A New Course

With Mary Jane staying on the bridge that was one less thing Peter had to worry about. Right now he had to worry about finding and dismantling the bombs that Shocker had placed on board. That's something I'll have to thank him for, he thought as he and the rest of the ship's security detail went out to locate the bombs for disarming.

One of the things that he was grateful for was that all the decks to the ship would be covered. Spider-Man had figured that the lower decks were the most likely targets but just to be safe, he wanted all the decks checked out.

Spider-Man also warned each group to keep on the lookout for Shocker's men. Since the villain didn't want any of the passengers running around on the ship, he would have to have some of his people make sure that didn't happen. So each team either made their way to their respective decks fast enough not to be spotted or took a route in order not to be spotted by anyone.

Even though he could handle things on his own, Spider-Man was partnered with one of the ship's security officers. His partner was Commander Crenshaw. With him, it would make navigating around the ship that much easier and quicker. Plus, an extra set of eyes wouldn't hurt in case they got spotted.

It didn't take the pair long to reach their destination, which happened to be the bottommost part of the ship. Once again, the wallcrawler relied upon his spider-sense to make sure their exit from the stairwell they used was safe. With no warning, Spider-Man motioned to Crenshaw that it was safe to head into the deck's hallway.

"Which way, Webs, to the left or right?" Crenshaw asked.

Spider-Man looked right and didn't feel a tingle from his spider-sense. With a turn to the left, he felt a slight tingle.

"We take a left, Sarge," Spider-Man answered as he leapt up to the ceiling and began crawling in that direction.

Crenshaw took the webhead's advice and followed.

"Any particular reason for going this way?"

"Let's just say I have a pretty good feeling that we are heading in the right direction."

They didn't get too far when Spider-Man abruptly stopped and got off the ceiling to stand beside his partner.

"What is it?" Crenshaw asked at their sudden stop.

"Let's take a look in there," Spider-Man told him.

A nod from Crenshaw's head let the wallcrawler know that he agreed. Spider-Man grabbed the door knob and turned to open it but the door wouldn't open. Adding some spider-strength on his next attempt proved successful as they then entered the room.

Once inside, Spider-Man asked his partner, "Do you mind keeping watch by the door in case someone tries to come our way?"

"Sure," Crenshaw replied as he left the door slightly ajar so that could get a glimpse if anyone came their way.

With that taken care of, Spider-Man began his search. Using his spider-sense as a guide, it took him very little time to find the explosive device.

"I found it!" he exclaimed as he started to examine the bomb.

"Do you think you can disarm it?" Crenshaw asked with concern.

"I'm going to try."

With his spider-sense tingling at a pretty good pace, Spider-Man had to concentrate to discern what would be the best course to take. You know, this would be so much easier if there was a simple switch to deactivate this thing, he thought as he continued to probe the device with his fingers.

Suddenly, his spider-sense spiked when he touched a part on the bomb that looked like a computer chip that had four wires coming from it and attached to the bomb. The wires were different colors and they were: black, blue, red and white.

"Now, to figure out which one or ones to disconnect," Spider-Man said to himself as he fingered the wires to get a reaction from his spider-sense.

Out of the four wire connections, three of them made his spider-sense tingle violently. Those wires were the ones colored blue, red and white.

"How's it lookin' out there, Commander?" Spider-Man asked before disconnecting the first wire.

"There's no one in sight," replied Crenshaw as he continued at his task. "How's the bomb coming?"

"Just about ready to disarm it."

"Good luck, webhead."

"Thanks."

Spider-Man grabbed the blue wire firmly and gave it a good yank. Luckily, nothing happened. Letting out a breath he didn't realize he held the wallcrawler did the same thing to the remaining wires with the same result as the first one.

"No boom… Now that's a very good thing," Spider-Man said to himself, relieved that he was able to disarm the bomb. "Crenshaw, the bomb's disarmed… despite having no arms to begin with."

Crenshaw then replied, "Great – but do you always have to crack wise in situations like this?"

"In a word, no, but it's an edge-breaker and a habit I have. Have you heard from anyone else yet?"

Just as the security team member was about to answer, they got one over the radio. "This is Clark on the eighth deck. We've found the device and would like assistance to disarm."

