"I'm sure we'll all laugh about this someday..." The boy tried to reason with the two other two people present.
Ben was busy a little annoyed at the reckless action. The girl didn't know if she was going to hit the young child over his stupidity, or just cry right then and there.
"Well, let's move on. Mysterio would probably have an escape route ready in case he would blow his base up. Let's split up, and see if we can find him, or his escape route." The man turned to the young lady. "You're coming with me. I don't want to lose track of you, when the base goes up."
Picking up the girl in his arms, Ben turned to his younger brother. "All right. If we don't find anything within 15 minutes, we come back here, and we opt for Plan C, since Plan A fell apart." The comment sounded like a slight scolding. The wallcrawlers webbed off in different directions, to scout out for an exit.
Accustomed to traveling large distances within a short timeframe was easy for Spider-Man. Following the hallways, the veteran hero found his way into some of the more personal places of the lair. In fact, finding the office, with Beck's greatest "moments" on a wall. The superhero put down the young socialite, and looked around for anything special. Specifically, he was opening the drawers for an extra controller, or even the button to an extra hidden door.
'Hopefully there's an escape plan... Beck's nothing but smoke and mirrors. He'd probably have multiple escape pods all over the base'
Opening one drawer, he found the button. Pressing it, revealed a hidden passageway behind one of the walls, but as much as the man was eager, it seemed like it was a waste. Mysterio blew out the ceiling inside the passageway, which Ben turned around and moved on to the next possibility.
But before he left the room, he took the computer mouse, and the screen loaded the last few screens. It seemed like Mysterio left in quite the hurry. Noticing what was left open, all that he could mutter was a soft, clever "Well, what do you know...", which is what the detective in him couldn't help but piece something together.
Taking a flash drive from his utility belt, he plugged it in, and copied as much information from the computer to the portable item. Taking another look around, he noticed a page, that had some handwriting, and looked like a letter.
Dear Spider-Ass. It's been a long, and glorious career trying to tear you apart. If you are reading this, that means that the base is set to blow. In the security room overseeing the arena is the last escape pod. It can only fit one person, and if too many enter it, it will not leave. Either you, or the girl must take it. And I know what a simpleton like you would choose.
It has been a long time since our first battle, and even if you reigned victorious every blasted time, you meddling bug, no plan will be as great as the caper that I have for you! I may have been young Icarus that has passed too close to Apollo or Helios, but I swear, like Macbeth, I shall be victorious!
My greatness will triumph, and I shall await thee at the center of the universe!
Your Great Nemesis, and Greatest villain that has come closest to your death,
From, Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio
PS.: Why did you change costumes? The old classic costume brings an air of nostalgia, and it is much more fashionable.
'Okay... So take away the vainglory, and you get one escape pod left, Beck's forgotten how Macbeth ends, a battle at the "Center of the Universe", aka Times Square, and an out of date fashion sense that definitely needs some improvement.' Turning to the computer, he noticed his drive was complete with the copying, and took it out. Hearing on the loudspeaker, the update in time left, at about 8 minutes left, he took the note and left swinging, to arrive into the arena, finding his sidekick webbing in a few seconds afterwards.
"Find anything?" Spider-Man asked the rookie.
"Nothing, except one escape pod in the security room. But other than that, nothing." Spider-Boy reported.
"Well, we wouldn't have nothing if YOU didn't push that blue button, moron!" she launched accusatory.
"Well, like I said; OOPS!" Spider-Boy shot back in exasperation.
"Enough. Let's head over to the security room. We don't have enough time to bicker. Lead the way, little Spider." Ben picked up the former hostage, and they webbed off to the security room, overhearing the loudspeaker.
"Three minutes left to self destruct. Please evacuate."
"Well, ain't she the most polite self destruct loud speaker out there... You wouldn't hear Dr Doom install such courteous voices in his castles..." The boy commented.
Arriving in the designated room, the young clone walked up to a bookshelf and pulled a book, revealing an opening, with a seat. Without hesitation, the adult took the young lady, and put her in the seat, handing her the note.
"You arrive on the surface, give the police, or a superhero this note, and tell them that Mysterio is going to launch his plan at Times Square." Before anything else could be said, the opening closed, and launched the pod. Figuring that the pod was calibrated for the weight of an adult and skinny adolescent girl, he shoved the clone to stick to the pod. "Make sure she's safe! Take a deep breath!" Although shocked at the sudden shove, Spider-Boy clings to the pod, and takes the breath as he and the vessel leave the base.
