PIECES OF ME

Part II

By Tobias Christopher

Peter Parker was used to being thrown around by the likes of Doctor Octopus, the Hobgoblin, Venom and others. That was all part of the job of being Spider-Man. But this had to have been the first time he’d been thrown into a brick wall by a teenage girl.

And it hurt like hell.

Getting up from the ground, Peter looked out into the street where his friend Flash had been tossed before the super-powered girl ran off. A truck was barreling down on Flash and Peter had little time to act. He jumped to his feet, but before he could run out into the traffic to stop Flash from being ran over, a teenage boy swung through, grabbing Flash before the truck could hit him.

“What the hell is going on?” Peter asked as he recognized the boy as being another one of the students from Midtown High. Jordan Harrison was one of the students in Peter’s class.”You too?”

“Yeah, isn’t it awesome?” Jordan smiled as he looked at his hands. “It just happened about an hour ago.”

Peter looked at Flash. “I need to get Jordan to a lab and find out what’s going on. This is the third student tonight who’s gained super powers. You should get home and check on Drew and A.J. Whatever’s happening might be affecting them, too.”

“I’ll call you as soon as I get there,” Flash said as he ran toward the bus.

“Jordan, we need to get the ESU labs,” Peter told him.

“Why? These powers are an awesome gift, why question where they came from?” asked Jordan.

“These kinds of gifts come with a price,” Peter replied. “You used your powers to save someone who was in trouble, so I know I can count on you to do the right thing and help me get to the bottom of this.”

A.J. was heading home when he saw a familiar face. Tommy was standing outside of the apartment building, smoking a cigarette as he looked at A.J.

“Was wondering when you were coming back,” Tommy told him.

“You were waiting for me?” asked A.J. “Why?”

“You’re . . . the only person I really know,” Tommy replied as he looked down. “I kind of need someone to talk to right now.”

“What’s going on?” asked A.J. as the two sat down on the steps.

“I got a letter today,” Tommy told him as he looked down at the cigarette in his hands. “My brother was in the army overseas, a real hero fighting for our freedom and all that bullshit. He’s missing in action. They think he might be dead.”

“I’m sorry,” A.J. told him, thinking about almost losing his own brother. “Is that why you came to me? Because of Drew?”

“Yeah,” Tommy told him. “I thought you’d understand what I was going through and . . . you know what, this is stupid, I shouldn’t have come here. I’m sorry.”

Tommy got up to leave as A.J. put a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go somewhere a bit more relaxing.”

Peter was looking at Jordan’s blood sample under the microscope at the ESU lab. He still had connections there and was able to get in without getting hassled.

“Incredible,” Peter said as he looked at it. It’s the same DNA helix that gives me my spider powers, but yet it’s . . . altered somehow. How is this possible?“Jordan, has anything out of the ordinary happened to you recently? Have you been in contact with any strange creatures or involved in any weird lab accidents?”

“No,” Jordan told him. “I just go from home to school to the pizza parlor back to home.”

“There has to be something, three students can’t just gain spider-powers at the same time,” Peter told him.  “Jordan, you’re the first one I’ve seen use his powers responsibly, so I’m going to need your help until I can get in contact with Spider-Man.”

“Sure, Mr. Parker,” Jordan told him.

“I want you to call everyone you know at Midtown High and find out if anyone else has gained powers,” Peter told him. “Then I want you to call me and tell me what you’ve found out. In the meantime, I’m going to go find Spider-Man and find out why his DNA helix is in your blood sample.”

Flash ran into the apartment, looking around. “Drew? A.J.?” That was when he heard the sound of vomiting coming from the bathroom. Flash knocked on the door. “Are you alright?”

“Just . . . just feeling a little sick,” Drew told him.

“Drew, have you been noticing something . . . different about yourself lately?” asked Flash through the door.

“What, besides the weird dreams? No,” Drew told him as he walked to the sink and splashed some cold water on his face. “Wait . . . is this the talk? Because you’re a bit late for that one.”

“No, I just  . . . wait, have you already . . .?” Flash asked.

“Sixteenth birthday, under the bleachers during the homecoming game,” Drew told him proudly as he opened the door. “Don’t worry, I was safe.”

“Whatever, whatever,” Flash said, not wanting to think about what Drew had just shared with him. “Where’s your brother?”

