The Invincible Spider-Man

Chapter 51: Lightning Rod

Spider-Man waited on a rooftop, for Daredevil to show up. He was clutching the DNA report that Carlie had given him, still unable to believe what it was. Just then, the Man Without Fear jumped up onto the rooftop.

"Got anything on Manfredi?" asked Daredevil.

"About that…this is the DNA report of the dead body we found in Manfredi's hideout," said Peter, handing Matt the report. Matt took off his gloves and ran his fingers on the paper, using his heightened tactile senses to feel the fine bumps and depressions on the paper caused by the ink, forming words.

"This doesn't make any sense…it states that the body…is Sylvio Manfredi!" exclaimed Matt, his red eyes going wide.

"Exactly. Which means…" replied Peter.

"The Altruist has been playing us. Again," said Matt, crumpling the report.

"So we're back to square one. Who else could The Altruist be?" asked Peter.

"Can't be Leland Owlsley, he's not smart enough to come up with something like this," replied Matt. "Are you sure it's not Fisk?"

"Definitely not him. He was attacked by Manf…I mean the Altruist," said Peter, correcting himself. Matt sighed.

"He could be someone completely new too," said Matt.

"But the thing is he acts like he knows everything about me, about you, about this city,"

"What if he's someone you once wronged, coming back for revenge. What if he isn't a prior supervillain?" suggested Matt.

"So, like an Arkham Knight type guy? It's possible, but I can't think of anyone I've wronged like that…Brock," said Peter, as Matt raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry?"

"Eddie Brock. He's this guy from The Bugle. Four years ago both of us were competing to get the photography position at the Bugle, and I beat him. Just a few weeks back, around the time the Altruist showed up, Eddie returned as a journalist to the Bugle," said Peter.

"Seems like a bit of a stretch, to be honest," said Matt.

"Yeah. Besides he seems like a good guy," replied Peter. That's when he got a call from Jean.

"Captain?" asked Peter.

"Hey, I've got Dr Ohnn here, Precinct 52," said Jean.

"Okay, I'm on my way," said Peter, as he turned to Matt.

"I think it's time you meet another member of our little group here. A guy called Spot," said Peter to Matt.

"At Precinct 52, I'm guessing?" asked Matt.

"How'd you- right, super hearing," said Peter, as he jumped off of the rooftop and swung away.

As Peter was swinging, a razor sharp object cut his web.

"What the!-" said Peter, as he quickly shot another web and swung off from it, landing on a rooftop and scraping his knee.

"What the Hell was that?" he asked himself.

"Me," said a voice, as Peter turned around, only to come face to face with Norman Osborn, in his Green Goblin suit, but without the mask.

"Goblin," said Peter, as he rushed at him, but Norman dodged him.

"I'm not here for a fight, Peter," said Norman, as he took out a device and threw it on Spider-Man. The device released a net which stuck to Peter, and trapped him towards a wall.

"Why are you here then?" asked Peter, trying to escape but unable to do so.

"I'm here to talk. About this game all of us are playing," said Norman.

"What game?" asked Peter.

"The Altruist's," said Norman. "I can explain everything," he continued.

"Fine," said Peter, reluctantly. Norman removed the net.

"Now, a few weeks back, just after the whole Doctor Octopus and Rose fiasco, I had gotten a visitor. He wore a black trench coat and a black fedora, like a noir gangster. Said his name was Gustav Fiers," explained Norman.

"Think he was The Altruist?" asked Peter.

"He definitely was. Though I'm pretty sure he had a fake name. Because I looked it up, and Gustav Fiers was an old Agent who died carrying some confidential S.H.I.E.L.D research,"

"This guy loves taking dead people's names," said Peter.

"That's not all. Fiers told me about the whole Chameleon thing, and how he was gonna break me out. A day later, he came back to visit Otto," continued Norman.

"What'd he tell him?" asked Norman.

"Thank Herman Schultz for this next part, he had ears everywhere. He overheard Fiers talk to Octavius about assembling a team of six villains to take over this city, and more specifically, kill you," explained Norman.

"Wow, all this trouble for little old me. Can't he just leave me a threat in a pumpkin? You know, like you did?" asked Peter, accusingly.

Norman chuckled. "Those days are behind me. Nowadays I prefer to directly go for the kill,"

"You're being very trustworthy right now," replied Peter, to Norman's subliminal threat.

