20 minutes earlier…
Peter knew how people saw him within the Society.
The Washup.
The Lazy One.
The Arrogant Ass.
The Braggart.
The Leech.
And he got it. He truly did.
Though… he did think that such terms were a bit… harsh.
Sure, he wasn't on top of his game anymore. There were better heroes in his world… hell, in New York. But he'd been on top for years and now he was a father! And before that he had been going through a divorce! And the young punks could talk to him when they began finding out that you didn't stop getting pimples, they just migrated from your face to your ass.
And lazy? Peter preferred to think of it as knowing when to leap into battle and when to take a break. It was almost like they'd never heard of Work/Life Balance. Dr. Phil had done an entire show on it… did they not have Dr. Phil in their realities? Was he a supervillain in theirs? If so then Peter was thrilled he didn't have to deal with that, as an Evil Dr. Phil would be a nightmare.
Arrogant? He was confident! When had that started being a bad thing? Cap always talked about what he did and no one called him arrogant. Well, except for the Nazis but they were Nazis so who cared!?
The Braggart? He… he wasn't really for sure what that word meant. Sounded like something Doc Ock would declare.
The Leech?
…okay, maybe that one was fair. He did tend to, in these last few years, latch onto other people that were successful. But that was just to make sure that they… okay, screw it, he was a leech. Fine.
But he had a damn excuse! And deserved some respect! He had been doing the Spider thing longer than anyone else and while that did earn him some nods of appreciation from a few of the Spiders most saw him and thought "Yeah, but others have done it better." And perhaps they were right… he was willing to admit he wasn't the smartest of the fastest or the strongest Spider. He had accepted that. He wasn't, as Logan would say, "the best there is at what I do".
Miguel, for example.
The man was far stronger than Peter. And better at intimidating people. He could just glower at someone and they'd admit to crimes they hadn't actually committed. Which, admittedly, wasn't a good thing as Peter considered it…
But what Peter was, what he had on all the others, was a wide array of skills. Not a specialty. He was a Jack of All Trades.
Miguel swung a punch at him and while Peter wasn't the fastest Spider in the Multiverse he was quick enough to leap back, letting the larger man twist wildly when his blow hit nothing. Miguel snarled, upper lip curling back in a way that reminded him of how Old Mr. Fenton's mutt would prepare to attack. He went for another strike, lightning quick, but once more Peter was able to bob out of the way, ducking his head before he leapt on a wall, using it to propel himself forward right back at the man.
He wasn't the greatest fighter in the Society. There was Most Cunning Spider Who Is Also Man (at least that is what he said was the English Translation of his name) who was trained as a ninja and was a master at swords and knives. And then there was Daddy Long Legs, who practiced Brazilian Ju-Jitzu and often demanded that multiple sparring partners come at him at the same time because otherwise the fight would be over too quick. Peter had no real formal training when it came to fighting… it had taken Cap to show him how to hold his thumb so he didn't break it when tossing out a punch. It was one of the reasons why Logan liked to team up with him: Peter didn't bitch about him having no real style either. Logan liked to rush in, Peter tended to dart about until an opening was made. But both had no styles and weren't trained to be flashing or the like.
But… Peter knew how to fight.
He slammed through Miguel's defenses, startling him as he crashes into him, driving his fist into his stomach before he grabbed onto his wrist and hurled him over his shoulder. Before the man could even react Peter fired a webline, catching him and stopping his flight, jerking him right back at Peter who kicked him hard in the chest. Miguel went down but he was quick to pop up and when he did there was utter rage in his eyes.
"You little runt!" Miguel snarled, bloodshot eyes going to pinpricks so that his entire world was reduced down just to Peter.
He wasn't disturbed at all. He had been dealing with such people since he was 5 years old.
'And that's what Miguel is,' he realizes with a sinking feeling. 'A bully.' Honestly he didn't know how he'd failed to see it… but he also supposed that was the way of bullies. The ones that STAYED bullies were smart enough to know how to hide their darkness and their cruelty so they weren't forced to stop. They were charming, they were smart, they were slippery. They knew how to make people not merely ignore them but accept what they did with a smile. It was RIGHT of them to mock someone. Boys will be boys… and how Peter hated that statement.
Miguel was a bully.
Demanding everyone do what he said. Taking down those that did not. Thinking that it was his right to lash out at the weaker because they 'deserved it'. Throwing tantrums when he didn't get his way.
