Issue 11: Panic
Hobgoblin cackled madly as he was scaling the side of a building with people in the streets running in fear.
He did it.
He killed their 'hero'.
Spider-Man is dead because of him.
"Hobgoblin, return to base." The Genesis Leader's voice said in the com in his ear.
"Why?" Hobgoblin asked darkly. "I did what you wanted, now let me have fun."
"You are drawing too much attention."
"I like the attention."
"That is an order."
An electric shock ran through the collar around Hobgoblins's neck causing him to roar in pain before he reached up and grasped the collar, pulling with all his might as it shattered.
The Genesis Leader was watching this from one of the nearby cameras with a smirk.
He expected as much, which was why they cleared out the hideout where Hobgoblin was created.
Now onto the next project.
~With Spider-Man~
"Geez, you're heavy." Zack muttered as he was carrying Spider-Man over his back, ducking through alleys as people were panicking and the Police Sirens were getting closer with each passing second.
'Shit, I have to find a way to the base.' Zack thought stumbling a bit from Spider-Man's weight. 'And I have to hurry to get Cedric some medical attention.'
Eyes widening, Zack took cover beside a dumpster, barely hiding Spider-Man as a Police Car drove by.
'Close one.' Zack thought wondering how he would get to the Sewers without being caught.
Then he did a face palm finding an obvious solution.
'Of course.' Opening the dumpster, Zack ruffled through it and to his relief, there was a brown coat in there.
Quickly taking Spider-Man's mask off after making sure no one was watching, Zack quickly put the coat around him and took the gloves off, hiding them in his backpack.
Now that the rest of the suit was hidden, Zack began carrying him again, this time blending into the crowd with people who were doing the same.
~Scene of the Crime~
Bales just arrived to the crime scene at the Movies and he narrowed his eyes at seeing the bodies while their Medical Examiner heading for the pile of rubble where people said that Spider-Man crashed into.
"This is getting way out of hand." Bales said as Kent walked up to him. "Put out a bulletin for this maniac and tell them that I'm authorizing Lethal Force to take him down."
"Got it." Kent said relieved to hear that last part considering what they heard.
"... Tell them to use Armor Piercing Rounds to be safe." Bales quickly suggested as Kent gave a nod before turning to Shannon Roth. "Find anything?"
"No body so Spider-Man is obviously alive." Shannon said taking a sample of the blood to do DNA results at the lab to find him. "But with the amount of blood here, he may be close."
Bales gave a nod as he turned to the remaining officers. "Fan out, if Spider-Man is bleeding this much he can't have gone far and stick together just in case this 'Hobgoblin' is still in the area." He ordered as they did so before turning to a new red haired police officer that was a rookie. "Darrel, I want you to check out the nearby hospitals or any place with a doctor, if Spider-Man is badly injured, chances are he's in one of them."
"On it." Darrel said looking sick at the amount of blood on his first day and was happy to have an excuse to leave the crime scene.
"Bales." Kent spoke up just realizing something. "Didn't you say that your son was heading to the movies this morning?"
Eyes widening, Bales ran into the Theater praying he wouldn't find Cedric's body.
~With Zack~
"Finally." Zack muttered making it to the warehouse.
Just as he was about to go in, Zack paled as he heard Cedric's phone ring from the backpack that he gave him.
Quickly pulling it out, Zack cursed as he saw it was Scott Bales.
"Yo, yo this is Zack." Zack said trying to act nonchalant.
"Why do you have Cedric's phone?" Bales asked cautiously, hoping it wasn't bad news.
"He's in the Shower, is it cool he stays at my place?" Zack asked hoping he would say yes because that would help at the moment. "We really don't want to head out with this 'thing' on the loose, we barely got out of the theater in time."
Zack heard Bales sigh in relief on the other end. "Y-Yeah, stay at your place. I'll be out for most of the night looking for this thing but tell Cedric to call me when he gets out of the Shower."
"Got it." Zack said hanging up. "Alright, now I just need to let my parents know that I'm staying at Cedrics and we'll be set."
"Uck." Cedric groaned as his eyes opened looking unfocused.
"Ced, hang on, we're almost at the base." Zack said using the hidden elevator inside of the warehouse as it descended into the lair they had.
"M-My arm." Cedric muttered and Zack frowned as he finally checked now that they weren't in danger of being caught to see it was dislocated.
"Ced, this is going to hurt but we need to put your arm back in its socket." Zack said as Cedric was quiet before giving a nod. "Alright on three. One."
