Morbid Mind

Friday, June 30, 2018, 2:43 AM.

Despite May’s specific instructions, Peter had no intention of staying home all night. Instead, he climbed into bed early and waited until he could hear May’s steady breaths in the room next door, proving she was fully asleep. Then, he was out the window, crouched on the railing of the fire escape. Karen lit up the path to the boardwalk per his request on his heads-up display. Just before he launched himself off into the night, he heard a dull thump from the bedroom behind him. He’d heard it hundreds of times before. Harley jumped from the top bunk to the carpet. He took off swinging before Harley could notice his absence. He had to find some answers on who the hell that dude with the arm things was and why he was destroying a rollercoaster.

The breeze was warm and slow as he swung between the skyscrapers. Cars honked obnoxiously below him despite the late hour. He swung above them unnoticed and silent until he saw the still bright lights of Coney Island.

“Karen,” Peter called into the night.

“Yes Peter, how may I assist you?” She replied, cheerfully.

“Call Ned.”

“Sure thing.”

The phone rang for a few seconds before he answered. “Took you long enough! I thought you actually fell asleep.”

“I’m on my way back to Coney Island. I’m gonna try and find out more about the guy.”

“What even happened?”

“I don’t know,” Peter replied. “This dude had these massive tentacle things and he was tearing up the Cyclone with them.”

“Tentacles? Awesome. Were they like squid tentacles? Or were they made out of human flesh? That’s so gross. Were they big? Or were they coming out of his face like Davy Jones?-”

“No no no. They were metal. And they came out of his back.”

“He was a cyborg?” Ned sounded more excited than when they announced the revival of Star Wars.

“I mean kinda. He definitely was in control of the arm things. They were huge too. He was kinda like Kit Fistu but the tentacles came out of his back.”

“Woah,” Ned breathed. “So why was he breaking Cyclone?”

Peter was glad to be more on subject. “I don’t know. He didn’t seem like he was just trying to cause a scene or anything. Once I showed up he kinda panicked and ran for it. He must’ve been after something I guess.”

“But what could he be after in Coney Island?”

He landed silently on the boardwalk and looked around. “That’s what we’re here to find out, I guess.”

It wasn’t completely dark. The roller coasters and rides were all still lit up but they stood still. Peter couldn’t help but remember homecoming night when the plane crashed on the beach just feet from where he stood. He had a weird feeling growing in his gut. It wasn’t his spider sense, though.

“You see anything?” Ned asked.

“Not yet,” He jumped over the fence and moved toward the cyclone. The ride was taped off by police, but the track was still torn up pretty badly. Peter hopped up onto the track and looked around. “Why this ride though? He could’ve wrecked so many other rides and hurt people if he wanted to. Cyclone wasn’t even running yet.”

“Maybe he just wanted to cause a panic,’ Ned suggested.

Peter shook his head. “I don’t know. But he seemed pretty pissed when I showed up.”

With one last look at the shredded track, he hopped back to the ground. There had to be something he could find to track this guy.

“Did you see which way he went?” Ned asked.

“Not really. He threw me into that thing,” Peter pointed to the human-sized-dent in one of the metal rides. “And then disappeared.”

“He couldn’t have gotten far without being noticed. I mean, he had metal arms coming out of his back. That doesn’t sound really discrete.”

“True,” Peter agreed, looking around for an escape route. His eyes fell on a series of dents and cracks in the pavement. He followed them until they just stopped suddenly.

“The trail just stops?”

It did. But Peter wasn’t interested in the fact that the trail ended. He was more interested in where the trail ended. Just a few feet from where he stood, there was a manhole. It didn’t look out of place at all, but it was the best lead he had.

He pulled the cover off and hopped into the sewer. It was completely dark except for the small amount of light spilling through the manhole from the streetlights on the surface above. Peter squinted through the darkness. His spider-sense was strangely silent.

“Do you see anything? The footage is all dark,” Ned whispered as if he too was standing in the sewers.

“Nothing yet,” He replied, setting off down the tunnel.

“This is so cool. It’s like an actual mission!”

“I know, right. It’s been a while,” Peter couldn’t help but feel a bit excited. The last time he’d actually investigated anything was way back before homecoming. “Hey Ned, check my location and tell me where I end up. If I find something I don’t want to have to go all the way back to Coney.”

“On it.”

The tunnel went on and on. He must’ve been miles away from Coney by the time the tunnel branched off. He stopped at the fork in his path, trying to decide which tunnel to take. He looked at the concrete walls and noticed cracks and dents in the far left tunnel. He continued on down the far left side.

It wasn’t long after that when he found a way out. There was a massive tunnel upwards. The walls of the tunnel had deep cracks and holes leading upwards.

“I think I see a light up there,” Peter whispered.

