Awkward story - I had the first hundred or so words of this chapter typed up on the first of September... and then completely ignored the document for a good month before I started to slowly pour in words to actually get some work done. Such is life, and my mind, and that's how things go... go unfinished, sometimes. I had another scene going (it's partially typed up at this point) for the end, but I figured, since I got enough filled for a brief but eventful chapter, might as well post something.

Hope you enjoy, and even if this doesn't itch that spooky rash you get around this day, have a happy Halloween regardless!

New York City

Zombies were raining down from the sky like heavy rainfall under very weird circumstances. New York was going to need a city-wide clean-up with all the gross blots of blood the literal rain of the undead was leaving from where they landed, some more than once as they smashed themselves on tip-top points of rooftops and street lights among other things before making a landing on the roads and sidewalks. Within minutes, the city succumbed to outright chaos as the civilians ran for their lives in an attempt for survival, and nothing felt even the slightest bit calm in the area anymore.

The people driving along the streets were having more trouble than usual getting through the streets due to the zombies swarming around the place and some wandering aimlessly into traffic, getting themselves knocked around on occasion, maybe even doing themselves in by walking front of those cars and letting themselves get run down, all in a thanks to their mindless mentality.

It was one taxi in particular in these streets, that carried a particularly impatient passenger. "Dammit, what's the hold up?! I'm going to be late!"

The tinted windows didn't do any favors when it came to looking into the taxi or looking out from within it, but one window that was rolled down part-way revealed the irate passenger – the Daily Bugle's boss, J. Jonah Jameson.

When he poked his head out the half-open window, he too good of a look at the carnage that was driving New York into flat-out insanity – the zombies rioting through the streets and attempting to feast as much as possible.

J.J. took the cigar out of his mouth. "I did not take charge of the Daily Bugle for this..." Prioritizing his arrival to the Bugle's head office over most of anything else going on in this undead-ridden city, he turned his attention to the taxi driver, demanding as angrily as possible. "You! Step on it! Now!"

"I'm trying!" said the driver, who stomped on the gas twice as it started to struggle around the streets, which were filled to the brim of zombies jammed everywhere, various objects thrown in the way and a boatload of traffic involving other drivers who were dealing with similar frustrations.

Just when it seemed like the situation couldn't be any more dire, the taxi decided now was a good time to run dry of gas, coughing and sputtering as it slowed to a complete stop.

Of course, in a matter like this where the living dead swarmed and the city was at a state of chaos, J.J. reacted naturally to this discovery as he could... by berating the undeserving driver. "How are you still getting work if you can't even fill enough in the tank for a full drive?!"

For the sake of it, we won't need to delve further into the boss of the Bugle's rants towards the driver – otherwise, there'd be at least 1000 more words onto the count...

As the taxi driver took the verbal beating with a whimper at best, he and Jonah suddenly felt as if the car they were in started to move again... off the ground and across the city at double—no, quadruple the speed of what it usually went in a zombie-less travel across NYC.

Within half a minute, or 12% of an average J. Jonah rant, the car was placed right at the front doors of the skyscraper that helmed the headquarters of the Daily Bugle. Surprisingly, it took barely any damage from the sudden voyage.

Both the driver and passenger of the taxi sat in silence, the only sound around being the somewhat distant groans of the undead amidst the chaos. Finally, the driver spoke up. "...What the hell just happened?"

Exiting the taxi, Jameson attempted to figure out the intervention that helped him to his destination; however, the evidence, consisting of a blotch of webbing was resting atop the roof of the taxi, made the answer pretty clear to him. "Take a guess what happened."

…

"I've heard of the 'Day of the Dead'... but this is just insane..."

The whole 'rain of zombies' situation was a big bad mess for sure – it seemed like something that 'your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man' could handle with hard work and effort.

However, from a high enough vantage point, in the form of a particularly tall skyscraper in the city, Spider-Man didn't realize the span of the falling undead until he saw that a majority of the city was under attack from the sudden flesh-eater invasion that had abruptly sprung up in the middle of what was, hours earlier, a very mundane, uneventful day. There were a whole lot of civilians in this city, a whole lot to protection that this one superhero had to share across these streets of New York, and on this day, it was a whole lot more than light work to deal with.

Spidey engaged in the start of what was going to be a long session of cleaning up around New York City, slinging around and smashing through the undead swarm at high speeds, one block at a time. A whole lot of kicking, flipping, tossing zombies around, alongside some unique web offense, to take down piece after piece of the swarm while intending to maintain minimal casualties – unfortunately, no chance of there being zero casualties, as could only work so effectively so fast, and some civilians had probably fallen to the undead forces ever since this whole abnormal zombie rain problem first began earlier in the hour.

After dealing with at least a hundred of these zombies, Spidey already seemed to be feeling the disadvantage he had – this one web-slinger against what looked to be thousands of these gross freaks. Even using the increasingly destructed environment, most notably a vacated taxi that was flipped on its side and burning, seemed like it only did a dent in the whole environment of the army of the living dead.

