Hey, guys! I've returned with the climactic chapter of this story! Had to take a little break in order to recuperate from all the writing fatigue I've been experiencing lately. That and I had to update the chapter to be a lot more plausible due to the previous iteration being a little contrived and a last minute decision on my end. So, without further adieu, witness the final battle that will determine the fate of Mysterio, Mystery Inc., and Spider-Man!
"No! They've bypassed all my traps and illusions!" Mysterio exclaimed banging on the keyboard. He never should've underestimated the likes of Spider-Man, a bunch of meddling kids, and their dog. "Very well, then. Time to release the big boy!" He turned to stride out of the room before turning back to point at Daphne and the girls. "Don't get any sly ideas, girls!"
The big baddie left out of the door as it slid upward with a whoosh.
All in an instant, Daphne felt hopeless for somebody, anybody, to come save her. After watching the security footage of Spidey and her gang dodge the traps, it was clear to her that they were too occupied to look for them. It was times like this that the gang was always able to locate her and untie her, though there didn't seem to be any indication they were on their way. They probably couldn't even find their location for all they knew. And then, of course, she was now relying on Spider-Man to save her and get her places when she didn't want to herself. The fact that she believed him to be his knight in shining armor seemed less likely now that she knew he wasn't inbound for her location.
"Daphne, he's going to hurt our friends. What should we do?" MJ pleaded, looking around for a way out.
As she looked over at her newfound gal pals sitting adjacent to her, she remembered that one time she rolled out of the way the moment the Road Rager nearly ran over her back in Coolsville. This was the one time she became her own savior, relying on nobody to help her up when she could've easily done so. And so, based on this instinct alone, something, a new idea, came to her ever so faintly even if she couldn't quite place her finger on it.
It seemed as though it was time for her to be more independent, save herself, and her comrades.
All in an instant, she remembered she had placed a hairpin placed in the pocket of her Thorn-styled dress, but could she reach it? She moved her handcuffed hands toward her pocket in a way that nearly stretched them big time; when that didn't work, she leaned upward hoping to some force of nature that the hairpin would fall out. Soon as she heard it ping on the chair, she was in luck.
"Bingo!" she exclaimed triumphantly. She then bent her hand to grab hold of the pin and maneuvered it to pick into the lock portion of her handcuffs. With a click they unlocked, freeing her hands in the blink of an eye. "Yes!"
However, she would not forget about her newfound friends; she got up and uncuffed her friends who were just as grateful as she was to be free of restraints.
"Thanks, Daphne! We really owe you one!" Gwen offered to her new friend.
"Good job, Daph!" MJ said, reminding Daphne of Fred. "But how are we gonna help our friends? And where are the Hex Girls?"
Daphne stopped to ponder both questions. She then looked toward the nearest wall and found sitting there three samurai swords held up on stands, each with Mysterio's name on it. Her mind racing, she walked over to grab them and hand them over to her friends each of whom grabbed them by the holder. "Here, take these. They're likely our only source of defense until we can find something less… violent."
Both of them looked at the swords in amazement, ready to slice whatever came their way. The fun was just about to begin.
A few feet of traversing the inside of the giant circus tent and already Spidey and the gang could sense that danger was impending upon their arrival even if all was quiet for the moment. The lights lining the area had dimly lit the place to a point where the place resembled a rundown circus joint, long abandoned by it previous owners. Mysterio sure did have a thing for luring his victims into rundown locations.
"Big area, center stage, not much going on. A room like this could only mean this is where the boss emerges," Spidey quipped making note of the stage in the center of the large tent. Peter wasn't much of a video game player at the time, though he certainly possessed enough knowledge that large rooms in a 3D plane were almost always the boss room.
Suddenly, a quartet of stage lights flicked on and automatically and swerved their bright, cone-shaped beams of light toward the center stage as if controlled by some outside force. Oddly enough, something did emerge from the purple smoke pouring from the central stage catching them all off guard: the Hex Girls. Collectively, they watched in shock and awe as Thorn revved up her fancy guitar, Dusk drum ran her sticks across her digital drums, and Luna rolled her fingers across her shiny new keyboard. The girls all hissed in unison, displaying their snake-like fangs as they each struck similar chords of their instruments. Seeing this, the gang felt somewhat relieved yet remained uneasy over the fact that they would just show up out of nowhere, unscathed, in a place like Mysterio's lair.
