The Marvelous Spider-Man
Chapter Thirty Six
By
Jason Richard
Spiderman jumped out the office window, swung around the building to the open bathroom window, leapt inside and burst through the door. Fortunately Harry and the three intruders, a minotaur, a samurai, and a cowboy orc, hadn't moved, so Harry was safe. Peter took one look at the intruders and said to Harry, "You! Get out of here!"
"My friend was in there!" cried Harry.
"I already got him out, just go!"
Harry made a dash for the stairs when the samurai ran quick as a cheetah and blocked him off, his hand resting on the sword at his side.
"Now now kid," said the orc in a gruff voice. "Leaving so soon?"
Harry looked at Spiderman pleadingly, and behind the mask Peter cursed his bad luck. Now his friend was a hostage, and all he could do was play for time until he came up with something. He quickly scanned the room, came up with a plan, put his hands up like he was surrendering.
"So," said Spiderman. "Samurai, a Minotuar, and a cowboy orc walk into Oscorp Tower. Why does this sound like the lead of a really bad joke?"
"Watch your mouth kid," said the orc. "I'm in no mood for your smart-alec nonsense."
"Smart-alec?" mocked Spiderman. "Who says that anymore? In all seriousness I do love the cosplay guys…but don't you know Comic-Con is that way?"
Spiderman pointed to the left, stretching his hand out and tugging on a line of stealth webbing he had placed when he raised his hands. A vase in the corner suddenly flew towards the samurai's head, pulled by a thin shimmering line. The samurai quickly turned around, unsheathed his sword and sliced the vase in two, but by the time he turned around Spiderman had already attached a web line to Harry and pulled him away.
Spiderman had to quickly grab harry under the waist and swing away as the couch was flying towards them, thrown by the minotaur. Spiderman swung to the emergency staircase behind the wall that the minotaur had burst through earlier. He jumped to the rim of the staircase and dropped harry down the middle. Harry screamed as he fell, while Spiderman threw webbing to block the three intruders and another line to catch Harry as he descended. Spiderman then let a dangling Harry down slowly.
The orc then pulled out a whip, pressed a button on it, and it came to life with electricity. He cracked it and shattered the webbing in front of him, and said, "Dan, go."
Sensing the samurai's footsteps through the ground, Spiderman swung Harry to the nearest staircase. He wasn't quite to the bottom yet, but he was close enough, and Harry started running down once he could. Spiderman then turned to face the intruders but the Samurai flipped over his head and landed on the other side of the stairs, right on the bannister. He then ran down the bannister at high speed, never falling off for a second.
Spiderman was about to jump down after them when he felt the Orc's running footsteps. Spiderman back flipped over the electric whip, hitting the wall, and then jumped away as the Minotaur came stomping through. Spiderman barely avoided the minotaur's fist as it shattered a hole in the wall. It was then that Spiderman jumped down the stairs, towards Harry and the samurai.
He quickly heard something and looked up to see that the minotaur had jumped in after him, was using his hands to grab the railings and quicken his descent, ripping off pieces of the stairs as he did. Spiderman quickly used his webbing to do the same, shooting lines down and pulling himself forward.
At the bottom of the stairs the samurai had almost caught up to Harry. Spiderman shot a web, swung down, and narrowly avoided the minotaur's fist as it impacted the ground with an earth shattering crack! Spiderman also just barely caught Harry's waist as the samurai was about to grab him. At that moment Spiderman, Harry, and the samurai were all knocked backwards by the force of the minotaur's impact.
While Harry was knocked to the floor, Spiderman rolled over, swung up, and webbed the samurai's hands to the floor. The samurai was stuck in the position he landed in, on all fours. Spiderman then swung around the minotaur, shooting webbing and sticking him to that area. It wouldn't hold him for long, but Peter figured it would be long enough to get harry away. He then swung back to Harry, landed, and said, "Let's go!"
They burst through some doors, out of what turned out to be service corridors and into the much better decorated main building, when they heard a 'ding' sound. They looked over to see an elevator opening where the orc stepped out. Spiderman looked at him, took a quick look back at the stairs behind him, and then said to the orc, "Oh come on! That's cheating!"
The orc just stared at him blankly while prepping his electric whip.
Spiderman's senses told him that the other two behind him were getting up. Now he had problems on both sides to deal with, and Harry was in the middle of it too. The orc was waving the whip around pretty fast. Peter could tell he didn't have any physical enhancements like the other two did, but that electric whip was almost enough. One touch could almost put Spiderman out of commission. On top of that Peter couldn't get Harry through without risking him getting hurt.
If harry got touched by that whip, it would be over. Peter decided to play for time.
"So Montana," said Spiderman. "Where'd you and the other enforcers get their toys?"
The orc stopped his swinging, letting his whip fall as the electricity turned off. He looked at Spiderman curiously and said, "How'd you know it was me?"
"Well," said Spiderman casually. "The cowboy hat was a clue, as was the minotaur. You know, a giant ox. But it was when the samurai had tobacco breath that I pieced it together. Seriously, smoking's a nasty habit that kills. You and Ox should totally have an intervention."
"I'll consider it," said Montana.
The other two enforcers entered the room now and got ready. Spiderman then quickly readied his plan. Ox's feet were, spread wide to hold that area, but weren't ready for a charge. Fancy Dan was a different matter. He had his right foot forward, so he was ready to run at a moment's notice. Montana was also staying still. Spiderman figured the play was to have Ox and Montana cut off their escape while Fancy Dan moved in to capture the hostage. With that information in hand Spiderman made his plan.
"That still doesn't explain where you got this stuff," said Spiderman, pointing an accusing finger towards Ox. "But I can guess, corporate sponsor? Like…" He was about to say Norman Osborn, but then he remembered that Harry was in the room and cut himself off. "The kingpin? I know he's more Daredevil's nemesis, but still…"
"Not quite," said Montana, noticing something interesting about Spiderman's hand movements. "But close…a little too close…" Montana raised his whip.
It's time, thought Peter.
Spiderman shot two strands of webbing, one at Ox, and one at Montana's whip. He felt Fancy Dan's strides through the ground, as he ran towards Spiderman. Montana was distracted for a moment when the web hit his whip, but he quickly pressed the on button, just as Spiderman tied the strands linking him to Ox together and let go.
Ox got a nasty electric shock, and he stood there convulsing violently. Meanwhile Dan collided with the invisible webbing that Spiderman had placed when he had pointed earlier.
As Montana was forced to shut off his whip, Peter grabbed Harry by the waist and jumped, swinging over Montana. They landed on the other side of Montana as Spiderman let Harry go.
"Now Run!" he cried.
Harry ran off while Spiderman turned to face the enforcers. Dan sliced his way out of the invisible webbing and Ox kneeled for a moment to get his bearings, but then stood. Montana brandished his electric whip as the other two walked up next to him. Spiderman got down on all fours, ready to make a leap when the fighting began.
"Aw!" said Spiderman mockingly. "Did the mean ol-spider take away the hostage and force you to fight fair? You poor enforcers, boo hoo hoo!"
Meanwhile Harry ran through the building as fast as he could. He figured the first thing he would do was call 911. He got to the main lobby of the building and burst through the door.
What he found there made no sense.
He saw his father, suspended in a webbing above the ground, being pounded by Spiderman.
"Spiderman?" said Harry, "But he…" Harry turned around to see Mysterio in his full disguise looking down on him and grinning. Harry shivered a little. He got the ominous feeling that he had stepped into something really bad.