Carnage Part 7 - Identity Thief
Spider-Man brought the three students to the roof of a downtown building.
Debra, Kong, and Gwen stood together near the edge. Spider-Man casually paced along an imaginary line separating them and the door. A short wall wrapped around the perimeter. They were alone.
Spider-Man explained that he didn't want a big crowd of fans pestering him, so he refused to let them call anybody. He would only speak to the three of them.
Debra watched Gwen with a curious eye. Gwen insisted on coming with the two investigators, but she was so tense, as if she were scared of Spider-Man.
"I'm... afraid of heights," she said - an excuse that happened to be true.
"Don't worry, ma'am. I can protect you," Spider-Man said. Then he chuckled as if he made some kind of joke.
"Spider-Man, why did you decide to meet us now? We've been searching for you for so long..."
"Well, I didn't know that. I only found out about your little gang yesterday - by accident. And I had some time to kill so I decided to drop by. I thought spending time with fans like you might be fun, that's all." He suddenly giggled. "'I thought it'd be fun.' That's starting to become my catchphrase, isn't it?"
The costumed boy paced along the roof while rocking his head. He was the picture of someone without a care in the world. If he weren't speaking so coherently, it might look like he was delirious.
"I like to talk to people."
"That makes it easy for us to interview you," Kong said.
The costumed boy giggled again.
"So, uh, Spider-Man," Kong spoke up excitedly. "I'll just come right out and ask... Who are you?"
He stopped walking. Spider-Man turned towards them with crossed arms and seemed to think hard about it. Then he said, "Answer me first: Why do you want to know?"
"Why wouldn't we want to know?" Kong replied. "Is there anyone in this city who isn't curious?"
"We've been interested ever since that day you appeared in our school," Debra elaborated. "It was one of the only times the legendary Spider-Man was seen during the day. It made us think you were one of our classmates... but we've pretty much eliminated every suspect by now."
"Is whether I'm a classmate or not really so important?"
"Sure it is!" Kong said. "It was exciting to think about. This new superhero that the entire city was talking about could have been somebody we knew!"
"If he was living a double life like that, then it means you didn't really know him."
Spider-Man's words sent them into silence. They couldn't deny what he said.
"Everyone is so interested in the face under the mask," he continued. "Is a face really so important?"
"I think I understand what you're saying," Debra said. "Everyone wants to know your secret identity, your name or your face. But you're saying that's not the real you. Your actions tell people more about you than your secret identity does. Is that what you mean?"
"Bingo!"
"You mean... we only get to know one?" Kong wondered. "Anyone can see the 'real you' but all your other facts have to be a secret...? Spider-Man, why do you wear that mask in the first place?"
He shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe I'm just trying to prove that faces aren't important."
"I can understand that," Debra repeated, "but they're still interesting. Fans always want to know more about someone they admire, whether it's important or not. That's what makes them fans."
"So for the record, you're not gonna tell us anything about your identity after all, are you?" Kong asked.
"Heh heh heh... But it's so much fun to know something everyone else is clueless about. It's so much fun to be the only one 'in on it'."
"You're the only one who thinks that," Gwen, who had been silent up until now, said.
The statement grabbed everyone's attention, and she continued. "It's not fun. Keeping a secret... is not fun at all. Even when people surround you all the time, you can't tell them how you really feel. It makes you feel lonely." Gwen quickly glanced at Debra and Kong. "And guilty. Don't you feel that?"
"Course not," Spider-Man replied carelessly. "I've never felt guilty about anything. That's probably why I have so much fun watching other people's misery."
Gently, like a bubble rising through the water, a suspicion appeared in both Debra and Kong's minds. They suspected something that Gwen knew from the beginning.
"Tell me, I'm actually curious, what's it like to feel empathy? What's it like to care about people? You know what, forget I asked that. If I don't know already then you probably can't explain it to me."
"Hold on a sec," Kong interrupted. "You are the real Spider-Man... aren't you?"
He barked out a louder laugh than ever before. "What are you, stupid?! Of course I'm not!"
"Spider-Man" started pacing again, his footsteps pounding harder than before. His costume seemed to shimmer as he walked. Debra, Kong and Gwen huddled a little closer together.
"Man, the longer I stay here the more I realize how stupid you are! All it took was a costume and a few acrobatics to fool you? You're so clueless, but then again, that's what made messing with you so much fun."
Colors dripped down his costume like wet paint, but they never splattered onto the ground. Instead the colors slowly cascaded over his body and merged into new images. The end result was a dark red body like raw muscle without skin.
"W-Who are you?" Debra asked.
He turned to face them again. "I'm a bad guy... And, man, am I bored. I recently finished setting up my Grand Master Plan so I have nothing left to do but wait for the results to come in. I have to do SOMETHING to amuse myself in the meantime."
