Secret War

"You're in love."

MJ says in a dramatic, low voice.

Peter is startled and looks at the girl beside him in panic. Her eyes sparkled brightly, burning with joy at revealing a secret.

"I I I I I...'m not——" Peter's voice got smaller and smaller, and finally becomes a quiet silence.

"You don't have to admit it so readily. I thought you'd try to deny it." MJ gives a subtle smile and opened her sketchbook.

"I'm denying!" Peter's voice sounded like a false threat. "Okay I am not." He covers his face with his hands, very frustrated.

"So who is that person? I guess not in our school."
MJ asks as she drew quickly.

Yeah, he's not even a guy in our universe. Peter thought.

"You haven't seen him." Peter pushes his lunch to the other side of the table, not sure he won't choke on the food for the rest of the conversation.

"Oh, so it's a 'he'." MJ nods, her pen leaving traces on the paper.

Peter looks up at the cafeteria while resisting the urge to punch himself, hoping the other students weren't listening.

"Yes, he's a male," he confessed.

"So how is he? Is he good to you?"

"He's great. He's there for me and helps me when I need it," Peter says. "He helped me with a panic attack."

"Nothing else? He didn't ask you for anything? Even just to mention a word?"

"He didn't!! The only thing he asked me for was a photo of me and him and an autograph!" Peter was a little angry. "Why do you think so?!"

"Because you're too gullible, Peter. Especially when you're hurt." MJ's eyes moves away from her drawing, and stared at the boy in front of her. "Some people will use that to their advantage."

Peter flinched. MJ is right, even though there is a part of him that didn't want to admit that fact, what MJ says is right.

Then he remembered Tom's face, Tom's voice, Tom's hugs and touches.
"He didn't, he wouldn't." Peter looked up at his friend with a firm look.

"He keeps telling me I'm great, I'm great, I deserve to be loved."
"He told me that even if I didn't have that uniform, I'd still be a great person, a great thing."
"He is willing to give up his career to save me."

There is surprise in MJ's eyes. She even put down her sketchbook to look at Peter. She carefully observed the boy's expression.

"He loves me. MJ. He really loves me." The boy says.

"Hmm." She made a vague voice, then continues to finish her painting.

"MJ?"

"What, Loser?"

Michelle Jones' sharp eyes emerged from above the sketchbook, and the sound of the pencil rubbing against the paper sounds like someone is whispering.

"No, nothing, I just thought you'd keep asking more questions."

"Maybe, loser." She returns her gaze to the drawing paper.

Peter stares blankly at the girl across from him, not knowing what to do next.
Hey, where's Ned?

Minutes passed, most of the students had finished their lunch, and the crowd was leaving the cafeteria.

"MJ." He called the girl's name again.

"Do you love him?" the girl asking instead of answering.

Peter thought in a second.
"Yes."

"Good." Michelle Jones finally put down the sketchbook in her hand and stands up to leave. She hand her sketchbook to Peter, who lower his head to check what is on the drawing paper.

"Next time you can introduce him to me and Ned," he hears her say.

I must have passed out.

Peter stares blankly at the ceiling.

He takes shallow, slow breaths, trying not to notice the pain in his body. His heart is still beating too fast.

"Stay here, Peter Parker. Stay away from the designed tragedy. Stay away from the misery."

The being at the edge of his vision says so.

Peter is silent for a while before responding.

"You're wrong, I won't suffer forever."

He can't look at the man in his current position, so he's trying to make his voice sound more determined.

"Someone loves me and wants me to live happily. So I, I'm not suffering all the time."

As soon as he said these words, he feels the pain in his chest lessen.

Yes, there are people who love him.

"I know I can't save everyone."
"I just want to try my best to help them, I can save one more."

His body still hurts, but they seem to be fading, so he continues talking.

"I don't live for duty."
"I know now that I didn't live for that grief and suffering either."

At this point Peter clearly remembered something, and he smiling.

"The pain and sadness may be overwhelming me, but the happiness and beauty are there.
"I've had a lot of happiness and joy in my seventeen years of life."
"So even if I end up getting hurt or dying, I don't care."
"If I stay here, I'm really dead."

Peter Parker struggling to grab the huge epee that had gone through him, trying to pull it out.

"I want to go back just because I really, really want to see him. I love him and he loves me."
"So I must go back."

Without warning, a golden light shone in Peter's right hand, and he watches in amazement as it shatters the red epee and turns into a golden longsword.