That didn't faze Velma, however.
"Guys, look it's the Hex Girls!" exclaimed Velma. "They sound more awesome than ever!" She fangirl screamed once more with a burning passion.
On the other hand, Spidey gave a look of confusion under his mask. "I don't think those are the Hex Girls," he stated otherwise.
Suddenly, the Hex Girls were shrouded in the thick of the purple smoke, their presence suddenly obscured by the mystery of the mist. From the mist then marched forward a small infantry of three Mysterio bots that zoned in toward the heroes in an arrow formation. Surely enough, this was, in fact, another illusion set up by the madman himself in an effort to throw them all in for a loop.
He always said, 'When in doubt, provide misdirection,' Spidey thought to himself. Still, these bots posed a serious threat to the four other non-superpowered beings in the group. Not willing to let them get hurt, Spidey stepped in front of everyone in a protective stance. "Everyone get back!" he commanded.
The three Mysterio bots then raised their hands, each forming a flaming fist pointed at Spidey who now stood guard of his friends as he prepared his webshooters. Before any of them could flinch a single fighting move, however, suddenly there came a feminine voice shouting, piercing the deadening silence of the pause between the combatants. The gang momentarily confused, a samurai sword suddenly sliced through the chest of the first Mysterio bot, cutting a clean hole into its chest. The sword then pulled back, allowing the bot to fall to the ground; in its place stood Daphne holding the sword, the gang surprised and relieved to know their friend made it out okay.
"Daphne!" Fred exclaimed of relief. "You're alive!"
Similar shouts then came from behind the clueless Mysterio bots as similar swords cut through their torsos, slicing them clean in half. Their parts then fell to the floor as Gwen and MJ stepped forward, MJ's hands shaking from using a weapon for the first time. Gwen, on the other hand, was used to holding her father's guns so really this wasn't anything new to her.
"And Gwen and MJ!" Velma announced. Spidey said nothing for the sake of protecting his identity.
"Like, how'd you guys get out?" Shaggy asked, curious to know how.
"It was easy," Daphne began. "I simply used my spare hairpin in my back pocket to uncuff us from the chairs Mysterio had us tied in. I don't watch action movies for nothing!"
"You saved yourself? Nice job!" Fred congratulated her. While it felt good in the bliss of the moment, Fred wasn't sure if that comment was warranted because Daphne often felt embarrassed about the fact that she got kidnapped all the time. Hopefully, she wouldn't give him trouble later.
"Good to know you're all okay," Spidey proclaimed his sympathy for his friends from beneath his mask. "What of the Hex Girls?"
"Not sure, but the best we can probably do is get out of here before Mysterio rears his ugly face again!" Gwen spouted sarcastically.
Before they could move a muscle, of the sudden the ground beneath the center stage began to rumble causing the gang to face it all in unison. From the green smoke new pouring from the center stage came a large upside down bowl about half the size of the large stage - which appeared smaller from where everyone stood. As the dome rose up, what followed was a gigantic green humanoid body lined with golden buttons about the size of small igloos. The giant continued to rise until more of its purple cape of epic proportions became visible. Gwen realized she spoke too soon since they found themselves faced with an imposingly large Mysterio, dome, cape, and all.
As the giant Mysterio stared them down, the Spidey, his girls, and the gang knew, without a doubt, that this was their biggest challenge yet. Standing in its shadow was the least of their problems as they had to figure out how whether or not it was real or a hologram. Either way, the scare factors were present and because of that, each of them had just about the same reaction, but in different exciting, fearful terms.
"Zoinks!" exclaimed Shaggy.
"Rikes!" wailed Scooby as he instinctively leaped into Shaggy's arms.
"Jeepers!" Daphne followed, grasping her face in shock.
"Jinkies!" Velma added, raising her shoulders in fear.
