Here we go, folks! Spidey, Kitty and their friends are now ready to go one-on-one against Arcade's nefarious destructive weaponized walking tank. They say that "Strength comes in numbers" but will these numbers suffice against what Arcade has in hand? Let's find out!
But before that, to answer The Timeless Writer: Without spoiling the current run, I'll just say that I'm hoping it's a red herring and Spencer pulls a "Shyamalan" by the end of the arc.
Enjoy the reading!
SPIDER-MAN AND KITTY PRYDE: DANGEROUS GAMES
Chapter 17: Boss Battle
Arcade's machine has been unleashed, and the man is bent on destroying every target he has in sight. He aims at them through his screen, moving his joystick and pressing the buttons as if he was a 10-year old button-mashing at a videogame, obsessed with obtaining the victory to the point of moving with the screen.
"Come on! Come on! Stop dodging your inevitable death!" Arcade complains at the screen while he keeps firing his Gatling guns at Spider-Man and Shadowcat, who keep dodging and phasing each shot they get in front of them "Man, why didn't I call for pizza? I really want one, and a gallon of Mountain Dew" he then stops for a moment "Wait…did I just sounded like one of those stereotypical obsessed gamers?" he asks to himself, shuddering at the thought of picturing himself as a obese man with fingers full of Cheetos stains, pizza boxes and cans and bottles of Mountain Dew around him and the joystick pad on his stomach "Better focus on the game" he mutters, concentrating in blasting the surroundings, giving the heroes very little room to move and engage his attacks.
MEANWHILE, AT THE BATTLEFIELD
The odds looked overwhelming, but this type of situations is more than ordinary for the heroes assembled, however, the variables are so vast and different, ranging from the fact that some like Wisdom or Black Cat prefer to operate alone, to other facts like Star-Lord and even the Marauders are more accustomed to work with their respective teammates, failing to accomplish a good and improvised battle plan; and that is what Arcade is capitalizing as the shots from the bullets and lasers are giving them very scarce room and forcing them to remain in the defense. Even in the sky, the lasers that conform the machine's spine blast upwards to ensure that an aerial attack is complicated.
"Is it me or Arcade really brought the big guns for this grand finale?" Spidey asks while he keeps dodging the shots fired from the machine, who moves with each leg crushing the platform while forcing the scattered members to jump away.
"We have to find a way to disable it" Kitty comments "I could phase into it, but I don't know if he has some sort of power block for my powers, he did in some of the traps I was dealing with" she explains to Spidey, fearing that Arcade may have set some countermeasures for her powers.
"Whatever idea you may have, it's more than welcome" Nightcrawler comments as he bamfs from site to site, avoiding further impacts, and right then Spidey starts thinking of an idea.
"I think I got something, but I'll need further coordination and I seriously doubt everyone here will listen to me" Spidey replies, looking at the machine that keeps on firing its weapons at them.
"Let me handle that part" Kitty replies, looking at Emma while she concentrates on their psychic link "Emma, can you set up a psychic link amongst all of us around here?" she asks the White Queen for her assistance.
"Give me a moment" Emma replies, jumping while she turns back into her human form, since her telepathic powers are not to the fullest while she is in her Diamond form "All set" she quickly comments, hoping that Kitty can come up with an idea.
"All done, the representative of Queens, New York has the floor" Kitty quips, letting Spidey know that he can relay his plan now.
"Uh, hi everyone, Spider-Man here" Spidey starts to speak via the telepathic link "As you can see, Arcade's machine is giving us quite the headache, but we can bring it down if we coordinate our strikes" he explains his plan to rally the troops "If we can bring it down one leg at a time, we can weaken its advances and once it's down on the ground we can focus it all on one big strike" he speaks catching the attention of the group, even from Wisdom who visibly hates Spidey after he broke his jaw "I know some people in the room don't like me, but we need to work together to leave this place, so with that said, Kitty and I will lead the way, if you're following, let's break down this pile of junk" he concludes, shooting a couple of web-lines in order to start swinging, catching Kitty to accompany him and phase between the legs to avoid further strikes.
