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It was nearly a week later before Peter managed to get his new dragon-like anger under control. It took several more incidents before he fully understood his triggers, and what to do to calm himself down. Caedis explained that all dragons had fierce tempers and being her vessel not only gave him the physical attributes of a dragon, but the mental ones as well. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It gave him a better grasp of how to use his powers, and even made him more frugal with his money. Dragons were natural treasure-hoarders, after all.
While being able to budget better and fight better, he was still worried about his temper. When not in what he was starting to refer to as "dragon-mode", he was relatively the same as he was before, with very few changes to his personality. However, Caedis explained that even when not in "dragon-mode" there was still a slim degree of influence she had over him. This was not something she could help. He was worried he would have a hard time keeping his dragon side in check.
His temper had some odd triggers, like vegans and vegetarians trying to push their lifestyle decisions on him. Meat was necessary in order to live healthily. He learned that in Biology. There was a vitamin in meat that could not be found anywhere but animal products. That was just a simple fact of life. Besides, who didn't like meat? Bacon, hamburgers, sausage, there were so many good meats.
Then there were Christians insisting he needed more Jesus in his life. While he certainly hoped God was real and prayed with aunt May occasionally, he didn't have time to go to church regularly, and he didn't need people randomly approaching him on the street to ask him if he'd spoken to God today.
He was raised Protestant, and was happy to keep telling himself that God was real, but deep inside him, he felt that some things in the Bible were just nonsense. Like Jesus feeding so many people with so little food. That wasn't possible, according to the laws of thermodynamics. At the same time, he couldn't help wondering if maybe it was just metaphorical. Like maybe, Jesus' "fish miracle" was just a nuclear fusion reaction that was creating extra matter. That he could understand and believe in. Did that make him Agnostic? He wasn't sure, but he barely had time in his personal life to enjoy what life had to offer, he didn't have time to be asking what would happen after life. He'd worry about that when his time came.
There was always the possibility that these were not his thoughts at all, however. As he was becoming ever more aware of, Caedis was influencing almost all of his day to day decisions in a small way. He had developed a bigger appreciation for the arts, and even developed an interest in cooking, something that had never really appealed to him before. Caedis had vaguely mentioned that all dragons cooked their food the way humans did, and that their fire-breath had evolutionarily developed as a tool rather than a weapon.
He was ruminating on this and other thoughts as JJJ continued his rant in the background. His usual insults against Spider-Man were now replaced by vague hand gestures around him and vaguely worded phrases like "fire-breathing menace" and "lizard-freak". He didn't seem to know what to call Peter, since Peter had yet to come up with a decent name for himself. His fans, new and old, had taken to calling him the "Red Dragon". Perhaps that would work.
He leapt to another building and heard a screeching noise beneath him. Looking below, he saw a cop car swerving out of control. It was headed right for a bakery. Keeping his cool, he reached for his newly-added utility belt. Grabbing a modified paint-ball pistol, he fired at the window of the bakery. A web shot out of the barrel and splattered over the window. The cop car was caught up in the web and stopped half-way through rolling over. A cop crawled out of a window of the car. He looked around before spotting Peter.
"I'm starting to think Jameson's wrong about you, Dragon." he called up to him.
"Spread the word, chief." Peter called back. Then he jumped down to land in front of an armored car that was glued to the ground. The Trapster stepped out of it.
"Hiyah, flame-brain. I knew that would draw you out." he said.
"Who's this idiot?" Caedis asked.
"The Trapster." Peter said aloud. Then muttering to Caedis, "I've fought him three times before. It never ends well. He uses glue to fight."
The Trapster quick-drew his glue-gun. Peter jumped over the spray of glue and punched the Trapster right in the face. He went flying and hit a car. He fell to the ground, then looked up at Peter. Getting to his feet, the Trapster hurled a couple of glue-grenades. Peter jumped up and kicked the glue-grenades away. As he landed, a third glue-grenade arrived at his feet. He jumped up and away, but it splattered glue all over him as it exploded.
