooks get the message that this town has a protector, and you do not mess with him." he approached the thugs who seemed to be scared out of their minds
Spider-Man grabbed one of them by the collar and rammed his fist at the thief's nose, breaking it in the progress. He kneed the man in the stomach before he threw him away. Spider-Man proceeded to punish the other criminal by grabbing his arm and twist it, essentially breaking it. The cries of pain fell deaf on Spider-Man's ears before he grabbed the thief and punched his jaw, breaking it as he did so. Spider-Man roughly threw the man against a wall before he went to pick up the van from earlier and lift it, towering over the two thieves who barely seemed to be unconscious.
"This is what should have been done." Spider-Man said, glaring at the thieves as he seemed to be ready to take lethal damage. "Now say goodbye…"
"...What are you doing?!"
Spider-Man was surprised from the voice he heard. He turned around to see Orihime standing behind him, as she was shocked by what he was doing. "Orihime?" he put the van down, being confused as to what she was doing in a place like this. "What are you doing here?"
Orihime looked back at the thieves that already seemed to pass out from their injuries before looking back at Spider-Man, her being agape. "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like? I'm just going in to do my job." Spider-Man answered, as if it was some obvious question.
"Doing your job…?" Orihime looked back at the crooks again. "Does that look anything normal to you?"
"What's the problem? I'm trying to do something better here."
"Something better? You think that beating up crooks like this is going better?!" Orihime couldn't believe what she was hearing from him. ''Why — what made you think like this?! You haven't been yourself!"
Spider-Man scowled at this. "It's simple really. I was doing some thinking, my previous ways of stopping other people was futile." he looked at his clenched fist. "I was too soft with them. Every time I bring them down they just keep doing the same thing over and over again. So, to really teach them a lesson, I wanted to put fear in them."
Orihime frowned at him. "Since when did you think that was a good idea? I thought you only wanted to help people so they could feel safe and have hope, not to make them feel afraid. That's what you're doing right now!" she pointed out.
"Don't you think it would be better if there were more effective ways to actually stop criminals?"
"Is making people afraid one of those options?!" Orihime remarked, taking a couple of steps closer to Spider-Man. "You told me you wanted to help people. There are better ways then to just brutally beat up criminals. There are ways you can just go about doing this, but if you just rely on some method that's going to destroy your trust around others and not help the situation be better, would that be worth it?!"
"You don't understand." Spider-Man replied, clenching his fists at his sides. "Wouldn't you want to help others in any way you can?"
"I wouldn't go so far to just cause fear when people look at someone who's supposed to be a Hero! What's even making you cause all this?!" Orihime bit her lower lip, trying to calm the anger that was in her. "Are you even the same person anymore? Your methods would just make you that of a wild animal, something that helps nothing nor anyone. Is that what you want? Or are you even sure you believe what you're saying is the truth?!"
Spider-Man took go glare at her, and surprisingly she did the same thing to him. "We do what's best for the city, regardless of the opinions they would have on us. We're just cleaning up garbage that's in here."
"You take it too far! That's not like you! Would that just help every situation you're in?! Just beat it up and pretend nothing happened?!" at this point Orihime was starting to yell at him. "Are you sure you only do it what's good for others or something for yourself instead?!"
"Why you…" Spider-Man looked as though he was just about ready to jump at her for getting in his way this much.
Orihime put her hand in front to stop him. ''For your sake, let's take this somewhere else. I don't want other people to see what you're doing. I suggest the Matsakura Hospital."
"Tch." Spider-Man fired off a web from his wrist. "Whatever you want."
Orihime saw him swinging away in the air as he hanged onto his web. "I was doing it for you…" she remarked with a glare.
The two of them have gotten to the abandoned hospital, the same one where Don Kanonji performed one of his shows, and the one where Ichigo encountered a Demi Hollow. Spider-Man and Orihime have been standing over to the front doors so that they could have a more private conversation between each other.
"So which one is it?" Orihime asked with her arms crossed, still wanting to get the answer out of Ichigo.
"Are you gonna continue to get annoying?" Spider-Man clenched his fists, becoming more and more irritated by the second the more Orihime continued to press on.
"You know what? Yes, I will, just to understand what's happening to you. Or if the person who I'm speaking to is really Ichigo or someone else." Orihime stepped closer to him. "And what's with this 'we' you keep going on about? Are you listening as to what you're saying?"