"You know? You can be a great leader when you set your mind to" Kitty comments to her boyfriend, finding another trait of him that she starts to find endearing. As they both swing, he starts to wrap the leg around with his webbing, hoping to slow it down between the limbs "Honey, no offense, but I don't think the AT-ST strategy from 'Empire Strikes Back' will work on this one" she comments, knowing the reference thanks to her boyfriend being a Star Wars fan.
"I'm not intending to wrap all the legs, just trying to mark the leg so the guys know where to strike" Spidey comments, now making Kitty realize that he was actually leaving marks on the limbs, pointing out where to strike and right then is when their allies start to figure it out.
The first ones to strike are Iceman and Colossus, with Iceman sliding around the leg and freezing key points of the structure with his ice beams while Colossus jumps to connect the punches on the frozen points, managing to break the metal and exposing it. Kitty phases to short-circuit some parts of the leg and Iceman freezes it enough for Colossus to break it with one punch, managing to disable it and bring down the limb, slowing down the machine's movements by a bit.
"Look at that! It worked!" Iceman exclaims celebrating his triumph but the cannons fire at his sliding structure, making him fall from there, yet fortunately, Spidey creates a cushion that allows him to react and land safely.
"You have to keep focus, Tovarisch" Colossus jokingly scolds his teammate while he bends the metal, walking towards him to help him stand up.
"I do man, but hey, Webs made good use of his…Webs" he tries to make a joke but all he receives is a deadpan look from his teammate.
"Stick to ice puns, my friend" Colossus replies with a deadpan tone while they both try to help the rest of the team.
"That's one down" Spidey quips as he moves to the next leg, and Arcade notices it, forcing him to shift his weapons to underneath the tank, firing a pair of cannons towards Spidey, cutting his web-line to force him to fall while Kitty tries to climb the leg to assist Emma and her ex-boyfriend Peter Wisdom to bring down the leg.
"You're becoming a big pain in the ass, Pryde!" Arcade complains via the speakers on his battletank, firing at her while he frantically presses the buttons as if he was button-mashing on a videogame, keeping an eye on the target, but suddenly he loses the feed from one of the cameras due to an energy dagger that destroyed the camera, courtesy of Wisdom who now fires the daggers at the leg.
"Mister Wisdom, is that all the energy you can fire?" Emma asks via their psychic link, since he cannot speak properly due to his broken jaw.
"I could shoot a barrage to create an opening, but it won't work until I get someone else to break inside the structure" Wisdom explains his idea, which Emma decides to put in march.
"Shoot the barrage, I'll gap the holes and Katherine will do the rest" Emma explains, to which Wisdom decides to listen and shoots the barrage of daggers, lining them up to create major damage at the joints. Emma jumps and shifts back into her Diamond form to use her strength to make a bigger opening ad Kitty phases in damaging the circuitry, allowing Wisdom to fire another barrage of daggers, this time to cut off the leg from the body, neutralizing the second limb.
"Is not that hard to cooperate, right Wisdom?" Kitty asks with a sardonic tone, knowing that he cannot speak. Wisdom wants to give one of his remarks but Emma freezes him telepathically, deciding to contact her daughters, the Stepford Cuckoos.
"Girls, are you there?" Emma asks them via their psychic link while she takes cover during the assault.
"Always here, Mum" the five voices of the Cuckoos reply in unison at her contact.
"Girls, I require your assistance for a psychic work, we're in Madripoor under attack, but I'll let you know on the details once you get here" Emma tells them while she works with the others.
"Duly noted, we'll meet you at the Krakoan gate" the Cuckoos reply in unison.
"Oh, one last thing Mum…" the voice of Sophie steps in.
"Cyclops told us to let you know that he wouldn't make it to the White Palace for dinner…" Phoebe follows her sister's words.
"He apologizes for that, for instead he brings a counteroffer" Mindee follows up.
"He's inviting you for candlelight dinner near the Champs Elyssés" Celeste adds up to the words.
