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Midtown High. It was just an average day for Peter Parker.
Average in that it was crappy as could be.
Peter quickly sidestepped a sneakered foot that suddenly appeared in his path as he walked down the hall with Mary Jane.
“Parker, your reflexes are getting better! Must be my special training, huh?”
The group of jocks burst out laughing as Peter turned to glare at their leader.
“Quit being such asshole Flash.”
Flash glared back.
“You know what Park-”
He was cut off by an explosive crash. The hall was instantly filled with screaming students. Teachers came running out of their classrooms screaming at everyone to run, to get out.
“Ohmygod.”
“What’s going on?”
“Oh God, Peter!” Mary Jane's voice was high pitched and scared.
Peter struggled to get back up from where he had fallen when a chunk of the ceiling had knocked him the head. Mary Jane, Kong, and Liz clustered around him with frightened looks on their faces.
“Dude, are you okay?” Kong asked, looking at him with concern.
“’m fine,” muttered Peter, even as the cut on his forehead started to ooze with blood. “Just a scratch.”
“Come on, we have to get out of here,” urged Flash, tugging at Kong.
“Yeah,” Kong said, decisively grabbing Peter around the waist and lifting him, backpack and all, like he weighed nothing and running with the rest of the students toward the exit.
“What the hell is attacking us this time!?” screamed Liz hysterically as Kong dragged her by the arm with the rest of them.
“It’s the goblin thing again,” someone cried in the chaos.
“The goblin?”
Peter and MJ exchanged a look that Kong couldn’t identify before Peter was pushing at Kong’s waist, struggling to wriggle free.
“Dude!” cried Kong as he struggled to keep a hold of Peter, surprised by the boy's sudden strength. “What are you doing? Just hold still.”
Peter ignored him as he broke free and ran the opposite direction into the school.
“He’s being a spaz again. Forget him,” said Flash, eager to get out of the burning school. “Let’s go!”
“He’s just been hit in the head, Flash,” snapped Kong. “MJ, take Liz. I’ll get him.”
“I don’t think you should –“ started MJ, looking worried, but Kong shoved them towards the door and headed the direction Peter had run. Liz and Flash pulled MJ along with them.
-
Peter never got a chance to put on his costume – the Green Goblin attacked him the instant he entered the deserted alleyway, hitting him fast and hard. He dropped his backpack somewhere as he was knocked back and skidded across the dirty ground until he smacked into a wall with a grunt. He lay on the ground, stunned, as the Goblin approached him, grinning widely.
“My boy,” growled the Goblin, his eyes wild and red. He bent, reaching for the boy on the ground.
He let out a surprised grunt when something large and strong barreled into him from behind, knocking him into a pile of garbage.
Kong grabbed Peter and shook him worriedly. Peter looked like hell, face bruised and bloody. He groaned, slowly opening his eyes.
“Peter? Pete? You alive?”
Peter took one look at who was bent over him and swore words Kong had never ever expected to hear coming out of the high school geek’s mouth.
“Kong, are you crazy?” He jumped up, grabbing Kong’s arm with that surprising strength.
“Me? You’re the crazy spaz who ran off on his own!”
“That’s so no one else would get hurt! Now he’s going to try and kill you! Run!”
They ran down the alleyway, Peter swiping up his backpack along the way. The sound of angry roars behind them let them know that the goblin was up again and on their tail.
“Why the hell is this thing after you?” Kong huffed.
“He wants to be my daddy,” snapped Peter, fumbling in his backpack, bringing out two silver cylinders that he slipped on to his wrists.
“That’s fucked up.”
“We all have our issues,” snapped Peter as he turned to spray webbing into the face of the creature pursuing them. It roared in anger and ripped the webbing off its face like paper.
Kong stared at Peter in astonishment. Then he jumped up and down and pumped his fist in the air.
“I knew it!”
“Shut up and run!” Peter ordered as he delivered a punch that only elicited a small grunt and a grin from the Goblin.
“But I can’t just-” Kong started uncertainly, backing down the alley.
“Kong, just run!” Peter gasped out as the two grappled with each other, the Goblin quickly getting the upper hand and tossing him into a wall.
“I can handle this,” he said, dizzily getting up.
“Are you out of your mind? You’re hurt!”
“What, this? I got worse than this in gym class daily.” He kicked out and the Goblin grabbed his leg and tossed him upwards. He caught himself on the wall and glanced at Kong from his impossible position, standing on the wall. “Run!”
The Goblin struck the dazed boy across the face and Peter fell to the ground.
