I do not own Spider Man or any of the characters.

Missing

Jess separates from me, reforming in front of me and shifting back to her human appearance, looking just as miserable as before she had checked on Lexi. "She's healing quickly. She might actually be done by the end of tomorrow. It'll hurt a lot for her to leave your body, but You probably figured that out for yourself."

I nod. "Jess, don't worry. We'll find him."

Jess remains silent. I sigh, taking her hand in mine and lift her head to make her look at me with the other.

"Hey, we'll find him," I promise. "Even if he's gone to another universe, we'll go after him. I promise you. No matter what happens, I will bring Jake back to you."

Jess smiles, eyes watering and leans forward, kissing me for a couple seconds before pulling back. "Thank you. I can understand why Lexi fell in love with you. If I'd met you before Jake, I might have too."

I smile slightly. "Careful now. Lexi can probably hear everything we say."

Jess smiles and nods. "Where do we look first?"

"We'll stop by the police station first," I say. "If he's not there, we'll head for Fisk Tower. Maybe he's hiding somewhere there."

Jess nods and I pick up my backpack, which has my suit in it, then head out of the house. I left a note on the table explaining where we went to the others, whenever one of them woke up. We head to the police station and almost as soon as we walk in, Pat Mulligan walks over to greet us. He's still with Toxin, so he passes on Toxin's greeting as well.

"What...uh...What are you two doing here?" Pat asks.

"We're looking for my cousin," I say. "Her boyfriend. They showed up at the fight together and when she started helping, we didn't have time to make sure he got somewhere safe, for obvious reasons. We thought maybe he got picked up by the cops after the fight."

"No, sorry," Pat said, shaking his head. "We actually aren't holding anyone right now." He paused, frowning. "Toxin says he can still sense Carnage."

"He can?" I frown, looking to Jess, who shakes her head, also frowning.

"I can't sense anything," Jess says, frown deepening. "He's proving to be very difficult to kill."

"You're telling me," I grumble. "That fucker's been a pain in my ass for far too long. Come on. We need to check the tower. Are there any cops there?"

"Tons of them," Pat nodded. "They're still trying to figure out what the hell happened, as well as whether or not they can fix it, or leave it as a crime scene. Oh, and don't worry about the blood. I bleached it all before anyone else showed up."

I nod. "Alright. We're going to head over. If anything comes up, let us know."

Pat nodded. We leave the police station and catch a cab to the edge of the Fisk Tower crime scene. Truth be told, I'm honestly surprised the cops didn't show up sooner than they did. Not that it matters. The fight's over, none of us got arrested, and we still need to find Jake. As the cab stops, I see a huge crowd standing around the police tape in one of the alleyways. I glance at Jess and we walk over to it, pushing through to the front and stopping to stare at the body lying in it. Omega's body. Except, that's definitely not where we left it. Aside from that, there's a hole in its right hand that we definitely didn't put there. I frown, looking up at the roof, but it's the wrong one.

"Look at it's neck," Jess whispers.

I look, squinting slightly as my frown deepens. There's a hole just in front of the spinal cord. Not like the throat or windpipe. There's a hole like something came out of the body. I swallow hard. If something came out, the question is, what? And where did it go? I stare at the body for another few seconds before raising my eyes and looking around. There really are a lot of cops. Upwards of a hundred. I sigh, turning and walking away, jess following.

"We can't leave yet!" Jess says. "We haven't even looked around."

"We can't do a thorough enough search with the cops around," I explain. "We'll have to come back tonight, and we'll bring the others."

Jess hesitates before nodding. "Alright. But you have to promise me we won't call that one off, no matter what."

"I promise," I say. "We're not going to abandon Jake, even if we have to look for him while fighting Carnage.'

Jess nods and hugs me, then we continue back to the house. As we arrive, the others are all eating a late breakfast, really more of a lunch at this point, and all greet us tiredly as we walk in.

"We're heading back to the tower tonight," I say, everyone staring at me.

"Why?" Miles asks.

