Hello everyone, thanks for the patience. I've been buried in schoolwork so I haven't been able to upload as soon as usual, but here I am! Thank you for reading and enjoy the next chapter.
To Mad King C, as soon as a Time Rift comes along, I like to use it as a way to advance Spidey's story alongside Hat Kid's. I'm glad you like the twists and surprises I added so far, since Time Rifts are some of my favorite levels. And yes, a Stan Lee cameo would be the cherry on top.
To Typeunmasked, it's alright, you're just curious is all. I actually am not sure where I'll have them read the storybook, but I guarantee that they will at some point
To Dinogeoff022, don't worry, he'll get his comeuppance. But first, we got some important story events to get out there.
To TimeBlade, I haven't played Undertale, but I did look up Flowey. Didn't realize I was drawing such parallels, good eye.
Also to anyone who reads, I'm hoping I do the character shifts justice, I'm just not sure how well I was able to write the more violent or non-caring attitudes of Symbiote Spidey or Soulless Hat Kid.
Arriving back at the giant tree, the now 2 and a half visitors of the forest could see that their contractor had left his post. Probably to go harass another poor soul for trespassing.
"Now then, where were we?" Spider-Man addressed.
Focusing her innate magic again, Hat Kid's hat laid out a mental path for them to follow in her mind. "This way," she beckoned, and the spider and the symbiote tailed her as she hopped between various wooden docks.
"This place gives me the creeps," shivered Spider-Man. The hands reaching out from the swamp were certainly unsettling. The minions that said it gave a sinking feeling surely didn't help his nerves either.
We have lowered your adrenal gland activity. This should help calm you Venom said in his head.
"You couldn't do that when I was freaking out about my chemistry final the last time I wore you?" he joked.
It is an ability we learned when we were with Flash. He is a very stressful host.
"True that," agreed the former wall flower turned wall crawler. He halted his swings once he realized that the docks now ended, and a giant brick structure stood across from it. This was the Subcon Well.
"Well, Snatcher wasn't lying, for once," said Spidey as he gazed at the giant well. Flipping from his perch on a tree, he landed next to Hat Kid as she stood at the end of the last dock.
"That looks too far to jump," observes the little girl. Even with a running start and a good dive, she would still land into the purple marsh and who knows what.
"Good thing you met me then, I used to be the Floor is Lava King when I was little. Now let's see here," contemplated the hero. Surveying his surroundings, Spidey found that there were two trees just close enough for what he had planned. Shooting two black webs to the trees, he pulled backwards as hard as he could, making the lines as taut as possible.
"Hop on my back," instructed the wall crawler. Jumping on his back, Hat Kid clung on as she braced for whatever it was he was going to do.
"Houston, we have liftoff," he joked, shifting his weight downwards as he let go of the webs, sending him and Hat Kid sailing through the air. He had calculated where he needed to lean in advance as to make sure they didn't end up as red and purple splotches on a nearby tree. Tilting into a dive, he sent them straight down the well hole as he yelled, "And down the rabbit hole we go!"
The two visitors and the symbiote fell for a little while, not realizing how far the well reached. As they approached the ground however, spider-sense alerted Peter that they were coming in for a hard landing. Using Venom's enhancements to his powers, he shot out a web, but instead of staying as a line, it expanded in all directions, creating a spider web that managed to break their fall.
Getting up from the stringy and tough structure, Spider-Man japed, "And that, was for the first time you dropped me out of the atmosphere," as he recalled Hat Kid initially screaming down the well.
"I wasn't scared," pouted the little alien, though her eyes betrayed her.
"Uh huh, surreeeee," Spidey knowingly replied as they both hopped down from the web and into the water below.
"Which way do we go?" asked Hat Kid, as they now found themselves at a crossroads. Walking forward towards the room that was filled with ice, Spider-Man shot a web line at her back and yanked her backwards, much to the surprise of said child.
"Spidey-sense no likey. Neither does the new roommate upstairs," informed the wall crawler. On cue, Venom rose an inky head out of Spider-Man's shoulder.
"Yes, we feel that something is wrong. Knowing this "Snatcher" being from Peter's memories makes it no less surprising," the symbiote told them. "We believe the other path is most practical."
Trusting both their new acquaintance and in the incomporable spidey-sense (so far), Hat Kid took both of their advice and went into the other pathway. It was a good thing too, for no sooner had they turned to the other path that an iron gate slammed shut on a rat, nearly impaling the little rodent as it squeaked away in fright.
"Point taken," conceded the space explorer, though she had to wonder where all of that ice came from...
Entering the adjacent doorway, the contractors found what seemed to be backing up the well.
