I couldn’t find the van. Somehow, in between it driving off and me wrenching Dr Warren from a van, it’d vanished. I couldn’t find a single trace of it. Not any tires marks it’d left behind, not any road incidents had caused, I hadn’t even found civilians who’d seen a speeding white van. It was bizarre. Nearly three hours of searching and I hadn’t found anything. Either the hideout location must’ve been close - and I couldn’t find it - or they really had just disappeared. Maybe some meta with teleportation powers was after the cloning stuff too. At this point it didn’t matter how they’d gotten away. They had and I couldn’t find them. Lorien was gone and now the Bears had a ton of cloning equipment. Were they going to try making clones out of Mr Ice? Jeez... I didn’t want to even think about that.

I swung slowly, coming to a stop on a rooftop, and hobbled a bit before falling onto the floor, breathing heavily. I was tired. Really tired. And my foot was starting to ache a lot more now the adrenaline had worn off. It wasn’t fun. I sat up and peered over the edge of the building looking down. Police trucks and ambulances lined the street, with tape cordoning of a large section of the road. It wasn’t pretty. The street was covered in tarps, each spot a scientist or civilian that had been killed. Injured of the attacked, mostly from the restaurant were being treated by on the scene paramedics, whilst ambulances picked up those in more critical condition.

I looked further down the road. Dr Warren and all the Bears members I’d fought had been arrested. They’d probably taken him in for questioning. Hopefully get him to confess to whatever sick and twisted things he’d done to those people whilst trying to clone them. I looked further down the street, up at the rooftop with the MDA soldiers. A few watched the scene below coldly and calmly, in their Might issued armour making no moves. Others circled around a box they’d deployed on the Prowlers. Why was it taking them so long to get them back. Probably trying to find ways to get the armour off of them. Well, it was out of my hands now. Hopefully, once they finished whatever they were doing, they got them back to the Hortz-Bruig today. That’d be a relief. Still, I couldn’t put my finger on why they’d come. I’m pretty sure the Prowlers weren’t classed as Meta’s even if they had grade A tech. Or maybe they were. But why had they brought out some many officers? What was I missing?

I had no way to know. Maybe it might be a good idea to have a spybot follow the MDA back home. Or maybe not. That’d look really bad if I got found out. I turned back to the street, looking at the aftermath. I turned away feeling sick.

“You did good today” I mumbled to myself.

Even as I said it, I could tell I didn’t believe the words. I’d captured the Prowlers, the guy behind the lab bombings and I’d taken out most of what was left of the Bears. But things still felt incomplete. Lorien was still missing, and I felt like I was missing something big that everyone else seemed to be aware of. But worst of all, people had died. People had been killed when I’d been in that restaurant. Because I hadn’t been focused enough. I’d told myself to be careful, to focus. But during the fight I’d made stupid puns in my head and not thought of the people around me. I’d been too focused on saving Lorien and I’d leapt into battle without a plan. I clenched my fist tightly. Dammit.

I tried to stand up, but a wave of pain shot through my heel and I slumped back to the floor.

“Ow” I mumbled.

I needed to stop focusing on what was happening around me and start focusing on myself. The bullet through my heal had done more damage than I’d liked to admit. Probably one of my worst injuries. Dammit I should’ve gone straight home after the first half hour of searching. Needed to head over to the hospital or treat it myself before it got infected. I stood up again slowly this time, and hobbled over to the edge of the building, before swinging away.

I swung steadily, taking my time as I made my way through downtown Brooklyn. I checked my phone. People had called while I’d been searching. A few had left voicemails. I started listening from the first one.

“You are listening to voicemail 1 -beep- Hey Spider-Man uh I’m not sure if this is a big enough thing, but someone just stole my wallet. I’m by Times Square, near the McDonalds if you could come quick” the message ended. How the hell was I supposed to help that guy? No description or anything. Probably happened hours ago as well. I shook my head and listened to the next one.

“You are listening to voicemail 2 -beep- I’ll get you! You fucking bastard! You ruined my fucking life! You fuck! You fucking f-“ the message ended and I just stared at my phone confused. What was that about? I didn’t recognise the voice at all. It wasn’t rare that I got angry calls, but the vehemence in that voice had been chilling. I shuddered, the pressed the phone to my ear again.

“-stening to voicemail 3 -beep- I’m here you fuck. I’m waiting for you Peter. 38 Lexington Avenue” I froze. It was the same voice from before. Whoever had called knew who I was. I stopped the voicemails and looked at the number. I didn’t recognise it and I definitely didn’t have time to search it. They were at my base. I couldn’t believe it. Who the hell were they?! What did I do? Did II go face them? Of course I had to. How did they even know where my base was. Fuck. Fuck! If they knew who I was they could find everyone else in my life. Grady, Bella, Sajani, MJ, Grandpa Will., Aunt May, Harry, Liz. Maybe even Lucas. Everyone. They were all in danger. Shit. Shit this couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. Not like this.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I swung fast, gripping my webs tightly as I hurtled through the air towards my base. What had I left there? It didn’t matter did it? If they knew who I was, they knew where I lived. They could take the stuff at my house too. I swung even faster, feeling my heart thump wildly in my chest. I was struggling to breathe. I was injured, badly, exhausted, and now I had to fight someone who knew who I was in what was most definitely a trap. Unless they were drawing me away from here to try and get at my loved ones. Shit. But I couldn’t not go, if they were there, they could be destroying all my stuff. All my costumes, and spare equipment. I pulled the phone up as I swung over Brooklyn bridge. The voicemail had come… forty minutes ago. Shit.

