TRIGGER WARNING: SEXUAL ASSAULT AND RAPE DISCUSSION!
Peter could already feel his body growing warm with frustration as his long-tailed enemy stormed over towards him.
"You made a BIG mistake coming here, Spider-Man!"
"Listen, Mac, I'm not here to make any trouble, and I'm really not in the mood today," Peter said. "So, how about you just get your drink or whatever and leave me to my business, and we can settle this another time, okay?"
"Or, how about we settle it now!" Scorpion shouted, slamming his fist hard enough to crack the top of the counter.
"Easy, Gargan," the bartender said. "You already owe enough for the damage you caused the last time you were here. Trust me, you don't want that number to get any higher than it already is."
"So, what, I'm just supposed to ignore the fact that the guy every single person in this room hates is standing right in front of me right now!?" Scorpion questioned, clearly incensed by the idea. "Why haven't you guys tried smoking him yet?"
"Maybe because we actually have some common sense," Herman spoke up, "or, you know, none of us wants to lose any more money to this wall crawling creep."
"Thanks," Peter replied, his tone laced in sarcasm. At least it made sense why no one had tried taking him on yet, though he was getting the feeling more and more that that was about to change.
"Come on, bug!" Scorpion shouted.
"Mac, like I said, I'm not here to cause any trouble," Peter repeated, his impatience evident in his tone. "I'm just trying to help out someo..."
"Fine, just make it easier for me then!" Mac shouted, grabbing Peter by his arms faster than even his spider sense could ready him for. "I'm settling this; it won't cost me anything to just squeeze you to death!"
The man wasn't kidding; Peter could feel his arms compressing as if he were inside a trash compactor.
"Last warning, Mac," he forced out. "Let me go."
"Oh, no, I'm enjoying this far too much!" Scorpion replied, his usual hideous grin spread clean across his face.
"Alright, have it your way," Peter said before delivering just a powerful enough kick to the chin to stun his opponent, his grip loosening enough for him to flip out of it. He then quickly webbed Scorpion's feet the ground before flipping onto his back, stomping onto it and grabbing at the mechanical tail. Within seconds, Peter had yanked it clean from the rest of the suit.
"Aargh!" Scorpion yelled, pushing himself off the floor and back to his feet. "What have you done to my suit?!"
"There," Peter said, coming around to the front of his opponent again, "now that that is out of the way..."
He then began punching Scorpion multiple times in the face, not even trying to hold back as he did so. His enemy got in some swings of his own, but Peter's spider sense combined with his enhanced reflexes enabled him to evade them before landing more of his own.
"Is this what you wanted, Mac?" Peter questioned at one point, his rage building over having to deal with this whole thing. "Huh? Is this what you wanted!?"
"I want you dead!" Scorpion shouted, taking another wild swing that missed.
"TOO BAD!" Peter shouted, landing a punch so hard to his opponent's chin that he dropped to the ground and began crying out in pain. When he turned around again, he could see why: his latest strike had practically torn Scorpion's chin from the rest of his body, its only connection to his face being some dangling skin. Before he could even fully comprehend what he had just done, however, Peter's spider sense went off as suddenly every gun in the place was drawn and pointed to him.
"Get out!" yelled one of the thugs sitting at a nearby table. "Leave!"
His blood still running hot, Peter was tempted to try his luck; after all, it wasn't like he hadn't avoided a halo of gunfire before. As he slowly started to cool down however, he began to properly think the matter through, realizing that, though he might not get hurt, many others would, if not everyone else, and many would be likely to die. No matter the situation, no matter how little he thought of what these people did for a living, he couldn't let that happen. On top of all that, it was clear to him that he was getting nowhere regarding his search for information anyway, so he might as well not waste any more of his time than he already had.
Not saying another word, Peter turned and strolled out of the bar, frustrated and more at a loss than he'd been yet. Almost as soon as he emerged outside, he got a call; he took out his phone as he began swinging off, seeing that it was Captain Stacy.
"Any luck, sir?" he answered.
"No, not yet," the captain replied. "But I think you and I should meet up. There's something we need to discuss about the situation."