“Where?” Ned asked. “The camera isn’t picking it up. It’s just dark.”

“I guess there’s only one way to find out.”

He took a few steps back before running full speed toward the wall of the tunnel. He launched himself from the ground and stuck easily to the tunnel’s side.

“This is so awesome. I think you found his evil lair!”

“Yea, the last time I found someone’s ‘evil lair’ I got a building dropped on my head,” Peter replied, quietly scaling the wall.

“Peter,” Friday interrupted. “Incoming call from Happy Hogan.”

“Hold on Ned.”

“Hey, kid. What are you doing?” Happy asked. His voice didn’t reflect his normal ‘I don’t like kids’ tone. It was more urgent.

“Uh, sleeping?” He said, hoping Happy wasn’t looking at the suit's activity.

“Right,” He said. “I’ll be outside your place in thirty. I gotta talk to you.”

“Really? Why?”

“You know what? Bring Harley too.”

“Okay, but why though?”

“Thirty minutes, don’t make me wait. I’ll see you then.”

He hung up without another word.

“What was that? Peter, what's happening?” Ned asked, reconnecting the call.

“I gotta go. Happy needs to talk to me.”

“But what about the tunnel? We were almost in the lair!”

Peter hopped off the wall of the tunnel and started back down the sewer to the manhole. “It’ll have to wait. It sounded important.”

“Is it a mission? Are you gonna work with the Avengers again?”

“I don’t know. I gotta go.”

“Tell me everything after!”

~

The roads were surprisingly quiet. Sure, it was late, but Harley had never seen a completely empty street in New York regardless of the time. It unnerved him slightly. The buildings surrounding him were completely dark causing an eerie darkness he had never experienced on such a normally busy road.

The headlights of his car were the only thing lighting his path. He drove slightly quicker than he usually would have since the streets were empty. Growing more and more anxious, he decided to just focus on the light for his car and the road ahead.

After a few more minutes of nervous driving, he stole a look around him. There were no buildings. There were no people, no lights. Just a darkened swamp surrounding him.

He felt sick. He had no clue where he was supposed to be going or why. He was just driving for as long as he could remember. He thought about turning around. Wherever he was headed wasn’t worth it.

Tap tap tap.

It sounded as if something tapped on the driver's side door. He looked out the window but didn’t see anything. He imagined it. He must’ve. Still, the sinking feeling in his stomach grew deeper by the second.

BANG.

He startled and slammed on the brakes. The car spun out slightly before settling in front of a swampy pond. Something had slammed against the roof of the car. He was sure. He felt the car dip upon impact. There was no imagining that.

He didn’t dare step out of the car. All he could do was stare at the massive dent in the ceiling, his heart in his throat.

Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap.

He checked to make sure the doors were locked. They were. His heart pounded against his chest like a hammer. Surely his ribs would break from the force.

Then, out of the pond came a figure lit up by the headlights of the car. It was big. There were no discernable features. Just a massive black figure with glowing white eyes emerging from the swamp. It raised one massive hand and reached toward him. It rested it against the hood of the car and stared at Harley with its pale eyes.

It moved around the car toward his door scratching its claws against the car creating deep gashes in the metal. It placed its hand on the window and stared through its unnerving eyes. Harley couldn’t help but stare back. There was something so familiar in its eyes. He couldn’t understand why though.

It removed its hand from the window leaving a black handprint the size of Harley’s head on the glass. Without warning, it pulled its arm back and threw its fist forward through the glass. It shattered instantly.

The hand grabbed his face. It was cold, wet and didn’t seem fully solid. It wrenched him out of the shattered window and he seemed to fall for longer than usual.

~

Friday, June 30, 2018, 2:43 AM.

He jerked awake with a gasp. His heart was still hammering in his chest and his head was swimming. It took him a moment to catch his breath before sitting up in bed. The room was dark and silent. The light from the street below was shining on the wall opposite of him.

His whole body was covered in a cold sweat. He wiped his face on his sleeve and climbed from the top bunk onto the ground as quietly as possible so as to not wake up Peter.

There was a metallic groan outside the window. He saw a shadow move out the window and his heart jumped to his throat again. He froze and looked at Peter’s bed. Surely, he heard that too. But, his bed was empty. He must’ve gone patrolling again.

Harley rolled his eyes and peered cautiously out the window just in time to see a small red figure swing out of sight. He rolled his eyes again and turned back to the bedroom.

He dug around in his backpack quickly and pulled out his notebook. The dream was still vivid in his mind. What the hell was that? He’d had plenty of nightmares in his life but none so strange and specific. Usually, they pertained to his life at least a bit. That one was just weird.

