Spider-Bat: New Way Home

Chapter 17: Out of the Frying Pan (and Into the Fire)

Two patrol cars followed behind Alfred and the boys as they left the funeral service and headed for home. And two other patrol cars were already parked at Wayne Manor, guarding the home due to the recent tragedy which had occurred there.

During the ride, Alfred knew he would have to let the boys know about the conversation he and Lucius Fox had regarding Thomas and Martha's last will and testament. He also knew he would have to finally tell them about why the burglars were at their home in the first place.

"We need to talk, boys," Alfred began. "I just had a conversation with Lucius Fox, the CEO of Wayne Enterprises. He went over your parents last will and testament. It would appear that their wishes were for me to continue caring for the grounds of the estate, and they also wanted me to be your legal guardian. However…" Alfred paused for a moment, "I would only be the legal guardian of Bruce," he sadly continued.

"What? What about me?" Peter asked, befuddled.

"Unfortunately, your parents had written the will just after Bruce was born. And they hadn't updated it since then," Alfred sighed. "Plus… there's something else. Apparently the state discovered that your foster parents may have fudged some of the paperwork when they adopted you."

"Fudged the paperwork?" Peter retorted. "What does that mean?"

"It means that your adoption was never legal," Bruce interjected.

"What is going on here?" Peter bellowed. "First, someone murders my foster parents. Then, someone tries to kill me at their funeral service. Why? What did I do?"

Alfred knew it was finally time to come clean about everything. "It wasn't anything in particular that you did, Peter. It was actually something that Norman thought your real parents did."

"My real parents!?" Peter asked, confused by Alfred's statement. "I thought you guys didn't know my real parents, and that you were only told that they died in a terrible plane crash shortly after I was born."

"I wish I could tell you that was true," Alfred replied. "But, unfortunately, that was just a lie to protect you from Osborn's men."

"What about Osborn's men? Can you please just tell us what is going on here?"

"I'm not even quite sure if I know the details of the story in its entirety, but I will try my best to explain," Alfred replied. "It all started when Bruce was only about six months old. That was when Peter's real parents, Richard and Mary Parker, came to visit us at the manor. They said they were on the run from Norman Osborn's henchmen after trying to steal something important from one of his laboratories."

"What did they try to steal?" Bruce interrupted.

"I'm not sure. They never said exactly what it was," Alfred answered. "They mentioned something about a "Subject P" and a possible cure for something, but they never really went into too much detail about it."

"Subject P?" Peter muttered, remembering the spider that Harry showed him. "What did they need a cure for?"

"I don't know," Alfred replied. "All I do know is that your parents stayed with us for a few months until you were born. And then, a few weeks after that, one of Osborn's men came knocking on the manor doors. They seemed to be very interested in your mother's pregnancy. We weren't even sure how they obtained knowledge of it, though they didn't seem to know that she had already given birth to you at the time. That's when your real parents decided it would be best to leave you in the care of the Waynes until they found a safer place for the three of you to live. Unfortunately, the plane they left on that night went down somewhere over the ocean, and we never heard from either of them again."

"How did they find out about me?" Peter asked.

"I'm not sure," Alfred replied.

"It's because you had to go to that stupid science exhibition at Oscorp," Bruce interjected with a slighted tone. "I've been sitting here blaming myself for their deaths, but it's because of you and your parents for why my parents are dead now."

"Bruce Thomas Wayne! That will be enough of that!" Alfred scolded.

Peter could only lower his head and wonder if Bruce was right. Then he thought back to when Norman made a reference to him about him being smart like his parents. At the time, Peter thought he was referring to Thomas and Martha, but he then realized that he must've actually been talking about his real parents.

"Why would they have let me go to the science exhibit if they knew it was dangerous?" Peter wanted to know.

Bruce was about to say something, but he remained silent after he noticed Alfred giving him a mean glare in the rearview mirror.

