"New York City has been cut off from the rest of the country, food and supplies coming into the city are scarce. The governor has said that he will petition for aid but after the crime wave that has hit the city over the past six weeks, and the disappearance of several heroes, it's not looking favorable. The Hobgoblin has left his mark, a cult leader who turned out to be former fashion designer Roderick Kingsley."
Footage of Kingsley, standing on the catwalk with some models, looking fresh faced and happy. These happy images slowly dissolved into the sadistic Hobgoblin taking down several people who got in his way.
"What causes such a man to twist? Was he always like this or did he snap? Doctor Barton Hamilton, the Chief Psychiatrist of Ravencroft Asylum for the Mentally Disabled had this to say."
"It is my belief that Roderick Kingsley wasn't mentally incapable of his own actions per say," Hamilton commented, as he folded his hands over. "That being said, he had a series of unfortunate incidents that centered around one person and one person alone. Spider-Man was the center of several of his misfortunes and he was the center of what caused his downfall as the Hobgoblin."
The image of Spider-Man appeared across the screen.
"Spider-Man has been declared as a threat or a menace by some but one thing that he has been declared of is MIA. It has been six weeks since he had been seen, six weeks since the web slinger had been seen by anyone in New York. And people are wondering if he met the same fiery end as Roderick Kingsley. Remains have been found a short way from the final confrontation between Spider-Man and the Hobgoblin, and have been identified as Kingsley's, despite the alteration of the Goblin DNA."
The newscaster continued.
"Of course, Spider-Man's DNA would be a tricky one to pin down, as no one has any idea of who this so called hero is underneath his mask. There have been varying reports if he is even a human underneath that mask. Some suspect an alien, others suspect some kind of super soldier from the government, other suspect that he could be a collective effort by a group to hide some secret conspiracy."
The entire world of New York muttered, wondering about Spider-Man, wondering if he every truly existed, or if he was who they thought he was.
"Some refuse to give up hope that Spider-Man is truly gone but Shocker's latest crime wave, Rhino's rampage, and Mysterio's latest masterful scheme have gone unchecked by Spider-Man, and it doesn't look like he's going to answer them any time soon."
There was images of those criminals, along with several more like Scorpion and the Enforcers who continued to attack.
"Of course, one could also wonder where other heroes are in this."
Images of the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and various other names throughout New York are shown.
"This isn't a dibs system where heroes only handle their villains and their villains alone," a shadowed figure said in a garbled voice. "But the heroes don't want to get off their asses and prevent the Rhino from wrecking the lobby of a school just because he's in a pissy mood."
The capabilities of the heroes was called more into question. There was a figure standing in the shadows, watching it. A wide grin was on his face.
"So, you need a hero do you? Are you holding out for a hero for the rest of the night? Someone who's got to be strong, got to be fast, got to be larger than life?"
"When pressed for further comment, Congress refused to acknowledge anything is wrong. Nor did they say what they are going to do, as New York is a riot scene by night and not much better for the day."
The figure in the shadows whispered.
"Oh you need a hero, now Parker has decided to bite the big one, do you? Well today is your lucky today, because we are better than what he used to be."
The one and only Venom appeared from the shadows, his teeth bared, along with his long slimy tongue flailing in his mouth.
"We're here!" Venom growled, his teeth as he jumped onto the top of the car, which several carjackers were trying to break into. "You boys are out a bit past curfew, aren't you?"
The thugs tried to go against Venom.
"We're not your Daddy's hero, punks," Venom growled, as he disarmed them with his tendrils, and took them down.
Eddie Brock broke out and reclaimed his precious other in the confusion of the Hobgoblin's attack but he had been waiting for this moment. The symbiote fed into his desire to show up Parker, to show up Spider-Man in the worst way.
"Mmm, tasty."
"For the past few weeks, we've deliberated on a matter, and despite pressure from the News Media and pressure from the voters, we couldn't rush to such a decision," one of the Congressmen said as he stood and had the floor. "The heroes that we've relied to, have forsaken us, many of them have disappeared. The Avengers are MIA, the Fantastic Four are lost, and Spider-Man…..well we believe that his remains may have been lost at sea by now, just like those of the Hobgoblin that we found."
