(A/N) I left a few subtle Edge of Time references in here somewhere. Let's see who spots them all!
Peter was taking deep breaths as he heard the muffled voices of everyone running around frantically. Well, Kenji. Everyone stood in place or did a small pace to try and calm down and think, Kenji was the only one running around like a madman.
"Somebody get some bandages!"
"Guys…"
"Hang on, everything's gonna be okay."
"You know, some supplies we can get or something?"
"Does anybody know…"
"Maybe we should go."
"Where are you going?"
"Stop! Where are we?"
"Yaz! The quills are poisonous." Brooklynn cried as she ran over with some bandages. "We gotta take them out of him."
"Pete." Sammy got his attention focused on her. "I need you to look at me." She didn't seem to want him to see as the others were preparing to remove the quills. "Just look at me."
"Okay, on my count," Brooklynn said to Yaz. "This is gonna hurt."
"I'm sorry, Peter," Yaz whispered.
"One, two, three!" Brooklynn counted.
They yanked the quills out of him, causing the air to be filled by his screams. As the quills were removed, Brooklynn began to bandage the wounds as Peter was beginning to pass out.
"Peter, are you there? Peter, are you still with me? Peter? Peter?! Peter!!!" Yaz cried.
Peter was leaning against one of the legs holding up their base with a pillow underneath while laying on a blanket. His skin was growing pale and he was beginning to shiver with the others standing a little behind. Yaz and Brooklynn stood close, Brooklynn taking a few classes from Peter on first aid after the incident with his dad and she admitted she never learned and always had others to show her.
"It's okay, Peter, we're here." Yaz tried to assure him, tears swelling. "Everything's gonna be okay."
Brooklynn approached the others to try and find out what to do.
"Taking out the quills wasn't enough. The poison's already in his system." Darius said in worry. "He needs an antidote!"
"Oh, sure, yeah, an antidote." Kenji scoffed. "That'll be easy to find, considering no one even knew this thing existed."
"Maybe the medical supply station has something?" Ben asked.
"Doubt it," Kenji stated.
"Kenji's right," Darius said. "The Scorpios rex wasn't supposed to ever get out."
"But he can heal, can't he?" Sammy asks. "So, can't we just wait it out?"
"No, this poison could be fighting his power," Darius said. "We don't know the extension of his power or what poison this is."
Brooklynn then gasped. "The video on Wu's old lab!" She said, shaking Sammy as she wasn't following. "Remember? He was attacked by the Scorpios, and they were giving him this shot from a red vial."
"That's right!" Sammy finally remembered. "I believe they said antidote, I'm not-"
Yaz ran over and gave Sammy a spin to get her to face her. "Where is this lab!?"
Sammy took out her map and handed it to Yaz, who looked it over and memorized their location. "Near the raptor paddock," Sammy answered.
Yaz quickly looked over the map and between the two locations. "Take care of Peter until I get back."
"Wait, Yaz! The Scorpios went that way!" Sammy said as Yaz started to run off.
"I don't care what's out there!" Yaz stated as she rushed past everyone. "I'm saving him!"
"This is nuts! She can't outrun that thing." Ben stated.
"We have to figure out a way to help her somehow," Brooklynn stated.
"Okay, think. What do we know so far about this dinosaur?" Darius asks.
"It's straight-up terrifying, it climbs, breathes like a pug with a cold, and it moves weird," Kenji recapped as he made some noises and coughs.
Brooklynn then looked over to the scorched tree. "But when the lightning hit that tree..."
"It didn't run from it, it went towards it, almost like it was hypnotized for a second," Darius remembered. "That's how we'll clear a path for Yaz, only our explosion will be better, bigger, louder, fierier."
Ben jumped in. "I'm in. I know the jungle better than anyone. Plus, bigger, louder, fierier those are all my favorite words." He then raced off. "Try to keep up."
Darius then looked to Kenji, Brooklynn, Laura, and Sammy who were going to be staying.
"You do realize that this plan of yours is a complete long shot?" Kenji asks.
"Yeah," Darius said as he looked over to Peter. "But we gotta try, right?"
"Good luck," Kenji said as they raced off.
Laura walked over to Peter and sighed as she kneeled down to his side, caressing his head to try and comfort him. That was when she began to smell something. She looked around and felt her heightened animal senses alert him that there was indeed something out there. She got up and began to look around.
