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Inversion

Chapter 12 – Checkmate

Quantum didn't know what to do.

Ever since she escaped from S.H.I.E.L.D., she always had a clear vision of what to do. First was joining the Resistance. Second was to get public support on their side (which failed miserably, thanks to J. Jonah Jameson). Third was to get all the Inverted, as the leaders of the Resistance were fond of calling those enforcing the Superhuman Registration Act, arrested and put behind bars. She figured that anything after that would be icing on the cake.

The figure running towards them put all those goals in the garbage. If it weren't for Quantum using her powers at full strength, Spider-Man would have turned her and the others into smears on the wall. As it was, they had barely enough time to get out of the way of Spider-Man's punch. It cracked the pillar Quantum and her friends were standing in front of a moment before, and ended up breaking and falling. Spider-Man didn't get out of the way, but rather jumped on the bottom of the falling pillar and flipped to the top as it fell over.

"That's a nice power you have there," he commented. Quantum shivered; why did the worse psychopaths always have to sound so hot? "It bought you another three seconds of life. That's the longest anyone's ever lasted against me."

"You're not laying a hand on my friends!" Concussion growled. He sent streams of his gel at Spider-Man, who didn't even flinch. At the last moment, he sidestepped and created a net out of his webbing, the gel splashing against it and sticking. With the net still in hand, he leaped into the air and landed behind Concussion. Bewildered, Concussion turned to Spider-Man just as the net landed on top of him. He could hear more web fluid being sprayed, and he could feel the net wrapping tighter around him.

"I'd avoid setting off that explosive gel, if I were you," Spider-Man said, his tone dangerously light-hearted.

"How'd you know about him?" Kane demanded, his sword at Spider-Man's throat. When he proceeded to yawn and check his gloved hands, Kane pressed the sword even further. "Answer me! Knowing about me and Quantum… that I can deal with. We were experiments, after all. But how could you know about him?! Con… he's been off your guy's radar since the beginning!"

"Oh, I know all about your friend, Concussion," Spider-Man said lazily. "I know his real name is Jason Ruiz, and he was nearly burnt on the stake until Taskmaster arrived. I know he joined a crime ring in New Orleans, and that's how he met Gambit. I know Gambit is the one who introduced him to the Resistance."

Spider-Man turned to look at the stunned looks he was getting. Well, from two of them, anyway – being trapped in a web net tended to mask people head to toe. "You want to know why I'm telling you this? Because you woke me up from my nap. After I turn you into ketchup, I'll go to work on the rest of the Resistance. Then I can get some damn sleep."

"I don't think so," Kane snapped, pulling back his katana for a killing strike.

"Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention I know," Spider-Man added. "You're standing on a landmine, Kane."

The young vampire had just enough time to widen his eyes before he was enveloped in flames. As he was burned to a crisp, Spider-Man's shoulders drooped in disappointment. "They told me it would be a landmine, not a flamethrower. Damn liars."

Quantum couldn't take it anymore. Concussion was trapped by his own power, and Kane was dead. She ran to the door, banging on it with all her might. "Let us out! Someone help us!" She screamed.

She would have continued screaming, but Spider-Man grabbed her by the throat. Looking at his mask, she started crying. She couldn't see his eyes, and that was what scared her. She didn't know what he was capable of.

"You know, you have a place here in the Avengers," he suddenly offered. "Join me as my sidekick, and you won't have to worry about a thing from S.H.I.E.L.D. Plus…" he stroked her leg, sending crystal-clear messages to Quantum, "I can show you a few things under this costume."

Should she take him up on this offer? If the fear hadn't been messing with her brain, she would have spat in his face and told him to stick where the sun doesn't shine. As it was, she was about to agree without reservation when the world became a blur. When the world returned to normal, she was standing a few feet away from Spider-Man.

Kane was holding her.

"Kane?" Quantum asked, half amazed and half relieved. "How…?"

