Alright, true believers, here’s what you need to know: Norman Osborn and a clone of the Jackal have conspired to strike at Peter Parker through his students by giving them a goblin juice/spider DNA hybrid that would give them Spider-Man’s powers along with the Green Goblin’s insanity!

Luckily, with the help of Ben Reilly, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man was able to find a cure for the students before time ran out for them. Unfortunately, this was only a small piece of Osborn and Jackal’s plan, as both were working toward separate goals . . .

PIECES OF ME

Part VI

By Tobias Christopher

Spider-Man was lying under a steel beam, where the lower half of his body had been pinned down. Standing before him was a clone of Gwen Stacy, known as Gwyneth, created by the Jackal. Only this clone’s mind had been replaced by a cloned brain of Miles Warren himself. As if that wasn’t enough, a large bombshell had just been dropped on the hero.

Drew Michaels, the seventeen year old photographer for the Bugle, was the biological son of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy.

“Sorry, lady, but I’m too young to have a seventeen year old son,” Spider-Man said as struggled to remove the steel beam that was keeping him pinned to the ground.

Gwyneth laughed as she kept her gun pointed at him with one hand, while she held his mask in the other. “You are as dumb as you look. Remember all those years ago when there was all that business about cloning you and Gwen Stacy?”

“Vaguely, but I try not to remember,” Spider-Man told him. “That’s a story best left not brought up again.”

“This body was one of the Gwen clones kept in stasis after the Jackal’s original laboratory was destroyed,” Gwyneth told him. “It was one of the two clones that are still alive today.”

“Yeah, yeah, the other’s living in Europe,” Spider-Man told her. “Can we just skip ahead to me being a father?”

“Well, you see, Professor Warren wasn’t done screwing with you yet,” Gwyneth told him as she kneeled down to face him. “Not by a long shot. So he brought this body out of stasis as his personal assistant. And for a while, they were happy. He had his Gwen, and his revenge on you to look forward to. But it wasn’t enough. He wanted more.”

She smirked.

“So, taking the DNA samples he had of both Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, he combined them to make the perfect cloned son with which to mess with your head, on top of completing our family. Of course, to keep him from turning to goo overnight, the Professor had to breed out the spider DNA that gave you your powers. The plan was to age accelerate the boy to a young adult, then taunt you with him, turning him against you. But that was the night that his plans for revenge started going to hell.”

The clone seemed to enjoy the anguish across the hero’s taut features.

“Your other clone, Ben, was dead, and Osborn had decided to pull the plug on the partnership. So the Prof had no choice but to disappear for a while, using a clone of himself to fake his death. He ordered the lab destroyed, along with Drew. The brain that was in Gwen’s body was willing to follow those orders through at first. But the second she saw young Drew floating in that stasis tank, her heart was no longer in killing him. So as the lab was being destroyed, she rescued him and decided to disappear herself. Gwen took the boy, named him Drew, and decided to start a new life.”

“And that’s where she met A.J.’s father,” Spider-Man said as Gwyneth smacked him with the laser.

“No commentary from the peanut gallery,” Gwyneth shouted. “Anyway, Gwen was living a nice, apple pie life with her son and new family. That is, until I found them. You see, I was one of the Prof’s failed clones, and I was dying. I needed a new body. So when I found out the truth about Gwen, I kidnapped her and lobotomized the bitch, swapping my brain out for hers. I’ve just been waiting for young Drew to get old enough to where I can put this big, beautiful brain into a body old enough to continue Miles Warren’s work.”

“How is that even possible?” Spider-Man asked. “Brain swapping? That sounds like something Doc Ock would come up with.”

“I’m a genius, that’s how,” Gwyneth shouted as she smacked him again. “I decided that I’d be better off not having a kid weigh me down, so I ditched the family and went off on my own, plotting my own way of destroying you. Then Osborn approached me and we cooked up this little plan just to piss you off.”

“You and Osborn were in on poisoning my students together?” Spider-Man asked. “You sick monster!”

“Why, thank you,” Gwyneth told him. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a brain to scoop out of your son’s body. Not that this body’s not healthy or anything, I just miss having a penis.”

