Earth-717: Spider-Man Vol 1
Chapter 11: Winner at Heart
"But I heard the explosion! Loud and clear! It had to be from here!"
May summoned her inner strength to keep herself as calm as possible as she explained herself to the elderly woman for the third time. She was standing in the hallway of the hotel's fourth floor, and was speaking to a woman at the door to her room.
"Ma'am, as I said, I can confirm that the explosion did not originate from our premises. We have already determined the location of the blast. It was Oscorp Tower. Emergency crews are on site and dealing with the issue, and have assured us that there is no danger to the surrounding area."
"I don't believe you. I wanna speak to the manager."
"Ma'am, I am the front desk manager for this hotel."
"Oh. Well . . . . okay."
"You are perfectly safe, ma'am. I assure you."
The woman responded only with a grunt before closing the door. May slowly nodded her head and let out a sigh. She then turned down the hallway and walked towards the elevator. As she reached the end of the hall, she looked up at the window and widened her eyes when she saw Peter swing past the window in his Spider-Man costume. A few seconds later, Max flew past.
May rolled her eyes.
"Always something in this city."
"Why fight when we can race? First one to Brooklyn wins!"
Max responded with another lightning blast, which Peter avoided by letting go of his web line and leaping into the air. Somersaulting, Peter shot another web and twirled around on the end of it, allowing him the chance to shoot a web ball back at Max. The villain dashed out of the way before landing on the wall of the building.
His feet sent a shockwave into the metal, before attaching and allowing him to skate along the wall. Peter let go of his web line and dove downwards, putting some distance between him and Max. Having now reached the edge of Central Park, Peter shot out two webs at once and tugged hard on them, hurling himself into the park.
"YA CAN'T GET AWAY, SPIDER! THIS TIME, YOU AIN'T FIGHTING MAX DILLON! NOW YOU'RE FIGHTING ELECTRO!"
Max leaped off the building and held up his fists. He then landed on a tree, splitting it in two before slamming his fists on the ground. The electrical discharge set the tree's remains and much of the surrounding grass on fire, while also shredding his hoodie. Landing on the ground a couple dozen metres away, Peter then turned back and looked at Max.
Max took a couple steps forward as electricity arced around his whole body.
"Hand that canister over, before I really get mad."
"Don't suppose you wanna consider the two of us just taking a seat and talking this out like completely rational individuals instead of colourful superpowered beings with wacky monikers that try to beat each other into submission?"
Max fumed.
"No."
"Oh well. I tried."
Peter fired two web lines at once, latching them to both of Max's hands. Max roared as a pulse surged from his body, forcing Peter to jump over it. Firing off another quick web line that attached to the chest piece of Max's armour, he launched himself towards the villain and landed a double kick to his chest.
Bouncing off and flipping backwards, Peter fired another double set of web lines at Max's feet and pulled up, tripping him and leaving him on his back.
"Ugh!"
Landing on his feet, Peter tried to cover Max in webs, only for the villain to fire off another pulse, incinerating all the webs around him.
"Uh oh," said Peter.
Sprinting in the opposite direction, Peter then fired a web line into the air, only to watch with disappointment as it didn't attach to anything because there were no buildings in the immediate area.
"Right," he said. "Central Park. Great plan."
Sensing an energy beam heading right at him from behind, Peter performed a sideways barrel roll, dodging the beam and causing it instead to smash into another tree. He then jumped for a different tree and latched onto a high branch.
"The tree health and safety committee is probably gonna sue if you do that again!"
Peter jumped off of the branch as Max zapped it with another electricity shot. Cartwheeling and somersaulting to dodge a salvo of blasts, Peter varied his movements as much as possible, knowing that one miscalculation on his part could mean his death. But having honed his senses over so much time free-running around the city, he elegantly weaved through the barrage of Max's attacks.
Moving away from his foe, Peter once again found himself on the run, hoping that Max would soon be drained from wasting so many energy blasts. Looking forward, Peter gasped when he saw that he was now close to the area where the concert was taking place, and that hundreds of people were still congregated nearby, including multiple police vehicles.