"Laura?" Sammy called out. "What is it?"
"Something is coming," Laura answered, clenching her knuckles as she looked around. "Coming for him."
Yaz was running as fast as she could through the jungle. Racing around the creatures she found she heard the roars of the Scorpios, causing her to freeze and check the surrounding area. But there was nothing there, so she took off running again.
"Hang on, Peter," Yaz whispered as she kept running. "Just hang on." She then skidded to as top when she looked and noticed a giant river in the path. "Come on, Yaz!" She yelled, slapping herself. "You're gonna let a little water stop you?!"
Yaz then took a few steps back to build up what she thought was enough momentum. She then raced and leaped as hard as she could... but the ground was soaked, causing Yaz to slip and fall backward into the water.
Yaz climbed up from the soaking water and tried to climb her way back up. "No!" She cried, seeing she was getting too far from where she was. Fighting her way against the tide, she grabbed ahold of anything she could, which in this case ended up being a vine. She used it to drag herself back onto the ground and gasped.
Taking a second to catch her breath, Yaz stumbled her way against a tree and dropped against it. What if she was too late? She didn't know how quick the poison acted, and she didn't know if Peter was still alive. This was a long shot. Who knows if there was an antidote left?
"What do spiders have to do with dinosaurs?" Yazmania wondered as she looked a the containers.
"Well, like we have today, Spiders have been around as long as Dino's have," Peter explained. "Dad did tell me they were experimenting on resurrecting some other extinct creatures. Sabertooths, wholly mammoths, stuff like that, using fossils. Spiders just seem to be the main thing they can do so far."
"Great. More of these creepy crawlies in our homes." Yazmania said sarcastically.
"Kinda wonder what makes them so unique," Peter said as he tried to read the labels. "Synspermiata."
Yazmania looked at him as if he had grown a new head. "You made that word up."
"I could be reading it wrong, it has been a minute since I wore glasses." Peter shrugged. "But, no, I read about this species in one of Dr. Richards' glimpses into the past. That's definitely a Synspermiata."
"Okay, if you say so, Spider-Man," Yazmania said jokingly as she walked off. "You seem to know your arachnids."
Yaz smiled as she remembered their first real interaction with one another and then became determined again. She got up and noticed a sign in the distance. She ran over and read it:
MAIN STREET
LAGOON
RAPTORS
"That was right near the lab," Yaz remembers as she raced off to the raptor paddocks.
Peter was only getting worse as Brooklynn placed a wet rag on his head to keep his temperature down.
"We got you, Peter," Brooklynn promised him. "You've been protecting us all this time. Now it's time for us to protect you." She then placed his hand in hers. "You're going to make it through this. I... I never got the chance to say-" Kenji approached, getting Brooklynn to stop and turn to face him. "Hey, Kenji? Can you get some more water?"
Kenji nodded as he went off to do just that.
Brooklynn then looked back to Peter and leaned over. "Peter, can you hear me? I need you to hurry up and get better, okay? I've got too much that's gone unsaid for you to die now."
Peter wheezed breathing as he was struggling to stay conscious.
Sammy then approached with a new rag and placed it on his head. "I feel guilty." She admitted to Brooklynn, getting her to look up at her. "He jumped in the way to save me. If he had just-"
"What? Let you get struck?" Brooklynn asks with a scoff. "Peter would never have let himself live it down. He would guilt himself all the way to the mainland."
Sammy looked down and saw how sick he looked. "Yeah, but-"
"No, Peter didn't do this just so you could go about blaming yourself." Brooklynn stopped her. She then noticed someone was missing. "Where's Laura?"
Sammy pointed upwards, showing Laura was watching the area from above. "She thinks she can smell the Cross-Species coming. Wants to be ready to defend him."
"And to think when we met her, she was trying to kill him," Brooklynn said with a smile as she looked down at Peter. "You're definitely proud of her, I can tell."
Kenji returned with some water, dropping it a small distance away.
"You can come closer, you know," Brooklynn said. "He's not contagious."
"Nah. You just look like you got things on lock, so I'm just… gonna not." Kenji told them.
"Kenji, it's okay. I'm scared, too." Brooklynn tried to comfort him.
"What? You are?" Kenji asks.