"Okay. Now for plan C. Okay, now that we no longer have an exit, what now? Ride the explosion?" He thought to himself, as the two minute mark was heard. A light in his head went off, as he noticed the windows in this room. He picked up a computer and threw it to break the window, jumping out, and towards the top of the dome of the large room. Ben started spinning his webs as fast as he could.
"Gotta hurry and web up a sheet of webbing, not to mention, time this correctly, as I'll ride the explosion to the top. I should survive the explosion no problem, but hope there's no problem with decompression."Ben told himself, putting his webshooters to work, putting together a nice sheet that could work for a bed.
'Oh please, let me have watched enough "Gargoyles" for this to work.' He thought to himself. As he heard the longest fifteen seconds of the past month that counted down, to one, he started by folding up the sheet in his arms,
"Ten... Nine... Eight... Six... Five... Four... Three... Two... One... Have a nice day." The loudspeaker spoke out loud. The hero mentally groaned at the knockoff from a certain Mel Brooks movie, as he felt the vibrations, as well as his wild spider-sense going off the charts. He heard the explosions echoing from the entire building.
One of the walls blew open, with shrapnel falling all over the place, as a pillar fell from its position, crashing down, but not for long, as the explosion from the ground went off, a good chunk of the ceiling fell open, revealing a breach in the dome, letting saltwater barrel in. Seeing a bit more of the ceiling rip to pieces, Ben let in a bit of the water. Recognising if he just tried to exit when it burst, he would get swept down, similar to the depressurising of a submarine.
He approached the edge of the broken ceiling, observing the water gushing, and hearing another bomb from within the base. 'Got to time this just right, or I won't get the pressure of the exploding base in my nice bed linen. Wait for it... Wait for it... Now!'
Taking the deep breath, he leapt into the cascading water, and with several kicks of his powerful legs, he swam up against the rushing current fighting to push him to the bottom of the base. Blowing his bubbles, he conserved his air, as he let his sixth sense warn him about the base that was going up in explosive flames. In some of the rare moments that fire could exist for a short amount of time underwater, Spider-Man closed his eyes, feeling the water around him. he felt some of the bubbling from the releasing air and gas, awaiting for the precise time that he would feel more of the heat and push from beneath him.
As the base blew apart, he noticed the sudden heat rushing towards him. Expanding his arms, he unfolded the sheet of webbing, expecting his plan to be a total blunder. For a moment, it seemed to float everywhere in the water, with no results.
'Well, hope the little Spider can handle this... I knew this was too good a plan to be true.'
After a moment, a sudden rush came, as the base let out a large explosion, with the gases pushing their way up through the water, Ben felt the net in his hands expand like a hot air balloon, as it captured the bubbles, and along with the proportionate strength of a spider in his powerful legs, he went flying to the top, as the air bubbles carried him up to the surface, within a matter of a relative minute.
Breaching the surface, the hero took a deep breath of beloved air, as he looked around to gather his surroundings. Seeing how he was about 700 meters away from Battery Park, he then noticed an addition object rising closer to Governors Island. The man turned towards the primary island of the region, and started his breaststrokes.
On the other side of the river, the escape pod rose from the sea, as Aphrodite has done in mythology. The side ornament, took a nice gasp of air, as he cursed, in a purposely humorous way, while imitating a certain editor in chief.
"Blasted wallcrawling menace! He'll pay for that one! Pushing me out like common trash..." Kicking towards the island, he then felt his sixth sense blaring. For a moment he remembered the trick to the pod. "Oh joy. He didn't..."
In a swift motion, using his clinging as a leverage to throw himself on top of the pod, he searched for the door, and glad that it was mostly above water, he punched hard at the edge of the door, getting his hands in there, and using them as a lever, he focused his strength to push the door open. Although he was getting a headache of his inner sense warning him of danger, as he threw the door open, he pulled the girl who was startled to see him, and after putting her in a bridal carry, he leapt up as high as he could, aimed a webline at a passing boat.
"Head in! Whiplash!" Was all he said, as the girl listened to his command, and brought her head in. Although she was a little confused, she brought her head in, as he prayed that he had enough webbing to reach the boat. The webline went, and as fast as it was, it barely reached the top of the boat, but it managed to tag the stern of the boat.