Suddenly, it was Fred's turn to say his catchphrase, which didn't exist at the moment. Though he personally was almost too shocked for words, he said the first thing that came to mind. "Gee whiz!"
At long last, Fred thought of something he could live with saying. Daphne turned and smiled, proving to Fred that the words he chose were ultimately the perfect catchphrase for him. This little moment of the two of them connecting was then cut short by Mysterio evil laughing, breaking the silence that followed.
"I've waited a long time for this! The day I'm finally able to crush Spider-Man with my immense ego!" Mysterio taunted, his looming giantness as intimidating as ever.
"Oh, please, can it with the ego already!" Spidey quipped, annoyed that he would pick now to boast about himself. "Tell me where the Hex Girls are and I just might go easy on you!"
"The Hex Girls are somewhere you cannot reach. You'll never find them, Spider-Man!"
"Is it too late for us to be best friends who share each other's secrets?" Spidey joked, staring blankly at the massively reflective dome of Mysterio's helmet.
Without another word, Mysterio had already begun to summon a green cloud of thunder that shook the whole room, startling the heroes as they stepped away from the giant. To Spidey, this only spelled danger for his gal pals who still had no idea it was him under the mask. The rest of Mystery Inc. he trusted to help him take down this beast, though the last thing he ever wanted was for his friends to get hurt. Quickly, he signaled them specifically to flee the area while they dealt with him.
"You girls, go! Get out of here!" he he told Gwen and MJ to which they nodded. Although the area was full of traps, he trusted they were no longer active with the trap's controller focused on them. Glancing back at the giant Mysterio, Spidey sprayed an awfully thick wall of webbing against the entrance to protect their exit. With barely enough time to react, however, lightning had begun to blast around him and the Mystery Gang encouraging them to dart in different directions toward anywhere, but where the giant's feet stood firm.
From behind his back, the giant Mysterio summoned a gigantic, gleaming, silver samurai sword about half its size in its large, gloved hand. and begun to swing it around like a kid with a baseball bat. Surprisingly, its movements were rather slow compared to the normal-sized Mysterio, which, to the gang's advantage, meant that even anyone who wasn't Spider-Man could easily read his next move before he struck. That still didn't retract from the shock factor of a giant sword travelling downward to swipe at Fred, Daphne, and Velma who were frantically sprinting around together.
"Get down!" Fred barked as he threw his gal pals to the ground, the sword just barely shaving off their hairs as its shadow passed over them.
From where he perched watching his newest friends on the run from a giant killer robot, Spidey launched two webs out toward the sword of which latched onto the blade and, with a tug, he just barely even got it to nudge. And so, unwittingly, the Web-head flung from his spot on the wall, somersaulting in midair as the giant Mysterio reached out his oversized hand in an effort to snatch his foe. Just moments before its hand shut, however, Spidey managed to flip the opposite direction in the air and zip over toward the surprisingly solid ceiling of the tent.
"Hey, what's wrong?! Is that size just for show?" Spidey quipped, forgetting for a moment that the odds of him winning were stacked against him.
The giant clenched its fist in resentment of the tiny Spider-Man's relentless banter and fired more green lightning bolts at his position. Green bolts whizzed by as Spider-Man maneuvered his body in all directions, flipping off the wall and launching another web toward the ceiling that carried him around the giant Mysterio's helmet. Using his oldest tactic in the book, he shot multiple web balls at the giant Mysterio's helmet covering it in a sticky substance to a point where it seemed like it was going blind. Although it lost sight of Spider-Man as he tumbled toward where Fred, Daphne, and Velma had landed, the giant Mysterio's helmet had begun to glow - something the original Mysterio had no capability of doing. Much to their surprise, the giant Mysterio's helmet had produced a series of electric shocks that ultimately removed the webbing stuck to its helmet. Finally able to see again, the giant became distracted by screams emanating from the other side of the arena.
