Jess clutched her arm tightly, struggling to hold it together as she lay in the cloud of dust.

  Her ears rung hard, her sense of balance shot, along with any emotional stability she’d been able to gather in the past year.

  This is stupid, she thought. No. Worse than stupid. It’s shit. Shittier than shit.

  She made to stand, the burns, scrapes, and bruises protesting before she slumped back to the ground, back resting against the cold roughness of stone.

  Everything had gone to shit so quickly. Half the city had probably been scorched by the wave of pure power from above, hundreds, maybe even thousands, dead, Peter and Lucas probably among that number and all she could think about was Yu’s cry of pain as he’d been pulled from her grasp.

  And she couldn’t even stand to chase after him. She was too weak too.

  “Stupid fucking fuck” she muttered to herself on the verge of tears. “Damn glider idiot. Goblin git. Fucking- Idiot. Stupid idiot.”

  This was worse than the day she’d been born.

  “Jess?” a familiar voice said from above. She glanced up, through the hole in the ceiling above her, the action a serious effort. A Spider-Man shaped silhouette sat perched against the edge of the rock, the green river of energy in the dark of sky behind them.

  Instantly a burst of hope washed through her.

  “Yu” she sputtered. “Quick.”

  The figure landed down, before stumbling as they caught themselves against a wall. It was Peter.

  “Yu” she muttered practically choking on the words. Peter turned to her, before falling to one knee, as he pulled off his mask clutching his side.

  “You ok?”

  “Yu” she said desperately, “Quick. You need to go after him. The glider goblin guy took him. After everything he just fucking- he took Yu.”

  “I’m sorry” Peter muttered, defeated. “He’s long gone.”

  “Don’t say that” she said. “You can go after him. You can find him.”

  “Yu’s suit didn’t have a tracker. Even if I could search for him, I wouldn’t even know where to begin” he said. She fell silent, clenching her fist in frustration.

  What a shit day. What a totally shittier than shit day.

  Peter pulled himself along the last half metre, before slumping down next to her, his breaths haggard.

  “Is Lucas…” she trailed off.

  “He’s alright” Peter muttered. “Well alive at least. Don’t know if he’s injured, but I saw him swinging around saving people. We should probably help with that. Then start on finding Yu.”

  She nodded, and the two of them sat still, before Peter leant his head back, looking up to the green of the sky.

  “It’s pretty in a way, isn’t it?” Peter said, a defeated acceptance in his voice.

  “No” she mumbled wiping at her eyes. “It’s fucking stupid. Stupid.”

  Peter glanced to her as she sniffled, before patting her on the back.

  “Don’t pat me on the fucking back- I’m not a kid” she said, on the verge of tears.

  “Sorry” he said, pulling away.

  “No, I’m… dammit… sorry” she muttered. “I didn’t...”

  “It’s ok.”

  “But it’s not” she said. “We fucking- we lost. And I could feel it coming. Everything slipping from our grasp slowly. More villains, Kingpin being Kingpin and more shit to deal with, and the NE problem getting worse and worse, just waiting to bite us in the ass. And the goddamn fucking Vanguard is useless, and so is everything else. I fucking- shit. I watched him lose himself. I watched at school everyday as his whole fucking personality changed and I didn’t even notice. I was there and I didn’t change a thing. Dammit. I’ve barely made a difference to anything.”

  She cursed with a primal frustration, and kicked at some of the rocks, wincing hard as she sniffled.

  “Sorry” she muttered. “It’s been a really shit day.”

  “It’s probably not over”

  “I know that” she said harsh, “Fuck. You don’t have to say it.”

  “Jess I-”

  “I mean, fucking seriously” she said, an ironic laugh escaping her lips. “That fucking fuck. He was ok. He was finally ok, and he was right there and I had him. And he was practically begging me to help him and I just- I couldn’t-” she trailed off, struggling to talk through the tears that streamed down her face.

  “It’s okay Jess” Peter said, pulling her into a hug. “it’s ok.”

  “It’s not” she sobbed.

  “I know” he mumbled. “I know.”

  -

  I opened my eyes to muttered cursing and the clang of metal.

  Darkness surrounded me, and for a moment fear returned before steadily abating. My vision was slowly adjusting to the darkness of the space around me, and just beyond I could make out the shadow of a figure sitting in the darkness.

