He heard a whirring sound and jumped instinctively sideways as a vehicle sailed through the space he had occupied and detonated against a wall.
"Damn, that was close," he said, quietly thanking his spider-sense.
Abomination was looking at him with an expression that contained something like surprise and dismissed it quickly, cracking his knuckles and smiling in a way that had nothing pleasant in it.
Spider-Man dropped into something close to a Wolverine crouch.
Abomination began at a trot and accelerated.
When he was close enough, Spider-Man shot webs over his eyes.
Blinded for a few seconds. He ran in, pulled his arm back, and with everything the serum and the spider bite had given him, hit Abomination in the stomach.
Abomination buckled.
Spider-Man hit him in the face.
Abomination turned and staggered.
He raised a hand to pull the webbing from his eyes and spat a significant quantity of blood and several teeth.
"Good shot, insect," Abomination said, tilting his head down to look at him. "Now it is my turn."
The punch that followed never arrived because a larger hand stopped it, and then Hulk lifted Abomination and slammed him into the ground several times before throwing him into a wall.
Abomination got up furious and charged.
A fight broke out that Abomination was winning until Hulk headbutted him with a crack audible at distance.
Abomination grabbed his nose in pain and Hulk resumed.
In a careless moment Abomination landed a hit, then was thrown back.
The building behind Hulk, which had been holding on by commitment more than structural integrity, finally gave way and collapsed on him.
Abomination circled the rubble waiting.
Spider-Man ran at him, jumped, threw a punch, and Abomination caught it and began slamming him into the ground.
He shot webs into his eyes mid-slam.
Abomination stopped.
Spider-Man broke free, got up, pressed both palms against Abomination's ears simultaneously and hit them as hard as he could.
"AHHH! You damned insect!" Abomination grabbed him and threw him into a wall. As he flew he noticed green blood coming from Abomination's ears.
He hit the wall, dropped, and used the brief moment while he was down to think.
'Wait,' he thought. 'You are still just bones, organs, and muscles.'
He looked at Abomination, who was grinning at him from across the debris field. 'I cannot simply beat him unconscious. Not yet. I need something. He was a human.
Humans breathe. Even Abomination breathes.'
"You throw good punches," Abomination said. "Not as hard as Hulk. If you give up now, I might not kill you as painfully."
"Sorry, Wazowski on steroids," Spider-Man said, standing up. "But I can do this all day."
The pile of rocks to his left exploded outward and Hulk appeared, extremely angry.
"GROAAAAAAAARG!!!"
"Hey, big guy."
He made sure Hulk could see him clearly. "I know how to beat him. But we have to fight together. While we are hitting him, you have to find an opening to pin him down for a few seconds. That ends it."
He looked at the green face. "What do you say? You want to fight with this spider?"
Hulk looked at him.
Then looked ahead. He pounded his chest and ran toward Abomination.
Spider-Man ran alongside him.
The fight that followed was coordinated in the way that two very different people find an unexpected rhythm when they have a shared objective.
When Hulk took hits, Spider-Man was hitting Abomination from another angle.
When Abomination tried to focus on Spider-Man, Hulk was hitting him from behind.
Of the two of them, Hulk absorbed more punishment, but Spider-Man collected enough cuts from the bone protrusions on Abomination's body that his spider-sense was in continuous alarm mode, which made his head throb and his concentration difficult, which was why he did not avoid everything.
Finally, Hulk managed to lock Abomination in a bear hug.
"Right there, big guy!" Spider-Man shot webs into both nostrils. Abomination's eyes went wide.
He understood what was happening and began to move with real desperation, trying to free his arms.
Hulk held. Spider-Man sealed Abomination's mouth with a full web layer and began hitting his face with everything he had.
"Go to sleep! Go to sleep! Go to sleep!" he said, repeatedly, until Abomination stopped moving.
Hulk released him and stomped on his chest once, hard, before growling.
Spider-Man jumped off Hulk's shoulders and stood still for a moment, breathing.
The police had gathered and were pointing weapons at the unconscious Abomination.
Hulk looked at the officers, then at Spider-Man, growled, and roared, which moved everyone backward except Spider-Man and Betty, who was approaching Hulk from the side.
"Bruce," she whispered, tears running.
Hulk looked at her and tried to wipe them away and found he could not manage it gently enough.
He made a sound of frustration and then a spotlight found them from a helicopter circling overhead.
Hulk growled, leaped, and was gone into the dark. The helicopter followed and could not keep up.
When Hulk was gone, everyone's attention turned to Spider-Man.
"What is your name, son?" said a man in uniform who had the specific bearing of someone who had been giving orders for a very long time. "I am General Thaddeus Ross."
"I am Spider-Man.," he said.
"What kind of name is that?"
"The kind that defines who I am," he said, hands clasped behind his back.
"Okay. I understand this is an unusual situation, but I need you to come with us so we can determine who you are and how you obtained this level of capability without ending up like those two."
Spider-Man was quiet for a few seconds and looked around at the situation.
Then he moved his hand quickly and threw something at the ground. A cloud of smoke expanded through the area. He was gone before it cleared.
"Cough, cough, cough, motherfucker.," Ross said to the smoke.
By the time Ross organized a search, Spider-Man was already a significant distance away, approaching the building where he had hidden Banner's blood.
He collected the materials, confirmed everything was intact, and headed toward Baxter.
....
He entered his lab through a window and needed the wall and several pieces of furniture to make it to a chair.
The pain was manageable now but the adrenaline was wearing off steadily and everything it had been covering was becoming audible.
He took off his mask and sat.
"Cortana!"
"I know, Peter. I am bringing you the serum now."
The arms extended and delivered a green injection. He took it and administered it near his left lung.
"I recommend you call May and tell her you are staying here tonight."
"Thank you, beautiful. You are the best."
"By the way. Congratulations. You survived. And you kept your word."
"Hmph." He nodded. "I always try to."
He called May and gave her an explanation that was believable in the specific way of explanations that have been practiced, then noted that tomorrow was Saturday and he could sleep in, which helped.
He undressed, put the suit away, lay down on the sofa bed he had moved into the lab several days ago precisely because nights like this one existed, and put his head on the pillow.
The world of dreams arrived before he had finished deciding to go there.