End Of Beginning

Matt

Matt never realised just how fast Peter really was. He couldn’t even smell the chemical scent of his suit when he had made it out of the office, and his heartbeat sounded like it was already blocks away.

Matt was panting by the time he finally reached where the fight was happening, out of breath from how hard he had pushed himself to catch up with Peter. Matt’s senses are filled with the overwhelming smell of blood coming from Deadpool. Said man is moving sluggishly, swinging his sword around randomly.

Matt jumps down and pulls him out of the way right as Scorpion's tail lashes out towards him. The two duck into an alley, crouching behind a dumpster.

“What happened, where are you bleeding?” Matt asks, patting at the tears in his suit. The torn parts are splattered with blood but the skin is wholly intact.

“All healed, only died a couple times. I’m feeling much better now that you’re here” Deadpool says. Matt can hear him smirk under his mask. “Where’s Spidey?”

“I’ll ask about the dying part later, as for Spider-Man.” Matt tilts his head, listening. He could hear his heartbeat nearby, steady and strong. He was in one of the buildings near them.

“He’s here somewhere.”

“Spider-Man?” Scorpion yells out from where he stood in the street. “I know you’re here, where are you hiding?” A car's siren goes off and Matt’s head twitches, his ears overwhelmed by the sound. Peter’s heart rate quickens and Matt can smell the sweat beading along his upper lip. He’s up to something.

“C’mon, come face me like a man. You can’t go down that easily, can you? Spider-Man?” Matt can hear Scorpion's lip curl and he shoots up, pulling Deadpool up with him. “Or should I call you Pet-” Matt runs out into the street pulling Deadpool with him. The overwhelming scream of crunching metal fills his ears and he clasps his hands over them.