Gwen narrowed her eyebrows. He finished setting up his master plan?
"POP QUIZ!" He suddenly shouted, making the others flinch. "Question one: Why did I bring you up to this rooftop to have our little chat? This high rooftop where no one can see you?"
The students could only stare at this transforming figure, their anxiety growing by the second.
"Question two: Why did I forbid you from calling anybody on your cell phones? And question three..." He slammed his hand onto the metal door leading to the stairwell. "Why have I been between you and your only exit all this time?"
His mask tore open, and misshapen, pointed teeth grew out of the curved line beneath his red crystal eyes. It was a three-dimensional mask that paralleled the true grin underneath. This was a monster in both mind and body.
Anxiety and shame overwhelmed Debra and Kong. This was a trap and they walked right into it, completely ignorant. The earlier conversation was nothing but a cat teasing its mice.
"What do you want with us?" Debra asked, trying to keep fear out of her voice.
"I already told you. I had some time to kill and I thought this would be fun. That's all there is."
"Y-Yeah, that little chat was fun, ha ha ha!" Kong said nervously. "Well, uh, now that it's over, I don't suppose there's any way you'd... let us go?"
The red monster held his chin in his claw, and then he said, "Okay, man. Why not?"
All three students blinked. "Wait... really?"
"Sure. You have permission to leave. You can go right now if you want... but you have to say PLEASE."
They looked at each other, took a breath, and in perfect unison said, "Please let us go."
"Get on your hands and knees and say please," he said with a smirk they could almost hear.
They hesitated a little longer than before. But then Kong silently got down and lowered his head. Debra watched him and decided to follow.
Gwen didn't want to, but she knew if she didn't, Carnage would use it as an excuse to keep all three of them. She couldn't put the others in danger. So she too got in a groveling position.
"Please let us go!"
Their captor chuckled. "My goodness, how obedient. Congratulations! Your humiliation has earned you your freedom. You can go." He stepped out of the way and gestured towards the roof's door.
The three students lifted their heads. They watched him carefully. This was obviously too good to be true, but their captor made no more movements. Slowly, cautiously, they got to their feet and stepped towards the exit.
Three steps later, Carnage jumped back in front of them. "Wait!" he said with suppressed laughter that wasn't really suppressed. "I changed my mind!"
He pointed behind them, to the short wall surrounding the rooftop. "If you still want to leave, you'll just have to take the other way." He brandished his claws and inched towards them. "Maybe I should give you some HELP... Aha ha ha!"
Gwen stepped forward, planted her feet firmly to stop her knees from shaking and yelled, "Carnage, knock it off already! This isn't going to solve anything and you know it!"
Her outburst stunned Debra and Kong.
It stunned Carnage too. "How do you know my name?"
Gwen didn't answer his question. "Carnage, please, stop this!" She spoke like a mother admonishing a child. "There isn't any reason for you to hurt people anymore."
"Of course there's no reason. That's the whole point, lady. I don't actually care if you idiots live or die - This is about ME. It's just for fun."
"But as long as you act like a supervillain, there will always be people who will try to stop you. What you're doing won't give you what you really need."
"Lady, what do YOU know about what I really need? On second thought, don't answer that. I don't feel like talking anymore."
Fast as lightning, Carnage charged at Gwen. He grabbed her throat and pushed her to the edge of the rooftop. Gwen's back bent uncomfortably over the short wall. Debra and Kong were frozen - scared for Gwen - too scared to do anything that might provoke this monster.
Gwen stared into Carnage's mask. Her mouth was straight and her eyes firm.
"You're BIZARRELY calm for someone whose life is hanging by a thread," Carnage muttered.
"You might laugh, but this isn't the first time a supervillain tried to make me fall to my death."
He snorted. "So, what? It's not scary the second time around?"
"I am scared," Gwen responded.
"Then show it! Scream, or whimper, or beg for mercy, or SOMETHING. C'mon, entertain me!"
"No," Gwen said firmly.
Carnage wasn't expecting this. He stopped grinning. "Why not?!"
"Because it's the only way I have of fighting back... You said it yourself. You don't care if I die. What you really want is to break my spirit. But I won't give you the satisfaction."
"I was only gonna scare you before," Carnage snarled. "But if you won't entertain me, maybe I should kill you after all..."
Gwen was silent. Her glare was steady.
And as Debra and Kong watched her, they stood up a little straighter.
Carnage stared into her face, as if his will alone could break her. But he slowly realized it wouldn't. The only one faltering was him.
"...FINE!" Carnage pulled Gwen back and shoved her away from the edge. "In that case, we'll try THIS!"
