Hello one and all! Welcome to my next Spider-Man story, Spider-Man: Survival of the Strongest! It's been long and coming but I've worked out all the kinks and planning and I'm ready to go! For those who read my first Spider-Man story, this is my gift to you! This new story picks up after Spider-Man 2, and has ties to my first story as well. SO it does help if you read my first story, but it isn't necessary. Anyways, here you are, the next chapter of Spider-Man: Survival of the Strongest!
I do NOT own these characters, they are owned by Marvel Comics!
Spider-Man: Survival of the Strongest: Issue 8: Dreaming
A throbbing heartbeat, arteries pulsing, fills the body with life. The sound beats through Peter Parker's head, there is no background noise, and the world has ceased to exist. The purple man grins wider, violet skin gleaming in the spotlighted center. His hand tightens around Parker's shoulder.
"You aren't Spider-Man kid. Your Peter Parker. Your not in Boston, you are home"
The stage melts away and reforms as the back wall of Aunt May's kitchen the floral patterns of the wallpaper were immediately recognizable. The ceiling lowers, a small decorative bulb dripping down and filling the room with life. The other walls slide into place; old photos with Peter and his aunt and uncle decorate the refrigerator.
Peter is home, sitting at the kitchen table as he always did after school. The bright polished wood beams at him, he smiles. The smell of Aunt May's famous apple pie instantly invades his nose. She suddenly appears, her modest smile and deep brown eyes fixating on him. He's content; things were the way they should be. Then a gentle hand touches his shoulder turning him around in a way he hadn't been in so long.
Uncle Ben is there, alive, in the flesh, shaking him. Words cannot form, Peter's eyes well up with tears, face flushes with blood and the instant feeling of comfort is there and he can finally feel it again. His arms wrap around his uncle as tight as they can and his tears flow freely now.
"It's okay son, it's okay. Everything's fine now." Ben soothes.
"I cant... I…" Peter cries deeply into his uncle.
Aunt May joins the two and the three embrace together, finally in harmony.
Daredevil groans in pain, a fingernail found itself in his nostril, scratching the inside of his nose. A woman sinks teeth into his shoulder, pulling and tearing like a rabid dog. He was completely overwhelmed by the crowd, unable to move.
"Sp-…Damn it, SPIDER-MAN!" He yells.
One of his gloves has been removed; he struggles to keep his fingers out of the mouth of the Daily Bugle Editor. He punches hard with the other hand, landing several firm punches into the temple of Jameson. The Devil's radar is buzzing as he desperately tries to locate the arachnid.
"Aagghh!" He yelps, his finger spurting with blood from being inside Jameson's mouth.
Suddenly he's released from the grip of the crowd. Slowly they let another bit of him go, sliding him out and into the open. Daredevil's lungs burn with exhaustion, his blood flows and drips onto the floor. His built in radar uses the crowd's heartbeat to flesh out what is going on. Slowly he hears the echo of the words.
"Daredevil! Oh… not Y…You…"
"Hello Peter, Let's have a nice long talk, shall we?"
"You aren't Spider-Man kid. Your Peter Parker. Your not in Boston, you are home"
The heartbeats flesh out two figures making their way toward the man without fear. The first is killgrave; he has an arm around the other figure. Of course, to Daredevils absolute distaste the other is his partner, Spider-Man.
It was just like he remembered.
Aunt May and Uncle Ben smelled just as they should smell. Aunt May of cookies and light perfume, Uncle Ben of light motor oil and old spice. They sat around the table, drinking hot tea and remembering summers where they spent the day fishing. Peter remembered when uncle Ben fell off the pier and into the water, trying desperately to snag supper.
"And we didn't bring a change of clothes, so Uncle Ben had to drive wet all the way home!" Peter laughed.
"Don't think I didn't know about it," Aunt May added "My dress was soaked the instant I sat down to go to church the next morning."
They all laughed again the scene shakes a little bit, the entire room rather. His aunt and uncle didn't seem to notice the static like quality that the walls took on. They continued to drink their tea, however his mind was now disturbed. The wall shouldn't have moved like that, and how was uncle Ben alive?
"Uncle Ben, I'm confused I…"
"Uh uh." Said a voice from beside him.
In the fourth chair at the kitchen table sat the purple man, feet kicked back sipping his own cup of tea. He smiles wickedly at the scene.
"Enjoy this. I need you to make him suffer, just enjoy this."
With that the purple man disappeared, gone from the chair just as easily as he appeared. Peter's attention shifts back toward his aunt and uncle, who don't seem to be bothered by the purple man's appearance. Uncle Ben puts down his cup.
"So Peter tell me, what have you been up to while I was gone?"
Without any real warning or hesitation the two costume clad warriors got into it. Spider-Man hit Daredevil with two hard right fists in the jaw, and followed with a swift left. The Devil stumbles, attempting to regain his balance but he fails. Spider-Man lands a powerful kick in his stomach sending him tumbling onto the floor.
"Damnit!" Daredevil groans, starting to get to his feet.
Spider-Man was stronger than he, but the man without fear had more fighting experience and ability. He cracks his neck, shooting a hateful glance over at killgrave who looked too pleased.
"Spider-Man snap out of it." He demands.
The web slinger says nothing, but begins to start toward Daredevil again. He starts out with an overhead smash, which the devil easily dodges and plants an elbow deep into the wall crawler's side. Martial art layouts pump through his brain as he expertly hits the webbed wonder's chest with the back of his fist, he then follows it with a punch to the jaw.
Nothing! He hits the floor and then quickly sits back up, coming for his partner. Daredevil turns, using his left leg for balance and slamming a firm right foot into the web slinger's collar bone. Spider-Man was off his feet again, rolling backwards into a heap.