"So I had a few changes, big deal." Spider-Man rolled his eyes.
"Changes that make you act like you're someone different!" Orihime retorted, now feeling more impatient as this went on. "Who are you right now?!"
"...You know what?" Spider-Man felt his adrenaline rushing in him. "We began to have a change of thought. I'm beginning to think it could be better for both of us if there was no ties."
Orihime slwoly widened her eyes. She couldn't believe what she was heading from her. Her eyes flared in anger. "No ties? No ties?! What is that supposed to mean?!" she asked, as some tears escaped.
"I'm saying that having all these bonds I have with others is getting in our way of saving others. The best that could be done is get rid of it…" Spider-Man then put his hand on the angered Orihime's shoulder. "And Orihime… you're the one that gets in our way the most right now. I know just the way to do it for you…"
Orihime was surprised by this. "What—" she couldn't get to finish her sentence before she felt a sharp inducing pain inflicted on her, and looking down she saw Spider-Man kicked her sides strong enough to sent her flying through the building.
Orihime rolled over the ground as she got through the other side of the hospital. She got up to see Spider-Man already heading her way to attack her. Being in shock that Ichigo would actually dare to get rid of her, she quickly got up to defend herself. Spider-Man got in front of her as he tried to hit her with his fist, but she blocked it with her wrist instead before countering by giving the Web Head a kick to the gut. Spider-Man grunted as he backed up several steps from the pain he felt with that kick. But it made him angrier as well.
Orihime jumped backwards away from him as she gained distance between them. Her hands went to her hair pins so she could use her powers against him. "Santen Kesshun!" she exclaimed, wanting to use her defensive side to shield herself.
But nothing happened.
Orihime widened her eyes when she saw nothing happened. 'Oh no!' her eyes narrowed at her pins. 'Are they still not recovered from the training with the Vizards earlier?! Did I use too much energy?!'
Because of this moment where she didn't pay attention to Ichigo, she didn't notice that he leaped at her until the last second. Spider-Man tackled her onto the ground and pinned her down, with his gloved hands going at her throat. Orihime grabbed Spidey's wrists and began to get them away, now leading to a struggle between them.
"Do I mean nothing anymore?!" Orihime yelled at him. "That training we had?! You wanting to make me stronger?! Just what are you even doing anymore?!" Orihime had jet streams of tears flowing down on her, those ones filled with anger and fear. "Just tell me!"
Spider-Man didn't say anything, but instead he just continued to do what he was doing. The thing that whispered to him told him to continue what he was doing, just that this should be how things would be.
'That's enough. I clearly cannot stand by and let you deal with this on your own anymore.'
Spider-Man was shocked to hear Old Man Zangetsu speaking to him right now. 'Old Man…?' he thought in surprise and confusion. 'What are you doing? How are you talking in my head like this?'
'Of all the things you could have asked, you ask me such a silly question in a time like this?' Ichigo was more confused by this. 'Are you truly not aware of what has been happening to you this entire time? Look at what you're doing. Look carefully.'
Spider-Man did look at what he was doing. He had his hands go at Orihime's throat, but she was still preventing him from doing so with her own strength. 'Do you get it now? These past few days you haven't been yourself. What do you think you've been doing this whole time? Is everything you've done only to 'help people' like you claim to be?' Zangetsu asked.
Spider-Man felt his hands become more loose, now slowly coming to realization. 'Has it gotten to you yet? Your behavior, your actions, your arguments, your intentions, is everything you've done truly who you are?'
'I…' Spider-Man couldn't find the words to answer the question.
'No. I thought that you would be more than capable of figuring out something was wrong, but for you to take this long makes me disappointed. Your so called actions are just making you that of a criminal yourself. Just a mere savage who remains apathetic towards others and cares for himself. You just bring fear and hate. Look at yourself. Are you truly committed to murder your friend?'
Realization finally began to dawn on the young man. Behind the mask, Ichigo's face distinguished to horror. He couldn't believe what he was doing. Feeling disgusted at himself, Ichigo let go of his hands from Orihime's and backed away. "No… this… this isn't what I wanted…" Spider-Man looked at his hands, as they were shaking. He looked back at Orihime, who started to back away from him.
"Orihime…" Spider-Man began to approach her, reaching out with his hand. "Wait, please, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that!"
"Stay away... I'm warning you. Don't come any closer…" Orihime warned him, but her voice was shaken from the fear she had in herself.