Gwen had no idea how long she had just sat in the cell, staring off into space and not even speaking to the person in the room with her, when she heard the elevator seemingly coming down.
"Remember," the other girl spoke up. "Please, just..."
"I know, I know," Gwen replied, not wanting to hear that phrase again. The elevator door then opened, the same mysterious figure that had brought her down here coming along and opening the door, gesturing for her to step out. Glancing back at her clone one more time, she reluctantly did so, with resistance against the superhuman individual clearly having proven pointless the first time. He then shut the door back before escorting her towards the elevator, pressing the button to bring it back to them.
As she stood there, for the first time really, Gwen forced her mind to start contemplating what her best course of action needed to be. She'd been so in shock, so disgusted, so afraid for the last however many hours, but most of all, she'd just been desperately hoping for Peter or her father to figure out what had happened and come and find her. As her time in captivity had crawled by thus far, however, it was finally dawning on Gwen that she couldn't just sit around and wait for that to happen. If she was going to survive and gain back her freedom, it was likely going to have to come down to her doing what was necessary.
But what exactly was that, anyway? The things her clone had said about what Dr. Warren had done, the lengths he'd gone to for the sake of control were certainly not to be underestimated. On top of that, he was smart, both as a scientist and he'd obviously been preparing for her arrival for some time too. At the same time, using her own brain was likely going to have to be what got her out of her situation. She'd always thought of herself as bright and never really lacked confidence in her intellect, even if she'd never liked bragging about it, but still, could she really outsmart someone like him?
One thing that she knew she couldn't do though was give him what he wanted; no matter the threat to her wellbeing, Gwen just couldn't bring herself to even think about entering an intimate physical relationship with the professor. On top of the prospect making her want to throw up by itself, she would never forgive herself for being intimate with someone before she was intimate with Peter. Though they'd kissed many times, they'd never gone further than that, having agreed to save the act of sex until marriage so that it would be as special as possible for them. Gwen wasn't ready to give up on that dream yet, and she would fight to keep it alive.
As the elevator neared the end of its ascent, she realized that the only real option she had was to try and get more information. She needed to know about the layout of the home and the property, so that she could discern the easiest route of escape for both her and the clone. She also needed to know more about what he had in mind for, well, the two of them, so she could know how to buy herself some time to come up with a proper idea. Would Dr. Warren have the patience that would provide the time she needed though? Gwen hoped the answer would be yes, but there was no way to know for sure, and that was the part that scared her the most.
Finally, the elevator doors opened, and she was led out and down the hall, her heart starting to race again as they walked along. Gwen fought to steady herself though; no matter what, she couldn't show him fear. That would be the beginning of him having power over her, and she wasn't about to give him that satisfaction. She straightened herself up a little, trying to create a neutral expression as she turned with her escort into a large room, which turned out to be the same spot she'd woken up the first time. There was the doctor, sitting on the sofa, staring at her. Rather than fear, Gwen's blood began to boil with hot anger the instant she laid eyes on him, but she again fought to control herself. Even without her superhuman escort nearby, the man himself was likely stronger than her, so lashing out now would be pointless. No, she needed to stick to her plan and by time.
"Please, have a seat," the man instructed, gesturing to the spot on the couch next to him. Gwen didn't hesitate, walking over towards him and choosing a spot that she hoped wasn't too close nor too far from the man to set him off one way or the other, wanting to keep just enough distance so he couldn't grab her too easily while not making her growing disdain towards him too obvious. She met his gaze, the man smiling at her.
"So, do you understand now?" the man questioned, an undercurrent of menace in his tone.
"Yes, I think I do," she replied plainly.
The man then glanced down for a moment before looking back at her.
"I'll admit, I'm curious: what did you think of her?"
Wow, wasn't that a loaded question! Still, Gwen knew she had to choose her words carefully.
"I think she's... incredible."
The doctor's eyes widened slightly, seemingly in curiosity.
"Really?" he asked.
"I mean, I'd read a little on theories related to cloning, but I'd always considered it a pipe dream at best," Gwen explained, hoping she was sounding as in awe as she hoped. "To see it be achieved, it's monumental."
"It took me years to figure out how to make it work," the doctor said. "But, as I knew I would, I cracked the code, so to speak."