"Who plugs a well? That ruins the entire purpose of a well," Spidey facepalmed. Where the water was supposed to be flowing, there was a cork plugging the pipe. Curious as to what this "plug" is, the hatted girl ran up to one of the dangling strings and pulled. Lenses going wide, Spidey yelled, "Wait, stop!"
Instantly, water began re-entering the well. In no time, it was already at ankle depth. Hat Kid scratched the back of her neck, blinking as she realized what she had done.
"That's not good," Spidey plainly stated. Thinking quickly, he jumped on the now open plug as it let out some pressurized air, carrying the superhero upwards to a lantern. Shooting a web, he caught the kerosene contraption and hung upside down on the string.
"Come on kid, it's sink or swim!" he called to Hat Kid, who followed his example and jumped onto the pressurized valve. She shot upwards, her cape flying in the wind, as she positioned herself to land on one of the wooden scaffolding.
Making her way up the ladder to her right, she was caught by surprise as one of the giant spiders descended from the ceiling right on top of her. Managing to dodge left at the exact moment, Hat Kid gave the pure arachnid a hard SMACK in the face, knocking it into the water below.
As she reached a platform that was level with Spider-Man, as she was about to jump, he advised, "Old school platforming isn't gonna work here. Time to reverse swing, just like I taught you."
"When did you teach me that?" questioned Hat Kid.
"I didn't. It's a little joke for team building," he quipped. Turning serious, he then directed, "Follow my lead."
Spidey then flipped back upwards from his perch under the lantern and shot his symbiotic web at the pipe above him. Swinging as high as he could, he let go at the apex of his jump, rocketing him nearly 2 stories up. As he fell, he web zipped to a nearby platform and landed safely.
"Now it's your turn!" he called. At first, the hatted child was slightly hesitant. It's not like she didn't know how to swing, but she's only been doing it for days while Spider-Man has probably done it for years.
"You've gotta swing or the water will catch you!" he yelled more urgently, snapping her out of her thoughts.
Normally, Hat Kid would be much more nervous attempting something like this without any safety precautions. But, with her soul went some of her better judgement. After all, she was the one who sprinted across 5 story tightropes and exploding trains.
Eh, why the peck not? she thought inwardly, and so she took off with her sprint hat and grappled, hearing a satisfying CLING. As she reached the apex of her swing, she let the grapple go, sending her flying into the air with a loud "Whoaaaaa!" before she was yanked downwards.
"See? We knew we had it in you! And by we I meant I," Spider-Man congratulated, though somewhat annoyed that the "we" habit had returned with the symbiote.
Hat Kid blushed but gave him a thumbs up in response. In their situation though, they had no time for reprieve. Using whatever lanterns they could find, the duo used every chance they could to get higher. They were making good progress, as the water was at least 4 levels down. They even managed to use some of the giant spiders' web lines as makeshift climbing ropes.
On the final swing though, Hat Kid's grapple did not grapple correctly with the lantern. Not realizing her fluke, the little alien threw her weight into the swing, causing the grapple to lose its grip and for Hat Kid to spiral out of control.
"Helppp!" she screamed as she started flipping mid air.
"Hat Kid!" yelled Spider-Man in fright. She had gone straight over his head and had missed the platform, heading straight for one of the lower platforms as she spun out of control.
If she lands on her head, she's a goner! the web slinger panicked.
He was about to fire a web line, but hesitated for a moment as the haunting memory of Gwen Stacy returned to him. The last thing he wanted to do was snap Hat Kid's neck on accident too.
Feeling that Peter was re-living one of his worst nightmares, Venom took over as it shot out a symbiotic tendril from Spidey's arm involuntarily. Speeding down towards the falling child, instead of merely sticking to her, the tendril wrapped around her torso. Using as much self control as the Klyntar native could exert, it used enough force to stop her from falling into the platform while also keeping enough tension to stop from jerking her spinal column.
On the other end of the tendril, Hat Kid blinked in surprise that her fall had stopped. Sure, she was scared out of her mind when her fall started flipping her, but now she was intrigued by the black tendril that had stopped her nearly fatal fall. Looks like Spidey was picking up some new bells and whistles.
Pulling her back, Spidey lifted her up onto his platform as he anxiously asked, "Are you okay? No bruises, bleeding, or conks to the noggin?"
"I'm alright. Your new tendril thingy saved me. It was really cool," she reassured.
"Huh? Oh yeah, that," chuckled Spidey awkwardly. Truth be told, that moment was a blur to him since Venom had been the one in control. Must be the side effects of being non-symbiotic for all this time he concluded.
That would be correct, Peter notified the black symbiote in his head.
Later, you and I are having a serious chat he told his new neighbor, who agreed completely.