"Jake's missing, and something moved Omega's body after we left," I say. "It looked like something had crawled out of his body through the throat, then went through his hand, and there was puke all over the ground beside it."

"Great," Superior sighed. "So basically, Omega's still alive somehow?"

"Not the body we fought," I say. "Hell, we don't even know if the something that came out of him was even alive or an object. We just know that something came out and now Jake's missing."

The others all nod.

"We'll be there," Peter says. "We'll have to do something about Man Spider too. He's currently restrained upstairs. Lexi's two bodyguards are watching him."

I look up at the ceiling before heading upstairs to the attic where the two Symbiotes that were posing as Lexi and Jess's parents were sitting on a pair of chairs, watching Man Spider as he hung against the wall, webbing covering his body and keeping him spread eagle.

"Don't underestimate him," I say.

"We won't," Lexi's father said. "How's Lexi?"

"Improving," I say. "Jess says by the end of tomorrow she should be healed."

Both nod. I glare at Man Spider for a moment before turning and walking back down to the others. As I arrive, everyone's piling their plates in the sink. I sigh, walking over and beginning to wash them, Jess joining me after a few minutes. Everyone else leaves, most heading home and the others to see the city, since Superior's group agreed to help look as well, and therefor, will be sticking around a bit longer. As I'm washing the dishes, Jess glances at me several times, a mischievous smile slowly growing on her lips as time wears on. Finally, I turn to ask her what's so funny just as she dips the end of her twisted hand towel in the water, then flicks me with it, earning a loud crack like a whip and a yelp of pain. She snaps it again and I narrowly avoid getting a second welt. Jess grins wickedly and twists the towel back up as I keep the kitchen's island counter between us, knowing she's too merciful to aim for my face.

"I'm trying to clean your house," I say. "Please stop trying to kill me."

"No way!" Jess laughs. "This is fun! You're a much better target than Jake. More of a challenge."

She leans across the island and I dart to the side, only for the towel to snap me in the backside. I yelp again, hands covering my ass as she laughs. However, as she starts to twist the towel again, I dart to the sink, pulling the hose out and spraying her in the face. She shouts indignantly, staggering backward and I laugh. She reacts the same way Lexi does. I grab a freshly cleaned cup and fill it with clean water as she glares at me, wetting her towel against her drenched shirt before twisting it again.

"Last warning Jess," I say. "Truce or I'm going to end it with you the same way I do with Lexi."

Jess smiles seductively. "Does that mean you're willing to have another go?"

"Really?" I ask. "You're thinking about sex? Now?"

Jess's face falls a little. "I need something to distract me. And if that does it..."

I send the cupful of water into Jess's face and she sputters and blinks, then grins wickedly as I refill the glass. However, she's faster and darts forward, snapping me in the side before grabbing the glass and dumping it over my head. As I stagger backward and wipe the water out of my eyes, she tackles me to the ground, tickling me. I fight to hold my laughter back finally managing to catch her arms before rolling, pinning her to the ground. She struggles to get free, but I cover her in ice webbing, leaving only her head and armpits free. Then, I get to work, tickling her. Laughter peels out of her and I grin. She's as ticklish as Lexi. After a couple of minutes, she starts begging for relief, claiming to be about to pee herself. I go a little longer before finally relenting and allowing my ice webbing to melt. She's up and sprinting to the bathroom instantly, laughing as she calls me a string of bad names. After a couple minutes, she flushes and comes back out, glaring at me.

"You're so mean!" she complains. "I almost peed myself!"

"I let you up," I shrug, grinning. "Besides, I've lived with Lexi for two years. You're not guilt tripping me."

Jess pouts for a moment before smirking and crossing her arms. I raise an eyebrow just as cold water splashes down on my head. I jump up and spin, seeing Gwen standing behind me, grinning wickedly.

"Got you," Gwen smirks.

I huff, wiping my hair back off my forehead. "Cheaters."