"Your parents knew how much you wanted to go, and they didn't want to break your heart by telling you no," Alfred replied.

"But if they knew it was dangerous…" Peter said again.

Bruce couldn't hold his tongue any longer. "That's because they knew you would have cried about it until you got your way. You never would have believed their story as to why they didn't want you to go. And they always babied you!"

SCREECH! Alfred brought the car to an abrupt halt despite only being a half a mile away from Wayne Manor. The sudden stop nearly caused one of the following police cars to slam into the back of them.

"I told you once before, that is enough!"

Bruce was having none of it though. And as soon as the car stopped, he jumped out and ran off into the woods.

Alfred wanted to give chase, but he didn't want to leave Peter.

The police officers who had been following behind them saw what was transpiring, so they quickly jumped out of their vehicles to ask Alfred what was going on.

"It's okay!" Alfred yelled out. "Young Master Bruce is just blowing off a little steam, that's all!"

Alfred then got back in the car and proceeded towards the manor.

Just as they pulled into the driveway, Peter asked, "Who will take care of me now?"

Alfred let out a sigh. "I believe you will have to live with your true next of kin, your Aunt May and Uncle Ben Parker."

"But… since people are trying to kill me, wouldn't that endanger them as well?"

"You would probably have around the clock police protection until they can figure it all out," Alfred replied.

"If you know it is Norman Osborn, why won't they just arrest him?"

"I'm afraid it's not that easy, Peter. There are no ties that lead to Norman Osborn. The police wouldn't be able to do anything based on my speculation. The only evidence the police have is that your house was robbed by three unknown men, and a giant bird man tried killing you at the funeral. Not to mention, you seem to think that Commissioner Loeb might be working with the bad guys."

"When do you think Bruce will come back?"

"He probably has a lot on his mind… We all do. Hopefully he will return soon."

Bruce certainly did have a lot on his mind. Not only the deaths of his parents, but also the unbelievable thing that happened to him when he leapt from out of the tree at the funeral service while trying to save Peter from the Vulture. "What were those things that grew from my arms?" he thought to himself. "Was it just my imagination? Did I blackout somehow?"

Bruce then started to remember the giant bat he saw after he fell into the deep well. It wasn't normal looking. It was covered in some strange black ooze. And the visions he saw of Peter's real parents- and the images of the symbiote hive mind. What did it all mean? That's when he decided it was time to go back to the well.

It didn't take him long to find it, almost as if something supernatural was guiding him back to it. He knew the well was deep, and he remembered the long vines which grew along the sides of the walls. That was how he would make his way back down.

After reaching the bottom, it seemed to be darker than he remembered. He wanted to use the flashlight on his phone, but he realized he must have left it in the car. He tried squinting his eyes, hoping to see anything at all, but it was useless, it was pitch black.

"Hello!" he yelled out.

"Ahh!" he suddenly felt a pain in his ears, as if the sound of his voice was louder than he thought.

He then began to see the vibrations of his voice bouncing off the walls. Somehow, at that point, the well wasn't as dark as it was once before.

As the echoes of his voice started to fade, so did his sight, until it was finally dark again.

"Let's try that again," he thought to himself. "Hello," he said softly.

Once again, the vibrations of his voice started allowing him to see the side walls of the well. "What in the world is happening to me?" he thought.

Just then, he heard a different voice speak out. "We are with you," the voice whispered.

"What? Who is there!" Bruce blurted.

"Ahhhh!" The pain of him speaking so loudly buzzed his head again, the echoes bouncing off the walls and into his brain.

"We are part of the All Black. We are with you," the whispery voice spoke again.

"Where are you? Why can't I see you?" Bruce whispered back, trying to keep his head from hurting.

"We have joined you. We are within you."

"Within me?"

"Yes. You need not speak. We are a part of you. We can read your thoughts."

"What? What are you talking about?" Bruce said aloud. He watched for the echoes bouncing off the walls, hoping to spot where the voice was coming from, but he saw no one.

