Weathering the Storm

After Spider-Man had asked the captain about assisting in taking back the cruise ship, the wallcrawler extended his hand to the man.

It didn't take the captain long to make up his mind. Taking a firm grasp of Spider-Man's hand, he said, "Whatever we can do to help, webhead."

"Finally, someone on this ship knows who I am!" exclaimed Spider-Man in relief.

That brought a few snickers from the bridge crew, including the captain.

"Oh, for the love of…" Mary Jane muttered but she couldn't hold back the small smile she had, which didn't go unnoticed by her husband. He responded back with a slight shrug.

"What are we going to do with webbed twins?" asked a curious first officer.

"Do you have a brig or something like that on board?" Spider-Man answered with a question of his own.

"Not in the sense of a military vessel," the captain told him, "but we do have a cell down in security that should do the job."

"Sounds good, there's another one of Shocker's goons down in the infirmary with the good doctor. I promised him if I could find another place for the guy that I'd take him off the doc's hands."

"I'll get security to go pick the man up then." The captain went over to the communications station but before he could do anything, a message came over the ship's PA.

"My fellow passengers… My name is Shocker and I have now commandeered this ship. I have informed the cruise line of my intentions – if they want to insure the safety of this vessel, they must deposit a hundred million dollars in the Swiss bank account that I have given them or I will sink this ship. They have forty-eight hours to accomplish this task. Everyone is to stay in their cabins; anyone who does not will be dealt with severely. My men will be placed throughout the ship to make sure of this. That is all." There was a small click as the Shocker ended his broadcast.

"Now that we know what this Shocker character has in store, what's our first move?" the ship's first officer questioned.

"After we get Shocker's men from here and the infirmary locked up, we'll have to start looking those bombs that he has set throughout the ship," Spider-Man informed the crew.

"You mean that's how he plans on sinking this ship if he doesn't get what he wants?" a member of the crew asked.

"It's true, that's what he told everyone who was at the costume party," Mary Jane added.

"I didn't know the webhead had a partner?" another member of the crew asked.

Mary Jane quickly explained, "He doesn't, unless you count the Avengers – but that's another story. Spider-Man helped me out with that guy that is currently in the infirmary and he didn't want me wandering the ship on my own so we stuck together."

Peter just had to smile underneath his mask. He was very proud of his wife for leading the ship's crew from a possible connection between his webbed clad alias and being with her.

"Now, back to the course of action we need to take," Spider-Man started. "Captain, do you have any other means to contact your ship's security? I'd rather not tip off our 'friend' that we regained control of the ship."

"Yes, each member of security carries a radio in case they need to call for back up," replied the Captain.

"Good, but once you inform them about what's going on and pick up the guy in security, tell them to switch radio frequencies so that they can't be traced. Can they even change frequencies?"

One of the other crew members joined the conversation, "That's something we can do, Spidey. I should know, since I'm part of the ship's security."

"I should've asked if one of you guys were here. Anyway, you can contact your buddies about the current situation. Plus, let them know that we need as many of them to get up here quickly, without being seen."

"All right, I'm on it."

"Now that that is taken care of, once we get more security up here, that's when we'll go bomb hunting."

"You mean you want us to go look for those bombs?" the first officer queried.

"Unfortunately yes, if there is any way we can remove them or even deactivate them we need to take that chance. But I wouldn't worry about that yet until we get some help. Now, I need a place where I can possibly place a call."

The Captain immediately asked, "Who would you call?"

"The Ghostbusters," Spider-Man joked… but it didn't have the desired effect since no one laughed. "Seriously, I'm going to try to get in touch with my fellow Avengers." He also mumbled to himself, Geez, they can't take a joke.

The Captain directed the wallcrawler over to a corner of the bridge to make his call.

Pulling out the ID card, Spider-Man activated it. I hope this works, he said to himself as he crossed his fingers for luck.

Unfortunately, the only thing that Spider-Man was getting off the card was static. He continued to try but there was no change.

