Public Enemy
A Spectacular Spider-Man Fanfic by Quill N. Inque
I do not own Spider-Man
Chapter 11: Endgame
(Say it with me, everyone: MORTAL KOMBAT! XD)
The two opponents circled each other slowly like two jungle cats, each looking for an opening while silently daring his counterpart to make the first move. They were yin and yang personified, and the embodiment of two eternal, conflicting forces.
Though he would never admit it, Spidey was slightly uneasy going one-on-one with Tombstone. The crime lord was one of the few people who had bested him in a physical confrontation. But his anxiety vanished as he remembered him putting a gun to Gwen's head just moments ago. Rage unlike any other he had ever known boiled up inside him, burning the blood in his veins and clouding his vision red. Peter hated Tombstone, hated all he stood for, hated the way the mobster had brought so much pain and suffering on his loved ones.
With this in mind, the web-head charged recklessly forward, and hero met villain with eye-blurring speed.
Spidey caught his nemesis a lucky blow to the jaw as Tombstone drove the breath from him with a punch to the gut. Blocking out the nauseating pain, Spidey blocked a kicked to the head and countered with a punch to the ribs, which caused The Big Man to gasp double over momentarily. The masked man took advantage of his momentary distraction, and sent Tombstone's head snapping back with a heel to the chin. Sensing victory, the wall-crawler jumped high in the air, intent on bringing the sole of his foot down on the Big Man's face. But as he plummeted earthward, Tombstone seized the outstretched limb and slammed Spider-Man into the floor, a look of irritation and boredom upon his bleached features. Without missing a beat, the Big Man swung a hard left and fractured the wall-crawler's jaw, finishing up with a knee to Spider-Man's face.
It all happened in less than a minute, and the crunch of bone echoed through the halls of the abandoned cathedral as blood stained the material of Spidey's mask.
With a contemptuous kick, the crime lord sent his archenemy crashing through the several rotten wooden pews. Wiping the crimson ribbon from his snow-white chin, the mob boss advanced on his stunned combatant. "You make me sick, boy," he said in his calm, level tones. "Do you really think you're making a difference? Do you honestly believe all that 'good and evil' hooey? You're an idealistic fool, with absolutely no idea of how the real world works. Power is the only way to get by, and the more you have, the better off you'll be! Which begs the question," he added as his hand tightened around Spider-Man's throat like a vise, "Why? You are stronger, faster and smarter than any of them, and yet you choose to subscribe to a code of so-called 'ethics' and 'morals', bleeding and suffering to protect a city full of people who want you dead anyway! You are just…infuriating! You act like there's some point to all your struggling! Honestly, it's a wonder you've been able to stay alive this long! But no matter; that is a situation easily corrected."
As Tombstone's pale hand swung him off the ground and began to crush his windpipe, Spidey saw spots dance in his vision. His head swam, and the world began to rotate rapidly as unconsciousness threatened to claim him.
The Big Man laughed aloud with evil joy as his enemy writhed and struggled to breathe.
Meanwhile, at the NYPD headquarters…..
Captain George Stacy was getting desperate. His world-famous gut was screaming that something big was going down, he just didn't know what that thing was.
And his gut had never been wrong before. Ever.
But with Spider-Man seemingly vanished into thin air, he found himself practically begging the Chief of Police to believe that the mayor was not as he appeared.
Stacy didn't know why or how he knew, but he felt, on some instinctive level, that he had to unmask Chameleon, and quickly.
"So, let me get this straight," his superior said sarcastically. "You believe that Mr. Doyle, our duly elected mayor, is actually a foreign superspy in the pay of 'The Big Man', a mobster who we aren't even sure exists?"
"Yes, sir."
"George, go home and get some rest. You're obviously suffering from sleep deprivation."
"You've got to believe me! I know what I heard!" Stacy protested as he moved toward the door. "Look at it this way, Chief..." he began. When in doubt, appeal to ambition, the Captain thought wryly.
"Go on…" the man said, desiring only to get George out of his office.
"If I'm right, you get to take down one of the most wanted men-at-large in the country. You'll become an overnight hero and a shoo-in for Commissioner; maybe even win a seat on the City Council."
"And if you're wrong?"
"Then I make an idiot of myself, you get to fire me, and you still get commended for being thorough and checking out every lead. Either way, sir, you win."
The Chief tapped his chin thoughtfully, as visions of promotions, medals, and pay raises danced in his mind.
"Well, when you put it that way…"
Back at the old cathedral….
Spider-Man fought against the blackness in the corners of his vision as Tombstone slowly strangled him. His oxygen-deprived brain raced as he felt Death begin to embrace him.
