Prompto was quick to change into his Spider-Man suit, carefully placing the fancy suit into his bag. Ignis would probably throw a fit for his carelessness with the suit, but considering the situation there was no time to put it somewhere nice.
Spider-Man opened up the window, climbing out before he started to swing himself around the building, up to where he could see the damaged windows.
"Alright, time to stop the part crasher!" he shouted as he flung himself into the room, landing only a few feet near the large suited man.
The man turned a head towards him. "And there we have the other one."
"Other one…?" Spider-Man asked as he leaned to the side.
Beyond the man, he saw that Nightwing was standing in front of him, already crouched down into an offensive position.
"Okay good! At least I'll have some backup here!" Spider-Man thought before he started to crack his knuckles.
"So big buy! Do you even have a name, or am I just going to have to call you Armored Party Crasher Dude?"
"You may call me General Glauca," the man replied in a deep, distorted voice.
"Ooh General Glauca. Really?" Spider-Man asked. "Is that the best you could do with yourself? Only a general?"
General Glauca raised his sword. "You will not mock me."
Glauca then charged at Spider-Man with incredible speed, his sword making a loud whoosh with his first mighty swing. Spider-Man quickly evaded, jumping up to the ceiling, barely having a moment to read the situation or even catch his breath.
From behind he watched as Nightwing sprung into action, trying to attack from the side while Glauca was distracted. He knew he was more than thankful that Nightwing would be by his side for this, he was starting to get the feeling he was going to need it.
Now with Glauca's attention divided, Spider-Man came back down, going in for his own kick attack towards the man's head. At the very last second, parts of his armor glowed a purplish red and he backed away from both boys at incredible speed. Spider-Man had to shoot a quick web, pulling him off to the side to prevent an accidental collision with Nightwing.
"Oh great," Nightwing hissed. "So he has a magically charged suit."
"So not fair," Spider-Man agreed.
"Normally, I'd say to lead him out of here… however I don't think he's the type to follow, but I don't want to run the risk of him damaging the building any further."
"Then there's also getting him down there runs the risk of civilians getting hurt," Spider-Man added. "Guess the best we can do is web up and tie down here!"
Spider-Man lunged forward, shooting out some of his webs towards Glauca's arms.
The webbing only lasted a few seconds before the man ripped them apart, no doubt due to the strength of his armor.
He laughed deeply. "I was told that the heroes of this city were formidable. So far I have yet to see anything that proves it."
Nightwing scowled. "Don't be so quick to judge!"
Holding out his baton he jumped up into the air before narrowing down right at Glauca. Just as Glauca was about to block, Nightwing warped out of the way, reappearing from the side to strike into his side.
Seeing an opening, Spider-Man went again for another one of his own attacks. Already in the back of his head, he was trying to figure out a way to stop Glauca. He was strong, stronger than the webs could probably hold. Which meant that incapacitating him was most-likely an option if they wanted any chance of truly tying him down and stopping him.
Punch after kick after dodge, Spider-Man did everything he could, but it still wasn't wearing down Glauca as easily as it was for him.
He was already feeling the stress from fighting for so long, but he knew that he couldn't give up. Nightwing hadn't stopped, and Spider-Man wasn't about to leave him to fight alone. He had to keep going, no matter how much his body wanted to protest.
As he was preparing to find a new angle to attack from, he saw a brilliant burst of blue magic from Nightwing. He charged at Glauca at a blinding speed before stabbing blue crystalline daggers onto the armor.
When he jumped back, Glauca stumbled backwards, his armor slowly beginning cracking in areas. The area around the face started breaking away, revealing the face of the man underneath.
"Ah, now this is what I was expecting," Glauca muttered with a grin.
"Nightwing?! What was that!?" Spider-Man shouted as he saw how his friend was staggering.
"I'm fine! Just used a little too much power there," Nightwing panted heavily.
Glauca grumbled as his suit started to glow. "And that shall be your downfall."
It was as if the world slowed down around Spider-Man, watching as Glauca advanced towards Nightwing.
Without even wasting a second, Spider-Man lunged himself forward, pushing Nightwing out of the way, mere moments before Glauca's attack connected with his own chest.
In his short time being a superhero, he had taken plenty of punches and hits, but none hurt as much as this one. The force was so great, knocking him back into one of the room's support beams.
"Oh, now that one hurts…" he groaned.
His head ached and the room felt like it was starting to spin.
'Guess I must have hit my head as well…'
Spider-Man wasn't able to push himself back to his feet, every time he tried to move it only made his body ache further.
He could barely keep his eyes open, watching as Nightwing charged at Glauca with a new sense of power and relentlessness.