Peter suddenly feels that the pain in his body could be ignored.

With the golden sword in his hand as support, he gets himself to his feet, even though there are still a few red swords stuck on him. Peter stabilize his trembling body and points the golden sword at the man.

The black-haired man's eyes stays on the sword, and his expression becomes solemn.

"I don't remember that I gave you something like that."

"You didn't, Stephen gave it to me." Peter looks at each other cautiously. "Look, I don't want to hurt you, just give me the crystal back then we’ll be cool."

"Uh, no."

The ravenette pretends to think for a second.

The next second Peter throws the rest of the red epee with his left hand at the man, who blocks it with a large red sword. At the same time, several webs shot by Peter are also intercepting by several small red daggers.

"The director and screenwriter want you to die!" A red sword appeared with the sentence. "Do you forgive them even then?" With those words, it shot at Peter.

The golden sword shatters it.
"I don't care about them!"

"They also killed Tony Stark!"

"Tony died for each of us!" Peter twists to avoid the attack, but the red blade still left a long deep cut on his face.

"They killed your aunt! You have nothing left!"

The red blade is knocked to the wall.

"There are people in the world who have lost more than me!"

"Yes, you're right."

The ravenette brunette waves out more red blades.

"But not many people lose important things in a short amount of time like you do." He says.
"You may not run away in the face of hardship, Peter Parker. But you will run away for fear of hurting your loved ones and never go to them again!"
"You never figured it out, did you? Spider-Man ruined your life. He took away the happiness Peter Parker should have had! Spider-Man is guilty of it!"

"Just in case you didn't know, Spider-Man is me!" Peter flexes his body by shooting the web, kicking a blade that stabbed at him.

"So wrong! Spider-Man is born out of your self-blame and guilt. He clings to you and feeds on your body and mind!"
The man shot six sharp blades in a row as if pulling the trigger.
"Whenever you don't save the next person, whenever you screw up a thing!"

The red sword stabbing at Peter from various angles, who avoids most of them as best he could. And yet the man, the mad man, still yelling, as if he is about to dance.

"You're too kind to hold onto your happiness. You give up your own happiness for the happiness of others. And you're too cruel, because you even sacrifice the happiness of those around you. Ah yes, You Parkers have this problem!" The man laughing hardly. "You and your aunt are like this! Sick!"

"Even Stan Lee thinks you have to suffer!" Red blade shots.

"I wasn't drawn!" Peter roars!!

Knock! Smash! dodge. Knock! Kick!

Peter jumps deftly, getting closer and closer to that man. Those red blades could no longer stab him immediately after he picked up the golden sword, and he could rely on the Spider-Man things and the sword to destroy or stop them.

The ravenette obviously knew this too, so he snaps his fingers. Red chains appearing in the air, and they wraps around Peter's bare feet quickly, like snakes, pulling him to the floor. Peter tried to break free and notice that they were words.

"What the hell is this!!" The boy shouts, try to break it.

"[Peter pounces on the pumpkin bomb, he tries desperately to stop it, but his injuries are so severe that the pain affects him. It fails him, his fingers are touching the bomb, but he can't catch it. The ominous green orb left Spider-Man's finger, and it continued on its way, while Peter Parker watched as the bomb fell into his aunt's room.]"

"If you're curious, here's what it's about." The man throws away the script in his hand after reading this paragraph and looks at the bound Spider-Man.

"They wrote about how your aunt died and didn't tell Tom, Maybe I should send you to that actor's world to let you get your revenge?"

"I would never do that." Peter gasping, anger in his eyes.

"That's no wonder you failed. Ha, listen, [it made him fail]." The man in the classic suit scoffed. "You failed, Peter, and your failure killed the woman who raised you."

The boy let out a cry of pain as an extremely sharp red Greek sword —— a Xiphos piercing his left chest. This time he couldn't hold back his tears.

Hurt,hurt,hurt. So much, too many.

Hurt.

Pain.

……

After a few minutes of crying in silence, the boy begins to smack the ground with his hands until he calms down. He stares at the smiling man for a long time, and finally begins to speak. This time his voice is unusually calm.

"No, I didn't. I, I failed, yes."

Peter takes a deep breath, his hand still clutching the golden sword hardly. "I couldn’t save May, yes. That’s my fault. But now I know one thing,Tom helps me figure it out. It was the bastard goblin who killed May, not some stupid writer and director, not me!!! "

He slashes the chains and the red sword on his chest with his golden sword.