"He also apologizes for not letting you know himself, but as we speak he is leading a group of X-Men on an assault against an Orchis ship" Esme concludes her words, prompting Emma to show a smirk in her face, although in her mid it is actually a warm smile, loving how her beloved Scott Summers takes care of every detail to please her.
"Thank you for letting me know that, once we're done I'll talk to him" she replies to her daughters, cutting her communication to reconnect to the psychic link "Marauders, I have a very important date to attend, so let's get this over with" she announces, shifting back into her Diamond form to jump back to the action.
Spidey swings by another of the legs, watching how Bishop shoots at the structure, while Star-Lord checks his body to see if at least he kept some of his weapons, but he is not even carrying his Element Gun with him.
"Great! The one time I leave my Gun aside and I get kidnapped!" Star-Lord complains but then he feels something near his chest, getting his hand inside his suit and happily discovers something that could help him out "YES!" he shouts, smiling as he pulls out a small grenade and then he looks at Bishop "Hey shooter!" he calls for his attention "How good's your aim?" he asks him while he shows his grenade.
"Good enough to shoot that and blow this #$%& up to smithereens" Bishop replies, charging his energy rifle and aiming high, then Star-Lord throws up his grenade and Bishop fires at it "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" he screams to warn the others as he fires his rifle, creating an explosion big enough to rip the limb out of its joint, thus destroying the third leg.
"Of course, you think I'm not prepared are ya? Well, YOU'RE WRONG!" Arcade quips while he reconfigures his battle machine, shifting it into three legs and now setting the laser blasts to shoot rings of energy around the crew and blasts from above, right where Teresa as Storm are flying by, yet while they both try to avoid them, one of them manages to hit one of Teresa's wings, causing her to lose balance.
"Engel!" Nightcrawler exclaims, Bamfing from his position to reach the sky and catch Teresa, bamfing back to the ground to save her from the fall.
"Nice catch, Kapitaner" Teresa comments with a slightly flirty tone, thankful for his move while he gently helps her stand up.
"Hey!" Spidey catches their attention "Just because we're still dealing with a giant destructive machine, doesn't mean that I'm not keeping my eyes on you" he speaks to both Nightcrawler and his sister, playing the 'overprotective brother' card after he found out about that nickname.
Pyro takes advantage of a mild distraction ad uses the residual fire from the previous explosion to fuel his powers and launch a barrage of flames to burn several chunks of the mechanical appendage, something that Nightcrawler quickly notices.
"Seems that our resident flamethrower has made up a nice move" Nightcrawler quips and then looks at Teresa "Care to help me with this one, Engel?" he asks her with a smirk.
"Glad to, Kapitaner" Teresa replies, smiling at him while she unfolds her guns and heads up with him to help Pyro while Nightcrawler bamfs to slash his cutlass through various points around the burnt sections while Teresa rushes to help him, shooting her guns in alternate points to inflict extra damage, slashing wires and joints with his cutlass to cause a major malfunction and fall off.
"There it is! Great job, Pyro!" Nightcrawler congratulates his crewmate with a thumbs-up sign.
"Aye-Aye, Cap'n!" Pyro salutes his captain with a two-finger gesture, rushing to help the others take down the remaining limbs.
"Say, now is when that 'Empire Strikes Back' strategy would come in handy, don't you think?" Kitty comments to Spidey "You go for the legs, I'll phase inside the structure" she tell him, building the strategy with her boyfriend who compliments with a thumbs-up.
"You got it" Spidey quips and then looks at Silk "Silk, care to help me wrap this package?" he asks her.
"Of course!" Silk replies, jumping alongside him to start swinging and shooting web-lines around both legs of the now bipedal machine.
"Somebody should take care of those Gatling guns" Black Cat comments and then looks at Colossus "Hey Big Guy!" she calls him out "Care to throw me to those guns? I know you and Wolverine do this all the time" she gestures with her thumb pointing at the machine. Colossus looks at her, then at the machine and then back at Black Cat again.