A.J. and Tommy were in the park, skipping rocks across a pond. It was the same place A.J. went to relax whenever he wanted to clear his head of his troubles.

“So, were you and your brother close?” asked A.J. as he tossed a stone across the water.

“As close as you and your brother,” Tommy replied. “He always looked out for me until he left to join the military. That’s . . . kind of why I left home. When Kevin took off, I couldn’t live up to the ideals my parents expected of me that he’d set.”

“So, what are they going to do to find him?” asked A.J. as he watched Tommy try to skip a stone, but it just sank instead. A.J. laughed a little. Tommy felt something quickly come over him as he looked at A.J.

“You’re laughing at me?” Tommy asked angrily as he shoved A.J. to the ground and started punching him. “I’ll kill you!”

Peter was at the ESU lab, looking at the blood sample under a more powerful microscope.

“There’s more to this than just my DNA,” Peter said to himself. “There’s something else here that’s affecting these kids and it’s not just my spider powers. Something that’s setting these kids off and making them go off the deep end, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

Peter’s cell phone started ringing as he picked up. “Jordan? What did you find out?”

“Pretty much everyone’s gained powers, Mr. Parker,” Jordan told him as he was web-slinging through the streets. “And it all started tonight. And over half the kids are losing their minds.”

“Great,” Peter told him. “An entire high school class of spider-powered psychos. Look, Jordan, whatever’s driving every else crazy might affect you, too. You need to get somewhere safe where you can’t hurt anyone while I look for a cure.”

Peter hung up as he ran his hand through his hair. “Okay, Parker, think. Who has the knowledge to clone your powers and . . . clone?”

Peter lifted his shirt, revealing his Spider-Man costume as he headed toward the supply closet to change into costume. There was only person who had the intricate knowledge of Peter Parker’s DNA.

Tommy punched A.J. several times, each punch getting stronger before A.J. managed to throw him off and got to his feet. He started running as he felt something attach to his foot and drag him back to the ground. He looked back and saw a strand of webbing was attached to his shoe.

“No one runs away from me!” Tommy shouted.

“Webs? You want to play that game, huh?” asked A.J. as he slid his foot out of his shoe and kicked Tommy’s knee with his other foot. A.J. got up and rolled up his sleeves, revealing his own web shooters. As Tommy ran toward him, A.J. fired at him, pinning Tommy to a tree.

Ben gave me these web shooters for protection, but I’m only supposed to have mace in them. He doesn’t know that I managed to get hold of Peter’s web formula one day when he accidentally wrote it down in class.

A.J. walked over to Tommy, who was struggling to get free. “I’ll crush you when I get out of here!”

“This isn’t you,” A.J. told him. “Something’s come over you . . . but what?”

The webbing will dissolve in an hour. Better put as much distance as I can between us before he gets loose. I need to find Peter or Ben and let them know what’s going on.

Spider-Man was web-slinging through the city while listening to the police scanner. All over the city reports of high school students going crazy while exhibiting powers like Spider-Man were flooding in.

The Jackal’s always been finding new ways to torment me using my own DNA, I’ll bet he’s behind this. But what would he have to gain from turning high school students into crazed psychos? I need to find out where he’s hiding before it’s too late.

Spider-Man arrived at the location of the Jackal’s last laboratory, which had been destroyed years earlier. It wasn’t much to go on but maybe there was a clue there as to where he was now.

“This was the lab where the Jackal created Ben and Kaine,” Spider-Man said to himself as he looked around. “All of his research was in this place, maybe I can find something about his current plan.”

Spider-Man found the computer console and sat down in front of it. “The console was damaged in the fire that destroyed the lab, but maybe it’s still in good enough working condition to give me some kind of clue.”

“Jonah, the city’s going crazy!” Robbie Robertson said as he walked into Jameson’s office. “Reports are saying that there are dozens of teenagers with Spider-Man’s powers acting out all over Manhattan!”

“So, that webbed menace has finally gone and recruited for his spider-army of the night!” Jameson shouted as he slammed his fist on the table. “I knew it was only a matter of time before he played his hand! Where’s Michaels? He needs to be getting pictures of this!”

“I already called him, he’s on his way,” Robbie told him. “You really don’t think Spider-Man’s behind this do you?”