Both laugh and walk out of the kitchen. I sigh and kneel, freezing, then evaporating the ice on the floor and counter, then return to doing the dishes, finishing after a few minutes. When I head into the living room, Gwen and Jess are sitting on the couch watching the news. It's a report on the damage we did. The police are announcing Pat's story, finally. A symbiote, which the police have dubbed Slimes, attacked the Ice Spider, which is what my name eventually got abbreviated to for simplicity by the cops, and the Ice Spider fought back, resulting in the ice. However, when the Ice Spider couldn't win, all of the other Spiders, to include White Spider, which is the name the cops gave to me when Lexi and I are joined since they think it's a different person, all arrived and helped, the Ice Spider eventually defeating the symbiote, by impaling its freaky, heavily mutated monster host on an antenna, then decapitating it when it tried to come back to life anyway. However, they didn't go into detail about why the body was three alleyways away from the head.

"That is so horrible," Jess says, crossing her arms. "I can't believe they're calling us Slimes!"

"They don't know any better," I say. "Besides, is it really wrong?"

I poke her in the side and she growls warningly, covering her sensitive ribs and scooting away from me, eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"That's not the point," Jess says. "It's degrading. It's like saying you're the same as monkeys."

"We tell ourselves that," I shrug. "However, I do understand. but what are you going to do? March down to the police and tell them that you're called Symbiotes, not Slimes, and oh, by the way, you're one of the two queens of the entire species?"

"Maybe I will," Jess says, though I know she's just trying to argue.

I roll my eyes. "Right. And I'm sure we also didn't all just get our asses handed to us by one guy, even before he used Carnage."

Jess grimaces. "Yeah, that wasn't our proudest moment. Would have been different with the real White Spider there."

"What do you mean?" Gwen asks.

"He resonates better with Lexi than me," Jess says. "He's...more compatible with her. He's compatible with all symbiotes, just like you, so long as he chooses to work with them, but with Lexi it's to a greater extent. With me, we're working together, but with Lexi, they practically become one being."

"Is it because he's in love with her?" Gwen asks.

"Maybe," Jess shrugs. "Honestly, we're not sure how it works. For all we know, the spider that bit you could have been part symbiote."

"Is that possible?" I ask.

"I don't see why not," Jess says. "Especially with a queen."

I'm silent for a long moment, the gears in my brain churning rapidly. Jess and Gwen both recognize the look and sit up straight, Jess switching the TV off.

"What if Omega's spider was different than ours?" I ask. "Peni's has a telepathic link with her and controls her robot. So what if Omega's was still with him. What if his was a parasitic spider?"

Jess and Gwen glance at each other.

"That...would give a possibility for what came out of the body, and maybe how it moved," Jess says.

"More than that," I say. "Omega absorbed Carnage into himself and took control of his powers, but if Carnage wasn't absorbed as well as Omega thought..."

"Carnage could have possessed the spider!" Gwen gasps.

"And when the spider left the body, it found someone that was vomiting in an alleyway," I say. "Maybe...Maybe at the thought of having been with a symbiote, or at seeing someone decapitated."

Jess pales. "No. Oh God. It took Jake."

"We need to get the others," I say. "Omega's not dead. Omega was the spider, not the host."

All three of us are up in an instant and I run up to my room, quickly changing into my suit before running back downstairs, finding Gwen already in hers and Jess having formed herself a suit. We leave instantly, me and Gwen quickly calling the rest of our group on the way. As we reach the tower, Pat Mulligan and Miles's father, Davis, are the only two cops there. I land in front of them, the other two landing behind me. Pat only jumps slightly, but Davis reaches for his gun, only for me to stick it in place, as well as the taser and pepper spray.

"We're not here for trouble," I say, raising my hands. "One of our friends was here when we were fighting. We tried to protect him as best we could, but he was missing after the fight. We were going to wait and search tonight, but we've run out of patience. We have a theory about what happened to him, but we really hope we're wrong."

"What friend?" Davis asks.

"You wouldn't know his name," I say.

"What's your theory?" Pat asks.