"OK, but for the record, you are giving me consent" Colossus explains the situation to her while he walks towards her.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, just do it, ya big Ruskie" she quips, letting him grab a hold on her and spins with sufficient force to launch her towards the machine, to which she lines up to fly by the Gatling guns and uses her claws to cut off the bullet chains, managing to leave the guns without functioning ammo "That should take care of-AAAAGH!" Black Cat quips but fails to realize that she crash landed against a set of rails.
"Huh, and I thought cats landed on their feet" Kitty mutters to herself, mocking Black Cat's accidental landing.
Meanwhile, Storm takes height and starts to summon a large group of clouds to bring down a thunderstorm directly at the top of the machine, damaging as much of the cannon as possible while Spidey and Silk wrap up the two remaining legs, causing it to stumble, and right then is when Kitty jumps to phase through the machinery, disabling the largest assortment and short circuit the rest, finally bringing it down.
"And that, boys and girls, is how we roll in…" Spidey tries to announce the win, but suddenly his Spider-Sense triggers, seeing now how the machine shakes and a smaller aerial craft burst out of the wreckage, aiming its lasers at them.
"You really thought that I'm not prepared for ANYTHING!?" Arcade's voice once again emerges with anger "This is far from over, you heard me? FAR! FROM! OV…!" his voice is suddenly cut off when a cannon blast takes down the ship from one side, knocking it down for good.
"Where the heel did that one came from?" Kitty asks, looking as surprised as everyone around her.
"I think it's from the Marauder" Storm replies, seeing the ship getting closer "Who's in there?" she asks, looking at Nightcrawler.
"I only left the redheaded woman who was with the group" Nightcrawler replies "You don't think…"
"Oh, I think she did…the question is How she did it" Spidey replies, sighing at the thought of the trouble she is getting in by manipulating the ship, but he knows this is something only she could pull.
Meanwhile, Mary Jane manages to move the ship forward, approaching the shore of the Neo-Murderworld platform while he shuts off the cannons control.
"You people thought you'd bench Mary Jane Watson?" MJ mutters to herself while she looks out front, but then looks at her phone "Thanks for the assist, Mister Stark" she comments while she shuts off the 'Stark-Hack App', one of the secret 'gifts' Tony Stark gave her as part of her severance package after her times working at Stark Industries.
With that, Arcade's machine was finally destroyed and taken down for good, ending his threat and leaving his Neo-Murderworld project as a complete failure. The Marauders start to celebrate their win, with Bishop and Pyro bumping their chests while Iceman and Storm salute each other. Black Cat tries to recover with the help of Silk while Colossus and Star-Lord fist bump, Wisdom sulks as he sits on the floor.
Meanwhile, Spidey ad Kitty look at each other and they walks forward, reaching out and embracing each other in a firmly tight hug, now happy that this journey is reaching the end and happy to have found each other safe and sound, or at least as close as possible.
"I know you and I still have a pending talk" Spidey tries to speak, recalling their pending talk they were having before they were abducted "I'm not going to…" he tries to talk, but Kitty puts a finger on his lips.
"Shhhh" Kitty whispers to shush him "We do have that talk pending, but we'll have it when we get home; right now, I just want to say that I'm really happy to have you back" she smiles at him and hugs him.
"You never lost me, Baby" Spidey whispers while he hugs her back "And you never will" he adds, looking into her eyes with a wide smile, but then his face turns into a serious semblance "The only downside is…that we didn't get to kick Arcade's ass and give him the much deserving punishment".
"I know, but wherever he may be…Karma will find him" Kitty replies, keeping her hug on Spidey while she sees the rest of their allies gathering around as the Marauder ship approaches, now wishing to let the rest of the day end and finally put this behind them.
VICTORY! Our heroes have managed to defeat Arcade's brutal machine and also survived the dreadful Neo-Murderworld, but what about Arcade himself? Will he face his punishment? And how will our heroes get back home? Because I doubt the Marauder will ship them all LOL! So with this said, buckle up folks, because next chapter is the FINAL one, and let's not forget that Spidey and Kitty still have a pending talk about their relationship issues, so let's hope they overcome that just like they did with this.
NEXT CHAPTER: THE LONG OVERDUE TALK!