New York
August 22, 10:25 EDT
Peter spent the walk back home combing through his memories, trying to see if the kiss that Zatanna had given him was a spur-of-the-moment thing or something that had been brewing for a long time. Neither was good in his eyes, but the former was less bad than the latter. Unfortunately, it looked like it was leaning towards the latter of the two.
"This is not good." he said, rubbing his temples.
"Meow." said Dexter, licking his face in comfort as he rested on his shoulders.
"Thanks, buddy." he said, feeling a little better as he rubbed Dexter's head.
Entering his home, he could hear his family was still in the kitchen, so he made his way there. As he entered, Mary and Teresa turned to look at him with an expectant look on their faces. Before, he wouldn't have paid it much mind, but now, he realized that they knew.
"You knew Zatanna had a crush on me." he said as Dexter hopped off his shoulder and onto Teresa's lap.
"Zatanna likes you?" asked Richard, as he ate a piece of bacon. "Huh. Wouldn't have guessed it."
"You figured it out?" asked Mary, surprised. "Did that software update really work?"
"It's hard not to figure out when she gives me a kiss on the cheek." he said.
"Finally." said Teresa, breathing a sigh of relief. "Do you know how hard it's been not saying anything? I've been dying to tell you. Or slap you in the face and make you realize it for yourself."
"So, are you two dating now?" asked Mary, smiling.
"Why are you both so calm about this?" he asked, perplexed.
"Why are you so worked up about this? I think you'd make a cute couple." said Mary.
"Maybe because I've known her for years and she's practically like a sister to me. Or a cousin at the very least." he rebutted. "And more importantly, she's in middle school."
"Oh, that's true. That would not be ideal." said Mary, making a face. "You two should wait at least until next year. She'll be a freshman, you'll be a sophomore. It'll be fine then."
"Wha-?" said Peter, baffled by Mary's nonchalance. "Teri? Please tell me you don't think the same as Mom."
"I don't." she said.
"Thank you." he said, breathing a sigh of relief.
"You don't? Why?" asked Mary, confused at her agreeing with Peter. "Don't you think they'd make a cute couple?"
"No." said Teresa. "Not yet, at least."
"What are you talking about?" asked Peter, his relief at her being on his side vanishing.
"Usually, Zatanna's confident. She's funny, flirty, and rebellious except when she's around you. She turns into a blubbering mess, a completely different person." explained Teresa, making an almost disgusted face as she talked about how her best friend became a completely different person. "Until she can be herself around him, I don't think they should date."
"She can't help that. She's a young girl around her crush; it's just how it is in the beginning, but after some time, her true self will come out." said Mary, pointing at Peter. "And you better accept her for who she is. I raised you better than to leave a girl for being comfortable in her own skin."
Peter was flabbergasted and had no words.
"Dad? Don't you have any thoughts on this?" asked Peter, looking to Richard to be the voice of reason.
"Son, I'm not touching this with a ten-foot pole." he said. "You're on your own."
Again, he was flabbergasted. Before he could say anything at all, his phone rang, but it wasn't his personal phone; it was his Spider-Phone. He took it out of his pocket and saw that he was getting a call from Daniels.
'He's never called me first.' thought Peter, temporarily forgetting about the whole Zatanna fiasco.
"I'll be back." he said to his family, quickly making his way to his bedroom and picking up the call after closing the door. "Detective?"
"How fast can you get to Nuovo Vesuvio?" asked Daniels with a sense of urgency in his voice.
Peter could also hear the siren from his car in the background, along with the sound of wind rushing by, which meant he was driving fast.
"10 minutes, 15 tops. Why? Are the Monteleones moving drugs again?" he asked, getting his suit ready.
"Worse. Killer Frost is paying the Monteleones a visit." he said. "And it's not because she's hankering for some Italian food."
"She's back." he said, surprised that she had shown herself after so long. "Wait, she's at Nuovo Vesuvio? Why?"
"I don't know, but the word from those first on the scene is not good. They're doing the best they can, but they're fighting a war on two fronts." explained Daniels. "You need to get there now."
"I'm on my way." he said, hanging up the phone.
He had already stuffed his suit in his backpack, so he grabbed it before sprinting down the stairs.
"Peter, is everything all right?" asked Mary from the kitchen.
"Fine! I'm going out! Be back soon!" he said, not waiting for a response before he was out the door.
He ducked into an alley and quickly changed into his suit, webbing his backpack with his clothes in a secure place so he could go back for it later. He jumped and began swinging towards Little Italy, mentally going over the fastest route there.