Spider-Man wanted to keep watching, but with the pain feeling like it was getting worse, his eyes started to close.
'Sorry buddy… Looks like I'm out for the count…'
The moment Nightwing watched Spider-Man get flung back into a support pillar was the moment he felt like his heart stopped.
Spider-Man had taken the hit for him.
If it wasn't for Spider-Man pushing him out of the way during his moment of stasis, he would have been hit instead.
"Heroes," Glauca scoffed. "Always trying to protect one another."
Feeling his powers restoring themselves, Nightwing summoned a dagger into one hand, and the baton into the other. With a rush of his magic, he charged at Glauca, putting all he could into every attack.
The villain barely had any time to react as Nightwing went at blinding speed, warping around him at all angles. Even if he was pushing his magic into stasis again, he wasn't going to quit, not until Glauca was completely defeated.
As Glauca tried to block the oncoming attacks, more of his armor was beginning to crumble away.
"You cannot… win against…me," he grunted, trying to hold up his sword in defense.
"You're not going to win! Ever!" Nightwing shouted.
Like before, he challenged all of his magic into one massive attack. He warped back a few feet before moving forward once more as he released it all, colliding right into Glauca.
When Nightwing stepped back, he watched a stunned Glauca drop to his knees, panting heavily. The armor around his face was completely gone now, revealing the man underneath.
"Titus Drautos?!" Nightwing shouted. "You… You're the leader of the Kingsglaive!"
"Heh, so you figured it out. I would have thought with your father being such a mighty detective that you would've known it sooner."
"Doesn't matter!" Nightwing said.
He marched up to Titus and grabbed him by the collar of his suit. "Why would you betray your kingdom like this?"
"My allegiance was never to King Regis, and it never will be."
"Then who! Who do you work for!?"
Titus laughed. "Like I would honestly tell you. Just know this hero. Your times of peace protecting your precious city are coming to an end."
With Nightwing's last bit of stretch he let go of Titus before smacking him hard across the head, knocking him out cold.
He then placed a finger to his ear, activating the small earpiece he had. "I've taken care of our intruder… He's incapacitated, but you won't believe who it is."
"I'll send a team of Kingsglaive up immediately to detain the villain," Ignis replied from the other end.
"No. Can't risk having the Kingsglaive… Don't know how many more of them are traitors, especially with new development."
"And what is the development?"
"It was Titus Drautos under the mask."
Ignis let out a gasp. "Drautos… My word… Very well then, I'll call in for the police and other reinforcements. How are you fairing?"
"I'm fine, I just exhausted myself by using too much magic. But-Wait! Spider-Man!"
Nightwing ran over to Spider-Man, who was still laying rather still on the floor. His suit had tatters and tears all over it, revealing his bloodied and bruised skin underneath. "Spider-Man! Hey! Can you hear me?"
Spider-Man groaned softly. "N-Nightwing…? Did we win?"
"We won, I defeated him. But are you okay?"
"Fine… Just a bit sore and tired. No biggie though, I'll be fine… Just gotta close my eyes for a bit…
Feeling a rush of panic in his chest, he carefully scooped Spider-Man into his arms. "Whoa, let's not do that. You need medical attention right away!"
"Mmm no… Don't do well in hospitals…" Spider-Man whispered, his voice growing softer.
"We're not going to the hospital. Just hold on, okay?"
"Hmm… trying," Spider-Man replied before his body went limp.
Nightwing held his breath for a moment, bringing his head to Spider-Man's chest.
There was still a heartbeat.
"Okay yeah… Gotta get you out of here," Nightwing replied as he stood up.
"Are Spider-Man's injuries grave?" Ignis asked.
"Don't know, but he is pretty beat up. I'm bringing him to the cave."
"Then I'll be there to meet you. Do hurry."
"I'll try," Nightwing said as he hurried out of the room.
When Nightwing got down to the BatCave, Ignis was already there, preparing a bed for Spider-Man to lay on. Nightwing quickly hurried over, setting him down so Ignis could begin his examination.
"Hmm," Ignis hummed. "He's unconscious, but breathing is steady."
"Is he going to be okay?"
"I don't believe these injuries are the worst that I've seen. I recall your father looking worse coming back from some battles."
Taking off his mask, Noctis sat down in a nearby chair, running his hands through his already messy hair. "He took the hit for me."
"Pardon?"
"Spider-Man. I was in stasis after an attack, and before I could try to move, Spider-Man pushed me. He took the hit that Glauca… that Drautos… meant for me."
Ignis hummed as he administered some special cream to the open wounds on Spider-Man. "That was very brave of him."