Well, that explains Drew’s love of photography and his give ’em hell attitude. If Drew really is the son that Gwen and I would have together, then that means that he’s the last good, pure piece of Gwen that’s left on Earth. The part of both of our hearts combined. I can’t let this psycho kill him.

Scarlet Spider was swinging through the city, looking for Flash while carrying the cure in his hands. He hoped he wasn’t too late as he saw the mutated Flash holding A.J. in his arms.

“Oh, great,” Scarlet Spider said as he swung down, kicking Flash in the back, forcing him to drop A.J. “Run, kid!”

“No, I’m not running,” A.J. told him as he hit the ground. “I can’t leave Flash like this!”

“I’ve got something that might work right here,” Scarlet Spider told him. “I’ve got it under control, now just–”

It was at that point that Flash had pulled a stop sign out of the ground and swung it at the Scarlet Spider, knocking him across the street and through a plate glass window, forcing him to drop the vial of the cure. Flash jumped across the street, intending to finish the Scarlet Spider off. As he got to the plate glass window, he was hit with several balls of impact webbing, blinding his vision. Flash started to stumble around as Scarlet Spider jumped through the broken window, grabbing Flash by the midsection and sending both out into the middle of the street. A.J. saw the vial and rushed to pick it up, following the two as they fought.

“A.J., get the hell out of here!” Scarlet Spider shouted as Flash grabbed him around the neck and lifted him into the air. The monster roared at him before slamming him into the ground, just as A.J. jumped onto his back. Flash thrashed around with him, trying to get him off as A.J. pulled out the vial and dumped it into the monster’s mouth as it roared.

Scarlet Spider stood up and watched as A.J. was finally tossed off of Flash’s back, falling onto the sidewalk. The monster turned to A.J. as Scarlet Spider rushed toward him to attack, but the monster raised its fist as Scarlet Spider ran right into it, dazing him enough for Flash to shoot a massive string of webbing at the hero, pinning him to the wall.

A dazed A.J. started to stand up as he saw the monster Flash bearing down on him, ready to strike.

“You don’t want to do this,” A.J. said as he looked up at him. “You’re a good man, Mr. Thompson. You took me and Drew in when we had no one. You’ve given us a home, and a family that we haven’t had in a very long time. I know you’re still in there, Mr. Thompson. Fight it, I know you can!”

The monster hesitated as Scarlet Spider started coming around, seeing the monster Flash standing over A.J. He was about to jump in when the monster roared angrily, looking at its mutated hands. The monster fell to its knees as A.J. slowly approached, putting his arms around the monster.

“It’s going to be okay, I promise,” A.J. whispered as he closed his eyes. After a short while, Flash’s body started to react to the antidote, slowly returning to his normal form within a matter of minutes. A.J. opened his eyes and saw he was hugging his teacher. Flash collapsed against A.J.’s body, too weak to do anything but lean on him.

“You know, in any other situation, me being naked and hugging you could totally be taken the wrong way,” Flash said weakly. A.J. pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around him to preserve his modesty.

“I don’t believe it,” Scarlet Spider said as he got closer. “You did it, kid.”

Gwyneth had cut Drew’s shirt off, attaching several wires to his chest and head to keep him alive while she performed the operation. She pulled out a scalpel and ran a hand through the boy’s hair as he was unconscious, unaware of what was about to happen to him.

“Such a shame that it’s come to this,” Gwyneth said. “Your so-called mother really did love you and that other brat. In fact, her last words before I cut her open like a cantaloupe were that I left you alone.”

Spider-Man was still without his mask as he continued to stay pinned under the large metal beam. But now that the clone was busy elsewhere, it was time to make his move. He started putting his strength into lifting the beam off of him, knowing what was at stake.

“Have to move this beam,” Spider-Man said to himself as sweat started pouring down his face. “Can’t let my son die!”

Spider-Man put all of his energy into lifting the beam enough to pull himself out. He dropped it back down as his legs were out and stood up. “Step away from him. Now!”

“Or what, wall-crawler? You’ll mess up this pretty little face you used to be so madly in love with?” Gwyneth asked with a laugh. “I may have had to make some . . . adjustments so I wouldn’t be recognized by anyone who used to know her, but this is still the face of the woman you used to love. And we both know there’s no way you will ever lift a finger against your beloved Gwen.”

