A.N: Hello again, and welcome to another installment of Along Came a Spider! First official chapter under my new username too!
Hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 6: Complications
Shocker was raising hell on the CPD. It took him almost no time to the evidence room where they kept all the tech Spider-Man recovered for S.H.I.E.L.D to take back. There was no way he was leaving this place empty handed. Not after everything he went through.
"And that idiot Toomes wanted to go back empty handed. Stupid old geezer.", he said to himself.
He went in and grabbed everything he could. Arc reactors, alien blasters, high-tech armor, whatever he could find. Even if he left with a fraction of what was in there, he and Toomes would be set for life and leave behind New York forever.
He put them in duffle bags and put them all around him before strolling his way out of the station. A cop car was speeding by when he activated one of his blasters and caused it to crash and flip several times before setting itself on its roof.
"You can't do shit to me, bitches!", he yelled out before laughing. "WOO HOO!"
Some cops tried to shoot him, but he shot another blast, knocking them down and out. He laughed as he kept walking and blasting anyone that was in his way... until a web hit one of his blasters.
"Goddamn it!", Shocker yelled.
"'Sup, Herman. Don't sound too surprised; you know I'd show up eventually.", Spider-Man replied. "So, is there any chance you'd just give-"
He was interrupted when Shocker fired a blast at him with the other gauntlet, which he dodged.
"Okay, I guess not.", the wall crawler said.
Shocker fired several more blasts at him, but Spider-Man kept dodging them. When he was close enough, the wall crawler kicked him into the air and slammed him down to the ground. He got a few of the bags off him and tossed them at the entrance to the station.
With a yell, Shocker ripped off the web from the other blaster and fired a powerful blast from both of his gauntlets when Spider-Man wasn't looking, but his Spider Sense alerted him of this and dodged the blasts. They hit part of the roof and nearly landed on a few unconscious cops before he webbed the debris before they did any damage. His Spider Sense went off again, but he was too slow to evade the blasts this time and was slammed into a car.
Before Shocker could fire again, Spider-Man leapt into the air and grabbed a piece of concrete from the station with his webs and flung it at Shocker. He destroyed it with his blasts, but was then greeted with another kick in the face which sent him to the ground. The web head tried to web him down, but Shocker avoided them and fired another shot which he dodged.
When Spider-Man found an opening, he launched himself again at Shocker, but the crook was ready this time and blasted him away with a powerful burst that sent the Avenger crashing through a window from one of the nearby businesses.
The web head quickly got back up and dodged another blast from Shocker. He fired a web at Shocker's face and it hit him, disorienting the criminal. While he tried to rip off the webs, Spider-Man launched himself into the air and delivered a kick that sent Shocker into a car. The wall crawler then fires another web at Shocker's torso, trapping him.
"And we're done here. C'mon, Herman, how many times do I have to-", Spider-Man was saying before Shocker broke free with a yell.
"SHUT UP!", Shocker then roared, firing a powerful blast at him.
Since the web slinger was standing near him, he wasn't able to jump out of the way in time and was sent flying through the street and into a flipped police car. With a groan, Spider-Man got back up, but not before being hit by another blast from Shocker, sending him flying further back.
"I've had it up to here with your shit, you little bastard! Now hold still and let me kill you!", Shocker yelled.
Spider-Man got back on his feet and said, "How about no?"
Shocker fired another blast, but Spider-Man avoided it and launched webs at him. He fired the webs at the criminal's legs to restrict his movement. He then flung debris strewn around at Shocker as a distraction for another attack.
He launched a piece of concrete from one of the damaged buildings at the criminal, and when Shocker destroyed it with a blast, the wall crawler kicked him in the face and knocked him down. Shocker gets back up, but is met with a series of punches from Spider-Man, who kicked him down again with a roundhouse and was sent flying through the street.
As Shocker came to a halt, he saw a Chutari blaster next to him. He grabbed it and pointed it at Spider-Man, but it was snatched away by a web from him. The web head then took the blaster and snapped it in half on his knee.
"Nope; no toys for you.", he taunted as he threw the remnants away.
"NO! You son of a bitch! I'll kill you!", Shocker yelled as he fired another powerful blast.
Unfortunately, Spider-Man dodged it and launched more debris at him. Shocker was so furious; he couldn't manage to blast away many pieces of debris, leading him to be hit and knocked down time and time again.
After one particularly hard hit that sent Shocker down again, Spider-Man thought, 'Now's my chance!'
However, his Spider-Sense then went off. Out of instinct, he did a flip and managed to dodge whatever it was that came at him from behind.
Only... it wasn't an object, but Vulture instead.