The webshooter then made an empty sound, as the boy swiftly reacted reaching the errant webline, pulling a little, to slingshot the two towards the boat, he and the girl went speeding like an arrow, as the Arachnid heard the pod explode in a small fireball, as the two neared the boat at high speed, the boy threw some gymnastics, to throw him and her up, as he flipped around to break some of the speed, to land on the top of the boat, which revealed itself to be a ferry, he went to make a perfect olympic landing, only to miss just short, but managed to grab onto the side with his one hand, letting out a sigh.
"Almost like I planned it. Err... I mean, just like I planned it." Spider-Boy let out the comment. The girl opened her eyes, as the high speed stopped, and noticed the young savior clinging to the side of an orange-yellow boat. Hopping up onto the walking area, and putting the mayor's daughter down, who didn't seem as impressed with the boy, she fell to the ground, letting out a sigh of relief.
The boy went to reach into his belt, to take out another web cartridge to refill his web shooter, ignoring some of the cameras and cell phones going off. It may have been late in the evening, and judging from the moon position, the boy was able to determine what time.
"Hopefully your parents don't mind you being out past midnight on a school night, cause most parents would flip if they found out their girl was spending time with a boy outside the home, and on a ferry past curfew." the boy joked.
"You are... Insane!" the former hostage growled. "First the button... And then... but I guess I can thank you." She managed to say.
Before the young superhero can react, a man in a uniform approached. "What's going on here?"
"Escape from supervillain underwater lair... and boy, was that a woozy." The young hero responded.
"How about you miss? let me help you up." The ferry employee reached out to the girl. But as soon as she grabbed it, she was pulled to her feet, and before she could respond, a gun was pointed at her head, startling a few of the passengers, sending some deep breaths and some shrieks, as well as some panic.
"Freeze Spider-Brat! I'm going to finish this job! I can't believe a simpleton like you could have gotten out of the base! At least Spider-Man is swimming with the fishes in Davy Jones' locker! As for you, little missy... It's time for the grand exit!" The guy monologued, as he held his prisoner.
"Again, Mysterio? Just let go of the girl, and let's talk about this like civilised hyper thyroid gorillas, okay?" The kid tried to reason, as he motioned his hands in a calming fashion.
"No, you bumbling nitwit... But it doesn't matter, because as you are leaving this area, soon, Manhattan shall go up in beautiful fireworks to celebrate my grandest victory over Spider-Man, and not even you can stop me! and with this Life Model Decoy, this entire ferry is my hostage, now! This shall be a grand epitaph for Spider-Man! He has killed Manhattan, starting with the princess of the mayor!" the robot that looked a lot like a sailor went to pull the trigger, only for the boy to react within seconds to web the gun hole, with the now reloaded web shooter.
The gun imploded, as the robot's arm was thrown a little back in recoil of the now, busted up gun. The robot turned to look at his now useless weapon, only to receive a sharp pain in the foot, shown by said hostage stomping on the foot.
Letting his hostage go, she ran away from him, as the boy hero charged to grab the arm that the robot tried to pistol-whip the boy charging, only for the boy to catch the arm, and thrust his flat hand forward, towards the shoulder.
'Okay... even L.M.D.s have joints that are identical to humans... Beck's nowhere near as smart to make modifications to counter an extra cute little spider like me." The boy thought, as he tore through the arm, exactly where the arm and shoulder bone would naturally meet, only to pull the arm out of the socket, to show the robotic parts in the arm. Continueing with the centrifugal force, he spun with the arm in hand, using it as a club, which would tear the robot to pieces as it tried to avoid the Spider's following attack, only to back up into the railing. Unable to run away in time, the robot fell in two pieces to the ground. The boy dropped the arm, and went to the robotic corpse, and reached for the head.
Pulling it off, the boy held the skull in his head. "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times, and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. —Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now to mock your own grinning? Quite chapfallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come. Make her laugh at that."
The head looked rather shocked at the display of Shakespearian performance. "Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 1. Quite... Appropriate. And you have my applause, boy. But whose death will be finality yet?"
The boy's senses went berserk, as he dropped the head, picked up the two pieces of the body, and he threw them over the edge of the boat, into the eternal blue, only for the pieces to explode as well. "You know, with all the explosives you have, you'd think that you'd be five steps aHEAD of us spiders, Beck."