"It was stupid! He could have killed himself!"
"And would you not have done the same if the positions were reversed?"
Noctis raised an eyebrow. "You mean if Spider-Man was stuck with a villain advancing at him? I… I guess I probably would have done something similar."
"You are both young heroes, and sometimes you will do reckless things," Ignis explained. "But I wouldn't call his act stupid, not when he was doing it to save you."
"Yeah… Guess you're right."
"Yes. Now Noct, I believe I'll need to remove Spider-Man's mask."
Noctis jumped to his feet. "What?! Why do you need to do that? Can't you just examine him without taking it off?"
"I need to make sure his head isn't bleeding, and I can't very well tell when he is wearing a red mask."
"But you can't. I… I promised him I wouldn't learn his secret identity."
Ignis folded his arms. "And you would rather risk the chance of him bleeding out and dying?"
Noctis shook his head. "No! I don't want to break my promise to him, but I don't want him to die either!"
"Then you may turn around. I will take on the burden of knowing, but just as I do for you and your father, I will not reveal his identity either."
"Promise?"
"I promise, Noctis."
With a deep breath, Noctis turned around, facing away from what Ignis was about to do. He could hear Ignis let out a soft hum, most likely in curiosity to whomever was under the mask.
Noctis wanted to know. Even when he promised Spider-Man he wouldn't ever find out, part of him still was curious. He had thought about it plenty of times, trying to imagine what kind of person was hiding under the mask. But no matter how hard he thought, he could never place a face to Spider-Man.
"Well… I think this may change things," Ignis stated aloud.
"Change what?"
"Noctis, I believe you should look."
"But I-"
"I advise you to turn around and look at who I have here. It won't be the end of the world as you feared."
With his heart pounding, Noctis slowly turned back around. He let his eyes fall to the unconscious body on the table… and then his eyes went wide.
"P-Prompto?!"
Noctis's heart pounded loudly in his ribcage, echoing all the way up to his ears. He was staring at not some random guy he had never met, but perhaps the only other person besides Spider-Man that he had a crush on.
But now he knew Spider-Man and Prompto were one in the same.
They were the same person.
He wasn't crushing on two different people, he was crushing on the same person the entire time.
"Holy crap," Noctis muttered as he fell back into his chair.
Ignis hummed as he resumed cleaning up Prompto's injuries. "I suppose this resolves your crush crisis."
"How do you know?! Prompto likes my hero persona, not me!"
"I would say if your experience is anything to reference, perhaps the reason he likes Nightwing is because he also likes you in that same way."
Noctis groaned, buried his face into his hands. "I feel stupid. This whole time I was too scared to tell Prompto, but I basically confessed to him without even knowing it."
Ignis moved over from the table to the chair Noctis sat in, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I believe you are overthinking this. Now that you know Prompto is Spider-Man, it should be easier going forward to confess your feelings."
"But then I feel like I went behind his back to do that. I learned his secret identity and now I'm using that to try and make some relationship."
"You know, you can tell him your secret identity as well. Given the circumstances, I think we can allow you to reveal yourself to him."
Noctis lifted his head up, looking at Ignis's serious expression. "You think so?"
"I do think so. You two are close friends, and now we've learned that the two of you have been teaming up for hero work. Prompto should be allowed to know."
Noctis's eyes shifted between Ignis and Prompto. His heart was still hammering, his feelings all running together into one big mushy pile. After everything that happened today, he could barely think straight.
All he could handle was his worry and concern for Prompto, hoping he would be okay.
"I'll do it then… after I know Prompto is okay."
Ignis nodded before he returned to the table to tend to Prompto. "Very well. But that means we do need to inform the others, and that includes Gladio."
Noctis leaned back in the chair, already feeling the dread. "Ugh, he's going to make fun of me for months!"
"I'm sorry, but I cannot control him. You'll have to brave through it the best that you can."
"Hmm, yeah… but I guess if the person Spider-Man said he wanted to confess to really is me, then I can brave anything Gladio tries to throw at us."
Slumping down in the chair, Noctis tried to relax. However, just as he thought he could have a moment to breathe, all of his interactions with Spider-Man came rushing back to his head.
"Wait a minute! That means that first attack at the Citadel when Spider-Man came in to carry me away… that was Prompto… He was… Oh gods. That was him the entire time!"
Ignis chuckled. "Give it time for the realization to set in. I'm sure it's quite a shock now that you can connect all of the dots."
"Yeah I know…" he muttered. "Just gotta figure out how I'm going to tell him when he wakes…"
This is a chapter I've been waiting to get to for a long time and now we're finally here!