New York
August 28, 19:53 EDT
After a quick ten-second break to catch his breath, Peter webbed up the brute. He made sure to use more than enough webbing on the off chance the brute woke up before the entire incident was put to rest.
'Daniels mentioned reports of more than one brute roaming the halls, but no mention of exactly how many or where.' he thought. 'Better use the thermal vision to find these guys and take care of them as fast as possible.'
Before he could turn on his thermal vision and begin searching for the brutes, his spider-sense tingled. He dropped low to the ground, dodging a locker door that was thrown at him through the hole in the wall leading out into the hall.
"Guess I should thank you for saving me the trouble of having to track you down." said Peter as he saw another brute, looking nearly identical to the first, step into the classroom. "But since you did throw a locker door at me, I think we should call it even."
The brute stepped through the busted wall, dragging a dented locker in his right hand like a makeshift club. His icy breath came out in increasingly larger puffs like a bull gearing up for a charge.
"Olé." said Peter, with an exaggerated Spanish accent.
The brute roared, swinging the dented locker like a bat.
"Aw, come on. It was perfect, you had the icy puffs, I had the quip, all you had to do was charge at me headfirst." Peter said, flipping backward as the locker smashed into the whiteboard, sending shards of particleboard spraying through the air. "Strike one, I guess." He fired two webs at the brute's knees and yanked hard.
The brute staggered, but didn't fall, managing to catch his footing before pulling on the webs, causing Peter to stagger forward. Seizing the moment, the brute swung at him, but Peter dodged by sticking low to the ground, the locker whizzing past just a centimeter above his head.
As he pushed himself upright, his spider-sense flared again. Through the hole in the wall, another shape loomed as a third brute lumbered into the classroom. Unlike the first two, this one was female; slightly slimmer, but otherwise nearly identical in build.
"Good to see Killer Frost breaking that glass ceiling. I think it is an unusual industry to choose, but I'm still proud of her. Anyway, don't you know three's a crowd?" Peter said, glancing at the first brute, unconscious and webbed up. "Actually, it's more like a party."
The male brute barreled forward, ripping up rows of desks and launching them towards Peter. Peter vaulted over the wave of desks, clinging to the ceiling. He fired a barrage of web, binding the brute's arms and shoulders, forcing him to thrash as his momentum caused him to slam into the wall.
The female brute, on the other hand, ripped out a fluorescent light fixture that was hanging on by a thread and whipped it upwards. Glass shattered as Peter got hit across the back and went tumbling across the ceiling, crashing into wooden cubbies in a corner of the room.
He groaned as he got up and looked down at his suit, seeing small gashes all over. "Come on, this suit is practically brand new."
With a roar, the male brute grew small icicles all over his arms and shoulders, tearing the webbing and freeing himself. Immediately, he charged at Peter, fists raised above his head, ready to crush him. Peter shot a web and yanked the fire extinguisher next to the door off the wall, smashing it across the brute's head. A white powdery cloud exploded everywhere, blinding the brute.
Peter followed up with a slingshot kick that sent the brute flying into the opposite corner and into a bunch of bookshelves. That's when the female brute advanced towards Peter, lifting a desk above her, until a football helmet suddenly smacked against her head.
"Hey, ugly! Over here!" a familiar voice shouted.
Peter's head snapped toward the hole in the wall, and he saw Ronnie, in full football gear sans his helmet.
'Ronnie?!' thought Peter, surprised.
But Peter wasn't the only one who noticed Ronnie. The female brute's eyes locked onto him, and after dropping the desk, she roared and charged straight at him.
"No!" Peter shouted, eyes wide as he launched himself across the room.
He tackled the female brute mid-sprint from the side, webbing her eyes shut as he did so. She started thrashing, fists flailing as Peter pushed her away from Ronnie.
"Run!" Peter said through gritted teeth as he changed his position to be behind the female brute, and locked his hands around her stomach before lifting and suplexing her.
He stepped away from the female brute and stood in front of the hole in the wall, positioning himself between the brutes and Ronnie.
"Listen, kid, I appreciate the help, and you've got one hell of a cannon on you, but trust me, you don't want to be here right now." Peter said, purposefully deepening his voice just in case. "I need you to go before they decide to go after you instead of me."
"But ..." said Ronnie, a look of hesitation on his face.
"Now, kid, before you get hurt." he said, quickly glancing over his shoulder before refocusing on the two brutes.
Ronnie started to leave, but suddenly stopped and turned back to Peter. "My friend, Peter, he's missing. He went off somewhere before Killer Frost appeared, but no one's seen or heard from him since it began. Please, find him."