Growling the head grumbles, as the boy reaches inside the bottom of the head, and was about to pull a wire. "You will pay for this boy..."
"Oh yeah... another Shakespearian scene. Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5." the boy told the robot head, as he pulled the wire, to leave the head depower.
Turning to the onlookers, recording the scene on their cell phones, Spider-Boy asked an onlooker. "Is this ferry headed to Staten Island, or Manhattan?"
The person a woman, responded "Staten Island... oh wait... if that man was a robot? what about the rest of the crew?" She panicked.
Rushing his way past the audience, he sped towards the wheelhouse. Opening it, he saw a few crewmembers, tied up and gagged. "Uh... do you guys think you can turn the boat around, if I let you go? I could pay you with a mayor's daughter if you'd like? I've got an important meeting at Times Square, and it would be a little frustrating having to go the long way around New Jersey..."
Quentin Beck removed his dome, as he oversaw the New York Landmark, and the neon bright lights. The man was bald, with the scar on the right side of the head, with the tube around his head, sending oxygen in the man's nose.
"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." The man recited aloud. Letting out a ghastly sigh, he turned.
"Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5. Devoid of life in the end, and devoid of any meaning. Not just Hamlet's finality of death, but Macbeth's meaninglessness of death. Is that what you condemn of me, young Spider? And what of you, Spider-Man? My Macduff? Was I told by the Wyrd Sisters that I not only be Thane of Glamis, but Thane of Cawdor? Or was that just a jest in the winds? Is my imminent death to be nothing but dust in the wind, without meaning or worth? Will I leave a legacy that will not just succeed whence I failed, but surpass me? Or were those witches, as sinister that they be, just mocking me?" The man shouted out. He walked around, passing by not just something that looked quite a bit like a large explosive, but also a young boy tied in the chair. "So the princess is saved, but the young prince here shall not be rescued. In the middle of the explosion of this bright castle of the modern age, shall meet its end. And no forest shall move."
As the man dramatically finished the sentence, a large group of pigeons flew up past the two, startling the soliloquying villain. Seeing this as a sign, he started to panic. "But what if, Macduff has escaped from the abyss, only to haunt me? Does the forest move? If even the pits of Hell cannot keep my archnemesis, then what can? Oh, heavens, will you deny me a final rest at peace? Then my curses upon thee, Spider-man!" He paced panicking, only to reach his dome, and put it on, twisting it into place, as he cursed the superhero in the deep echo of the simulated voice. "And perhaps, this is just what is meant to be... no more traps. Just an open fight, you and me. But of course, there's also the catch to my special program!"
Mysterio turned towards a set of cameras, with a few people behind them, obeying their master, as they were shooting the supervillain live, throughout the city. "All we need, is for every house in the city to tune in, and so, complete Armageddon shall devastate the city!" He shouted dramatically, as if grasping the moon.
"So that's the catch to your plan this time... So every home in Manhattan has to tune in to your show, right?" A certain someone hopped up onto the roof.
"Spider-Man! How did you escape my secret underwater base?"
"Well, with a bit of ingenuity, and a lot of luck, Becky. So no more tricks, this time, then. So why not let the kid go? Now that I'm here, the mayor could at least have a few last moments with both his kids..." The wallcrawling menace asked, expecting the result of the request.
"Forget it Spider-Man! This time, it's just between you and me! After him!" Mysterio motioned, as the cameramen left their posts, and charged at the red and blue clad hero.
The first two minions tried to body tackle, but found themselves tackling into the ground, as the slippery spider jumped up, and as he was in mid air, clenched his fist at the two, launching some of his impact webbing, into the small of their backs. As they struggled, the webbing would constrict, and trap them far more than what they can resist.
The next few would open up their palms, and fire at the hero from the holes in their hands, but the wallcrawler dropped some of the webbing in the holes of the remaining three cameramen, causing them to self destruct as the blasts couldn't leave the chamber of the blasters in the arms.
"Come on Mysterio. Surely, you have more punch than a few tin cans for your last hurrah."
"How about this, then?" Mysterio asked, as he waved his hand, the child vanishing in a puff of smoke, only to reappear in the villain's hand. Spider-Man, just stood there, ready to pounce, as Mysterio tossed the boy off the roof, as the webbed wonder leapt to the side, launching a web net that caught the boy, stuck in the net, as Ben adhered the end to the wall.