He did it immediately causing Cedric to cry out. "What happened to two and three?!"
"I did it early so you wouldn't tense and make the pain worse." Zack said as the elevator came to a stop and they were in the hideout again. "I'll still never understand why there is an elevator in the warehouse, but I'm not complaining."
"Good." Cedric said as Zack helped him walk over to the medical train car where they had the first-aid kit and Cedric saw that his face was bruised badly with blood trailing from his nose and mouth. "Oh man, how am I going to explain this to Dad?"
"Don't worry, I made him think that you're staying at my place and I texted my parents letting them know I'm at your place." Zack told Cedric. "Right now we need to tend to your wounds."
Cedric gave sigh. "He was tougher than I thought he was."
"And he's still on the loose." Zack muttered shaking his head. "I think we should let the U.N.I.O.N Taskforce handle this one."
"Can they?" Cedric asked remembering how they couldn't catch him.
"Well you can't with your injuries." Zack told him. "If you try again anytime soon you may die this time, hell I was lucky enough to get to you before someone else did."
"Zack this Hobgoblin can punch out a tank and breathe fire." Cedric told him. "I don't think anyone else can stop him, I hit him without holding back and he barely flinched."
"We'll come up with a plan when you're healed." Zack said as he finished dressing the wound on his ribs. "That's the best I can do, but I'm not a doctor. You may have internal bleeding for all we know."
"My Spider-Sense isn't going off so I don't think I do... Then again I heal quickly so maybe that's why." Cedric said as Zack helped him to the couch they had moved in there recently and he had Cedric lie down on it.
"You need some pain meds?" Zack asked as Cedric shook his head.
"No, it's better to feel pain to know I'm healing." Cedric muttered.
It only took a few seconds before exhaustion overtook Cedric and he was out again.
Rubbing his head, Zack looked up at the ceiling of the base.
"What do we do?" Zack muttered hoping to find an answer.
~That Night~
Hobgoblin landed in the Junkyard chuckling darkly as fresh blood coated his hands.
He just got off on a small killing spree leaving four more dead now that no one can stop him.
While he may have been discharged for desertion, the real problem that the military had with him was his sadism.
He always chose the bloody path as a soldier.
It was just so much fun.
"I never thought this way before." Hobgoblin muttered before shaking his head as his smirk returned. "But I love it."
A sneeze caused him to turn and see a homeless man nearby and he smirked at seeing him.
A new victim.
"S-Stay away." The man tried to back away only for Hobgoblin to quickly grab him and began stabbing his arms with his claws. "GYAH!"
"Come on, scream louder." Hobgoblin said with a dark laugh as he made more blood gush out.
~The Next Morning~
Cedric groaned as he woke up feeling a little better than he did the other day.
He still had some small bruising on his face, but it wasn't as bad as it was.
The cuts on his face did heal and the scabs were just starting to disappear.
"Man you have to love that healing factor." Zack said tossing Cedric a bottle of water as the teen vigilante caught it.
"It has its benefits." Cedric remarked gladly sipping the water due to a dry throat. "How long was I out?"
"Since yesterday afternoon." Zack told him tossing Cedric his phone as well. "It's been thirteen hours since you passed out."
"Thirteen hours?" Cedric asked a little horrified.
"I told your Dad you were staying at my place remember?" Zack asked as Cedric gave a grateful smile.
"Man I don't know what I would do if you weren't my friend." Cedric said as Zack chuckled.
"Hey you would do the same thing for me." Zack said to him. "School is cancelled until Hobgoblin is taken off the streets though."
"... How bad?"
"You may want to skip the news." Zack warned him only for Cedric to shake his head. "Well alright."
Using his phone, Zack brought up the News feed showing the footage from the fight that people caught on their own as well as the death toll of the Hobgoblin's victims being in the twenties.
"Shit." Cedric muttered.
These people died because he didn't beat the Hobgoblin.
"It is rumored that Spider-Man may either be among the dead or too injured to fight." Violet Crane said on the feed. "And many people are rightly panicking."
"-Bleep- New York!" A random man said packing a car. "I'm getting the -bleep- out of here!"
"We've had more deaths in one day than we did in the years that the city has been here." A random civilian said.
"The End is coming!"
"Spider-Man can't protect us, no one can!"
Cedric had enough and exit out of the video as he placed a hand over his face.
"It's not your fault." Zack said to him. "That was a mini Hulk out there, I think the Military can handle him-."