On the other side of the room, Scooby and Shaggy were blindly sprinting as their frightened selves away from where the giant had been distracted by Spider-Man. Having already begun to lumber loudly around the arena in pursuit of them, the menacingly huge Mysterio plunged its sword toward the ground in front of them, its impact creating a dent in the floor as the duo skidded to a halt. The reflective sword displaying them their frightened reactions, they turned around only to be met with the same sword being dropped into the ground, thus cutting another hole in the ground from which water sprayed. Feeling trapped, Scooby and Shaggy held each other tight as they stared up at the giant Mysterio, which had slowly been preparing an execution stance to slice them apart.
"Any last questions, Scoob?!" Shaggy asked his loyal dog, trembling before the beast that was about to chop them up into sushi.
"Questions?" Scooby asked rather curiously in return. This was obviously not the time to ask about asking questions.
"Yeah, like, what would Spider-Man do?!" Shaggy questioned hoping for an instant answer on how to mimic his hero without getting himself or Scooby killed. And then, the dog remembered all that coaching Spider-Man had given them; the way he encouraged them to stop eating and focus, the way he told them to be brave for Daphne. The whole time they had run about the prop house, he had barely demonstrated a hint of bravery aside from trying to comfort Shaggy in his distress. Now that they were about to die, though, Scooby knew he had to man up somehow or all the effort Spidey went through to coach them would be nothing. And so, in a moment's notice, Scooby's expression turned from that of a frightened pup to that of a brave wolf as he had thought of one way to get out of the situation at hand.
"Stand back, Shaggy!" Scooby barked, kicking Shaggy off him in an effort to run away from the large sword that had now begun to fall upon them.
"Wait! SCOOBY-DOO!" Shaggy exclaimed rather desperately as he witnessed his dog run the opposite direction from where he sat, his hind legs nearly impacted by the sword landing behind him.
Without stopping even a second to worry about what lay behind him, Scooby made a run for it toward the giant Mysterio, braver than ever knowing he was protecting his owner. In an effort to lure the robot away from his friends, Scooby ran in between the giant's legs, confusing its line of sight.
"What?!" Mysterio exclaimed. "Get back here, you houndish fiend!"
The robot slowly lumbered the other direction in an effort to catch Scooby. Soon as he locked his sight back toward the dog, Mysterio began to drop his sword toward him in an effort to crush him; water continued to spray up from wherever its sword impacted the ground, indicating that he had struck some pipes beneath the ground. Feeling the water beginning to hinder its movement, the giant Mysterio resorted to utilizing its feet instead to squash the teensy dog beneath its heal. Despite this, Scooby was still faster.
And so, without much hesitation, Mysterio waved his hand over the base of the circus tent, his powers summoning a ring of green fire that engulfed around Scooby. The dog skidded to a halt realizing that the many different directions he could have run away were now sealed off in a small, enclosed circle of colorful, yet somehow odorless fire.
"Scooby, NO!" Velma shouted in horror from a distance where she stood watching.
"You'll get crushed!" Fred and Daphne shouted together, jinxing each other rather suddenly.
"Not on my watch!" Spidey shouted angrily as he frantically shot out more weblines to reach Scooby.
As Scooby found himself cornered in the midst of the ring of fire, he looked up to witness Mysterio's imposingly large heal raised in a position ready to crush him. At this moment, Scooby was done being scared; no longer did he shake in fear at the image of this week's villain about to crush him. Instead, he took in a breath of bravery, chest puffed out as he shut tight his eyes, waiting for his impending demise at the hands of the wizard. If there was any way he wanted to go out, it was to go out being brave for a change.
Mysterio's foot came crashing down toward him, its heal getting bigger with every passing millisecond. All in a moment, he found himself yanked off the ground just before giant Mysterio's foot struck the ground, creating a large crashing noise that resonated throughout the tent. Scooby then opened his eyes to realize he had been caught in Spider-Man's heroic clutches, the web-slinger circling away from the giant with ease at high speeds.
"Ruh?" Scooby opened his eyes. "Rider-Man!"
"The one and only!" Spidey winked at Scooby from underneath his mask. The Web-head then turned to spray an entire web net down toward Mysterio's oversized foot, pinning it to the ground momentarily as the robot struggled to regain ground. As Spider-Man swung himself and Scooby out of the robot's field of vision, they spotted the rest of Mystery Inc. regrouping nearest the wall of webbing that covered the tent's entrance. And so, Spidey zeroed in on the group, himself dropping to the ground to stand next to them as he dropped off Scooby next to Shaggy. "Next time, try staying safe while playing the hero. It's mostly my job after all."