'It's been a couple of days since Dr. Frost turned into Killer Frost, and there's been no sign of her since the incident at the morgue. I thought there would have been a trace of her by now, a withered body, a sighting, something, but no. Now all of a sudden, she shows up in broad daylight, and she's attacking a mob locale. I just don't see the connection.' he thought, trying to make sense of her actions. 'Maybe using logic with a recently created villain isn't the smartest thing to do.'
~
He was already moving fast because of what Daniels had told him, but as he neared the neighborhood, the sound of gunfire and sirens made him move faster.
'That's not something you see every day.' he thought as he swung onto the street.
The street had practically become a warzone with what once was Nuovo Vesuvio at the center of it all. The restaurant, which just yesterday was brimming with people, had become entombed in ice, freezing not only it but the entire four-story building in which it was located.
Outside the restaurant were six black SUVs that were cordoning off the restaurant and the area in front of it, while more than two dozen mobsters, all carrying semi-automatic rifles, stood inside the cordoned-off space. On both sides of the streets were police cars, vans, and SWAT trucks, pincering the mobsters, and just as many, if not more, police officers than the mobsters, with their weapons drawn.
Most of the mobsters were shooting at the police and keeping their attention, while a few of them were trying to get into the restaurant, shooting and hitting the ice to no avail.
As he took in the scene, seeing how best to go in, he noticed Daniels signaling at him from atop the same rooftop he had been surveilling the restaurant the night before.
"What are you doing up here?" he asked as he landed next to him.
"I figured you'd look to land on a rooftop before you went in, and this looked like the best one." said Daniels. "You need to go into the building and deal with Killer Frost."
"Not before I help deal with the mobsters." he said.
"Let us deal with them. We have more SWAT rolling in, and we have snipers setting up." said Daniels, pointing out a sniper getting into position one building over. "We think people were eating in the restaurant when Killer Frost got there. By the time we deal with the mobsters and then break that ice to get in, they'll have either frozen to death or been killed. You need to save them and stop Killer Frost."
He was going to rebut, but realized that Daniels' thinking was too sound.
"Okay." he said, nodding.
"Good." said Daniels while taking out his phone. "As soon as I heard the entire building was entombed in ice, I knew only you were going to be able to go in, so I asked for the blueprints in advance so you'll know the layout of the building. I just sent them to you."
"Wow. Nice thinking, Detective." said Peter, impressed as he took out his phone.
"Don't thank me yet. Those blueprints are probably wrong. The Monteleones own the entire building, and I'd bet my entire paycheck that they paid off anybody who came in contact with those blueprints so the city wouldn't know the truth." said Daniels.
"Still, something is better than nothing." he said, looking at the blueprints. "Looks like there's a stairwell that connects all the floors and the roof. The first-floor landing is located at the back of the restaurant's kitchen. More than likely, that stairwell is real, so I'll send any hostages I find up the stairs, but you need to have someone waiting for them."
"I'll do it, but you'll need to take me to the roof." he said without hesitation.
"If they're inju-"
"I got ambulances and firetrucks already on standby." said Daniels before Peter could finish.
"Okay, let's go." he said before carrying Daniels.
Because the building wasn't far, he was able to easily jump across and land on the roof even while carrying Daniels.
"Good thing the roof's not frozen." said Daniels as Peter put him down.
"It is cold though." said Peter, breathing out and seeing his breath. "If it's this cold out here, it must be sub-zero inside."
"I'll tell the emergency services so they can be ready. Go." said Daniels.
He nodded at him before wrenching open the roof access door. A cold gust of wind blew out, and it felt like he had opened the door to a meat locker; a thin layer of frost had also built up along the walls and floor.
'I'm more resistant to cold than a normal person, but I don't think even I'd last long in these temperatures.' he thought, shivering a bit. 'I need to move quickly.'
Like he had seen on the blueprints, the roof access did lead to a stairwell that was connected to all four floors. He could also see that all the doors leading to the stairs were open, and he could hear voices and gunfire coming from the first floor.
'Looks like some mobsters were inside the building when Dr. Frost came in. Better make sure each floor is empty before I move on. They may be mobsters, but that doesn't mean they don't need saving.' he thought, activating his thermal vision.
Unlike traditional thermal vision, which was unable to penetrate most materials, his thermal vision could. That's not to say his was perfect, as the ability to penetrate through materials part of it worked best up close. Still, it was much better than what was on the market.