"Doesn't seem like these freaks are letting up..." Spider-Man said as he surveyed the situation that continued to develop; it seemed like another round of zombies were on their way down from the dark and distorted clouds above. "Just my luck – they just keep coming."

However, it didn't seem like it was just more zombies dropping down through the clouds – what looked like a meteor of some sort from the distance between its locale high in the sky, and where Spidey stood, could be seen dropping alongside the next storm of zombies, conserving an aura of flame alongside it as it picked up speed in the drop.

"What the heck...?"

Suddenly, within seconds, the ball of flame smashed down in the middle of the road, creating a large splash of dust and shockwaves that included Spidey in its list of things knocked back, alongside various zombies that mostly became splatters around the block, several cars trying to get by and a good chunk of the asphalt of the road.

As the dust spread out across the roads of NYC, a generous mass of the zombies began to swarm towards it in brainless intrigue. As the dust started to clear, it started to come into question of what stood at ground zero, such as... was that even actually a meteor?

The answer was 'no', no it wasn't. As those zombies began to draw closer to the unknown, they were suddenly sent flying by something that spiraled around on an axis and started smacking around the undead like nobody's business. Spider-Man flinched and dodged as one of the zombies flew right over his head and into a light post right behind him, before looking ahead again to find out what was clear behind most of the dust and debris gone by – someone standing at the center point of the crater.

Although it wasn't just someone – it was an absolute unit of a man. Heavy-bodied (nearing the same kind of size and stature as someone like the Hulk) and shirtless apart from a belt wrapped around from one shoulder to the front hem of his green slacks, the man looked simultaneously confused by his surroundings, while also seeming ready for a fight.

What followed was a brief moment of a badass's method of city-wide cleansing, as one zombie that dared wander into the eye of the manly-man wound up with its legs under his grasp as he swung the rotten nobody around like a ragdoll before sending it miles off, chipping off many other undead bystanders across the street like stray bowling pins, and that one poor(ish) zombie was very clearly the ball.

Spidey looked on – you wouldn't see it through the mask, but he was in awe with how that mustached bruiser was dealing with the ravaging dead with absolute ease. He couldn't help but voice his surprise and amazement to the man that quite literally dropped from the sky. "Holy crap, dude! That was amazing!"

However, approaching the man seemed to be a bit of a mistake in hindsight, as Spider-Man only briefly noticed, behind a gleam in the eye, the face of a man who seemed to detect a threat right beside him...

...and Spidey was quickly scooped up and dropped into the asphalt with a swift body-slam. The man who could be described as 'looking like Freddy Mercury if he never skipped arm-day' was not to be messed with.

"Who the hell are you – A rascal who wants a piece of the Mayor?!" The man, apparently a 'mayor' of something but clearly not of New York City, started to interrogate the red and blue web crawler beneath him. "Or are you the one who started this whole mess?"

'The Mayor' picked up Spidey in a grapple wrapping his big hands around the waist of the lightweight hero, ready to give more of a beating – but he was briefly stunted as Spider-Man made a quick panic maneuver and spewed a blot of webs that momentarily kept the man's hands bound together while allowing Spidey to jump.

"Calm down, man! I'm not here to hurt you!" Spider-Man assured.

'The Mayor' growled as he tore the webbing off after only seconds of struggle. "Then you mind explaining that costume? You late for wrestling tryouts or somethin'?"

"No, I'm—I'm a superhero! Your 'friendly neighborhood Spider-Man'!" Spidey introduced himself – but after a moment, he came to realize, "You've... never heard of me, have you?"

"Take a guess, kid," 'The Mayor' said. "Besides, you shouldn't be here." Behind him, a zombie lurked up, only to get casually sucker-punched away. "You better leave the cleaning up to me – since you're clearly just getting in the way."

Spidey seemed somewhat offended at being discarded. "Hey, I've been protecting this town for years!" Another zombie came around, to which Spidey walloped it out of the way with a spin-kick. "Besides, I don't even know who you are!"

"Ha! You don't know who I am?" 'The Mayor' laughed, before rustling down another reckless dead soul and stacking it up onto his shoulders for an airplane spin. "'Saturday Night Slam Masters' Hall-Of-Famer? Years of successful campaigning in the unpredictable world of politics? None of that rings a bell to ya?" His spinning around the corpse ended with him piledriving the zombie into the ground, burying it neck-down in a sudden hole within the asphalt. "It's me – Mike Haggar! Mayor of... Metro..."

The big buff brawler's voice trailed off right at the end as he eventually started to notice the (otherwise messy) landscape that was New York City – which seemed to be completely different to him than his usual surroundings. Much different.

The realization started to make the heavyweight Hagger gather questions, one more important than all the rest. "Wait a second... this... this isn't Metro City..."

If 'Metro City' was his Kansas, then Toto, he was far from there now...