Season 5 Chapter 1: Pinnochio Runs Away!

'I have to find home! They're coming for me!'

On one foggy night, somewhere in the edge of Manhattan, there is one lone man, wearing a hoodie and a pair of jeans, leaping for his life on barefoot across apartment buildings and balconies. As lights slowly die out behind windows, blurred afterimages of shadows seem to give chase to the mysterious acrobat as they also lunge over the ledges, swinging into the night on some form of black elastic rubberlike material—like the symbiote.

"We're in pursuit! Target found, proceeding with caution!" says one tall silhouette with a male voice, whipping a stretched out tendril to catch the runaway, only to miss narrowly by his dodging ankle.

Without hesitation, to quickly cut the strange pursuers loose, the mysterious acrobat pulls a fan engine and throws it at them as a diversion before lunging to a street light and leaping for dear life into the sea by the docks, able to escape safely in the dark waters.

"Ummm, let's see, two million and…aaagh!?"

"How's your accounting doing?"

Back to the present normal life in college, it is only a few weeks till the finals arrive. ESU students start preparations for the tests, though others would just squander them for more leisure or were preoccupied with concerning matters. Peter, in ESU's campus library, is found studying topics on the physical sciences and chemistry. On one side, Liz is studying for her accounting case study questionnaire, and on the other Gwen is studying a reference book on biochemical engineering, probably studying in the Connors' area of expertise.

"Almost done. Just gotta retrace my calculation. Ugh, at this rate, I might need to check my eyes. All these numbers are messing with my vision," Liz sighs, rubbing her sore eyes and eyelids.

"Business seems to be a lot harder than science," Peter nervously shrugs his shoulders. "But hey, look at the bright side, your dad's gonna leave you with his enterprise to handle."

"Yeah! Not only that, you can try to make your mark in some way in the business world. You got the knack for it," Gwen adds.

"Thanks, Gwen, love the support," Liz modestly replied. "...I'm…I've been thinking…"

"Uh, thinking about what?" Peter wondered what Liz meant.

"Thinking about—"

"Heyo! Wazap, Pete!"

Ignoring the "Be Quiet!" rule in the library, the boisterous mutant Bobby waddles over to Peter and the two girls Liz and Gwen. Following behind him were Hobie and Kitty, with the latter seeming a little down in the dumps than usual without her usual bright smile.

'Guys, library. Keep your voice down!' Gwen scolds and hushes with a finger.

"Shhhhh!" The librarian, wearing an all purple uniform and dark purple pencil skirt with long black hair and tinted glasses, hushed at the loud men.

'Sorry Ms. Lee!' Gwen kindly apologizes.

"What are you guys up to? So busy early in the morning?" Hobie asked out of curiosity.

"An exam coming up," Liz deadpanned.

"Nothing much," Gwen shrugged her shoulders.

"Job hunting," Peter replied, shocking them as a response.

"Wait, what? Haven't you taken photos for the Bugle lately?" Hobie points out.

"Hey, I can't be stuck taking photos my whole life. Gotta stretch out my horizons, and I think I found another place good enough for me," Peter replied in protest.

"...Horizon Labs, I heard of this enterprise, but what about Stark Industries?" Gwen wondered, striking Peter's nerve.

"Guhhhh, uhh, I thought it'd be a little risky and intimidating working for a large conglomerate tech giant. Better to start small for now," Peter nervously replied.

"But, Horizon's pretty big to start off. Did you even finish applying for an internship?" Gwen asks.

"That—needs some time to do. Got my hands full after I had to help Aunt May move from our neighborhood in Queens. Expenses and bills, the deja vu," Peter moped.

*RIIIING!*

Before anyone else could say any more, break time is over, forcing all students out of the library and into their separate campuses for classes.

"See you guys later!" Liz bade as she runs off to her campus building for business majors.

"Byee!" Gwen and Kitty bade, waving back at Liz.

"Our next class should be Dr. McCoy's chem class," Peter points out.

