Alright everyone, this chapter is what I'm betting a lot of you have been waiting for. It's boss fight time. Enjoy!
To Dinogeoff022, I figured that one would be a bit of an emotional chapter. And now, I remedy it with what you've been waiting for the last few months haha
To guest, Thank you for the review and support! These kinds of reviews are why I keep writing as I am. I hope not to disappoint!
In another flash of white light seen by no one, the two travelers appeared once again in the usual gloomy atmosphere of Subcon. Spider-Man's suit rippled as Venom reacted to the his first (or technically second) re-entry into normal time again.
"Well, that was hopefully the last rift that we'll be seeing around here. If I see another purple rift ever again, it'll be too soon," Spider-Man joked.
Hat Kid readjusted her hat with a smirk. She had enough of purple rifts too, but she was more than glad to spend a little while in the blue rifts with her arachnid companion. She had even grown comfortable enough to talk about her past with Venom, who expressed his sympathy to the little Time Keeper.
"We know what it is like to have your world lost to you. We were outcasts ourselves from our homeworld because we did not believe in total subjugation of our hosts," the symbiote empathized. He had known about the negative emotions when he had looked over her memories of the manor, but had not gotten more than fuzzy flashes of her old life.
Ha! You were a loser on your planet too! The Spider-Nerd had smugly retorted in his head, earning an internal hiss from Venom.
Now, after what seemed like a long time reminiscing and bonding in the rift with the two multiversal visitors, Hat Kid felt lighter, as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Eagerly, she tugged the black suited Spider-Man by the arm as she reminded them, "I still have to get the last contract signed by Snatcher!" And with that, she equipped her sprint hat and raced off on her rental scooter.
"Ah, kids, " sighed Spidey as he shook his head and swung after her.
Arriving at Snatcher's tree, the duo stopped at the opening at the base as Hattie beckoned, "Snatcher? I got your badge! Where are you!" Recieving no response, she raised an eyebrow at Spider-Man, who merely shrugged in reply. Usually he would be in his tree by now reading a book. His daily haunts were finished considering the lack of traps on their way there.
Curious, Hat Kid entered the little abode to look for her ghostly frenemy, and was surprised to find instead of the shadow, she found a piece of parchment sitting on the armchair. Picking it up, she read "Hey Kiddos! We're almost done with our business. Come to the Subcon Arena and we'll arrange the contractual termination terms- Snatcher."
Spider-Man, having followed her in shortly after, pinched the bridge of his nose. "The last time we went to Subcon Arena, I had the rusty sewage smell stuck in my nose up till I konked out in the manor. You know he's not gonna let us go that easy, right?" he said.
Hat Kid grimly nodded. It was a shame, she was just starting to like Snatcher, in a weird frenemy kind of way. He was a soul stealing demon though, not exactly the best company to have around.
"Well, let's go breach a contract, shall we?" declared the arachnid.
The trip to the arena actually seemed more dreadful this time around. Yes, there wasn't rampant toilet magic bursting through the ground and villagers running in fear, but it was much easier to face down a possessed toilet rather than a soul stealing shadow. As the two swung across the gap separating the arena from the village, a familiar shine became visible.
"A Time piece!" piped Hat Kid as she jumped into the arena. The two contractors were about to grab the time piece by the handles when behind them, they heard a voice growl "Wait up, kids."
Didn't need spider-sense to see that one coming groaned the superhero as he rolled his eyes under the symbiotic mask. Turning around, Hat Kid and Spider-Man were once again face to face with their spooky 'boss'.
"Remember how the old contractor had his head pop off? It popped off the moment he stopped being useful to me. And guess who else just became obsolete?" Snatcher menacingly hinted.
"Your exorcist?" jabbed Spider-Man.
"You," he growled with agitation. "Now that that possessed outhouse isn't bothering me anymore, and all those contracts of yours are tidied away, I don't need you around." Before Hat Kid could offer a retort, Snatcher added, "Besides, you didn't think I would let you keep all these time pieces now, did you?"
"That's against the law!" puffed Hat Kid at the two-timing spirit, to which he replied, "I am the law! And the law says they fell in MY forest kid. They belong to ME!"
In one swift motion, Hat Kid found herself without her namesake as she saw her beloved top hat (and by extension her other hats) quite literally snatched by the Snatcher.
"Hey! That's mine!" chuffed the little girl. Now it's sooooo on.
"You'd think I'd make this fair? Have you learned nothing kiddo?" laughed the evil ghost. His yellow smile turned sinister as the arena turned dark and he snarled, "It's time you saw what I'm really capable of kids. Say goodbye to those little heads of yours!"
