The Reaction
For the first time, Dmitri felt completely out of his element. Until he had established a place in the city of New York, he had often dealt with 'difficult' people, people he dealt with verbal and physical assault. But now, coming across a behemoth that resembled a fabled creature, he wished someone had told him in the past how to deal with such dreaded figures.
"Who did you say you are again?" Dmitri frowned.
"I'm the one who is not bound by anything. I am the one brought back into the modern world by science. SCIENCE. My maker was a bold man but he can be even more, he can be even better. That's why he has me! The Green Goblin!" he gave out a wicked cackle.
"And you are going to tell me where Peter Parker is!"
Hoping to distract the creature and stop whatever attempts it might have in attacking him, Dmitri went along with the conversation after he got his wits together.
"I do not know that name. If he is one of those who are competing, he must be inside." Dmitri said desperately.
"Well, I can't say this does not disappoint me. The fact that you don't know every single competitor makes me see you as incompetent as well as putting me in a very foul mood." The creature threatened.
"I don't have to discuss to you how I run business. I know what kind of 'person' you are by your personality." Dmitri spat out. "You like violence…." At this time, as Dmitri continued to lay on the ground, he used his hand to carefully reach inside his pocket to retrieve something vital for him to get out of the predicament he was in. "I do as well. The only difference between you and me is that I use it when necessary."
"I feel it's necessary to kill you now…Isn't that amusing?" the creature laughed and the glider he rode on powered up its weapons systems. Dmitri saw his chance and he took it. Quickly, he threw a gas ball from his pocket. It landed several feet in front of him.
Dmitri ran as fast as he could with the goblin coughing and while at the same time, projectiles from the glider shot off all around the area. It had been circling around trying to find its target, trying to find him.
"Where'd ya go?"
A relieved Ben arrived back home full of life again. A weight of bricks was off him. The thought of losing May was almost too much but in the end, all was well. He couldn't wait to break the news to Peter. 'May's gonna be alright.' he thought happily. As he drove up the driveway to his house and stationed his car, Ben could hear the yelling from the other house beside his. Ben tried not to get caught up with whatever was going on in the Watson household. Instead, he marched up his front steps to his house and proceeded to head in.
The door to the Watson house suddenly burst open and it was then that Ben froze and remained fixated at the scene that was going on. A tearful yet very enraged Mary-Jane Watson came out with a backpack on. Ben squinted his eyes when he saw that a gash had been made on her forehead. 'My word! What in blazes is going on?' he wondered.
"I'm going to make this easier for you!" she pointed her index finger at her father. There was ferocity in her tone as she came face to face with her father.
"I can leave and never come back or I can call the police! It's your choice!" she barked.
"You ain't going anywhere!" her father hissed and quickly grabbed her wrist making her wince. "You belong here! And you'll always belong here as long as I'm living!"
"Dennis, please!" A meek Mary-Jane's mother came up. She was met with a slap to her face and knocking her down on the doorstep.
"Hey!" Uncle Ben had enough and walked over to the scene. "What the hell's going on here, Dennis?" he yelled.
"This does not concern you!" Dennis warned.
"But you heard what your daughter just said!" Ben said. "You can either let go of her or I'll be the one to call the police." he warned.
"She is my daughter! She'll do what I say when I say it!"
"Child Protective Services could disregard that what with the bruises and scars that you inflict upon your very family! Your daughter does not need this and she doesn't need you if you keep this up!"
Dennis let go of Mary Jane until she landed on the pavement. Ben did not have time to block the fist hitting him in his cheek. Such rage was within him, Ben had no choice but to retaliate.
Ben blocked Dennis second punch and gave a left to his chin while another one was aimed for his gut. Ben then kneed him while Dennis was clutching his stomach, knocking him out cold.
Mary Jane looked stunned while Dennis' wife looked on as if she was comatose, unable to say or do anything.
Ben sighed. "I'm sorry about all this. But he should not be doing that to any of you! You have a responsibility to do something about it." he looked over at Mary Jane. "You're strong. You were able to stand up to him. That counts for something. I'm going inside to call the police. Hopefully Peter's asleep by now."
"I saw Peter going off somewhere." Mary Jane's mother spoke up.