Spider-Man only got closer instead. His hands got to her shoulders as he didn't want to let her go now, he had to apologize for what he has done, but the way he displayed it was making it worse. Orihime, in the fear of the moment backed Ichigo's hands away from her. "Stay away!" she yelled out before she kicked Spider-Man in the chest with all the strength she had in herself.
"GAUGH!" Spider-Man coughed up blood behind the mask and was sent flying behind in the air before crashing through the same building he sent Orihime through. Orihime started to run away. Spider-Man crashed through behind the building and continued to get sent flying until he crashed right through a lamp post and landed on the ground, forming a crater under him in doing so.
Spider-Man groaned from the pain he felt, as he now found it hard to move around. He felt some of his bones were broken from that kick she gave him. Not cracked. But actually broken. Spider-Man gave heavy breaths, as he tried to find the strength to get up. "Shit…" he sweated through his gritted teeth, but he fell back down on the crater again. "I never thought she could hit that hard... I felt like I was gonna die just now."
"How could I have been so blind?" the black suited Spider-Man asked himself as he looked at his hand, crouching down on top of a church bell tower, along with rain pouring down on his costume, but right now he could care less about his costume getting wet. Not after everything that's been happening to him. ''First I lashed out at, Cat. Why did I do that to her? She was just concerned with my well being, that's all. She didn't deserve to get yelled at by me. Then I started to beat up a lot of criminals, I was more brutal with them. Hell, most of them had to be on hospitals for what I've done for the past few days! And my actions, it didn't feel like I was in control for what I was doing to them." he sulked his head down. ''And Orihime... I hurt her. It's not just that, I felt as though I wanted to take her life away." he grunted, still feeling some of the pain on his body.
'What we've done was necessary.' said the symbiote.
"You…" the web slinger scowled heavily when he heard that familiar voice in his head as he looked in front. "What have you done to me? Why did you have me do all these things? Was Ock right about you?!"
'Listen to me, Ichigo. Everything we've done was for a reason so that we could give more justice to the people.'
"Justice? Justice?! Everything we've done was for some justice?! That's your excuse?!" Spider-Man was angered by this.
'That's the problem. I didn't want to, but I had to push away the people close to you. Your concern for them holds you back from what we can do to bring down criminals.'
Spider-Man glared at the air in front, gritting his teeth in doing so. "You can't be serious... Why would I would want to do that? They mean a lot to me. Why would I just cut them out of my life?" he began to piece the puzzles together. Everything he has been doing up until now… ''Wait a minute… the tiredness I've been feeling this whole time, have you been taking over my body all these nights when I specifically told you not to?"
The symbiote didn't answer anything, which was enough for Ichigo to decide what must be done right now. He jumped down till he landed on a tiny wooden bridge, seeing an entrance where inside it was a church bell. 'Wait, what are doing?' the symbiote asked in concern as he saw his host walking towards the bell.
Spider-Man brought his hands to his mask, "Something I should have done a lot sooner. Ock was right, you need to be taken rid off right now!" he tried to take off the mask but to his surprise he found it difficult to do so. Instead there were only some slimes of it coming out. He brought himself to his knees but he still couldn't get the black mask off of him, it was as if it was completely glued to him. "What the hell?!"
'Idiot. You can't just get rid of me with brute strength. Why are you trying to do this?'
"Why?! You lied to me! Used me! Made me do things I wouldn't do at all! You're nothing more then a parasite that never should have existed!" Ichigo exclaimed in anger.
'...PARASITE?!' the offended symbiote screamed in outrage.
Before the symbiote could take any action against his host, Spider-Man began to release bursts of Spiritual power in him that made the Symbiote struggle to keep contact with its host. Spider-Man used all the strength he could possibly have to first get rid of the mask on him. 'Stop you fool! You're gonna kill us both if you keep this up!' the Symbiote yelled in genuine fear before the host ripped out the mask.
Ichigo didn't listen, instead he kept going as his hands got to his chest and began to rip it off of him. Releasing more power in him, the Substitute was getting the suit off, but with a massive drawback coming, as the more he kept ripping out, the more painful and agonizing it became. "Nnnnnnnn — aaaaaaargh!" his arms were struggling to get the suit off his chest, but eventually he managed to tear it apart which in return had tendrils stretching out of it, as they tried to come back. "Aaaaaaaaahh!" he yelled out in agony that thrived in him. Ripping this suit felt like he was ripping out his own skin.