That's how he found himself glued to the wall by one arm and leg. He struggled. The Trapster raised his glue gun. Reaching into his utility belt, Peter pulled out a scrap of metal. He threw it. Then he raised his hand and fired a ball of fire from his fingertips. The metal scrap melted, and landed inside the barrel of the Trapster's glue-gun. The Trapster had already pulled the trigger. His eyes widened as he realized what Peter had done. The tank of glue on his back exploded.
When the smoke cleared, the Trapster was stuck in a mound of glue. Peter ripped his arm away from the wall, and jumped down. He walked over to the Trapster. Caedis was laughing in his head.
"This is when I leave the "friendly neighborhood Red Dragon" note. Can I borrow a pen?" Peter asked. The Trapster's eyes widened. Peter raised an eyebrow. What was he so afraid of? Peter turned around.
"Wow. The SHIELD Hellicarrier is coming in low." Peter commented. It was barely clearing the rooftops overhead.
"Red Dragon, huh?" a voice behind him asked. Peter jumped, then spun around. It was Nick Fury.
"Who's that?" Caedis wondered.
"You super-spies making a point to sneak up on hard-working heroes?" Peter asked, partially to answer Caedis's question.
"Kid, we gotta talk." Fury said, pointing to their surroundings. Glue was sprayed everywhere. All over the pavement, all over a cop car, all over a cop horse, all over some people. Not a pretty sight. It was gonna take somebody hours to clean this up. Peter sighed.
After a brief talk with Fury, that ended with Fury presenting him with an enhanced web-shooter, Peter continued on to school. SHIELD tech had improved on his old design, making it so he could actually use a wrist-mounted web-shooter again. His old ones had exploded the first time he'd used his new fire-ball attack. The intense heat had caused the web-fluid to expand until it pushed apart the metal pieces of the web-shooter. This new web-shooter was fire-proof and heat resistant. Peter had pocketed it immediately. He'd missed web-swinging. His new dragon-powers did not include flight.
At school, MJ showed him a video of JJJ being a jerk and announced she wanted to work for him. He wasn't exactly thrilled. She explained that she couldn't be picky if she wanted to be a reporter. Flash Thompson shoved him into a locker again. The janitor let him out just in time for lunch. He got in line behind Harry Osborn, his best friend.
"Dude, locker-knocker time again? Thompson's such a tool." Harry said.
"If that's the worst thing that happens to me today, I'm coming out ahead." Peter said pessimistically as they reached their preferred lunch table and sat down. Then Caedis shouted a warning in his head.
"Hit the deck!" Caedis shouted. He threw himself over the table grabbing MJ and Harry as he did. At the same time, the wall collapsed inward. Peter turned to look as the super-villains responsible for the destruction stepped in though the hole in the wall.
"Attention, students. Your principal has something to tell you." the Wizard said. The principal floated in through the hole.
"Students. Your attention, please. The school is now under the control of... of..." the principal trailed off.
"The Frightful Four." Thundra said.
"Uh. There's only three of you." MJ pointed out.
"Quiet." the Wizard commanded, throwing the principal into a wall.
"Who the hell are these guys?" Caedis demanded.
"The Wizard. Master of high-tech gadgets." Peter mumbled under his breath. The Wizard threw out several anti-gravity disks, which attached to tables and chairs around him. The tables and chairs immediately began floating towards the ceiling.
"Klaw. The villain made of living sound." Peter continued. Klaw lifted his metal claw and blasted the ceiling with a sonic attack, raining debris down on the students.
"Thundra. Ruthless warrior woman from an alternate future timeline. Don't ask." Peter finished. Thundra ran forward and punched a pillar, taking a huge chunk out of it.
"Hmm." Caedis responded. "And I'm guessing the Trapster makes four of them?"
"Yeah." Peter muttered.
"Before the Trapster was captured, he learned the Red Dragon attends this school. And unless he gives himself up, we'll tear this place down brick by brick." the Wizard said, floating forward.
"Yeah!" one of the students shouted.
"We're serious." the Wizard said turning to look at the offender. The kid put his hands over his mouth.
"Klaw." the Wizard said holding up his hand. Klaw lifted his, well, claw, and blasted the ceiling, raining debris down on the students. Everyone cried out and ran to the sides of the room to avoid being crushed.