Hearing Ronnie's plea, a lump formed in his throat; if a friend he had only known a few weeks felt this bad, Peter couldn't help but imagine what his family was going through. He swallowed the lump forming in his throat and looked back at Ronnie, giving him a reassuring thumbs up. "Don't worry about your friend, kid. I'll find him, or my name's not Spider-Man."
"Thank you. Good luck." Ronnie said, before taking off down the hall toward the exit.
'Good.' thought Peter, internally breathing a sigh of relief, seeing Ronnie leave. But again, he thought of his family. 'Come on, Pete, not the time or place. The faster you finish here, the sooner you face Killer Frost, and the sooner your family stops worrying.'
Meanwhile, the two brutes had refocused on him. The female had clawed the webbing away from her eyes and picked up a broken desk, while the male had unburied himself from the pile of books.
The female threw the desk at him, and the male barreled forward. Peter flipped over the first attack, shot a web at the wall, and pulled himself, colliding with the male brute's chest. At the same time, he used the brute's chest to jump back and land in a crouch, ready to move again.
That's when he heard the sound of heavy boots against the floor, making their way to him.
"SWAT! Freeze! Get on the ground!"
A half-dozen officers in full tactical gear posted up at the hole in the wall, rifles raised and pointed at the brutes. Their presence made the brutes hesitate, allowing Peter to catch his breath.
"Careful where you point those guns, guys. I'm already full of bruises." said Peter.
But the brutes' hesitation didn't last long. The brutes roared, with the male turning towards the officers and the female towards Peter.
Peter knew that though the SWAT officers may be able to take down the male brute while he handled the female, the best-case scenario for them would be severe injuries, and the worst, outright casualties, so he knew he had to take care of the male first.
He webbed the female brute's face and feet to keep her occupied before launching himself at the male brute. Peter slammed into the male brute's knees with a sliding tackle, sweeping the brute off his feet and onto his back. The brute roared and swung downward, trying to squash Peter. Peter rolled to the side and popped back to his feet just as the brute's fist cratered the floor where his head had been.
"Almost had me there, Hulk-lite." said Peter as the brute stood back up.
"Open fire!" shouted the sergeant, surprising Peter.
"Wait, don't!" he shouted.
Before he could act, the officers had already opened fire on the brute, but to his surprise, the brute didn't drop to the ground riddled with bullet holes. He noticed that the gunfire was quieter than he expected, and that's when it hit him; the SWAT team wasn't using live rounds but less lethal ammunition.
'Oh, thank god. It's rubber bullets.' thought Peter, breathing a sigh of relief. 'They must have had them ready in case they needed to storm the school while the hostages were still inside.'
The male brute staggered under the barrage, flinching and trying to cover himself with his arms as the rounds pelted him. Still, he didn't go down, and instead it seemed the rubber bullets only served to make him angrier.
With a roar, he grabbed a toppled bookshelf and threw it across the classroom at the SWAT officers. They stopped firing and dove for cover, while Peter intercepted the thrown bookshelf with a web, throwing it back at the brute.
The bookshelf hit the brute in the chest and made him stagger back. Peter took this opportunity to fire a line of web at the brute's arm before he could throw anything else. "That wasn't very nice, big guy. Didn't your mother ever teach you not to throw furniture at the nice police officers?"
The brute yanked back hard, trying to drag Peter across the floor, but he pulled at the same time, causing the brute to be the one to lose his balance. Just as he was about to web him up and knock him out, his spider-sense flared, and he saw the female brute burst free from her webbing with a roar.
"Right. Forgot about you." he said. "Much as I would like to turn this into a couples therapy session, I've got plans after this."
As the female brute charged forward, Peter leapt backwards and used the wall to kick off, slamming both feet into her chest. She staggered back and stumbled into the male brute who was just getting back up. The two brutes collided, snarling and shoving each other in frustration before turning their attention back to Peter.
"I'm glad to see we're making some progress toward cooperation and a healthier relationship, though I do wish what was bringing you two together wasn't your desire to squash me like a bug." said Peter.
They rushed him together, and Peter sprinted up the nearest wall, vaulted over them, and fired a rapid burst of webs, tying them to each other as they charged. The momentum carried them forward, their combined mass slamming right into the teacher's desk.
'Sorry, Mr. Ravenhair. Hope you didn't have anything sentimental in there.' he thought as he landed crouched on the ground.
The female brute freed herself first, throwing one of the wooden chunks like a spear. Peter dodged, and the leg embedded itself into the wall, making him glad he had his spider-sense. She lunged at him again, but Peter sidestepped, fired a web to her face, and yanked her head down to meet his knee. The impact sent her sprawling across the floor.