"About time you showed up! Let's get rid of this freak and bail!", Shocker said.
"No, we're leaving. Grab what you can and let's go. You've caused enough trouble already, Herman.", Vulture said in a low tone as he hovered above him.
"Hey, I didn't go through all this BS to leave empty-handed, you old prick! Let's just kill him and go!"
Before Vulture could respond, he was slammed into the side of a building by Spider-Man.
"Sorry birdman; you're not flying away this time.", the web head said.
"Wanna bet?", Vulture replied.
He then swiped one of his wings at him, but Spider-Man dodged it. Shocker fired another blast at Spider-Man, but it was dodged again. Vulture quickly lunged at Spidey, but a blast from Shocker almost hit him, and this allowed Spider-Man to drop another kick onto Vulture.
"Watch it, Herman!", he growled.
"It's not my fault he's so damn fast! Little prick just won't stand still!", Shocker yelled back as he fired another blast.
Spider-Man used their bickering to his advantage as he shot webs and debris at them in order to deal damage to them. He even used some of the stolen S.H.I.E.L.D. tech against them, flinging them at the duo with his webs. The duo was forced to either dodge them or outright destroy them in order to prevent from getting hit.
'Oh, man, S.H.I.E.L.D. is not gonna be happy about this.', he thought.
"That piece of shit!", Shocker yelled as he was forced to destroy another piece of tech to defend himself.
He dashed forward towards Spider-Man, ignoring Vulture's yell of, "What are you doing?!" and firing blast after blast.
Spider-Man fired webs at Shocker, but the criminal out a surprising display of agility, dodging most of them and not letting them hit him anywhere vital that might restrict his movements. When he got close enough, Shocker threw a charged punch at Spider-Man, but he flipped into the air to avoid it.
However, before he could come back down, Spider Sense went off. Unfortunately, the web slinger couldn't avoid a charging Vulture in time. He was slammed into the side of another building and thrown onto another car. Before Spider-Man could recover, Shocker practically flew right at him and started pummeling him.
"Eat shit, spider freak!", Shocker yelled as he beat down the Avenger.
He then grabbed Spider-Man and body slammed him into the street hard enough that it cracked.
Shocker then punched him more with his gauntlets, which let out small bursts of energy with every hit connected.
"Okay, I think that's enough.", Vulture said.
Shocker ignored him, continuing to pummel Spider-Man, who tried to block the punches, but at the speed Shocker was going at with the punches, made it difficult.
"Herman, I said that's enough.", Vulture said with an edge to his tone.
Again, Shocker ignores him.
As he kept pummeling Spider-Man, Shocker didn't see a pissed off Vulture coming at him at high speeds. He was slammed in the chest and was sent into a light post.
"W-What the hell, Toomes?! I was gonna finish him off!", Shocker exclaimed as he got back up.
"We're not killing him. Just grab whatever you can and let's get going. This place will be crawling with police and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents any moment now.", said Vulture.
Shocker growled before saying, "Fine.", but not before punching Spider-Man one more time.
The duo then grabbed any of the scattered tech they could find; Arc Reactors, Chutari blasters, prototypes from S.H.I.E.L.D. and Stark Industries.
In the midst of their recovery, they didn't notice Spider-Man slowly getting back up with a small groan that escaped his lips. Parts of his costume were torn and cut. Bruises were barely visible, and some scrapes drew blood. He made sure he was being quiet as he tried to lay down a plan of attack.
Almost immediately, he saw it. There was a small tear on Shockers suit, on the lower right neck area.
He had three Electric Webs left, but he only had one shot to pull this off.
However, his vision was blurry, and he was slightly swaying from the disorientation stemming from Shocker's punches.
'Here... goes... nothing...'
*THWIP*
Shocker never saw it coming.
The web hit its mark and a high amount of voltage coursed through Shocker's body. He screamed and convulsed before collapsing to the ground along with the tech he was carrying. Before Vulture could turn around, Spider-Man fired another Electric Web, this time, aimed at Vulture's rocket pack used to help him fly. The voltage was enough to disable one of the rocket's thrusters, but the other one was stubbornly intact.
Before Vulture could go on the attack, he and Spider-Man heard the sounds of sirens quickly heading their way. Vulture picked up what he could grab and started to fly away with one working thruster. However, as he lifted off, Spider-Man fired a web at his back and tried to keep the criminal from flying away. Vulture then used one of his wings to cut the web and starts flying away again.
However, Spider-Man fires another web and was lifted off the ground as Vulture tried to make his escape with only one thruster.
"Mind if I tag along?", the web head called out.
