Hearing the ding stemming from the elevator's arrival, Gwen stood up quickly. As they'd left things, she hadn't expected the doctor to request her presence again that night; perhaps she really had fooled herself into thinking she could get out of the man's desire for her tonight. Bracing herself, Gwen tried to prepare as, to her surprise, it wasn't the enhanced bodyguard that had come for her, but the doctor himself.
"We have to leave," he said as he scrambled to open the door to the cell, his tone a little uneasy.
"Why?" Gwen asked, concerned by this sudden change in the man's behavior. Doctor Warren was one of the most composed individuals she'd ever known and, as she'd been learning recently, seemed to relish being in control.
"I'll explain later," the doctor said as he finally got the door open. "Right now, we have to leave."
The man stepped in and tried to grab Gwen, but she jerked away from him.
"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on," she demanded. Gwen knew that such a bold move on her part would likely shatter the facade she'd been trying to put on for him, but she knew that if they fled somewhere, her chances for freedom would be far worse.
"Ms. Stacy," the man said, his expression in tone reflecting his building frustration, "you will come with me, now."
In this moment, Gwen realized a decision was being forced upon her. The doctor clearly wasn't going to tell her anything, and playing along certainly wasn't an option anymore if she wanted to make it out of this. She glanced back to her clone, the young woman's eyes gazing upon her. There seemed to be both a fearfulness and curiosity in her expression. She then turned back to the doctor, her mind made up, come what may.
"I'm not going anywhere with you; not now, not ever."
At first, the man just stared at her; Gwen could see him fighting to control his body from shaking with rage. She steeled herself as best she could, bracing herself for whatever was to happen next. That turned out to be the doctor walking up to her, his steps slow and controlled.
"Yes, you are."
In a seemingly lightning-fast motion, the doctor wrapped her in his arms, with Gwen immediately struggling and kicking violently as she resisted.
"No! Let me go!" she screamed as she fought with all her might. The man managed to slowly drag her out of the cell, keeping a tight hold on her as he began to make his way with her to the elevator. Unable to get her arms free, Gwen did the only other thing she could think of: leaning her head forward, she then threw it back hard, hitting the doctor in the face. Though Gwen definitely felt the impact to her own skull, the move seemed to stun the man just enough for him to loosen his grip, allowing her to break free.
She then broke into a run, heading for a door which she knew led to a stairwell. However, just as she'd gotten to the door, the professor came from behind her again, grabbing at her arms and trying to pull her into his grip again.
"Get off me!" she yelled as she turned to face him. She tried hitting him in the face a couple times, but that only served to agitate the man even more.
"I will have you," he said through gritted teeth, his rage seemingly reaching a boiling point. However, the man was then struck on the back of his head by something, collapsing almost immediately. Gwen looked to see that it was her clone, standing there seemingly in shock at what she'd just done as she clutched a metal pipe in her hands. She then looked up to Gwen, the same expression remaining on her face even as she dropped the pipe.
"Alright," Gwen said, taking the girl by the hand, "let's go."
And go they did as they fled up the stairwell.
Finally, the figure stirred, his eyes slowly opening. His gaze met Peter's, and the latter was surprised to see that the former almost had a reaction more of annoyance than anything else.
"Glad to see you're awake," Peter said, still in his Spider-Man mask as he squatted down in front of him. "Because I've got a lot of questions for you, my friend."
"You can lose the mask, Peter," he said. "You know, given who you're talking to and all."
After considering it for a moment, Peter decided that he agreed with his lookalike and removed his mask.
"And just who is it that I'm speaking to, anyway?"
"First off, can we lose the webbing?" the guy said, gesturing with his head toward his arms and legs.
"Not until I get some answers," Peter insisted. "Who are you?"
The man sighed.
"It took me a long time to figure that out," he began, "but the simplest answer is that I'm you, Peter."
Peter still couldn't discern whether this was someone like the Chameleon just trying to pull something or if they believed what they were saying. His spider sense wasn't going off though, so he allowed himself to relax a little as he continued.
"Alright, prove it. If you really are me somehow, tell me something that only we would know."
Peter's lookalike took a moment to consider the idea, narrowing his eyes in thought for his gaze returned back to him.
"In second grade, we hit a kid once when he knocked our library book out of our hand then pushed us down. The principal called Uncle Ben & Aunt May, who had a discussion with us about it. Later, Ben got us alone and told us that he had some advice: 'next time, when you swing...'