'It'll be worse if you continue this! Why are you doing this?!'
"Don't you understand already?!" Ichigo shouted as he ripped off another part of the suit that was on his forearm, throwing it away from him. "You can't just use your hosts however you want to! Things cannot just — AAAGH — go your way however you want!" the costume on his back was getting ripped apart from his strength, the suit screeching painfully from the noise. Ichigo growled as he bent down to hit the ground with his arm, trying to get rid off the remaining parts starting from his wrist. "Graaaaaaaah!"
In Ichigo's Inner World, Zangetsu was seen standing on his flagpole, watching the skies above with a blank expression shown on him, as he could feel his wielder struggling to take care of the alien that was within. His dark ragged cloak blowing off from the wind as usual.
Though he could see Ichigo overpowering the alien, he still intended to give out some bursts of Spiritual power to make it easier for him, and in case his body didn't suffer any backlash that would happen from this.
"It appears your time has come for you to leave this world." Zangetsu said, with a flat tone that didn't show any hint of emotions, not that it mattered much to him anyways. His voice echoed in this empty place. ''It's almost a shame. You would have provided to become another protection for Ichigo, albeit not very much. But affording some of your benefits may provide of use in the future. The moment you began to take something that would have this world rain, it was enough for me to step in." the old man moved his hand up above, clearing it with a motion as he clenched his fist. "You're no longer welcome here. By the time you leave, you will find it impossible to reconnect with Ichigo unless it's allowed. Say goodbye…"
Ichigo now used all ounce of strength and spirit power that remained in him for just one last push. "RAAAAAAAAAGH!" he managed to rid of everything that was on him while he screamed in painful agony. He threw all the black skin that remained on him.
Ichigo breathed heavily from exhaustion with the amount of strength he was forced to remove it away. His arms were straining on him, and his legs felt weak as well, as they kept shaking, struggling from its own weight. He was now in nothing but his underwear. His attention focused towards the symbiote who was now trying to escape, albeit slowly as it already got over to the edge of the bridge. Ichigo weakly raised his hand, and fired a web at it but he missed at the last second before the black slime jumped out from the church tower. "No… damn it." he muttered before he fell on the floor, finally losing consciousness.
"Well this is just wonderful..." Eddie said, releasing a frustrated and saddened sigh as he was walking by the sidewalk with hands in his pockets with rain pouring down on him. "I have officially lost my job, the only fucking place where I could get paid enough for my own rent. Oh but wait, now because Spidey crushed my only camera to bits I couldn't! And I would have if he just helped me!" he started to get angry. "Now that I couldn't, I got evicted as well, and I lost all my stuff there! Now to make things worse, rain is fucking falling!"
He needed to somehow calm down from all of this. He wanted to figure out at least some form of strategies, any kind, to at least survive in the streets till he somehow got a new apartment to live in. Up close he saw that there was a church nearby. "Ah what the hell, why not? Might as well seek help from God, not like I have much of a choice anymore." the blonde said as he began to walk towards the church.
However when he got close he knew immediately that something wasn't right. For starters there were sounds of screaming going on from above, to where he assumed was coming from the bell tower, and along that the bell there was ringing. "What the fuck?" were the right words coming off from the young blond, as he looked a bit disturbed by this. "What's going on over there?"
A few minutes had passed and Eddie still stood there with the sounds of screaming continuing on and the bell still ringing. "Maybe I should come back for another day." he murmured, turning around and he started to leave before he heard the screaming stop. Eddie turned his head to see the bell tower again. "Oh, well I guess it stopped now." there was some relief in his voice, but it stopped dead short when he saw something black falling out there before hitting the ground. "What the fuck is that thing right now?!" for some stupid reason he began to approach the unknown black object before crouching down at it. He touched it with his finger and nothing happened. "Huh… weird. It's nothing like I ever saw before. What is this thing anyways?"
Then to Eddie's pure shock the symbiote started moving by crawling from his finger and it continued to spread around his arm. "Aaah! Get this off me!" he tried to tear it off his arm which was now starting to spread over his body. "Help! Someone help!" Eddie shouted out for anybody to help but it was far too late as the symbiote now fully covered his body, along with his head.
He fell down on the ground when this happened. Then his form suddenly started to get bigger, and more muscular as well. Claws were forming on his fingertips along with white razor sharp teeth and a long red tongue drooled from his mouth. Finally there were white edgy sharpened lenses and an all too familiar white spider emblem on its chest and its back.
