I DON'T OWN SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN OR STOKED
.-.-.-Fin-.-.-.
I look around to see nothing but darkness. The lights come on suddenly, too fast for my eyes to adjust. My eyes had adjusted in just enough time to see Carnage. It started with it blitzing my defenses, but with each strike, I felt my anger build. After another attempt at my throat, I sent an uppercut into its chin. The attack caught the symbiont and its host off-guard. That open spot allowed me space for another attack, and another and so many after that. I lost track after twenty and just continued past the bits of red that was chipping off the enemy. I had no clue what was going on. Not even my hand drawing back or how claws had formed at the end of the attacking hand. My hand tore across its neck. I finally stopped and looked down. "I've killed someone! Have to hide it!" I said as I pushed the lifeless form on my shoulder. The world cleared until the DR kitchen took shape. With one push, the creature was in the open furnace. It was fighting to get out, something I couldn't allow. I covered its exit with black webbing and watched. Carnage kept tearing its claws through the holes in the material while screaming in a way that force my hands to cover my ears. The fingers changed to red and blue. I looked through the holes and saw that Carnage had transformed into Spider-Man. I tried to rip the webbing off the metal, but my body wouldn't let me move.
"We killed someone." The symbiont said.
"No! It was you, not me!" I yelled back.
"We couldn't and wouldn't have done it without you. Imagine what Parker is thinking."
"He was with you! He knows that I would never kill."
"But we did. Parker was with us for weeks, and we never killed anyone."
"Fin! How could you?" Peter demanded, his face the only thing visible in the fire.
"It was the symbiont!"
"You killed someone!" Both Peter and the symbiont chanted, gradually getting louder and louder. I tried to close out the sound by clamping my hands over my ears.
"Fin! Wake up." I woke up to see Peter in street clothes. For a second, I was to terrified this was the fantasy then threw myself into Peter's arms. I was too relieved from the nightmare to keep a lid on the tears. Emma and Lo were waiting behind him, obviously worried.
"What were you dreaming of?" Lo asked as she and Emma took places on either side of us. Peter had given me a choice to tell them of what really happened with me and Carnage, but I decided to keep it secret. Peter knew about what the symbiont did, but the others might not look at me the same if they knew what I did.
"This happened to me too." Peter said, making me think he was going to tell them what really happened, but was surprised by what he said. "When I first started going out as Spider-Man, I couldn't sleep from the action that happened. It takes some time." He led me outside the staff house and picked me up then started jumping through the trees. I must admit that even though the others knew about us, it was still a little embarrassing. It was confusing when we stopped in the Office.
"We left our boards at the house."
"Wanna bet?" Peter let me go and shot two web lines into the woods then pulled. He jumped into the air and preformed a midair flip to catch both items. Once he landed, I could see he had both our boards. "When I had nightmares, some exercise helped."
I took my board from him and kissed his cheek. "My hero."
"I don't wear the uniform for nothing." He said and we both paddled into the water. Now that Parker didn't have to hide his powers anymore, he was using his web shooters to add a parachute to our boards and at the moment, we were wind surfing. "It takes time to get over."
"I can't believe I killed someone!"
"Do you remember how I told you about the Sinister Six?" Peter asked.
"Yeah?"
"Maybe this will help explain things." He said, pulling out a crumpled picture and handing it to me. In it, a black suited Spider-Man had a man with mechanical arms by his throat.
"What about it?"
"Look at it closer."
"No way." I said as my eyes made out what he was talking about. Peter was holding the man by the throat in one hand and was holding one of the tentacles, ready to kill the villain, in the other. "The symbiont made you kill someone too?"
"No, it was close. If the Captain Stacey didn't stop me, than." He left the rest of the sentence hang in the air before adding, "That made me realize how much power the symbiont had over me, or at least would've if it wasn't messing with my head."
"Why, did you not regret what you almost did?"
"I was sleeping while it fought against them."
"Whoa. I've heard of beating baddies in your sleep, but that's ridiculous." I joked.
"There's the Fin I know and love..to surf with." Peter said. "Wow, I can't believe how different the sky looks away from the city."
Despite all that had happened, I felt my cheeks warm up. To avoid any more unnecessary awkwardness, I acted as though I didn't notice what he said. "Yeah, maybe a little stargazing will help me sleep." I said as I laid down on the sand.
"And here I thought you would've learned by now." Peter said before jumping into the air and forming a giant web hammock. Watching the stars was the last thing I remember before falling asleep. The night went through without anymore nightmares.
The next thing I knew, I woke up in my bed with the light streaming through the window. "Feeling better?" Emma asked beside me, offering a cup of water.
"Much."
"Peter told us it will take time before you can sleep again." Lo said taking a seat next to us.
"Trust me, I understand that part." I said "where is Peter anyways?"
"He's talking to his friends from New York." I remembered what Peter had told Johnny about his friend named Gwen and I forced myself to my feet.
"Hey Parker." I placed my hands over his shoulders. Onscreen there was only one person, a girl with long red hair. From all of Peter's stories, I guessed she was Mary Jane Watson
"Is this the famous Fin McCloud?" She said over the computer speakers. "This guy wouldn't shut up about you or any of the other groms. That is what you call yourselves, right?"
"Yeah."
"I'm also guessing there's something you haven't told me." Mary Jane said, referring to the position we were in.
"We only made it official a few days ago." Peter said.
"Well, nice to meet you Fin."
"And you." I said before turning to Peter, "I thought all of your friends were supposed to be on."