"We think the creature we were fighting had a special kind of parasite inside of it that the symbiote, what you call a Slime, infected. Then, after we...finished the fight, we think the symbiote used the parasite to infect our friend, that way the symbiote could take him over, and the symbiote as well, maybe. We need to find him. Both to save him from the symbiote, parasite, and himself, and also to protect the city from anything they make him do."

"Oh how adorable!" a voice I know all to well shouts from above us.

We all spin, staring up the tower at Carnage, who's standing on the wall, grinning wickedly down at us, arms crossed. I swallow hard.

"Shit, he's still alive!?" Peter demands, landing beside me, the others, including Superior's group, landing around us, Miles and Gwen standing protectively in front of Davis, Pat also remaining with them, if only to avoid blowing his cover.

"Worse," I say as the red goo slowly sinks into the host, leaving Jake standing on the side of the tower. "Omega's spider was parasitic, and Carnage took it over, then got to him."

"Well done, Ben Dover," Jake sneered. "You're actually pretty sharp."

I can feel Davis staring at me, undoubtedly trying to decide whether or not to add the name to his report and expose me for who I am.

"Carnage, get the hell out of Jake," I snarl.

Jake laughs, horribly. Evilly. "Carnage isn't here right now, Ben. It's just me. Your dear, darling cousin. Your hero. Remember? Back when you didn't care about anyone but yourself? Two days ago, when you fucked my girlfriend?"

All eyes turn to me, except Jess, who's staring at Jake in shock and guilt, her mask pulling back in strands, revealing her face. I pale under my mask, swallowing hard.

"How do you know about that?" I ask.

"My new friend told me," Jake snarled.

"Jake-" Jess was cut off by webbing attaching to her face, covering her mouth.

"Shut your fucking mouth, you whore cunt!" Jake snarls. "I can smell my cousin's dick on your breath from here! So, Ben, any speeches you'd like to give me? Any long-winded talks about how you're a better person than me?"

"I never said-"

Jake roars, every bit as loud and monstrous as Omega's had been. "Come on Ben, go ahead. Say it. Say you're a better person than me."

"Jake-"

"SAY IT! ! !" Jake roars. "Or I'll rip that parasite our of your chest and feed it to Carnage!"

I swallow hard. "I'm a better person than you."

Jake growls loudly, growing even more angry after hearing me say what he wanted. "I'm going to kill you, Ben. You know that, right? I'm going to rip you apart, piece by piece, until there's nothing left for your whore to heal. I'm going to feed Carnage both of those cunt sisters, and then I'm going to kill all of your precious spider friends. Anyone you care about is going to die, drowning in their own blood, just for knowing you."

"Jake, it doesn't have to be this way," I say.

"Please!" Jess pleads, finally having gotten Jake's webbing off. "Carnage is controlling you! Please, let me help you! I can explain everything! Just give me a chance!'

"Oh, I gave you a chance, whore," Jake snarls. "But instead, you would rather fuck every guy in a ten mile radius, including my own cousin, and your own sister, than be faithful to me. I'm going to take special pleasure in torturing the three of you to death."

"You're a hypocrite," I say. "You're mad at her for being with other people, and yet you did the same thing. The difference was, you knew it was wrong. She didn't. She's not human. She's still learning about our views and beliefs. You knew before hand and you didn't care."

Jake snarls angrily before Carnage reforms, grinning wickedly.

"If you think you can save him, I invite you to try," Carnage says, holding out a hand, some form of device growing from his palm and opening a small black hole beside him. "If you can find me, that is. I'm going to give you seventy two hours to find me. I've even left a list of possibilities to work through. But you'd better work fast. Because if you don't find me by the deadline, I'm going to keep Omega's promise. All of your universes will burn."

Then, he turns and jumps into the black hole, which shrinks out of existence instantly. I swallow hard before kneeling beside Jess, who's on her knees, sobbing. I gently pull her into a hug and she sobs into my chest. No one speaks, and after about twenty minutes, we all head back to may's house, including Pat, who's silently agreed to help, Davis heading back to the police station and promising to report nothing.

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