Spider-Bear
By: Anthony James Velez
Episode Two: The Greatest Show
It was an ordinary day in the city of New Bark. Spider-Bear was making his rounds throughout the city. The stone would have to wait until he got any clues as to where it could've gone and to whom it had been sent. For now, the cops were going to have to handle this on their own. He did have the responsibility of stopping criminals.
Until then, he would have to bide his time with his current job in life. It wasn't paying or safe, but it was something he took pride in. He never would've taken without that spider bite or anything like it. Now that he had, however, with great power came great responsibility. During his trip around the wooden city, he heard a commotion under him.
When he looked down, he saw a white aging dove running with a small sack holding what appeared to be something heavy inside of it. Behind him, a female mongoose was running, yelling something he couldn't hear from how high he was. He could add two and two together, though, and could see that the rabbit was a thief. He briefly considered allowing the authorities handle it; he had bigger fish to fry than some random robber stealing from a grocery store (at least he thought it was a grocery store). However, he shook his clear of that idea; when you're a superhero, no citizen was insignificant.
Spider-Bear let himself drop a fair distance before web swinging again and then dropping completely to the ground.
"I've got this, lady, wait at the end of the alley okay?" he said quickly, almost to point she didn't understand what he said.
She seemed to get the idea though as she stopped when they reached the ally. Spider-Bear's faster speed allowed him to zip through the allies, using the faint noises of his footsteps to lead him to where the thief was.
When he heard the steps at their loudest, he shouted "Come back here and return what I assume is a register! What else could be heavy and make sense in that sack?!" he shouted.
No reply, but he did see the shadow of a dead-end, a small smirk in his face. When he turned to the dead-end, he saw the bird panting with his head turned toward Spider-Bear.
"Nowhere to run, buddy" he said. He extended his hand toward the thief, his other hand aiming toward the criminal in case he pulled anything.
"Let's not make a bigger of this than it is, just give whatever you stole back and we can all put this behind us (court not withstanding)" he said, muttering the last part as he gave the guy an easy way out of this.
The dove then did something he didn't expect nor really like. He began to smirk, a non-existent eyebrow raised.
"How would like a magic show, young man?" he asked, putting a hand to his pocket quickly.
While Spider-Bear was able to shoot a glob of web at his hand, leaving his hand stuck into his jacket, but the dove still pressed something (if the small click was any indication) and smoke filled the corner. Spider-Bear's eyes shot open, his nostrils and eyes being filled with the smoke as it filled everywhere it could reach.
It weren't particularly painful, per say, but they were disorienting. He would just how disorienting they were when the smoke drifted away, revealing the biggest stage of the biggest theatre he had ever seen. In the seats, multiple doves all looking the same scowled at the wall crawler. Spider-Bear didn't know what to make of any of this, clutching his head while looking around the auditorium.
"What the heck was in that stuff?" he whispered, looking around the place in bewilderment.
The next surprise came through the middle of the stage, more smoke rising higher and higher in the air until it came together to form a body. Specifically, a green body with a purple cape and glass sphere head.
"Welcome, one and all to the greatest show this side of the criminal underworld!" he shouted, the voice echoing his melodramatic voice across the room.
The doves cheered in applause, whistling and clapping in excitement.
"As you all know, I am the greatest performer to ever live, the one and only Mysterio" he said, placing a hand to his chest and Spider-Bear could see the arrogant smile.
"Unfortunately, this performer was does not have enough for more performances for a while so he had to do some… mean things to others" he said in mock shame, rubbing the back of his neck as he pointed at the sack that revealed a cash register.
Gasps were heard all around the room, Spider-Bear raising an eyebrow with a blank face at the events around him now.
"I know, it's terrible, but the show must go on even with a few bad deeds" he said.
"However, does that mean I should have to worry about these "superheroes" breathing down my neck just for a little theft?" he said, making quotations marks with his fingers when he said superheroes.
"A small theft is still theft, moron" Spider-Bear said, almost deafened by the booing from the crowd.
"Go to heck, all of you, you're just a figment made by whatever the heck is going on!" he said, his hands thrusting into the air to indicate at his annoyance.
"Well, if that's how you feel, I suppose we have an issue that must be rectified at once" Mysterio said, clapping his hands together.
With a few claps, little bits of smoke formed as his minions were created. Red goats with pitchforks appeared, silly giggly faces and sinister smiles on all fifty faces as they bounced toward him. Spider-Bear put up his dukes, ready to punch some demon face. The goats stabbed at the wall crawler at the same time, only for their forks to either get stuck to the ground or clang against each other as he jumped into the air. The goats looked up to the air and jumped up.
A skirmish came about, pitchforks swinging and stabbing at Spider-Bear as he dodged, punched, and kicked them away. The goats hit fell down and disappeared into clouds of red smoke when they hit the ground. Upon hitting the ground, the goats continued swinging. Spider-Bear ducked over a pitchfork, sidestepped another, smacked one away before punching another out. Spider-Bear jumped onto another stabbing strike and stomped on its head, jumping up into the air and kicking them all away with a spinning split kick. Some of the goats backed away from the strike, still giggling and snapping their teeth at him.
"Shall thunder from the gods themselves, strike thee down!" said Mysterio as he summoned storm clouds over him and the goats.
Lightning did indeed strike down on Spider-Bear, hitting some goats as well. Another goat charged; pitchfork aimed as if it was a lance. Spider-Bear kicked the pitchfork up, the bolt falling down on it like a lightning rod. Spider-Bear ran away from the other bolts, aiming to get to Mysterio only for a goat to poof right in front of it with a nonsensical gobble.
