Spider-Man: Unmasked

Chapter Five

Carnage pressed him harder into the wall.  Peter let out a gasp.  "Nope.  Got it," he breathed. 

Carnage's tendrils neared Peter until there was one pressed almost into his gut.  He winced.  He tried to shoot a web at Carnage, but Carnage just used his other tendrils to hold his arms down.  Peter was helpless. 

What's wrong with me?  He thought.  I've beaten him before!  How did I do it?

While Peter was thinking of how to defeat him, Carnage brought one of his sharp tendrils into Peter's gut.  He let out a loud yell and Carnage let out a small yelp, pulling slightly away.  Peter smiled softly, ignoring the blood dripping from his mouth.  He let out another yell and Carnage pulled away completely, making Peter crumple to the ground.  He let out a low moan.

Peter looked up at Carnage who was holding his ears- or at least where his ears would be.  Sound, Peter thought.  It has something to with high pitch sounds.  He did his best to ignore how high that meant his yell was.

He tried to stand up, but when he did, he collapsed back onto the ground.  He leaned his head against the wall, and let out a groan as his backpack fell off the top of the building and onto his head.  He glared at his backpack and then looked to see Carnage standing above him, smiling wickedly with his wide, sharp-toothed, slimy mouth.  Peter closed his eyes, accepting what would happen next. 

Suddenly, he heard a sound that he didn't realize he had been longing to hear until now.  The Iron Man suit.  He grinned and cheered a little, before coughing, bits of blood dripping down from his mouth.

He saw his dad flying over and his pops along with the other Avengers running towards Carnage.  Carnage turned just in time to be hit by an Arrow from his Uncle Clint.  Carnage yelled and ran towards Clint.

The battle became a blur as Iron Man landed in front of him.  "We were hoping you wouldn't have to be here, to try and give you a break.  Are you okay?"  He asked, before glancing at the wound in his gut.  "Woah, no you're not."  He went to help him, but Peter quickly moved out of the way.

"No!"  Peter quickly yelled.  He cleared his throat and said with an accent, "I'll be fine.  Thank you.  You may want to focus on the fight." He tried to stand up, ignoring Tony's pleas to stay and sit out. 

He instead shot a web at a nearby building and swung - right into the building.  He gave a thumbs-up before running over to the other Avengers.  He was fine.  He had suffered worse, and he certainly couldn't let them help him.

"Hey, Spidey!"

Peter turned in the direction of the voice to see Clint, who looked at the wound with concern and then back at Peter's face.

"If you're still able to fight, is there any known weakness that you can think of that could help us?"

Steve started speaking from behind Peter, saying, "Spider-Man, I think it's best you-"

"It's sound!  High pitched, that is!  I don't know how well it works or if anything else works better but, that's all I got thus far."

"Thanks, Spidey."  Clint started shooting his shrill arrows at it, doing a little damage, but still more than before.

"Just get Peter from school and have him scream in its face," Natasha offered, causing the Avengers to laugh.  Peter laughed awkwardly, thinking all the while, ouch ouch ouch, for various reasons now. 

He did his best to continue fighting and brainstorming with the Avengers, ignoring Steve and Tony telling him to sit out and check out the wound.  He could do it when Carnage was gone.

"Spider-Man, this is working, but not much.  I don't think we have enough.  Are you sure there's no other weakness?"

Peter looked at Natasha and shook his head.  "If I knew, I'd tell you."

Natasha nodded, obviously disappointed.  "Alright then, Tony, just keep having your suit make annoying noises as usual.  And Clint, keep shooting your annoying arrows at it as usual."

She continued to shoot at Carnage.  While it didn't do much to stop him, it certainly distracted him and angered him.  Peter would have to settle for doing that as well.

He began swinging around the symbiote, rapid firing webs at its eyes.  "You get a web!  And you get a web!  And you- oh frick-"

He might have gotten a bit too cocky and might or might not have been hit by carnage.  Dang.

He moaned as he landed on his back, drifting in and out of consciousness.  Iron Man and Captain America quickly came over to him.  Tony immediately knelt down beside him, inspecting the wound, Steve coming up behind him.

Perfect, he thought, dazed.  Another one. 

"He okay?"  Steve asked Tony. 

"Hm, let's see: he's bleeding majorly, he just rammed into a wall... overall, I'd say he's fine!"  Tony replied, looking at his husband.  "What do you think!"

Steve sighed and shook his head.  "Let's take off your mask, kid, see how bad it is," he said, reaching for Peter's mask.

"No!"  He said, attempting to scoot away.  He couldn't let his dads find out.  Not like this.  He backed up until he was too sore to move anymore.

"I'm sorry, kid.  We've got to find out how bad it is," Steve said, sounding genuinely sorry.  He began to pull off the mask, it coming off slowly due to all of the blood.

Tony gasped when the mask came all the way off.  He showed his face from in his suit, the pain and shock visible in his face.  "No.  No no no.  Not you.  Please no." 

Steve stared into Peter's eyes, dropping the bloodied mask onto the ground.  "Peter...?"  His voice was shaking.  "Oh please no."

"Hey, dad.  Hey, pops," he said, voice quiet and broken.  He put on a faint smile and winced.  He was barely recognizable.  His face was all bloody and his hair was a disheveled mess, but he was definitely Peter. 

"Captain," Thor spoke into their earpieces.  "Carnage is getting away."

"We've got bigger problems, Thor," Tony said shakily into the earpiece.  "Natasha, call an ambulance.  Quick!"

Tony held Peter's head in his lap.  "Oh, Pete... why?   Why did you- how-?  Why didn't you tell us?"  He asked, shaking his head as if he was willing it to not be true.

"I-I'm sorry," Peter said quietly, staring up at his dads.  He heard the other Avengers coming over and gasping as they saw Peter.  "I'm so sorry."  And with that, he drifted out of consciousness.