There was a tittering sound as the members of the press walked around, ready to get some quotes. There could be those types of sound bites that could make or break the career of any politician. It could bury him six feet under or rise him to the top.
That said, he was going to have to say something and soon, otherwise they were going to make the assumption.
"It is with a heavy heart that we seal New York City up….if people haven't escaped the city by now, then they have missed their chance," the Congressman said, looking like some bile was forming in his throat. There were some whispers, about whether or not this would be a good idea.
"You're just going to leave New York City to rot on the vine….."
"It wasn't an option that we took lightly," the Congressman said, looking offended.
"Let's face it, it is the center of all our problems," Senator Kelly commented, never one to let his opinion go unspoken. All eyes were on the controversial Senator. "A lot of the issues with the mutant problem have come out of New York."
"But isn't it true that mutant activity has gone down within the past few months."
"It isn't a sufficient amount of data to indicate that they are," Kelly commented. "And how do we know that Roderick Kingsley wasn't an unfortunate pawn from mutants? They have done a lot more in their attempts to try and crush everyone underneath their heels."
There was some whispers and everyone looked around fearfully.
"Regardless of whether mutants were behind this or not, we can all realize one thing," one of the Senators commented and everything turned back around. "That is that New York is no longer safe and if the criminal element can be isolated, we can….."
"Do you really think that it will solve that?"
Everything was divided, and this wasn't necessarily a meeting of Congress or the Senate, but rather a huge press rally to try and justify what they're going to do.
"What would you rather have us do? Have it spill out elsewhere? If the heroes had cleaned up the mess that they caused, none of this would have happened. I also propose to add onto the Mutant Registration Act, and add another clause where anyone who wears a costume has to register their identities to the government, where it will be public record."
That got toxic heat from everyone involved. No one wanted that, but there were a few people who did want that. How much did some people really want that? Well there was a lot of controversy being stirred up and everyone who was anyone knew that controversy created cash and all that rot. Never the less, they stood in a house divided.
"We can debate about the vigilantes all day until we're blue in the face but that's not what we came here for."
"Actually they were an unintended consequence of this entire mess."
They could agree that something needed to be done but past that, none of them could agree on what they wanted for lunch. That was typical politicians in a nutshell. The squabbling continued with the members of the press throwing questions.
Naturally they would justify it, they always justified.
Gwen Stacy only half paid attention to the goings on in Congress. They were doing something that would end up screwing a lot of people over. In other news, that was pretty much business as usual for them. Gwen was not going to stress over that, at least not too much. She had other fish to fry, some big fish.
The big fish was Peter, because she was certain that he wasn't dead. In fact, there had been a number of strange sightings around the town to point to where he wasn't dead.
The crime had increased in New York, but it had been a series of unfortunate events. The X-Men gone, the Avengers gone, and the Fantastic Four god knows where. There were some people who fought street level crime like Daredevil and Luke Cage still taking the fight to those who committed crimes, but Gwen sensed that they were overwhelmed.
The Iron Spider suit laid in the closet, Gwen didn't have the ambition to put it on. Maybe one could call her a bit of a coward for not suiting up in the aftermath when the city needed her. But her focus had been solely on finding Spider-Man.
New York was being sealed off from the rest of the world, Gwen snorted. Yeah, enforcing that one might be a little bit more difficult to be honest. The blonde thought that someone was stirring up Congress to do something stupid, the question was not only who, but the question was why.
Why indeed?
Gwen heard her cell phone ring, which brought her out of her stupor. It was Mary Jane, she and Gwen had been keeping in contact regularly. They also took turns checking in on Aunt May, who was taking the news that her nephew might be dead about as well as one could expect, that being not well at all.
"Hi, Mary Jane," Gwen said in a tired voice. She sounded a bit out of it.
"Gwen, when's the last time you slept?" Mary Jane asked, concern dripping from her voice.
Gwen stopped and frowned. "Honestly, I have no idea."
"Well you should try and take care of yourself, alright," Mary Jane said and Gwen sighed.
"Yes, mother," Gwen grumbled, but she hated being in a short mood.
Mary Jane just brushed that one off rather easily. "Well in between the Sandman terrorizing things here…..I saw something interesting."
