Spider-Man: Nobody Home (18+)

Chapter 41: Crawling In My Skin

"I've tapped into the signal on Peter's communicator!" Dick called over his earpiece as he rode his motorcycle through the streets of Jump City. "Looks like he's headed towards the outskirts of the city."

"What do you think's going on?" Roy asked as he rode in the T-Car with Cyborg.

"I don't know, just... A feeling." Dick replied. "He seemed just as confused as us about what he said."

"You don't think he's some freaky evil clone, do you?" Beastboy asked as he flew overhead.

"I don't know." Dick replied. "Whatever it is, I wanna be there just in case. Wally!" He called.

"I'm here." Kid Flash replied.

"Go on ahead of us and follow him." Dick ordered. "Just keep a safe distance. I don't want him trying to shake us."

"Got it." He replied, before zipping on ahead.

"Where could he be going?" Cyborg asked.

Meanwhile, Peter swung through the buildings on the other side of the city, heading toward the north side. His head pounded and his muscles ached as his suit pulled at him, trying to get him to turn around.

'We do not have time for one of your meltdowns.' The voice hissed at him.

'Shut up!' Peter replied in agony. 'Get out of my head!'

Eventually, Peter's muscles ached to the point where swinging was too painful too. So he eventually let go of his web as he passed over a construction sight, that was building a new section of subway tunnels. Peter seamlessly passed through the open hole in the ground and into the darkened tunnel beyond, his suit fighting him all the while.

'Are you too stupid to listen to reason?' the voice hissed at him.

'Forget it!' Peter replied as he walked further into the tunnels, past rows of construction equipment and metal bars. 'It was YOU all this time, wasn't it? The outbursts! The lack of sleep! The sleep crime fighting! All you!'

'You needed our help.' the voice replied. 'And you still do.'

'Yeah thanks but no thanks.' Peter replied as he finally stopped behind a stack of metal pipes, then knelt down on the ground beside it. With the darkened tunnels only lit by bright construction lamps, his black suit was nearly impossible to see. 'I'm not doing this anymore!'

He reached for his neck and tried slipping off the mask, but the suit kept it formed tight to his skin.

'Hey! Get... Off... Me!' he said as he tried yanking the mask off from behind his head, but in vain.

'Just a little bit longer.' the voice hissed.

'No! You've turned me into a fucking monster!' Peter replied as he grabbed the face of the mask and began tearing it from his face as hard as he could. Only for tiny tendrils to snake their way back over him, trying to stay on, clawing into his flesh as he ripped and tore at it.

'WE made you BETTER.' the voice argued. 'In exchange, we got something we needed as well.'

'Thats it then, right?' Peter replied. 'You feed off negative emotions. Then in that case.' he pushed his fist into the ground and began tearing the suit off. 'I'm starving you out!'

As he tore the suit from his arm, the goo clawed its way back, causing Peter to groan in pain each time, only serving to frustrate him more. He growled with fury as he grabbed the chest of the suit and started tearing it off as hard as he could as the suit fought him to stay on.

'Fool!' the voice hissed as the suit snapped back onto his body. 'In your anger, you sought to destroy us. Which only served to make us stronger.' All of a sudden Peter gasped in shock as the suit began slowly wrapping him in a thick black cocoon. 'Allow us to demonstrate.'