Now free as well, the male brute roared and swung his massive fist at Peter. He ducked and drove an uppercut directly into his chin before blasting him in the face with a barrage of webbing, making sure to leave his nose alone. As he blindly thrashed, Peter shot a web at his arm and spun around him, wrapping him up in webs before delivering a flying knee to his temple. With a large thud and cloud of dust, the male brute fell back and stayed still, unconscious.
Peter turned around just as the female brute was back on her feet, blue blood trickling from her nose, but he didn't give her a chance to recover. He shot a web on the wall behind her and pulled himself forward, slamming both feet into her face, and knocking her out. As soon as she hit the ground, he barraged her with webs until she was a cocoon, repeating the same thing with the male brute.
Peter landed in a crouch, steadying his breathing, then glanced between the two webbed-up brutes. Both brutes twitched faintly under the layers of webbing and wreckage, but neither rose again.
Silence finally settled over the ruined classroom. Desks were shattered, walls cracked, and webs hung like messy streamers. Peter got up slowly, rolling his aching shoulder.
"Okay." he muttered, flexing his sore shoulder. "That's two patients discharged. Couples therapy is officially over."
His spider-sense dulled at last, fading into the background, and making way for a headache. He closed his eyes for a second to help ease the headache before giving each cocoon one final tug to make sure they were secure.
From behind their cover, he heard the cautious shuffle of boots as the SWAT team reentered the room.
"Is it safe?" asked the sergeant, his and his team's rifles pointed at the brutes.
"Yeah, they're just having a web nap. Haven't you heard? It's all the rage in the city." said Peter as he checked to see how much web fluid he had left in the chamber.
Swinging to the scene of Black Spider's escape, the fight there with the ninjas, the swinging back, stopping the helicopter from crashing, and the fights with the brutes meant he had gone through four cartridges. Thankfully, he still had two left in the chamber, and the six he had for backup, which meant he had enough for the fight with Killer Frost.
Hearing that, the SWAT officers all let out a tense breath and lowered their guns while the sergeant stepped forward, scanning the unconscious brutes before glancing back at Peter. "You saved lives tonight. These things would've torn through us."
"Yeah, well, you brought the rubber bullets, so I'll call it a team effort."
"Can't believe the bug was right." muttered one of the officers who had shouted at him earlier.
"Whoa, that's speciesist. I'm an arachnid. Big difference." Peter said as he pulled his gloves back down over his web shooters before looking at the sergeant. "There was a kid who showed up earlier during the fight. Did he and the other hostages get out okay?"
"They did." nodded the sergeant. "Few scrapes and bruises, some minor lacerations, and one broken hand, but nothing some rest and time can't fix. Their mental wounds, however, are a whole different story."
"Like you said, time and rest." said Peter, breathing another sigh of relief. "Are these three all of the brutes, or are there more?"
"We think these are all of them." said the sergeant. "According to the people trapped inside, they only saw three of them."
"Okay then. Guess it's time to face the big bad."
"I think this time we'll listen to your advice and let you go by yourself." said the sergeant, smiling.
"Smart man." said Peter, smiling back as he patted the sergeant on his shoulder. "Wish I could listen to my own advice."
"Easier said than done." said the sergeant.
"Ain't that the truth." he said.
"We'll guard the brutes. Make sure they stay secure until everything's over."
"If we had used live rounds, they would be down. Permanently." said one of the officers. "No need to guard them."
"Maybe so, but you would have killed innocent people." rebutted Peter.
"What do you mean, innocent?" asked the sergeant.
"I'm pretty certain these brutes are innocent people Killer Frost kidnapped and force-injected with an unstable neo-steroid, one she made even more unstable by mixing it with her DNA." Peter explained.
The officers didn't say anything; they just looked at the three brutes with pity.
"That's why she robbed that mob locale last week." said another officer.
"Yeah. She wanted the Venom." said Peter.
"But for what? Just to create these guys and then do nothing with them?" asked the sergeant. "And why is she attacking a school?"
"Your guess is as good as mine." Peter said, choosing to withhold his theory. "Alright, boys, wish me luck."
"Good luck, Spider-Man." said the sergeant. "Kick her ass."
Peter nodded at him, smiling underneath his mask, before running out into the hall and sprinting toward the football field, quickly reaching it.
With a frosty exhale, he took in the eerily quiet field, mapping out the changed space in his mind for the fight ahead. The green turf was buried under a thick sheet of frost, broken by large columns and spikes of ice that turned the field into a frozen, otherworldly forest shimmering under the floodlights. The stands, too, were covered in ice, the metal warping under the cold, while the old scoreboard had fallen over under the weight of the ice, its digits frozen in time.