  They sat atop a stool facing away, hunched over something as they muttered to themselves. Even here, I could see the skin of their back, scarred, its surface marked by a strange, scratched texture. They mumbled to themselves, a string of repeated curses in an almost rhythmic pattern, a strange song-like mantra, backed by the scratching of metal against metal.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  What the hell? Where even was I? How had I gotten here? The last thing that happened…

  The rush of memories came back to me in an instant.

  The fear, the panic, the loss of my memories, and the chaos. The green of the sky. The fire. Jess.

  I hurt Jess

  My breaths grew quick, panicked, my mind becoming aware of the air’s sharp cold against my skin. I needed to find her. I needed to find Jess and apologise. But what if she was dead? What the injuries I’d given her had killed her? The anguish rolled through me, my eyes watering as I gripped the concrete of the floor. If I’d killed her, I might as well die. If I’d killed her then whatever this hell was, was my punishment.

  The clang of metal and that twisted song rang through my ears, as I pressed my head into the concrete of the ground, the first of my tears forming. Then the loud clang of metal pulled me from my grief. I paused, heart hammering hard, and looked up, staring at the figure’s back.

  What the hell was I doing?

  Of course I need to worry about Jess, but I needed to worry about myself first. I needed to get my own thoughts straight and get the hell out of here. I shook my head violently.

  Get it together you idiot.

  I wiped at my eyes, before looking around the darkness. But where exactly was here? I couldn’t sense anything, could barely feel beyond the cold. How had I gotten here?

  A sickening laugh echoed through my mind, the heat of pain against my neck, and the sputtering of a damaged glider.

  ‘You’re mine now. Blame your friends for that.’

  Right. The goblin had taken me.

  He’d taken me and put a collar around my neck that’d sapped my strength from me. But why? Something to do with the symbiote? Probably but there was no way to know.

  Besides the collar I felt fine. So, he either hadn’t done anything, or it only felt that way. I paused, my eyes widening. My face. He’d seen my face. Crap. Was that it? Was it all over? Had he figured out who I was? Could he figure out who the others were? Could he expose me? Had he done so already?

  I grit my teeth in anguish. I need to get myself under control. With a deep breath, I closed my eyes, tuning out the goblin’s demented song. My thoughts – clear for the first time in a while – soothed me. That strength I’d forgotten returning. The one that’d made me a hero in the first place.

  I might’ve been scared, but it wasn’t over. At least not until I gave up.

  My breathing slowed as I calmed myself, before looking to my restraints. I was chained to the floor by my hands, the collar from before still around my neck. It brought less pain now, but the weakness was still there, the presence of the symbiote gone from my mind.

  With keen eyes, I looked to the figure again, watching them closely. They hadn’t noticed any change in my breathing, and they certainly hadn’t seen me. The goblin was blissfully unaware, stuck in their song. If I was going to do something it had to be now.

  Slowly I stood. The chains were too small to reach them, but maybe I could break them. That weakness was still there, but if I could regain my strength, even if only for a moment they’d tear like tissue. But that meant confronting the symbiote.

  I paused, before taking a long breath. It was only me and the goblin here. And I’d regained control before. I could do it again.

  I stood slowly, wrapping the slack of the chains slowly around my arms before pulling at the base with as might as I could muster. They went taught as I stood slowly, tugging at them harder and harder with every second. My wrists strained against their tightness, as I struggled, my desperation growing as the new weakness of my body became more and more apparent.

  Then the figure’s song stopped. Crap.

  “Trying to run away, are we?” the voice said. The green metal of breast plate clanged to the floor and then a scarred hand was around my neck.

  He lifted me off the floor, his grip a vice. I gasped desperately kicking at him before I fell to the floor. He stood over me, silent, his unnatural green eyes fixed on me with a pure hatred. Then he neared, his face becoming clearer in the darkness.

  He was young, probably not much older than Peter. The skin on his face was normal, except for the claw like scars running from forehead to chin, deep discoloured scars. He looked familiar somehow, but not someone I recognised.

  He stared at me for a moment, before laughing to himself. Then he smiled, a grim thing, like something mechanical beneath the skin had upturned his lips and tugged them grimly into a smile. I shuddered as he grabbed me by the face, digging a sharpened finger into the skin beneath my eye.