"I tried, but they didn't pick up." Peter said.
"And they're not here." MJ said.
"All units be advised, there has been a break in at the bank on 2nd street and Melrose. All attempts by the police to enter have been foiled by an unseen assailant." A police scanner announced.
"Sorry MJ, that was my timer for work."
"Okay, talk to you later." MJ said and Peter went to the attic for his suit.
"Good luck, I'll cover you with Bummer."
"Thanks, I owe you." He said and entered his 'lair'.
.-.-.-Peter-.-.-.
"This place is being robbed again?" I said as I landed on the roof. I pulled up the same vent I had the first time. Before I jumped down, I webbed the camera into the corner. "I thought they would've learned by now." I webbed the camera next to vent and started crawling through the building.
"I was starting to think you'd never get here." A voice said. 'Please be Doctor Octopus, Electro, heck I'd even take Rhino.' Unfortunately, it was Black Cat.
"What're you doing here? Looking for some surf?" I asked.
"That's tempting, but this time, I'm here as a messenger."
"Who's? What's the message?"
"He identified himself as the Shadow Man and said, 'Shocker and the Symbionts were unable to defeat Spider-Man, but I won't. Be afraid, Be Very afraid.'"
"Someone is after me? What else is new?" I asked. I was trying to think of which one of my enemies had the money and resources to hire the Enforcers and also get the symbionts and their hosts, when I realized that whoever got them here had hurt my friends and forced Fin through a nightmare just as bad, no worse than, the one I was forced through when the symbiont first merged with me. "I'll let you go, with a message. Tell him that if he shows his ugly mug around here, then I will pound him until he regrets even hearing about Canada!"
"Ooh, Spidey's mad. What did the Shadow man's minions do to get you this ticked?"
"Go! Before I change my mind." I snapped.
"Geez, maybe you should take your own advice and have a few lessons." Black Cat said as she left through the skylight.
"Shadow Man, I'm not afraid. I'm angry, VERY angry." I said, following my path to the staff house. By the time I got back to the locker room in my street clothes, All the groms were dispersing.
"Hey Parker, you missed the part where we are forbidden to talk about the 'monsters that don't exist'." Apparently the symbionts disabled the security systems to prevent any of us using it against them, but didn't delete the video of the symbionts spreading before we got back.
"I wish they were fake." I said as we started walking to the lobby, Black Cats words worked themselves back to my mind.
"Okay Parker, what's up?"
"What do you mean 'What's up?' Nothing's up." I lied.
"You know, you're a terrible liar for a super hero with a secret identity from New York." She said, crossing her arms and sending me a glare.
"That bank robbery was a set up to get me a message."
"Which was?"
"The guy who sent Shocker is on his way."
"I don't see why you didn't want to tell us..unless there was more." She guessed.
I took a deep breath in preparation for what was next. "The guy who sent Shocker also sent Venom." Fin's face paled as Venoms name was spoken and my anger got back to the way it was back at the bank. "You know, Spider-Man still has a favor from the big man. If you want I can get him to give us the day off."
"No, then he might figure out how close you two really are."
"Ok, but you know where to find me." I said. She got out some cleaning supplies and got to work.
"Fox alert." Reef said. Out of instinct, I followed his gaze to see who he was pointing to.
"Gwen?!" I asked.
"Hey Peter." She closed me in a hug. From the corner of my eyes I could see a murderous look on Fin's face and could practically feel my spider senses going nuts.
"Gwen let me introduce to some of my new friends. He's Johnny, but we sometimes call him Front Desk Guy. That's Broseph and Reef, who's real name is Leslie." I said, gesturing to each in turn.
"Dude!"
I ignored him and went to Fin. "And this is my girlfriend, Fin." For a second, Gwen's face looked hurt before she shifted to a smile.
"Congrats Peter."
Things were awkward and I said, "Maybe I can introduce you to the other groms. What are you doing here?"
"The Osborn's came here for some deal and Harry convinced his mom to bring me and my dad. We would've told you, but we wanted it to be a surprise."
"Yeah, surprise." I said.
"Peter, room 385 ordered room service."
"On my way." As I was leaving I thought 'never thought I'd be so grateful for room service.' When I left New York, I thought things would get better between them and me. But as hard as it is to believe, things actually got worse. I tried avoiding Harry and Gwen as long as I could, but Harry cornered me and tried to get me to give him some information about Spider-Man. After he figured out that I wasn't going to let him know anything about my alter ego, he talked me into him, Gwen, Fin and I going out to "catch up." He only told me the time and place then left. I couldn't think of a way out of it and hoped the others may have an idea. But the Parker luck held and we couldn't come up with a way out of it. The good news was that the other groms were willing to come to get rid of at least some of the awkwardness. I thought bringing others would keep Harry from digging for info on Spider-Man, but I was wrong. After seven or eight redirections from Harry's questions about Spider-Man to casual stuff, I found myself wishing for something to get me away. The distraction came in the form of an explosive coming from downtown.
"I just remembered that Bummer extended my hours." I said and started running away from them. After I had switched into my suit, I started swinging to the source of the explosions. I could see the craters and the mounties that had also shown up to see the cause, but not a single villain was in sight. That is none until I heard cackling. "No way. This is just a dream."
"Good to see you're afraid. As you should be." Goblin said from his glider.
.-.-.-Finish-.-.-.
The Green Goblin has come, but how? Norman Osborn died. Can Peter defeat his arch nemesis?