Kong gave the alley behind him one longing look before searching for something to use as a weapon.
The Goblin picked Peter up by the neck. He hung from the creature’s grip limply.
“I gave you so many chances boy,” the Goblin hissed into Peter’s unresponsive face. “Now you will be a good boy and come with me and accept your punishment like a-”
He was interrupted by a trashcan smashing down on the top of his head. He dropped Peter in surprise.
“You!” he snarled, whirling to glare at Kong. Kong backed away anxiously.
The fall to the ground jarred Peter back into consciousness and he quickly took advantage of the Goblin’s distraction, webbing the Goblin’s legs and pulling hard, knocking the Goblin to the ground. As the Goblin hit the ground with a crash, Kong grabbed Peter by the arm and began dragging him.
“Let’s go, let’s go, let's go!”
Peter didn’t argue, looking like he was having enough trouble just staying on his feet. They stumbled down the alley together as the Goblin got up with a roar and charged after them.
They ran for their lives. When they hit the fence at the end of the alley, Kong immediately jumped on it and began climbing up. But Peter didn’t follow. Surprised, Kong looked down only to see him slumped dizzily against the fence.
“C’mon, Peter! You’re Spider-Man – you can climb a little fence!”
“I can’t…” Peter’s voice was indistinct. He was slowly sliding down to the ground. “Go without me. Hurry.”
The Goblin was getting closer. Torn, Kong glanced at the other, safer side of the fence and back at the enraged Goblin.
He jumped down from the fence and stood in front of Peter defiantly.
The Goblin laughed derisively.
“What do you think you can do, ugly boy?”
“I don’t know,” replied Kong. “But Spidey is my hero and I have to try something.”
The Goblin bared his sharp teeth with a grin and lunged at Kong with a roar.
Kong put up his hands and closed his eyes in reflex and felt something in him change. There was a heat on his hands and suddenly the Goblin was cut off mid-roar and there was the thump of a body hitting the ground instead.
Kong opened his eyes to see the Goblin lying on the ground, chest smoking.
“Uh, what happened?”
The only ones in the alley were Peter and the Goblin and neither answered, Peter slumping against the fence and the Goblin twitching on the ground… and then slowly starting to get up again, much more pissed off than before.
“Oh dude…” groaned Kong, taking a step back. “I don’t know what’s going on, but can’t you stay down?”
The Goblin snarled and charged again.
This time Kong’s eyes stayed open and he could see his hands glowing red before a ball of light formed between them. Desperate, he hurled the ball at the Goblin.
And missed. The Goblin kept charging at him and he couldn’t get his hands to glow again.
“Fuck!”
Suddenly the Goblin stiffened. Darts appeared on his back in rapid succession. He whirled, letting out one last roar before becoming peppered with more darts, toppling to the ground, and shifting back to human form. Men in dressed in black and equipped with riot gear poured into the alley. Kong stood stock still in front of Peter who groaned and blinked his eyes.
A dark skinned man with an eye patch stood in front of them.
“Stand down kid, we got it from here.”
“Wa’s happenin’?” slurred Peter, blinking confusedly.
His gaze fell on the man and his eyes narrowed.
“Fury? What are you doing here?”
Kong blinked and looked at Peter in excitement.
“It’s Nick Fury! God, how the hell do you know Nick Fury!? Peter, you know Nick Fury!”
“Trust me, that’s not a good thing,” Peter replied, glaring at the one eyed man.
Fury shrugged.
“It’s a good thing when you need a doctor fast.”
He motioned to his troops and beautiful woman appeared, carrying Peter’s backpack. Her lips curved into smiles at the site of the two boys and she knelt by Peter and began examining his pupils, chatting with him all the while.
“Hey cutie, long time no see. You forgot your backpack. High school boys need to watch out for their backpacks.”
“How is he?” asked Fury.
The woman continued with her examination of Peter, taking his web shooters off and putting them in his backpack.
“He’ll be fine enough for the paramedics to examine. He’s already demonstrated on several occasions a remarkable capacity for healing from concussions. This one will be easy to explain away by falling debris.”
Fury nodded.
“Fine. Parker, you and your mutant friend should go back to the school now. Your friends should have all evacuated by now.”
“Mutant friend?” asked Kong.
“Help Parker back to the school now,” said Fury, ignoring the question. “I can't tell you how little I care about your little teenage self-discovery drama.”
Kong helped Peter stagger back to the school. It would be easy to explain away their shell shocked expressions as being caused by the explosion and excitement.
“Did he say mutant?”
Peter leaned heavily on Kong's shoulder and laughed.