I may die here, Tombstone, but not before I take you down, Spidey thought defiantly. As the darkness began to claim him, he reached out blindly and grabbed the Big Man's index finger, twisting around violently with a sickening cracking sound.
The death grip promptly vanished, and Peter thudded to the floor, gasping, as his foe clutched his broken finger. His eyes shut against the pain, Tombstone drew in a shuddering breath before rounding on the web-slinger.
"You will die slowly, Spider-Man," he ground out. "I'll make you watch them die before I put you out of your misery!" Lashing out with his fist, he brutally backhanded Gwen in the face without even turning around.
With a bellow of rage, the hero closed the distance between them in a nanosecond, and slugged the Big Man in the face with all the strength he could muster. Spidey's fist made contact with a sound like an iron rod smacking into a wet slab of meat, and a surge of dark satisfaction washed through him.
Tombstone fell, stunned, to the floor, but all thoughts of mercy and restraint had left Spider-Man's heart. Again and again, the web-head's fists pummeled his sworn enemy in a berserk fury, intent on inflicting his vengeance on the one who had dared raise a hand to Gwen.
Gwen and Aunt May watched in horror as Peter gave in to his fury, stunned beyond words at Spidey's brutality.
"I'll break you in two," the hero snarled savagely as he thrashed his enemy.
From his position on the floor, Tombstone laughed. "Is that so? Maybe you and I aren't so different after all!"
Peter stopped as the Big Man's words invoked memories of his…other self, during that disturbing encounter with his mirror a while ago. Spider-Man suddenly felt the urge to vomit, disgusted with himself for giving in to his rage.
The hail of punches stopped, and the web-head moved away slowly. Taking deep breaths, Spider-Man closed his eyes briefly, and felt an immense calm settle over him."I'm nothing like you," he said softly.
Seeing his enemy succumb once more to his nauseating sense of right and wrong, Tombstone sneered. "Just because you show restraint when fighting me doesn't mean I'll return the favor!" he lunged at the web-head with a second thought, anticipating the pleasure of snapping Spider-Man's neck.
That might have worked early on, but now the wall-crawler's judgement was unimpeded by anger and hate, and Peter coolly sidestepped the Big Man's intended killing blow.
"Tomby, I'll be the first person to admit he's not perfect. But I am not, and will never, become like you," he said calmly as he punched the crime lord on the back of the head. "When this is over, the world will see you for what you really are, a bully and a thug, and nothing more." Peter dodged a wild haymaker and landed a rabbit punch to the Big Man's kidneys as he continued. "You're a plague, Tombstone, a disease upon this city! You flood the streets with crime and drugs; you destroy innocent lives just to line your own pockets! I have my faults, but you are the lowest of the low!"
Carried on by his own momentum, Tombstone staggered, shaking his head violently like an enraged bull as he fought to regain his balance. "Save your breath! This fight is far from over, Spider Man!"
The Mayor's office, City Hall.
"Jeff Doyle" chuckled darkly to himself. Part of him regretted missing out on Tombstone's final showdown with that pestilential arachnid; it was always quite show to watch Tombstone beat someone to death. But he needed to maintain his cover, if only for a little while longer.
"How can I help you, Captain?" the Chameleon asked, not looking up from the paperwork he was pretending to work on.
This proved to be a costly mistake. If he had bothered to raise his eyes, the spymaster would have seen George approaching his desk, hand outstretched. He would have been able to get away before Stacy's hand clutched the rubbery material of his mask before yanking it off roughly.
The officers present couldn't help but gasp as Stacy held up the now-useless disguise triumphantly. Turning toward Chameleon, he reached for a pair of handcuffs-
But he never got a chance to use them as the villain swept his legs out from under him and leapt toward the window. As he ran to freedom, Chameleon laughed.
"You're too late, Stacy! By now, Spider-Man's cooling corpse will be lying on the floor of St. Agnes' Church!" Cackling wickedly, the madman shattered the expensive bay window and disappeared.
The man nearest him sighed. "I'll call dispatch; even a guy like him couldn't have gotten too far."
A grim smile flitted across the Captain's features. "No need."
"What?"
George nodded toward the shards of glass littering the office floor. "In his melodrama, 'Mr. Mayor' seem to have forgotten that his office is on the eighth floor. The coroner's gonna need a spatula to scrape up what's left of him. But at least he was nice enough to give us Spider-Man's location."
The other man rushed toward the window and looked down, but immediately popped his head back inside. "Yuck."
It was an apt description. Far below, a crowd of horrified pedestrians gathered in horrified fascination around the bloody mess that had once been the Chameleon.