"There's still more. Two days ago he came to me again, and took me to this address in the Financial District, to an apartment belonging to someone called Felicia Hardy," said Norman.

"Wait, what! What was he doing at Felicia's? And how do you know her?" asked Peter, taken aback.

"I did a background check on her obviously, and found out she's the Black Cat who you've been working, and sleeping with," said Norman, stifling a chuckle at the last part. "Whatever happened to that girl I threw off a bridge?" he asked.

"Felicia was working with Altruist, but after her got the Nanotech Energy he left her alone, right?" asked Peter.

"Doesn't look that way. When I asked her about it, she said it was because Fiers had her father hostage or something. But during my background check, guess what I found out about Mr Walter Hardy?" asked Norman.

"What did you find?" asked Peter.

"He's dead. And guess when?" continued Norman. Peter was too startled to reply.

"The night you and Daredevil took down Wilson Fisk. The night he set off those 12 bombs. Remember?" asked Norman.

"Yeah, I do," said Peter, gritting his teeth. "I need to have a talk to Felicia. And Norman, after I'm done with all of this shit, I'm coming for you," said Spider-Man, leaving for Ditko Towers.

Spider-Man crashed through the window, but no one was there at Felicia's apartment.

"Felicia? We need to talk!" he said, stepping over the broken glass. On the coffee table, he found a note.

"Sorry," he read out. Just then, his Spider-Sense tingled, as he quickly dodged to the right, and Felicia pounced on him from the ceiling.

"All this time, you've been lying to me!" he said, as he jumped towards her. Felicia dodged and kicked Peter away towards the wall.

Before she could grab him, Peter jumped above her, spun two webs on her back and pulled her down. But Felicia released released her claws and broke apart the webbing.

"Peter, listen to me! He was going to kill him!" she said, as Peter jumped behind the kitchen table.

"Kill who?!" asked Peter.

"My father!" she yelled.

Peter slowly rose back from behind the table.

"Felicia…Walter is dead…" he said.

Felicia took a pause. "No he's not…Altruist showed me the video…"

"It was fake. Walter Hardy died years ago,"

"No, no the bombs! He used them as a distraction to get away. He's not dead," she said.

"You said he left you when you were kid,"

"Then he returned, wanting to meet me. But then you and Fisk fought, and the explosions…they never found his body, he can't be dead!" she exclaimed again, pulling at her hair as tears streamed down her eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said, but she pushed him away.

"Please go," she said, quietly as her voice quivered. Peter acknowledged it and left, swinging away to another building and sticking to the window, as it started to rain heavily

"Goddamnit, what's going on!" he said. "What game is this Fiers guy playing?" he asked himself. Just then, he felt a tap on the window.

"The Hell are you doing!?" asked a woman from the other side of the window, and Spider-Man quickly started apologizing.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know the window was…transparent, my bad!" he said, as he jumped away.

"Pervert!" she yelled.

"Can't wait to see how Jonah Jameson spins that in the news," said Peter. Just then, he heard an explosion.

"What the Hell?" he asked, and all of a sudden, he saw Sandman arise from the ground, along with Vulture swooping in from the sky as he moved into Chinatown.

Further near Central Park, Peter was able to make out Scorpion and Mysterio emerging from Central Park, while one went towards the Upper East Side and Midtown, and the other went towards the Upper West Side.

Just then, Harlem had an entire electrical blackout.

"Looks like the Six just made their move," said Spider-Man, calling Jean.

"Jean! Send Spot and Daredevil to the Financial District. Sandman and Vulture are here," said Peter.

Sandman was at least 60 feet tall and looked like a sand monster, as he continued his rampage through the streets, taking sand from all the silica in the concrete on the street. He made thick whips of sand and slammed them into buildings, causing utter chaos and destruction.

Spider-Man quickly swung over and kicked Sandman in the face, only for his legs to get stuck.

"Sandman, is this you, or are you piloting some weird sand robot?!" asked Spider-Man, as the large Sandman grabbed Spider-Man and threw him away. Luckily, Peter shot a web to another building and zipped back up.

"I'm sick of you!" shouted Sandman, as he threw a wave of sand towards Peter. Spider-Man quickly dodged, only to get slammed by the Vulture. Spider-Man fell to the ground, while the Vulture grabbed his back by the talons and slammed him down again, and then threw him into a lamppost.