Vulture groaned and tried to shake him off, but no matter what maneuver he pulled off, Spider-Man hung on to the web. At almost every turn, the damaged rocket thruster would let out steams of black smoke directly at Spider-Man's face, causing him to go into a coughing fit.
Then, the damaged thruster let out a small explosion and Vulture uncontrollably started to dive down. Spider-Man could see that they were approaching an intersection full of cars and could barely see people walking on the sidewalks.
'Uh oh...'
Below them a few miles away, Tommy Ross and Sue Snell were at a red light.
Today was... wild. It didn't start off that way, as everything seemed normal at first. Then Sue saw Carrie being confronted by Chris and her group before stepping in and Carrie punching both Chris and Tina before running away from them. As if that wasn't enough, Spider-Man came out of nowhere and snatched Carrie away before Chris did anything after that confrontation in the alleyway.
Now her social media feed was overflowing with comments about Carrie and Spider-Man and what happened afterwards. The school outcast went from being downright unpopular to the center of attention because of Spider-Man. Now they wanted to talk to her and her to spill whatever secrets he might have told her.
It made Sue mad. One minute they're giving her hell, the next they want to be buddies with her, like nothing ever happened.
She made a mental note to talk to her tomorrow.
"Crazy day, huh?", Tommy said, snapping her out of her thoughts.
"Huh? O-Oh, yeah, crazy.", she said.
"You good? You look kinda out of it."
"I'm fine, Tommy, really. It's just... a lot on my mind, that's all."
"Heh, I don't blame you. Makes your head spin, huh?", he said. "Aren't you a bit curious about it though?"
"About what? Carrie and Spider-Man?", Sue asked with a raised brow.
"Well, yeah. I mean, it's not every day someone from around here knows a superhero, right? Aren't you at least a little bit curious as to how they met?"
"I... I guess a little bit, but are you saying that you hope she spills something about him to you?", Sue replied, brows furrowed.
"N-No, of course not. That's her business, not mine. We've gotta keep an eye on her tomorrow, though. No doubt everyone's gonna swarm her with countless questions.", he replied.
"You got a point. I can already imagine what's gonna happen. As if she doesn't have enough to deal with already."
They suddenly heard a whirring sound above them followed by a small explosion. They looked out the windshield and saw Vulture with Spider-Man holding on to a web attached to his wing.
"Woah, that's Vulture! Remember him?", said Tommy.
"Nevermind him, look there!", Sue exclaimed.
They saw Spider-Man holding on to a web trying to stop Vulture as they were both nearing the ground, but the criminal kept on going using all the energy the wings had left.
And the web slinger was heading straight for Tommy's car.
"Oh crap!", they heard the web head cry out.
Spider-Man crashed onto the hood of the car, still holding on to the web. The car rocked back, making the two cry out in surprise. They heard him struggle with keeping a firm hold on the web. He looked up for a moment and his eyes were now set on Tommy. He saw that he was wearing his letterman jacket and managed to make out his name on it.
"Hey, you're the guy Carrie talked abou- oh God!", Spider-Man said as he was launched into the air again.
He nearly let go, but he somehow managed to keep himself from doing so. Vulture regained control and activated a nitro boost and were now going faster than before. Spider-Man fired another web at the wings and pulled back before letting go and launching himself towards him.
He tackled Vulture and managed to make them crash and roll into the ground. As Vulture was getting up, Spider-Man then fired another web at one of the wings and with his strength, ripped off part of it before Vulture thought about taking off again.
"Damn it!", Vulture yelled.
Spider-Man then web zipped to him again and slammed him into a parked car. However, when he tried to do that again, Vulture reacted faster by launching himself upwards to get out of the way. When Spider-Man launched himself into the air to attack, Vulture countered by using his claws and managing to grab his chest with them before using the thrusters to send them back down hard.
Vulture slammed him to the ground again, the claws nearly going through the web slinger's chest.
"You should've stayed out of this, kid.", he said.
He almost sounded solemn saying it. Almost.
With every slam, Spider-Man let out a cry of pain.
After slamming him down a few more times, Vulture let him go after he heard sirens in the distance. He tried to fly away, but the pack was damaged badly as well as the wing. Vulture took another look at Spider-Man, who was writhing on the cracked ground.
He then looked around at the little equipment he managed to get. Most of it was damaged from the impact they just took. However, his eyes landed on one piece of tech that was next to his feet; a single Arc Reactor. He bent down to pick it up and saw that it was still as good as new.
He'd be set for life with just this.
'Damn, I won't get out like this. You won, kid. This time.', he thought before putting the Arc Reactor in one of his pockets and taking off as carefully as he could.