Climbing back to the ceiling, the hero looked around, noticing a gaseous element to the area. 'Glad Beck finally tossed the kid over the edge. With him in a webnet, and much lower than the roof area, there won't be any distractions. And we can probably say that Mysterio is finally wanting to unleash his attacks. If I recall correctly, he is probably wanting to use his gas to nullify my Spider-Sense, like he used to employ. Which means he finally is getting serious, and is sick of running away. The bomb is obviously a distraction to trap me. But I don't have to worry about it.'
"What's wrong, Spider-Weasel? It's time for the grand finale. If you don't hurry, the bomb that will end Manhattan, will go off, and the Center of the Universe will go, like the Big Bang goes off to destroy all! And all you need to do is stop me!" The voice echoed in the area. "What's wrong? Feeling light headed? I felt nostalgic. I once nearly defeated you with these gases. Remember? Wait... what's wrong? Need to see what you are fighting? How's this?"
Ben wasn't completely surprised to see 7 Mysterios appear in front of him, in various directions. Trying to focus his Spider-Sense, but not getting a buzz, he sighed. He threw his webbing in the various directions of the Mysterios, as his weblines went through the doubles of the villain, clearly revealing the illusions. Glueing the ends of the lines to the edges, wall and floor around him, He jumped up, predicting an electric shock attack where he used to be, which was correctly guessed. He tried to send a webline in that direction, and adhered it to the ground, where he landed.
"Very swift, Webhead. But I've just begun!" The scenery seemed to change to that of the wing of a plane, high in the sky. Ben felt the pressure of the sky, but he was aware of both locations he was. Careful with possible traps and deception, he also was aware of everything. "How about you try this on for size!"
What appeared next was not just what appeared to be Mysterio, but also Scorpion, Rhino, the male Doctor Octopus, Chameleon, and Shocker. All 6 of them charged, with Rhino taking point, trying to tackle Spider-Man, but unfortunately for the giant brute, the wallcrawler jumped to the side, and threw webbing at him and jumped to avoid the Shocker's attacks, as he webbed up the giant brute, to make sure he had no leverage to break free, and sending the lines holding him down to the various ends of the plane wing, remembering the initial layout.
The evasive hero got the wind blown out of him as a giant mechanical tentacle smacked him to the side, reminding the hero of the gases, and that he was fighting a version of the Sinister Six without his reliable predictive sense. 'No big deal. I've dealt with these odds before.'
"Hahahahaha! You will fall, Spider-Man. With my diversion and illusions, not to mention my robotic allies, your chances of victory are dwindling!" The Mysterio that was present bragged.
"Sure! And you aren't a 1960s-hippie-getting-high-on-gases throwback!" the Spider taunted, as he webbed up the green clad Scorpion, in a similar web as Rhino, while dancing around, as he landed on another web that was previously there. As he stood there, his head perked, as he jumped up, easily avoiding the energy blast of the Shocker, that did no damage to the webbing. Spiderman landed on top of him, and ripped off the hands off of the Hernie look-a-like, which looked shocked at the amputation that happened, before getting webbed up himself, alongside the shapeshifter, leaving only Doc Ock and Mysterio.
"Laugh while you can, you meddling wallcrawler, but this is just the beginning!" was shouted, as Mysterio pointed both his hands, letting some electric blasts firing at Spider-Man, that easily jumped out of the way, only to land in the planted trap of the metal tentacles that seem to be constricting the blond man's arms and legs. This caused the stunt double to laugh maniacally, as if he won. "Now, I finally win!"
Another voice was heard, from outside the illusion. "That's your victory speech? 'Now I finally win!' is what you say after a failed lifetime of fighting your archnemesis? Come on Beck! You can do better than that!" It sounded like the cocky voice of a child.
Landing on top of the mechanical arms, Spider-Boy grabbed the one tentacle, and pulled it out of the robotic socket, as he backflipped onto the webbing he seemed to notice. Now that his mentor's arm was free, that was all Ben needed to launch a line at the Octopus double's chest, and pull, throwing all arms into a frenzy, letting go of the swift superhero.
The two spiders quickly webbed up the deceased villain's remaining arms, as the adult made a few motions, as both of them would launch the webbing in the various directions towards the ground. "Stay on the webbing. You know about these gases..." the hero whispered to his protégé.
"Sure. He's snorted a lot of it apparently. At least he's nice enough to share in the hippie ways. But where's the drumming circle?" the boy joked.
