The Princess and the Spider-Man

Chapter 38

Spider-Man awoke the next morning to movement from his right side. He groaned as he rubbed the top of his head.

"What time......oh man!" Spider-Man commented, as he was about to stand up. But he halted his movements as soon as he noticed the red-haired Atlantean beauty sleeping on his right shoulder. He could make out the slight trace of a smile on her lips as she slumbered.

Spider-Man didn't want to wake her up, but he knew that they had to get back to work. "Mera?" he whispered, lightly shaking his girlfriend.

Mera let out a low moan and moved her hand to hit Spider-Man's nose. Last he checked, he didn't have a snooze button for a nose.

"Mera?" he tried again, shaking her a little harder.

"Peter, just let me sleep in bed for a little while." Mera mumbled, burying her head more into his side.

"First off, we're on a building Mera. And second, we need to go stop Scorpion." Spider-Man said. Mera opened her eyes for a second and closed them again, trying to go back to sleep. It took five seconds for the settings and the memories from last night to set in, and she snapped her eyes back open.

"Oh my god!" she said, bolting up off of Spider-Man and pacing around on top of the building. "We slept on a building?!" she asked.

"Yeah, it was a long night." Spider-Man said, finally getting up off of the floor. "Let's call Yuri and explain everything to her, while we go to the reservoir." he added.

"To stop Scorpion?" Mera asked. Peter nodded.

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Spider-Man had informed Yuri of what they had found in Otto's lair and informed her about taking down Electro and Vulture. They were now going to the city's reservoir to take on Scorpion.

"There's the place. But there's no sign of Scorpion." Spider-Man commented as he swung over on top of the building.

"Maybe we beat him to the punch." Mera said, looking around, still on her cyclone.

"Now if I was missionary dressed like a scorpion, where would I be?" Spider-Man thought, still glancing around. And that's when his spider-sense started to tingle.

"Behind you!" a voice shouted from behind him.

Spider-Man whirled around to see non other than Crazy Pants McCrazy leaping at him. Scorpion lashed his tail at Spider-Man, only for him to move out of the way. Scorpion lashed his tail at Spider-Man again, but this time, the tail scraped Spider-Man's shoulder.

"Spider-Man!" Mera shouted, lowering down to his level and looking at his shoulder. She then glared at Scorpion, who was advancing on the two of them.

"Me, I'd end it now." Scorpion said. "But Octavius is paying. And he wants to torture you......which I respect." he added, before he turned and jumped off the building.

"Damn it! What did he inject me with?!" Spider-Man asked in a pained voice. He looked at a fragment of the poison and analyzed it. "Scorpion's made some upgrades." he commented.

"What is the substance?" Mera asked, panic starting to fill into her voice.

"Psychological Perturbation Venom." he said. "My brain will create nightmares based off of my own fears." he continued. Then he screamed out in pain as images suddenly flashed before his eyes. The sight of his uncle being shot and lying lifeless on the concrete, the sight of his parents coffins laying before him, it was all hurting him both mentally and physically.

"Peter, please....." Mera said, cradling the hero in her arms. It was hard for her to even find words to speak, let alone what to do with her boyfriend screaming in pain from the poison. She dreaded seeing his face under his mask as he was enduring this.