"...'go for the nose', because, even if it doesn't break it, it'll stun them enough for you to get away,'" Peter finished.
"That was Uncle Ben," the lookalike said. "He didn't advocate violence unless someone else started it."
Now Peter wasn't sure whether to be more curious or concerned.
"So... are you, like..."
"A clone? Yes," the figure answered. "It took my brain a long time to recollect the memories, but, unlike you, I was born in a large tube, fully grown, by Doctor Warren."
"The professor?" Peter questioned. "He made you?"
The clone nodded.
"I'm not even sure how; I didn't exactly get much chance to realize what was going on before he had my memories erased. They slowly started to come back as visions that showed only little pieces at a time. The doc told me that someone else had done this to me and gave me some 'treatments,' but they were really keeping my memories even more at bay."
"But your powers, your healing, kept trying to recover them until they finally did," Peter theorized.
"I think seeing you in the suit was the final straw," the clone said. "It's like it finally triggered the most important pieces into place."
The clone's face then contorted into one of anger, and he suddenly let out a yell.
"I can't believe I actually let myself think he was helping me!" he screamed. "I helped him do things to people, terrible things to people, especially with Gwen..."
"Wait, what?" Peter said, coming closer to his clone and grabbing at his shoulders. "What about Gwen? The professor has her? What did he do to her? Tell me!"
"He thinks he's in love with her or something," the man explained. "He cloned her too; kept her like some plaything for himself, but I guess she wasn't enough, because he had me help him get the real Gwen."
Oh no, if the professor had...
"Tell me where they are!" he suddenly screamed into the clone's face.
"In a mansion on the outside of Queens!" the clone said. "He had it built over an old zoo!"
Peter then slipped on his mask, immediately heading for the window.
"Wait, take me with you!" the clone demanded. "Let me try and make up for my mistakes!"
Peter paused, much as he didn't want to, and considered the clone's offer.
"No," he said. "Assuming what you're telling me is true, I can't be sure that Warren didn't do something else to mess with your head. If you go there and he's able to trigger something, Gwen could die, and I can't risk that. I'll be back for you though."
"Wait!" the clone called out, but Peter was already swinging away, the sound of his calling soon drained out by the sounds of the city. He then pulled out his phone, calling Gwen's father.
"Captain," he said. "I know where she is."
Gwen stopped as they arrived at a Y in the ventilation shaft, taking a moment to make sure she remembered which direction they needed to go before choosing the right side.
"I think we're almost to the main room," Gwen said.
"Good," the clone replied behind her. "If we can get there, we should be able to slip out through the emergency exit before he can find out where we came out at."
"This was a good idea," Gwen said, "climbing through here so that no cameras catch us."
"Thanks, I..."
Suddenly, the clone let out a couple of coughs, with Gwen doing the same. A mist could soon be seen forming in the vent.
"He must've put some *cough cough* gas in the vent system," Gwen said. "There's an exit just *cough cough* up ahead."
Crawling the next few inches as she fought through her coughing fit and a slowly growing sense of fatigue, Gwen managed to pop open the vent, letting herself drop to the ground. The clone followed, with Gwen catching her partially, as the gas had started to affect her a little more before exiting."
"Great, so where did we..."
The clone's question was answered as soon as both her and Gwen caught sight of a couple of the cross species Doctor Warren had created.
"We should go," Gwen said, the clone nodding in agreement. They then rushed to the door and pressed the button to open it... only to find Dr. Warren waiting on the other side. Before Gwen react, the man rushed in, shoving the clone aside and going straight for her. She desperately tried to resist, struggling against the man's efforts.
"You don't understand!" the man shouted as he tried to restrain her. "No other man can give you what I can! No one else will respect your genius and make you better; not Peter, and not anyone else!"
"You don't respect anyone but yourself!" Gwen retorted as she continued to struggle. The man then smacked her hard on the side of her face, knocking her down. Before he could press his attack though, the clone suddenly lunged at him from behind, digging her long nails into his face as hard as she could, causing the doctor to cry out in pain before he managed to throw her off himself, sending her crashing into a pile of supplies. Gwen got up and tried to rush him, but he simply used her momentum against her and sent her flying as well, her head smacking one of the bars of a nearby enclosure hard. Stunned, she observed as the doctor went over to the clone, putting both hands to her throat and pinning her to a wall, the woman soon gasping for air.
"You were a mistake," she heard the man growl. "Defective! I never should have made you in the first place!"