"Get angrier parker." Killgrave snarls.
As if to obediently answer the slumped hero leaps from the ground and into Daredevil, the two tumble backwards in a flurry of punches, leaving the motions lost to untrained eyes. The Devil begins to hit hard, trying to get the superhuman off of him. Spider-Man is getting nasty, using more strength in each punch and hitting the same two spots. His fists find their home in the crimson avenger's jaw and left eye socket.
"Cut…the…shit!" The devil yells, suffering a fourth punch to the eye socket.
Out of sheer aggravation he pries the web slinger off of him with his feet and launches him back and into killgrave. The two collide with a thunderous slam and sprawl on the floor. Blood swims around his mouth, his eye feels like it could fall out if not for the cowl keeping it in place.
"Enough of this!" Purple Man screams, "Web his mouth and suffocate him to death, and do it now!"
Spider-Man rises once more, his silent nature becoming more and more eerie and horrific. He cracks his knuckles and stops just in front of the crimson avenger.
"I wont go easy." He smirks. "You're going to have to work for it."
With that Daredevil spits the blood out of his mouth and onto the front of Spider-Man's mask. It drips, sickeningly thin and onto the floor. With that they collide once more.
"There's something I have to tell the both of you, something I haven't really told anyone"
"Well what is it Pete? You can tell me anything." Uncle Ben smiles.
"You know your no good with secrets" Aunt May adds, sipping her tea.
"I…I'm…"
Sharp pain rings through his head, blood trickling down his nose, he wipes it curiously. When he brings his finger to eye level, he realizes his hand is clad in the Spider-Man glove. In horror he puts his hand down, Aunt may has tears in her eyes.
"You…" She gasps.
"I'm Spider-Man." He admits, a cut forming around his lip.
Uncle Ben places a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay son."
"It's not…" Peter yelps through clenched teeth, the costume is now growing all over him, save for his face.
The stitching of the costume wraps tightly around his body, the grid of the spider web taking shape. Another pain rings in the side of his head, a bruise will form there. Uncle Ben looks like death, the color has faded from his face. Tears fill the young hero's eyes.
"Nothing is okay. I just want to be here with the two of you."
"And you can," Aunt May soothes.
Uncle Ben sighs deeply, removing his hand from his nephew's shoulder. The walls become translucent and shake once more. Peter's eyes lock with Ben's.
"But I can't." he whispers.
"This isn't meant to be," Uncle Ben says. "I'm not supposed to be here."
Uncle Ben's form shifts, his hair grows darker, turning into brown. The wrinkles on his face melt away. Ben's body slims down; mass becoming less visible and lean. Ben's transformation is complete; he now stands tall as Peter Parker.
His transformation has resulted in a younger parker, from back in high school. He wears thick glasses, a gray sweatshirt with hands tucked in the pockets. Peter shifts his focus from transformed uncle Ben over to Aunt May, who has magically shifted into an even younger Peter Parker. She looks to be about nine years old; she smiles meekly at him.
"We're here with you," She says, the young face smiling confidently.
"I know."
Killgrave appears once more in the chair, looking extremely angry, there is a large cut on his nose. He stands, knocking the chair back and grimacing at all three Peter Parkers. His anger finally fixates on the present Peter Parker.
"Just what the hell is going on?" He snarls.
"There's an absent Peter Parker from the table" Present Peter begins.
Killgrave says nothing; his expressions twist to confusion and then back to frustration.
"Look just sit here with your god damned aunt and uncle. Don't worry about…"
"Spider-Man." High School Peter says.
The younger peter chimes in, "He's missing, and you have him."
"I believe it's time for you to go."
The other Peter's disappear, shifting into the present one; a celestial glow surrounds the central peter. He breathes deeply, the walls of the kitchen shift violently and the plates from cabinets shatter. He steps forward, bringing his right arm up and fist into the Purple Man's face.
The walls shatter into clear fragments, jettisoning into nothing. The room is changing again; killgrave spits a tooth into the air, falling sideways to the floor. Peter was back in the stark center in Boston. His costume was very torn and beaten, the bottom half of his mask was ripped off, mouth exposed and covered with blood.
Spider-Man turns, glancing at his surroundings; Daredevil sat kneeling, his own costume battered and torn. Spider-Man ran to his aid.
"You all right?" he asked, helping his friend to his feet.
"Now that you're not beating on me, yeah." He groaned.
"I'm sorry."
The crimson avenger stands, he reveals his billy club. "Don't worry about it, let's finish this asshole."
The two turn and start toward killgrave. It felt so good to be back in his body, even if it hurt like hell to move. The crowd stared at them in awe, backing away in fear. They stopped just short of the purple man, who was sitting with his back to them.
"Please make this hard, I want to beat the tar out of you." Daredevil growled.
Without warning the purple man turns, face decorated with blood. He reveals that his arm still has one of Tony Stark's power gloves on. Spider-sense rings through the arachnid's head like a four A.M. alarm clock, the glove lights up and fires.
With expert acrobatic ability he dodges, moving out of the way of the blast. The cry of his partner beside him flushed away any relief he had. Daredevil sinks to the floor, a trail of smoke drifting from his shoulder and into the air. Killgrave was going to die for this.
"Man without fear, what a load of shit." Purple Man spits. " Now, let's get on with it."
The Stage is set, the devil is down now it's up to Spider-Man to take out the purple man. This shouldn't be too hard considering the hell Killgrave just put him through, guess you'll have to keep reading to find out. Thanks for reading, please review! –Peechman!