"And what if they can't?!" Cedric snapped. "What if no one can stop him?!"
He wasn't angry at Zack, but he can't just sit here while this Hobgoblin is killing people.
"Hey don't bite my head off." Zack said glaring at him.
On hearing that, Cedric winced in guilt. "Sorry."
"It's cool." Zack said typing in his laptop. "We are all getting stressed out here."
"I need to call Miranda and cancel the date." Cedric said as he remembered that was later this day before he paused at seeing full bars. "Wait, how the hell are we getting reception and internet here?"
"Had to set one up here, it wasn't easy and it took awhile." Zack answered him. "It was while we were setting stuff up down here for the base."
"... Seriously what would I do without you." Cedric said with a stare.
~With Miranda~
Miranda Evans was biting her lip a bit as she saw the footage of the Hobgoblin fighting Spider-Man.
The fact that this thing was out there still scared her.
'But where did it come from?' Miranda thought to herself her inner reporter coming to the surface. 'How is this possible?'
Shaking her head, Miranda knew her parents wouldn't let her out of the house on a date with Cedric due to the Hobgoblin being on the loose.
Especially considering how she nearly died with the Electro Incident.
Plus their date was planned for the movies and considering this happened the other day that plan was out the window.
A buzzing caused Miranda to pull her phone out to see it was Cedric calling.
"Oh hey." Miranda said with a smile.
"Hey Miranda, how are you?" Cedric's voice came through.
"I could be better." Miranda said with a sigh. "I don't think my parents will let me go out while this Hobgoblin is on the loose."
"Yeah, I kind of figured as much, the same with my Dad." Cedric said sounding relieved surprising Miranda but he continued. "Think we can reschedule with after this guy is locked up?"
"Well of course." Miranda said her smile returning.
Then she paused.
Cedric said when this thing was locked up.
Not if.
When.
Why was he so certain?
"Great because I know this perfect place we can go to later on." Cedric said with a grin. "You'll love it."
"I'm sure I will." Miranda said deciding to put how Cedric worded it in the back of her mind.
"Yeah I-." Cedric stopped talking as she heard a voice in the background. "I have to go, talk to you later?"
"Of course." As Miranda hung up, she heard a knock and looked to see her Dad, a well-built man in his early forties with military cut brown hair standing there.
"Can you come downstairs for a bit?"
Miranda blinked wondering what this was about as she agreed.
~The Police Precinct~
Bales moved through the busy Police Station as there were a lot of officers moving around with some thugs in their jail cells getting ready to be transferred to the actual jail.
Currently he was on his way to the Medical Room to see if Doctor Roth managed to identify who Spider-Man was through the blood samples.
It was all they could do with no one finding a body which meant either the Hobgoblin took the body.
Or Spider-Man had an accomplice.
The latter seems more likely due to the Hobgoblin leaving his victims at the scene of the crime and the fact that they couldn't find either of them ticked him off.
People were dying and he couldn't do his job.
"Shannon, did you-."
Bales stopped at seeing Cassandra Marsh in there with Shannon.
"Morning, Bales." Cassandra said giving a nod.
"What are you doing here?" Bales asked in annoyance remembering what she did with taking Electro out of their custody. "If you think we're going to standby on this-."
"Relax, U.N.I.O.N is working with the Police on this one." Cassandra said to him with a look. "I heard you had Spider-Man's blood and attempting to look through the database to find out who he is."
Bales gave a quiet nod.
He might not like Cassandra, but he wasn't too prideful not to accept help.
Especially if it gets this maniac off the streets.
"Has your Task Force found the Hobgoblin?" Bales asked attempting to be professional.
"No but we're looking at where his victims were to find out where he would most likely strike next." Cassandra said to him.
"Chief." Shannon looked up from the computer. "You won't like this."
"What is it?" Bales asked not liking the sound of that.
"I can't trace the DNA." Shannon said pulling it up to show Bales. "There's nothing."
"What do you mean?" Cassandra asked with a confused look.
"I mean he can't be traced." Shannon said not sure herself. "It's like if someone got rid of a fingerprint."
~With Cedric~
"Cedric, I have to protest to this." Zack said as he saw his friend getting dressed in the back-up costume they had ready putting the tattered bullet proof vest on. "You're still injured."
"I know." Cedric said refilling the Web Shooters. "But what do you expect me to do? Let this Hobgoblin roam free? I can't do that."
"Then what are we waiting for-."
"Hell no." Cedric glared at him. "You are staying here, I'm not going to let you risk your life."