“Oh fuck Pete.” Deadpool whispers beside him.

~~~~~~

He needed to calm down. He was on edge after what he did to Karen.

Fuck.

He can’t believe he had let himself hurt her.

Peter waited in an adjacent building, watching Wade fight Scorpion. After Wade had cut off his hand Scorpion was not letting his guard down. Wade couldn’t get a single good slash in with his sword. Peter breathes steady breaths, rubbing his chest. Just like his aunt taught him.

Matt appears, pulling Wade away.

Yes, good.

Peter slides open the window, ducking down as Scorpions head shoots up to look at him. He itches at his side. He had webbed up his wound to stop the bleeding and it stung and itched uncomfortably.

“Spider-Man? I know you’re here, where are you hiding?” Scorpion yells. His voice cracks and falters as he yells, his voice still damaged from when Peter couldn’t hold back. He could do it this time, he could take him down without losing control. He wouldn’t let himself lose control.

He’s Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, with working spidey senses and a gentle punch.

Scorpions tail crunches down on top of a car and the alarm blares. Peter's ears ring.

“C’mon, come face me like a man. You can’t go down that easily, can you? Spider-Man?” He pauses and Peter stands up, ready to crawl out of the window, he pauses as his neck tingles for a fraction of a second.

He would have missed it if he wasn’t paying attention, but it was unmistakably the smallest flare of spidey senses. Out the window Peter meets eyes with Scorpion and the man's lips part into a large smile. “Or should I call you Pet-” Peter launches himself out the window, landing with a foot against Scorpion's chest.

Fuck it.

The metal creaks under his foot, bending inwards towards Scorpion's chest. The man flies backwards into an adjacent building, crunching into it with a loud groan. He laughs, staring up at Peter.

“Looks like I hit a nerve.” Peter punches him, bloodying his smile. He punches him over and over and over again, each one causing a large crunch to resonate out. His nose, his teeth, his helmet, his eye covers.

Peter almost stops when Scorpion’s eye covers break. Seeing Scorpion's eyes, his scarred, green, bloodshot eyes makes him realise that this is also just a guy in a suit. The same as him.

He swears he can see a waiver of fear gloss over Scorpion’s eyes before it switches to a burning ferocity. Peter is flipped and suddenly he is the one against the wall.

“What did you see? Hmm? Clearly you’re shaken up about something. Was it that pretty blonde girl, did you do something to her?” Peter quickly wriggles an arm out from Scorpion's bruising grip and brings a sharp elbow down onto Scorpion’s arm, hearing a loud crunch. He can’t tell if it’s metal or bone breaking. Scorpion’s grip falters and Peter free’s his other arm.

Quickly, Peter brings his hands up to Scorpion’s mask, curling his fingers under the exposed metal by his mouth. He pulls as hard as he can and the mask splits in two, almost perfectly down the middle, a side gripped in each hand.

Mask in hand, Peter punches him, Scorpion reels back letting go of Peter, who wraps his legs around Scorpions chest to keep himself at face level. The metal bloodies his face much faster than Peter’s boney fist does. Skin tears, deep bloody groves being carved into Scorpions face.

Scorpion smiles, his front tooth chipped and pulls Peter off, throwing him to the side. Peter throws the mask pieces and they clink weakly off of Scorpions concaved chest piece.

Peter looks up and Wade stands above him.

“As hot as you look when you’re angry I don’t think you want to kill the guy.” Wade reaches out to help him up and Peter shoves his hand away. Matt’s billy clubs clink uselessly off of Scorpions suit as he fights him. Peter moves to approach them and Wade grabs his arm. “Spidey, stop it.”

“You kill people all the time.” Peter reasons. Wade tilts his head and Peter can tell, even with his mask on that he’s giving him a disappointed look.

“Peter.”

“Don’t call me that.” Peter wriggles out of his grip, reaching over him and grabbing his swords. He tosses them to the side and pushes Wade against the wall, webbing him up. Now he wont be able to get out.

“Stay.”

Peter turns around just as Matt comes crashing into him, knocking the wind from his lungs. Matt lands on top of him, a knee digging uncomfortably into his webbed up injury. He wriggles and grunts, flipping himself and Matt so that he kneels over top of him.

“Stay out of this Daredevil.” Peter stands up and webs Matt to the ground.

“Spider-Man. Spider-Man, stop it.” Matt’s voice is aggressive, straining as he tries to wriggle out of the webs.

“I have to get the suit off of him. He’s going to keep getting out if I leave the suit on him.” Peter reasons. Peter approaches Scorpion, who’s tail flicks towards Peter dangerously.

“Alright, just you and me now.” Peter dodges as his tail whips towards him, dodging and weaving as he approaches Scorpion. He leaps towards the other man, hands grabbing at ragged metal. He tugs and Scorpion’s chestplate creaks as it tears away from the rest of the suit. Wires spark below, weaving in and around Gargans body.

Peter swings upwards, crashing down on top of Scorpion, stabbing the chest plate into his back. Scorpion roars, and his tail whirs as it swings down on top of Peter who is crouched on his back.

Peter grabs it just before it impales his shoulder, a firm grip wrapped around the sharp tip. It slices at his fingers, blood running down to the tip of his tail, mixing with the glowing green hallucinogen that illuminates the tip.