"Yeah. I just, like, freely admitted that." Brooklynn was surprised to hear.
"I'm not… scared," Kenji said as Peter began coughing. Sammy tried to help him. "I mean, I am, I just… What if he… None of my friends have ever…"
"Don't say it," Brooklynn told him. "Yaz is gonna come back with the antidote, and then everything will be fine."
"What if she doesn't find it?" Kenji asks. "Or what if it doesn't work?"
"Kenji? Kenji, look at me." Brooklyn tells him. "The only thing we can control is helping her feel better. And right now, we have to do whatever we can."
That was when they heard a roar, a screech, and a snarl in the distance. They looked out into the jungle in worry as they realized the Cross-Species had found them.
Laura snarled as she leaped down and drew her claws. She was still bruised from her encounter with the Scorpios. But if these Cross-Species wanted to come and harm her brother, she was going to do everything she could to stop them.
"Let's fucking go," Laura snarled, drawing her claws.
"I'm the track star. The person my coaches, my team, everybody relies on. But now... But now I'm not. And if I'm not strong anymore what good am I?"
Peter scoffed when he heard that. "What good are any of us on our own?" He watched Yaz look up at him. "I mean, come on, I am just some nerd who got bitten by a spider. I don't know which dinosaur to hit or leave be. I just fought some mutated scorpion for crying out loud And Kenji, he's-"
"Lazy? Entitled? Basically hopeless?" Yaz finished that thought for him.
Peter laughed when he heard that, seeing Kenji was offended by it. "I was going to say the annoying glue that keeps us together." He then placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You are not able to do anything right now, but you need to be open to just taking it easy once in a while. You guys did a lot of the heavy lifting the first few days before I got bit. Think of this as your time off for all of that. The best thing to do isn't push yourself so hard, you collapse. Let someone else do the work for a change, Yaz."
Yaz smiled and pulled Peter in for a hug, surprising him, but he gladly returned it. "That is a pretty cool suit, by the way."
"Thanks," Peter said as he continued to hug her. "My aunt taught me to sew." He then wrapped around her waist and lifted Yaz, causing her to yelp as he placed her on his back. "Alright! Let's head back to camp!"
Yaz was panting as she continued to run through the jungle. She ran as fast as she could until she noticed the raptor paddock in the distance.
"Raptor paddock." Yaz nodded she was in the right place. She then looked around and raced off in the direction she saw on the map.
Yaz instantly ran into the building but the storm had knocked down a lot of trees, blocking the entrance. Yaz ran over and tried to open the door, only to see the tree was blocking it.
"Come on!"
Yaz got to work trying to push the tree off using her body against the building and pushing the tree with her legs.
That was when she heard the Scorpios in the area. It stomped its way over, causing Yaz to freeze in fear. The Scorpios stomped their way around the building, snarling as it felt it heard something before making their way out of the area. Yaz began to pant in fear.
A palpable tension hung in the air as Peter tried to decipher the odd vibe between the two girls. He wasn't sure what was up with the two of them who started this strange battle to hang out with him more than the other. Okay, he had a slight idea about it but he didn't believe that these two girls developed feelings for him.
The notion that Brooklynn and Yaz could harbor feelings for him seemed utterly ludicrous, an idea so far-fetched that it tugged at the corners of his mind. He shook his head slightly, brushing aside the ridiculous thought, but deep down, he couldn't shake the flicker of curiosity that lingered in the back of his mind.
"So, what do you like to do for fun back home?" Brooklynn asks.
"I don't have a lot of time for fun," Yaz admitted. "I'm always competing or training."
"Right, right. Totally relate." Brooklynn said.
"Oh, you know what it's like to spend five hours in the gym every day?" Yaz asks.
"I wish my job only took five hours a day!" Brooklynn stated.
"Yeah, I'm sure it's really hard to get paid to go to cool places and record videos on your smartphone," Yaz said sarcastically.
"As a matter of fact, it is," Brooklynn stated. "Ever tried to hold your phone steady while climbing a glacier?"
"No! I was too busy running four-and-a-half-minute miles." Yaz stated.
"You should try it sometime. It's especially fun when you're trying to appease sponsors and-"
"Been there."
"Sacrificing a normal childhood just to maintain good numbers."
"Yep. Same here." Yaz said.
"Wow! We just have so much in common." Brooklynn said with a slight sarcasm.