"You know, instead of waiting for someone to do their job for them, Congress should get off their lazy asses and actually do something productive for a change," Gwen said, practically fuming at that.
"Calm down, Gwen, I agree with you," Mary Jane said in a pacifying voice. "But…..Sandman, Rhino, and Scorpion all on one trip downtown….."
"You really should have gotten out of town when you had the chance," Gwen said, her voice dripping with worry.
"You know me, I don't run anymore," Mary Jane said and Gwen sighed. "But you're not letting me get to the big thing that I saw down here."
"Bigger than those three?"
Gwen turned to the television screen and saw a late breaking news bulletin, a bunch of rioters running in terror. Then it was Venom jumping on the back of a car, taking them down. Gwen's mouth continued to hang open as she watched what was happening.
"Well if you're talking about what I think that you're talking about, then that's way bigger then those three," Gwen whispered, her eyes widening like saucers as she followed the progress of what was on the screen.
"Venom?"
"Yes, that's who I see," Gwen said, she remembered what havoc the symbiote caused the last time around. The real question was how did he get the symbiote back after this.
"You're not thinking about going out there, and dealing with this, are you?" Mary Jane asked Gwen.
Gwen didn't miss a beat, as she moved to the closet, where the Iron Spider armor was collecting dust. "I don't really have any choice but to go out there."
"You know after all of these months….."
"Peter is still out there, but we got a bigger problem," Gwen said, as she bit down on her lip and suited up. "Let me know if you see him but don't approach him."
"Yeah because I'm going to approach the big scary thing with all of the teeth," Mary Jane said, trying to lighten the mood a little bit.
"I was being serious," Gwen said in exasperation.
"I know, don't worry."
The problem was that Gwen did worry.
The thugs ran away as fast of their legs could carry them. One of them was out of breath, pretty much out of shape.
"How did that guy….I miss Spider-Man," one of the thugs said. "At least he was good for some witty banter."
"Ah what's the matter, did you soil your shorts?"
Venom dropped down with a loud thump and caused the gang bangers to scream like little girls. One of them tried to pull a gun of Venom but it was disarmed.
"Yeah, we both know that isn't going to work," Venom said, baring his teeth at them and the gang banger stepped back.
"Step back….step back you freak…"
Venom's tendrils shot out and disarmed them, quite painfully. And in a couple of cases, quite lethally.
"SAY IT!" Venom yelled as he knocked one of the men down and mounted him from behind, grinding his face into the concrete. His tentacles wrapped around his body. "Say that we're better than the web head. Say it, say it!"
"No, forgetting….freak!" the gangster screamed, he could feel the tendrils go around his body.
"We're very displeased that you don't play our game," Venom whispered, hurling the thug into the dumpster. The dumpster was closed so he didn't land in the garbage.
One of the gang members tried to nail Venom from behind with a board but it broke over the back of his head. Venom turned around, his teeth bared for the thug.
"You made a bad move!" Venom growled, grabbing the thug by the throat and shoving him hard into the wall.
The thug's skull cracked against the wall.
There was a figure watching the shadows, carefully, quietly, calmly, just trying to scope out the situation. More of the thugs tried to go after Venom.
Fight or flight, intelligence would point to flight. However, intelligence was rarely something that happened with these types of goons. So fight it was, and it was a fight that ended rather badly for them.
"You know, you could have stayed home tonight, and not pissed us off," Venom growled and Brock and the symbiote worked in harmony with each other.
His escape was something that lead him there. Venom grabbed his fist and swung into the air.
There was another crime there and he could hear him there. The Scorpion, someone who Parker had been given trouble.
The Scorpion dropped down onto the ground and he swung his tail at the officers. They were a special crimes unit but they were not equipped to deal with the Scorpion.
"Back," The Scorpion hissed, holding up the bag that he took. The Sandman already picked this place over trying to get his big score but he scrouged the scraps.
Scorpion shot acid from his tail, burning the feet of the officers that stood on the ground. There was a loud scream of agony. Then his tail snapped around and caught them in the chest.
Venom watched them, with a wicked smile. He grabbed the Scorpion's tail and whipped it back, causing him to groan in absolute agony.