'It's quiet. It's like we entered another world.' Peter glanced upward, noticing the absence of sirens. 'No helicopters either. Probably grounded them all after the news chopper went down.'
With his head on a swivel, he moved forward, his boots crunching loudly on the frozen ground. His spider-sense flared before he saw her.
She walked out from behind an ice column, looking the same as she had the last time. A frosty mist curled around her feet, and he swore he could see her eyes glowing in the cold light. She had the faintest smile on her lips as she stared at him.
"You made it through my toys." she said, her voice no longer shrill, but sharp and clear while still carrying an icy undertone. "I was beginning to wonder if the itsy-bitsy spider would be washed away before he reached me."
Peter stopped a few yards short of the fifty-yard line.
"Yeah, well. Turns out this spider is tougher than he looks." he said, keeping his tone of voice light. "Comes with the job. Hearing damage, bruises, and a killer dental plan."
A small, amused smile appeared on her face, but the frost curling around her hands betrayed her readiness to strike.
"Look, I know why you did this. Why you stole that Venom." he said. "I know you wanted the Venom because you wanted to find a cure. A way to stop needing to drain the life out of people just to survive.
Her faint smile vanished, and she tensed, her expression hardened like ice. "You don't know anything."
"I do. I saw the footage of you in the morgue. I saw what happened to those people when you touched them." he continued. "I can help, no, I want to help you."
"You think pity helps me?" she hissed.
Peter took a step forward, making sure his hands were lowered to show her he wasn't a threat.
"I know who you are. Who you think is gone." he said, readying himself in case what he was about to say made her lose control. "Doctor Crystal Frost, a smart and kind person who wanted to save lives. That person isn't gone. She's still in there, she's just buried under everything your condition has done to you."
For a second, her eyes widened at the sound of her name. Then the cracks formed, but not on the ice, on her composure. Her body stiffened, her breathing came ragged, and the frosty mist curling around her feet exploded outwards in sharp, uncontrolled spikes.
"Don't call me that!" she screamed, her voice a shriek that echoed across the frozen field.
The temperature dropped instantly and so sharply that Peter's lenses began to fog over, and ice crystals formed at the edges. Before he could wipe it away, his spider-sense throbbed. Peter launched himself backward just as dozens of jagged ice spikes shot up through the turf. He rolled and leapt up to the goalpost, perching on the cold metal as it groaned from the ice.
"Okay, looks like name-dropping is a bad idea." he muttered, wiping the frost buildup from his mask.
"You don't get it!" she said, her voice breaking between anger and anguish, as she clawed at her head as if trying to rip the name out of her mind. "That name is dead! That woman is dead! All that's left is this!"
She thrust her arms out, and a barrage of razor-sharp icicles blasted towards him.
Peter jumped away, shooting out a web at the floodlights to swing around the icicles as they slammed into the stands behind him, shattering the frozen seats. He landed on the ground, using his arms to shield his face from the cold wind being whipped up by her rage.
"Dr. Fros-" he said, trying to reach her, but it only added fuel to the fire.
"I said stop!" she shouted, slamming her hands onto the ground, causing a shockwave of frost to ripple across the field, further freezing everything.
The shockwave was so strong that even the goalpost that Peter had been perched on snapped in half. Peter skidded across the frozen ground, having to shoot a web to anchor himself since his wall-crawling didn't work as well on such a slick surface.
'If I push any harder, she'll tear this place apart. I have to calm her down or knock her out before she loses even more control.' thought Peter.
Before he could say anything to her, she screamed as dozens of ice pillars erupted all around the field. Simultaneously, a miniature blizzard formed around her, whipping up the wind and dropping the temperature even further. But that wasn't all, as dozens of sharp ice shards appeared around her before she launched them at him.
His spider-sense flared, but unlike the usual quick and strong response he was used to in the face of such danger, it was more like a dull pulse followed by a twinge of a headache. Still, he rolled away, dodging most of the ice shards, except one that managed to graze his shoulder.
"Dr. Frost, listen to me!" Peter said, ignoring the pain and the cold seeping into his wound. "I know you're scared and hurting! I-"
He hesitated, debating whether he should use his past life's experience to try to reach her. But seeing her out-of-control state, the rage and the pain in her eyes, he saw a shadow of himself in her, of his past self.
He remembered the early days of his diagnosis, how angry he had been at the world. If he didn't have the support he had, if he didn't have Spider-Man to cling to, he could've ended up in her shoes. Granted, his condition didn't force him to kill other people just to survive, but still, he could relate.
