Carnage Part 6 - Connections Between People

The spring semester was almost over, and the chill in the air was gone.

Mary Jane was walking away from the school. She turned a corner and barely stopped herself from bumping into someone. He seemed to be waiting for her.

"You're Mary Jane, right?" Cletus asked her.

"Yeah... And you must be Cletus."

He nodded. He was soft-spoken and polite, so Mary Jane trusted that it wasn't Carnage incognito.

"I wanted to meet you, at least once."

That surprised her. "Me?"

"Yes, you... Although, now that I'm here, I'm not sure what to say... I suppose I just wanted to see what kind of a person you are."

"Well, thanks, but," Mary Jane shifted her weight, a little embarrassed. "I'm not sure what to tell you either. It's like... what you see is what you get."

"Peter told me you were the first one to realize the connection between him and Spidey. So, the way I see it, that makes you the first person to accept that someone could be more than one person."

"Yeah, I guess I was, wasn't I? Though I never thought of it like that before."

"The way things work is funny, isn't it?" Cletus said as he lowered his eyes. "If I met you sooner, things might have turned out differently."

Mary Jane slapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, now, don't throw in the towel just yet. I know things look bad for you, but stick with us. We'll teach you how to beat the odds."

Cletus smiled. "Thanks, Mary Jane." Then he started to space out. He felt a little light-headed... A little sleepy...

But Mary Jane didn't notice. She walked past him. "Call me MJ. Anyway, I was on my way to meet up with Gwen and Pete. You wanna join us?"

She looked over her shoulder, but nobody was there.

"Cletus?"

She surveyed the area, but the person she was speaking to just a second ago was long gone.

"What did he mean by 'at least once'?"

"Hmm?"

As Gwen was walking towards her meeting, she noticed Debra and Kong sitting on a bench together. This was strange for two reasons.

One: It was rare to see Flash missing from their trio. Debra and Kong were so different, Gwen didn't even think they'd be friends if it weren't for Flash connecting them. Two: The two of them weren't doing anything. They merely sat and watched the scenery listlessly.

She approached the incomplete Investigation Team. "Is everything okay, you two?"

They finally noticed her. "Oh, hi Gwen," Debra said.

"Flash is down in the dumps, and it spread to us," Kong explained.

Gwen took a seat next to them. "Where is he?"

"Dunno," Kong said. "Prob'ly at home. He said he was gonna quit the team."

"You mean he's not looking for Spider-Man anymore?"

Gwen had mixed feelings about this. Secretly, it was excellent news for Peter and Spidey, and thus, Gwen too. But looking at the expressions of her other friends, they were really upset about it.

"You know, it might not be a bad thing," Gwen tried to say diplomatically. "It's not like you needed to figure out his secret identity. Maybe you could just leave it alone."

"We can't give up now! It's a question of pride, Gwen! Pride!" Kong let his frustration out.

"But isn't pride our only reason left by now?" Debra spoke up. "I'm starting to think Flash had the right idea. Maybe it was impossible for a bunch of ordinary students to figure out Spider-Man's secret identity..."

They were silent for a few moments, until a new voice caught their attention.

"Mm-hmm... So you guys want to meet Spider-Man?"

The voice seemed to come from above them. Then they heard him drop down behind the bench. The three students turned to look.

"AHH?!" Kong jumped up and pointed. The two girls were speechless.

A red and black costume that covered the whole body... A spider-web pattern on the chest... And large, white, almond-shaped eyes on his mask...

"You think I could help with that?" Spider-Man pointed a thumb at himself.

Debra and Kong could only stare. They were thrilled. But Gwen wasn't thrilled... Her blood ran cold.

"I just had the weirdest conversation with Cletus," Mary Jane told Peter as soon as she arrived. She sat down on the bench next to him.

"What did he say?" Peter asked.

"Not much. It happened too fast. He just said that he wanted to meet me, then he took off." She collected her thoughts. "It's like... he had nothing to tell me right then, but he wanted to make a 'connection' with me, you know?"

