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Spider-Man Mayham (AU) Chapter 299: Kraven and Chameleon
🕑 Added 2025-05-10 14:31:20 +0000 UTC[Third Person's PoV]
“I see… I’m starting to understand what you're saying,” Aria murmured thoughtfully as she climbed onto the bed beside Peter, settling next to him with a small sigh. “I’ll say this about Kraven—out of everyone I’ve ever been assigned to observe, he’s by far the most difficult. It’s like he has a sixth sense. He seems to know when someone is watching him. At first, he was able to detect and destroy every spider-bot we deployed. It was uncanny, almost supernatural.”
Peter raised an eyebrow, amused by the look of frustration etched across her face. But that frustration quickly shifted into a small, prideful smirk.
“It took me a while,” she continued, “but I eventually figured out a way to bypass that strange awareness. I’m pretty sure he still suspects that he’s being watched, but now he can’t pinpoint how or when. That’s probably why he’s become more secretive and cautious in his actions lately. He knows someone’s keeping tabs, even if he can’t sense it anymore.”
“Alright,” Peter said, his tone brisk as he folded his arms across his chest, “show me what he’s doing now.”
“Sure thing,” Aria replied with a nod. The purple gem on her forehead flickered with light, glowing softly before projecting a wide, holographic image onto the wall in front of them, casting a cinematic glow across the room.
The feed opened with a view from beneath the hood of a car, where a small, nearly invisible spider-bot was perched, its optical sensors trained directly on Kraven. The man stood by a window inside the vehicle, gazing out at the street below with an expression that teetered between boredom and contemplation.
The silence stretched for a few minutes.
Peter eventually sighed and turned to Aria with a tired expression. “Isn’t there a way to fast-forward this footage? I swear, if I sit here any longer, I’m going to start growing roots.”
Aria blinked at him, looking scandalized. “Fast forward? Father, this is live footage. You can’t fast-forward real time.”
Peter groaned and rubbed his face. “But didn’t you say he was going to meet with Chameleon soon?”
“Yes,” she said, a little exasperated, “in a few minutes. Please try to be patient.”
“Don’t roll your eyes at me, young lady,” Peter teased in mock sternness when she did just that.
Aria didn’t respond with words but gave him a long, judgmental stare before turning her attention back to the wall. “Kraven has reached his destination.”
The holographic projection showed the car coming to a smooth stop. Kraven stepped out, and the spider-bot followed, still hidden, capturing him as he walked across the parking lot and into a nearby building.
Peter let his eyes glaze over for a bit as Kraven took his time maneuvering through the halls. But as soon as he reached the Chameleon’s bedside, Peter’s full attention snapped back to the feed.
“My brother,” Kraven said, his deep Russian accent curling around the words. “Look at the state you’re in… and it hasn’t even been a full week since you arrived in the States.”
His tone carried a twisted sense of concern, almost as if he pitied his brother’s condition. But there was an unmistakable undertone of mockery, a smugness that couldn’t be hidden.
“I’m not in the mood for your shit, Sergei,” Chameleon grumbled, clearly irritated.
Kraven held up his hands, grinning. “Whoa, whoa, such language. Fine, have it your way.”
He dragged a chair closer to the bed, the mood around him shifting. His eyes narrowed, and a dangerous glint flickered within them.
Then, switching to full Russian, Kraven growled, “You knew I had a job planned for you, and you got yourself injured. How reckless can you be?”
“It wasn’t my fault,” the Chameleon hissed back in English.
Kraven leaned in closer, his voice colder now. “Then who? Who put you in this Pitiful state? You better have a damn good explanation, Dmitri. Because you’re only useful for one thing—and if you can’t even do that, you’re worthless to me.”
Chameleon scoffed. “Pitiful? The only thing that isn’t working are my hands. They’ll heal. There’s no need to be dramatic.”
Kraven shook his head slowly. “Any animal with a disability in the wild is better off dead. Yes, your state is pitiful—especially for someone related to me. Now speak, Dmitri.”
“I… I don’t remember,” Dmitri said, glancing away, his voice low with shame.
Peter chuckled under his breath, drawing Aria’s curious gaze.
“There’s a pressure point in acupuncture,” Peter explained, “that, when struck just right, can induce short-term memory loss.”
Aria frowned. “That’s not a real thing.”
“It is,” Peter said confidently, “when you add a little bit of my chi into the mix. It disrupts the brain’s neural pathways. It’s not long-term amnesia, just enough to fog the recent stuff but I could make it long term if I wanted to make him forget entirely who he is.”
He reached over and gently grabbed Aria’s face by the ears, turning her head back so the holographic feed was facing the wall and not his face. “Now hush. We’re watching the show.”
Aria’s face twitched slightly as the scene continued to unfold on the holographic projection. Kraven blinked a few times, his expression unreadable before he echoed in disbelief, “You don’t remember?”