"Very funny. I see the jokes go from hero to sidekick. A real couple of comedians to the very finish." The Mysterio's cape billowed, as a flock of seagulls flew by the plane, and crashed into the man's back, only for the young hero to see his brother fall from the wing to the ground below. Launching his webbing at the domed one, the villain released something from the eyes that disintegrated the webs partially, and barely adhered to Mysterio. He then vanished, and reappeared closer to the left, as he launched a laser at the young hero, who would leap up and land on another web strand. Launching another webline, he missed the villain by about a foot, played up the act of cursing his luck, and stuck the end of the web to where he stood on the strand. "Well, looks like the child, is but a child. I must commend you for quoting the olden version of Shakespeare, rather than the crude Gen Y variation, as it ruins the classical version. There is no need to destroy such a classic with such rubbish. But that is where my respect ends, boy!" The man leapt up powerfully, with the aid of his technological suit, to try to land in another location. Focused on what was in front of him, he did not catch another webline that caught him in the back, and yanked him down, to a fist that punched through him, to reveal another robot, as it shut off, as Spider-Man revealed himself, as he webbed the double in with the others, sending the webs in various directions, to hold it up.
After another second, lots of cursing was heard, as gases showed up, and Spider-Man launched various webs in a number of directions, his assistant following his lead as they adhered them to various strands of webbing, and the ground around them. They then found themselves in a tropical forest area. The two couldn't sense what was around them, but the adult felt around at waist level, and clumped a bunch of webs together, webbing them that way, as he whispered something to his partner.
"We certainly do like dinosaurs, don't we? Try this on for size!" He heard from a distance. Climbing on the webbing, both spiders looked around, to find a large purple Tyrannosaurus come from in front of them, and try to bite down on them. They both jumped out of the way, and as Ben landed on the back of the giant lizard, and the boy in front. The large predator tried to make a meal of the little guy, but he was just too small and swift for the colossal lizard to make a difference. "This is quite a different take on Barney, isn't it? Always good for kids, whether it's for discipline or sharing."
"You know, Barn. You couldn't happen to share some chocolatey chip triple fudge cookies?" The boy asked the dinosaur who responded by chomping, only to get some more webbing on its arms and around its neck, stopping it from moving, courtesy of Spider-Man.
"Barney is too tied up at the moment to go get a plate, Little Spider, so you'll have to make do without desert." The man commented as he came down, landing on where he perceived the webbing. To the left of the pair appeared a green Triceratops, and a red Stegasaurus. The boy prepared to move, but the man grabbed his apprentice. "Not this time. You can't trust your eyes now. And I know you can't trust your senses, but just how does a spider know when something is in its web?"
"Ah. gotcha." The boy shut his eyes, as he wasn't fazed by the illusions that seemed to attack them.
"But.. How.. wha..." Mysterio was flabbergasted. "How did you... see thro-whoa!" From one side they heard someone slip and trip. "What was that?"
"Oh, sorry. Newest invention that I was trying out. Web slick. I keep it as a bit of a liquid to send villains for a trip." The man bragged about his invention.
"Good Golly Gee, Spider-Man! Where did you figure that one out?" Spider-boy mocked traditional sidekicks.
"Well, I tried it out after you klutzed out during our tussle, remember? You tripped over that webbing, and I kinda figured that it would be handy in a fight." The man turned to answer the other question. "And I knew how to find you, the same way a spider knows when their prey is in their web. Through vibrations in the webbing. Pretty clever, no?"
"Neat." The boy replied.
At this time , the villain was caught in a web, with his one arm, as he pulled on the webbing, he aimed his other hand at it, as he sent out another gas to decompose the webbing. Unfortunately for him, the heroes already figured out his location. Regardless if the web went loose, before he could react, he had not one spider, but two that jumped onto, him, landing him to the ground, as the plexiglass dome fell off his head, landing a few feet away, and under the additional weight, he felt the results of that.
The gas started to disperse, revealing the roof of Times Square, he aimed his arm at his enemy, only for his arm to spark slightly, as parts of the costume was damaged. Looking in shock, he let out a loud angry cry.
"NO! This cannot be! No bother! My bomb will go off! and it will go off once..." Mysterio started to lecture, but Spider-Man finished the sentence.
"It will go off, once every home in Manhattan turn on the television, and tune in."