Peter Parker didn't like bullies.
"You know, the first clue should have been how unfunny you are," Peter said just before Miguel fired two weblines and launched himself at him. Peter leapt onto the ceiling but Miguel didn't even let that bother him for a second. Instead he merely lunged upwards, managing to snag onto Peter as they broke through several floors before Miguel hurled him away, sending Peter crashing through several walls before he ended up in an office.
"Do you EVER shut up?" Miguel roared as he charged after him, tossing aside anything that got in his way. Alarms were sounding all around them and Peter could hear shouting and he knew he needed to get the fight out of the hospital. "Or take anything seriously? Always joking, always running your mouth. Do you know how SICK I am of all you loud mouths deciding to fill the air with your stupid prattle?!" He stormed into the office only to cry out when Peter heaved a desk at him, sending him to the ground.
"I suppose," Peter said, "I could just be like you. Brooding and glowering at anything that moved." He fired a webline at Miguel, trying to restrain his legs, but the other hero rolled out of the way. "Or I guess I could find some teenager to kill-"
"SHUT UP!" Miguel roared before springing forward and grabbing onto Peter again, wrapping him up into a bear hug. "I DIDN'T WANT TO HURT HIM! HE JUST WOULDN'T FUCKING LISTEN!"
"And what?" Peter challenged, straining to try and break the hold. "We should all just obey your commands like good little soldiers? Or droids? Okay Davros, tell me how soon you want us in our Dalek shells?"
Miguel merely leaned in and Peter found himself idly wondering when was the last time the man had gotten any sleep. His eyes aren't just bloodshot they are sunken into their sockets with heavy bags and disgusting yellow-white gunk dried around the edges. Miguel's breath smells of the worst coffee and he could feel how grimy the man's arms are. It makes Peter want to take a thousand showers.
"I am the ONLY one who knows what is going on," Miguel hissed. "While all the rest of you get the benefit of making your jokes I am making sure things don't fall apart!"
Peter merely narrowed his eyes.
"Make your joke," Miguel snarled. "Make your stupid little joke."
"You're doing a wonderful job, keeping things together."
THAT caused Miguel to loosen his grip, startled by the comment. Peter didn't hesitate, instead forcing Miguel to break his hold, allowing him to drive his knee into the man's gut. It was like trying to hurt a brick wall but at least Miguel let out a grunt to let him know he'd done something. Now it was Peter's turn to toss Miguel through a ceiling and he didn't let it go to waste. He threw the overgrown slab of meat straight up, leaping after him and delivering a few solid strikes before they broke through the roof of the hospital.
"Look at what you've done, Miguel!" Peter roared, waving his hands about. "This is your idea of victory? The Spider Society tearing itself apart? People forced to watching innocents die because you command it?"
"Better than the entire multiverse-"
"You have no idea if you are right!" Peter thundered.
"I AM RIGHT! I AM! I HAVE TO-"
Miguel froze.
Peter did too.
This… was not what they had expected to see.
He was ready to turn to Miguel and, hopefully, convince the man to put aside their fighting in the name of this new threat. He had just turned when Miguel said a simple name.
"Spider-Chaos."
And then Miguel was gone.
Not by choice either.
No, he was gone because the man in question, Spider-Chaos, slammed into Miguel and knocked him off the roof, leaving Peter standing there blinking dumbly at the spot where the other man had been only seconds earlier. It took far too long for Peter to snap out of his senses and when he did he realized he had no idea where Miguel had disappeared to.
Something exploded to his left and old instincts drove him to dive off the building, firing off a webline as he hurried towards the source of the blast. He found it rather close, one of Nueva York's automated taxis had apparently, in the confusion, glitched out and slammed itself right into the side of a building. Thankfully there was no one inside at that moment; Peter could only tell that because the roof of the damn thing had been torn completely off, letting him see the robotic head that had been installed in the vehicle not to help it drive but rather to give the passengers some comfort, so they felt like someone was actually driving. It didn't work, as far as Peter could tell, but the taxi companies kept doing it anyway.