"Sweet! This is gonna be another blast!" Hobie get pumped up from the name, high-fiving Bobby with excitement.

"Ohh man, I prefer not having another chem ball fight. As much as I want to play the game, it is at the expense of our laundry and scent," Gwen morbidly recalls being stuck with the scent of rotten eggs, pierced by gazes from onlookers with their noses cupped.

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?! You won't get that from anyone else but him!" Bobby replied in protest.

"Well then, let's get moving! Who knows what else he's got in store for us!?" Peter dashes for the classroom with his superhuman stamina. "Race ya'll there!"

"Hey! No fair!" Bobby and Hobie gave chase, while the two girls Gwen and Kitty chose to walk.

"Guys, know what I mean?" Gwen deadpans and shakes her head in amusement.

"Oh…yeah.." Kitty replied in monotone with her face downcast.

"Umm, Kitty? Is something the matter…?"

"I gotta find Aunt May! She's in danger!"

Hours later after having escaped from his pursuers last night, he had to endure a sleepless night's journey to the quaint neighborhood of Queens. He follows a road of neighborhood houses that leads down to an empty house, fully vacated of its premises.

"Wait…something's not right," he checks the empty house, every corner, every nook, every cranny, barren like no one's been living inside for a while. "Where could she be, if not here?"

"I can show you the way…!"

Suddenly, hidden instincts kicked in that the acrobat nimbly dodged a fist slam onto the wooden floor like a heavy mallet. His attacker is somewhere nearly the acrobat's height, donning a full black outfit with a tattered violet cloak covering a portion of his black-clad face.

"Hoooooh no!? Not you! Were you sent by— whoa!"

He backflips out the front door to the open road in a crouching stance with a hand to the ground, narrowly dodging a fist to the face.

"Hey! I wasn't done talking!"

"Really? I wanted to shut you up anyway!"

*CRASH* *CRUMBLE*

The attacker roars as he smashes the asphalt into rubble easily with his fists, though missing the acrobat by a few seconds again and receiving a flying roundhouse kick to the side of his face.

"Of all those goons he had to send, why you!? The hot-tempered chip off the creepy old block!?"

"I'd be careful with angering your enemy if I were YOU!"

Losing his temper, the attacker hits with a straight jab, but was grappled by the anticipating acrobat, hopping and parrying his fist with his hands before landing a heel-drop kick from above, also predicting the kick that he blocks his ankle with his hand before grabbing and slamming him down to the ground like a rag doll.

"Checkmate," the attacker smirked beneath the mask, planting his feet onto his back.

*Gun barrel cocking*

"I agree…!"

From a safe distance with a gun pointed straight at the evildoer, the cool and collected Captain of New York's Best, George Stacy, enters after witnessing the scene— as it turns out the Stacy's haven't left the neighborhood.

"Step away from the citizen, slowly, and no one's gonna get hurt," George warns before noticing the downed fighter's familiar face. "Wait a minute… Peter?"

Suddenly, memories flashed in the downed fighter's mind concerning the officer that he immediately caught his foe by the sides of his knee, poking hard onto his vital points with his thumb to cripple and grab his collar for a quick stunning headbutt, escaping his grasp and gets into a crouching stance.

"What are you doing?! Get out of here!"

Now tickling his foe's anger, he gets grabbed by the neck again and rammed into the old Parker home without stopping before being tossed outside the back and pursued by the angry brute.

"Either I better stop smoking for a clearer head, or this day has just become much more confusing…" George thought upon witnessing something really strange, questioning his own sanity.

Meanwhile, back in ESU…

"I see what you're doing, Mr. Parker. Nitrous oxide. It's quite difficult getting the formula correct on the first try unless you practice."

"It's just practice! And practice makes perfect, right?!"

"AND diligence."