Carnage's arms stretched out like rubber bands. They grabbed the necks of Debra and Kong. He pulled them close and instantly put them both in the same position Gwen was just a second ago.
He looked over his shoulder and laughed at Gwen. "Let's see how brave you are now! Come on, Miss High and Mighty, which of these two nitwits gets to fall to their death?"
Debra and Kong both struggled under his grip, but they couldn't move his claws.
Gwen glared at Carnage silently.
"I'll only kill one of them, but YOU have to choose which one. The geek or the fatso? Or maybe you'll be the 'heroic' type who says 'take me instead!' So what'll it be? You have thirty seconds to choose."
Gwen crossed her arms. "I won't choose."
This surprised Carnage yet again. He really thought she'd sacrifice herself. "You have to choose!"
"I won't choose. I want all of us to survive."
"That's not allowed! If you don't pick someone, I'll kill them both!"
"Then it would be your choice, not mine. I won't play your game no matter what you do."
Carnage quickly considered his options.
"Have it your way!" He looked back to his two victims. "You decide instead! Which one of you wants to be the 'good' person who sacrifices himself? And which one wants to be the 'evil' person who says nothing and waits to be saved?!"
"The one who should get thrown off this roof is you!" Kong yelled.
"What Gwen says is absolutely right!" Debra added. "We won't let our spirits be broken. Your deals can't be trusted anyway, so there's no point in cooperating with you!"
"I'll throw you over!"
"Then we'll die knowing you couldn't break us! It's the same as winning!"
It was a gutsy thing to say, and Debra had to admit it was a partial bluff, but she was confident Carnage wouldn't call it. Their deaths weren't enough to satisfy him.
Carnage shoved them over to where Gwen was.
Gwen made sure the two of them were all right. After seeing their nods, she looked back to Carnage. "It's just as I told you. You have all this power now, but power can't give you what you need."
He stared at her. Then he threw his head back and laughed again. "AHA HA HA HA HA! I don't need anything, lady! It's only a matter of time until my real target is gone! Then I'll come back and cut you up at my leisure!"
Debra looked towards the door. She saw it was cracked open just a bit. She nodded, glanced back at Carnage, and took a step towards the door. Carnage noticed, of course. He jumped in her way and laughed.
"I already told you. You'll have to take the OTHER way. Ha ha ha!"
"Hey, laughing boy!"
"Eh?" That voice came from the door. Carnage turned around to look.
Flash Thompson ran up and swung a cinder block against Carnage's head.
SMASH!
CRACK!
Carnage held his head and wobbled away, just barely keeping his balance. "Son... of... a...!" He stepped over broken pieces of concrete.
Flash dropped the fragment of cinder block still in his hands and gestured towards the open door. "Go, go, go!"
The others didn't need to be told twice. Debra, Kong and Gwen ran through. Mary Jane was inside the stairwell, ready to greet them.
"Isn't a cinder block overkill?"
"He's got superpowers. He'll live," Flash dismissed without really caring. He slammed the door shut and ran down the stairs after them.
"How did you find us?" Gwen was bewildered.
"Debra sent me a text," Flash answered.
"She did?" Gwen looked at Debra. "When did you have the chance?"
Debra proudly took her cell phone out of her pocket. "I invented a special code for our Team. I only needed to type a few numbers inside my pocket, and that was all Flash needed to know most our situation."
Gwen realized it was when Carnage pushed her over the edge the first time. With Gwen as a distraction, it must have been easy for Debra to send a supplemental unnoticed.
"Wait a sec!" Kong stopped running and looked up the stairs behind him. "Why isn't he chasing us?"
"Gift horse! Mouth! Don't look!" Mary Jane pulled him along.
The reason Carnage wasn't chasing them was because he was too busy.
While he was still recovering from the blow, he felt someone grab him and throw him over to a neighboring rooftop. As soon as Carnage regained his bearings, he saw Spider-Man standing in front of him.
"Well, well, well. Spider-Face." He extended his claws. "Did you come here for a FOURTH beat down?"
"We need to talk," was his reply.
To be continued...
Author's Notes: (7/12/2013) I was intending to split up this chapter and the next one, but I'm so glad I also split up this chapter and the previous one. Any two of them together would have been way too long. It's a big difference from the "Crazy Day in the City" arc, where most chapters were under 500 words.
This story seems to be getting increasingly less popular. It might be because the Carnage Arc doesn't have any of the humor the Crazy Day Arc did. But stuff like that is inevitable when dealing with a major villain like this. Cletus/Carnage is both an antithesis and a true kindred spirit. This is an important time for Peter/Spidey.
In case there was any confusion, Debra sent Flash two text messages. The first was as soon as they arrived at that rooftop, to tell Flash the address. The second was to inform him it wasn't the real Spidey, and they needed to be rescued.