"I know what it feels like to hate the body you're trapped in!" he said. "To wake up wishing it was different! I've been there! I know how easy it is to be angry and lash out at the world!"
She froze and looked at him. The blizzard that was becoming bigger, slowed but did not disappear.
"But there's always a way out! With all the crazy things in this world, the aliens, vigilantes who use animal motifs, speedsters, magic, and who knows what else, you think there isn't a cure for your condition?! I promise I'll help you find it! And if there isn't, we can create one, together!" he shouted.
For a moment, silence fell across the field, the blizzard slowed even further, and Peter thought he had broken through. He saw her stand up straight, the tension she had been carrying gone, and then she laughed.
It wasn't manic or shrill; it wasn't full of anger or anguish. No, it was sharp and clear, elegant. Hearing that laugh, he realized it wasn't the sound of someone out of control; it was the sound of someone perfectly in their right mind, and it made his heart drop.
"Oh, Spider-Man. How like a man to think he needs to fix a woman's life when she's never asked for it." She said, her tone cool and perfectly composed as she smoothed out her sleeves and fixed her hair.
Her cold gaze locked onto him, steady and unwavering. "You think I want to be cured? If it were two, no, even one week ago, I might've taken you up on that offer. Right after the morgue, I was terrified of what I had become, of what I had done. Every time I closed my eyes, I could see their faces as they withered away under my touch. I thought I was cursed, a monster."
She lifted her hand, creating an ice rose and twirling it under the floodlights. "I heard of Venom and its effects and thought it might hold some clues to a cure for my condition, so I decided to steal some. But the more I experimented, the more I learned the truth. I wasn't cursed with this hunger for heat; I had evolved, and with it came a gift of power. Beautiful, cold, unmatched power."
The blizzard that had slowed down began intensifying. "So no Spider-Man, I don't need your pity, your help. I don't need saving. What you call a curse, what I once called a curse, is the best thing that has ever happened to me."
She smiled. "And you'll come to see it too, when I freeze this entire city and see everything in it bow to me."
Hearing her words and the conviction that came with them made his stomach drop. He knew she was very likely too far gone to save with just words. Still, he decided to try one more time.
"A great man once said to me that with great power comes great responsibility." he said, his voice steady even as he felt the cold seeping into his body. "You have the power, more power than most people could even dream of. But if all you use it for is to hurt people, then what's the point?"
"Responsibility?" she scoffed. "Tell me, Spider-Man, where was this responsibility when I was stuck in the machine that turned me into what I am? Where was this responsibility when I drained those people in the morgue of their heat? Responsibility is a chain that weighs you down until you're too weak to fight back. Power is freedom. Power is survival. And now that I know that, I will live as I please, and I will never give it up."
He closed his eyes, breathing a disappointed sigh as he readied himself, his spider-sense buzzing faintly even through the haze. "So be it, but just so you know, I'm never going to stop trying to save you."
"Then you'll die knowing you failed!"
She thrust both arms outwards, and a storm of ice shards and needle-like hail burst from her hands. Simultaneously, the blizzard began swelling around her, picking up speed and slowly engulfing more and more of the field.
Peter shot a barrage of webs at Frost as he leapt forward, twisting in midair to dodge the ice projectiles, which shattered against the stands behind him. As he did so, he felt the wound on his shoulder burn as the ambient cold seeped deeper.
"Note to self, never get into a fight with a cryokinetic if you don't have long johns under the suit." he quipped to himself, trying to calm his racing heart and nerves.
He landed back on the ground, his momentum causing him to slide on the ice a little until he shot a web to anchor himself. Looking up at Frost, which he could barely do thanks to the blizzard surrounding her, he saw her raise her arms, and his spider-sense throbbed. Spikes of ice erupted from the ground, forcing Peter to backflip and twist between them, but one spike barely caught him, cutting his leg and causing him to fall to the ground.
Sliding on the ground, he took the opportunity to web himself away from where he had landed and hide behind an ice column.
"Aw, is the poor little spider getting slower." she taunted, her voice faint thanks to the whipping winds.
With gritted teeth, he sat up and sprayed webbing on his leg and shoulder wound.
'Should've done that sooner, Parker.' he thought, mentally chiding himself before taking a deep breath.
The cold air stung his lungs, but it also brought a little clarity to his mind.
'Relax. You're making too many mistakes, you're holding back too much. The longer you stall, the more likely she is to win. Unlike you, she's not affected by the co-' Peter's eyes widened under his mask as the realization struck him. 'She is affected by the cold! She needs heat to survive; being in the cold for her is like burning calories at light speed!'