I’d left them waiting. That was dangerous. They’d sounded angry. No more than angry. Who knew what they could do if I’d let them fester in hatred for that long. I phoned the number, my heart thumping even harder. Wind roared in my ears but I was focused solely on the dial tone. Finally the call picked up.

“Hello!?” I shouted, over the noise of the city.

“You finally picked up dammit. I shouldn’t be surprised, your always late to everything aren’t you?” the voice said. My blood ran cold at the wildly specific detail about my personal life. This person had been watching me. They had to have been.

“Who the hell are you?! What do you want?!” I shouted.

“I want to tear you limb from limb and fix this mess!” they shouted, the anger returning to their voice. “I’m going to fucking kill you, and then I’ll be able to fix everything”

I heard the sounds of something crashing in the background. Metal against concrete and the familiar crumbling of walls.

“Just- who the hell are you!?” I shouted.

“I- You really are an idiot”

The call went dead. Shit. Fuck. I sped up, my entire body tense now. This person was insane. They were insane and they knew who I was, they knew more than who I was, they knew about my personal life. It sounded like they knew me.

My base came into view, the mostly abandoned building clearly visible. To average passer-by it looked normal but one of the windows was broken. The window that lead directly into the room with all my equipment. I swung, quickly and landed just outside, listening closely. Before I could even hear anything, my spider-sense buzzed. The wall I stood on shattered into pieces as something flew through the side of the building. I cried out, dodging the debris as I spiralled downwards to the ground. Despite the situation my instincts kicked in, and I spun around, firing webs to catch the falling debris. My spider sense buzzed again and I spun trying to dodge, but was slammed by an elbow.

The blow carried jaw shattering power and was enough to crack my cheek bone and send me crashing through several pieces of debris. My spider sense roared again and I fired a web, swinging away from the danger. As I swung, blinking the stars out of my eyes, something latched onto my chest. In an instant I recognised the feeling. Web. It was web. I was yanked through the cloud of debris and came face to face with someone wearing my costume. They slammed into me and we crashed back into a building, slamming through a wall. We crashed to the floor. Who the hell hated me but was willing to wear my costume? Was it Lucas? No, that didn’t make sense. It wasn’t his voice and he wouldn’t do something like this. My assailant reached for my throat but I swung, knocking them back. They fell backwards and I leapt up. Before I could do anything my feet were swept out from under me and I crashed to the floor. The assailant was on top of me again, laughing this time. He wrapped his hands around my throat as they slammed me against the concrete again and again and again. My vision started to blur around the edges as I gasped for air, gripping my attackers wrists tightly. They wouldn’t budge, all their intent focused on killing me.

“What the hell?! Just die already!!” he shouted. Crap. I couldn’t break free. They were just as strong if not stronger and soon they’d crush my windpipe. Shit. Shit. I needed to do something. I sensed out and fired a web at some of the debris we’d created before yanking it back towards us full force. He dodged, but his grip loosened. I uppercut him and he flew through the ceiling before crashing back down to the floor.

“What do you want you fuck!!!?” I shouted, grabbing him and slamming him into a wall. He struggled against me, but the hit had clearly taken a lot out of him. He gurgled something and I leaned in. He headbutted me and I stumbled backwards. I dodged as he leapt at me, then spun and reached out grabbing him by the head. He pulled away, the mask and tufts of his hair staying stuck to my hand.

I looked up at my attacker and froze as he stumbled, then fell to one knee. He bore an uncanny resemblance to me. A clone. He was a clone of me. Now I knew how he knew me. He must’ve had my memories. The realisation brought forward a mixture of intense emotions, anger, sadness, fear, worry, all buffeted by confusion as I watched him stumble around. He tried to say something, but his coughed blood from his shattered jaw. He fell to his knees, breathing heavily.

“A-are you okay?” I said.

“Shut the fuck up” he said breathlessly.

I rushed over as he threw up on, a mixture of blood and vomit. He shoved me back, but it was weak, all the strength gone from his body.

“God I really fucking hate you” he mumbled. He looked at me, his eyes filled with a profound anger, whilst his face bore a twisted smile.

“Think they must’ve used plastic to make my bones. I’m nowhere near as durable” he said. Then he slumped to the ground silent. I stared at him for a second, enveloped by a sense of surrealism. Silence. Silence all throughout the building.

“Hey?” I said, making my way over to him. I pulled my mask off as I looked down at him, unmoving. I took a shaky breath then placed a hand on his neck. No heartbeat. He was gone. I kneeled next to him, unsure of what to do. He’d wanted to kill me. Tried to. I couldn’t understand why, couldn’t make sense of it. Did I hate myself that much, or was his mind a twisted mess of memories? Right now, that didn't matter. Looking at my own face, devoid of life, made me inexplicably sad. I didn’t know what to do. So I sat there for a few moments, then softly, I closed his eyes.