He hopped down onto the fourth-floor landing and swept the entire floor, looking for any heat signatures. When he saw nothing, he quickly moved on to the next and did the same. Again, he saw nothing, so he moved on to the second floor, but unlike the two previous times, he did see three heat signatures.
Two of the heat signatures looked human, and they were huddled close together. The third heat signature resembled a box emitting heat, which he assumed was an appliance they were using to help them ward off the cold. But judging by their body heat, it wasn't helping much.
He entered the second floor, noting it was a large open studio apartment, before rushing over to the two people. As he had seen with his thermal vision, it was two people, a man and a woman, shivering and looking pale. They were huddled together in front of an open oven, using it and a blanket to stay warm.
"Are you two okay?" he asked.
"W-w-we're f-f-freezing." said the man, weakly as his teeth chattered. "I-i-it w-was that K-killer F-f-frost."
"I know, but don't worry about that right now. Hold on just a little longer. I'm getting you two out of here."
Gently, he picked them up and made sure they were secure before sprinting out of the apartment and up the stairs. As he reached the roof, he saw that a fire truck's tower ladder bucket was ready to take anyone down. There were also a few paramedics with their supplies and gurneys, ready and waiting.
"Set them down on the gurneys." said Daniels as soon as he saw them.
Peter gently placed them on the gurneys, and the paramedics immediately got to work on them, wrapping them in a heating blanket and setting up an IV.
"What's it looking like inside?" asked Daniels.
"All floors except the first are empty now that I saved them, but it sounded like a few mobsters were shooting at Killer Frost. Besides that, I don't know." said Peter.
"W-we r-r-ran as soon a-as she came i-in." chimed in the man. "T-there were f-four other p-people eating there w-when we ran i-into the k-kitchen and u-up the s-s-stairs."
"W-we heard p-people c-come down the s-stairs when w-we hid." added the woman. "S-sounded like at l-least a d-dozen."
"Thanks." said Peter, nodding at the two.
He quickly ran back inside, skipping the stairs and jumping straight down the gap to the first floor, landing quietly. The door leading to the kitchen was open, allowing him to see that a few mobsters were hiding behind the stainless steel cooking stations with their guns pointed at something. Interestingly, they weren't aiming out towards the dining area, but toward where the food pantry/meat locker was located, according to the blueprints.
'The Monteleone's must have a secret/underground room in the pantry that's not on the blueprints. Looks like Daniels owes me a medium amount of money.'
Switching on his thermal vision, he saw that there were half a dozen mobsters in the kitchen and at least a dozen more in the pantry. He realized that many of the ones in the pantry had parts of their bodies that were at a lower temperature than others, likely from being attacked by Killer Frost.
He moved on to looking at the dining area and saw four heat signatures, like the couple said. It looked like they were trying to break the ice to escape, but were making little to no progress.
'The ice looked pretty thick from the outside. It'll take more than one punch to break it, even if I use my full strength. Even if I do manage to break it fast enough so the mobsters inside aren't able to react, right outside the ice are even more mafiosos, itching to bust in, guns a blazing.' he thought. 'Best thing is probably for me to quickly take care of the ones in the kitchen, grab the hostages, run them up the stairs, and come back in to stop Dr. Frost and the other mobsters.'
With a plan in mind, he swung into the kitchen and used impact webbing to web the two farthest mobsters who were hiding behind the cooking stations to the cooking stations. The two closest mobsters to him had realized he was there and were about to turn around and shoot him, but before they could, he punched them, knocking them out. The last two were so focused on aiming at whatever they were aiming at that they hadn't noticed he was there until they heard the mobsters hit the ground. Unfortunately for them, it was too late, and he knocked them out quickly.
Before moving to save the hostages, he looked at where they were aiming, and as he had suspected, they did have their guns trained at the pantry. The pantry doors were open, revealing a dozen mobsters, some injured and others not, and an open hatch on the ground. He couldn't see Killer Frost, but judging by the gunfire and how the mobsters were shouting, he was sure she was down there.
He put that out of his mind for a moment before diving through the kitchen serving window into the dining room. He saw that the four people had moved some tables to use as a makeshift barrier while the two men used the legs from some chairs to break the ice.
"I-i-it's that S-s-spider guy!" said one of the women, surprised and relieved.
"I-i-it's y-your fault!" said the other, her voice bordering on hysterical as she pointed a finger at him. "Y-you showed u-up, and N-new York s-started getting c-c-crazy! G-G-Gordon was r-right!"