"You're an fucking asshole." His eyes were deep and firm.

"If you're trying to hit me with guilt and faults, sorry, you lose. Tom keeps telling me it's not my fault with different examples! You're worse than those writers and readers ,and more disgusting. Now I know what those red knives are. You're a pervert who only controls people by demeaning and hurting them!! You're no fucking different from that perverted Qutin Beck. The reason you did it is it because you had a miserable childhood? Really? God please don't tell me it's true, I've seen enough of it, Even children find it old-fashioned. And if you're not at every entrance to the house , If you had installed a transparent barrier, you could have seen a psychiatrist long ago!!"

Peter Parker stands up and says coldly.

"Stop using those people I didn't save as your weapon, it will only make me more angry." A cold light flashed on the sharp golden sword.

A wide smile appearing on the black-haired man's face.

"Yes. Yes, yes!!! You finally find out!! Peter Parker, Spider-Man. Well done!!" The ravenette applauding violently. "But there's more you don't know, and I'm not going to tell you. Oh maybe I'll tell you what a cruel, arrogant woman your aunt is, and stupid. Wait, did I say it?"

The ravenette covers his mouth with a look of surprise, and a look of joy on his face.

The world is suddenly quiet for Peter. All he could hear is two different heartbeats in this room.

"I'll beat you all over the place to find your teeth."

Peter Parker's eyes becomes hard as iron, and he speaks in an emotionless tone.

"Ah, look at the expression on your face." The dark-haired man's face is full of joy. "I really wonder how Tom Holland would react if he sees it."

"Get him out of your mouth. You dirty trash."

"Hum，Tom Holland will see you as a monster if he saw this."

The dense red blades turns towards Peter Parker, like the sharp teeth of a monster. And in Peter's hands, the golden longsword shines even more than before.

What happening next is like a scene from a movie.

All those red blades slows down for Peter, and the spider sense pinpointed exactly where each of them is.
Those swords that would bring pain had completely lost their threat in his eyes, they are just so fragile that they are as insignificant as flying insects. ——Peter could even see their path, and with a touch of grace. He walks through the red knives with ease, all he needs to do is smash them one by one with the golden sword.

He is the spider, and here is his web.

Everything is a breeze.

He jumps up after smashing a red dagger with his sword, and stomping the other blade underfoot, it didn't even cut his bare feet! He dodges a few more blades shot at him, cobwebs a sofa and throws it out, followed by a TV. "You should get a new TV, idiot! Don't keep repairing it!"

Spider-Man makes some sarcastic remarks while throwing things.
"Look at the way you wave! Clumsy and slow, any chef in the world can do it better than you!"

"Please you jumping arachnid! You only bring destruction, and everything you touch——"

"Has no insurance? You didn't expect someone to wreak havoc in your home right? And he is the guest that you personally invited! Too bad man! Remember to screen your guests next time!" Peter kicks a sofa at the man like a football.
"And remember to buy insurance!"

The man has to stop attacking and use a red epee he just finished and the dagger floating around him to destroy his own furniture. His voice sounded very excited.

"Glad you've starts telling your jokes again, Spider-Man! You've been quiet for a while haven't you?"

"You know, I came up with a lot of new jokes during my promotion. Would you like to hear them? How about a joke about a man in cape?"

"As long as you stay! I'm sure I can hear every joke and pun you can think of!" The man keep snapping his fingers as he spoke.

"I'm sorry I still have a lover waiting for me to come home! Maybe you can call me? Oh reminds me what we doing now? I'm the hero and you're the final boss? You're here with no plot or self-introduction, you didn't even tell the player about your evil motives!! Omg you look like a Pokemon trainer who suddenly jumped out of the grass!"

Spider-Man moves from blade to blade in a fluid shape like he's dancing an intense hip-hop ——he even grabs a few red blades and throws them back.

Ravenette waves his fingers to dissipate them, then fires more blades at Spider-Man.

"I'm not interested in being either. It's neither an RPG nor a mystery drama, and I don't need to be mentioned in the first place, but since you mentioned Pokemon——"

Spider sense alerted, and Spider-Man heard that man shouting.

"Come out, come out, goats!"

Red rays of light flashing across the room one after another, and a dozen or so creatures in black tuxedos with human body and goat head rushing towards Peter after they landed.

They opened their mouths and utter words in unpleasant voices, they intermingled like an overwhelming number of flies.