"You did?" Mary Jane frowned. "Where did he go?"
"I'm not sure but in the direction he was heading, it must be the city."
Uncle Ben took out his cell phone and tried to call Peter. There was no answer. 'I guess I'll have to find him.'
Gwen sat enjoying the loser opponents going one on one with Mr. Payne. For three minutes, an amateur had to hold up his own against a very superior opponent. To no avail, Mr. Payne subdued every single fighter one by one. Gwen couldn't help but laugh at the humor at some of the fighters.
"It's interesting how these guys think they have a chance. They're going out like heroes at least." Gwen laughed.
"I think it's interesting that the people here were nice enough to bring the injured fighters out by real medical staff." Harry said to her.
"Only the finest for those 'unwisest'." a joking Gwen agreed.
"Yeah and if Peter was here, he'd go on with every explanation as to how wrong this is." Harry said.
"That sounds like it has a double meaning."
"Maybe it does." Harry turning to look at her properly now.
Gwen looked back and for a while, she had an expression on her face that signaled shame.
"You said you wanted to talk about Peter. What is it you wanted to talk about?"
Gwen sighed. "I gotta say you're pretty persistent. I mean, I have to say I'm surprised you wanted to come with us considering what I asked you to do."
"You haven't answered my question." he said softly.
"Lately I've been feeling very confused Harry." she whispered to him.
"What do you mean?"
"Lately...I kind of feel bad doing all this."
"Oh finally you see what I've been trying to say." Harry muttered.
"But if I call it off, then I'll be considered an outcast. Flash will be upset about this obviously. But on the other hand, Peter...he..." Gwen was hesitant to reveal more.
"Don't worry about it." Harry simply said after a while.
Seconds after the last guy went into the arena, Peter felt butterflies in his stomach beginning to turn. He couldn't tell if it was from excitement or nervousness. Whatever he came up with to battle his opponent, it would surely make heads turn. From where he stood, Peter cracked his knuckles. His anxiety was starting to disappear as soon as he thought of past events in his school life.
He was outside in front of the school. He was facing the ground and avoided looking at the sole person responsible for binding him to the pole. Flash, who had concocted the scheme in order to embarrass Peter in front of the whole school. A more mild-mannered Peter was tied to the flagpole. A circle of students was made around him. Peter and Flash were at the center.
"Hey let's play 'pin the tail' on Peter Parker!"
"We don't have any pins, man." Kong joked.
Another flashback occurred in Peter's mind. This time, it was a year after that very event.
As Peter opened his locker, a huge fish was seen suspended, giving off a hideous odor. Peter closed the door and turned the door with all the students including Flash laughing at him.
Snapping back to reality, Peter was more than willing to let loose. As the fighter before him was dispelled, it was Peter's turn. 'This is it.' He wanted to say and approached the announcer who came back in.
"Man…it is a slaughterhouse out there!" he chuckled as he wiped the sweat from his brow. His eyes bulged as he saw Peter. "Oh man! Another one! Alrighty then kid, trying to man up huh? What do I call you?"
"What?" Peter frowned.
"Your name, your stage name." the restless announcer said.
'Oh crap…I got nothing.' He thought as he searched for anything in his mind for a good name. "How about Man-Spider?" he shrugged.
"Are you kidding me?" the announcer lifted an eyebrow. "Alright then let me do it for you, how about I call you Spider-"
"Hey!" a man wearing a headset came backstage. "He's on! Hurry!" he gave the thumbs up.
"Right let's go kid!" he said grabbing Peter by the shoulder.
"Wait! What were you going to call me?"
But the announcer merely pushed Peter forward and immediately Peter was headed to a cage-like ring. He had seen from a replay shown on a screen on top of the stands that Mr. Payne, as the undisputed fighter was called, gave a roundhouse kick to the amateur fighter that went before Peter. Peter stopped by the steps that led to the ring.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" the announcer boomed and yet the microphone he had was making his voice scratchy and monotonous. It sounded as if his voice was going up and down a couple of octaves. For that, Peter wasn't even sure if the audience even heard him. He had the urge to shake his head in disappointment.
