Survivor

22. Can you...?

"The only one who can tell you 'you can't' is you. And you don't have to listen."

Peter sat on the edge of the bed in his room of the compound. He remembered the disappointed look on Tony's face and winced. Why was he so inadequite? He couldn't even save his friend from a couple of low-grade goons without getting hurt!

He didn't even deserve to stand in the prescence of the Avengers.

That thought made Peter stand and pace in frustration. He still had his suit on, under the Stark Industries sweatshirt Helen gave him, and he tore off his sweatshirt and jeans and grabbed his mask.

What the hell are you doing? He asked himself as he stared at his mask. You can't go out there. You can't do anything. You're useless. Peter sighed and turned to put his mask on the bedside table when suddenly his spidey sense started ringing like a hundred bells in his head.

He pulled his mask on and his eyes widened. His spidey sense was warning him to get away from the window...?

oOo

"I don't care where the spider is, I want him here." Hissed a masked figure from behind hundreds of computers, his voice clearly changed with some sort of device. Gargan sighed. "Look, boss, he's at the Avengers compound and I just got outta prison - I'm not going back there."

"You have the suit, yes?"

"Yes..."

"So the Avengers are no match for you. Bring me the spider. Alive."

oOo

Peter's spidey sense was getting worse, and it had only been a couple of seconds. Whatever was coming, was bad. He ran for the door, and almost reached the doorknob when the wall caved in with a crash, the force slamming him through the door and into the hallway.

"Ok... ow..." Peter groaned, pushing debris off himself. He sat up as quickly as he could, just in time to dodge a weapon aiming for his head that stuck in the wall. Peter's eyes widened as he realized the weapon was a tail.

A long, metal tail with a pointed stinger at the end. What the...?! Before Peter could think of any theories, he had to move so the tail didn't slice him in two. He still had a hole in the front of his suit, but now he had one in the back from narrowly missing an attack! Mr. Stark was going to kill him.

"Hello, little bug." Chuckled the owner of metalic tail, who had an entire green metalic suit. Peter launched away from an attack, sticking to the ceiling incredulously. "First of all; spiders are not bugs, why doesn't anyone remember that?!" He growled with a sigh. "Second;" he started, jumping to the wall as the stinger replaced his position on the ceiling.

"Who are you?!"

"My name is Scorpio." Laughed the intruder in a giant green scorpion costume. "Original." Peter scoffed. "You're one to talk." Scorpio shot back, and Peter couldn't disagree.

Nor could he dodge the attack as the tail wound around his torso.

oOo

"Mr. Stark, sir?" FRIDAY called from the PA system as Tony was working on his armor upgrades. "Yes, FRIDAY?" Tony answered distractedly, his brain mulling over not only tech but also what he had said to Peter. "There seems to be a sudden commotion on level 4."