"Come on, lady, don't you know not everything you see on TV and the internet is real?" he said before crouching down and talking gently. "I'm going to get you all out of here, safe and sound. Then, you can be as mad at me as you want in warm temperatures. Sound good?"
"O-okay." she said, weakly nodding.
"Good." he said, picking up the two women and looking at the men. "You two, stay down and stay quiet. I'll be back in a flash."
"No, t-take us with you!" said one of the men. "I-I don't want to r-r-risk it!"
"My name might be Spider-Man, but I only have two arms." said Peter.
"We'll g-grab onto y-your f-front and b-b-back!" he said, practically clawing at Peter's suit.
Seeing how desperate he was, Peter knew he wouldn't be able to leave without him.
"Okay, grab on." he relented.
The man who pitched the idea quickly hopped onto Peter's back, wrapping his arms and legs around him with a vice-like grip. The other man awkwardly stood in front of Peter, trying to see how best to latch on without making it weird.
"Not really the time to be feeling awkward." he said.
"Right. Sorry, Spider-Man." he said, shooting him a look of pity before wrapping his arms around Peter's neck.
"More like Opossum-Man." he mumbled, using his wall-crawling ability to make sure all four people were securely stuck to him.
He moved quickly into and through the kitchen, taking a look to see the state of things as he passed through. The only new thing he saw was a mobster helping another mobster up the stairs as he wailed and held his arm, which was frozen solid. As he entered the stairwell, he heard a mobster yell out.
"It's the freaking Spider! He's here!"
"Eek!" said the man on his back, holding on even tighter. "Go!"
He obliged and started to go faster while making sure not to jostle his passengers too much. Quickly, he reached the roof, and the four people detached themselves from him so fast that they nearly took pieces of his suit with them.
"Oh, thank god." said the one who was on his back, tearing up as the paramedics helped him. "I'm moving somewhere where it's hot every day of the year after this."
"That's all the hostages." he said to Daniels. "But there are at least two dozen mobsters down there, and some of them are injured pretty badly courtesy of Killer Frost. You'll need to have more paramedics on standby."
"What a mess." said Daniels, running his hand through his hair. "Why the hell is Killer Frost even interested in the Monteleones?"
"S-she was shouting a-about something called v-venom." said the woman who had blamed Peter earlier.
"Venom? Are you sure?" asked Peter.
"I heard it too." chimed in the man.
"What would Killer Frost want with Venom? Seems to me her powers are more than enough." said Daniels.
"I don't know, but whatever her plans for Venom are, they're probably not good." said Peter, turning around and going back inside.
Just like before, he jumped down the gap in the stairs, except this time, his spider-sense was tingling on the way down. Before landing on the ground, he shot a web at the wall and pulled himself to it, dodging the gunfire from the three mobsters who were lying in wait.
"That's not the kind of surprise I enjoy." he said, bouncing off the wall and colliding with the mobster in the middle, taking him down before leg sweeping the other two. "I like the cake and candles kind more."
He webbed their weapons to the wall and all three of them to the ground before moving into the kitchen. He saw that the six mobsters he had taken down earlier were still incapacitated, but he also saw the mobster with the frozen arm sitting down and pointing a pistol at him. He jumped upwards, dodging the first bullet before acrobatically moving around the ceiling, dodging the other shots until he heard the gun click, signaling it was empty.
The mobster was about to start reloading when Peter dropped down in front of him and grabbed and threw the pistol away. With the only possible threat handled, he looked over to the pantry, using his thermal vision to see that all the mobsters who were there before weren't anymore, but he could still hear the sound of gunfire.
'Probably all downstairs fighting Killer Frost. Let me quickly see what I can find out from this guy.' thought Peter, turning back to look at the mobster. "I'm not a doctor, but even I can tell that arm of yours is toast. The faster I take care of Killer Frost, the faster you get medical attention, and maybe the arm will be the only thing you'll lose. So talk. Why is she here? What does she want?"
"Don't say nothing to him!" said one of the two webbed-up mobsters.
"Yeah, don't say nothing!" echoed the other.
"Guys, I'm sorry, but this is an A and B conversation, so why don't you two C your way out of it?" said Peter, webbing their mouths shut before turning back to look at the frozen armed mobster. "Talk."
He looked hesitant about whether he should talk, glancing over at his two mobster friends staring daggers at him, but he looked down at his arm and made up his mind.