In the middle of the afternoon during Dr. McCoy's advanced chemistry class, the students are getting serious hands-on experience with various chemicals in the Chemical Wing of ESU. And while everyone's listening in on his lecture, Peter acted out his boredom by using the time to first make extra web-fluid for his shooters before nearly getting caught by a fellow student, his seatmate. With flashing speed, his hands and left eye traced around and pulled another drawer full of chemicals and just splashed one vial into a flask, not knowing that they concoct a flask of nitrous oxide. Right after, his impatient curious seatmate took the flask from the drawer adjacent to him and smelled a whiff of it, only to get a light laugh out of it— literally laughing out loud from it that the whole class got spooked. Although, it did not get Peter into really bad trouble…

"Tch, teacher's pet," Alistaire scoffed with a click of his tongue, about to wash a metal nugget.

"Hey! Wait! Don't wash—!"

*PACK!* *BANG!*

"W-W-What happened!?" Hank inquired out of fear, checking the crime scene of a pair of student scientists with sooted gowns and faces.

"Ughhhhh! 'You kidding me!? This sucks!" says the girl with tanned skin and black hair with a face blackened by soot. "You idiot! Sodium-potassium explodes with water!"

"Now now, Miss ermm, Ayala, was it? You are excused to clean yourself before any of you get hurt. You and Mr. Smythe. I shall allow it," Hank permits, watching the growling latina leave the lab stomping and the spoiled rich boy leave begrudgingly. "Well…guess this should wrap up our experimentation session for the day! Take care, everyone!"

"Nice save back there, Pete!" Hobie nudges Peter by the shoulder.

"Wait, what do you mean? You saw me back there?" Peter looked a little dumbfounded.

"Aw yeah, man. Funny thinking I'd say," Johnny quips.

"...Peter, mind if we talk a little? …Alone?" Gwen sheepishly asks, catching him off-guard with a tug on the sleeve of his jacket.

"Uhmmm, sure? Yeah, we can," Peter nods in response, though reluctant to leave everyone out all of a sudden.

"Welp, guess you'll miss out on a lot later," Johnny shrugged as he left on his own accord going to the right corridor.

"You go ahead, Pete. I got a date with Jan at 4," Hobie walking down the stairs.

"Um… bye, Pete. Bye, Gwen," Kitty weakly replied before going down the stairs with a frown in her eyes behind glasses.

"...Okay, I am a little late on taking in things, so any ideas why Kitty's all down lately?"

"She… says that this may be her last year with us in Manhattan," Gwen replied.

"What? Why?"

"She said the Professor is calling for her and the others back home, or something like that," Gwen adds. "I think…I think they felt that it's dangerous for her and Bobby the longer they stay here…"

Somewhere, deep beneath Manhattan General, in an eerie lab facility containing chemical paraphernalia and glass chambers full or empty…

"We're sorry, sir. He has escaped," the dark-clad male twin apologizes, only to get hit in the head by a glass of water.

"Shame. Such shame! My most prized creations, unable to retrieve one measly clone who is much weaker than you!?"

Stepping into the light was the nefarious runaway mad scientist, Dr. Miles Warren aka the mutated Jackal. His nerve was cut for a second that he lashed out on his subordinates before clearing his throat and fixing the collar of his fully buttoned black trench coat that emphasized the muscular curves of his upper body.

"Grrrgh-bah! No matter! Let him run! He will return either way, like a good child. Give him time. After all, Peter has always been a good boy," Jackal maniacally laughs and hums to himself, tapping on a monitor showing Peter's face and DNA.

"Well, this semester's getting better than I'd hoped…"

After a long day, Peter changes into his costume, swinging around Manhattan while pacing his thoughts and patrolling around— multitasking at its finest.

"Harry knows who I am… another Big Man next to the Big Man…Kitty and Bobby are leaving… and now I'm going around job hunting," Spider-Man thought out loud as he webs a line and runs along a glass-paned building, following with a high jumping flip. "Well, not like I wanna work for JJ Jokester forever as his verbal punching bag and source of ire. Plus, the pay's not really consistent to fill fluids in my web shooters and pay for Aunt May's rent. Waitaminute…"

Suddenly he lands on both his hands and toes on a metal rail, grabbing both the sides of his head with a face of horror beneath the mask.

