Once I had love and it was a gas

[spideyguy]

Peter is not unused to weird shit happening at this point in his life. To be perfectly honest, it's kind of expected. Perhaps it's because he spends most of his days as Spiderman, more often than not, but he's been particularly sensitive to it recently. The city has been...a little off, as of late, his spider sense activating on seemingly nothing, setting him on edge. More than that, it feels less like an immediate danger and more of a forewarning to something bigger, like Peter should be gearing up for...something.

But he ignores it, because what can he do besides be ready? It doesn't seem to lead him anywhere specific, and happens in different places, all over. As if it's following him, whatever it is. He has a job to do, people to save, and he's long since stopped chasing trouble - not in that sense, anyway, with eager eyes. Trouble has a way of finding him, and he stops it cold, now.

He's out doing just that - the carjacker he's webbed up to the wall has lost a few teeth, but hey, maybe he should have considered that before turning to a life of crime - when he senses really go off, and Peter narrowly jumps out of the way, clinging to the brick wall on the opposite side of the alley as someone falls from thin air - literally, one second they weren't there, the next, Hello, Dolly!

"Uh, rude," Peter calls down to the man-from-the-sky, unsticking one hand to gesticulate wildly. "I was kind of in the middle of something!"

Comments

[webzip]

So Mysterio doing something actually magical for a change? Color him shocked.

It’s probably some new tech he’s picked up, more smoke and mirrors like everything else. But for the life of him, as he tumbles through everything and nothing (and trying not to hurl into his mask), Peter Parker has to wonder how the hell he did it this time. Is this...is he..? Is he actually impressed?

Seriously. Not even kidding. He thinks he’s almost impressive – except that’s the ground. Coming up fast. Real fast. Spider sense slams into him but he’s still sluggish, still moving a beat too slow. There’s a flash of blue and red to the side, human shaped right next to some guy with your stereotypical ski mask upside against the wall. He’s pretty sure he’s faced at least one of those guys once a week.

This is the part where he normally would catch himself. Truth is, eight years into this and he's made it a special, really, really important rule not to Ever Run out of Web Fluid. It's just plain embarrassing. So unprofessional. So he’s got plenty of web fluid. But his reflexes aren’t working the way they normally would. His mind doesn’t seem to link up to his body. Instead of smoothly shooting a web to that perfectly good fire escape, Peter slams shoulder first into a dumpster and rolls off into an awkward sprawl. He comes up in a crouch, his body splayed in a position that’s more animal than man. Mysterio’s got to be here somewhere, he’s -

Huh. There’s also Spider-Man. The outfit’s close enough and he’s doing that wall-crawling thing and waving and he’s even getting all smart with him.

Now he’s getting impressed.

“Yeah?” Peter tries to hide the fact he’s disoriented. Great thing about masks, you can hide behind it and no one can see how your eyes are darting around for clues, trying to catch up. “Looks like you’re just about finished. Got him gift-wrapped and everything already.”

[spideyguy]

The ski-mask guys were all the same, weren't they? How did they manage that, anyway? Was there some kind of wholesale store everybody but him knew about? Peter totally wishes that were true, but honestly he's pretty sure it's just Amazon.

The man from the sky doesn't seem to be very good at falling out of the sky - for someone falling out of the sky, anyway (to be fair, Peter has probably seen more people doing so than the average joe, so his standards are a little high). He hits the dumpster at an angle that makes Peter wince with sympathy, but manages to land in a position that gives Peter a...weird sense of deja vu. He banishes the strange, nagging feeling, focusing instead on this mystery person, and whether or not they're a threat he needs to deal with.

His spider sense is itching at the back of his neck - though not in a bad way, he notes. What takes over his attention, however ,is the costume the other person has - that was definitely a spidersuit, though perhaps not as well-made as his (he's not fooling anyone, that dude had a way cooler suit. Definitely looked a lot more professional than the spandex he'd clumsily sewn together in his room. These cosplayers were going to put him out of a job).

"Yeah, you know, stopping crime, cleaning up the neighborhood. Thwip thwip," Peter gestures with his free hand, rolling his wrist to simulate the webs. "It's rude not to wrap a present. Opening it is half the fun."

He seems shifty - Peter may not be able to see the guy's face, but his shoulders are too tense for the relaxed tone he's employing. "Now, this is embarrassing. Which one of us is going to go home and change?"

[webzip]

Spider-sense is still buzzing away even though the guy hasn’t jumped him (yet). If Mysterio’s still around here, you would’ve thought he would’ve jumped the gun and attacked him again by now – the guy had only got more impatient with age and he’d almost feel bad for him if he wasn’t, y’know, still bumming around robbing banks and being a general pain in the ass. This other Spider-Man, though. Different voice, different costume but it looks close, almost like one of his earlier ones. Even says “thwip” right. There’s weird and then there’s weird. Peter’s pretty sure this qualifies as the second one.

“Not me. Still got stuff to do.” Peter’s still on guard. The idea that he could’ve been kicked from his own dimension to a different one seems less plasuible than Mysterio playing the long con. So what’s it this time? Hallucinogens? Simulations? He’d like to think Mysterio’s above the lame “hire someone to fake being Spider-Man” thing which is so cliché. “Don’t suppose you happened to see a dork with a fish bowl on his head? Can’t act his way out of a paper bag?”

If Mysterio’s in the area, he’ll probably be seeing red. Dude’s got a fragile ego like you wouldn’t believe.

The lens of Peter’s mask widen slightly as he fixes his full attention on the...well, the other Spidey. His mask’s HUD isn’t helping much, just highlighting the other guy’s body in neon outlines and offering to zoom as if he doesn’t already have a good look. He’s a little smaller, thinner, but he’s holding himself just like Spider-Man would. And the HUD isn’t picking up any traces of anything psychoactive in the air. So how’s this gonna go? Duke it out? Shake hands and share a stiff drink?

[spideyguy]

"Well that's a real shame, cause I hate to break it to you pal, but I think my stuff ranks as a little more important than your stuff." Peter has none of the same hangups as his doppleganger (it's nicer than calling him fake spidey, so), and he hasn't seen any evidence that this guy is a threat, or anything other than human, really certainly nothing to imply alternate dimensions or Mysterio's trickery.

"Wannabe Doctor Strange is locked up, at the moment." Not to say he wouldn't escape, spectacularly, at some later date (wasn't that always the way? Why couldn't people just stay in jail? Peter drops down from the wall, landing in a crouch on the ground, before straightening slowly. He's close enough now he thinks he could web this guy pretty quickly. "And he's not getting out anytime soon."

Peter sighs, releasing a puff of tension he didn't realize he'd been holding in. Alright, he's annoyed. He can stop being a dick for five seconds, get this kid home, right? The lenses on his mask move in a way that Peter's own does not - then again, he doesn't have an interface in his suit - and Peter's not going to admit that it's cool, he's not. He waves a hand absently in the copycat's general direction. "Alright, enough with the cosplay. Maybe don't go jumping off buildings next time, kid, it's not for everybody. Let me take you home."