"That crazy bitch wants what every other criminal in this city wants, and we're the only ones who have it: Venom." he said through gritted teeth. "She barged in and started asking about it. When they told her to leave, she flipped out and froze the building. She even turned a few of the guys into ice statues and shattered them into a million little pieces before forcing the information out of another. She's still down in the basement, and so is everyone else. That's all I know, I swear, so go knock her out before I die!"
Peter was about to go, but then thought to ask the mobster something he had been wondering for a while.
"One last thing. Who's your supplier?" he asked.
"Come on, seriously?! My arm's a popsicle, and you're playing twenty questions with me?!" he said, frustrated. "We always deal with low-level guys, but I've heard there's a boss or whatever somewhere in the city. But even he answers to someone else. And no one besides his guys know what the big boss looks like or where he's from. You even ask about him, and they put a bullet in you, so all we know is they call him Bane."
Hearing that name triggered a memory from his past life of a muscled-out man wearing a black and white luchador mask with tubes filled with green liquid running all over his body.
'Even I know who Bane is; he's a villain just as iconic as Batman himself. And it looks like he's still unknown here, which is interesting.' thought Peter before realizing that it wasn't the time to be thinking about Bane.
"Thanks for the info." said Peter before webbing the guy to the wall.
"Come on, guy." said the mobster. "By the time you defeat that Killer Ice chick, I'll be dead. I have a frozen arm, can't you let me go up to the roof so I can get some medical attention?"
"How do I know you're not going to pick up a gun, save your friends, and try to shoot me in the back?" he asked.
"Web my good arm if you want. I just want a doctor."
"Hmm ... fine." said Peter, agreeing and removing the webbing. "But I suggest you take a good, long look at your life and decide what you want out of it."
"Way ahead of you, pal. I didn't sign up to fight crazy ice ladies." said the mobster, standing up.
"No, just to peddle drugs and extort small business owners." said Peter, shaking his head as he webbed the mobster's good hand to his stomach.
"Exactly, you get it." said the mobster, walking off. "See you around, Spider-Man."
Peter was a little wary about having let the mobster go off by himself, but he remembered that the entire building was encased in ice. That, along with the roof access being the only way out, and Daniels waiting up there, he quickly put it out of his mind since he had more pressing things to attend to.
He entered the large pantry, which was a lot larger than what he assumed most restaurants needed, and saw nothing but food, bullet casings, and shards of ice scattered on the ground. At first, he thought they were regular ice shards that Killer Frost must have shot out, but when he saw an eyeball in one of them, he realized what they were.
'Thank you, Dr. Frost, for that nightmare fuel.' he thought, stopping the urge he had to vomit as he made his way down the stairs while putting the visual out of his mind.
As he descended the stairs, the sound of gunfire and shouting from the mobsters grew louder, and the air also grew colder, with a thicker layer of frost building up on the walls. He could see the stairs turned into a landing before taking a right turn, so he hopped up and started crawling on the ceiling. The right turn led to a large underground warehouse filled with various items, which was pockmarked with ice walls, mounds of ice, and incapacitated mobsters. There were only a little less than a dozen mobsters still moving and who were hiding behind whatever they could as they shot at a figure he had only seen on grainy video.
This time, he could see her more clearly, and unlike what he initially thought, her hair had not turned white but rather a very opaque blue that made it look like ice. She wasn't wearing clothes made of ice anymore either; instead, she wore a blue leotard that went from her neck to the beginning of her legs and which had a diamond made of ice with metal surrounding it in the shape of a compass in the middle of her chest. She wore long blue winter gloves that had fur around her biceps, blue high-heeled boots that reached her calf, similarly with fur, and she had long white-ish leggings that went up to the middle of her thigh.
'Wow, that's ... quite an outfit.' he thought, unable to help it as he looked at her outfit. 'Bad Peter. She's a bad guy.'
Focusing back up, he saw that she was looking through crates while hiding behind an ice wall.
'She must be searching for Venom.' he realized. 'Better stop her before she finds it. Don't want to wait and see what'll happen to her already unstable mental faculties if she takes a dose of Venom.'
"Is this the line for the snow cones?" he said, dropping down on top of a mobster. "Hate to cut in line, but I got a show to catch."
"Another freak?!" shouted one of the mobsters. "Get him!"
"Freak? Buddy, I've seen your browser history. I don't think you want to be throwing stones." he said.
"You have?" asked the mobster, eyes wide in surprise. "I swear I was just curious."
"Someone should definitely follow up on that." said Peter, doing a back handspring to dodge a spray of gunfire.