He peeked from behind the ice column and narrowed his eyes to see through the blizzard. Frost had on a smug face, but now that he knew to look for it, he could see her shoulders shaking, and the puffs of icy mist that appeared with every exhale looked weaker than before.
'Looks like I'm right.' he thought. 'Still, if it's a fight of attrition, I don't know who'll come out on top.'
His spider-sense throbbed again, and he rolled out of the way just as a massive ice pillar popped out from the ground beneath him. Unfortunately, the edge caught his side, and he slammed into another column.
"Aah!" His shout escaped him before he could hold it in. He clutched his side and gave it a gentle push, only to be met with more pain. 'Yep. That's broken. Definitely broken.'
Before he could recover, his spider-sense buzzed weakly, but it was enough to make him dive out of the way. He twisted mid-air, firing webs to move away, but one of the spikes fired by Frost caught him clean across the arm, plunging through muscle.
"Aaghh!" Peter hit the ground hard, clutching his bleeding arm. The pain was blinding, every nerve screamed, but he forced himself to roll behind another column of ice before Frost could fire again.
He looked down at his skewered arm, and the first thought that went through his mind was how his parents were going to react. The second was what to do about it. He saw that it was all the way through and realized that if he pulled it out, worst-case scenario, he would bleed out, best case, he passes out from blood loss mid-fight. So he made the only choice he could: leave it in.
'Stop thinking about it. You have bigger things to worry about.' he told himself through gritted teeth. 'Fight of attrition is out. Need a new plan.'
Resting against the column, his eyes naturally landed on the school, and again an idea struck him like lightning.
'Liquid nitrogen, there's some in the chem lab. If I use the liquid nitrogen on her, that should be it, game over. If my theory is right, that is.' he thought. 'No second-guessing yourself, Peter.'
Without wasting another second, he gritted his teeth and forced himself upright, clutching his bleeding arm. Every movement sent tiny needles throughout his body, but he knew he had to move. He mentally prepared himself and started running.
Pain was the first thing he felt, and it almost was too much, but he powered through and continued to run.
"Run, little spider! Run until the frost catches you!" he heard her say.
He turned to look at her briefly and saw that she was chasing after him, though she was going slowly. He didn't care whether it was deliberate or whether it was because she was weak; it bought him time.
As he neared the building, he summoned all the strength he could and jumped up to the second story, entering through the already broken window. He rolled and got up, quickly orienting himself before sprinting toward the lab.
He stumbled inside, shoving aside chairs as he made his way to the back of the lab, where a locked door to the supply closet was. Not hesitating, he kicked it open and entered, quickly finding the pressurized steel tank labeled Liquid Nitrogen.
'This better work.' he thought as he worked the valve loose.
His spider-sense buzzed faintly, and he knew she was coming. He got the necessary tubing and connected it to the tank so he could use it as a sprayer.
Just as he finished, he heard the wall to the chemistry lab being smashed.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are, Spider-Man."
"Frost, you really need to chill out." he said as he exited the supply closet, hose aimed at her.
Before she could strike, he twisted the valve, and a stream of liquid nitrogen shot out. Frost instinctively raised her hands, but the second the liquid nitrogen hit her, she screamed. The effect was immediate; ice crawled across her skin, quickly enveloping her until all that was left was a glittering statue and the final snowfall of a blizzard.
Peter dropped the tank, unsteady on his feet. He caught himself on the desk before he could fall to the ground, and he fought not to black out.
"I'm sorry, Dr. Frost. But I wasn't lying when I said I would never stop trying to save you." he said, looking at the statue.
Peter stumbled to the teacher's desk, rummaging for a pen and a sticky note. With it in hand, he wrote on the note, "Keep on ice and don't feed after midnight - From, Spider-Man." and stuck it on the statue.
The sirens, which had been quiet since the fight began, rang out, snapping him out of his thoughts.
'Can't pass out yet. Peter Parker needs to get found. With these injuries, I'll have to play the victim. I've been missing for a while, so I'll play her first victim before it all began.' he thought, stumbling out of the classroom.
Each step was agony, but he kept moving. His arm throbbed where the spike had gone through, his ribs hurt with every breath he took, and his vision swam.
'Just a little further.'
As he stumbled, as he felt the pain, a thought appeared that just wouldn't leave him.
'Why am I doing this?' He thought, leaning against the wall to stop himself from falling. 'I don't have to do this. I don't have to be a hero. There's no one holding me to it.'
He slid down the wall.