Inside the ring, Peter was at his corner looking at the monstrous fighter known as Mr. Payne who was located at the other corner. Peter made himself ready. Peter had barely heard Mr. Payne's introduction.
"The last fighter going up against the mightiest and fastest fighter that ever reigned the ring is the Amazing-" the microphone reached a high pitch and got cut off but nevertheless the crowd hissed and booed.
Peter felt embarrassment and frustration already. He closed his eyes to hide himself the stares from everybody in the stadium. Suddenly his instincts were acting up. 'That tricked-up Spider-sense of mine is acting up!' he thought.
Peter opened his eyes and saw Mr. Payne charging at him. Peter ran toward him on instinct and instantly he felt speared to the ground. Immediately he grappled with Mr. Payne as best he could. It seemed as if Mr. Payne had years ahead of him as well as more experience than Peter. Immediately he got out of the hold and stood up.
He gave out several punches to Mr. Payne's face, a left one and then a right one. Mr. Payne looked aggravated and let out a hand to Peter's throat and led him to the cage wall. Peter began to get pummeled. He did his best to block the punches.
The crowd cheered in excitement.
"Ladies and gents, this fight just got real!" the announcer said with great enthusiasm.
Using his lightning fast speed, Peter grabbed both fists and sent a kick to Mr. Payne's chin, making him stagger back. Peter began to get close to him again. Mr. Payne let out a serious of kicks and jabs which made Peter counter back with some of his own. Several hit Peter while several hits were made to Mr. Payne.
"It's gonna get old school, right now!" the announcer shouted.
Gwen leaned forward as well as Harry who looked entertained for once. The fight looked intense and he wished she could see better.
"Oh my God! Who is this guy?" Harry asked. "He's holding up pretty well."
"I don't know but he's got my vote hands down!" Gwen cheered.
Peter heard the clapping and cheering louder than ever before. Suddenly his neck was caught by his foe's own hand again, and Peter felt as if he was being choked. It was true when Mr. Payne brought Peter to his knees and applied his other hand to Peter's neck for more pressure.
"You're done little insect!" Mr. Payne growled.
As he struggled to get free, Peter then remembered Flash had said the same thing while in school.
In the cafeteria, Peter was on the floor with his nose bleeding and as he tried to get up, he was put back down by Flash whose knee was on Peter's back.
"How's it feel? Little insect?" Flash chuckled.
Peter was back to reality and his anger multiplied exponentially and instead of being choked by Mr. Payne, it was Flash's face who mocked him.
"Tap out , you little shit!"
Peter shouted and thus, he grabbed Flash's wrists and with intense pressure, began to get him off his neck. "AAH!" Peter shouted with great fury.
"OH MY WORD! LADIES AND GENTS! Are you seeing this?" the announcer said shocked.
Slowly but effectively, Peter had Mr. Payne's huge hands away from him and immediately pushed him off. Mr. Payne landed several feet away in the ring.
"You want a fight? You shouldn't have asked for it!" Peter said through his mask.
Peter used his webshooters to get up in the air as Mr. Payne charged once again. Mr. Payne had missed him and instead hit the cage wall and making him go down. "What the-!" he yelled.
"This guy's got some tricks up his sleeve alright, folks!" the announcer cried out.
Mr. Payne got up and turned around to see Peter standing next to him. Peter gave a punch to his cheek. As Mr, Payne swung, Peter ducked and did a cartwheel that made him kick Mr. Payne twice with his feet.
Mr. Payne tried to punch Peter again but Peter blocked and evaded every single punch and kick. A relentless Peter then gave him another cross punch and another and another and another…
The crowd was going insane at the moment.
It was Peter's turn. Peter grabbed Mr. Payne's neck and with great strength Peter never knew he had, he threw him into the other side of the ring, where he smashed into the cage wall and went sailing out into the floor. Mr. Payne had smashed through a woodened table. He was done.
The bell rung and Peter was the winner.
'Holy crap! I won! I actually won!' he thought happily.
The crowd was cheering for him now whereas moments ago the people were against him but Peter knew that his determination was what won them over.
The announcer came in and lifted his hand up in victory. "Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time, we have a winner here!"
Peter's happiness suddenly disappeared when his spider-sense kicked in again. 'What now?' he thought.