"So, who is our mysterious fire-breather?" the Wizard asked. "A teacher? A student? A cafeteria lady?"
He floated around looking at everyone.
"They seem reluctant to talk. Klaw, make them listen to reason." the Wizard said. Klaw blasted the entire lunch room with sound. Everyone screamed in pain.
"Stop it!" Peter shouted.
"Peter, no!" MJ yelled at him. The Wizard turned to him.
"Ha. Definitely not the Red Dragon." the Wizard said. Peter glowered at him.
"I'll crush the runt." Thundra said, stepping forward.
"Don't crush him. Make an example of him." the Wizard said. Klaw blasted Peter with his sonic attack. Peter fell to the floor screaming.
"Shut it down! I'll talk, I'll talk!" Peter screamed. The Wizard gestured to Klaw, who stopped his sonic attack. Peter got to his feet using a lunch table as leverage. He paused to stare at a tray of food. An idea began to take shape.
"Well? You have something to say, boy?" the Wizard asked.
"Listen up. Everyone needs to hear this." Peter said. "Food fight!"
As he said the last part, he grabbed the tray of food and hurled it at the Wizard. All the students started yelling and grabbing food to hurl at the super-villains. The villains tried to fight back, only to be knocked back by the sheer force of numbers. Peter stealthily made his way behind a pillar to change. He climbed part-way up the pillar, his eyes turning yellow with slitted pupils as he went into dragon-mode. His hair made the change from brown to dark red. The features of his face became sharper, more defined. His fingernails became claws.
"This is nuts. How do they know? How did they find us?" Peter asked Caedis, as he began pulling off his outer wear to reveal his costume.
"I don't know. Are they trackers?" Caedis asked him. Peter paused to pull a metal microchip from his vest. He examined it. Tracking device. Duh.
"Fury was right. I have a lot to learn about responsibility." Peter said, crushing the tracker. He pulled on his mask. Then he scooted around the pillar to view the room. Klaw was about to blast some students with his sonic attack. He was pointing his claw at them.
"Dude, don't point that thing! It might go off!" Peter shouted. Then he fired a strand of webbing from his web-gun. It adhered to Klaw's claw and Peter yanked on it, causing the blast to be redirected towards Klaw himself. Blasted by his own sonic attack, Klaw stumbled forward into a pillar. Caedis laughed.
"It really stinks to be you today. Actually, it probably stinks to be you every day. Then again, it could be me. I haven't washed this suit in a week." Peter said. Caedis made a disgusted sound.
"Hate to break it to you, Thundra, but..." Peter said as he jumped off the pillar into Thundra.
"You're not the kind of woman dragons want to enjoy the company of." Peter finished, as he flipped her face first into a bowl of something green.
"Implying what? That she's a slut?" Caedis asked. Peter smirked.
Somewhere else entirely...
"Ha ha, excellent." Dr. Octavius said to himself. Then to Mr. Osborn he said, "The Wizard has the Red Dragon engaged in combat. The team will gain a detailed profile of his powers."
"Good." Mr. Osborn said.
"There is the small matter of witnesses. Shall I have the Frightful Four destroy Midtown High?" Dr. Octavius asked.
"Midtown?" exclaimed Mr. Osborn. "No, you fool! My son is there!"
Back at Midtown High...
Peter jumped and ducked and weaved, dodging Klaw's sonic attacks along with Thundra's bone-crushing haymakers. The Wizard joined in, levitating several lunch tables and chairs. Petal shot out a web-line, which adhered to Klaw's claw, and whipped him around to aim at Thundra. She was blasted across the room. Continuing to pull on the web-line, Peter swung Klaw towards the Wizard, who shielded himself with the lunch tables before launching them at Peter.
"Looks like I'm off to see the Wizard." Peter declared as he began jumping up and climbing the flying lunch tables. Caedis groaned at the cheesy joke.
"You need to work on your one-liners." Caedis said, as Peter shot out another web-line. It stuck to a lunch table which he then pulled into the Wizard sending him crashing into a wall. He left a Wizard-shaped dent in it.
"Guess that's one way to make an impression." Peter said.
"Better." Caedis said. "Now work on your delivery."
Peter spotted Thundra pulling herself out of a pile of debris. She was streaked with cafeteria food.