  “Gah, shit! Shit!” I mumbled, writhing about in pain, as I tried to pull away from him. The pain stopped as soon as it began, and with a hand he slammed me against corrugated steel. Silence reigned for a moment as I lay there’ wheezing, blood trickling down my cheek.

  “I wonder” he whispered suddenly, “of this what do you know?”

  “W-what?” I muttered, looking up. He pulled away, into the darkness, chuckling to himself. The sound echoed through the room, unlike any I’d heard before. Almost as if it reverberated through the very walls.

  “Do you know who created you?” he said suddenly serious. I remained silent, looking at him as he paced back and forth, circling around his chair. He paused suddenly, turning to me.

  “Answer”

  “Fuck you”

  He leapt at me, grabbing the chains as he wrenched me forward, before digging his nails into my cheek. I gasped and he dropped me to the floor, before gently pressing one of his sharpened fingers against my throat.

  “Answer me!” he said. I pulled away from his sharp finger, desperately fighting for breath. “DON’T IGNORE ME! ANSWER! ANSWER!”

  “I don’t know” I muttered, half whimpering.

  “Take a guess or I’ll fucking kill you.”

  “O-otto. Dr Otto Octavius”

  He burst into sudden laughter, jumping away before kicking the metal of his green breastplate across the space. It crashed against something, a flash of sparks blinding me for a moment, before the room went dark again, the goblin still laughing. Dammit. He was completely insane.

  Slowly his laughter died down, and he grabbed the chair, before dragging it over beside me and taking a seat.

  “Well, the right answer was Spider-Man. Lucas Escarra” he said. My eyes went wide. He knew. He knew who the others were.

  “Ha! You didn’t know I knew that. Funny. I guess he wouldn’t know to be able to tell you. Should’ve suspected though. The BRC was Oscorp funded. Of course, we’d keep security cams there” he muttered before slinking away, into the abject darkness of the rest of the lab. “Should’ve never been given to my stupid brother. It’s his fault it blew up. He planned it! He and dad! The board, they were gonna give it to me. They were gonna give it to me you know?”

  I closed my eyes silently praying to myself. It’d be ok. Even if I couldn’t escape, the others would find me. They would. They’d find me and I’d get out of here, and I’d go home.

  “Well anyway” he said, voice suddenly normal. “I’ve brought you here to discuss business matters. You guys really fucked with my plan. But I think I can still sort things out without the core. You see I’ve found a way to stabilise the venom symbiote. My offer to you? Help me capture Lucas and let me take a little chunk of you. Then you get full control. None of this losing your mind nonsense. All you have to do is agree not attack me, and I’ll give you the formula after the job’s done.”

  I remained silent, searching the darkness for him.

  “Don’t think, just answer me” he said cold. “You know what’ll happen if you don’t”

  “I don’t want whatever it’s you’re offering” I muttered, voice shaky. “I won’t turn on my friends.”

  “Well, that’s alright. You see I’ve got other plans” he said. “Really quite smart actually. And I don’t need your permission for some of this other stuff. You see, this symbiote stuff is the real deal, not that stupid PED rip-off Dad’s making. And if Lucas can make this after coming into contact with one of Otto’s first experiments, then maybe, just maybe, his family can too.”

  My blood ran cold.

  “Well, it won’t be exactly the same. An updated formula, straight from test tube to vein. But it should be enough. And that’s not even the fun part. You my dear friend, you’re special too. To not just hold the symbiote back but control it for almost a full year… I could only dream of finding another specimen like that. You’ve shown me a gift. I planned to try and use you, but I don’t need to. I can run tests on you, and this… this is unimaginable. I can see your face. And now I know who you are. So, like in Lucas’ case, who knows your little brother might be inclined to this gift too.”

  “NO!” I cried, pulling against the chains desperately as I screeched, an inhuman sound that echoed through the space. “NO! YOU BASTARD! Stay away from him! STAY AWAY!”

  He slammed a sledgehammer of a fist into my stomach, and I gasped, words cut short. Then with a maniacal eccentricity he began to laugh, a high-pitched evil sound the echoed through the darkness all around us, as he faded from view.

  “Yes” he giggled to himself. “Tonight, we’re going to pay a visit to your family too.”