Of The Twilight Hours
Sequel to 'Midnight is Meant to Be'
Disclaimer: I own none of Marvel/Stan Lee's creations, only the scenario and original characters in this story.
Other Plans: Slightly longer than usual to update, I've been planning and designing my own web comic, it won't happen for a while, and I've worked the obsession out of my system so now I can continue with this. I've found this a very hard chapter to write, part of it is me remembering things I've tried to forget, hope it pays off.
Stood on the edge of her apartment's balcony, Felicia breathed softly into the cold wind, he hair flicking in the translucent waves. It was getting late, Peter wouldn't be out much longer, unless something was happening, maybe that Kravenoff guy was at this very moment trying his best to murder her boyfriend, if he wasn't was he about to? Springing over the railing Felicia had to find him now, she had to warn Peter that somebody had escaped, or she had to save his life.
As Black Cat's grappling hook found the rim of a building's roof, a towering shadow emerged in front of the moon, from the dark corner of the apartment block's unused penthouse, the experienced, analytical eyes of a hunter observed the direction and movements of the big city cat, and in silence and shadow, he gave chase.
Spiderman hopped down into an alleyway, quietly and quickly rolling his sleeves and pulling some worn jeans from his bag. Removing his mask and gloves, Peter Parker emerged from the dark alleyways pulling on the second of his old sneakers, the smell of coffee and fresh pastries already slapping him about the face. The night was quiet, yet his stomach was not, and so as he walked down the street to get something to eat before possibly retreating back to Felicia's flat or going home. Tonight had been hard on his head, all the stuff with Mary Jane was for better or worse not going away, but he could at least for now push it into the background. As the door bell chimed his entrance Peter got the same pang of self disgust that he was turning his back on the city for food, and that in the time it took to buy something to eat countless people could die without him. But he knew that even he couldn't stay out there 24 hours a day, he was, despite everything, still human.
The cue was only three people long, himself included, and there was a small table just underneath the window which would allow him to see everything outside just in case anything happened which requires his attention. The girl behind the counter wore the name badge of Debra Whitman, she smiled at him as he arrived at the counter, either she was cheerful it was the last person she had to serve or, how improbable it might seem she thought he was cute. A Danish and exchange of coins later and Peter was sat next to the window, his face basking in the hot vapours heading skyward from his coffee mug.
It was days like this that made him wonder if a normal life was any less complex than his own dual between his two personas. Sue he had to don a suit and lie a bit, but if he had chance to be normal he would surely know more people and his social life would become complicated and structured, it would in turn replace his crime fighting with dates and a regular day job. The night air outside was beginning to chill, and the stars puncture the darkening blackness of the city's top, it was different to be observing it from inside for a change, it had almost become a custom of his to watch the dusk from the rooftops, like going home to your room mate at college, he felt like the deepening night was an old friend, it brought with it the cover of darkness, but that worked both ways. Old friends were never simple, were they MJ?
A warming sip of coffee ignited his throat, a slight pang of burning, until it was gone, after breathing the night air his insides were cold, and heating them back up wasn't usually a nice sensation with hot liquid. A low sigh was released from Peter's lips, its low breathy travel cut audibly short by the doorbell's gesture of custom. Peter's gaze was lingering amongst the glint of the stars, until a voice he couldn't quite put his finger on echoed in his ears, his brain coming up blank with an instant name, and so his eyes fell from heaven to find John Jameson coming through the door with his dark haired girlfriend.
At first he hadn't really clicked, he just took in what he could see. Both of them seemed very happy together, he wondered if this woman knew about MJ? As the walked past him to the counter he went undetected, or maybe John just didn't remember him. He had only met him in his apartment for a couple of seconds, surely John wouldn't remember him, Mary Jane hadn't told him the intricacies of their relationship, or lack of at that point in time, having said that being out with this woman, John was hardly going to be jealous, or even acknowledge him if he had seen Peter. When cheating on a woman, does that man still feel compelled to be possessive, or is that 'honour' passed like a torch of affection to his mistress? The more he watched them, the more he found them to look genuine, this wasn't a purely sexual relationship, John mirrored the loving smile of his company, it was that which stabbed Peter in the stomach, the searing uncertainty entering him violently.
He could cope with John being a sex crazy bastard, but this looked to him like he had found somebody he happier with than Mary Jane, but did that justify his actions? He should have told Mary Jane, he should have been honest and told her as soon as he and this woman became serious, he should have told her that there was somebody else on the scene… She should have told me.
All of this, this sharp pang of an unconfirmed feeling, it was due to the almost theatrical cast of characters and the playwrights sick sense of irony, here was Peter telling himself that John should have done exactly what Mary Jane didn't do when he arrived in her life, told the person whom it affects most, in this case Mary Jane, in her case it was Peter. How could he act as if she was innocent and undeserving when she had pulled the exact stunt on him? Was he to think of this as revenge, as what went around coming around? It would have been easy, to just ignore them, to let Mary Jane find out in the worst kind of way, but he couldn't, he would have to tell her.
But did she even care?
By the sound of their little conversation not long ago she wanted out of their relationship anyways, but did that make it okay for John to do this? And was that an excuse for what she had done to him, how she had done this to him, was she now excused because her fantasy relationship had turned out to be as fickle and breakable as any other? Should he not feel to glad that she wasn't as happy as he had at first thought? Those nightmares, the passions in his head which made him weep in the early hours, those would have been fitting for somebody who he had always known deserved the best, and yet he couldn't stand it when she found it. Was their lost friendship all down to his own petty weaknesses?