In the next instant, the arena was filled with a blinding multicolored light. Snatcher had trapped them inside using his magic. The magical spirit wasted no time as he started conjuring magic pillars of energy right on top of Hat Kid. Caught off guard by the sudden change in setting, the little girl had no way of getting out of the way in time.
Thankfully, a certain precognitive arachnid didn't need sight to dodge. "Move!" the black suited superhero shouted as he web yanked his companion out of harm's way. It was all Hat Kid needed to get her legs snap back to reality.
The two contractors weaved between the pillars of energy, just barely grazing them as they did their best to stay mobile.
After the initial assault, Snatcher extended his stretchy arms to both sides of the arena. He summoned his minions towards him as they all started to flock to his hands.
"Sorry newbies, just following orders," one minion apologized as he nearly smashed into Spider-Man's sternum. The combatants played a deadly game of hopscotch as the minions kept coming around.
When his back was turned to him, Spider-Man tried to swing kick Snatcher as he did with the toilet. That only ended with him bouncing off as if he'd hit a brick wall.
"You're probably waiting for me to turn blue, aren't you?" taunted the ghost. "Sorry kiddos, blue doesn't suit me, and I guess that makes me invincible, huh? That's too bad, hahahaha!" Adding insult to injury, the black ghost summoned viles of blue just to spite them as he started hurling them at his targets. "Let's try some of these!"
Damn, since when did the villains get so meta Spidey wondered as he dodged more blue potions. It seemed like they were coming down a thousand a time, and it was getting harder and harder to stay ahead of them.
Miraculously, Spider-Man and Hat Kid had come out of the barrage unscathed, much to Snatcher's dismay. "You're kind of rude, aren't you?" he huffed at the two Time Protectors.
"The Friendly Neighborhood part doesn't apply to you," countered the webslinger.
"Let me show you just how 'friendly' I can be." With that, the pillars of magic returned alongside the spinning minions. Hat Kid, or Luna until her hat returned, almost tripped on a minion's head and fell into a beam of light, but a web line pulled her away.
Seeing that all of his attacks were failing, Snatcher tried a different approach. If brawn doesn't work, let's try getting to their brains he reasoned.
Suddenly, the large figure of Snatcher exploded, dropping pieces of black across the arena. "Ewwwww," Luna had commented, before the puddles moved and started taking shape. Before they knew it, Spidey and her were facing down Snatcher-clones of themselves, all with dark as night skin and yellow eyes. Moments later, the clones pounced.
"Hey! You stole...my fit! Grow a white spider... and we'll sue!" jabbed Spider-Man between breaths as he weaved between attacks. The clones were still invulnerable to his attacks, so all he could do was keep dodging. Soon, even his super-symbiote agility could not stop him from being dog piled by the clones.
"Urgh! Dude! You've lived for centuries... but you couldn't bother...to spray some AXE every decade or so? You smell like ectoplasm and a dumpster fire!" snarked Spidey as he struggled to break free. Looking off to see how Luna was faring, it wasn't what he expected to see. Instead of attacking her, the clones danced around in a circle yelling insults at her.
"This is how you look! You're an idiot!"
"Such a disappointment!"
"And you smell!"
In the middle of the circle, Luna was trying her best to drown them out to no avail. Covering her ears only led to one of the clones commenting about how big her ears were. She swung her umbrella at them to get them to be quiet, but they simply floated away. This was an attack she couldn't withstand.
Spider-Man watched this unfold with seething anger. He could take the insults and dish them back out with 2x the injury, but a child? No way...
One time. We can agree to do this just this once the wall crawler mentally nodded to his roommate upstairs.
Gladly Venom hissed.
"Brur, arghhh, ARGH!" Looking over to the heap of Spider-clones, the noises came just before the pile exploded, sending clones flying out of the arena. Where the pile had just been, the true Spider-Man stood. Only now, symbiotic tendrils were coming out of his back, and his lenses were narrower. His stance was much more aggressive, and he was much more intimidating than he usually was. Like this, he was more akin to a "Spider-Venom" than the goofy superhero she'd shared her journey with thus far.
"You wanna play?" threatened Spider-Venom as he lashed out multiple tendrils, each with deadly spear points at the end. The force was great enough to stab through the Kid clones' body, but didn't seem to hurt as much as surprise them as he flung them away. "Then let's play rough."
In the middle of the arena, Snatcher reformed as he looked at the wall crawler in surprise. "Wow kid, if you'd been like this when you arrived, I'd hire you as my secretary!" bemused Snatcher. "Such a shame when to lose good resources."