As he landed, he webbed two mobsters to their hiding place before taking the guns out of two other mobsters using his webs. He then threw the guns at another two, knocking them out, and leaving a total of six still standing, surrounding him.
He was about to launch himself at one of the mobsters when his spider-sense tingled with an almost painful intensity. He jumped upwards, landing on a stack of crates while a beam of cold swept over where he was standing, catching two of the mobsters and causing them to be encased in ice.
Turning to look, he saw that Killer Frost wasn't rummaging through crates anymore, but was looking at him, her hand outstretched.
"So you're the so-called Spider-Man?" said Killer Frost, her voice, which was once kind, now chilly and slightly shrill. "I thought you would be taller."
"I'll have you know, I'm above the average." he said. "Why are you attacking the Monteleones?"
"For this, of course." she said, showing him a vial of Venom. "I've heard so many good things about this little drug. I wanted to check it out for myself."
"Why? So you can be a juiced-up, even more out of her mind, muscle woman?"
"I'm not out of my mind!" she yelled angrily.
Again, she shot a beam of cold at him that he dodged by moving to another stack of crates. Unfortunately, the crate he was standing on had fallen as it had become heavier from the ice that had appeared on it and was falling straight for one of the webbed-up mobsters. Peter saw that and shot a line of web at it and pulled, changing its trajectory and saving the mobster.
"You say I'm the one out of my mind, and yet you save the life of a mobster. The very same mobster that you fight in the name of justice." she said, sneering.
"He may be a bad guy and a criminal, but that doesn't mean he deserves to die." said Peter. "As long as there is life, there is hope. Who am I to snuff out that possibility?"
"Then please, allow me." she said as four big icicles formed in front of her before she launched them at the mobsters with a wave of her hand.
The four mobsters she chose were a little spread out, clearly done deliberately so he wouldn't be able to save them all, but he was Spider-Man. He launched himself out toward one of the mobsters being targeted, using his wall-crawling ability on his right foot to drag the crate with him, using it to throw at one of the icicles. As he moved through the air, he shot two lines of webs at the furthest two icicles, spinning them around and throwing one at her and the other at the final icicle.
"And he sticks the landing." he said as he landed on the ground. "What, no round of applause? Cold crowd."
Still angry, she moved out from behind her ice wall and started shooting blast after blast of cold at him.
"That's a cool trick. You ever thought about using it to keep sodas cold at parties? I bet you'd make a killing." he said, dodging the blasts while swinging away from the mobsters and taunting her to keep her focused on him.
"Argh!" she shouted, frustrated.
She pointed both hands at the ceiling and shot beams of cold that were wider than before, near instantly freezing the entire ceiling and creating dozens of icicles. The freeze happened so fast that it travelled down Peter's web and froze it. Because he was in motion, the frozen web shattered, and he awkwardly flew into a few crates.
"Not my finest moment." he said, rubbing his head as he stood up from the crates before dodging an ice beam.
He pointed his left hand out to shoot a web, but was surprised to see a bunch of small strands of web splurt out of his shooter. That's when he saw that his left web-shooter was frozen over and broken.
"Did the poor little spider run out of web?" she asked, mockingly.
"Not yet." he said, shooting a blast of webbing at her face with his right web-shooter.
He knew she wouldn't stay blinded for long since she could easily freeze the webbing, so he quickly rushed her, arriving next to her just as she shattered the webbing. He threw out an uppercut, hoping to knock her out quickly, but was surprised when his strike was blocked by a wall of ice that appeared out of thin air, obstructing his vision of her.
His spider-sense tingled intensely, and he retreated. He saw that ice had appeared where he was standing, and if he had been any slower, he would've been immobilized in ice up to his chest.
'She's not fully in control of her powers yet.' he realized. 'One moment she's shooting ice beams, and the next she's creating ice out of thin air, though it looks like she can't control it after the fact. Since she absorbs heat, it's a safe bet she's absorbing heat from the atmosphere, freezing the molecules of moisture. And considering her powers seem to get stronger the angrier she gets, I need to hurry and get this over with before she gets angry enough to flash-freeze me.'
Using his good web-shooter, he shot a line up to the ceiling and swung over the ice wall. He readied himself to dodge a spear of ice, but was surprised to see she wasn't there at all.
"She fell through the floor." he heard one of the mobsters say.
Taking a closer look, Peter could see that she had frozen the ground over to cover up the hole she had made by freezing the concrete to the point it was brittle enough for her to break. He landed and broke the ice covering the hole, revealing it was a secret tunnel.