'There was nothing but pain in my last life, and now here I am again, a second chance at life, a miracle beyond all miracles, and I choose to join the single most dangerous profession in the world.' he thought. 'I could've done anything. I could've lived the normal life I never got to live. Go to college, get a job where I can make a difference, and find someone to fall in love with. Instead, I put on a mask and put my life on the line, and for what? To maybe keep one more person from dying.'
He had always been sure that he wanted to be Spider-Man, no matter the cost, but now that he had his first taste of what it really costs, he wasn't sure anymore. As the thought was taking root in his mind, he felt his phone vibrate. With trembling hands, he took it out and saw it was his dad.
'With great power comes great responsibility.'
The words rang in his head, and they didn't just carry weight, but they carried history. They weren't just words his dad had told him in this life; they were the words he had taken to heart in his past one. Words he hoped to strive towards.
Peter closed his eyes, and for a second, the pain faded because his mind forced him to focus on something else. Faces. Dozens of them. Mei's toothless smile as she ran into her mother's arms after saving her from the burning building. Ms. David's kind eyes after he helped her cross the street. Nameless strangers who walked away alive or uninjured because of him.
'If I stop now, who doesn't get saved tomorrow? Who gets left behind because I decided I couldn't take the pain?'
That thought, the thought of a Mei or Ms. David getting injured or losing their life, because he was scared, woke him up.
'Come on! A little pain and you start getting scared?! You've dealt with worse pain! This is nothing!' he shouted in his mind. 'You wanted to be Spider-Man, so be Spider-Man! Get up like Spider-Man! Never stop getting up like Spider-Man!'
He slammed his head against the wall to wake himself up. Through gritted teeth, he used his good hand to push himself up. His legs wobbled, and his ribs ached, but he got up.
'Spider-Man doesn't stop. Not for pain. Not for fear. Not for anything.' he thought as he stumbled along the hall. 'Spider-Man's not just a mask. He's not just the webs and the quips, he's a promise. A promise to myself.'
Step by step, he walked until he reached the area where he had stashed his backpack and his clothes. He had initially chosen the area because it was quiet and secluded. Now he was thankful he had chosen it because it would help him sell the story even further.
With shaky hands, he took off his mask and ripped off his suit, gritting his teeth to stop himself from crying out. He took his clothes out and put them on, making sure to damage them so they matched his injuries. Once that was done, he balled his suit along with his Spider-Phone up and sprayed them with webbing before tossing them up a tree.
'Finally.' he thought, collapsing onto the ground and looking up at the tree. 'Haha, it looks like a giant wasp nest.'
He heard the sound of boots thundering near him, and he turned up the volume on his phone, sure that he would get a call from his parents any second, which would alert the authorities. He was so sure that he let himself drift off to sleep.
~
Peter woke up to the steady beep of the patient monitor and the smell of antiseptic. His body felt heavier than usual but better than when he drifted off to sleep. He opened his eyes, and the white ceiling swam into view.
He opened and closed his mouth, feeling uncomfortable from the dryness. He tried to sit up to get some water, but the immediate jolt of pain let him know he still wasn't fully healed.
"Oof." he said, wincing.
"Peter?"
He turned and saw his mom, with dark bags under her bloodshot eyes, threatening to spill tears.
"Mo-" he said, his voice raspy.
His words were cut off as she hugged him, holding him tighter than she ever had before.
"Oh, baby. My baby." she said through her sobs.
He winced, but returned the hug, not minding his injuries. The warmth of her hug was comforting in a way he didn't realize he had needed.
"I'm okay, Mom." he said.
"You almost didn't make it, Peter." she whispered, pulling back to look at him, her eyes full of tears. "I can't ... I don't even want to think about it."
Before he could respond, the door opened and the rest of his family flooded in. Their eyes widened as they realized he was awake and rushed to his bedside.
"Oh, my baby boy! You're okay!" said his dad, hugging him as tears spilled from his eyes. "You're okay!"
"Just a few cuts and bruises." Peter said, smiling.
"Cuts and bruises?!" Richard said in disbelief. "Peter! You've got bandages all over you! You were stabbed in the arm, for Christ's sake!"
"Just a joke, Dad." said Peter, placing a hand on his father's shoulder. "I'm okay. Really."
Teresa climbed up onto the bed beside him and put her head on his shoulder.
"Dumbass." she said quietly, before her head started to shake from her crying. "I-I thought I was going to lose you, Peep."
"I know, Teri. I'm sorry." he said, patting her head with his good arm. "Hey, at least now you can tell people a story about your dumbass brother."
"Haha. Don't make me laugh. I'm still mad at you." she said, amused as she wiped her tears. "Zatanna wanted to come, but ... you know."