Another flurry of blue potions came at the duo, but this time they were prepared. As the Time Protectors danced around the falling potions, one managed to not break as it skidded on the ground. Seizing the opportunity, Luna dove towards the vial and picked it up.
"Spidey!" she called before throwing the potion. A black web line struck the vial as the supercharged hero spun around and sent it flying into their foe's face. Snatcher could only watch in shock as the painful blue liquid poured all over him. The attacks ceased immediately.
"Did you just color me blue with my own attack?" the dumbfounded shadow stuttered. "This can't count, right? Surely this doesn't count?"
Spider-Venom crossed his arms as he smugly answered, "You can't tell us what to do anymore, you infected sperm cell!"
The Snatcher's eye twitched. He REALLY didn't appreciate that quip. Good. Spider-Man was done with Family Friendly. It's time to instill a lesson.
"That does it. TIME TO DIE!" roared the lord of the forest. With another shout, his magic attacks increased in both speed and ferocity. The minions and the energy pillars came faster and faster than before, leaving the two Time Keepers on their toes.
The duo found themselves back to back with each other when the arena suddenly went pitch black save for Snatcher's yellow face. Winking quickly, he then transformed into 2 Snatchers.
"Time's up, kids," he cackled.
Hat Kid held up her umbrella as a line of defense as one Snatcher approached from her side. She then felt a rough grab on her shoulder as Spider-Venom spun her around.
"That one's a fake!" he shouted before jumping up into the air and slamming his fist into the ground. A second later, the light returned as the assailant on Luna's side was revealed to be a wooden cutout of Snatcher. The real one was reeling as giant symbiotic spikes burst out of the ground and pierced his now blue and vulnerable body. He retreated back to the center of the arena.
"Not bad, Spiderling. You hit hard for someone so short" admitted Snatcher. He would be impressed if it wasn't overshadowed by this UNYIELDING RAGE.
"I'm glad you're bigger Ghostie. It gives me more to dislike" mocked Spider-Venom, who got an even deeper scowl from the spirit. He tried to web slingshot into the ghoul's face only for him to reappear somewhere else in the arena.
"Uh uh uh. You gotta be quicker than that, Bug Boy!" mocked the Snatcher as he wagged a finger. The taunt didn't affect Spider-Venom, in fact he was banking on him to keep dodging. Round and round they went, with the ghost repeatedly disappearing and reappearing when Spidey got near, each time leaving shockwaves as he went.
"Is that all you have? I thought you were some kinda gen- Ow!" yelped Snatcher. He'd been so focused on the Spider-Brat, he forgot about the Hat brat prancing around. And boy, do those umbrella swings hurt.
"Take that!" shouted Luna as she laid into him with her umbrella.
Once again retreating to the center, Snatcher tried one more desperate attempt to win the battle. He knew that the blue potions would hurt him, but it would probably disintegrate these two ingrates if they get hit. Summoning more vials, he threw them all around him trying to hit the two attackers. At the same time, he summoned magic pillars around the entire arena that quickly crept up on their position.
The two used both attacks to their advantage. In the few seconds Snatcher's view was obstructed, Luna grabbed one of the potions out of the air and hit it in her pocket. She then waited for just the right moment until she struck the spirit again with her umbrella.
Predicting him to return to the center, she threw the potion into the green pool. As soon as the spooky lawyer returned to the center, he screamed out as he had teleported into the blue puddle, stunning him. Using the hook shot above him still, Hat Kid took the opportunity to take her hat back. Placing it snugly on her head, she patted it and turned back around.
Just in time to see Spider-Man and Venom following suit with her swing. At the last moment before impacting with Snatcher, they separated into two beings again. One red and one black fist collided with the lord of the forest's face, causing an eruption of white light.
Gradually, it faded to black again, except now their enemy was keeled over with his face to the ground.
They'd won.
Snatcher puffed from exhaustion as he spat, "You're such a disrespectful young man and lady."
"That's rich coming from you, Dr. Disrespect," Spider-Man countered. He and Venom had calmed down so they were back to their normal selves.
Hat Kid strode forward confidently with the webslinger to finish their ghostly contractor. It was time to get her soul back.
"I feel... so weak" huffed the lawyer. Yeah, no way was he pulling that one off.
"Please... Have mercy." Oh, now they were doing this? Show some dignity dude thought the web head.
"Please... Have a SEAT!" Yep, I knew that was coming deadpanned Hat Kid internally. suddenly, they found themselves on a wooden bench.