"Shoot! I forgot I was supposed to help her move her stuff away! Nut!"

He then prepares himself to lunge and then takes a long jump to a faraway apartment building, webbing and pulling two lines parallel to sling himself up for a ride for a certain distance.

"Ignition in three, two, one!"

*Ka-boing!*

"YEEEEEHAWWWW!"

"Oh goodness my dear, you don't really have to."

"C'mon, Mrs. Parker, I just wanted to help out a little. 'Sides, I got a lot of free time on my hands."

Somewhere in Manhattan, in a humble little apartment that's fit for a small family of three or less, Peter's Aunt May is currently unpacking and moving her things from Queens to settle them in. Helping her from the other room with a box full of Peter's old stuff is the free redhead actress-in-the-making, Mary Jane Watson. Although she technically would have gone out with friends or practiced in one of St. John Devereux's stage nights, she decided to assist Aunt May after hearing from Peter that she is moving out of their quaint little neighborhood. This can mean that she won't see the Parkers for a while.

"Sweetie oh, I truly hope Peter's here to help out. He promised to come swing right by—"

*TOK! TOK! TOK!*

"Oh! Just right on time! Coming!" Aunt May gleefully shouted as she rushed towards the door.

When she opens the door, Peter, looking all sweaty and tired with an odor that stayed on him for a while, pops inside with a desperate look in his eyes, scares his aunt as he panted like a tired dog.

"Peter?" Aunt May asked out of concern. "Are you alright?"

"Whew, he's not here," Peter replies his thoughts out loud as he looks out and then closes the window before replying late to his aunt. "Hm? Oh yeah! Yeah, sorry, I just uh…uhh…."

"Whoa settle down, cowboy. You look as if the cops were chasing you," Mary Jane points out upon seeing Peter's haggard appearance.

"MJ! Oh uh, really? Do I look like a criminal?" Peter nervously cracks a joke.

"Hmmm, maybe not with your face exposed. Too easy to catch without a mask," Mary Jane shook her head looking amused.

"Right! A mask, clever! Hehe…"

So, the unpacking and moving of the Parkers' clutter resumes with some superhuman muscle in the house. With Peter dealing with the heavier load like carrying a bunch of pillows, the two ladies can rest easy just unpacking and organizing various things around the house that were kept in cardboard boxes.

"So, Pete, how are you holding up?" Mary Jane asks coyly as she opens a box full of cookbooks and recipe books.

"Oh who me? I-I'm fine! Why?" Peter nervously replied.

"Hmmm, maybe I didn't ask right. What I meant to ask is…about you and the gang, is all…"

"The gang? Oh! I-I see, okay! What do you wanna ask about again?"

"I'm just…worried. You guys seemed like you each had something to hide. With the exception of Liz, Kitty, and Bobby after the stunts they pulled, I just felt like you, Gwen and Hobie were holding something back from us—from me. Especially you, Peter.

"I-I'm sorry Red, it's kinda hard to explain, really, I do wanna tell you but—"

"But what?"

However, after a while of moving the other big boxes, Peter notices something that caught his eye from afar and sent shivers down his spine that he froze in place near the window.

"But what, Pete? Peter?" Mary Jane called out, walking up to him and waving her hand in front of his eyes. "Hello? Earth to Peter Parker?"

"S-Sorry, something…urgent came up, and I forgot to do it…!" Peter replied.

"Wait, what?"

"I have to go, see ya Red!" Peter rushed out of the apartment, passing by May, who was dusting in the living room area. "Sorry, Aunt May!"

"Oh! Take care, Peter!" May bade and waved at him, only to watch him bolt away for no reason. "Goodness, I suppose I should get busier as Peter was these days."

