Spider-Man : The Morales Trilogy

Chapter 19

Miles was riding back home on his bike. Without Dil. He'd left the tower in a rush after what had happened moments after he'd learnt Peter Parker was the original Spider-Man. He'd first felt a tingling sensation that he mistook for excitement which quickly turned to bitterness and anger.

"What?" Miles had asked.

"I haven't donned the blue and red in a long time, not since the disappearance of the other heroes. But I've still been trying to save the world."

"Bang-up job you've been doing."

"Miles, I'm trying to find all my friends. The friends who mysteriously disappeared in a flash of light. I thought it was my fault. I thought I didn't fight hard enough."

"So you decided to just stop fighting altogether? Let crime become the new norm? What have you been doing?"

"Using every possible resource to try and find the others, by trying to lock onto their signatures but everything I've tried has failed. Andy came close to finding them once but something shut him out. Wherever they are, it's dangerous. Too dangerous for magic to break into."

"Then maybe you need to try harder to break into wherever they are. This world still needs them!"

"This world needs a hero. Isn't that what you're trying to be?"

"I can't do it all on my own! I can't even find a missing scientist, how the hell am I supposed to find the thousands of people who go missing every day? How do I stop the real bad guys out there?"

"I can't tell you what to do. You have to choose your own path and make your own decisions."

"Well, your decision was cowardice so I'm not sure if I should even be accepting advice from you."

"Miles, what do you want me to do?! Give the people a false sign of hope? I'm not Spider-Man again! I'm not the beacon people thought I was."

"You know, I worshipped you. The imperfect yet perfect hero that New York just so needed. Until I found out you were a coward who vanished at the first sign of danger."

Peter threw a punch but Miles jumped backwards. "You're trying to hit a kid you're old enough to father? That's almost worse than hitting girls?! And for someone who claims to be Spider-Man, you're awfully slow."

"I don't have my powers anymore!" Peter yelled.

"What?"

"After they all went missing with me left behind, my powers started acting up. They weren't what they used to be. My mind was warped. I experienced sudden bursts of rage and aggression so I figured the only way I wouldn't hurt anyone would be if I wasn't strong enough to hurt a fly. So I managed to reverse-engineer a serum based on my genetic code and the more I used it, the more my powers ebbed away over time. Now I'm just Peter Parker.'

"Tell your little witch boy to keep the suit. I'm not going to carry around the same spider emblem that you've now disgraced," Miles said and started walking away.

"How about your friend?"

"Tell witch boy to teleport him home!"

And so Miles had left the tower, gotten on his bike and started hightailing it back home. On the way, the clouds darkened and thunder rumbled. For a while, Miles assumed it was Andy until rain started falling.

"Great. The one time I'm not wearing a hoodie or a helmet," Miles muttered under his breath and began to drive even faster. Miles knew he had to find a way to get Connors out of wherever Shockwave had stashed him.

Miles was thinking of a way to find Connors when a dark, foreboding feeling spread throughout him. He stopped the bike and looked around. He heard a faint whoosh! and knew he was being followed.

"What's going on?" Miles asked and looked around. Something metallic touched his shoulder and Miles grabbed the hand immediately and flung whoever it was aside.

Alistair Smythe grunted as Miles threw him off the road and against a tree. He fell to the muddy ground, groaning.

"You're strong!" he grunted. "Had to be sure since the boss man said it. The kid who put me in prison is also a superhero."

"You'll be going back to prison, trust me."

"I don't think so, kid. I already know better than to come unprepared. The other brawny fool you put behind bars did tell me that he encountered you and I've also seen footage. You underwent some kind of mutation and it probably wasn't by you volunteering. It probably occurred at Horizon and there's only one genetically modified entity capable of causing such mutation in that school. I worked on it with Connors and Modell. The scarlet spider."

Miles clenched his fists.

"If I know the source of your powers then I suppose I also know the way to temporarily strip you of those abilities until I find a way to make it permanent."

Smythe got up and fired a glass tube at Miles from his suit but Miles saw it slowly enough to catch it. It contained something green.

"Good night, little spider," Smythe said and the tube dispensed a gas that Miles couldn't prevent himself from inhaling.

He coughed and spluttered and tried to fight the gas off but it sure did his work well. Soon, Smythe appeared distorted to him and the world began to spin rapidly around him.

"No," he muttered and tried to maintain hisbalance but he fell to the ground, still trying to fight the effects of the gasbut he couldn't. He tried to push himself up onto his feet but something hardconnected to his face and everything went black.