"You know, creamed corn is really a good color on you." Peter said. Thundra snarled, and broke a countertop. Peter jumped and shot out a web-line. Thundra grabbed it in midair and pulled, slamming Peter into the ground.
"Good one." Caedis said, sarcastically. Thundra started running towards him, but tripped on a plate of gelatin that MJ kicked her way. Thundra slid across the floor and crashed into some tables. MJ filmed it all on her camera phone.
"Here's my first front page story." MJ said, turning around to film Klaw. Klaw spotted her, saw what she was doing, and blasted her phone to pieces with his sonic attack. MJ clutched her hand in pain. Harry ran over and grabbed her.
"Hey! Leave her alone!" he yelled at Klaw. Klaw fired again, this time hitting Harry right in the solar plexus. Peter, who was just now recovering, saw everything.
"Oh no. Harry." he said. Caedis sighed.
"This school is full of would-be heroes." Klaw declared. Peter got up and launched himself at Klaw using a web-line. He kicked Klaw clear across the room.
"Behind you!" Caedis warned. Peter spun around, and caught Thundra's fist as she attempted to punch him. He switched his web-gun from web-line to web-spray, and spun her around, spraying her with webbing until she was completely covered in it. Some student started cheering for him, only to find themselves lifted off their feet by the Wizard. He had attached anti-gravity disks to their backs and was now floating them up towards the ceiling.
"Floating hostages." the Wizard said to himself. "Red Dragon won't dare attack."
Peter picked up Thundra and feigned that he was about to throw her at the Wizard. The Wizard pulled his arms up in front of himself and moved the hostages in front of him. A human shield. Peter dropped Thundra.
"Real smart, whiz. You left the back door open." Peter declared. He jumped and slid under the Wizard, before firing a web-line and yanking hard on it. The Wizard went flying with a shout. He crashed into a pile of tables. He pulled himself out of it, just in time for Peter to kick him in the face. He went flying a second time and flew through the doors to the hallway. Peter followed him into the hallway.
"Red Dragon!" Flash Thompson said, appearing seemingly out of nowhere. "Flash Thompson. I'm your biggest fan! Let me help, bro!"
"Definitely, bro." Peter said. His sarcasm was lost on Flash. Peter opened a locker.
"Step in." he said. Flash got in.
"Now what?" he asked.
"Wait for my signal. Jump out, and we'll surround them." Peter said, dramatically. "Remember, wait for my signal."
He shut the locker door. Caedis sighed.
"Really?" she asked.
"Immature, I know." Peter muttered. "But it felt so good."
He heard a loud shout from behind the doors to the lunch room and jumped for the ceiling. He was inside the ventilation in a flash. The doors collapsed outward.
"Where is he?" Thundra asked, as she and Klaw entered the hallway. The Wizard floated over. A police siren began to wail in the distance.
"We're not being paid to fight cops." the Wizard said. "Let's go."
They left. Peter ran back to the lunchroom grabbed his clothes and ran back out. He quickly changed, before running back to the lunchroom again. He approached the group of people swarming around Harry. He pushed his way to the center of the crowd. He crouched next to Harry.
"Oh, this is all my fault." Peter said. He glanced up. Harry's dad had arrived, along with the police.
"Mr. Osborn." Peter said. "I'm sorry."
"Why apologize, Peter?" Mr. Osborn asked. "What could you have possibly done?"
Later, at the hospital...
"There's still some ringing in my ears." Harry said, as the nurses disconnected him from the monitoring equipment. "But the Doc says I'll be fine tomorrow."
"Awesome." Peter replied.
"Strangest thing, Peter." Mr. Osborn said. "Those villains seemed to believe that Red Dragon goes to your school. Do you know anything about that?"
"Huh. I think he sits next to me in Spanish." Peter said.
"Hola! Donde esta la biblioteca?" Caedis asked sarcastically. Resisting the urge to laugh, Peter smiled at Mr. Osborn. He seemed confused.
"No, sir." Peter said, to clarify. "I've never heard that."
"He's just joking, dad. Peter does it all the time." Harry said.
"I see." Mr. Osborn said.