“Are you kidding, of course he is!” Jameson replied. “A bunch of kids running around with powers like Spider-Man, trashing the town? He put them up to this! That menace is finally going down!”

“Why is no one answering their phone? You’d think someone would be up at 11 o’clock at night,” A.J. asked as he headed toward the apartment. “Peter, Ben, Flash . . . no one’s picking up!”

A shadow passed by overhead as A.J. looked up, hoping to see Spider-Man or the Scarlet Spider. Instead he saw several people he knew from school swinging by. “What the hell? Them, too? Why is everyone suddenly developing spider-powers? Maybe I can call Peter’s Aunt May and she can get hold of Peter. I know I have her number somewhere–”

A.J. looked through his backpack to find May’s number when he found the permission slip for the flu shot that he didn’t get. He started thinking about it as he started running toward Midtown High.

Spider-Man was looking through the Jackal’s old computer and had finally managed to recover some of the files, although there were only bits and pieces of information left.

“Nothing here about what’s going on with the students,” Spider-Man said to himself. “It looks like the files only go up to his plans for Kaine, Ben, and . . . I don’t believe it. This . . . this can’t be.”

Spider-Man brought up the file that had caught his eye and started reading. His eyes widened in horror as he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Jackal, what did you do?”

“I know most of these kids,” Drew said as he was snapping pictures of the students that were in the streets and high above them. The police were doing their best to try to contain them, but there were now dozens of students with Spider-Man-level strength. “Flash, what the hell is going on?”

“Maybe it’s some kind of virus,” Flash told him. Flash had come with Drew because he didn’t want his young charge walking into danger by himself. “But if that’s the case, why isn’t affecting you? What if A.J.’s out there, acting like this?”

At Midtown High, A.J. had snuck in and picked the lock to the nurse’s office. As he walked in, he checked his cell phone again. “Still nothing from anyone…looks like it’s up to me to solve this mystery for now.”

A.J. looked through the file cabinet until he found what he was looking for. “The shipping address where the flu shots came from.”

Spider-Man was going through the city, trying to help contain as many students as he could. At this point, most of them had started to freak out and were out in the streets, causing panic. He was trying not to harm any of them as Peter Parker knew a lot of the kids personally.

If anything happens to any of my students I’ll never forgive myself. What kind of monster would do this to a bunch of kids? They’re all innocents and, while some of them could conceivably handle the power, an entire class of them is just asking for mayhem. I just need one solid lead to–

Spider-Man looked down at his cell phone and saw over a dozen messages had been left. He picked it up and heard A.J.’s voice telling him about Tommy, and suspecting the flu shots that the students had received.

“The flu shots!” Spider-Man said as he replaced his web cartridges and went back to pinning down as many students as he could. “Why didn’t I see it before? How else do you infect virtually every student at Midtown High without raising suspicion? Better call the kid and tell him I’ll take it from here.”

As Spider-Man started to dial the number, a strand of webbing pulled the phone out of his hands. The hero looked over and saw Jordan standing there with a menacing look on his face.

“Jordan? I thought I told you to get somewhere safe?” Spider-Man told him as he looked around, seeing he was surrounded by his students, several of them he knew personally.

“This is our town now, old man,” Jordan told him as the group attacked him. “You’re old news!”

Norman Osborn was watching the mayhem unfold from his penthouse apartment.

“Peter Parker’s students by now have felt the effects of the goblin serum in their system,” Osborn said with a smirk. “And he won’t lift a finger against them.”

“So you’re just going to let them kill him?” asked Gwyneth as she sat on his couch with a drink in her hand.

“No, they won’t get that far,” Osborn told her. “In the meantime, Hobgoblin is standing by for the next phase of the plan.”

Drew was standing on the corner of the street getting as many pictures as he could. Flash looked up and saw Spider-Man being attacked by several students.

“One guy against an army? Someone needs to help him,” Flash told Drew. “You stay here.”

Meanwhile, Hobgoblin was on his glider not too far away, watching the mayhem unfold.

“Such carnage,” Hobgoblin laughed as he heard Osborn’s voice in his earpiece. “Too bad I’m sitting on the sidelines.”

“Get ready,” Osborn told him. “You only get one shot.”

Hobgoblin let out a devilish laugh as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the vile of serum he’d been given. “One shot is all I need.”