"You are doing that-."
"I have super powers you don't." Cedric said to him. "I barely did anything to Hobgoblin and with his kill count already, you are not coming."
"So I have to stay here and hope you survive?!" Zack asked knowing Cedric was right.
But he didn't like the thought of his friend attempting a rematch with the Hobgoblin injured when he didn't win at full-strength.
"Last time, I wasn't expecting him and I tried to outmuscle him." Cedric said pulling his mask on to hide the fear he felt. "This time I'm going to outthink him."
"... You better come back alive." Zack said to him as Spider-Man gave a mock salute.
"Relax partner I will."
With that, Spider-Man took off as Zack sighed and sat down. "Partner?" Zack asked putting a tired hand to his face. "A real partner would help, I can't do anything in this situation."
"Is that so?"
Hearing a voice caused Zack to tense and look to see an old man in some sort of robe holding a staff as he looked at Zack with a smirk.
"Who the hell are you?!" Zack asked not sure how this guy got in.
Or how Cedric missed him.
"How much are you willing to bet to help your friend?" The man asked with a smirk.
To Be Continued…
Well I bet you can guess what powers Zack will get and who this man is, am I right?
But you can already see that the rematch between Spidey and Hobgoblin will be an interesting one indeed.
Anywho, Bales and Marsh are making a small alliance to deal with the Hobgoblin, Shannon just found out that Spider-Man's blood is untraceable which could spell trouble for Spidey in the future.
Miranda is starting to get a little suspicious of Cedric and now Zack's annoyance at not doing much to help in a fight may reach a breaking point soon.
Find out in the next issue.
Now for the Reviews.
Coldblue: Yes there will be more to him as well as other characters like Kent and the newly introduced Darrel, but I figured that while Bales cared for his son, he looked into it to show he wasn't Spider-Man to put himself at ease even though he was actually right. I'm pretty happy that my fight scenes are getting better as time goes on and yes I did take the Ultimate Green Goblin design for the Hobgoblin because I wanted one of Cedric's enemies to be able to be like that. Hobgoblin will do that in the future, but for awhile he will enjoy just using his powers for a bit. Don't worry it won't be a pattern, but Cedric has only been Spider-Man for a bit and fought only one other metahuman so it's understandable that he lost badly in his first fight against Hobgoblin. I'll show more of Mickey's past in the next chapter during the fight. Maker and Genesis will have small appearances until Cedric meets both of them. Oh yes he will meet the Mighty Seven and Stan Lee in the future, just not sure on how soon, maybe when the third Metahuman villain strikes he'll meet one of them and have a small team-up before the rest of the team comes a bit after that to meet this Spider-Man for themselves.
Now for your Questions. 1) Yes he will be on the loose, but Genesis has already planned for it. 2) Yes and he may have some… Help. 3) That could be a factor, but it was mostly because they only wanted powered humans under their control and Cedric accidently getting powers due to Prof. Victor's attempt of defiance is ruining that plan so they want to get rid of him before he becomes too much of a threat. 4) Yes he did and that helped Cedric a lot, but the teen is feeling annoyed at not being able to do more. 5) I'd say they are understandably panicking. 6) He'll look into it after the Hobgoblin is dealt with to be prepared. 7) He did. 8) There was a little bit of everyone's POV in this chapter. 9) I hope I showed well enough on how they reacted. 10) Yes due to the poll winning. They will be mentioned a bit after the Hobgoblin fight. 11) I didn't really have a Spring Break. 12) They will work with the Police on it to maximize their efforts. 13) Before Spider-Man shows up for the rematch they will. 14) After the Hobgoblin incident I will show Marsh's superiors. 15) Now that will be a surprise.
Overlord Susanoo: Yeah, I figured that would've been a realistic response in a fight like that. Happy you liked the fight and hopefully you'll enjoy what is to come. Haha so true on all of that with attempting to enjoy a normal day as well as not trusting scientists or rich people. As for the Vampires, I plan on having Cedric make a shot with Twilight to piss them off.
Nightmaster000: You'll see how he fares with the rematch and hopefully you liked how Zack helped Cedric while the guy was unconscious. As for Bales suspecting his son was Spider-Man, he thinks he was wrong due to Cedric not keeping the costume at home while he's away.
Matt: His powers will be revealed in the next chapter. And I can't promise not to make new stories because when I get the urge it's like an itch that won't go away. And yes the Might Seven will be added.
Alright that's enough out of me so stay tuned for the next issue!