"Gotta love vampiric healing factors," Kane said, his voice warm. That was enough to bring back some of Quantum's senses. Turning to Spider-Man, his rage shot through the roof as he gripped his sword in a hold that would have broken normal steel. Setting down his friend, he marched toward Spider-Man. "I can take a lot of crap. You can burn me to a crisp. You can make me kill. You can even get inside my head. I may not be okay with it, but I'll find a way to deal. The one thing – the one thing– I will never forgive…"

He vanished, reappearing in front of Spider-Man. Before he could move, Kane slammed his knee into his ribs. "KEEP…"

Kane slammed his fist down on Spider-Man's back. "YOUR HANDS…"

Grabbing him by the head, the young vampire threw him into a pillar. "OFF OF…"

Spider-Man screamed as Kane stabbed him in the left shoulder. "MY FRIEND!"

Kane backed away, never taking his eyes off Spider-Man. "Quantum. Take Concussion and get going. I'll join you guys when Spidey here is a corpse."

Before Quantum could raise any objections, Concussion grabbed her and ran off. Spider-Man tore himself from the pillar and started circling Kane. "You're going to wish the flamethrower had killed you when I'm done with you."

"Oh, shut the hell up," Kane snapped. "You don't get to talk after what you did to us. I'm going to beat you to a pulp, and make you beg Quantum to forgive you."

"Not very threatening, boy," Spider-Man said, a stinger coming out of his right wrist. "Now, die."

Theme – "Escapist" by Nightwish

They both disappeared, reappearing in a clash of sword and stinger. Damn… without Quantum here to slow him down, Spidey was faster than ever! It was all he could do to block the stinger blows with the flat of his katana, which took up most of his time.

Sending them away was the right thing to do, Kane thought. I'm the one with the highest chance of living through this… or at least, staying alive until help arrives.

"You know, there's something I don't get," Spider-Man commented. "With your powers, you could have made that girl fall for you at any time. Hell, a good chunk of the world could be yours. Why don't you take it?"

"Owning a chunk of the world?" Kane scoffed as he ducked under the stinger. "What would I do with something like that? Besides, tried it once, and it blew up in my face."

"You mean what happened with Scott Lang's daughter? I saw what you did to her. I think that was the first time you sucked someone dry. Didn't you leave shortly after that?"

Kane sliced Spider-Man across the arm, sending a fountain of blood into the air. Why was he talking with this lunatic? He needed to finish this up! Jumping away from Spider-Man, he took a stance like his kendo teacher taught him.

"Acting like a samurai now, huh? I'll play along," Spider-Man joked. He took a stance similar to Kane's, holding his stinger out like it was a dagger.

Nobody moved for several moments. Then, both fighters disappeared, only to reappear opposite of where they were. Kane smiled, knowing that he landed a telling blow.

Or so he thought. Kane started coughing, as if he had swallowed some water too quickly. He was shocked to discover that he had been stabbed through the heart. As his katana fell from numb hands, Spider-Man casually strolled up to him. Picking up his sword, he commented, "The Avengers have extensive files on how to deal with monsters like you. That's why, right before the fight, I injected some holy water into my stingers. You're about to burn up from the inside out, with no one around to save you."

Kane's mind was racing. Come on, get up! I can't let this guy get to Concussion and Quantum! Concussion's the first guy to actually treat me like a human being and not a monster! He taught me how to have a good poker face during poker and how to fish! Quantum… she looks at me in a way that I've never seen before. I need to get up! Come on, you stupid body! Move like I'm telling you! I… I…

I WILL SAVE MY FRIENDS!

That's when Kane blacked out.

Spider-Man was busy using that tracking device Stark gave him. Even without the Iron Man part of him, he could still point out inventions that will help. He may not be able to explain them, but Spider-Man couldn't have cared less. Now, where could those kids have gone…?

What the hell?! Someone just grabbed him from behind and threw him into a wall! I couldn't have been that kid – he'd taken a lethal dose of holy water to the heart. Looking up, he got the shock of his life.

It was Kane, or what was left of him. The guy was now a real monster. His hair had turned black and grew so it went down to his waist, locks flying in a nonexistent wind. His eyes had turned completely black, the exception being his now bloodred pupils. Black energy similar to the magic spells Strange would summon coated Kane like a blanket ready to fall off at a moment's notice. The katana Spider-Man had thrown off to the side was in the kid's hands again, but like its owner, it too had mutated. The blade had turned black, and the symbols along the blade were glowing a burning red. The back of the blade was jagged like a saw, with jagged teeth stabbing into the air.