In Dmitri's office, Henry couldn't help but giggle in delight as he saw the money being counted. With his hands, he took one dollar and with such velocity passed each single to his other hand. But then he started to get restless and looked at the door to the office.
'Dmitri's been gone for almost twenty minutes now, where the hell is he?' Henry thought excitedly. Seated in Dmitri's chair and going over the profits being made which in of itself was over a lot, Henry saw more money than he could ever count and so he had to get ahold of Dmitri to tell him that the money earned was very substantial. He was just about to take out his cell phone to call Dmitri when the door rang.
There was nothing but a dialtone followed by the mechanical 'I'm sorry but the caller is unavailable at the moment, if you would like to leave a message, please-"
The door to the office instantly burst open and in came a man holding a shotgun to his head. "Give me the money now! Do it now!"
Henry recognized the man. It was the man who came in the morning asking for a job. 'Ah, damn!' he thought.
Kneeling to the floor and putting his hands up, Henry immediately surrendered the money to the guy. The man then ran off with the cash in tow leaving a defenseless Henry behind.
Then the whole situation got even worse.
The roof to the stadium burst open. From a large hole, a horrible figure came flying in. Alongside the announcer who looked terrified, Peter could not make heads or tails who the monster was but all he knew was that he had to help Gwen and Harry.
It was completely unexpected and certainly uncalled for, as far as Peter knew. He knew something was coming. Running off amongst the crowd to go after Gwen and Harry. What Peter feared the most was coming true, explosions were occurring left and right throughout the stadium.
'OK…does this guy have a name?' he thought.
To his horror, his spider-sense alerted him to another terrible sight, Gwen was dangling off the barrier that led to the second floor of the stadium. 'What is she doing up there?' Harry was trying her best to pick her up but with the crowd of people buzzing and running around, it was difficult for him.
Despite the explosions, Peter activated his web-shooters and with his natural spider web cables, he jumped in the air saving Gwen as she fell.
She looked shocked to see him up close, Peter could tell.
"You alright?"
"How did you-"
"Never mind. You need to get yourselves out as fast as you can!" Peter said through his mask. She was placed back with a confused Harry, who he waved at and turned to face the creature causing havoc in the stadium. Peter with his feet stuck to the stadium wall called out to the creature.
"Hey there, elf-face!" he cried.
"Who are you?" the figure demanded.
Peter shot his webbing at his eyes, blinding him. Peter then swung and gave the goblin a kick out the hole he came out of.
Ben did not know where Peter was. It was nerve-wrecking. Besides Ben knew at the moment how Peter must have been feeling. 'Confused and unfocused.' Eventually Ben was stopped in traffic as he looked to his right side, a stadium was seen and yet, Ben could not find a glimpse of Peter outside anywhere.
Suddenly a maniacal figure on a skateboard-like object flew out of the very stadium he had been looking at. Just then the doors to the stadium burst opened with crowds of people oozing out.
"What the hell?" Ben cried out and got out of the car.
He got out of the car and as he tried to get around, the crowd shouted and one of them said to Ben. "Watch out!"
Ben heard a gunshot and felt a sharp pain in his chest. 'Oh no...' he then fell down.
His car was then stolen and darkness was creeping up to him.
Saving Gwen made Peter's whole system surge with pride. He felt right in saving someone. As he came out of the stadium, everything changed however.
Peter trembled in shock and felt his eyes start to water as he approached the familiar man sprawled lifelessly on the ground.
He could not believe it. Peter came closer to the figure on the sidewalk. Eventually he stood right next to him and crouched down to observe him. "It can't be…"
But it was. It was Uncle Ben with a gunshot wound shown on his chest. He put a hand to his mask and took it off.
"Uncle Ben?" he sniffed.
Slowly, Ben looked at him and grasped Peter's hands desperately. "Don't l-l-lose yourself." he gasped. His eyes began to lose focus.
"No! NO! UNCLE BEN!"
Uncle Ben's body felt lifeless and soulless now.
Immediately he cried. Sobbing was then turned to shouts of anguish. Shouting that meant it could not be happening but it was regardless.
"Why?" he cried out.