He turns, bringing his other hand up to the actual tail part. It vibrates with life under his fingers. Peter lets go of the sharp tip, quickly wrapping that hand over the tail as well before it can lodge itself into his shoulder. His torn fingers smear blood over the silver as he tugs, tearing the top half of the tail from the bottom, exposing more wires.

He’s hit with the sudden urge to bury the tip in Scorpion's newly exposed chest, giving him a taste of his own medicine. He wonders what the hallucinations would make him see.

Peter shakes his head as if shaking the thought from his mind and drops the tail to his side. It twitches with remaining life against the ground before stilling.

Peter flips over his head, kicking his exposed chest. Scorpion flies back again, landing with a pained gasp. The look that he gives Peter is pleading, almost scared. Peter approaches him, looking down. He realises now that his own eye covers are splattered with blood, his world tinted shades of red. He brings his arm up to wipe it away.

“Peter.” Scorpion pleads. Peter punches him in the face again, more blood splatters. “Spider-Man. If you take this suit off of me, it’ll kill me.” Peter falters. Scorpion had put him through hell, but now that he actually had the opportunity, did he really want to kill him?

“If I leave that suit on, it will kill me.” Peter reasons. He brings his hand down, curling his fingers under another part of the suit and stops. Scorpions fingers twitch but his arms don’t move to protect himself. “Why aren’t you moving?” Scorpion looks back, confused. “Why are you sitting there? Why aren’t you fighting back?” Peter presses.

“You broke my suit. I can’t move any of it other than the tail, and that’s, well.” He looks down at the broken tail on the ground. “This is exactly what I wanted.” He leans upwards and blood drips off his chin, dripping and pooling in his dented neck piece. Still dented from last time.

“I’m dying, Spider-Man. I’m as good as dead, and you are the reason that I want to go, not because of my own ailments.” His eyes flicker back and forth, searching for eyes to make contact with behind the mask.

Peter steps away.

“I’m not going to kill you.” He whispers. He hears Matt let out a relieved sigh. Scorpion lets out an angry yell and it echoes off of the walls of the nearby buildings. Sirens roar in Peter’s ears and he continues to move away. He had done enough. He had bruised and bloodied Scorpion enough.

“What is holding you back? Why are you so weak?” Scorpion yells, taunting Peter. “I know you want to hurt me, so hurt me.” His voice is suddenly soft, pleading, and Peter wants to puke.

“M not going to hurt you.”

“Do it.” His voice is angry again and Peter wonders if he’d imagined the softness of it before. Peter shakes his head. “Do it, hurt me like you hurt everyone else in your life.” Scorpion’s calm facade is gone, and he’s back to yelling, further agitating his injured throat. Peter grips the neck piece of his suit, pulling him towards his face.

“I don’t hurt the people in my life because there is no one in my life.” Peter seethes.

“What about blondie? She seems to be special to you. She threw you a little birthday party, didn’t she?” Peter punches him in the face again, pulling him in by the neck for added force. The gloves of his suit are soaked through by now, a mixture of Scorpion's blood and his own. His knuckles have been split and healed over and over from the many punches.

He pulls his arm back, ready to punch him again, and his leg explodes with pain. He lets go of Scorpion with a shout, grabbing at the back of his thigh as it burns. He whips around.

Wade stands behind him, one hand raised, aiming a gun at him. His other arm hangs awkwardly, his shoulder bent at a weird angle.

“Spider-Man, step away from the dangerous criminal.” He kicks a sword towards Matt, who awkwardly grabs at it, sawing himself loose. Matt pops up, walking towards Peter cautiously, reaching out when he’s close enough.

Peter leans into the touch, letting Matt pull him away.

“I’m sorry. He just keeps bringing up Karen. I can’t- I’m sorry.” Peter rambles. Matt nods, pulling him away from Scorpion and back towards the buildings on the opposite side. Peter hobbles, his leg still burning from being shot.

Wade picks up his sword from the ground, swinging it and whistling as he walks towards Scorpion.

“How do I want to do this?” He tilts his head, looking at the bloodied man on the ground.

“You won’t kill me.” Scorpion says, smiling.

“Oh yes I will, do you know how many times you killed me? I don’t even have enough fingers to show you, I’d have to pull out my toes and that’s pretty fucking weird.” He swings a sword towards Scorpions neck, stopping just as it knicks his skin. Scorpion doesn’t flinch.

“You don’t get to have the satisfaction of being killed by Spider-Man. No one ever will, and I’ll make sure of it.” He quickly moves his arm, plunging the sword into Scorpion's chest. The man’s breathing turns laboured and he coughs, blood splattering his already bloody face.

“Fuck you.” He laughs. Deadpool rolls his eyes, unlodging the sword and bringing it up, swinging and decapitating the man. His head hits the ground with a loud thud.

“And here I was thinking I was gonna finish him with a dramatic stab to the chest, all Shakespearean or something.” He picks up the bloodied head, holding it in his hand. “To be or not to be.” He snorts, dropping it and kicking it away.

“Goal for deadpool.” He turns back towards the body, now slumped to the side. “Now where’d that spandex-wearing asshole throw my other sword?”