"Come on, guys," Peter tried to get them to calm down. "I bet we can get some common interest. Like, Yaz, you like to draw."
Yaz was surprised to hear that. "Wait, who told?"
"Sammy did," Peter admitted. "Also, you left your sketchpad near my dad's formula book and I happened to take a look."
"Oh," Yaz said with a blush. "And... what did you think?"
"Oh, I thought it was great," Peter said. "Your attention to detail is impressive. And Brooklynn can relate to that."
"What?" Brooklynn asks.
"Come on, looking into details for your stories in your videos?" Peter stated. "I mean, your drawings, and her stories, team up, the two of you could be an unstoppable team."
"Yeah, I don't see that working out," Yaz said as she crossed her arms, looking out the window.
Peter sighed as he leaned against the window and knew that this was going to take some work to get them to talk to him.
Yaz wasn't going to give up. She pushed as hard as she could against the tree with all of her strength to push it open. She managed to lightly move the tree and she managed to slip her way inside.
Yaz ran inside the facility and saw a whole lot of claw marks everywhere that looked more recent. Scorpios must've managed to break inside after Brooklynn and Sammy left. She then began to tear the place apart searching for the antidote. She grabbed every vial that she could find that wasn't or was broken. She franticly searched every drawer. She searched every desk she searched everywhere. But the more she looked, the more frantic she began to search with no sign of the antidote.
"It's not here." Yaz began to slightly panic, throwing papers out of a drawer. "It has to be here!"
She then screamed as she tossed the papers on the desk. She fell to her knees in pain. Tears swelled in her eyes as she realized that she might lose someone she loved.
"Don't we just make the best team ever?" Peter asked as he dangled behind them, giving Sammy an upside-down high-5.
"For now," Yaz said with a sigh.
"For now?" Sammy was confused. "What do you mean?"
"I mean… let's be real, guys. This friendship has an expiration date." Yaz told them.
"What? That's not true." Peter said as he dropped down. "Where's this coming from?"
"Open your eyes. We have nothing in common other than running for our lives all the time." Yaz told them. "And once you take that away, what do we have? Nothing."
Peter was confused about where this was coming from as he looked at Sammy and back to Yaz. "What? So... what, everything we've done? Everything we've done together... this is it? After all we've been through?" He sighed as he just shrugged. "If that is how you feel. Fine."
"Wait, what?" Sammy asks.
"She doesn't think relationships can work long distances, Sammy," Peter said with a sigh. "If she doesn't see what we see... there's nothing we can do. Even after everything. And I thought we learned by now..."
Yaz didn't even look in their direction as she felt tears swell in her eyes. She quickly wiped them out before they came into full tears.
"Why did I say that?" Yaz asked herself. "Why would you say that!?" She screamed at herself as she grabbed the desk and tossed it over. "After everything, why would I say that!? Now the last conversation we have is going to be-" That was when she spotted a first aid kit in the chaos. "Wait..."
Yaz ran over to the kit and opened it, seeing some strange case inside. Opening it up, she saw a needle with two vials, and on it was a printed word: E750 ANTIDOTE.
Yaz broke down as she clutched the case in her hands. "Yes!" She whispered with tears of joy now swelling. "Yes..."
Brooklynn was pouring some water for Peter while Sammy and Kenji held him up.
"You're good at this," Sammy commented.
"Peter started to help me with a few easy things from the first-aid courses that his aunt took him to," Brooklynn explained since she did say she never took first aid and had professionals.
"I wish I had learned anything useful before we got stuck here," Kenji said with a sigh. "Anything at all."
"May?" Peter muttered, beginning to wake up a little. "May..."
"His aunt, right?" Sammy asks.
"Yeah," Brooklynn said with a chuckle. "Even semiconscious, he's still super on-brand. Thinking about his family."
Then they watched as Peter tensed up, pulling his arms in close and his legs quenching up. They heard a roar and looked out to the jungle where they saw the form of the Rhino charging in.
"Uh, guys?" Sammy wasn't sure if this was reality. "Is that...?"
"Rhino is coming," Brooklynn said as they looked down at Peter. "We have to move him!"
"Where?!" Kenji asks.
