A/N: TW for touching on drug addiction. Nothing explicit, but just thought I should give you all a heads up.
Issue Six: Scenes from a Maul
After some crawling around, and marveling at how roomy the crawlspace was, Sirius found an exit grate and dropped down… into a mess. Tables were broken in half, sofas were overturned with ripped-up cushions, and the place was littered with red plastic cups. Sirius whistled at the carnage. "Yikes. Wild party. Looks like everyone's already been dragged off… but did the police do this or the party-goers?"
"Harry? Pete?" The masked teen whispered as he crept up the stairs to the second-floor landing. "If you're up here, don't be scared. The guy wearing the mask isn't trying to hurt you…" As he walked cautiously down the hall, he heard a loud thump on the door ahead. His danger sense ('Hey, that's a good name!') rang in his head as he slowly approached the door.
Placing a hand carefully on the knob, he waited, counted to three, then opened the door up quickly, jumping back. Inside, slowly creeping out… was Johnny Storm, but… off. His movements were jerky, his face was pale, and his eyes… a bright blood red, practically bleeding out of his face as they bulged grotesquely.
"Hey, J-uh, dude?" Sirius waved as the flaming-haired peer disconcertingly looked through him, a sliver of drool dripping from his lopsided mouth. "Nice party. But I think you might want to clean up a-whoa!" Sirius' body swerved out of the way of Johnny's sudden swing. "Okay, sorry about the home invasion! I was looking for- Aah! Stop doing that!" Sirius leaned out of the way of another swing. "Look, I'm just asking if you've seen-"
"RAAAAH!" Johnny charged at Sirius, but the agile teen leaped over him… which led to Johnny slamming head-first into the wall, his impact joining many other indentations before he slumped down to the floor with wordless groans.
"Okay," Sirius worked the imaginary kinks out of his neck. "If this is how he's usually like, I can see why Gwen doesn't like him. Well, it's his party. Maybe he knows where Pete or Harry are." After quickly webbing Johnny to a wall, in case he was still a little face-bitey, Sirius slapped him lightly to rouse him. "Rise and shine, dude. Your party was a hit! And it hit back, by the looks of it."
"Uhhhhh," Johnny groaned as he woke up. "H…huh? What the…" His lazy gaze finally rose to meet Sirius' and his reaction was pretty tame when faced with a masked guy that just webbed him to a wall… that might be because he was webbed to a wall, now that Sirius thought of it. "What the!" He slammed his back into the wall, probably in an attempt to get up. Moaning from the pain, he shook his head. "Holy- what the heck, man! What's going on!? Who are you!? Why are you in my house!"
"Ve vill ask de questions!" Sirius snapped in a fake German accent, jamming a finger in Johnny's face. While the boy gaped at the teen in shock, Sirius just laughed. "Sorry, I couldn't resist. But seriously (Sirius had to bite his cheek not to reflexively use his ace joke; it'd really spoil the whole 'hiding the identity' thing.), name's Spider-man and I'm looking for two guys-"
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Johnny cut in. "You break into my house, stick me to a wall, and, what? Start grilling me!? Dude, I don't know who the hell you think you are…" Whatever else Johnny was going to say came up short when his interrogator leaped onto the wall next to him and stuck there, despite all laws of physics saying he shouldn't.
"Like I was saying," Sirius continued, a smug tone in his voice at Johnny's expression. "I was in the neighborhood, popped in for a spell, and you charged at me like it was 28 Days Later and I was the last human alive."
"Urgh," Johnny groaned, hands twitching like he wanted to hold his head. "And is that why I feel like shit? You hit me?"
"Actually, I just jumped out of the way, and you smacked into the wall," Sirius gestured to the dents on the wall next to him. "You might want to get checked for a cracked skull or something…"
"Damn…" Johnny groaned. "Last time I ignore Sue… effing Brock."
"Brock?" Sirius muttered, wondering why the name sounded familiar. Filing the thought away for later, he went on, "Let's get back on track, party man. What happened here? Anything you can remember?"
"Well..." Johnny murmured, looking down. "The party was just getting started. Music turned up to eleven, dudes were jammin', the ladies were fine-"
"Skip ahead. Any guests stick out? Like a scrawny guy with glasses? Or a rich kid of questionable intelligence?"
"Scrawny…" Johnny seemed to latch onto that thought hard before he sucked his breath in sharply. "Shit, Parker and that old man! Now I remember! That… That-!" Johnny's eyes flashed red as he suddenly lunged forward. The web kept him down, but the ominous creak of the wall didn't sit well with Sirius…
Acting quickly, Sirius snagged two empty plastic cups and ran for the bathroom. After filling them up, he returned to see Johnny still very much angry and straining against his restraints. A quick splash of cold water to the face later and his sudden strength burst was gone, his eyes no longer red.
"D-dude!" Johnny sputtered, his hair falling into his face. "What the H!"