“I don’t,” Chameleon said slowly, brows furrowing. “I just remember deciding to take on a job—something quick for some extra money—while waiting for you to get in touch. I stood up, blinked, and when I opened my eyes… I was here. On this bed. My hands... useless.” His voice was calm but uncertain, his face adopting a contemplative look as he tried to piece it together.
Kraven narrowed his eyes, suspicion tightening the lines on his face. He rested a heavy hand on Chameleon’s chest as if trying to gauge something unspoken.
Watching intently, Peter turned toward Aria, his tone serious. “Do everything you can to make sure Kraven doesn’t trace this back to us—especially not Parker Industries. I don’t care what you have to alter or scrub. Just make sure there’s no trail.”
Aria’s brow creased, and she crossed her arms. “That’s not going to be easy. Nearly impossible, in fact. The Chameleon was picked up at Parker Industries. There’s already a breadcrumb trail. Kraven’s not an idiot—he’ll connect the dots eventually.”
Peter sighed, rubbing his face. “Great. Just what I need: Kraven becoming a Peter Parker villain instead of a Spider-Man one.”
On the screen, Kraven was shaking his head slowly. Without warning, he reached to his side and pulled a long, gleaming silver blade from its sheath. His movements were fluid, practiced. With one hand, he gripped Chameleon’s jaw tightly, holding his head still. The blade hovered at his brother’s throat.
“Do you take me for a fool?” Kraven hissed. “You forgot? How does someone just forget how they got their hands nearly burnt off and with a hole in them? I’ve seen your medical reports. Not a single head injury. Not a bruise on your skull. No concussion. So what happened, Dmitri? What are you hiding?”
In the corner of the room, Peter dropped to his knees with exaggerated flair, raising his hands to the sky like a worshipper. “Hallelujah! Thank the Great Weaver!!” he shouted, grinning like a lunatic.
Aria covered her mouth, barely stifling her giggles as Peter spun dramatically on the floor in triumph.
On screen, Kraven’s demeanor shifted. He withdrew the blade and reclined back into the visitor’s chair beside the hospital bed, tapping the knife absently against the metal armrest.
“Fine. Keep your secrets,” he muttered coldly. “I don’t care what you’re hiding. What I need to know is how long until you’re back on your feet and useful to me again.”
Chameleon let out a dry cough, glaring up at him. “A month? Maybe two. Depends on how fast my hands heal.”
Kraven scowled. “That’s too long.”
He suddenly stopped tapping. His head jerked around—fast, alert, like a predator who just caught scent of prey. Peter instinctively flinched. In one swift motion, Kraven flung the knife across the room.
The screen erupted in static.
“Damn it!” Aria shouted, stomping her foot like a child who just lost at a game. “That’s the fifty-third spiderbot he’s destroyed since I started spying on him!”
Peter raised an eyebrow. “I thought you said you found a way around that?”
“I did!” Aria snapped, arms crossed. “I masked the surveillance. He shouldn’t be able to feel anything watching him.”
Peter tilted his head. “Maybe it wasn’t the tech. Maybe it was us, especially me. I was staring pretty hard since you said you masked the surveillance.”
She shot him a contemplative look, but Peter muttered under his breath with grudging admiration, “Still… to feel a gaze through a screen... That’s actually impressive as hell.”
Aria pushed her hair behind her ear and turned serious. “Forget that for now. I think I know who Kraven wanted Chameleon to impersonate.”
Peter looked over. “Who?”
“You of course, who else,” Aria said simply, tapping her chin. “Based on his behavior, past discussion, and his interest in psychological warfare, my simulation shows a high probability that he intended to use Chameleon to tarnish your identity.”
Peter blinked. “Tarnish me? Well I'll tell him good luck”
“It’s not just about killing you—it’s about breaking you,” Aria explained. “Kraven is a hunter. He doesn’t go for the easy kill. The best way to take down a target like you is through isolation. Discredit you. Make you a pariah. Turn the people you protect against you. That way, when he finally hunts you down, you’ll have nothing left to defend.”
Peter sighed. “You know if I wasn't so paranoid and kept an eye on everything I couldn't ever possibly imagine the kinds of things people like him would do.”
“You underestimated him before,” he said. “Now you have a simulation?”
“I didn’t have it earlier,” Aria said quickly. “I generated it just now while the footage was playing. I became curious after you said Kraven was dangerous. And after running several predictive models, I’m inclined to agree. Each scenario is more dangerous than the last.”
(A/N: If I could do it just right, then tomorrow's chapter 300 will be about Tony’s withdrawing from the weapon manufacturing business which would be the perfect way to end the volume I believe)
Comments
Zachary Munson
Thanks for the chapter
Bryan Vargas
I don't know why tf I said tomorrow, think as if tomorrow is a synonym for the Next chapter of the fic
KingSpy25i .
Great chapter like always, but what do you mean tomorrow is another Spider-Man? I thought it only came out every 2 days? And if you do post it tomorrow, are you saying you're gonna disrupt the schedule and move another novel from tomorrow to the day after?