Scooby nearly frowned in response to Spidey's boasting. "Sorry, Spider-Man. I had to save Raggy."
"Well, like, I'm okay," Shaggy butted in. "Thanks, Scoob!"
Scooby smiled. Unlike a certain frightened shaggy guy, he seemed to know when to unlock his inner brave man - or dog in his case.
"We need to figure out how to take that thing down," Velma suggested, still trembling nervously from the robot's intimidating size. "Any ideas?"
"I saw a motor underneath its foot as I passed under trying to save Scooby," Spidey noted. "Maybe we ought to hit that?"
"Maybe it's a must," Daphne contributed, still holding her samurai sword from earlier. "Fred, do you have your trap… stuff handy?"
"Don't worry, Daph, I have just the supplies for that," Fred said, removing a long strand of rope from his supply sack he had been carrying. Even though he had used it plenty before, he knew it would come in handy.
"How's a rope gonna fair against that thing? Are we gonna trip it or misdirect it?" Velma asked of concern, trying not to sass Fred for a change. In a life or death situation, it seemed she was trying to at least show some appreciation.
"Exactly! Mysterio's all about misdirection and so we ought to pull the same trick on him. First, I'll pretend to be setting up a trap like I always do. You guys'll run around until you converge toward me and my fake trap. And, since that thing doesn't corner well, it'll use the ring of fire to trap us and attempt to squash us like it tried to do to Scooby." He turned to Spider-Man. "After that, he'll be so distracted, you'll have a clear shot at the motors in his feet!"
"Roger that, Fred-o!" Spidey signaled with a peace sign before swinging off to hide in the shadows.
From there, Spidey waited on gang's diversion. The Mysterio bot regained its ground after breaking free of the web net and turned to notice Fred tying his rope to the bottom of the nearest tightrope pole. Fred then turned and ran with the rope toward the other side.
"Insolent trap master!" Mysterio insulted. "You think you can trap me through means of a simple tripping of my feet?"
"Hey, Mysterio!" called out Velma's voice. "Catch me if you can!"
Along with Scooby and Shaggy next to her, Velma turned and ran the opposite direction from where Fred had been running.
"Fools! You dare think to outsmart me?!"
Mysterio raised his empty hand in an effort to zap the group with a lightning bolt. Suddenly, the giant felt a poke in its toe and turned to face downward to see who caused it. Surely enough, it was Daphne with her samurai sword as she quickly turned to run away in her long Thorn dress.
"This poses no threat to the almighty Mysterio!"
He shot another lightning bolt from his hand near her forcing her to leap out of the way. He then summoned another lightning bolt toward Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby, which forced them to converge toward their friends who were all running to the center of the arena. Soon as they all neared each other, the giant Mysterio summoned yet another ring of fire around them, engulfing their surroundings in a screen of green flames that reflected well off of Velma's glasses. From the distant shadowy corners of the tent, Spidey noticed the distraction had worked and began to swing toward them.
"Any last words before I pound you mystery kids into oblivion?" Mysterio taunted, raising his right foot in preparation to crush them once and for all.
To this, Fred only smirked as he embraced the gang around him. For a moment, it looked as though the gang were getting ready to die together when, from the shadows leaped out Spider-Man, swooshing through the air and gripping on to Mysterio's heal.
"What?!" Mysterio exclaimed.
Spidey shot a strand of web straight into the robot's motor foot, causing it to stop whirring and creating showers of electric shocks that signaled him to jump off.
"NO!"
From midair, Spidey shot out two strands of web that latched onto the giant edges of Mysterio's foot. Heroically, he thrusted himself forward, feet first as his body sliced right through the motor, shattering it to pieces.
"THIS CANNOT BE!"