"Uhm, I don't think so, Mrs. Parker," Mary Jane shrugged, setting down an appliance down on the kitchen countertop. "Peter just has way more free time than I do. With his brains, college can be a walk in the park for him."

"Oh…Oh…!" May nods and smiles with an expecting look in her eyes upon hearing Mary Jane's remarks concerning her nephew.

'Nononono, did they find me?! No, they couldn't have!? I pretty sure trashed any sign of the tracker or my tracks for that matter!'

Throwing a silent fit while going up the stairwell, Peter rushes up to see if what he just saw from afar outside is just his imagination. Minutes later upon reaching the top floor and ramming through the metal door, he scans and turns around the area to see if he was just imagining things.

"What if it's just a mistake!?"

"What's a mistake?"

Suddenly, he hears his voice talking without him talking, way too clear to be an echo. Coming from behind him, he turns to see the masked Webslinger of Manhattan, the spectacular Spider-Man on top of the passage he came out of.

"Pal, you're gonna need to repair that doo—wait," Spider-Man paused, tilting his head for a closer inspection, as if he could see his own reflection. "Whoa, dude, you look exactly like me!"

"Oh…no…"

"Hey! What's your name, man?" Spider-Man asks.

"I'm you!"

"Excuse me?"

"I know this sounds crazy, but I literally am you! Another you!"

"Another me? What do you mean? You're acting crazy, just fix the door when I'm gone. I got something else urgent to do. Goodbye!"

"Wait!"

There Peter tries to stop Spider-Man by grabbing onto his shoulder. Out of instinct, Spidey grabs Peter's hand and tries to throw him off, but not too hard, thinking that he's a civilian. However, he was shocked to see him follow up with a flip over his head and landing on his feet on top of the passage in a crouching stance, the same way he would.

"Wait wha!? How did you do that!?"

"How did I—it's because I'm you!"

And so, Peter flips over Spider-Man and then tries to knock some sense into him, literally by engaging in a little fistfight. In the middle of their exchange as they throw flurries of swift jabs and thrashing roundhouse kicks at each other with equal reflexes and instincts, Spider-Man shoots his web shooter, only for the other Peter to dodge with a backflip and then jumps back onto his feet like a ninja, further proving that "he" is like Spider-Man—or Peter Parker, for sure.

"Whoa…" Spider-Man awed at his reflexes.

"Now you gotta believe me," Peter replied. "Look, I know this is confusing to you, I mean me, I mean, to both of we's—you know!"

"Uh huh, so explain yourself hotshot. If you are me, yet not ME, then who are you?"

"I don't know, but for some reason, I am you. I have memories of being you and many other things, and your powers. Almost like, your complete copy…"

"Copy? You mean a clone?"

"Yes! That's the word! A clone!"

"Clone?! Like in those scifi dystopian movies where someone abuses copies of a single person for some questionable purposes?"

"Except, it just got real."

"Yeah? But why?"

Suddenly, the "Peter clone" looks stunned, as if he has Spider-Sense like the original that he looks what's behind him, narrowly dodging a large hook to the face before backspringing next to Spider-Man.

"Hmph, took me too long to find your trail. Well, "our" trail, and you just had to find help, no less from the one and only, huh." says the attacker, clad in black with a tattered purple cape, pulling his fist from the crumbling cement and standing up into an aggressive crouching stance.

"Hold on, "our"? If that includes me, then does that mean he's a clone like you?" Spider-Man thought out loud.

Hearing the real Peter's remarks snapped something inside the attacker that instead of aiming for his target, he lunged at Spider-Man and off the rooftop, startling and shocking the other Peter that he looked down at the struggle he could've joined.

"What the, dude! I'm right here!"

The other Peter then puts on his hoodie, tightens its cowl with two strings before tying them into a bow tightly like a makeshift mask before jumping down after them.

"Whoa! Watch the face man!" Spider-Man screamed, backflipping to dodge another jab in the face and sticking on his soles and fingers to the wall.