"Peter Parker is not going to be happy!" "Peter Parker is destined to suffer forever!" "This Peter Parker recognizes his father everywhere! Whose son is he going to be when Iron Man dies?!" "He doesn't want to take responsibility! He's not a spider at all!!" "Peter Parker is just a pastime! Why should you care about his feelings?" "The Spider Threat! The Spider Threat! Murderer!" "I don't like this Spider-Man! The previous one is better!" "His life is too easy!" "He is a fool who only puts himself and his lovers in danger!" "You shouldn't be alive! Everyone would be better off without you!" "There's no mention of Ben Parker in his story!" "Next Tony Stark? WTF!!"

The humanoid goats keep spewing malicious words, their mouths opened at an exaggerated angle, their saliva splattered everywhere as they run. ——A group of flesh and blood beings who are eager to tear off the skin and tear the truth inside.

"Pokemon like this would terrify kids! Definitely can't pass the scrutiny!" Peter jumps up, and his golden sword makes a golden arc in the air, cutting off the heads of several goats.

The dead goat shattered into swirling confetti and disappear. But more goats grabbed him, clung to him, and pulled him toward the carnivorous mouth.

"Get off!!!!" Spider-Man freed those hands with his amazing strength. He rips off the arm of one goat with his free left hand and kicks two goats away. Then He jumps high, the golden sword running through a greedy throat.

"What fuck are you? It's just a group of onlookers! You didn't hire me, what qualifications do you have?"

"That sentence is a curse. A curse," says a goat wandering around the periphery suddenly. Spider-Man feels spider senses severe sting.

"She cursed you. Forced you to dedicate everything you have, your future, your happiness, your love, your life."

It finally attacks, blocked Peter's sword and slamming Peter on the head, making him feel dizziness.

"Don't try to deny it, Peter Parker. Those sentence made you spend more time on patrol and made you suffer more damage." The goat's voice was low and firm, his tone unmistakable, and it stared at the boy with its horrible pupils——those sideways pupils.

Goat grabs Peter in bewildering and frightening vertigo and He rips off a piece of flesh from Peter’s left arm with his mouth.

Peter doesn’t have time to pass out, because the hands of the other goats are trying to rip his belly. He turns his golden sword to chop off that goat's arm and kicks it hard on its chest.

"Every time someone dies in front of you you swear you won't let anyone die again. But you can't." That goat steps back, not minding the loss of an arm. Its mouth chewed non-stop while speaking, and the meat soon turns into a bright red paste. "Every resolution of yours is a joke and you still let people die."

Anger.

Anger.

Angry anger anger anger anger anger anger.

Not even anger can describe his feelings at the moment.

Peter jumps to the wall and immediately jumps up again, his body turns gracefully in the air, the blood from his left hand is splashing in the air, and the golden sword cut off half of the goat's head with huge kinetic energy.
The spider grabs the remaining corpse and smashing it again and again on the wall, on the ceiling, on the other goats, until it turns into exploding sheets of paper.

"I know I can't save everyone!!! I fucking know it!!! But I at least saved some! How much have you saved?!!!!"

Spider-sensing alarms wildly, and Spider raises his knee without hesitation as he landed, hitting the jaws of a goat that was trying to rip him in the belly. The goat flew, its head hitting the ceiling and turning into confetti.

Spider-Man keeps wave his right hand, and driven by his enormous power, the golden sword slicing through the goat's body was as simple as ripping a bag of potato chips.

"I said these things can't stop me!!! You bastard who only uses words to hurt people! !!!"

Spider-Man grabs a leg of a goat and starts spinning around himself, shouting, swinging that goat like a stick, knocking down other enemies around him and throwing it at the fucking black-haired man.

"I won't stay here!!"

In less than three minutes all the goats were knocked down, and the room is a mess as if a hurricane had swept through it. Spider-Man jerked forward a few steps amid the pile of shredded paper, grabs the rest of the couch and used it as a bat to hit that man, making him slam into the wall.

"Take care of your damn pets!!"

He swipes that man's head again and again with the sofa until the man falls to the floor.

"You know what? it's easier than dealing with Qutin Beck." Spider-Man says sarcastically. "Those red blades of yours are less threatening than bullets."
Looks like this guy can't fight at all, Peter thought. This surprised me a bit.

The ravenette struggles to shoot a red blade, which Spider-Man grabs without even looking, and threw it back at the man. Then he seizes the opportunity to shoot a large amount of cobwebs at that man, enough to seal his mouth and move.