Peter's momentary distraction from mentally processing the knowledge of his location was all that Max needed to toss a shot that hit the grass right under Peter's feet, blasting him off balance and causing him to crash into the ground.
"Agh!"
Max laughed as Peter bounced back to his feet.
"Keep dancin', Spider. See how long you last."
Shooting off a web line to the side, Peter pulled himself further away from Max and bounced off another tree. He was now fairly close to the crowd, and saw some of his friends and classmates, including Mary Jane. Several police officers, being led by Captain George Stacy, were trying to usher the crowd away from the battle.
"DeWolff! You're with me! Gonzalez and the rest of you, get the civilians out of here!"
George and DeWolff ran forward and aimed their weapons at Peter.
"Hands up!" said George.
Peter put up his hands.
"Hey! I'm not the bad guy here!"
"Who are you?!" asked DeWolff, furrowing her brow.
Peter was about to respond when he sensed Max charging at him from behind. Jumping into the air, he avoided shots from George as he flipped backwards over Max's head. Firing two webs at Max's back, he then tugged hard as he landed, pulling the villain back. Still holding the web lines, Peter then performed a sideways double kick that sent Max flying into a nearby tree.
DeWolff gasped as she lowered her pistol. George kept his weapon trained on Peter.
"On the ground!"
Peter looked back at George and shook his head. He then shot a web line at George's gun and yanked it out of his hand, throwing it away.
"Look, Captain. I know this is weird, but I'm on your side! So I'd really, really appreciate it if you didn't shoot me when I try to . . . ."
"SPIDER!"
Peter looked to the side as Max emitted another pulse from his body, destroying the tree he was thrown through. A large, flaming piece of the tree was launched into the air by the pulse, and headed towards the crowd. Most of the people fled out of the way, but Lily was bowled over and ended up on the ground.
She looked up in horror as the flaming tree fell towards her. Just before it crushed her, Peter snatched her off the ground and pulled her out of the way. Peter looked down at Lily, who gulped when she looked at his eyepieces.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Y-Yeah."
"Good."
Peter then jumped back into the battle as Lily got to her feet. Most of the crowd watched in awe as Peter and Max continued their battle.
"Oh my god," said Gwen.
"Who's the dude in tights?" asked Eddie.
"That's Spider-Man!" said Harry. "That's the guy I was telling you about!"
"Go, Spidey!" shouted Flash. "Kick his ass!"
"Wicked," said Mary Jane, watching Peter with a twinkle in her eyes.
Peter dodged a punch from Max before landing one of his own. Max tried to grapple Peter, only for the hero to leap over his head and deliver a kick to his back. Enraged, Max slammed one of his fists against the ground, creating a shockwave that Peter barely managed to roll away from. Max then tried to attack Peter with an electricity beam, only for the glow of his skin to darken.
Max groaned as he realized that he had exhausted himself of electric energy. He then looked around to see that he was surrounded by trees, with no electrical devices nearby.
"What's the matter?" asked Peter. "Gotta switch the batteries?"
Max fumed as he started running towards the edge of the park. Peter shot two web lines that latched to Max's back.
"Nope!" said Peter.
Peter pulled Max back towards him before throwing a forward punch against his face. No longer hurt by touching Max's skin, Peter followed up with a flurry of quick strikes that ended with a kick to the chest that knocked the wind out of the villain.
"BAM!" shouted Peter.
Max flopped to the grass and held onto his stomach in pain. As Peter wrapped Max's arms and chest in webs to keep him locked down, the crowd started to cheer. Peter looked over at the crowd and smiled behind his mask. Harry, Gwen, Eddie, Flash and many others were cheering. Lily gave him an awkward wave. DeWolff clapped. George folded his arms, but did offer Peter a nod.
But Peter's eyes were on Mary Jane, who blew him a kiss. She couldn't see it, but Peter's face turned just as red as his mask. He was so focused on Mary Jane that he didn't heed his senses.
