Forged In Fire
Forged In Fire
"FREEDOM!"
Spidey looked to the burning warehouse in time to see bricks explode outward! The wall came crumbling on top of it. The dust and smoke flared outward, covering all it came into contact with. Save for the hulking mass inside.
"We heard you killed our father!" Riot hissed.
"You know, you really should check your sources on that," Spidey grunted, still being held by Kaine. "That's a really big oversimplification of events."
"Spider, keep that thing busy! There's more people than I can handle on my own!" Felicia's voice sounded through his earpiece.
"Doing my best, Cat," Spidey grunted. His eyes darted around under his mask; while the street was clear, the sidewalks were still packed. And Riot was inching ever closer to them.
As fast as he could, Spidey kicked at Kaine's crotch and then aimed both of his fists at Kaine's chest. It was a hail mary, but if Kaine really was his clone, then that meant he had Spider-Sense. And Spidey wasn't above fighting dirty to save his own skin.
As any sensible man would, Kaine used his free hand to block the kick aimed for his web sacks, but he was unable to dodge the punches that connected with his chest!
Kaine flew backward and with him, a piece of Spidey's costume. The fabric covering Spidey's chest ripped apart, leaving a mangled hand-sized opening in his suit.
"Oh, you are so lucky these don't cost as much as they used to!" Spidey said as he dropped to the street.
Kaine flew back and landed next to Riot. "He's all yours big guy," Kaine gasped, massaging his chest. Riot bared his fangs, and Spidey raised his fists, ready for what may come.
Like lightning, a grey tendril shot at Spidey, aiming directly for his heart. However, an old, familiar, and sorely missed sensation came back to Spidey. His Spider-Sense! It worked against Riot!
"Oh yeah!" Spidey exclaimed as he flipped out of the way. Web shooters restocked, Spider-Sense back, and a bruised ego on the mend? Spider-Man was back in business! "Let's see how well you boys do when it's a fair fight!"
"There's no such thing!" Riot screamed! A tendril wrapped around Kaine's waist, and Riot flung Kaine at Spidey!
Kaine's stingers extended as he shot like a bullet toward Spidey! Spidey leapt into the air, dodging his hulking clone, and attached a line of webbing to his back. With all the strength of two fully functioning arms, Spidey yanked on the line! It went taut and Kaine came flying right toward Spidey's fist!
POW!
Kaine slammed into the street, cracking the asphalt on contact!
Riot hissed again. The sound sent a shiver up Spidey's spine, but that hiss was nothing compared to the screams that pierced his ears. Spidey landed on a light pole and whipped to face the burning warehouse just as Kaine stirred on the ground. Wrapped in Riot's tendrils and dangling above the burning building were four civilians. The smoke and heat from the fire slowly melted the tendrils, and with each passing second, the civilians inched closer and closer to the fire.
"What are you doing!" Kaine growled. He lifted himself out of the crater, stingers still extended. But what confused Spidey even more was seeing Kaine crouched and ready to spring into action.
"You gave us freedom, but we will not be caged again!" Riot hissed. "None of us will!"
"You won't be!" Kaine said. "Leave them be! They have nothing to do with this!"
Riot's smile twisted up to the far recesses of his face. "Oh, but they do! They are the ones that will shield our retreat!" Riot hissed. He pointed at Spidey on the post. "For that one will not risk the lives of these insects just to stop me!"
Spidey's eyes flashed toward Kaine. The hulking Spider-Person hadn't moved an inch, but Spidey could feel the change in the air. If he weren't covered head to toe in a spider-themed onesie, the hairs on the back of his neck would've stood on end.
"He won't have to!" Like a bullet, Kaine shot toward Riot! His stingers extended and aimed right for its heart! Riot snarled and leaped toward Kaine! They collided mid-air and plummeted to the ground.
Spidey didn't waste a second! He bounded from his perch and swung toward the dangling civilians!
The grey tendrils thinned as Spidey flew toward the burning warehouse. "I got you!" Spidey said as he laid a gloved hand on the first civilian. He tore her from the tendrils and pulled her up to be eye level with him. "How's your hug skills?"
"What?" she said, startled.
BOOM! Kaine flew through a wall of the warehouse; it wobbled and teetered forward. It was going down soon, and Spidey had to move fast. He looked down to see Kaine get back up, ready for round two.
"Good enough, hold on tight!" Spidey jumped to the second civilian and collected him. "Hey, Kaine!"
Kaine looked up, still in fight mode.
Spidey pointed to the two other civilians. "Get them. I got these two!"
Without hesitation or complaint, Kaine leaped up to the remaining two civilians and scooped them in his arms. Spidey and Kaine leaped out of the burning warehouse and to the street!
"Are you alright?" Spidey asked the two civilians once he set them on the ground. "Are you hurt?"