"Okay, I'll talk you through it since I already disarmed the one here," Spider-Man told Clark. "Is there anyone else that has found one on their respective decks?"

"Jackson here, bomb has been found on deck six," another team mentioned.

And yet another team reported, "We've done the same on the fifth deck and are waiting for further orders."

"What about teams on decks one, two, three and four? Have you guys found anything?" Crenshaw interjected.

The teams from the mentioned decks reported that there was no sign of any bomb on those decks. Spider-Man gave them a description of the bomb that he had found to see if they were the same type and to make sure those upper deck teams didn't over look anything. The response was negative for the upper level decks. While the ones that had reported that they found the bomb, they said that the description was exactly the same as the one Spider-Man had already disarmed.

"All right, you guys on decks one to four, half go back to the bridge and the rest head back to the security office," ordered Crenshaw to his men.

"What about the team on deck seven? We haven't heard a thing from them yet," Spider-Man inquired.

"Did you hear that, Mathews and Cates? What's your status on seven?" Crenshaw asked over the radio.

"This is Cates, Commander. We're still looking… wait, Mathews just found the bomb," the female security officer informed her superior.

"Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I'll talk you through the disarming process," Spider-Man began to tell the others. "Everyone ready?"

"Yes, sir," came their reply.

Spider-Man instructed them to locate a part on the side of the bomb that resembled a computer chip. When they had all found that piece of the device, he then explained to them that three out of the four wires attached to the chip had to be disconnected in order to deactivate the bomb. The webslinger then told them that the blue, red and white wires had to be disconnected.

When each group had completed their task, they replied, "The three wires have been disconnected."

"Good job, everyone," Spider-Man said.

"He's right, you all did great," added Crenshaw with a sigh of relief.

"Now with the hard part done, I want you to bring the bombs to the bridge so that we can figure out a way to store them and then dispose of them when we reach land. Anyone have any ideas on where we can keep 'em?"

"Commander, there's a couple of footlockers in one of the storage areas on the deck that Van and I are on. We can grab one and bring it up to the bridge," Clark informed them.

"That should do," Commander Crenshaw answered.

"One more thing, be careful heading back up to the bridge because Shocker's goons are probably keeping an eye out on every deck now," added Spider-Man.

They all agreed with what the wallcrawler had said and they ended the conversation to head back to the bridge.

"Ready, webhead?" Crenshaw asked.

"Just a sec, CC," Spider-Man told his partner as he encased the bomb in some webbing for easy transport and to cushion it just in case it fell from their grasp. "We're good to go now."


"What the hell is taking that buffoon so long?" Shocker asked no one in particular.

"A problem, boss?" one of his men asked as he re-joined Shocker.

"Go and see what is keeping O'Connor. He should've been back from taking that guy to see the doc."

"But boss, I just got back from perimeter check."

"You questioning my orders," Shocker told his subordinate as one of his vibro-shock gauntlets crackled with energy.

"No, no, boss. I'll get right on it." He quickly left to carry out his orders.

"That's what I thought you'd say."


Commander Crenshaw took a quick look out the door and with no one in sight, gave a nod to Spider-Man to let him know that it was all right to go. Before exiting the room, the webslinger secured the deactivated bomb with a couple of his suit's waldoes and just like before, he took to the ceiling.

"With all the bombs deactivated, it should be smooth sailing from now on," Crenshaw noted as they neared the stairwell.

"The hard part is definitely over but we still have Shocker to deal with," Spider-Man informed his friend, knowing full well what going up against his arch foe was like.

"So, how are we going to bring that Shocker character down then, webhead?"

"I'm not sure, at least not yet because there are several passengers that he could do anything to. Whatever happens, I want the Captain to know what is going to happen."

"I agree."

They were about to enter the stairwell when someone exited that very place and flashed a semi-automatic weapon at the pair which had also set off the wallcrawler's spider-sense.

Shocker's henchman told them, "Well, well, well. If either of you move an inch, you'll be spending eternity in Davy Jones' Locker."


AN: That's all for this chapter. Please feel free to leave a review because I would like to hear from you. Constructive criticism is welcome but flames are not.