Hours had gone by ever since the Symbiote was finally removed. When he passed out, he found himself back in his inner world to see Zangetsu waiting on his flag pole. Needless to say, Ichigo and his sword spirit had a talk with one another with just mostly the latter apologizing, but the Zanpakuto spirit still scolded him for his actions and his lack of awareness. The embarrassing part was that he was only in nothing but his underwear. And when he got his consciousness back rather quickly, he had to go back like that. It was rather an uncomfortable experience.
Thankfully no one saw him otherwise he never would have heard the end of it, especially on the Internet and it's damn social medias. The good news was that he managed to sneak by his house without anyone noticing him. Right now Spider-Man was swinging around his home town, now being in his original red and black costume.
"Come on, where is she?" he knew that she probably wouldn't be here right now, but he just had to find her, and talk to her. Before he knew it he managed to find Black Cat, who was standing on one of the rooftops. "Cat!" he called out to her as he swinging down lower with one arm.
Black Cat looked over her shoulder to see who was calling her right now, and she was surprised when she saw the web slinger coming to her as he landed down. "Spidey?"
"Uh… hey…" Spider-Man scratched his head from behind, not having been prepared for what he would say for this.
There was some silence between them that lasted for a few seconds before Cat began to speak. "So uhm… what are you doing here?" she asked.
"Listen, I just came here to apologize, for everything that I've done lately. You were right, I really haven't been myself for these past few days. I'm… really sorry that I yelled at you earlier." his lenses shifted to a more shamed expression. "You didn't deserve that at all. You were only worried about me, and all I did was act like a real jackass."
Black Cat only gave him a hug! which was something that the Web Head did not expect. "It's alright… I'm just glad you came back to your senses now." she said, giving him reassuring smile as she backed off from the hug. "So what's with the old suit? Where's that alien costume you had before?" she asked, noticing that he was back to his old costume.
"Uh… I got rid of it."
Black Cat gave him a confused look. "Come again?" she didn't know what he meant by that.
"What I meant to say was I got rid of the alien costume. As in, I literally got it off me and we split up, let's put it at that."
"Mind if I know why exactly?"
"Long story short, we got in a heated argument about morality between us, and after realizing what that suit has been doing to me, it would have gotten worse if I kept it. So my only solution was to get rid of it and never let it come back in my life."
"Oh… so did you kill it or?"
"Not exactly. I was gonna capture it and put it somewhere where it would never come back. But by the time I got it off, I was so tired that I went unconscious. Because of that it escaped, and who knows where it is now."
Black Cat put her hand at his shoulder. "We'll find it together." she told him with a reassuring smile.
"I know…" he sighed, wishing it was that simple. ''I forgot to ask but, what is that you're holding?" Spider-Man asked, pointing his finger at the object she was holding on her other hand which seemed to look like was the same black suit he just had before.
"Oh, this?" she fully presented it to him. "This is just another costume I made for you before I found out it was alive. It's just that, I thought if your new suit ever got badly damaged I was gonna give this to wear it as a backup. It's just that, I like you better when you were in black." she admitted with a bit of a blush on her face. "But uh, after everything what you just told me, you probably wouldn't want to wear it."
"No. Actually I still do. Well, maybe not right now but, I wouldn't mind taking a backup costume if I ever needed one just in case." he took the suit from Felicia, taking a good look at it. It looked nearly the same as his regular black suit, except this one had some white lines from both wrist areas, and there were pure white colors that were underneath the boots. "It looks pretty good." he commented, being impressed by the design.
"Thank you. So, if that alien did what that octopus guy said it would, then I guess you owe him an apology the next time you meet him."
"Eh." Spider-Man shrugged. ''I'll write a letter to him tomorrow. So, I guess I'm gonna have to leave now." the web head fired a web while holding the other costume. "So, see ya later then."
"More like tomorrow, really."
"You know what I meant!" and with that Spider-Man took off swinging, holding his clothed black costume. 'Now, there's just one more thing I had to do…'
Ichigo stood in front of Orihime's door apartment now. He felt a bit of nervousness crawling up on him. Why wouldn't it? He fought against the girl and gained thought of killing her. But nevertheless he had to make up it to her somehow, and he knew well that a mere apology would never be enough for what he's done, but he had to start with something. So with that out of the way, he took a breath and he knocked on the door. There was a moment of silence that passed, and Ichigo could hear some footsteps approaching to the door. He heard the door knob getting unlocked, and it creaked open which showed Orihime.