"How many secret tunnels do you guys have?" asked Peter, frustrated.
He stuck his head in to see how far she had gone, but all he saw was ice blocking the tunnel, and Killer Frost was nowhere to be seen.
"Where does that tunnel go?" Peter asked the mobster who had given him the heads-up.
"I didn't even know that tunnel was there. I swear to God." said the mobster, and judging by the surprised look on his face, he didn't seem to be lying.
Peter was ready to start spelunking, hoping he could catch up to Killer Frost, but his spider-sense throbbed, making him wince. He looked up and saw that the ceiling was shaking and cracking, looking like it was about to come down due to all the extra weight from the ice Killer Frost had left on it.
There were too many mobsters incapacitated by both him and Killer Frost, and he wouldn't be able to get them all out of danger in time. His mind raced a million miles a minute before he thought of something, and he put it into action immediately.
"Go!" he shouted to the mobsters. "Take one of your friends and run before the ceiling comes down!"
He jumped up and began shooting line after line of web all across the ceiling, making sure to crisscross them for added structural integrity. He just barely covered most of the ceiling as the first chunk of ice and ceiling came down, but he knew the web could only delay the inevitable.
Thankfully, most of the mobsters who could still walk were already walking up the stairs, and he only had to help a few. As he was about to move, he saw the crate of Venom that Killer Frost was rummaging through, and he decided to take one for himself to analyze. With it secure, he quickly moved to help the mobsters who were still there as the ceiling crumbled.
As he helped the last one get up the stairs, he heard a weak shout, nearly unnoticeable due to the sound from the crumbling ceiling. Turning to look, he saw one of the mobsters, whom he thought was dead and drained, was alive. He ran to him, pushing himself to move faster than he had, picked him up, and ran back to the stairs.
As he was about ten feet from the stairs, his spider-sense tingled hard. He looked up and saw a large chunk of rubble had broken through the webbing and was headed right for them. If he were by himself, he could dodge it, but since the mobster was so injured, he couldn't make any movements that would further injure him.
Faster than he could consciously react, he placed the mobster on the ground and braced himself, summoning all the strength he could muster to catch the large chunk of rubble. When it made contact with his hands, the thought that he had made a mistake briefly flashed through his mind.
He felt the sheer weight of it, the impact it made as he caught it, and he felt his body falter. He thought it was over for him. He thought he would never see his parents and sister again. They would worry about him for hours on end until they saw a news report about the death of Spider-Man, until they unmasked him, and revealed his identity to the world, and it became the death of Peter Parker.
As quick as those thoughts entered his mind, they left it. He gritted his teeth, mustering every ounce of strength and willpower in his body, and held the chunk of frozen ceiling steady. Though he had lifted it, the mobster was too injured to move on his own, and he was busy trying to keep the rubble from collapsing on them. He briefly considered using all his strength to toss the chunk of rubble as high up as he could before running out with the mobster, but he doubted whether he would have enough time.
"Just ... leave ... me." said the mobster, his voice barely a whisper.
"No." he responded through gritted teeth.
"Why? I'm ... a ... bad ... guy."
"Not ... the ... best ... time ... for ... philosophical ... debate." he said, struggling to speak as he focused.
Having held up the rubble for a little over a minute, he felt he couldn't hold on for much longer and decided to risk it. Before he could, however, he heard a voice that brought him so much relief he almost stopped concentrating.
"Holy shit!" he heard Daniels say.
"Save ... him!" he shouted. "I'll ... be ... fine ... once ... he's ... clear!"
"Uh, yeah, yeah, okay!" said Daniels.
Daniels turned like he was about to go up the stairs, likely to get some help, but he hesitated, looking at Peter. He slapped himself in the face, took off his jacket, and got on his stomach to crawl towards the mobster.
"I got you." said Daniels, hooking his arms around the mobster and crawling backward, clearing the rubble.
Once Peter saw that they were both clear of the rubble, he gritted his teeth and summoned one last burst of strength to toss the rubble upwards. As soon as the weight was off of him, he felt his body go limp and his vision go blurry. He knew he only had moments, so he willed himself to focus and put all his strength into his legs, jumping and clearing the space to the stairs right as the rubble came down.
"Get me an EMT!" shouted Daniels as he crouched next to him. "Hang in there, Spidey."
"I'm ... fine. Just a ... little whoozy." he said, feeling the aftereffects of summoning so much strength.