Slowly and painfully, Spider-Man got back on his feet and swung away. He was bleeding from his chest, forehead and mouth and was on the verge of losing consciousness. He didn't know how long he swung until he passed out mid-swing and collided on the side of a building before landing on a patch of grass.
An unknown amount of time later, he slowly opened his eyes and felt being dragged before hearing a voice. He wasn't able to make out who it was as it sounded distant. He closed his eyes again and when he opened them again, he was on his feet with an arm around him. He couldn't lift his head up to see who it was holding him, but he did see that they were in front of a door before shutting his eyes again.
The next time he opened his eyes, he saw a little more clearly. He saw that he was sitting on a bathroom floor, blood smeared on it. It honestly looked like a murder happened. There was an open first aid kit next to him, but no sign of who put him in here. A few seconds later, he saw someone on the doorway, but they seemed blurry despite being a few feet away from each other. He was about to pass out again until the figure ran to him and kneeled next to him.
He barely heard them say, "Hey, hey, stay with me, Spidey."
He looked down on his lap and saw one of his lenses had fallen off, probably as a result of Shocker's punching spree on him. Spider-Man then felt a stinging sensation on his chest and saw that the person was applying alcohol to prevent an infection on the wound.
"Sorry, I know it hurts, but I gotta do it.", the person said, somewhat frantically.
His vision cleared more and turned to the person tending his wounds.
"Hey... aren't you... Rita?", he slowly asked.
"Yeah, it is. Eyes on me, buddy. What happened to you?", the gym teacher asked.
"Oh... you know... just... fighting a metal bird... and his buddy."
"Metal bird?"
"Long story."
Rita then wrapped bandaged around his chest and arms before looking at him and sighing.
"Your wounds are more serious than I thought. It'd be easier if I just take you to the hospital instead.", she says.
Spider-Man lightly shook his head and said, "N-No... no hospital. Gotta... unmask."
Rita sighed again and said, "Right, I forgot. You're just lucky I know first aid. That, and that you crashed on the side of my apartment building."
"Yay me.", the web head said in a droning tone.
Rita kept tending to his wounds until she saw the one on his face.
"Oh, God.", she muttered.
"What is it?", Spider-Man asked.
"You've got a nasty cut on your face. I can treat it, but..."
"But what?"
She sighed again.
"I need you to take the mask off.", she finished.
He shook his head.
"No... no, I'll do it.", he said, reaching for the kit, but Rita held it back.
"You can't, you're still very weak. I have to do it.", she replied.
"I can do it, just give it- AGH!", he suddenly cried out while trying to take the kit away.
He clutched his side and slowly rocked back and forth. After calming himself, he saw Rita's worried look. Spider-Man let out a sigh that came out like a groan and put a hand on his head.
'No getting out of this, huh? Alright then, quick like a band-aid, Parker. Quick like a band-aid.'
It wasn't quick. Somehow, this hurt more than what Vulture and Shocker did to him. After what seemed like an eternity, he took off his mask and saw Rita gasp and her eyes widen.
"Oh my God...", she said.
Never in a million years did Rita believe that Spider-Man was really a kid around Carrie's age. Baffled wouldn't be a good word to use to describe how Rita felt by this revelation.
Spider-Man then decided to say the same thing he said to Mary Jane when she found out.
"Surprise."
He would have passed out if it wasn't for Rita keeping his head up as she started to tend the wound.
Once his wounds slowly started to heal, Spider-Man sat on Rita's couch unmasked as she sat on the table in front of him. The air was a mix of tense and awkward. Rita had her hands on her knees, and he had his head in his hands.
"So... you're 18, right?", Rita asked to which he nodded. "How long have you been Spider-Man?"
He sighed.
"Three years now.", he admitted.
"Wait, wouldn't that mean..."
"That I've been Spider-Man since I was 15? Yep, that's right."
Rita's eyes widened.
"You're joking.", she said.
"I'm not.", was his reply.
"Wow..."
A superhero that young? She could never imagine it. It felt unreal that he was in her apartment both unmasked and that young.
"So... you don't have to answer it, but what's your name? Who are you, really?", she asked.
"My name... *sigh* my name is Peter Parker. I'm from Queens, New York and about two weeks ago, I graduated high school.", Peter said.
"Why are you in Chamberlain, Peter?"
He told Rita everything, from Vulture and Shocker to the missing tech and the fight he had with them earlier. Of course, he didn't tell her about the fact that Carrie had powers and that he'd been helping her control them.
"Well, that's my story.", he said.
"That's... a lot.", Rita said.