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to... nah," Gwen said, hoping the man would take the bait.
"What?" he questioned.
"Nothing," Gwen replied.
"No, seriously, what is it?" the doctor questioned.
It was working.
"I was just going to ask if you could, you know, show me where you worked on it and how you were able to create her," Gwen explained. "I know that it's a big ask though."
"Not at all!" the man insisted, standing from his seat and offering her his hand. "Come with me."
Gwen managed to overcome her initial hesitation and give the man her hand, her skin crawling almost instantly as he helped her to her feet. Thankfully, he released his grip as he began to lead her towards wherever he came from, with her following close behind. As they walked along, Gwen paid special attention to her surroundings, looking for anything that looked as though it might lead somewhere outside. She took in the layout of the halls they walked through, trying to memorize it as though she were studying for her hardest exam yet. They eventually stopped at a door, the doctor performing a fingerprint and retinal scan to open it.
"After you," he said as he gestured towards the now open door. Gwen then stepped inside the room, which was revealed to be an incredibly large laboratory, one much bigger than she would have thought for just one person to use. There was equipment everywhere, from computers to chemical containers to even what looked like large pods, which she wandered over to.
"Is this where she was... born, I guess?" Gwen questioned, gesturing to the pod.
"It is," the man replied.
"How did you do this?" she asked, adding a touch of enthusiastic curiosity to her voice.
"The most important thing was that I needed a sample of your DNA as a baseline, which wasn't easy to get," Dr. Warren conceded. "I eventually found out where you got your hair trimmed on occasion and asked for samples of not just yours, but various others, under the guise of a conducting a study on hair health."
Gwen managed to prevent any major shifting in her expression, but inwardly, she was even more creeped out than before. Had he been following her around to find out stuff like that? What other things had he seen that she didn't want anybody... oh man, what if he saw her... no, she couldn't think about that. She had to focus, for her own survival, as well as that of the other "Gwen" down in the basement.
"Okay," Gwen said, "so, you got my DNA, but how did you manage to kickstart the necessary cell division to create a whole person? You'd need a major catalyst for something like that."
The doctor then proceeded to go into a long explanation, which Gwen made a point to seem as though she was hanging on the doctor's every word. In reality, she couldn't care less, not because the explanation wasn't interesting on some scientific level, but because all Gwen could think about was the torture he'd put the other version of herself through. Still, she once again forced down her growing rage towards the man in favor of continuing the facade she was putting on, making a point to ask questions when the opportunity to arose to maintain the convincing nature of her level of interest.
"Wow," she said. "You're a genius!"
"I know," the man replied, not even trying to hide his ego.
"So... what else are you working on?" Gwen asked. "Is there anything else you can show me around here?"
The man's smile told her that she was going to get exactly what she wanted: a greater tour of the place to study for a way out.
"Follow me."
He then turned and left the room, with Gwen following behind him.
"Okay, Gwen," she internally told herself. "So far, so good."
Pushing open the door, Peter stepped out onto the rooftop. He wasn't exactly sure why Gwen's dad had wanted to meet here, but there was no real point in questioning it, as he figured the man had reasons that were likely driven from their current circumstances. It didn't take long for the man himself to join him, emerging from the building and walking up to him.
"What is it?" he asked.
"The department will be giving full assistance in a matter of hours, since she'll soon be gone for nearly a day," the captain explained. "But son, there's something that we need to discuss."
"Okay?" Peter questioned, suddenly a little nervous at where this conversation might be going.
"I've withheld saying anything up to this point, because, honestly, I figured there was no point in me saying anything before," the captain explained. "Now, however, with my daughter's life in the balance, I've realized that, if we're going to work together, there can be no secrets between us, for the sake of Gwen's life."
"Sir, what are you saying?" Peter questioned, though honestly, a theory was rapidly forming in his mind on what the man was about to say.
"I know, Peter," the man replied. "I know that you're secretly Spider-Man."
Hope you're still enjoying it! By the way, what I'd originally thought would be 4-5 chapters for this story is likely to push around 7, just a heads up.
Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God." 2 Corinthians 1:3-4