"Alright… so we have a rogue Spider deciding to attack," Peter muttered to himself. He looked up in time to see a female knight firing off optical blasts from her helm while riding upon a winged horse; beside her a man wearing a green and gold mage outfit, bathed in flames that looked distressingly like a Phoenix. "And apparently mix and match people have decided to help him. That's… that's swell." He pulled on his mask and rolled his shoulders. "Alright… let's go. Let us G-O Go!"
And that's when the throwing stars hit him.
Peter grunted as the ebony weapons struck him, startled that while they at first felt like they were digging into his flesh in actuality the moment they struck they turned to black webbing that wrapped around his arms, locking them against his sides. He struggled to break free but found that the webbing was like taffy, allowing him to briefly pull his arms away from his sides before they were yanked right back.
'No,' he thought to himself in growing horror, 'not webbing. Goo. They're goo.' He looked up in time to see a figure emerge from the shadows. 'Symbiote goo.'
The new arrival was dressed as a samurai, which wasn't that surprising; the world of Spider-Chaos, he had learned from his own research after the Spider had taken down Miguel and made his threats against them all, was a mishmash of cultures across all of time. It was a place where Vikings and pirates and Pilgrims walked the same streets. Where Little Rome was ACTUALLY LITTLE ROME, having been pulled from that part of history and planted in their version of New York, New Chaos City. So an ebony samurai wasn't that surprising.
What was surprising was the design of the armor.
He could tell at once that the figure was female, though it wasn't a case of her having a bit of armor and then flashing a lot of skin. She was fully covered in the dark armor, it having a shine that reminded him of a Xenomorph's shell. A beetles shell. Her eyes were visible but the rest of her face was covered by a mask that was in a rather familiar design for Peter: that of a large gaping mouth, full of razor sharp teeth and a long tongue.
"Venom…" Peter whispered.
At once the mask shifted, pulling away from the woman's face and forming a gooey head. "I am not Venom," the symbiote declared. "Or at least I am not the Venom you know." The samurai woman began to walk towards Peter, the symbiote looking at him with a look that could only be described as displeased. "You sicken me, Peter Parker. I look upon you and find myself growing ill."
"Aw, come on," Peter said, trying to flash a charming smile. "I know I might have gained a few wrinkles, maybe gotten a bit of saggy skin on my cheeks, but I'm not that bad!"
But the symbiote merely stared him down. "You have his face… the Peter Parker that I first met… that me, weak and helpless. But rather than see me as a mindless tool or a vile thing… he reached to me… with compassion. He showed me kindness. We… were happy. And then came the incident… the battle against the Mad Titan. I hated him for so long, because I thought he had cast me away. I understand now… he was saving me. Sending me to another world so that at least one of us could survive.
"I was ready to give into my hatred and my rage. To become the monster that you and your alternate selves have seen my brothers and sisters as. To tear and destroy and consume."
He looked over at his partner and his maw twisted into a kind and gentle smile. Or at least as close as that was for him.
"She taught me to care again. To remember what my Peter had taught me. She is my youngling… and I would never abandon her." And with that the symbiote slowly turned back to look at Peter, smile falling as a look of utter disgust and hatred formed on its features; a look mimicked by the young woman that was his host. "Not like you abandoned yours."
"I didn't abandon Miles!" Peter shouted. "I would die for that kid!"
"LIAR!" the young woman screamed. "IF YOU WOULD HAVE DIED FOR HIM THEN WE WOULDN'T BE TALKING TO YOU!"
Peter met her gaze full on, swallowing back his own guilt. "You don't understand-"
"And we never will," the Symbiote stated. "I would never abandon my youngling… I would never be like YOU." The symbiote reformed over the woman's face. "Venom? That is the name you gave the symbiote you betrayed. The child that reached out to you, not understanding the world, and you smacked away. We… are Corrosion."
But before Peter could say a word three small little bundles of fluff suddenly popped up behind Corrosion.
"Mama?" one asked and Peter dimly realized they were baby raccoons. "Papa? That bad man?"
"Yes sweetheart… that's a bad man."
The three raccoons nodded before leaping off Corrosion… and snarling as THEIR symbiotes formed around them, leaving Peter staring in shock at the new development.
"…I wish this was the weirdest thing I'd ever dealt with," he muttered.
It would only be later, when all was said and done, that he would realize that he had no idea where Mayday was. Miles too. That he'd left them both in the hospital without a second thought.
And he would add a few more titles to his list of names.
Ones he did deserve.
Bad Father.
Bad Mentor.