Spider-Man: Unmasked

Chapter Five

Peter left his room early the next morning.  He went to the table where his parents and the other Avengers were sitting, talking quietly.  They all turned and faced him when he walked in, saying hello.

"You're up early," Clint remarked.

Peter shrugged.  "I'm meeting up with Ned for breakfast," he lied.  "We want to get there in time to eat and make it to school on time."

They all nodded and looked back at their food and each other except for his dads. 

"You sure you're gonna be okay?"  Tony asked, chewing his lip. 

Peter nodded.  "Dad, this has happened plenty of times before.  I'll be fine.  Trust me."  He gave his dad a reassuring smile.   He looked at the time.  "I should go."  He waved as he walked to the elevator and let out a breath he had been holding in for a long time as the car descended.  The hard part of lying to his parents was over.

He headed in the general direction of the school before going into an alleyway.  His dads thought he'd be going to school, but he had other plans. If he was lucky, he could deal with carnage quickly and show up to school late, coming up with some lie about his injuries and tardiness.

He changed into his Spider-Man suit which he had stored in his backpack and slung his backpack over his shoulder.  He shot a web at a nearby building and began swinging his way over to Carnage's last known location.  He would beat Carnage.  He had to.

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He arrived at where Carnage was last seen and only had to wait mere seconds before seeing Carnage stumble into view as graceful as a newborn deer wearing one of Tony's suits.  Peter let out a low sigh before landing on the broken road.  "Hey, ugly!"  He shouted.  "Guess who's back!!"

Carnage looked into Peter's eyes which made him shudder and gulp.  He was blood red and looked like a somehow worse and much gorier version of Venom.  He had tentacle-like tendrils coming from him.  Peter hated him.

It was here he realized that he honestly had no clue as to how to beat Carnage.  Oh well, he thought, can't be that hard.

Peter threw his backpack onto the building he was perched on before.  He shot a web at Carnage, encasing the symbiotes' arm in webbing.  He pulled on the part of the web that he had, but to no prevail.  Carnage laughed and ripped off the webbing with ease.  He took what was left of the rope of webbing and pulled it, easily dragging Peter until he was right in front of Carnage.

"Uhhhhh..." Peter looked up at Carnage, shaking.  "Hey."  He could feel the blood dripping down his face. 

Carnage let out a yell and held Peter, his tendrils getting closer and closer to Peter.  Peter thrashed around in his grip.  How did I beat him before?  How?? He thought, his mind blank.  He shot more and more webs at Carnage until he shot some at his eyes, blinding him.

Confused and blinded, Carnage dropped him, clawing at his eyes.  Peter let out a small cheer and began webbing him more and more.  Eventually, Carnage was completely encased in webbing.

"Welp," Peter said, pleased.  "This was fun.  Thanks for the warm-up.  Now, I've got to get to school so-"

Peter was cut off by Carnage letting out a yell and coming out of the webbing.  Peter gaped, shocked.  "Oh come on!" 

Carnage growled and rushed over to Peter before he could do anything.  He grabbed Peter and slammed him against the wall.  Peter yelled, in pain.  "Woah, buddy!  Can't we work this out?"  He said through gritted teeth.