//------------------------------//
// The Spider 
// Story: Along Came A Spider 
// by Onomonopia 
//------------------------------//

With Coco out of the way for the time being, Spiderman turned his full focus upon the behemoth that was shooting balls of fire at him. He touched down on the side of a skyscraper before racing up the side of it, barely dodging the blasts of fire that the abomination shot towards him.

'The creature is powerful. That appears to be all that it has going for it,' Spiderman thought as he kicked off the side of the skyscraper and sailed under a fireball, angling himself perfectly so that he landed on the reptile head of the abomination. He then took aim at the creatures eyes with his webshooters, but when he went to fire he remembered that he no longer had fingers.

"Damn my luck!" Otto roared as his spider sense flaired once more and he hurled himself out of the way of five fingers that swatted the spot where he had been standing a moment before. Spiderman landed on the other head, smirking beneath his mask as the reptile head roared in pain as it struck itself in the face. 'Clearly it has no brains between the two heads. That should make this rather easy.'

The spider sense roared once more and Spiderman hurled himself into the air, watching as the pincer narrowly missed him. But instead of striking the face of the lion head, the pincer raced after the stallion in the spider suit. Reflex kicked in and Spiderman twisted around the pincer, which sliced the air where he had been moments before.

But in dodging the pincer, Otto realized with cold dread that he had put himself into free fall. He glanced down to see that there was nothing for him to grab onto and that while a fall from the height he was at may not kill him, but it would hurt considerably. His last chance was the webshooters, but when he aimed them towards the nearest building he found that they wouldn't fire.

"Damn these inventions, how am I supposed to use them if I don't have fingers?!" he roared to the heavens as the cement got closer and closer.

'Use the force-I mean your mind! You're always bragging about how great it is.'

Spiderman didn't know who had spoken to him, but he forced himself to concentrate on firing the webshooters with his mind instead of his fingers. A moment later a thick strand of webbing shot forth and stuck to the side of a skyscraper, just in time for Spiderman to turn his fall into a swing. He narrowly missed cement, but a moment later he turned the speed he gained from the fall into momentum. The speed allowed him to swing practically back up to where he had fallen from, expect this time there was a devious smirk underneath of the mask.

"Come you abomination, let us see how well you fair against me when I have no restrictions!" Spiderman roared as he mentally switched to impact webbing and fired the small bursts of webbing around the reptiles eyes. The creature reeled back as a roar of pain escaped its mouth, but it had hardly begun to suffer before Spiderman set his sights on the other head.

Contrary to what he had previously thought, Otto saw that the lion head was now shielding its eyes with its pincer, preventing Otto from getting a clear shot. 'A feeble attempt by an equally feeble mind. I have already thought up hundreds of ways to bring you down!' Otto roared in his mind as he spun in the air and took aim at the skyscraper above the monsters heads.

A strand of webbing stuck to the wall and Spiderman yanked at it with all of his superior might, tearing a chunk right out of the building. He smiled beneath the mask as the falling piece of debris followed the arch he had predicted, so when it shattered against the top of the lions skull moments later he was already putting the next stage of his plan into action.

'I should stick to the buildings. With them I will be able to maneuver as I see fit around it,' Spiderman thought as he aimed a webshooter deeper into the city. The webbing grabbed hold and he swung to the next building, glancing behind him to see that the monster was now following him. 'That's right, you intellectual failure. Play right into my hands...hooves.'

As he swung around the corner of a building he began to put the next stage of his plan into action. He spied a choke point up ahead where the buildings were built close together, swinging between them before creating a large web for him to rest upon. He turned to see the abomination race between the buildings to get to him, only to get caught between the twin structures. 

"Please, at least try to challenge me in some regard," Spiderman scorned the creature before unloading his impact webbing into the lions eyes. With both of their sets of eyes taken out and their arms pinned to their sides by the buildings, Spiderman began to formulate a plan on how to take the monster down for good.

A glance to his left revealed a radio antenna resting atop a building. A glance above him showed numerous pegasi flying next to dozens of thunderclouds, which flashed with the lightning they held within. Spiderman smiled once more before he took aim at where the antenna was.

Yet before he could fire the abomination roared with fury before two spiked wings erupted from its back. Spiderman watched on in horror as the wings punched through the buildings that had contained it, freeing the creature as debris rained from the sky upon the ponies below. With its arms free it tore at the webbing that had previously blinded it, allowing it to gaze at Spiderman with all of its hate.

Spiderman was stunned for only a second before he fired his webbing at the antenna and swung over to it, landing at the base of the massive, metal structure. He fastened his hooves to it with his ability to stick and began to lift, straining with every ounce of his spider strength. He could hear the metal begin to groan as screws exploded out of their holes and tore by his head. With one last effort he tore the antenna free of its base and held it over his head.

Spiderman turned and took aim at the creature, who was charging towards him with a roar of rage burning in its throat. Otto took perfect aim before letting the tower fly towards the monster. He shot it multiple times with his webbing so that when it struck the abomination, it stuck to the creatures face and fur. The abomination roared with fury as it started to tear at the tower, giving Spiderman a chance to yell at the pegasi,

"Unleash every last ounce of lightning that you have within those clouds or I'll feed you to the monster myself!" Not wanting to test the patience of a psycho in spandex, the pegasi all began to kick the clouds with as much power as they could. Spiderman smiled under the mask and dozens of lightning bolts erupted from the clouds and, thanks to the antenna that was now stuck to it, all traveled down towards the same target.