It was irrelevant, and as the two lovers sat in the corner, their hands joined over the table in an exchange of soft words, he looked back into the dwindling blackness of his own cup, it was under an inch of infinity, a mouthful of endless darkness. Within his hand he held something bottomless, all consuming, and yet it was just as easily consumed by taking it into himself, just as his endless fears could be conquered by taking a small journey to Mary Jane's home, whether it be the penthouse or her new abode. Just like staring into the black coffee, he couldn't see an end to this, but he could easily swallow the uncertainty and end this bitter stalemate between the two former best friends. He would have to call Mary Jane, somehow he had to thaw the ice, breaking it would probably cause confusion, gradual was the way forwards, hell he had just had coffee with her, he would just have to keep Spiderman away from her whilst Peter worked things out.
Didn't she just invite Spiderman round for dinner thought? Well if she kept out of trouble then she wouldn't see him to invite him, but Mary Jane attracted trouble like men, he would just have to hope she kept her head down until Peter had gotten the guts up to call her. However this played out maybe it wasn't his part to interfere in Mary Jane and John Jameson's affairs, after all she was leaving him anyway and so there was no urgent need to enlighten her to something she probably knew herself deep down, if there was one thing Mary Jane wasn't despite doing her best to act it was stupid. She would be moving out soon, so things would be easier for Peter, or would they? New guys on the scene, would she make assumptions concerning his sudden reappearance and her separation? This could be more trouble than he had counted on. He would have to tread carefully.
As the last thought in his head disappeared, ready to be replaced by a new worry his body became electrified, his eyes shot open and cast outwards towards the street, his spider sense had just given him a considerable jolt. As he looked out he saw Black Cat swing past on her grapple, no doubt looking for him. Why would Felicia set of my spider sense? It was upon following her with his eyes that he noticed a shadow of a man on the far rooftops running in her direction, making inhuman jumps between surfaces in his seeming pursuit of his girlfriend. Just as quick as the Cat had vanished from view in his current vantage point Peter was on the street, the jingle of the door accompanying the pounding of his feet, his heart was equally as loud. Felicia didn't have a sixth sense for danger like he did, she could be take unawares, and he feared for her safety.
The alleyway was quickly on his left, removing himself from sight in its deepest regions Peter remerged as Spiderman, webbing himself after the Black Cat as fast as he could he just hoped that it wasn't to late, whoever was stalking her was moving fast, too fast. Somebody that moved like that was no doubt going to be trouble.
He noticed that Cat was stood on an air vent up ahead; it looks as if she was going to try and use her mobile, maybe to phone and ask where he was. Webbing a deep swing from a streetlight just before the building she was on Peter flew down at the street, almost making contact before his line went taught and he was catapulted up towards her standing. Shooting a web line out it hit Felicia in the waist, and just as he pulled on her as hard as he could muster at his current velocity she screamed in pain, a blade had just cut across her calf. Landing with her in his arms after his speed wore out Peter panicked as he examined the wound, it was only a cut, but from the hunting knife embedded in the bricks of a wall in front of him it could have been a lot worse, it looked to have been thrown at her knee joint, to incapacitate.
Looking around he could see nothing, but heard a low deep laughter; mixing with Felicia's sounds of pain it was hard to place. Laying the wounded blonde down gently Peter crouched over her, whomever their assailant was they were damn good at keeping themselves hidden. Only one person he had ever known to use stealth and hunting knives was in prison, but considering that never seemed to stop people trying to kill him he was fully aware of who had just tried to make his lover invalid.
"KRAVEN!" Peter shouted, this man only understood challenges, violence, the honour of the dual; it was how he had to be dealt with. But he had never seen Kraven use bait before, that's what Felicia had to be to him, bait. This was a new approach, an unsettling one.
"Tonight you die arachnid!" His voice was a low growl, and just as his spider sense shattered the nervous blank of his mind Kraven appeared from behind a billboard, letting fly with a hail of arrows. In a split second Peter pushed Felicia behind the air vent she had been standing on, she was still in shock clutching her leg. Looking back up Peter flipped in mid air, twisting and bending as arrow shafts whistled past him, Peter's agile moves fell short when he failed to dodge one of Kraven's ballistics, and was caught in the shoulder by a hunting knife thrown when the hunter's arrows had been exhausted.
"No!" Felicia cried out when she saw Spiderman hit the floor, clawing at the protruding blade, blood flowing like wine, the attack had left him with an instant hangover. Getting his head back in the game Peter saw Kraven running towards him, he was upon him quicker than he could have anticipated, just like Shocker and Rhino this guy wasn't messing around, non of the usual villainous capers, straight to the kill. Diving at him Peter acted purely on instinct. Pulling the blade from himself he cast it into Kraven's thigh, the heavily built brute gritted his teeth and fell slightly off balance in his charge. Flicking to his feet, Peter lunge punched the lunatic Australian straight in the nose, breaking it in the most brutal of fashions. The recoil was evident, and Kraven with his leg wound ambled backwards from the force of the blow, and As Peter tried to suppress the bleeding of his shoulder he saw his enemy stumble and trip, rolling backwards over the edge of the 7 story building's roof.
Please let me know what you think, this time I really need some encouragement and feedback!