"Damn it!! I figured I would run into this kind of problem. The boss really needs to increase the signal on these things or give them some kind of satellite capability," Spider-Man stated, frustrated that he couldn't contact his teammates.

"No luck, huh?" Mary Jane asked, reading the body language of her husband very well.

"None whatsoever."

"Any luck, Spider-Man?" the Captain asked as he came over to check up on him.

"I'm sorry, Captain. We're out of range for me to get a signal out to them or it's something else, I don't know. For the time being, we are on our own."

It was at that time that a group of men and women entered the bridge and one of them approached the captain.

"You wanted to see us, sir?" the man asked after he gave his Captain a salute.

"That I did, Sergeant Crenshaw. You've heard what's happened to the ship, correct?"

"Yes, sir, we also picked up that man down in the infirmary and secured him down in security. There are a couple of men keeping an eye on him. So, where are the two you wanted us to take down?"

"They're over there," the Captain pointed out the two webbed clad figures.

"Who in the hell did that?"

"That would be me, your friendly seafaring Spider-Man," the wallcrawler told the security man.

"Wow, Spidey… How did you…?"

"We don't have time for that now, Crenshaw. There have been bombs placed throughout the ship that we need to locate," the Captain informed the Sergeant and the rest of the security team that was there.

"Shocker, who happens to be the man who devised this hijacking, wants to sink the ship if his demands aren't met. So, our job is to find those bombs," added Spider-Man.

"But what do we do when we find them?" a female member of the security team asked.

"The best scenario would be when the bombs are found to disarm them. You wouldn't happen to have anyone familiar with dismantling a bomb?"

There was some talk amongst everyone in the security group and bridge crew. The webslinger silently hoped that someone would have some kind of knowledge to disarm a bomb. You know if no one can, I may be able to use my spider-sense as a guide to deactivate them, Spider-Man pondered.

"I'm sorry, Spider-Man but there's no one that has that kind of expertise," Crenshaw disappointedly explained.

"That's okay. I didn't think there would be someone that could do that except for possibly me."

"I didn't know that you could do that, webhead," a member of the security team mentioned.

"Well…"

Spider-Man never had the chance to come up with an explanation as to how he would go about that task when he was interrupted by Mary Jane.

"May I have a word with you?" she asked as she pulled her husband off to the side, out of ear shot of everyone.

"What's the matter, MJ?" Spider-Man asked, curiously.

"What do you mean, what's the matter? You've never disarmed a bomb before in your life. How can you truly believe that you can pull something like that off?" Mary Jane worriedly asked.

Grabbing hold of Mary Jane's hands to ease her worry, he explained, "By using my spider-sense like I do in a fight to avoid danger, I should be able to do the same thing in disarming a bomb. Plus, I should be able to find the explosive device that much quicker using it. I'll also be able to help the others who find a bomb and talk them through deactivating it over the radio in my mask once I tune in to their frequency."

"All right, I see your point. But if you run into any kind of trouble…"

"…I'll stop what I'm doing and just take the bomb away and toss it overboard."

"Good luck, sweetheart." Mary Jane gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks, we could all use it. Just stay here and I'll be back before you know it."

Spider-Man and Mary Jane went back to the others to discuss what he had planned. He suggested that they split up in teams of two or three and that each group would have one deck to search. They would need to be on the lookout for any of Shocker's men and to avoid them if possible.

The wallcrawler reminded them that they would be on the same radio frequency to stay in contact with each other. Also, when they found the bomb, he would talk them through disarming it. He told them that once the bomb has been deactivated, they could take it and toss it overboard.

Now that they had a plan, they divided themselves up into groups and began their search.

"Be careful, Tiger," Mary Jane silently said as Spider-Man left with everyone else to put a stop to Shocker's scheme.


AN: Please take the time to leave a review because I really like to hear what you think about this chapter and the story so far. Constructive criticism is welcome but flames are not.