The abomination roared in fury and pain as a storms worth of lightning struck the abomination all at once, sending electricity coursing through its entire body. As the storm came to an end it let out one last roar of fury...before it came crashing down into the streets. The entire city shook beneath the impact of the creature, but the only thought that was going through Spiderman's mind was that he had won.

'Not that my victory was ever in question,' he bragged within the confines of his mind as he swung down to where the abomination lay, landing in the road in front of its two heads. Spiderman walked up to the heads and kicked it once, smirking when all it did was let out a weak groan. 

"And that's what happens when you fight someone who is superior to you," Spiderman smirked as he turned around...to see that hundreds of ponies who were in the streets were staring at the stallion in the red and black tights. They said nothing, being far too shocked by what they had seen, and Spiderman remained silent as well, having nothing to say. Then, to Spiderman's surprise and the surprise of the hundreds of ponies in the streets, the monster began to fade away into dust. Hundreds of eyes watched as the abomination was simply blown away by a gust of wind and vanished as if it was never there.

A smirk crossed Spidermans face when a report and her camera pony pushed their way through the crowd and ran up to Spiderman, sticking a microphone in his face as the reached him. "Bubble Burster of the news. Sir, you've just taken down one of the abominations that have been plaguing out land for months now. Who are you, how did you do it and how do you feel about it?"

Spiderman smiled beneath the mask, preparing to tell all of them about his greatness. Then the memories flashed across his mind once more. Memories of a burning city, of an old foe whom died in his arms after thanking him...and how he would have failed to save even a single girl had his most hated enemy not interfered. And he remembered who he was and that he had no right to be proud.

"Who I am or how I feel is of no importance. All that matters is that you are all safe," Spiderman said in a quiet tone as he took aim at a building with his webshooter.

"Sir, next question. Why do you look like you're covered in spiderwebs and have a spider on your chest? Are you actually descended from a race of spiders?" Bubble Burster asked as she pushed the microphone even closer. "Is that how you got your powers and became the hero you are?"

"No, I am not any of those things. Especially the last one," he replied in a near whisper. He then fired a strand of webbing at the building and prepared to swing away.

"Wait, one last question!" Bubble screamed as she practically hurled herself onto Spiderman to keep him from getting away. "With your strength, speed and ability to shoot web, you've shown that you're far superior to any force that Celestia has sent to stop these things. Please, can you tell us who you are?"

For a moment Spiderman considered saying no, considered simply swinging away and not giving them a response. But as he gazed across the crowd from behind his masked eyes, he knew that they had to know who he was. And how weak he actually was.

"I am a failure. Nothing more and nothing less."

Without waiting for the next question Spiderman swung away, ignoring the clicking of the cameras or the few ponies that even chose to clap for him. He knew that he didn't deserve it. He didn't deserve any of this. He shook his head free of those thoughts and figured it didn't matter what they thought of him.

'Because this is a one time thing,' he promised. 'I failed before as a hero...as Spiderman. I do not have the right to try again. After today I shall burn this suit and never dare tease the thought of myself as a hero. I do not have that right.'

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// ; ; \\

"E-excuse me, I'm looking for a friend of mine!" Coco said as she stood in front of a pony. "He has a strange cutie mark and talks like he knows better than anypony else! Have you seen him?!"

"Get lost lady, I'm trying to get a look at the hero!" the pony replied as he moved past her, leaving the practically frantic Coco to race to the next pony and ask the same question. She raced from pony and pony, asking the same question and receiving the same answer each time. She was about to start screaming out his name at the top of her lungs when Otto appeared at her side.

"Cease your yelling, Coco, I am fine," he said, his words causing Coco to spin around. "Although I would not exactly call us friends...nor do I warrant this kind of-" Otto didn't have the chance to finish before Coco tackled him and pulled him in close, hugging him tightly. Otto raised an eyebrow before he pushed the mare off of him, surprised that she seemed so relieved to see him.

"I do not know why you reacted like that. You hardly know me, yet you look as if you have found your closest ally," Otto said in a quiet and reserved tone.

"W-what are you talking about?" Coco asked as she wiped tears out of her eyes before letting out a sigh of relief. "Is it so wrong of me to be happy that a pony I know is safe?"

"It is when it's me," Otto muttered under his breath, so Coco couldn't hear. The two then began to look around as emergence personal and ponies in golden armor began to arrive on the scene, both groups helping to clean up the mess that the abomination had caused.

"Come on, it's getting too noisy here," Coco said in a slightly choked voice as she motioned her head towards her studio. "Lets head on back and I'll whip up some tea for us? Sound good?" She waited a moment for a response, but to her confusion all Otto was doing was staring into a window. "Um, Otto?"

"Yes, that sounds just fine," he replied in a tired voice, turning to look at her with a weary smile. "How about you head on back first? I'm going to take a walk to...clear my head." Coco nodded with a smile before she started to walk away, leaving Otto all alone a moment later. Once she was gone he let out a sigh as his face hardened.

"I am in an entirely different reality. I have died and yet been restored to life. There is no way that I know of to return to my old world," Otto said to himself with underlining bits of hatred in his words, before he turned his gaze back to the window and glared at it, and the person, within it. 

"So why do you still pester me? Why do I still see you at every turn? When will you finally let me be?!" Otto asked the brown haired human that stared back at him from the reflection with a look of disgust and pity upon his face. A face that Otto hated more than almost any other. "Answer me, Parker!"