"Let us help you remember."

Just then, Bruce felt himself falling into the deep well again, feeling the thud as he hit the bottom. He remembered the pain. He remembered not being able to move. He then remembered the giant bat that flew at him just before he passed out.

"Do you remember now?" the voice inside his head asked. "We joined you just before someone pulled you up."

"Yes," Bruce started to speak aloud. But then he stopped speaking. "Yes. I remember," he then thought to himself, knowing the voices would still hear him.

"Good. We are the reason you were able to save Peter Parker. We allowed your arms to become wings, so that you could reach him."

"What do you want with me?" Bruce thought.

"Actually, we want nothing from you. It is Peter Parker that we want."

"Peter? Why?"

"We must return to him. Our survival depends upon it."

"Return to him? I don't understand."

"Allow us to show you," the voice insisted.

Just then, Bruce began having visions of the moment Richard and Mary entered the secret laboratory at Oscorp. He felt the pain of all the lab animals that were being experimented on with the symbiote DNA. He felt the pain of the starving bat that was being tortured. That's when he saw the bat grow bigger and attack Richard, biting him on the arm, the symbiote's DNA transferring itself to him at the same time. He saw the baby symbiote in the canister that broke and attached itself to Mary just before they escaped.

The visions didn't stop there. They showed Bruce how Mary and Richard managed to escape the burning house; and how they planted a seed to continue spawning new symbiotes through the human birthing process. Bruce could see how the symbiote protected Peter while he was in the womb; and how it managed to escape into the walls of the cave after Peter was born; and soon after that, it used a bat as its host.

Bruce then snapped out of the visions.

"Now you see why we must return to Peter. We need him to be our host so that we can continue thriving… as we did on Klyntar."

"What will happen to Peter once you return to him?" Bruce asked.

"His body will be a sacrifice. We shall use it to continue growing our own kind."

"Growing your own kind?" Bruce repeated. "Where?"

The voice didn't answer for a few seconds.

"I asked you a question. Where will you continue growing your own kind?" Bruce continued asking.

"We are the superior species. We will recreate Klyntar here… on this planet."

"And what about the human species?"

"You are useless. We will only need your kind to continue spawning our own."

"I won't allow that," Bruce declared.

"You don't have a choice," the voice retorted.

"I won't let you," Bruce continued.

"You will sleep now," the voice whispered. "When you wake up, it will all be over."

Just then, Bruce felt himself going under as his eyes slowly faded into darkness.

Hours later, after it had gotten dark outside, Bruce finally made his way home, or at least the symbiote that was controlling him made his way home. It was hoping Peter might've fallen asleep.

"FREEZE! HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" a police officer demanded, noticing someone approaching the front gates of the manor.

The symbiote was about to react, until he heard someone call out, "Master Bruce, thank God you made it home!" Alfred ran out to him. "Is Peter with you?" he frantically asked.

The symbiote was surprised by that question. "No. Peter was not with me. How long has he been gone?"

"I went to his room almost an hour ago and he wasn't there. I figured he must've gone out searching for you."

Meanwhile, Peter was on his way to Oscorp. He had called Harry and told him to keep their conversation a secret, and that he wanted to talk to him more about Petey/Subject P. He knew Harry would have clearance to get inside. From there, Peter would be able to get some answers as to why Norman was so interested in him.

Also, meanwhile, Norman Osborn received a call from Karl Fiers.

"We intercepted a telephone call that was made to your son, Harry. You'll never believe who it was."

"Who?" Norman wanted to know.

"Peter Parker," Karl informed him. "And… he is on his way to Oscorp as we speak to meet up with Harry."

"Interesting. I thought we had lost our opportunity to nab him at the funeral service. And now… it looks as if he is coming right to us," he said with a grin. "Have Octavius prepare the Super-Serum. Tonight- my life's greatest legacy will finally come to fruition."