"But with the knowledge I leaked online, and with the cameras... Everyone would be watching..." The sickly man tried to reason.
"But who would turn on our television set at home? Surely not everyone would be watching the television past midnight on a school night? And do you honestly think that everyone on this island would be dumb enough to watch, when warned of a bomb? Sure you might get a couple of people that may watch out of curiousity, but most would shut off, and possibly unplug their television.
The illusionist looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a massive transport truck. The truck transporting logic. "No... no... it was perfect... how could... no..." The man made his calculations, and seemed to be devastated.
"First off, you didn't revise the plan for a second webhead, when you saw Spider-Boy at the gala. With a bit of revision, you could have taken us down. And you used a gas that really did dull our senses. But then there was the matter of the plan. It wasn't perfect. You took chunks and pieces of what could have been various good plans, because your egg timer was ticking, and put together in a hodgepodge."
"No... I... you... webhead..."
"Your last big plot was actually pretty good. If you actually combined what you did during the Media Blizzard, with this one, you could have actually pulled it off. Even I would have been hard pressed to stop you, and I probably wouldn't have caught up with you in time, if you mixed both plans together. Otherwise, this last time was a bit haphazard." Spider-Man explained it to his villain which seemed to mentally calculate everything, and gain a forlorn look on his face.
"Umm... don't you think that's a little bit harsh? Even I'm getting a little bit of pity for him." Spider-Boy asked. "And pity's over now."
"Huh? I'm trying to praise the fact that he could have been great. Even if this last plan was a little birdbrained." Ben replied to his little brother. But he then noticed, the supervillain looked like he capitulated every hope he had.
"Failure... total failure. Could have... but failed..." The broken man spoke out.
As it was heard there was the door to the building stairs that slammed open. "NYPD! FREEZE!" The cops came out, and observed the situation, through their gas masks.
Not resisting his captors, he was rather limp. The lead cop pressed the button on his radio. "This is Burdick. The perp is up here. Send the bomb squad up. Let's get as much evidence as possible." Noticing some of the webbing, he grimaced. "Stinking costumes..." was what he commented. Looking around, he then asked. "Doesn't this guy have a dome on his head? Oh well. We got enough evidence to put him away for life."
From the ground, hearing the report on the radio, Terri Lee, responded with a "Roger that. Any word on the Mayor's kid? We got the other one at the station." But before she got a response, a certain net was brought down, as she heard a couple of her agents rush forward and go for net. "Nevermind. Kid's safe." She finished on the radio. "Send up the bomb squad. Let's wrap this up."
The boy was carried to another vehicle, as she looked up to see a pair of bright red and blue tights swing out of sight, at quite a fast speed. Giving a last smile she turned to greet her partner, coming down with the villain, being put in a police cruiser, and proceeding to complete the protocol of the New York Police Department.
Up in the sky, Spider-Man was swinging with his new sidekick.
"Well, that was fun. Can't wait to do this again sometime."
"You think there's going to be another "sometime" at some point? A kid shouldn't be playing hero." the man told his brother. He was grinning under his mask, but knew the answer.
"Not that THAT stopped you at any point, when you were a kid." the boy sent out his reply.
"Touché, little Spider. That mission went well. Considering you pressed the blue button, when I told you not to."
"Oh real mature! I did everything else by the book! I'm sure other sidekicks like Bucky and Jubilee messed up like that a couple of times." The boy tried to defend his boyish pride.
"Actually, no in both cases." Ben's remark was followed by grumbling. "By the way... Why are you carrying Mysterio's dome with you? Isn't that evidence the police will need?"
"I wouldn't worry about it. Between the bomb, and the kid's clothes, not to mention the letter, the police has enough to put him away for life." The younger hero rationalised. "Besides. Souvenir."
The adult hero rolled his eyes under his masked, as he grinned. "Okay, but its snack, and then straight to bed for you. Way past your bedtime. A boy your age needs a full 8 to 9 hours of sleep." This was followed by the childish, yet playful whine from the young boy.
A few days later, the television in the Reilly household was turned on, to a channel that was detailing a certain event.
"... In other news, criminal illusionist Mysterio, aka Quentin Beck, passed away during the night in police custody, with the primary cause being lung cancer. He was caught a few days ago trying to blow up Manhattan, but NYPD found him desolate at Times Square, after a battle with Spider-Man. Doctor Herbert Langdon, what's your opinion, on the early death of this villain?"