"Mm." said Peter. "Tell her I'd be happy if she came."
"Peter." May said softly, approaching the bed to grab his hand and squeeze it reassuringly. "They said you were in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Uncle Ben stood beside her, squeezing May's shoulder as he looked Peter up and down. "You scared the hell out of all of us, kid."
'Wrong place. Wrong time.' Hearing that, Peter was filled with guilt.
They all thought he just had bad luck. They didn't know that he had chosen to throw himself into danger as Spider-Man.
"Yeah, sorry." he said, forcing himself to nod as he swallowed the guilt.
"We love you, Peter. All of us. Don't you ever forget that." said Mary.
"I know." he said, blinking the tears away.
They stayed with him as long as they could, but eventually the nurses came and said he needed to rest. Reluctant as they were, they listened and left, but not without reminding him again how happy they were to know he was alive and how much they loved him.
Alone, Peter rested on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling. The silence brought his thoughts back to the doubt he had felt earlier. But just as quick as it had come, it went.
The doubt had helped him realize the answer. He had faltered but only for a moment. It was a moment of weakness, but it was not who he was.
Spider-Man wasn't the mistake. Spider-Man was the choice. His choice.
And he wasn't going to stop.
~~
Gotham City
August 29, 05:16 EDT
The Batcave's silence, disturbed only by the occasional flutter of bat wings overhead, was broken by the roar of an engine. A jet-black, streamlined car entered the cave, its sound echoing across the open space until it came to a stop.
The canopy slid open, and out came Batman, tall, built, and imposing. His cape brushed the floor as he strode towards the glowing wall of screens known as the Batcomputer.
From the shadows, an older gentleman appeared, tray in hand.
"Your food, Master Bruce." Alfred said, placing the tray down on a side table.
"Not now, Alfred." said Batman, pulling his cowl off.
"I suspected as much." Alfred replied dryly as he lifted the cloche to reveal an empty plate. "So I brought nothing."
Batman just looked at Alfred for a moment before turning back to the Batcomputer.
"Tell me about the incident in New York." said Batman.
"Ah. Our arachnid friend." Alfred answered, setting the cloche aside. He tapped a key, and grainy surveillance footage of Spider-Man's fight with Killer Frost filled the monitors. "He's had a rather eventful day."
"No audio?" Batman asked, eyes narrowing.
"Unfortunately not, Master Bruce. The camera is outdated. And even if it weren't, the blizzard she whipped up would have ruined it." explained Alfred. "The video cuts out midway through as well, most likely from the sharp drop in temperature."
"Injuries?"
"A few students with very minor wounds, and one with a broken hand. The more serious case, however, is of a young man who was apparently Killer Frost's first victim at the school. He was stabbed in the arm, broke some ribs, and suffered other minor injuries. The boy also happens to be the son of Richard Parker." said Alfred.
"Give him as much time as he needs." said Batman, his expression undiscernible.
"Of course, sir." said Alfred, smiling a little. "Though I should mention, Frost and her brutes weren't his only company yesterday. He seems to have crossed paths with your girlfriend's organization."
"The League. What's the connection?" asked Batman, ignoring Alfred's jape.
"He was the one to initially help arrest Eric Needham, who has apparently been recruited into the League." explained Alfred.
"Revenge."
"Yes, though it appears he was able to best them without much problem."
"What happened to Frost and her brutes?" he asked.
"According to the reports, Spider-Man theorized Frost mixed an unstable neo-steroid with her own DNA to create the brutes. Unfortunately, it seems it was too unstable, and the brutes died shortly after the incident was resolved." said Alfred. "As for Frost, well, you know how those New Yorkers are. They're adamant and confident they can keep her on ice in Ryker's."
"Figuratively."
"Oh, no, quite literally, I'm afraid. Spider-Man left a note that said to keep her on ice. It seems, in a weird twist of irony, the cryokinetic is weak to the cold." explained Alfred.
" ... thank you, Alfred."
"Always, Master Bruce." said Alfred, gathering the tray and walking away.
"I'd like that food now."
"Right away." said Alfred, smiling as he left.
Left alone, Batman stood still for a moment, the blue glow from the massive screens casting shadows across his face.
"This is Batman. Security Level: Omega. Password: YankeeJuliet-26-11-2010. Agamemnon Contingency. New File. Code Name: Arachnid."
~~~~
AN
Took a little longer than I anticipated to finish the chapter, but here we are.
The arc is over, Killer Frost is defeated (for now), and Peter is more sure than ever about his choices.
Two interludes (pretty sure about only two, but if something strikes, there might be more than two) and then YJ canon.