"Story of my life. At least it hasn't been all that bad here. I met a certain someone the other day."
Rita smiled.
"Oh, did you? So, how was she?"
"Good, great actually. She's smart and funny and strong. She asked me questions about my adventures and always has this look of awe when I tell her about them. So yeah, it went very well."
"I've noticed. It's as if she was a completely different person, smiling all day and overall having a more positive demeanor."
"That's good to know. Still, her situation is beyond messed up. She told me about it when we officially met the other day."
"Did she?", Rita asked, worried.
"Yep, it was... a lot. After she told me about this, I decided to take a look around to see who the responsible ones were. I'm pretty sure you know who they are already."
"Oh yeah, that I know."
Rita honestly couldn't stand them. She knows that's wrong considering she's a teacher, but she couldn't help it. They were arrogant, brazen and downright insufferable. Most of them anyway, especially Chris.
"Well, I decided that I'd do something about it.", Spider-Man spoke with conviction.
"What did you do?", she asked.
"I looked through their stuff and found more than I bargained for. They could land themselves in serious trouble if a lot of this stuff gets out, some more than others. By any chance, did you hear about what happened to Carrie earlier today after school?"
Rita shook her head and Spider-Man told her what Carrie told him.
"What?!", she nearly yelled.
"Yep, you can talk to her or even Sue Snell if you don't believe me.", he said.
"No, I do, it's just...", Rita then sighed. She stayed silent for a minute before continuing, "I... I can't believe I'm saying this, but... you have to bring that info to someone. Whatever you found, tell them about it. I've had it up to here with them. The shower thing was bad enough as it was, now this? That's it; something has to happen."
"I know, I'm gonna make a stop at the station after we're done here. Hopefully they're not too mad about the damage there. And maybe Carrie's situation could be much, much easier to manage."
And if this works, a huge weight could be lifted off her shoulders, Rita thought. She had to resist the urge to smirk, those girls would finally face the music and there would be nothing they could do about it.
As for Spider-Man, he really wanted to tell her about this trap Chris had planned for Carrie. However, he stopped himself from doing that. The reason being is that he doesn't know what exactly is planned yet (though, it'll probably happen at prom less than a week away from the looks of it) and, even if he did know and tell someone, someone else would probably plan something nastier than whatever Chris had planned, and he wouldn't know about it until it was too late.
For now, he had to keep quiet until he knows more. Then, he'll bring her down.
"Is it weird if I say that I've been really looking forward to this?", she asked.
"No, not at all.", said Peter as he got up. "I think I should go now; I've got a lot of work to do still."
"Are you sure you're okay now?"
"Oh yeah, my healing factor's doing all the work. It may not be like Wolverine's or... Deadpool's, ugh, but it's still fast. Don't worry about it."
"I just can't believe you're doing all of this still young. Aren't you a bit afraid of what might happen to you?"
"Not really. I stopped worrying about what happens to me a long time ago and just thought about how am I going to get people out of danger and stopping it as fast as possible."
This kid... Rita was simply speechless.
Peter put on the mask; he could always fix the lense later. He walked to the window and took one last look at Rita.
"Thanks, Rita. I'll see you around.", he said before leaping out the window.
"Yeah, you too.", she said quietly.
A few minutes later, Spider-Man made it to the police station. There were paramedics taking the injured into ambulances and checking on the others. He landed on the street and found the sheriff.
"Excuse me, are you Sheriff Doyle?", he asked.
"That I am. Glad you're here, Spider-man. Damn, they got you good. You alright?", Doyle asked, seeing bandages around his costume.
"I'm fine, I've had worse. How's everyone?"
"It's a damn miracle Shocker didn't kill anyone. We've got some with serious injuries, but they're expected to recover. We took his stuff and took it to another location. We'll also keep an eye out for Vulture. He won't be able to make a noise without S.H.I.E.L.D. knowing."
"That's good. Hey, if you don't mind, I've got some things I want to show you. It's not related to Shocker or Vulture, but it's still important."
Doyle nodded and said, "Of course, let's head inside."
Once that was taken care of, Peter made it back to the hotel and carefully took off his suit. Parts still ached and stung, but like he told Doyle, he faced worse. After changing, he saw the Programmable Matter on the desk and his closed notebook next to it.
He looked at the time on his phone and saw that it was 1:30 in the morning.
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to poke around a bit, right?", he asked himself as he walked to the desk and picked up the Programmable Matter.
A.N: That's a wrap for this chapter of Along Came a Spider. I hope you liked it. If you did, follow it, favorite it, or leave a review or private message. As always, constructive criticism is welcome!
See you next time!