He hadn't gotten hurt per se, though he was sure he had torn some of his muscles if the pain he felt was any indication. Still, thanks to his healing factor, which he hadn't had much use for till now, he was sure he would be right as rain in a few days at the most.
"You sure?" asked Daniel as the EMTs arrived.
"Yeah. Just ... help me up." he said.
Daniels helped him up, and he gritted his teeth, feeling the pain from his muscles. He took a few seconds to steady himself before letting go of Daniels.
"Thanks." he said, patting him on the shoulder. "If you're here, does that mean the mobsters outside were taken care of?"
"Yeah, took a show of overwhelming force, but we got it done." he said. "What about Killer Frost? Don't tell me she was under the rubble?"
"Worse. She escaped." said Peter, frustrated.
"Escaped? How?" asked Daniels. "No, don't tell me. Secret tunnel."
"Ding-ding-ding."
"Goddamn mobsters and their bootlegging tunnels." said Daniels, similarly frustrated. "At least tell me you figured out why she was after Venom."
"Strike two."
"Did she get some of it?"
"And strike three, I'm out." said Peter, chuckling at his joke before wincing from the pain. "Looks like I didn't help out all that much, huh?"
"Don't sell yourself short." said Daniels. "Does it suck that Killer Frost escaped, yeah, but if you weren't here, those hostages might've come out a lot worse for wear. Not to mention, the time and lives saved because you were the one fighting her and not our ill-equipped police force."
"Thanks, Detective." said Peter, feeling a little better. "If you don't need me, I think I want to take a long, hot bath."
"Go for it." said Daniels, nodding at him.
"See you around, Daniels." he said, turning to walk up the stairs.
"Uh, Spider-Man." said Daniels.
"Yeah?"
"Your, uh, suit. It's ripped." he said, awkwardly.
"I know." he said, aware that there were various rips and tears around in the upper portion of his suit from straining his muscles so hard.
"Not up top. I meant on your, uh, ass." he said, stifling a laugh.
He turned his head around and saw that a piece of his suit, which covered his butt, had ripped, revealing his boxers and a little bit of his cheeks.
"Aw, man."
~
The swing home was slow and painful, but he eventually got back to the alley where he had left his backpack. He changed and pocketed the vial of Venom before checking himself out on his phone.
'At least I don't look physically hurt.' he thought, thankful there were no bruises on his face. 'But I am going to have to grit my teeth when I move.'
He slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked to his house, entering inside.
"I'm home." he said, shutting the door behind him.
He didn't hear anyone respond, so he went to the kitchen and saw a note on the counter.
"Went out to buy groceries, text if you need anything." he said, reading the note.
He was thankful that he didn't have to immediately pretend like he wasn't in pain, and it gave his healing factor a chance to put in some work. Trudging up the stairs, he walked into his room and saw that Dexter was sleeping. He quietly put his bag down and threw himself down on the bed.
'Today was not a good day. Lost a web-shooter, Dr. Frost escaped, and I don't even know what she wanted with Venom. And I just remembered that whole Zatanna fiasco.' he thought, rubbing his temple. 'I need some sleep. Let's leave these problems for future Peter.'
"ACHOO!"
His sneeze was so loud that it woke up Dexter.
"Aw, man."
~~
AN
Now this is my longest chapter yet.
So, Peter was unable to stop Killer Frost. Is she lucky that the tunnel was there, smart enough to have known about it beforehand, or does she just have good hearing? (In her first appearance, it's said she has enhanced hearing and she can hear Firestorm talking from a floor below her, which is what this is in reference to.) It didn't help that maybe he was too wary, or he still saw her as Dr. Frost and subconsciously held back. Next time, he'll be ready with web-shooters wearing little jackets so they don't get cold.
Also, the reason she wants the Venom isn't anything super crazy and honestly quite dumb; if you think about it for a few seconds, you can figure it out, so don't be expecting something that'll blow your mind. I'm a middling storyteller. (It's not the TASM plot to spread the stuff across the city in a gas cloud.)
Oddly enough, I've been seeing a lot of superhero stuff where people are saying they love the vigilante/magic user pairing (usually in the context of Batman and Zatanna, who's of a similar age as him in the comics), and I have to admit it's been kind of swaying me. That said, I'm not set in stone with anyone yet, and all that stuff is farther down the line, so who knows. And, Supergirl has also been running through my mind, though if I do go that route, she'll appear a lot sooner and be a little older than she is in YJ canon.