But George didn't waste time grieving. "Put out a citywide call for backup, Lieutenant. I think it's time we went to an early Mass."
Back at St. Agnes' Church...
Peter and his counterpart were beginning to tire. Gone was the witty banter and scathing insults of earlier. Now Spider-Man and Tombstone were fighting a war of attrition, each focusing only on defeating the other. They made no sound, except for their ragged breathing.
It was a simple, no-holds-barred, fight-to-the-finish slugfest.
Tombstone swung wildly and hit Peter in the ribs as the hero landed a punishing blow to his jaw. The Big Man and his counterpart both staggered, but the pause was only momentary as they fought grimly on.
Spidey's body was on fire; every part of him hurt. He figured Tombstone had cracked several ribs, and his face was a mass of bruises. Peter was utterly exhausted; his body had never been pushed so far before.
But he couldn't quit. Gwen and May were depending on him. Peter had no doubt that the Big Man would kill them out of pure spite if the mood took him.
All the more reason to end this now, the web-head thought as his archenemy sent him reeling with yet another punch.
Spidey ducked Tombstone's next blow, going under his outstretched arm in order to get in close. Once Peter was inside Tombstone's guard, he began to pummel him relentlessly, not out of anger, but out of a desire to finish this fight before anyone else got hurt.
The wall-crawler's fist drove Tombstone's breath from his body with an enormous whoosh. Spider-Man drove his body to the limit, hitting the Big Man with blow after blow in the chest and face before he could recover.
Tombstone was one of those lucky people gifted with an almost inhuman physical endurance, one that exceeded even Peter's. The mobster could take an impossible amount of physical punishment before he even thought of lying down.
Despite this, his powerful body finally began to give way under the web-head's relentless assault. His cold, calculating eyes began to cloud over. Sensing victory, Spider-Man pulled his hand back, throwing all the energy he had left into one final blow.
The force of his punch's impact sent Tombstone flying across the room, and his battered body made a small crater, laced with cracks, when it hit the old structure's unforgiving masonry.
The mob boss's eyes rolled back into his head and the Big Man of Crime collapsed, not unconscious, but severely weakened to the point where movement was impossible. At least, temporarily.
Not sparing his enemy a second glance, Peter ran over to his friend and his Aunt, using his adrenaline high to snap the plastic ties binding them like paper chains.
"Are you a'right?" he asked, his voice slurring slightly.
"We're fine, Peter," Aunt May said. "But I wonder if the same can be said for you."
"Don' worry 'bout it." Beneath his mask, Peter gave a lopsided grin. "I'll be fine."
Distracted as they were with their touching reunion, neither Spider-Man nor his loved ones notice Tombstone begin to stir. Shaking with effort, the crime lord hobbled over to where he had dropped his gun at the beginning of the fight, mumbling incoherently to himself.
"No one beats me," the evil mastermind muttered as he leveled the gun with trembling hands. "I am the Big Man! I AM TOMBSTONE!" he shouted as he took unsteady aim.
His timing couldn't have been worse. It was at that moment precisely that Captain George Stacy and his men burst through the now-ruined wooden doors of St. Agnes, weapons drawn. When George saw the man level a gun at his daughter, he reacted instinctively and without hesitation, as did every officer with him.
Over a dozen firearms went off simultaneously as Spidey's enemy was riddled with bullets. A delicate crimson spray filled the air as the dastardly villain was gunned down where he stood.
L. Thompson Lincoln, the Big Man of Crime, was dead before he hit the floor.
"I think that's my cue to leave," Spidey muttered to Gwen as he stepped behind a massive marble column in order to leave without being spotted.
"Okay," said Gwen, her eyes dancing. "Just one thing before you go…"
"What's that?"
In response, Gwen lifted Peter's mask just above his mouth and kissed him.
His shock was almost immediately overridden with joy. This was what he had always wanted, what Peter had dreamed about for years and never hoped to attain. Spidey's heart pounded against his chest, and pulled her closer as Gwen wrapped her arms around him.
Reluctantly pulling out of her embrace, he murmured, "I need to leave before they notice me. Meet me in an hour at my house?"
"I'll be there," Gwen replied shyly.
Spider-Man was bloody, sore, battered and exhausted as he left the condemned church that day.
And he had never been happier.
A/N: Well, Tomby got what he deserved, in my opinion. But I'm afraid the next chapter will also be the last…*cries*…But I've had an absolute BALL writing this! Seriously, this has been a blast, everybody, and I'm enormously grateful for all your wonderful comments and suggestions! (By the way, don't worry, I'll answer your questions and comments in the next chapter, kay? ^^)
Sincerely yours,
-Quill N. Inque