When Rhino came charging, that's when they heard Laura's ferocious cry and she came falling from the trees and tackled the Cross-Species. The rhino roared and spun its horn around, trying to pry Laura off its head. She screamed and embedded one hand with her claws into the horn, followed by slamming her other hand and yanking the other one free.
Rhino charged towards the treeline, and she quickly leaped out of the way, allowing him to slam his horn into the tree. Laura rolled and landed on her feet as she kept her claws drawn and let out a roar. She then looked around and smelled something and looked upwards just as the Vulture came clear coming in hard. She quickly ran and leaped into the air as the Vulture drew talons to attack.
Yaz was running out of the facility, jumping over the tree and rushing down the path she took, retracing her steps back to the camp. "Just hold on a few more seconds, Peter, I'm almost there!"
But she stopped when she heard a snarl, causing her to freeze. Looking over she saw the Scorpios was currently eating a dinosaur she couldn't tell what kind in the darkness.
The Scorpios raised its head and got a clear sight of Yaz. She freezes in fear as the Scorpios let out a roar, causing Yaz to drop the case and clutch her ears. The case fell and popped open as Yaz stared at the Scorpios, watching how it wasn't attacking her. She looked and watched the Scorpios studying her moves. She slowly made her way down, using a finger to push the case close, causing a click to stir in the air.
The Scorpios snarled at Yaz as she slowly got herself into a running position. She was going to outrun a creature she didn't know how fast it ran. She prepared to run until her legs broke to make it back to Peter.
Sprinting off as fast as she could, she began to run through the jungle. She looked back and saw the Scorpios was on her tail and she kept running.
"Let's go, Ben!" Darius said as they were loading up gasoline onto Lookout Point. "For all we know, the Scorpios have caught up to Yaz by now."
"Almost ready," Ben said as he prepared to light the spark. "Hit it!"
They watched the dome make its way up the mountainside and waited to see it go off. "I hope it's enough."
"Oh, it will be," Ben said with pride. "You may wanna cover your ears." He said as he did just that. "This should be a pretty big boom." They then watched as a small explosion went off. "But that... What?"
Scorpios was beginning to snarl as it continued to chase after Yaz. She ran across the forest, missing a strange pile of ooze that she stepped in and it lathed onto her foot. She kept running, unaware of the creature hitching a ride. She then came across the same river from earlier. Not willing to make the same mistake she made last time, she rushed as fast and as hard as she could and leaped right at the ledge.
Flying across the river, she fell and sprained her ankle as she fell and smacked into the ground. She fell over and rolled, holding onto the case. She felt her leg and saw the Scorpios wasn't chasing her anymore. She panted and looked down at her leg and winced as she somehow managed to sprain it again.
Yaz put herself in the driver's seat and got herself buckled in one of the Gyrospheres. "This is gonna be so sick."
Peter walked over to her sphere and knocked on the glass. "Hey, sorry, but mind if we shared a sphere? Kinda an odd number of us, and only so many spheres."
"Oh, uh..." Yaz didn't know how to politely turn him down.
"Just a quick warning, I don't think Sammy is going to let this one go," Peter warned her, getting Yaz to see Sammy over at the empty solo seating one, eyeing the one she was in.
"Okay, I see your point." Yaz didn't seem to want a repeat of last night. "Get in."
"Great," Peter said as he jumped in. "Two introverts in a glass ball. Let's see what comes of it."
Yaz rolled her eyes but there was a slight smile on her face, enjoying his attempt at humor. "Yay..."
"So, you mind if I ask you something?" Peter asked her.
"If you have to." Yaz seemed less than ready to answer the questions.
"You seem a bit... closed off, which I am not saying is a bad thing," Peter said as he fixed his glasses, something he did when he was nervous. "Don't get me wrong, I am a worse introvert than you, I can tell. So, why would you wanna come to this?"
Yaz nodded and saw he had a fair question. "Well, Jurassic World is my corporate sponsor. So, they approached me with this and said that this was just a favor they would ask and would keep funding me."
"Kinda sounds like you were blackmailed to be here," Peter commented.
"No, it's more..." Yaz was trying to defend it, but realized he was right. "Okay, wow, I might have been blackmailed." She had a small crisis to hear that out loud. "What about you? You're an introvert, how'd you end up here?"
"Well, as you saw, my dad took a job volunteering here as he wants to try and spend more time with me." Peter sighed as he leaned back. "We haven't gotten to see each other much since he took the job to come here."