Peter nodded his head. "I can see why he would be interested in you. He said that even when he told people about his split mind, they wouldn't accept it. He feels like nobody has ever accepted him before now..."

Peter explained to Mary Jane the last conversation he had with Harry.

"Harry really said that? About not being your friend?"

"Yes. He was only being hypothetical, but... I don't really want to see him for a while."

Mary Jane enthusiastically shook his hand. "Gwen's gonna jump for joy when she hears that! Congratulations!"

"Losing a best friend isn't something you congratulate people for," Peter dryly said as he pulled his hand away.

With her joke finished, Mary Jane stopped smiling. "But seriously, poor Cletus... Bullied by Carnage, abandoned by Harry... Speaking of which, why do you think Carnage wants to get rid of Cletus in the first place?"

"To be 'complete' is what I'm thinking."

"Complete?"

"Cletus is the main personality and Carnage came out later. Carnage probably feels like he's only 'part' of someone else. But he wouldn't feel like that if he were the only one in the body."

"That's stupid! You don't have to be alone to be an individual. Spidey knows that."

"Carnage isn't Spidey, is he?"

Mary Jane held her chin and changed the subject. "Okay, let's review our to-do list. Short term: Get rid of Carnage's superpower-suit. Long term: Figure out a way to stop Carnage's troublemaking without hurting Cletus... It sounds a lot shorter when I say it aloud like that."

"I also want to learn how he knew about Protoform X in the first place," Peter said.

"That too. Any theories?"

"Sort of... It has something to do with how he and Norman Osborn knew each other - from the beginning."

She raised both eyebrows. "You mean they don't just know about each other, but actually met?"

"I don't know if they were friends or enemies or what, but they definitely met before. Mr. Osborn knew exactly what Carnage was. He was adamant that Carnage was separate from Cletus."

"Couldn't he have just learned that from Harry?"

"I don't think so," Peter answered. "Because that wouldn't explain how Carnage found Protoform X."

"So while Harry's dad was researching Carnage, Carnage was researching his inventions?"

"Yes. And when Carnage stole Protoform X, communication between them stopped."

Peter continued, "There are a lot of things people are acting mysterious about... I'm tired of being left in the dark."

"You sound just like Gwen. Speaking of which..." Mary Jane looked around. "Gwen's awfully late. That's not like her."

She didn't see Gwen, but Mary Jane found someone else she knew running their way at full speed.

"Hey, Flash!" Mary Jane tried to get his attention as he rushed by. "Flash, wait up! Where're you going?"

Flash's sneakers skidded on the sidewalk. He looked over his shoulder. "Oh, it's you. Look, I can't talk now. I just got a text from Debra."

"Is she okay?"

"What?" He was too jumpy to keep his thoughts straight. "Oh! Yeah, it's just - oh, man - You'll never believe this! Debra and Kong found Spider-Man! They're talking with him right now!"

"WHAT?!" "WHAT?!"

Mary Jane looked back at the seat beside her. But Peter was still right there, looking just as stunned as she was.

To be continued...

Author's Notes: (6/29/2013) This chapter was originally just the first half of the next chapter, but it was taking a while to finish so I decided to just put up the first half as-is. I'm proud of my recent one-update-a-month rate and I'm gonna try to keep it up.

Considering how the last chapter ended, I'm pretty sure everyone knows who that "Spider-Man" really is...

I think I scared off all the reviewers with my comment a few chapters back about not wanting them to spoil stuff. I only meant that about Cletus' multiple personalities. Please, review! Speculate all you like! I'm eager to hear whether you like these new developments or not.

Disclaimer: "Stick with us. We'll teach you how to beat the odds." ...This line was paraphrased from something Mary Jane said in "Spider-Man: the Animated Series." (I think the specific episode was "Hydro-Man.") I do not own "Spider-Man: the Animated Series."