"I-I'm okay."
"I'm—" vomit painted the pavement and the tips of Spidey's boots.
Thankfully due to the mask, neither civilian could see Spidey's disgust. "About three blocks that way, you'll find some Pepto," Spidey said, pointing south.
"Well, well, well!" a voice drawled above Spidey.
Spidey recognized that heat before he recognized the voice.
"I can't wait for the headline tomorrow!" Johnny Storm said smugly. "I have five bucks on alliteration."
"Ha ha," Spidey retorted, looking up. "What took you so long?"
"You try flying after eating three Big Macs," Johnny said, crossing his arms. "The farts made me overshoot, like, three times and—don't you dare make an afterburner joke!"
Beneath his mask, a sly grin spread across Spidey's face. As much as he wanted to, there was someone else his jokes were reserved for. Spidey jerked his head to the side.
Kaine stood alone in the street. The two civilians he'd saved were long gone, and now he stared at the flaming warehouse. He looked like a statue, and Spidey would've thought he was if it weren't for the words that reached his ears. "What have I done…"
"Who's that?"
"Uh, remember Scarlet Spider?" Spidey asked.
"You donated fluids again?"
"Can we not refer to it like that?" Spidey shivered from head to toe. "It's just all kinds of wrong."
Johnny cocked his head to the side."That wasn't a no."
"Look, he's like me, just…ya know, edgier," Spidey said.
"Literally and figuratively, as I've heard. What do we do with him?"
Spidey looked back at Kaine; even though he couldn't see it, he recognized that look under Kaine's black mask. The realization of what your own actions have wrought. The weight of your own mistakes. "Leave him to me; just get back to Reed and let him know what's going on and what to look for. Symbiotes are back, and there's five of them out there in host bodies. I'll spread the word to the Avengers. The more eyes on this, the better."
Johnny nodded his flaming head. "Sounds good, later Webs."
"Careful with the thrust, Flamebrain."
Johnny side-eyed Spidey before shooting off for Manhattan. Spidey stepped carefully toward Kaine. With every step, he awaited the telltale sign of alarm bells to go off in his head, but they never came.
"Kaine…" he said slowly. "You gonna shishkebab me?"
"This is all my fault…"
"Partially your fault," Spidey countered. "You did free them, but what Riot did and what those symbiotes will do is not on you. They have minds of their own, and feelings of their own. They may have done what they did whether or not you freed them. What you choose to do now, that's what matters."
Kaine turned slightly. He clenched his fist. "I'm not caging them."
"Oh, yeah, that's not foreboding at all," a sultry voice said behind them.
"Cat?"
"Spider."
"You…"
Kaine looked to his left and squared off in a fighting stance, his stingers at the ready. Felicia–who stood on the sidewalk–extended her claws in response. Immediately, Spidey jumped between them.
"Easy," he said, trying to coax both of them down.
Felicia cocked an eyebrow at Spidey. "This guy tries to kill us, releases more demons onto the city, and you just want to roll over and let him go?"
"Wouldn't be any different than what I've done for you," Spidey remarked. Felicia glared claws into Spidey's lenses. "You came to me with the intent to right some of your wrongs. You, of all people, should understand that."
"Oh, spare me the pity act, Parker," Kaine sneered. He turned his back and looked down the road. "I don't need you, the Kitten, or anyone else to clean up my mess. Just stay out of my way, and I'll stay out of yours!"
Kaine shot into the air, leaving the asphalt cracked in his wake.
"Seriously, you're just letting him go!?" Felicia shouted, watching Kaine swing away.
"He's got a rage inside him, Cat," Spidey said. "I can't do anything for him until he's ready to do something himself."
"And if he does something to someone else?"
Spidey shook his head. "What I saw tonight wasn't the hulking Spider-Man the criminals or Bugle have been talking about. The second Riot took an innocent, he changed his tune."
"And all that talk about Adam, Kane, and Abel?" Felicia asked, crossing her arms and staring at Spidey.
"Yeah, yeah, I have an angry little brother, so what?" Spidey retorted. He honestly didn't know what ate away at him more; the fact that Warren was still able to continue his twisted experiments just under his nose or the fact that he had a brother who believed he didn't care about him and who wanted to kill his other brother…he'd have to keep an eye out for that last one.
"You do know what Kane did to Abel in that story, don't you?"
Spidey sighed. This was wasting time. He had to put out the APB in the superhero community. "One thing at a time, Cat."
Spidey shot a line of webbing into the sky, his mind racing with all the new information he had to worry about today. He had another brother, there were five more symbiotes out in the city, there was a new kid out there with Spider-Powers that wasn't his brother, his maybe girlfriend that he had yet to go on a real date with might be pissed at him, and his suit had a hand print in the center. Oh yeah, today really didn't go how you planned.