"At least your dad is trying." Yaz scoffed as she looked out to a triceratops being headed back into the group by a Jurassic World employee on a vehicle. "Mine left when I was barely a year old."
"Off. Sorry," Peter said as he readjusted his glasses again.
"Hey," Yaz called out.
Peter turned and had to squint as she was too far away to see her clearly. "Oh, hey, what are you doing here?"
"I just wanted to say thanks for what you said out there," Yaz told him. "You were right. I really do need to start opening up more. Especially around you guys."
"It's okay to open up slowly," Peter promised her. "Baby steps are important."
Yaz nodded as she backed off. "And I really am sorry about what happened to your glasses."
"Don't worry about it, I'm over it," Peter promised, taking a seat on his bed. He missed that the spider began crawling its way upward onto his sleeve. "But there is someone else out there you wanted to talk to?"
"Right," Yaz said, backing off. "Night, I guess."
"Night." Peter chuckled as she left.
"It's so..." Brooklynn saw the swollen leg as Yasmina grunted and stood. "How are you even walking?"
"I'm highly motivated," Yaz stated, trying to stand back up. "I got this." But Yaz quickly fell back down with a scream. "Ahh!"
"She can't keep up like this," Sammy stated.
"What do we do?" Brooklynn asks.
Peter sighed as he ran back and kneeled down to Yaz. "Put your arms around my neck."
"What?" Yaz asks in confusion.
"Just do it," Peter tells her.
Yaz just complied and wrapped her arms around his neck. That was when Peter put his arms under her knees, and on her back where he then lifted her upward. Yaz let out a yelp as he lifted her up, not used to this treatment.
"Alright... let's do this," Peter stated.
"You sure you can carry her?" Brooklynn asks. "You are still pretty beaten up."
"I should be fine." Peter shrugged. "Better than the alternative." He then whinced as he felt Yaz touch one of the scratches on his neck. "Ah, careful."
"Sorry," Yaz said, moving her arms.
"I can't do it..." Peter whispered. "I can't do this... I am not powerful. I am not... spectacular, amazing, or just... anything. I am just... Peter Parker. The guy that was bitten by some stupid bug his dad created." He then felt the tears stream down his face. "I couldn't save Ben, or Bumpy, or save my dad when that Indominus rex attacked." He let out a furious cry as he slammed the ground. "This is all my fault. I should have never let my dad take this stupid job. Maybe the Indominous might have never existed. You guys would all be safe. All of this because of that stupid spider! These powers aren't some gift... they're a curse."
Darius slipped down into the area and approached him. "Yeah, maybe. But... maybe they would have still made the Indominous." He tried to ease Peter's pain. "I mean, it would have taken a few more years maybe, or maybe even sooner. Or maybe she would still be here. We don't know."
"Not the best pep-talk," Darius said.
"My point is, you also helped us," Darius reminded him. "Maybe Sammy might not have survived if you weren't there. You saved us from the Indominous in the truck. You were able to get Bumpy from being dino-chow." There was a roar in the distance. "I mean, look at us. None of us should be here. I'm just a dino nerd whos good at video games. Kenji's just some rich kid."
"Hey." Kenji somehow found offense in that.
"Brooklynn is just some YouTuber. Yaz is a gymnast. Sammy is a farmgirl." Darius continued. "And you, well, you were a science dork. I don't think that spider changed anything about you. I think it just enhanced what you were. You were always looking out for us, the moment that you met us."
"He's right," Brooklynn agreed with him. "You helped me try and see the world without my phone."
"You helped me try and open up," Yaz agreed.
"I guess you understood why I did all of this," Sammy added.
"And... I got nothing," Kenji shrugged.
"And you helped me understand Brooklynn," Darius said.
Peter chuckled. "You know, hearing all this, I should really become some sort of therapist."
"You didn't give up on us, even when you didn't want to know us," Darius explained his point. "You might think this is a curse, and you may be right in this context. But you have used them as an amazing gift. And I don't just mean your powers. It's your heart, mind, and who you are."
"You kept us goin'," Yaz said, giving Sammy a bit of an eye. "no matter what some of us have done."
Sammy looked away in disappointment.
"You made us feel like we were in this together." Yaz continued her point. "So, we are."