"Sorry, you were going all ragey again," Sirius held up the second cup. "Water? To drink this time, I promise."
Johnny eyed the masked teen warily, before nodding. With his hands still tied up, Sirius had to tilt the cup for Johnny, until he tapped the wall for a breath. "Okay… I just… I need a minute, man."
"Sure, take all the time you need," Sirius shrugged as he leaped onto the railing. "Just stick around while I check the rest of the place out."
"Oh, haha. Jackass," Johnny muttered, clearly not aware of how good Sirius' ears were. Ignoring him, he landed in the living room. The place was pretty much wrecked; the sofa was overturned, the table was in splinters, and the large television was halfway through the wall.
"Geez," Sirius stepped lightly around broken glass and wood. "Extreme Makeover: Demolition Edition." Looking around for something of interest, he found a plastic vial among the clutter. "Well, lookie here…" Picking up the vial, he brought it to eye level.
"Wait," Sirius muttered, turning the vial over, his eyes settling on a familiar 'U' shaped insignia. "Have I… seen this before?"
Drawing a blank, Sirius pocketed the vial before heading over to the kitchen. To nobody's surprise, it wasn't much better; cabinet doors hanging off of hinges, the fridge had been knocked over, glass bottles broken all over the place, and the oven door had been ripped off and was sitting on the island counter with a dent.
"Damn… Either college guys party hard, or this wasn't an ordinary party." Sirius put his hands in his pockets, frowning under his mask. "Where the hell are you guys-" Dodge! his Danger Sense screamed, and he ducked just as a beer bottle was swung at his head. Catching the arm before it made another swing, he turned to find… Harry, his clothes torn up, with a frantic look on his face.
"Easy, pilgrim," Sirius said in a southern drawl. "Bar fight's over. Take 'er easy now."
"H-huh!?" Harry blinked, taking in who he just tried to attack. "Wait… you're not one of those nutcases from the party, are you?"
"I just got here. Call me fashionably late," Sirius shrugged, which got a look of disbelief from Harry. "Guess I missed all the action."
"Okay, who the hell are you!" Harry snapped. "Better yet, why the hell are you here!? If you're some burglar, take whatever you want! I don't live here!"
"Actually, I broke in to figure out what's going on. Have anything to share?"
Harry snorted and stepped back, the bottle still held up like it was an actual defense. "Right, like I'm gonna trust some weirdo in a mask who happens to show up after the scariest night of my life! Probably here to 'clean up' whoever's left, I bet!"
'Wait.. he really doesn't recognize me?' Sirius facepalmed at Harry's obliviousness. 'Seriously, man? I'm not even changing my voice! Maybe the mask changes how it sounds…' "The only 'cleaning' I've done is giving Johnny Storm a cold shower when he tried to bite my face off," the teen snarked.
"Seriously?" Harry asked. (Somehow, he even failed to notice how Sirius twitched, holding his reflex a second time tonight.)
"Sure!" Sirius shrugged. "Just walk up and ask him. He'll be that guy hanging from the wall."
Despite his frightened energy, Harry snorted at the visual. "Okay, I would pay to see that."
Harry gaped as the pair came upon Johnny, still hanging from the wall, but at least his eyes were the right color again. "So, will that be cash or card?" Sirius elbowed Harry as he chuckled. Under the glare of both boys, the quirky kid's laughter puttered out. Clearing his throat, he began, "Sooo… wallflower, how ya feeling? Are we calm now?
"I… yeah," Johnny nodded, looking exhausted now. "Yeah, I'm good."
"Well, I'm not," Harry snapped, but not nearly as hostile as he was back in the kitchen. "You and half of your guests nearly tore me to pieces!"
Despite looking devoid of energy, Johnny had the decency to wince. "Yeah, I'm not sure what happened…"
"Never mind that," Sirius interrupted. "Before, you mentioned a 'Parker?' He's one of the guys I'm looking for."
"Parker?" Harry's eyes widened as he caught on. "As in Peter!? Oh, God! Gwen and his aunt would never forgive me if-"
"Relax, ya prep school dropout," Johnny lazily snapped before yawning. "Peter wasn't at the party when… all that happened."
"What!?" Sirius gaped. "Whadda ya mean!? He said-!?" Realizing the looks he was getting, he corrected himself. "I-I mean I heard that he was going to be coming here! To check on you!" Sirius pointed at Harry, startling him, but he nodded morosely.
"Oh… so that's why he'd be here," Harry commented, looking downtrodden. "He was… trying to look out for me. Classic Pete."
"But he was here?" Sirius pressed, his stomach clamping up in worry; he had come then he left? And without Harry!? What the hell's going on tonight?