Snatcher wore a more annoyed look than anything else. "Those Time Pieces fell in my Forest. They are MY property!" he ranted. Hat Kid and Spider-Man stared back unimpressed. "So, let's make a deal then." The familiar poof of a contract sounded in front of them outlining some new terms and conditions. "You get out of my forest, and we never see each other again. How's that sound for a deal?"
Examining the parchment in front of them, the soulless kid was unimpressed. The contract didn't have anything unique about it. It was essentially an eviction notice. All it told them to do was to 'Get out' and to 'Take all their junk'. Pictures of Snatcher holding a get out sign were even taped to the agreement.
"Anybody ever tell you you'd make a great tax collector? You have a talent for ruining everything," Spidey jabbed. Hat Kid simply sat there pouting
"Hmm not a fan? Too bad, you don't make the calls here!" To emphasize his eagerness to get rid of them, he shoved the contract in Hat Kid's face and said, "Here, I'll even make it easier for you." He then took his stamper and put his seal of approval on the bottom right. "Now, all that's left is for you to sign it!"
Hat Kid looked at it hesitantly. She wouldn't admit it after that big fight, but she liked being in the Subcon Forest. Not everyone was inherently bad, and even Snatcher had shown to me more than just some intangible jerk. She didn't know how to proceed, so she began to sign until Spider-Man tapped her on the shoulder. Leaning over, he whispered something in her ear.
Instantly, the little child perked up as she stopped her signing. Taking the quill that came with the contract, she started scribbling out parts of the obligations, replacing them with obligations such as 'Stay and have fun!', 'Be nice!', and her personal favorite, her edited contractual obligation to 'Be my BFF!'. Only then dd she sign.
Stunned beyond belief, the shadow stuttered, "You understand that's not how contracts work right?"
"Actually," chimed in Spider-Man, "You gave your seal of approval. That means that it was approved to be edited by the contracted. So everything she just wrote was legally binding." Thank goodness to Daredevil for giving him that boring lecture on the legal system during a stake out.
"No no no, that's not how it works. Come on, I'm giving you a chance to scram, kids! No catches or clauses this time!" Hat Kid yawned at the desperate display.
"What if, I gave you your soul back? W-Will that make you leave?" he nearly begged. Summoning her soul from the deep bowels of wherever, he commanded it to return to its owner. The purple wisp absorbed into Hat Kid, who felt much happier, energetic, and just the usual amount of empty! However, she wasn't ready to let down her charade just yet.
She held her deadpan face causing Snatcher to wave a hand in front of her. "Yes? No? Hello? Are you there? Why aren't you saying anything?" A few awkward moments passed, with Spider-Man attempting to hide his laughter at the absurdity of the situation. A 10-year-old had just beat a ghost lawyer at his own game.
"You're quite the characters aren't you? And a tough negotiator." It took everything in Spider-Man's heart not to make a General Grevious reference right there. "Fine, I'll sweeten the deal for you." With a wave of his hand, he summoned a Time Piece from thin air. "Here, take my last Time Piece. If I continue to see you around my forest, I'll be VERY DISAPPOINTED!'
Finally dropping the charade, Hat Kid smiled as she grabbed the last Time Piece proudly. Deciding she had enough of torturing the poor soul, she beckoned Spider-Man to follow as she held up the Time Piece to the sky.
"See you later BFF!" she called before they were beamed back up to her ship.
"Oh my God kid, I'm not your-! Ugh, I need a day off. It's times like these I wish Whiskey didn't faze through me..."
The two Time Keepers found themselves back in a familiarly colored room.
"Roombi! I missed you!" exclaimed Hat Kid as she picked up the Roomba in a hug. Moments later, Cooking Cat burst through the kitchen door frantically calling to the returned inhabitants.
"Oh thank goodness sugar! You were gone for so long! Are you hurt! What happened that kept you out for a wee-"
"Where is the chocolate?" boomed the webslinger as he became more agitated. Venom had stopped eating the gray matter in Peter's brain, so he needed another food source immediately.
"Uhhhhh, in the kitchen darlin" CC fearfully informed him. The only response she got was a grunt as the black suited arachnid went to feast.
"I can explain," smiled Hat Kid sheepishly, taking Cooking Cat with her into the to talk over a meal that isn't mushroom related.
And that concludes the Subcon arc. I hope the ending was satisfying for everybody. I don't know if I wrote Symbiote Spidey very accurately, so if any of you have issues with characterization, feel free to let me know. Anyways, thanks for reading this far, because now it's time to head back to the Studio next chapter.