"I don't care!" The mad attacker latches onto the wall below Spider-Man and then furiously lunges to slam his fist onto him, only to miss and leave a huge hole on the brick wall as Spider-Man flips to the side.

There an intense fight continues on the walls of New York. Three superhuman vigilantes engage in what appears to be a two-versus-one battle, with Spider-Man teaming up with his "clone" against the assailant who appears to have their powers too.

"Two against one, buddy, you sure you wanna hash it out this way?" Spider-Man quipped, with hands open to shoot some webs.

"Hrrrngh!" The assailant growled, looking back and forth between Spider-Man and the other clone.

"What's the matter? Web in your tongue?" The clone quipped.

The assailant didn't respond. Without hesitation, he lunges off the building onto another with a huge advertisement billboard and destroys its metal legs, making it tilt and fall onto the road.

"Timeout! Innocents!' Spider-Man and the clone exclaimed in horror.

"Here! Take this! And whatever you do, web the board with all you got!"

Spidey tosses a web shooter to the "other Spidey" before jumping down and web swinging down to pull away civilians from all the falling wreckage. On the top side, Spidey number 2 webs several lines at the billboard and then tries to pull it up in midair.

"Hrrrrrrnrgh! Man! Now I remember why I need two web shooters!?" Spidey number 2 groaned with his feet and shoes clinging hard onto the wall while holding the billboard.

"How are you doing, me!?" Spider-Man called from below, bringing the last family out of the way, looking at himself struggling from above. "Hold on! I got ya!"

Spider-Man quickly shoots explosive web bombs that expand the webs upon impact and create large bundles and strands of webs that catch the billboard from its sides in midair, lifting it in the air.

"Whew, that was close," Spider-Man sighed.

With that problem solved and the fire department entering to clear and clean up the scene, Spider-Man and Spidey number 2 left to watch the scene from a far away building.

"We did it!" Spidey quipped.

"More like I did it?" Spidey number two quipped back.

"What? I did—"

"Dude, we're both like the same person?" Spider-Man jokes, shrugging his shoulders. "Guess we're not really smart in that department."

"Hey!"

"Well…what do we do now?"

"...Good question…we could talk things over some…hmmm…"

"Hmmmm…"

"PIZZA!"

As the two of them yelled the same word and pointed at each other at the same time, there a new friendship was born between two having similar minds.

"How's Project S.A.S. going, people?"

In a spacious laboratory, full of contraptions, paraphernalia, and one glass display shelf full of a variety of spiders, there is a pair of scientists at the end side of the laboratory, preoccupied by their experiments. And at the entrance of the lab, accompanied by two female agents, the director of SHIELD, Nick Fury shook his head in amusement regarding the two who have not heard his call.

"Yeah, just doing their job as always," Fury snorted with a smirk for a millisecond before carefully strolling down the laboratory. "Anything interesting happening?"

"Sir! What are you—"

"Leave him alone, Hill," says the female redhead agent in a tight suit.

"Hey! You know I'm right behind you, you know?" Fury joked, making the male scientist gently put down the vial in a stand.

He pulls up his safety goggles, with a face resembling Peter Parker's, though somewhat darker and more mature than he is with gray lines on his sideburns.

"Honey?" The female scientist asks.

"Parkers? I presume that everything is going smoothly?"

"Ha–ha, really rich of you, Fury. Science does not always go smoothly, but it can always go south with the wrong calculations," The scientist, wearing an ID card named Dr. Richard Parker, quipped back.

—To be continued


A/N: Finally! Season 5 Chapter 1! DONE! The start of another new arc! Sorry it took a year to finish. Honestly sorry. I was really busy and burned out lately. Also, I was planning to maybe make my own original superhero/vigilante story of my own. But aside from college and life and stuff, sorry it took so long to write again.

To all who stuck by reading my stuff, thank you!

Sorry that it's a short chapter that seemed rush, will make a longer one in the next hopefully.

Blessings to you all! Expect another chapter sooner or later maybe! XD