Forcing herself up despite her still partially stunned state, Gwen grabbed a piece of scattered equipment nearby, running over and slamming it hard into the man's head and disorienting him enough to release his grip. The clone kicked at him, forcing him back, and Gwen added an additional hit before the doctor recovered, ripping the material from Gwen's hand. He then began swinging violently at both of them, the girls dodging and trying to get out of the way as best they could.
"If you can't be mine, you'll be no one's!" the doctor screamed at one point, raging as he sprinted toward Gwen. She got out of the way, the man smashing the equipment in his hand square into a power box... which was connected to the Jackal enclosure. The ensuing shorting of the box turned the light on the cage from red to green, something the creature quickly picked up on as it eyed the door. Gwen just stood there, her blood seemingly frozen in her veins as the creature nudged the door open with its head, stepping out.
The first thing it did upon its exit was set its eyes on the doctor, licking its lips.
"Stay back!" he commanded. "I said back! I made you... you belong to me!"
Ignoring him, the creature lunged forward, sinking its powerful jaws into the throat of its creator, the man not even getting a proper scream out before his demise as blood splattered all over the area nearby. Its rapid chewing ended up being so powerful that it tore the doctor's head from his body.
Snapping out of her stunned state, Gwen's survival instincts kicked in, and she went and collected the clone, the two ladies trying to make their way out of the room. As they tried to shut the door behind them, the creature suddenly lunged at them, its head keeping the door open only barely. After a moment, however, the door finally closed, the girls breathing a sigh of relief.
"Wow, that was..."
"Yeah," Gwen replied to her clone. "Now, how about we get out of here?"
The clone nodded, then suddenly, there was a loud banging on the door, causing both the ladies to jump back before they took off.
Peter fired another web as he pressed on, his swing filled with more urgency than it ever had been. He was trying not to, but his brain kept returning to what his clone had said about the professor cloning Gwen, using her as a plaything before setting his sights on the real thing. Doctor Warren had been a man that he'd once held in the highest respect, at least as a scientist, but now, the very thought of the man filled him with disgust. If he'd harmed Gwen in any way, especially if he'd...
Though he couldn't finish it, the very thought fueled Peter's body with even greater levels of adrenaline, causing him to swing faster still as he eyed the bridge that led into Queens.
He was going to save her. He had to.
The girls finally slowed down, taking a moment to catch their breath.
"That thing can't get out, right?" the clone asked.
"I don't think so," Gwen said. "Come on, the exit should be just in the next room."
The girls started walking towards them when, suddenly, a strange sound could be heard above them. They stopped looking and listening intently. There seemed to be the sound of something moving above them somehow, possibly in the ventilation unit... which Gwen suddenly remembered that they had left the access open to in the room where the creature had been trapped. When she turned to the clone, her wide-eyed expression indicating the same thought was running through her mind.
Fear kicking in, the girls took off again, heading into the next room just as they heard the sound of something coming down from the ventilation exit in the room just behind them. Thinking quickly, Gwen then grabbed her clone, the two of them ducking behind a large table in the room. At first, they didn't hear anything, but after a moment, the sound of sniffing could be heard, the Jackal creature likely smelling them out.
"What do we do?" the clone mouthed to Gwen. Gwen then looked behind her, realizing that there was a fallen piece of decor nearby. Grabbing it, she handed it to the clone, motioning for her to toss it back behind them but high enough overhead where the creature couldn't see where it had come from. The clone did so, the impact of the fallen item and the ensuing snarling of the creature being heard in the aftermath. Gwen dared to peek back, observing as the creature went to check it out. She and the clone then made a break for it, the creature quickly catching on. Fortunately, they managed to seal the door back before it could get there this time. However, the room having been filled with windows, the ladies ended up with only a moment before it jumped clean through the glass, causing them to flee back into the house as it came up on them.
Leaping onto a large display of a dinosaur nearby, the girls narrowly avoided the creature's jaws as it lunged for them. Gwen and the clone quickly made their way up to near the top of the display, staring down at the beast as it paced back and forth, staring up at them. As it did, Gwen could see that same horrible expression, a smile that made it seem as though it could think like a person. The doctor had said it was his first cross species mutation involving human DNA, but that look seemed like something else entirely, as if it were the face of pure evil.
The creature then looked down at its paws, holding one up. It seemed to be testing its flexibility, observing the ways it could move and adjust itself.
"What's it doing?" the clone asked.
They soon got their answer as the Jackal beast reached up with one paw, contorting its paw and grabbing onto a piece of the display. It then reached up with another paw, then another, and soon, it was climbing up after the girls, Gwen watching in horror.