“You’re right,” Spider-Man as he replaced his empty web-shooters. “I could never fight Gwen, no matter whose mind is in her body.”

Spider-Man shot every last piece of webbing in his shooter at her, pinning Gwyneth to the wall. He walked over to Drew, looking down at the face that could have existed if Gwen Stacy hadn’t died that night on the bridge. Pulling the wires from his chest and head, he suddenly remembered that he was still without his mask, and Drew could wake up at any moment.

“Forget about your mask, bug?” Gwyneth asked with a laugh. “It’s under about two feet of the webbing you just generously pinned me to the wall with. So you can either take the kid with you, or leave him here alone, scared and confused with me.”

Spider-Man shot the last ounce of webbing in his shooter at Gwyneth’s mouth to keep her quiet.

The Hobgoblin returned to May Parker’s house, where he’d been living since the house he’d been renting had been destroyed*. He’d taken a bullet to the chest, but thanks to both the padding of the costume and his enhanced Goblin strength, he was able to shrug it off within minutes.

*See the Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1

Having ditched his costume in a safe place, he returned back to the house to wait for orders from Osborn. As he got back to the house, he saw a familiar face standing on the porch.

“Dad?” Rhett asked as he looked at him. “Is that you?”

Rhett was met with a punch from his father’s fist. He rolled with it as soon as he saw it coming, otherwise it would have shattered the man’s hand. Rhett fell onto his back as his father spit on him.

“This is all your fault,” the man told him. “Your brother is dead because of you. I should kill you right now. The way you killed both of your brothers.”

“What?” Rhett asked as he thought about his younger brother. “No, Richie can’t be dead. It’s not true.”

“He killed himself last week,” Rhett’s father said. “And it’s because of you taking Ryan’s life. You little bastard, my family is gone because of you!”

“Dad, please,” Rhett begged as he lay there. “You don’t know. There’s something that happened that you never knew about-”

“Save it,” his father said as he stepped off the porch. “You’re as dead to me as your brothers are. I have no sons left.”

As the man walked away, Rhett broke down in tears, wanting to die himself.

“All of the students are recovering,” Scarlet Spider said as he got Flash and A.J. back to their apartment. “We got them all to the hospital just in time. Unfortunately, though, they’re all going to be kept in quarantine until they’re sure that that junk is out of their systems.”

“That’s like, 95% percent of the class,” A.J. told him. “What are they going to do with the school until the students can come back?”

“I’m sure it’ll all work out,” Flash said as he A.J. helped him to the couch, where he covered his teacher with a blanket. “Where are Drew and Peter?”

“Shit!” A.J. shouted as he stood up. “I forgot about Drew! He was kidnapped!”

“Relax, kid,” Scarlet Spider said as he put a hand on A.J.’s shoulder. “Spider-Man saw what was going on and followed. He’ll bring Drew home alive. Peter’s . . . at the hospital, checking on the students.”

Drew started opening his eyes as he lay on the table. “Where am I?”

“Relax, kid,” Peter said as he stood over him. He’d ditched his Spider-Man costume and found some old clothes in a storage locker. It was an old Backstreet Boys t-shirt and a pair of blue jean shorts, but it was better than revealing his secret identity. It was enough that A.J. knew his identity, he wasn’t putting another life in danger. “Spider-Man rescued you. You’re safe now.”

Drew sat up and saw Gwyneth pinned against the wall. “Mom?”

Peter pulled him back before he could get to her. “That’s not your mom, kid. Not anymore. It’s kind of hard to explain.”

“What the hell are you talking about!?” Drew shouted as he pulled away from Peter and ran to her, pulling the webbing from her mouth. “Mom! I knew you’d come home.”

“That’s right, baby,” Gwyneth told him. “Now, get mommy out of here and we’ll go home.”

“Drew, no!” Peter said as Drew started pulling the webbing off. Before he could get over to them, Gwyneth started laughing as she pulled out the gun and shot Peter in the chest. He flew backward as his healing factor immediately started to take care of the wound. She grabbed Drew and held the gun to his head.

“Mom, what are you doing?” Drew asked. “That’s my teacher!”

“I’m not your mom, kid, I’m something much, much worse,” Gwyneth told him. “Now, you’re going to get onto that table and let me take out your brain.”