"Well, I'd better get home." Peter said. "Aunt May will have seen the news. She'll start to worry if I don't come home soon."
Later, at the Parker residence...
When Peter walked into the kitchen, the Daily Bugle news was playing on the TV. JJJ was ranting about Peter's most recent adventure.
"Peter." his aunt said as she looked up at him.
"Hi, aunt May." Peter said.
"Are you OK?" aunt May asked. She turned the TV off.
"I heard there was trouble at your school." she said.
"Those psychos never touched me, aunt May." he said. She smiled, and went back to cutting carrots.
"You know what? If we had Norman Osborn's money, I'd put you in private school immediately." she said.
"Yeah, that'd be sweet." Peter said, unenthused. "Hey, when's dinner?"
"It's almost ready." she said. "Put the candles on the cake."
"Cake?" Peter gasped. Caedis sighed.
"Yes. The cake you promised to pick up in the city today." aunt May said. "Ben's favorite."
She looked at him.
"You didn't get distracted again, did you Peter?" she asked.
"Um, I'm sorry, aunt May, I guess I..." Peter mumbled.
"That's all right." she said. "With all that happened today at school, I couldn't expect you to remember. I'm just happy you made it home safely."
Later, after dinner...
Peter was back in his bedroom, looking at a picture of him, his aunt, and uncle Ben.
"I can't believe I let her down." he said.
"Why?" Caedis asked. Her voice was audible this time, not just in his head. He looked up. To his surprise he could see what appeared to be a teenage girl in his mirror. She had short, dark, red hair. She was wearing a sequined red dress. Her fingernails were claws, and she had pointy ears and teeth. Her eyes were yellow with slitted pupils.
She spoke, "Your always letting people down, Peter. And the people closest to you are always getting hurt. Your uncle, and Harry. You can't even get a cake home."
"Well, what would you suggest?" Peter asked, bitterly.
"Training. You need it, badly. And better tech. Your web-shooters explode around dragon-fire, but I bet there's a way to prevent that." she said.
"Where would I get the money for research?" Peter asked.
" Dragon life lesson number one: Never buy it yourself if you can get someone else to buy it for you." Caedis said.
"Who would pay for it?" he asked.
"SHIELD gave you a better web-shooter didn't they?" she asked. "Plus, a job offer. They'll pay you to use their tech."
"They could probably train me too." Peter said. "I like this idea!"
"Then what the heck are you waiting for?" Caedis asked.
Later, in the city...
"OK, let's do this." Peter said. "Put out the welcome mat SHIELD. The dragon's come a calling."
He ran along roof tops until he reached his destination. The tallest building directly under the Hellicarrier. He ran straight up the tower and jumped as high as he could. He fired off his web-gun. It shot out a web-line that crumpled in the air, not even crossing half the distance to the Hellicarrier.
"Great." Peter said. He pulled out his new web-shooter and put it on. "Fury's tech-boys better be on their game, or I'm street pizza."
He fired again. This time the web-line made it. He gave a great yank and sailed up onto the surface of the Hellicarrier.
"Not bad." he said, looking down at the web-shooter. "But is it dragon-fire-proof?"
Suddenly, an alarm went off, blaring loudly in his ears.
"INTRUDER ALERT!" it screamed over and over. Turrets came out of the wall and began firing at him. Caedis started shouting.
"Dodge left! Now right!" she yelled in his head.
"What the heck is this?" Peter yelled. "Dragon-slayer target-practice?"
He began shooting fire blasts at the turrets. They exploded on impact, disintegrating the turrets. He jumped up high, and landed on the top on the Hellicarrier. Two larger turrets came out, followed by several smaller ones. Laser targeting systems activated, sending bright red beams of light at him. He shifted slightly, the beams followed.
"Hmm." he said. He glanced to his right. Fury was standing next to him. Fury gave him a look, then deactivated the security system with a remote control. Amusingly, it made a sound similar to a car being locked via a key fob. Peter pulled off his mask.
"Your friendly neighborhood, Ultimate Red Dragon reporting for duty, sir!" he said, saluting.
"Welcome to SHIELD, Red Dragon. Hope you survive the experience." Fury said, turning to walk inside. Peter followed him.