Kane (was it really him anymore?) took in a deep breath and smiled at Spider-Man. It wasn't a nice smile. It was impossibly wide and impossibly sinister, like a Cheshire Cat from Hell. "Ah, it's so nice not to have my human side get in the way," Kane rasped. His voice, instead of sounding like a singer for a boy band, now resembled an psychopathic asylum inmate freshly escaped from his prison; constantly changing from low to high pitch. "I'd say thank you, but I don't talk to my food."

Kane renewed his assault, with twenty times the ferocity of last time. Spider-Man had his hands full dodging all of Kane's attacks. However, for every blow he evaded, seven got through. Each strike left a wound that seemed to never close up, despite his somewhat accelerated healing factor (Author's note: Yes, I checked – Spidey does have a low-level healing factor. REALLY low).

It wasn't long before Spider-Man was on the ground. Dammit – who was this kid?! No one, save the symbiotes, could do this to him!

"What the hell are you?!" He screamed.

Kane cocked his head to one side, that same smile on his lips. "I could ask you the same question, Webs-a-roo. The real Spider-Man would have had no problems dodging my blows. So let's see who you really are…" In a flash, Spider-Man's mask was in Kane's hands.

"Wow, and I thought Carnage was ugly!" Kane whistled. "What did you do, get in an argument with seven chainsaws?"

The man under the mask simply sneered. The long brown hair and bad boy looks would have made him attractive were it not for the scarring all over the left side of his face. Vein-like bulges of skin webbed its way through his face, some of it pulling down the bottom eyelid of his left eye.

"Wait – I recognize you from my human side's memories," Kane realized. "So I guess we know what happened to the Jackal's original clone, now, huh? What did you… wait, I know what you did with the original. That blank gravestone… it wasn't caused by weathering, was it?"

Spider-Kane (I'm calling him that to distinguish the two ) felt his world unraveling. After killing Peter Parker and taking his place as Spider-Man… finally getting a normal life… was it all going to upstaged by some bloodsucker? He tried moving, but the vampire's sword was at his throat before he could blink.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Kane wagged his finger, "you really shouldn't get up. After all, now I'm at the good part. Now you get to know who your reaper is." He drew in a breath, then loomed over Spider-Kane, black banes kissing the top of the uniform. "When my human self became a vampire, he would stick to his instincts. I was so proud of him! Like watching your first kid ride a bike! Then he decided to suppress his instincts, and for what?! A stupid girl?! She wasn't even that hot! Anyways, as time passed and he continued suppressing his vampire side, they slowly collected in the back of his mind. And who should be born, but moi! Little, adorable psychopathic me! And when you delivered enough damage to render dear Kaney unconscious… well, in the words of Liam Neeson, RELEASE THE KRAKEN!"

Spider-Kane had little time to process this information when Kane lunged and bit his neck. As the vampire sucked more and more blood, Spider-Kane felt his strength ebbing away…

Kane was having the time of his life. No more human side to spoil his fun! Let's see… drain everyone in New York dry, take a trip to Miami, ride an alligator (maybe have it for a snack afterwards, he hadn't decided yet)…

Oi! One surprise per customer! He didn't need some white tentacle things grabbing him and lifting him into the air! Squirming, he turned to see who it was.

"I heard everything," Anti-Venom said. He was standing by one of the few intact pillars, one arm limping at his side. "I'd ask if it was true, but I've met psychopaths like you before. You get off on telling the truth, especially if it scares people. But we don't need you, vampire. We need Kane!"

No! He wasn't going to become boring again! He had to save his friends!

Wait, what?

Kane started screaming as Brock's powers did their work. Black hair became blonde as it shrank back to its original length, eyes changed back to blue, and Kane otherwise returned to normal. When at last it was done, Kane fell to the ground alongside the clone.

"Don't worry, Kane," Anti-Venom said. "I'll protect you. After everything I found out, we need you and the others. We won't survive otherwise."

Intrigue! I can't wait to show you guys what I have in store! Until next time!