Peter doesn’t hold out much hope for his webs, as they probably wouldn't work, so he rushes towards the ravenette, ready to punch him hard with his own fists.

But Things always exceed his expectations.

The web disappears the moment it hits the target, and Spider-Man appears in that spot.
His anger is still burning, and all he knows is that the bastard had suddenly come to him. So He instinctively punches the man's head with his left hand, enough to crack a human skull. When he finds that he is not counterattacked by the enemy, his anger gradually turned to doubts, he looks at the man for a few seconds, and then lowers his head following the opponent's movements.

The golden sword pierced into the man's abdomen.

Peter stares at the sword for a few more moments before realizing what had happened.
He took a step back.

"Why. I didn't——" Peter frowned tightly, letting go of his sword. He tried to hold down the bleeding wound, then stopped. "What did you do."

Wait, why am I being teleported? !

And——

Why didn't he do anything else after summoning those goats?

Spider-Man frowned, a step back, staring sternly at the man, noting his spider sense at the same time.

"Stop playing tricks on me."

That man stares at the golden sword that pierced his body for minutes, then let out a sneer and shook his head. He pushes Peter, who was trying to save him, and stands up as if he wasn't hurt.

"If you don't make up your mind, you won't be teleported." The man showed a reluctant smile.

"Stay here, Peter."

"Shut up, you know your tricks don't work for me anymore. So"

"No tricks, I promise. You win."

The boy stares at the blood on the man's body and is silent for a long, long time. "——Do you have a first aid kit?"

"Don't get me wrong, I hate you, you're a fucking bastard, asshole, but I didn't intend to kill you." The boy stares cautiously at the man. "And I swear if you ever want to play your tricks again I will————"
He stopped, swallowing the rest of the sentence.

"Yeah, you didn't plan to kill me. But you have that kind of consciousness."

Blood flows from the man's mouth with every word, and the blue eyes were still full of expectation and joy. "Do you think it's your fault, Spider-Man?"

Spider-Man opens his mouth to say something, but his eyes are drawn to the man's action.

The black-haired man's hand snapped his fingers while being bound by the spider web.

A constant gust of wind blow from the window, blowing the walls and everything in the room away like sand.

The scenery outside the window is gone.

Peter found them standing on an extremely large stained glass, surrounded by a vast and deep night sky.

Glittering stars dotted it.

The dark-hair stands not far from him, a black cloak with gold chains draped over his shoulders. The man effortlessly pulls the long sword through his stomach and throws it back to the brown hair, blood spreading across his clothes.

The brown-haired teenager tenses his muscles alertly, because those blue eyes still staring at him, like a predator.

However, after a blink, the desire in those eyes disappeared.

"Well, it seems that you won and I lost." The man looked at his body and nods in a thoughtful manner.

Spider-Man still stared cautiously at the man, refusing to be fooled by other’s relaxed attitude.

"Although it's my fault, I'm really not reconciled." The man continues to say without caring about the other party's attitude. "Should try harder. Maybe?"

"But anyway, I think that's the end of the game." He sighs.

The man smiles and applaud the brown-haired one in a slow but firm rhythm.

"J Ibwf mput xpset xbos up ufmm zpv."

"Congratulations. Thou who seek for treasure, thou who drifts from otherland. Even if you don't really understand it, you are still persistently pursuing treasures."

"Ah, ah, my dear you." The man performed an exaggerated etiquette.

"Your will has won, so now give you another chance to achieve miracles."

The ravenette raises his left hand and opens it.

A lilac crystal floats there.

It exudes a warm and familiar light, like a beacon, like a star. He knows where it would take him, he knows what he would see.

It is so beautiful and eye-catching.

The brown-haired boy feels like he could no longer look away from the crystal, but he tries to control his body, trying not to make his desire so obvious.

"You should probably heal yourself first. Let me——"

The ravenette makes a silent gesture.

The boy immediately stops talking and becomes cautious, although his heart is beating wildly.

"No need to do anything superfluous."

If have to say something, it's the same thing that happened in different places.

Dark clouds covered the sky, and the turbulent waves hit the coast tirelessly.

Night covered the earth, and the bleak moonlight revealed the horrific faces of the trees.

Ruins are everywhere, and the carvings on the fallen masonry have been eroded by time.

On an island isolated by the sea, the witch asked.

In the forest where it is difficult to tell the direction, the witch asked.

In the ruins covered with moss and trees, the witch asked.

Beyond all worlds, the witch asks.

"Who are you?"