"What do we do!?" the clone asked. Gwen glanced around in a panic, seeing another display that just might be within leaping distance. She wasn't sure it could hold both of them, but she didn't see any other options.
"We have to jump!" she said. "This way!"
Gathering herself, she made the leap, barely snagging onto the thing as it tugged hard on rope holding it to the ceiling. The clone then did the same, leaping just before the creature got to her. Unfortunately, the combined force of the clone's leap with Gwen's weight caused the grip on the ceiling holding it to crack, the display collapsing back to the ground, shattering as the girls hit the floor hard with a thud.
Forcing herself up despite the pain in her left arm, which was potentially broken, Gwen observed as the Jackal beast jumped down, landing on all fours as it eyed them. The clone then got up as well, with Gwen getting in front of her, putting herself between the girl and the beast. The creature stared into her eyes, seemingly trying to melt her through fear, but she met it head on. As it walked to her, she yelled, hoping desperately that her volume would somehow deter the creature, but instead it simply got into a pouncing position, preparing to leap.
"No," she thought. "Not now, not like this..."
The creature leapt, but its momentum suddenly stopped as soon as it made it into the air before it flew backwards, tumbling down. The beast then was raised into the air, its body rotating around as it was wrapped tightly in webbing, with even its mouth being sealed shut so that it couldn't chew its way out. Once the process was complete, a familiar red and blue figure then flipped down from the ceiling, landing in front of the girls.
Without hesitation, Gwen threw her one good arm around Peter, not saying a word as she clutched at him tightly, her boyfriend reciprocating the gesture.
"You came," she said. "You found me."
"Always," he replied. "Though not just you, it seems."
Gwen then removed herself from him, the two turning and facing the clone, whose expression was a mix of confusion and concern.
"Yeah, so, apparently Doctor Warren..."
"I know," Peter interrupted.
"You do?"
"Yeah," Peter confirmed. "Let's just say you weren't the only one he thought the world didn't have enough of."
Opening the door to building, Peter led Gwen, her clone and Captain Stacy into his apartment, finding his own clone still tied up in webbing.
"I... this is a lot," the captain spoke up, his daughter still in his left arm.
Peter then came up to the clone, taking a nearby jagged piece of metal and using it to cut the bonds off his doppelganger.
"Sorry again about this," he said. "I just had to be sure that nothing was going to go wrong."
"I'm just glad that you found her," the clone replied, standing up. "And the doctor?"
"He's... gone," Peter replied, "which means he can never harm you again. You're free of him..."
He then turned to Gwen's clone.
"... both of you are."
"Yeah, but, like, what do we do now?" Gwen's clone asked.
"We'll have to get you guys some new identities and get you set up from there," Peter said.
"Yeah, like we can just go forge some identities like it's no big deal," the captain questioned.
"I know someone who can help with that," Peter replied.
"Really? Who?" Gwen questioned.
"Let's just say that the head of a top-secret government organization owes me a favor for helping him take down a terrorist," Peter assured them. "I think I can persuade him to help us."
"Okay," Peter's clone spoke up. "But, I mean, where are we going to live? What will we do about jobs, or about how we look just like you guys?"
"You can stay with us while we figure it out," Gwen offered.
"They can?" her father questioned, prompting Gwen to give him a look. "I mean, of course you can!"
"The most important thing is that you guys won't be alone in this," Peter assured them. "We'll be with you, every step of the way."
"Agreed," Gwen replied. Silence fell over the room for a moment.
"You know, why don't I go ahead and take them to our house," the captain spoke up. "Having two people who look like my daughter come in at the same time might look a little strange."
Gwen nodded, understanding that, while she believed her father meant those things as well, he was graciously letting her and Peter have some time to digest everything together. The man then escorted the two out, leaving her and her boyfriend alone.
"Is it appropriate for me to ask how you're feeling right now?" Peter asked, "or should I just..."
Once again, Gwen threw her one arm that wasn't in a sling around him.
"Just hold me," she said. The man reciprocated, his strong arms wrapping themselves around her backside, clutching her tightly. Feeling secure for the first time since this all began, Gwen allowed her eyes to shut as she took in the safety of Peter's warm, loving hold on her. There was a lot to figure out in the aftermath of the doctor's actions, but, at least for now, she was safe, back with the people who loved her.
It was over.
Hope you're still enjoying it!
Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!
"Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this: God made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah." Acts 2:36