"Well, I suspect that he wouldn't have survived the week, but because of his despair at his latest attempt to stop the 'hero' he set out to defeat, with probably a humiliating loss, that probably rushed his death by a few days. Overall, it probably would not have mattered. Cancer is quite the villain, that not even heroes and villains, such as the Avenger Captain Marvel who lost his life against cancer himself. Sometimes, even hope can actually lengthen someone's life, but a lack of it can actually shorten lives. For example, there has been research that has been scientifically shown that older adults that pray, actually live longer. According to research conducted by Psychologists such as Idler, Oman, Reed and others, in more recent research have discovered that the concept of spirituality may actually increase overall health, even if it is one factor of lengthening the lifespan. The matter of Beck's death may have been more a matter of despair, that couldn't be fixed. So he just submitted himself unto death. And I don't mean that we should all go in prayer, this is a matter that has been studied in a scientific way. Other explanations that could occur would be..."
Ben sighed as he heard the news. "Maybe I could have been just a little bit gentle."
"From the sounds of it, it was more a matter of days. So we would have heard the report probably less than a week from now." The boy commented, as he came out of the bathroom, without his shirt, in his pants rubbing his hair with a towel.
"True. Guess it was out of my hands." Ben said as he typed out at his computer. He had a brown envelope next to the piece of technology. "So did you figure out a possible name for yourself?"
"Hrm. Still stumped on that one." Getting a mischievious grin on his face, he asked the nerdy question. "Are the names Char Aznable, Raistlin Majere or Barney Stinson on the table?"
"Nope, nope and definitely nope." Ben responded with a grin. "Sorry that you can't fulfill our greatest nerd fantasies but unless there is 'Blue Button Presser' in there, you won't get those names." The response was an annoyed scowl from the boy.
"Can't you let that go? It was just one time."
"And you did say that we'd laugh about it at some point in the future, and I guess you really are a prophet." the man teased.
"I hates you." The young child blurted. Which gave his brother/cousin a grin.
"Anyways, you can probably tell how I chose my name."
"As if Uncle Ben married into Aunt May's family, right?" The young boy commented as he sat down at the table, and lowered the towel, revealing a new head of red hair, instead of the previous brown hair.
"Yes. So I kinda figured I'd take the initiative. If you don't like it, I can easily change it if you want." He said as he pushed the envelope towards his little brother.
The boy opened the piece of paper, to pull out what looked like a group of pages, the first one looking like a birth certificate. The boy read the name out loud.
"Richard Fitzpatrick. Really? Like Dad married into Mom's... err.. I mean... Man. Pronoun troubles." The boy responded.
"It's okay to call them Mom and Dad while in private, or anyone who is aware of your origin. But yeah. Officially, you're my cousin now." Ben explained. "So what do you think of the name?"
"Richard... Rick... I guess I can get used to that. And I guess according to these couple of death certificates that my legal parents are going to be deceased as well. And I moved all the way from Beverly Hills. Nice." The young clone was looking through the papers that were given to him, getting more and more eager. "Does that mean I get the accent?"
"Feels good to actually have a life of your own, doesn't it... Rick? And how's the hair? Do you like it?" Ben asked, curious at his clone's response. He was also glad over the boy's enthusiasm. "And about the accent, your choice."
"Yeah. I feel less like Peter Parker, and more... like me. And I actually like the hair. And I guess that means I'm gonna need to use the gel to really find my look. Glad I don't look like a mini-me of that..."
"Richard. Didn't I tell you to give that a rest?" Ben scolded him, knowing where it was leading.
"Yes Mom."
"I know you wanted to just say that you wanted to separate yourself from the Peter Parker identity. But try not to play this passive aggressive game. Nursing a needless grudge isn't healthy. Case in point." Ben told his charge, pointing at the television screen.
"All right. So I guess you are my legal guardian then..." Rick continued to read his certificates and official papers, like they were comic books.
"There's also the matter that I'd like you to memorize your backstory, and I'll retroactively teach you the ins and outs of Beverly Hills, so that way, you know that place like the back of your hand, so people don't ask questions if ever you find yourself there. And then, there is another matter in there, that needs to be addressed..." The man stated, as he drank some coffee, knowing what page the boy arrived at.
Reading it, there was a look of sheer disgust, and then a squinting, childish fake glare, as Richard Fitzpatrick just told him, slowly: "I hates you."