The goat stabbed at Spider-Bear over and over, only to poof away with a punch into its face. "My minions need some pep in their steps, it seems" Mysterio said, Spider-Bear about to groan before yelping as he jumped from a lightning bolt.
The "wizard" directed his hand toward, a red beam directed toward his minions, causing them and their horns to glow. While some goats still charged, others aimed their horns and began firing fireballs at Spider-Bear. Spider-Bear jumped and rolled away from the flames as they soared toward them, redirecting them away from their master.
Spider-Bear changed direction again, this time to the devils as he jumped as high as he could toward them. Spider-Bear kicked one of them, punches at them next as he flew through the air to fight them. The goats blocked his strikes with their pitchforks to the best of their ability, actually succeeding with every blow.
Oh, now they decide to do the thing they should've been doing earlier" he grumbled as he tried to maneuver around their strikes, but now they were just as fast as he was.
Three of the goats grabbed him by the arms with their horns, flinging him into the air.
Spider-Bear shot webs at the remaining twenty two, some jumping into the air with growls, their smiles impish. The remaining ten stayed on the ground, firing fireballs at the web slinger. Spider-Bear blocked and dodged as they kicked them away as he fired back at the demonic goats. Five goats wound up blowing up from the backed up flames while ten of the goats were punched out before they fell back down. The lightning wound up catching up to them again, four of the fire firing goats taken down while Spider-Bear grabbed the attacking pitchfork of one and slammed it into the other, the two going poof.
Spider-Bear ran around the flames being fired by the last goat demon, lightning trailing behind him. Before another could strike down, he grabbed the goat's horns and threw him up to be struck by the lightning.
"That's all your minions, buddy. Any more tricks up your sleeve?" he said mockingly, running back toward the magician that started it all.
"Yes actually" he said, his finger twirling around as red circles began forming on the ground.
"That doesn't look good" he said, pointing out the obvious as they raced around the stage.
Spider-Bear did his best to avoid the circles, nearly failing as he stepped onto a circle. A pillar of flame shot up into the air, Spider-Bear looking wide eyed as it burst through the ceiling into the dark blue sky.
"Yep, definitely not good" he said absentmindedly before looking at another incoming circle and somersaulting away.
Spider-Bear tried another tactic to get a hit on the wizard himself, shooting web globs at Mysterio. "Quite a move you have" he said, swinging his arms into the air blue fire bursting from its body.
"It's a shame that I still have many under my sleeves" he said, confidence dripping from it. Spider-Bear shot webs again, this time swinging from them.
It was frustrating, all of this; it was like no matter how he ran toward him, he never got closer.
"Take this one for example" he said, a blue flash of light glowing in his hand. When he thrust it toward the spider, a beam of energy fired toward him.
Spider-Bear jumped out of the way, the lightning nearly hitting him. The lightning became a factor again, nearly hitting him as it hit all around his area as he rolled and jumped away from the bolts. Upon dodging the last lightning bolt before it hit elsewhere again, Spider-Bear stumbled as he tripped from the beam.
"Are we having fun yet, my guest of honor?" Mysterio asked tauntingly, firing yet another energy beam Spider-Bear jumping away from it.
"Oh, I'm having oodles of fun" Spider-Bear answered, sarcasm oozing from his voice as his eyes narrowed at the "wizard".
"That's absolutely wonderfully wonderful, my friend" he said, giving a slight bow.
"Maybe we could have the audience join in on the fun?" he asked, snapping his fingers. The audience saw blue clouds poof above them, the clouds raining a single item. Those items were strange looking bazookas, a big orb at the end of it with spiraling around for decoration with barrels just as big as the bowling ball shaped orbs.
"Oh crap" Spider-Bear said, dread filling his being as they all aimed with wide grins on their faces.
"That I believe, is a wrap" he said, all of the audience firing at once.
With nowhere to go since there were so many of them, Spider-Bear put his hands in front of his face in a pitiful form of defense while turning his head away. "ZAP" was the noises of the many weapons that came toward him with frightening speed. The oddest thing happened when they touched them all at the same time, however… nothing. Nothing happened at all as he opened his eyes, confused at not feeling anything.
This was weird; he should've been dead by now, and yet he wasn't. In fact, he just recognized something; not once had his spider sense tingled. Demons, lightning, fire, energy beams, lasers, absolutely none of these things had set off his built in danger system. He noticed another circle heading toward it, but this time he wanted to test something. He stood there, taking the fire pillar head on.
"Taking it" seemed to be an overstatement, however as once again he felt nothing. Spider-Bear smirked, turning toward the towering "wizard".
"That's a nice trick you've got there, fish bowl head" he said, crossing his arms.
"You really got me there for a while, pal" he waved his left hand as if he were a human waving a finger.
"I beg your pardon?" he asked, crossing his arms.
"None of this is real, it's all in my head, isn't it?" he asked, despite his words not truly being a question.
"Don't be ridiculous, of course it's all real" the wizard said a tad too defensively. "Is that a fact? Then prove it, give me your best shot" he said, waving his hands toward him before extending toward his sides.
"Don't mind if I do" he growled, a mass of energy forming and growing larger by the second.
Spider-Bear crossed his arms, tapping his foot as he waited impatiently for this last attack.
"Feel this and tell me its fake!" the wielder of the ball of "death" shouted, throwing the ball of energy toward him.
When the large flash came when it hit the ground, however, the stage was gone and in its place was a roughed up alley. Spider sense finally alerted Spider-Bear, the teddy bear turning toward the dove as it aimed and shot at him. Spider-Bear dodged, webbing the dove in the chest and bringing him to him with a head-butt that knocked him out. The friendly neighborhood teddy bear was victorious, webbing up the dove up on fire escape stairs above them and going back to his duty of finding the Fisks.