Johnny nodded. "Yeah, he got stopped at the door. My ESU friends, big guys – football players, I think – they didn't recognize Pete and they called me over when he tried to get through anyway. Four-eyes said he wanted to see Harry. I told him I'd tell him he came, then told him to piss off." Johnny shrugged his shoulders. "Guy's nice and all, but these college guys'd have eaten him alive. Figure it be easier to push him out."
"So, that's it?" Sirius asked. "He just left?"
"I wish," Johnny snorted. "Dude squared up and said if I didn't let him through, he had a friend he could call that would wipe the floor with us." The flame-head smiled in amusement at the memory. "It was kinda hilarious. Puny Parker, threatening us. As if he knew anyone who could kick our asses!"
Sirius bit his lip with worry. 'Actually, he might know one. Me, aka the restroom re-decorator.'
Johnny's groans disrupted the vigilante's inner thoughts. "And then that's when his grandpa came around the corner."
"Grandpa?" Harry spoke at the same time Sirius thought it. "He doesn't have a - oh no... Uncle Ben." Harry turned a pale color Sirius knew all too well; it was the same look he had the last time his mother had been called to Midtown for a conference. "H-he was here!?"
"Whoever the hell he was," Johnny answered. "He grabbed the twig by the arm and dragged him outta here. Well, not before he tried to talk to us like he was my dad or something. Gave him the Hawaiian Good Luck Salute and moved on. That should have been the end of it…"
"What next?" Sirius was only half-listening; now, he was wondering where Peter and Uncle Ben had disappeared while kicking himself for not coming anyway.
"The incident," Harry answered, hand shaking a bit. "Ben… he must have called the cops, or somebody did. A lot of the party had been… enjoying the party favors Eddie Brock brought. We weren't really paying the cops any mind…"
"Party favors?" Sirius pulled the vial from before out of his pocket. "That wouldn't happen to be this, would it?"
Both boys hissed and leaned away. Harry wrinkled his nose and turned away. "Ugh… Utopium. If I never see that stuff again…"
"Utopium?" That name jogged a few memories for Sirius; when he was in middle school in Seattle, some guys had passed that out to the kids as 'free samples.' Sirius had taken one, but the minute he showed it to his family (thinking it was candy because, even in middle school, he was a bit of a dumbass), Major slapped it out of his hand and asked the boy over and over if he had taken any of it. It was Sirius' only memory of his father ever getting angry.
"Yeah, stuff's pretty amazing," Johnny said with a small amount of fondness in his voice. "First time using it, but it was like I was flying. Could have gone to space and back on that stuff."
"He kind of was in space," Harry commented, his tone not at all as airy as Johnny's. "I saw it myself. I… got some earlier from Brock, but it'd already worn off. Found myself surrounded by people who were dancing me under the table in terms of energy. It was like being surrounded by animals. They were wild, flipping stuff and smashing chairs-"
"They were already going all ragey?" Sirius asked.
"No, that was… after the police pulled up," Harry admitted. "Brock pulled out something else – some energy drink."
"It's…" Johnny shifted before looking down at his still-trapped hands. Gesturing with his head, he nodded toward his room. "I kept a can… in my room." Instead of going in, because Johnny's room smelled like a landfill, Sirius webbed the can and pulled it off the dresser. (It did hit him in the head, but it was his first time doing that.) "Stuff's called-"
"Max Rager," Sirius breathed out, as his eyes settled on yet another ghost from his past life. "Yeah, I know it."
"Brock passed out cans of that to everyone," Harry continued. "Everyone downed it at the same time, even me. That's when the cops showed up."
"I… don't even know what happened," Johnny added. "They showed up, tried to muscle in and end the party. It's happened before, never bothered me. But, this time…" Johnny looked up, fear etched on his face. "I… I don't know what happened. I just got… so angry. This was gonna be the party of the year! And they just- I just-!" Johnny's voice gave out, as he began to weep, lost in his own jumbled memories. Harry scratched at his arm uncomfortably at the scene.
"Harry," Sirius grabbed the teen's attention. "Try to calm down Johnny. I need to make a call."
"Huh?" Harry blinked at the request, looking back and forth from Johnny to Sirius. "Uh, sure. Okay."
As the super teen stepped back, he pulled out his phone to text Gwen. 'Pete's not here, but Uncle Ben saw him last. Maybe Gwen could – Oh! She sent me a text.' Sirius opened his messages and read Gwen's messages. 'Sirius? u need 2 c this.' 'trouble outside' 'heard screaming from below.'
Sirius frowned at the messages. 'Oh boy. Something tells me this night's just getting started…' Shooting a quick response, he turned to Harry. "Hey! Stay here for a bit! Don't move unless you hear anybody that sounds-"
"Like a runner from 28 Days Later?" Harry supplied. "Yeah, saw it with a good friend. I know what to do. And… thanks for the help." Sirius nodded, before zipping back up through the hole in the ceiling.
A/N: This chapter is shorter and rougher, but I promise this story won't always be dark... he said, completely aware this is a crossover with iZombie.