"Now that we're done doing cordless bungee jumping, I believe it's time we make our exit," declared the arachnid.
"Yeah, this place is icky," agreed Hat Kid. Just in time as well, as the water level had caught up to them and was less than 2 stories away from catching up. Rushing over to what they presumed was the exit to their right, they were crestfallen as they discovered that the way out was covered in ice.
"How are we getting out of here?" stressed Spider-Man, using the augmented part of his spider-sense to find anything useful. Luckily, right behind him, there were 2 cherry bombs outlined in red in his "Spider-vision" along with two dwellers.
"Kid, when I say go, we pick up those fruits at the same time. Both of us need to throw them to break the ice. As soon as it's lit, set it down by the ice. When you do, take a lungful of air, because it's about to get real wet in here, got it?" Receiving confirmation in a simple head nod, Spidey at Hat Kid each went by the cherry bombs. On Spidey's signal, Hat Kid dashed past the dwellers and put her fruit down all the while gulping in a lung full of air. The superhero followed suit, but instead threw his bomb at the wall directly above the first bomb. The wall shattered, and instantly, water came rushing in as all of the blocks were now unclogged in the well. Grabbing Hat Kid in his arms, Spidey used Venom to spin a symbiotic web cocoon as they were whisked away with the current.
Just outside Subcon Village, a rumbling could be felt as the minions milled about their day. Curious, the little inhabitants soon found themselves running for the hills as water rushed back into the mote surrounding the village.
Pfffffftt came the sound of the surfacing superhero as he hauled himself into land. Venom retracted Spider-Man's mask to allow him to breathe. "And THIS is why I know I wasn't bitten by a water spider," gasped Spidey. Once he had a hand on dry land, he hauled the web cocoon containing Hat Kid up and ripped it open, revealing the young alien inside.
"You can breath now kid, we're on land," he informed. Immediately, Hat Kid released the breath that she was holding, allowing her puffy purple cheeks to return to normal.
"Mafia Town had better water slides," pouted the little girl. She liked it when the water wasn't burying her under rapids of white water.
"You can say that again," agreed Spidey, who then sensed a familiar presence. Adorning an annoyed look, Spidey allowed Venom to reform his mask as he turned around. Sure enough, the purple landscape was back, along with his least favorite spirit.
"Well done kiddos, you're making these contracts look easy!" greeted the Snatcher. "I guess you were always meant to be plumbers. Then again, it's not like either of you can amount to anything else, hahahaha!"
As Hat Kid stood up with a scowl, Snatcher noticed something different about her arachnid amigo. "Nice suit there kiddo, you look like you belong here now! Plus, red made you look fat," taunted the Snatcher.
"Like you can talk about fat, Mr. -36 waist size. Your torso is the size of my fist," fired back Spider-Man. He was suddenly feeling more hostile to the spectre, and he suspected it wasn't just because of the downhill drowning he had just experienced. He needed to have that talk with Venom about aggression soon before it got out of hand again.
"Ohhh, snappy are we? Remember, I still have your little friend's soul with me. It'd be a shame if it just went, poof," warned the Snatcher forbiddingly. That was enough to, for once, shut Spider-Man's trap and to shake up the soulless space explorer.
"Alright, now that that's out of the way..." Snatcher then snapped his fingers as he summoned contract. "I have more chores for you! So go ahead, pick whatever task you would like next. It's not like I'm giving you a choice," he chuckled, back to his usual jerk self.
Hat Kid walked up to the contract and sighed. Of course he would bring back that creepy old manor contract. He could probably detect that neither of them wanted to do it, so of course he would force it back on them. Relenting to his wants, Hat Kid signed the contract with her signature and Spider-Man's insignia.
"That's the spirit! Now, let's get-" started the ghost before one of his minions came bursting out of the purple murkiness.
"Boss, Boss! The Outhouse got another soul! It's messing with the village and ruining the forest!" cried the forest inhabitant.
"What? I locked that thing up to KEEP it from getting more souls. How did it... oh wait," realized the Snatcher as he looked at Hat Kid in realization. "Kiddos, looks like this contract just got a lot more personal for you. If you want your soul back, then go SPANK that outhouse for me. Otherwise, if that possessed toilet doesn't get your soul, then I WILL," he threatened before disappearing into the ground again.
Left alone with the minion, the two and a half visitors were dumbfounded at how quickly Snatcher had lost his cool, as well as the fact that Hat Kid's soul was now haunting a toilet.
"Come on newbies, I'll show you the way," the little Subconite cut in. It then took off in the direction where all of the commotion was coming from. Giving each other tired looks, they both sighed as they followed behind the little minion, hoping they could take care of this "Toilet of Doom" as quickly as possible.