Peter scoffed a little. "And you all wanna say we're not friends?"
"Yeah, yeah," Kenji rolled his eyes. "Pat yourself on the back. We admit it."
"Things fall apart. And that's okay because when that happens..."
"We pick up the pieces and we keep going." Peter seemed to get what they were saying and looked out to the tunnels. "You're right." He agreed as he looked around the area and knew Toro was coming. "These powers are my gift... my curse... whatever lies beyond this point, we face together."
"They'll be back for us, won't they?" Sammy asks.
"Of course they will," Darius said. "And until then, we've got each other. Right, Mr. VIP?"
"Absolutely, Dino-nerd." Kenji stated.
"Hey, don't forget "superstar"," Brooklynn called in.
"Barf." Yaz said.
"Oh, don't you go doing that, track star!" Peter joked, shaking her around a little. "Or I might try out swimming strength."
"Do it, I might just drown you," Yaz dared him.
Peter chuckled. "I'd see you try."
With the Scorpion finally gone, Peter began catching his breath. "Next time, maybe stick to the desert," he said, offering a wry smile. The jungle was quiet once more, he then ran over to Yaz as she got back up. "You good?"
"When did you get those working?" Yaz wonders.
"Last night during that party," Peter shrugged. "What are you doing out here?"
"Looking for you," Yaz said. "There was a lot going on with the others... I just needed a break from their drama."
"Drama?" Peter asked, just when Kraven dropped down, secretly watching the whole scenario. "Oh, what happened to 'we will do this together' oh so mighty hunter?"
"You ignored my advice," Kraven stated. "So, I figured you preferred to handle matters yourself."
"You expect me to stand there and watch him hurt someone I love?" Peter asked him, not realizing what he just said.
Yaz however heard it loud and clear. She wasn't sure if he meant that more like how a friend loves a friend, or as something more... is it wrong she hoped for the ladder?
Yaz remembered how he didn't stop helping them. He never quit. He pushed himself to fight Scorpion. Rhino. Vulture. Kraven. Anything it took to keep them safe. And now his life rested in her not giving up. She panted, groaning as she pushed through the pain and got back on her feet.
"You never gave up on us, Peter... I'm not giving up either!" Yaz promised.
But as she was getting ready to go again, she heard the Scorpios screeching getting her to look around. She then gasped when she looked up at a tree and saw that the Scorpios made it's way down the tree and stood in front of Yaz.
"Go ahead, then!" Yaz screamed in anger. "You gonna do something, then do it already!"
"We have to do something!" Darius cried.
"I might have some more gas stashed a few clicks from here!" Ben said.
"Clicks? What the heck are clicks?" Darius questions. "Ben, we're out of time!"
"I know, I'm-" Ben was then interrupted by a ginormous explosion coming from the Lookout Point.
The Scorpios were about to strike on Yaz when the explosion went off. The Scorpios changed its target to the ginormous heat source and ran off.
The explosion sent fragments everywhere, causing Darius and Ben to panic.
"We should…"
"Yeah!"
Back at the camp, Laura was getting dragged by the Vulture, causing her to attack his talons with her second hand. When she did, she flipped and embedded her talon into his stomach, causing the creature to screech.
Laura then pulled on his head, causing the Vulture to slam into the trees. She leaped only to be grabbed by the Scorpion, wrapping its tail around her. Slamming her into the ground. Injecting the poison into Laura. But due to her healing factor being much stronger and faster than Peter's. Not to mention the poison is much different. She clawed at the tail, causing the Scorpion to scream.
Laura then used her talon and cut through the tail. Scorpion finally released her as the tail was oozing the venom onto the ground leaving a trail behind. Peter began to violently shake, getting the others concerned.
"What's going on? Why's he shaking?" Kenji asks.
"What do we do?" Sammy asks.
"I-I don't know," Brooklynn said. "Where's Yaz?" She asked, looking off towards the jungle.
"Come on, Yaz!" she urged herself, determination flooding her veins as she clutched the precious antiserum tightly. Each step forward was a battle against fatigue, but she constantly reminded herself of the stakes—what she was fighting for, and who it was for. As she drew closer, the chaos of the battlefield unfolded before her: Laura was engaged in a ferocious struggle against the Cross-Species, deftly maneuvering through the fray. With a roar of defiance, Laura launched herself into combat, sending Rhino tumbling through the air like a rag doll as she crashed into a nearby tree, the impact reverberating through the forest. Unfazed, she tackled Rhino again, her fierce cries piercing the chaos.