It was a costly mistake.
One of Otto's tentacles grabbed Peter by the back of the neck and lifted him into the air. Another one seized the ISO-36 canister and tore it off of his web sling. With the canister secured, Otto slammed Peter's body against the ground as people screamed. DeWolff pulled out her pistol again and opened fire, but her bullets were deflected by Otto's force field.
The villain scowled at DeWolff before using one of his tentacles to bash her in the chest. She flew backwards and slammed against one of the police vehicles as George rushed to her side. Otto then held Peter's face up to his.
"Quite the display, Spider-Man," said Otto, grinning. "I had hoped that Electro would be enough to deal with you, but, old truths die hard. If you want something done right . . . ."
The tentacle holding Peter slammed him against the ground twice more. Mary Jane held her hands over her mouth as her eyes started to water. Peter cringed as the pain shot through every bone in his body.
"I find it rather fascinating that you continue to throw yourself into harm's way for the sake of others. Especially when you know that such behaviour would inevitably reach this end. Why subject yourself to this? You've lost. You're at my mercy. And this time, there's not an Avenger in sight."
Otto threw Peter away, and his body smacked against a nearby tree. Peter's legs felt like they were made of jelly as he struggled to get back to his feet.
"Defiant to the last," said Otto. "How admirable."
Otto aimed two of his tentacles at Peter, and they charged up with violet energy. As Peter stared at Otto, everything slowed down and his uncle's words once again echoed in his mind.
"I want you to remember something, Peter. Don't worry about whatever happens today. Life goes on, and what hurts you today? That might be just what you overcome tomorrow. Everybody learns and grows, and in the end, we all have to choose to do what we think is right. But no matter what happens, Peter, you'll never truly lose."
"Why?"
"You're a Parker, which means you're a winner at heart."
Peter narrowed his eyes. The lights on the tentacles glowed brighter, indicating that they were about to fire. The crowd held in their breath. Otto widely grinned, confident that victory was in his grasp. Mary Jane felt her heart skip a beat. Peter tuned into his senses, and stretched out his fingers as he prepared for his final play.
Without warning, Peter reached for his belt and twisted the module on it, activating the light signal at maximum intensity. The light beam shined directly into Otto's goggles, and he yelled in pain as he placed his hands over them. His tentacles harmlessly fired their lasers into the air, thrown off by Otto's movement.
With Otto blinded, Peter took the opportunity to launch a web line directly at his face. Latching onto the villain's goggles, Peter then pulled down hard with both hands. Otto shouted as his face was forcibly smashed against the ground, instantly knocking him out. His tentacles flopped down, and Peter webbed them together.
Flipping Otto over, Peter then ripped the power module out of Otto's belt, causing the tentacles to shut down. As Peter stood up straight, the crowd erupted into another wave of raucous cheering and applause. George looked as a couple paramedics moved DeWolff into an ambulance on a stretcher.
"DeWolff. Is she . . . .?"
"She'll be fine," said one of the paramedics. "We'll take care of her."
George sighed with relief before turning back to the other officers.
"Alright, round up the metahumans. Sure Ravencroft is ready for a couple more."
As the officers hauled Otto and Max away, the crowd rushed for Peter. So many people were shouting at the same time that it was difficult to make out what they were saying.
"That was awesome!"
"Took a video! It's already blowin' up!"
"You're so much cooler than Daredevil!"
"Take off the mask!"
"Will you sign my shirt?"
"Who are you?"
Peter looked at Mary Jane when he recognized her voice.
"Who am I?" said Peter. "You know who I am."
Everyone quieted down as Peter looked at Mary Jane.
"I do?" asked Mary Jane, raising an eyebrow.
Peter then gave her a cheeky salute.
"Your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man!"
With that, Peter jumped into the air and fired off a web line at one of the trees. Pulling himself towards the edge of the park, he then swung away using the buildings, with the entire crowd cheering and taking photos with their phones. As Mary Jane watched him swing off into the city, she held her hands together and smiled.