"Hey." Ichigo remarked with a hand wave, giving a small smile.
Orihime's eyes widened in shock when she saw who was standing before her. Her breath hitched as she quickly closed the door and locked it before Ichigo could get in. Ichigo tried to do this but it was already too late. "Wait Orihime, just hang on a second—"
"Go away!"
"Listen to me! I'm not here to hurt you, I swear! Just open the door so we can talk!"
"And why would I do that? Just so you could try to attack me like you did before?"
"Listen, I'm sorry about what I've done to you! I never meant to hurt you at all! But that wasn't me! I just wasn't in control of what I was doing, that alien black suit I had was the one that made me do that!"
"... How do I know I can trust you?"
Ichigo felt hurt by this. He couldn't get it why was she doubting him so much? Sure he hurt her and everything but still… he should have figured that even by this, you would think that she would at least understand him, right? "Because, I got rid of it just recently. I promise you, it doesn't have any control of me anymore."
Behind the door Orihime was resting her hand on it, feeling a ton emotions weighing down on her as she heard Ichigo say this. Should she really let him in? Was he really telling the truth? Or was he lying just to get her again? All these questions made her chest throb in pain. "Just… get out." she said.
"Please! I'm telling the truth! You gotta believe me!"
Orihime held her head, being torn as what she should choose. "Just leave me alone already! I just — just leave! I don't wanna see you anymore!" she said between choking sobs that were coming from her voice.
In front of the door Ichigo just stood in shock at what he heard. Of all the things she could have said to him, she just tells him that she didn't wanna see him anymore. He felt hurt by this, and the worst part was that he could only blame himself for what he's done, which made him feel guilty. He wanted to keep talking to her that he was himself again but after what she just said, all of the talk just shut down. "Alright… if that's how you feel, I'll leave you alone then." he said with some quietness, trying to hide the hurt he was feeling.
And with that he put his hands on his pockets and he started to leave her apartment with his head hanging down.
Well this took a little longer than I expected it to be. Man this really took out of me, especially with some scenes that I wrote in this.
So...as all of you have read Ichigo now seperated the Venom symbiote, I know, I know, some of you might be bummed out about it and since you all saw the symbiote bonding with Eddie now...I think you all know where this is gonna go next. Also if you're about to jump down at my throat for having the same Venom excuse, I suggest you don't do that. Trust me I have plans for the symbiote and it won't have the same fate you think it will. Just bear with me.
Oh and a reply to SPIDEYFAN: As you can already tell, that won't happen. Although Ichigo turning Venom is an interesting idea that will most likely not happen, especially in this scenario. Sorry if I disappointed you a bit about this decision but this had to be done. I will promise this much, the symbiote will have a better partner much, much later in the future. If you wanna talk to me more then please create an actual account where you're not a guest so I can PM you back. Or you could try to PM me.
So without further ado, here's the preview for the next chapter:
[Preview]
"Well, well, looks like you made it on time after all!" Spider-Man glared at Eddie who was sitting on top of a stainless steel square bar that was in the warehouse they were in, giving him a mocking smile. "That's good! I was getting worried if you were gonna get late. I would have been disappointed if that was the case, considering whose lives are on the line here."
"Gee thanks a lot. I mean, why wouldn't I be here for something as important as this anyways." Spider-Man said with a blunt sarcasm while clenching his fist.
"Now then…" Eddie jumped out of the beam he was on as black ooze began wrapping around his whole body increasing his muscle and height mass before he landed down on the ground forming cracks in doing so as he fully turned Venom. "Are you prepared to die?" he remarked with a wide grin as his long red tongue escaped.
"Like hell!" Spider-Man scoffed. "This won't end up like before!"
"Ha! Please, you could barely lay a hand on us the last time we fought! What makes you think this time will be any different? Have you already forgotten that we beated you to a pulp?" his sharpened claws directed at Spidey.
"This time I'll be the one that beats you." Spider-Man prepared a fighting stance and so did Venom. "So let's get this straight one more time; If I beat you, you won't kill my sisters?" he asked
Venom grew a smirk. "That's right. But, that is, if you do beat us. Don't forget, if we win, then we'll have to kill your little sisters."
"That's never gonna happen!"
"We'll see…"
[Preview]
THE END