“Where’s my mother?” Drew asked with tears in his eyes.

“Dead, but you’ll be joining her soon enough,” Gwyneth in the Jackal’s cackling tone. “And just for kicks, your teacher will be joining you, too. Now, get on the table.”

Drew did as she asked and got on the table as Gwyneth backed away, not realizing that the laser blast that had caused the beam to fall on Spider-Man earlier was about to give way to another beam. “This is it, kid. When you wake up, you’ll be a whole new person.”

As she was about to push a button on the console, another ceiling beam fell right on top of her, crushing the clone underneath.

“No!” Drew shouted as he got off the table. Peter started to sit up, feeling a stinging in his chest as the bullet that had hit him fell to the ground.

“I’m going to be feeling that in the morning,” Peter said as he stood up and saw Drew trying to lift the ceiling beam.

“Help me!” Drew shouted with tears in his eyes. “She’s under here! We can still save her!”

Peter saw the pool of blood underneath the beam as he pulled Drew into a hug. “She’s gone, Drew. I’m sorry.”

Drew broke down in tears as Peter held onto him as tightly as he could, rubbing the young man’s back gently. The two remained there until dawn as Peter tried to calm his son down, wishing he could tell Drew the truth.

“You’re kidding me!” Ben said as Peter told him the whole story of what had happened the night before.

“He’s the son Gwen and I never had,” Peter told him again. “Warren was going to use him against me. Screw with my head before his plan fell apart. I want to tell him so badly.”

“Tell him what? He’s a teenage clone of you and your dead sweetheart?” Ben asked with a sigh. “I remember what was going through my head when I found out that I was the clone of you. Finding out that he’s just a piece of someone else instead of his own person? It took me five years to get past that. Hell, it still eats away at me sometimes knowing that I’m just an extension of you.”

“You’re not just an extension of me, Ben. You are a real person. Drew deserves to know the truth,” Peter told him. “He deserves to know who he is.”

“I agree, but who are you really doing this for?” Ben asked. “Are you doing this for the kid’s benefit . . . or so you can have a piece of Gwen back?”

“I’m really sorry, A.J.,” Tommy said as he lay in his hospital bed. “I don’t know what came over me.”

“It’s cool,” A.J. told him as he sat next to his friend. “I know that you weren’t yourself. You couldn’t help how you acted while that goblin stuff was messing with your head.”

“You’re the first person that I’ve opened up to in a really long time,” Tommy said as he leaned forward to sit up. “You’re kind of like . . . my only real friend.”

“We’ve certainly come a long way from hating each other the first night we met,” A.J. laughed. “Now I kind of feel like–”

A.J.’s thought was cut off by Tommy pulling him into a kiss.

“While all of the students are safe, we will continue investigating into this situation,” the superintendent said in a news report. “In the meantime, Midtown High will remain closed and the few students not affected by this will be sent to the high school across town. Unfortunately we will not be able to afford to keep our staff on the payroll while the investigation continues, so they will have to be let go until the school reopens.”

Osborn shut the television off as he sat back and grinned. “All according to plan. Parker is out of a job, and none of this can be pinned on me. The Jackal will take the full blame for this scheme, and with Gwen Stacy’s clone dead, she can’t say otherwise. And while everyone else was distracted with Flash’s mutation, I was able to plant my latest toys around the city. Everything went down perfectly.”

Peter found Drew sitting outside of Flash’s apartment building, not sure what to say to him.

“A.J. said you left the hospital as soon as they gave you a clean bill of health,” Peter said as he sat down next to him. “You wanna talk about what happened?”

“My mother’s dead, my step-father abandoned me and my little brother could die of cancer,” Drew told him. “What’s there to talk about?”

“I know that what happened hit you hard, but . . . you do have people around who still care about you,” Peter reminded him. “Your brother, Flash . . . and me. You know you can talk to me if you need anything, right?”

“I know, but it’s not the same as having a real parent,” Drew told him as he looked down at the ground. “Sometimes I wonder if my real dad’s out there, wondering about me.”

“I’m sure he is,” Peter said as he put an arm around him. “I guarantee that your father is thinking about you every second of every day.”

The two sat there for another hour, just letting the silence speak for them.