The crisp night air flooded into the bedroom as he pushed open the window and climbed onto the fire escape. He liked the feeling of sitting so high up. The sounds of traffic and busy streets always calmed him down. Reminded him that he wasn’t alone. Far from it actually. He settled on the rusty steps and opened his notebook. He began to draw a design. Something that would defeat the weird black monster thing. He knew it was just a dream, but it helped him relax to know that he could build something to protect himself regardless.

He sat out in the cool night scribbling in his notebook for so long that the sun began to peek over the horizon. The sky was several shades lighter and traffic became busier as people were headed home from night shifts.

There was a familiar sound of web-slinging in the distance that caught his attention. He shut his notebook and watched as Peter swung toward him. He landed on the railing of the fire escape and pulled off his mask.

“What are you doing up so early?” He asked.

Harley shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep I guess. Where were you?”

“Yeah, me neither. Thought I’d go take another look at the boardwalk. Maybe figure out who that dude was last night.”

“You find anything?”

“Yeah maybe. I tracked him into the sewer and found this massive-” He froze.

“You okay?”

“May’s awake. She’ll kill me if she finds out I was gone all night,” He climbed through the already open bedroom window and smacked the emblem on his chest a little harder than necessary. The suit sagged and fell to the floor. He grabbed it and threw it into the closet quickly and changed back into his pyjamas.

Harley rolled his eyes and climbed inside, shutting the window behind him. He watched Peter scramble around the room.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Peter said, halfway through pulling his shirt on. “Happy will be here soon.”

“Why?” Harley couldn’t help but feel slightly anxious. He hadn’t seen Happy since the last time he was at the tower. His stomach clenched.

“I don’t know. He said he needed to talk to us.”

Harley peeked through the window to the street below. As promised, there was a black Audi parked on the road outside the apartment.

The boys journeyed down the elevator and through the lobby. They climbed into the back seat of the Audi. Happy gave them a quick look through the rearview mirror and then turned in his seat to face them.

“It’s been a while,” He said. Though he didn’t look directly at Harley, he knew it was directed to him.

“Yea,” He mumbled, his stomach still churning.

“How ya been, kid? Staying out of trouble?”

They both nodded.

Happy seemed to notice their mutual worry. “Nothing’s wrong. Tony asked me to come here. I’m the one supposed to be watching over you guys.”

That didn’t ease Harley’s conscience like it clearly had Peter’s. He could tell Happy was nervous about something.

“What is it, Happy?” Peter asked.

“Alright, here's the thing,” Happy said, “I’m going away for the weekend. I am trusting that you two are capable enough to stay out of trouble. But don’t think that means you’re completely off the hook. My phone will alert me if there’s any mention of Harley Keener or Spider-Man in the news or online. Got it?”

“What if Peter Parker is in the news?” Harley asked. Happy wasn’t impressed.

“If I get any peep of you two getting into trouble I’m heading straight to New York and I’m killing you both. Capiche?”

The two boys nodded. Though Harley knew that Peter would throw away that promise the second anyone was in danger.

“Wait,” Harley said. “Does this mean you’ve been spying on us and reporting back to Tony?”

“What? No, that would be a waste of time,” He replied.

Harley raised an eyebrow.

“Alright, yea sometimes,” He scratched his neck, “He asked me to!” He added when Harley rolled his eyes.

Though he would never show it outwardly, Harley felt slightly more at ease knowing Happy was checking in on them.

“So you’re like a babysitter?”

“I’m the head of security!”

“But you’ve been on babysitting duty.”

“Get out of my car,” He turned to face the wheel and turned on the engine.

Harley snorted and climbed out of the car behind Peter. Happy sped off the second the door shut behind them.

“You were awfully quiet that whole time.”

Peter shrugged. “You seemed to have it handled.”

“Yeah sorry I uhh- I talk a lot when I’m nervous.”

He snorted. “Yea I know. I’ve seen it. What were you so nervous about anyway?”

“I don’t know… I guess I thought something bad happened and people were after us again,” He chose to sublet the name Hammer or Toomes for people. It just made everything easier.

Peter understood all the same. “You can defend yourself though. I’ve seen it.”

“Yea I’m pretty sure you’re thinking of the wrong guy. All the fighting was left to you and I was just running beside you. Most of our escapes were either you or some dumb luck.”

“So you’re saying you don’t know how to fight?”

He shook his head. “I mean I’ve been in fights. But they never really ended well for me.”

Peter nodded. He opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by Harley’s phone going off.

Harley fished it out from his pocket. Doctor Octavius was calling. “Give me a sec,” He said to Peter as he raised the phone to his ear and walked a few steps away.

“Hey, doc. What’s going on?”

“Harley. I need you at the lab. I’ve made a huge breakthrough,” He practically shouted. “I can’t start the next trial without you, so get here as soon as possible.”

“Okay, I’ll be there as fast as I can. This is awesome.”