In a spectacular maneuver, Spidey slid under the other foot as he shot out a shower of web balls to help clog the motor fan. Without hesitation, he jettisoned two additional weblines and flipped himself backwards, propelling himself right through the other motor. With an agonizing scream of defeat, Mysterio fell backwards slowly to the ground with nothing left to support his movement as he dropped his huge samurai sword. With a large thud, the robot fell on the floor as Spidey landed softly next to his mystery gang friends, the ring of fire around them fading away and letting them go free.
"You know what they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall!" Spidey joked. To this, Daphne simply smiled and chuckled knowing that he did the most heroic thing he had done all trip in taking down a giant killer robot. Even so, she personally felt she owed Fred the idea of providing misdirection to a master deceiver and so, with that, she took his hand and shook it in congratulations. Fred was awestruck by her sudden impulse, but he smiled in return knowing she still appreciated him.
Suddenly, a door whooshed open behind them, turning their heads in the direction in which it came from. From behind it appeared the Hex Girls in the flesh. But were they just another illusion?
"Hey, guys," the real Thorn announced. "Thanks for saving us back there!"
"Wait, we did - what?!" Fred asked, shocked that they would just appear like that - and to what effect?
"That robot was key to freeing us," Thorn explained as she and her girls approached the gang. "The wizard had connected the door and our electronic cuffs to the robot thinking the fight wouldn't turn in your favor."
"But it did and, for that, we are eternally grateful!" Luna thanked her saviors, showing her softer side once more.
"You guys rock!" Dusk complimented as the gang smiled back at them.
The gang then turned to witness the real life-sized Mysterio tearing himself out from the inside of the robot, which had broken open after falling. Coughing and swatting away at the smoke surrounding him, Mysterio's feet began to wobble as if being affected by the impact of his mech falling. Ultimately, he fell over onto his face, defeated and humiliated more than ever before. Now was the perfect time more than ever to unmask him as Spidey approached him ever so happily. "Guys, I'd like you all to meet the famed, the fearsome…" Spidey paused for effect as he pulled off Mysterio's bubble bowl revealing the fair face of the Hex Girls' security guard.
"Quentin Beck?!" everyone and the Hex Girls exclaimed in unison.
"I could almost sense it coming a mile away!" Velma said raising a finger in affirmation. From under his mask, Spidey gave a sly smile in response to her pseudo Spider Sense-like ability to detect suspects like a police dog.
"So now you know it's me," Beck stated, seemingly feigning surrender. "The mystery of Mysterio is no more!"
"So then why'd you do it, Beck?" Spidey said raising the man above the ground to where he would talk. "Better give us answers or we'll…" Spidey had run out of threats. "I don't know what we'll do."
"Enough with the threats," Beck said shutting up the hero to explain his story. "It's because of those girls over there!"
The Hex Girls gasped as he pointed their direction, the girls realizing he was talking about them.
"I was having the time of my life playing special effects artist for them ladies. People ooed and awed at my handiwork - all of it made authentically. Then Daniel Prezette stepped in and literally stole the spotlight - my spotlight - with his fancy gadgets. When they chose him over me, my special effects were deemed not good enough and I was reduced to the role of security guard. From there I found no real use for my special effects talents; and so I concocted a simple revenge plan to get back at everyone for shoving me off the face of the Earth. By creating the Mysterio persona, I went on a crime spree, stealing whatever I could to make them pay; when I got the attention of Spider-Man instead, I decided to directly sabotage each and every one of their shows and Prezette's remote. My illusions and special effects were so elaborate that I eventually kidnapped the Hex Girls to make it look like they had fallen off the face of the Earth just as I did already."
Beck had been talking for such a long time that everyone was very much bored, nodding and spacing off just waiting for the punchline about the meddling kids.
"I was that much closer to being back in the spotlight! And I would've had it made too, if it wasn't for you meddling kids and Spider-Man!" Beck finally finished.
"Heard it a million times, savage," Velma sassed, recalling an earlier incident in which he mentioned that the Hex Girls may one day be irrelevant. Now, thanks to the efforts of Mystery Inc. and Spider-Man, they could once again rock out and remain relevant in the world for years to come.
I feel like I may have done a decent job in writing a climactic chapter, but I would be grateful for your guys' feedback on how it turned out. In the meantime, I will have the final chapter up very soon!