From above, Vulture swooped down, wings spread wide, aiming to capture Yaz and pull her away from the scene. But Laura was quick; with a swift swipe of her claws, she retaliated, forcing Vulture to rethink his approach, allowing Yaz the precious moments she needed to press on.
"You can do this, Yaz! Keep going!" Laura's voice rang out, a rallying cry amidst the turmoil.
Yaz's heart surged as she heard Sammy's encouraging shout. "Come on!" She called, her enthusiasm a beacon in the frantic scene. "You're almost there!"
Suddenly, Yaz stumbled and fell to the ground, the weight of exhaustion crashing over her like a wave. Gritting her teeth, she managed to hand the antidote over, urgency painting her every movement. "Peter, it's Yaz!" she shouted, desperate to capture his attention. "I'm here! I'm here! Just hang on a little longer!"
Brooklynn stepped forward, her calm presence grounding the tension. "Everything's gonna be okay," she reassured them as she prepared the serum in a syringe, her hands steady and precise. "We've got this."
As they injected the serum into Peter, the group held their breath, anticipation thick in the air as they eagerly awaited the antidote to take effect. Just then, Darius and Ben emerged from the fray, eyes wide with relief upon seeing Yaz back in the mix, reigniting a flicker of hope in their hearts.
"We got back as soon as we…" Ben then saw that Peter wasn't waking up.
"Is he…?" Laura ran over and saw he wasn't waking up. She clenched her fist and snarled, letting out a roar as she turned back to the Cross-Species, all of them preparing to go another round. "Come on!"
Laura ran at them while the others began to break down, seeing they lost a friend. They felt Peter fighting the illness until suddenly his hand went limp in Brooklynn's hand. She let out a small gasp as she broke down into tears.
"Come on…" Yaz pleaded. "Please, wake up. I... I love..." She then looked to Brooklynn who shared a look. "We..."
Brooklynn leaned down and whispered into his ear something that seemed only for Peter to hear.
"You're the best person I've ever known," Yaz told him. "Forget what I said. We'll always be friends if that's all you want... no matter how far apart we are. It might not be easy or perfect, but… please, wake up."
Brooklynn smiled at Yaz's words but then looked down at Peter and felt the hand go numb. "No..."
"What?" Yaz began to break down. "No... he can't be. He can't be dead! Get up, Pete! Please! Get up!"
Everyone began to grow faces of somber while Laura was letting out her frustrations on the very creatures that came to attack her brother. She screamed as she threw her claws to try and attack them.
In that tense moment, the pile of slick, glistening ooze that Yaz had unknowingly stepped on released itself from the sole of her shoe, drawing the startled attention of everyone nearby. Yaz and Brooklynn, caught in their own world as they clung tightly to Peter's hands, remained oblivious to the unfolding menace. The rest of their group stood frozen, eyes wide, as the viscous substance slithered its way toward Peter like a sentient shadow.
The ooze reached his feet, creeping upward with an eerie fluidity, undeterred by the fear that gripped the others. Yaz and Brooklynn saw the creature moving upward as they watched, paralyzed, as it began its ascent, enveloping his leg and inching upward toward his torso, finally reaching his head. Their hearts raced with dread, unsure of what this strange creature was, and they hesitated to intervene.
Then, in a surreal transformation, the ooze shifted and reshaped itself around Peter, seemingly drawing inspiration from the very suit he wore. As it formed, it morphed into a sleek, pitch-black attire that clung to his body with a sinister elegance. The suit was devoid of any webbing like Peter tried to show on his suit, while two colossal white spider insignias stretched across his chest and back, stark against the darkness. The oversized, luminous eyes glowed with an unsettling intensity, completing the eerie metamorphosis. The onlookers could only stare in astonishment and fear as their friend transformed before their very eyes.
That was when Peter jumped and sat up with a large gasp for air. "What happened?! What year is it?! Is the Rock president?!" He asked, his mind scrambling to make sense of everything that happened. That was when he looked around and saw the shocked confused and somewhat relieved looks on everyone's faces. That was when he looked down at his body and recognized the new suit that was now on him. "What is this..?"