"What's your problem?" The Scorpion hissed.
"My problem is trash like you interfering with me…."
"You lost to Spider-Man, and he barely held his own against me," The Scorpion growled and Venom nailed Scorpion, slamming him hard against the wall.
"You think that he beat me easily, he got lucky!" Venom growled and he slammed the Scorpion hard into the grin, trying to rip his tail off.
"What are you doing….."
"Putting you in your place, just like I put them in their place…"
Shocker came out and took Venom out with one of his gauntlets. The criminal looked pleased that he actually got a shot.
Right before Venom hurled him halfway across the alleyway onto overturned garbage cans.
Gwen sighed, she was getting very close, closer than she wanted to really. The blonde dropped down, looking over her shoulder. Something was happening, she could feel it. Dropping down to the ground, she sighed, landing hard onto the ground.
Venom had to be around here close and seeing the battered broken thugs on the ground, Gwen felt like that was something that screamed out towards her.
'Damn it,' Gwen thought to herself, walking forward as she looked her shoulder, walking closer to the scene of the crime.
The blonde clutched her hands together and could feel something in the distance. She had nothing close to Peter's spider sense, but she had a sense that dangers was on its way. Exactly what that danger would be, she had no idea.
'Okay Gwen, easy does it, don't lose your shit,' she thought to herself, looking over her shoulder. The blonde picked up the battered thug.
"Oh come on, another one, how many spiders can this city hold," the thug whimpered, shaking underneath Gwen's grip.
"Just answer the question, and I'll let you go free," Gwen said and the thug looked at her.
"Free….out there….you must be nuts," the thug whimpered as Gwen held him in her grip. "I mean….seriously, completely nuts, if you think that I'm going out there."
"What are you babbling about?" Gwen asked him and the thug shook his head up and down, resembling a very ugly looking bobble-head.
"It's not just Venom, there was another, I saw him….I saw him….he's like Spider-Man, only darker, like something a 1990s comic book puked out," the thug whispered and the Iron Spider looked at him. "He dragged two of my buddies, I broke my ankle getting away, you've got to hide me."
"Where's Venom?" Gwen asked.
"Didn't you hear anything what I said….."
"I asked about Venom, I'll worry about the other one later," Gwen said, she looked a fair bit agitated at the situation.
"Okay….okay…fine did I catch you a bad time of the m….ARGH!"
His arm snapped as Gwen looked angrily. The Iron Spider armor could really break some arms. Plus Gwen felt the need to work out.
"Point me to him, or I'll throw you out there where he can find you, "Gwen said as she strung him upside down. "You do look good for some live bait."
"I'm not!" the thug squealed, sounding like a pig trapped underneath a gate. "Venom, I heard that he was fighting the Scorpion…..Scorpion's been picking up the scraps."
Gwen closed her eyes, things had gone from bad to worst. It was not just Venom but two of Peter's worst enemies duking it out.
She didn't know how many innocent people who were left in the city but she had to go there.
"Where were they last seen?"
The babbling thug, when presented with some rather painful alternatives, was only too happy to spill the beans. "Um….nearby, I swear….close, close….yeah it was pretty close."
"How close?" Gwen asked and then she suddenly heard a scream as the sounds of combat continued.
"Does that answer your question?"
Gwen rendered speechless and she took a step forward, but her cell phone rang. The blonde skidded to a stop.
"Mary Jane, no offense, but now's not really the best time," Gwen said, and she could see Venom slip into the night.
Knowing Venom, he could have been right behind her and that thought, well honestly that gave Gwen the creepy crawlies underneath her skin.
"Yeah, I know it's not the best time, but I think that Peter's been sighted," Mary Jane said and Gwen hesitated.
Venom wasn't around anywhere, whether he would be on top or otherwise. She had the sonic weapon fired up.
Gwen was really torn, she wondered how Peter dealt with situations like this.
"Or rather someone who might resemble him…..he certainly got some web slinging action," Mary Jane said and Gwen decided to make a snap decision.
She could find Venom later, but if Peter was out there, even if there was the slightest chance, she had to take it.
A pair of eyes watched Gwen from the alleyway, as Mary Jane gave her coordinates.
The game was afoot.
To Be Continued.