Before Peter could even get up, Vulture grabbed him and flew up, throwing him towards Sandman, who backhanded him into a building.

Peter landed in the living room of a small family. Sandman brought himself down to his normal size and walked in.

Spider-Man quickly gathered up the entire family living there and threw them out the window, after creating a large hammock made of webs between two buildings.

Once Peter was sure the family was safe, he turned to Sandman, who threw a right hook and slammed him into the table, before making a large sand fist and punching him straight out of the wall.

As Peter fell through the brick wall, Vulture grabbed him again and slammed him into another building wall. But this time Spider-Man was ready, as he quickly flipped over him, landing on his back.

"Adrian, I'm getting serious déjà vu here!" said Peter, as he punched his back, only to hear his knuckles crack.

"AAAGHH!" he yelled out in agony and fell to the ground.

"It's an Osmium alloy, you fool! Though I don't expect an idiot like you to know what that is!" mocked Adrian.

"Element number 76 on a Mendeleevian Periodic Table, huh? Also the world's densest, kinda like you, Toomes!" replied Peter.

Just then Peter felt the ground shake again, as a huge palm of sand arose from the ground and slammed onto Spider-Man, then clenching into a fist, crushing him.

"It was that easy!" said Sandman. But that's when he heard a grunt, and when Sandman peeked into his fist, he said Spider-Man holding away his fingers from his palm, preventing himself from being crushed.

"AGGHHHH!" he yelled out, but still unable to escape. Just then, a black portal appeared near Peter. Knowing exactly what it was, Spider-Man jumped through.

He found himself back on the street, next to Spot, in his proper outfit.

"Thanks," said Peter.

"No problem," replied Spot, and Daredevil jumped down from the lamppost.

"Okay. Spot, handle Sandman for now. Daredevil and I will take on Vulture," said Peter. Spot nodded as he reached his hand into his chest, pulled out a black spot and through it on the ground. The spot turned into a portal, and Ohnn jumped in.

Peter and Matt ran up to Vulture, who aimed his knife-feathers at them. Spider-Man dodged them, while Daredevil deflected them with his batons.

"Remember us from a few years back? Man I miss those days!" shouted Spider-Man, as he ran up a wall, leaped off of it and punched Vulture in the face.

"You know, before the shadowy mysterious manipulators and the whole "it's all connected" scenario!" continued Spider-Man, as Daredevil aimed his grappling hook at Vulture, pulling him down and kicking him away.

"Pretty sure I would've broken my leg if I hit him any harder," said Daredevil.

"Yeah that armour is tough…wait! Osmium is highly conductive," said Peter.

"We could knock him with a bolt of electric-UGH!" grunted Daredevil, as Vulture swooped into him. He then grabbed Spider-Man and flew into a store.

Meanwhile, Spot was creating multiple portals and hitting the huge sand monster, but to no avail. Sandman moved his large hand and threw Spot in the air, before kicking him away. Spot landed right near Daredevil.

"It's like the inside of that sand monster is completely hollow! Almost as if it's just a cover for a smaller Sandman," he said. Just then, Spider-Man came out of the store riding Vulture on his back, using two webs to manipulate his wings. Vulture brushed him off and flew higher, readying himself for another swoop.

"If we use electricity to shock Vulture, that can generate a shit ton of heat!" said Spider-Man.

"Heat causes the macromolecular structure of silicon dioxide to collapse in on itself, forming glass!" continued Spot.

"We can take out Vulture by ramming him into the glass Sandman. We're pretty sure it's just normal sized Sandman controlling him from the middle!" finished Daredevil.

"But we need an insane amount of power for that. A normal cable can't-"

Before Spot could finish, loud thunder and lightning crackled above them.

"That's our cue," snickered Daredevil.

"We can use Vulture's conductive armour as a lightning rod, frying him and generating enough heat to turn Sandman to glass!" said Spider-Man.

Just as Vulture swooped in again, throwing his knives, Spider-Man took one of Daredevil's batons and jumped back on him and webbed his wings, steering him high up above Sandman's head and up to the sky. He then started rubbing one of Daredevil's batons on Vulture's back.

"What the Hell are you doing?!" asked Vulture, bewildered.

"Basic electrostatic induction, giving you a positive charge! You're not as smart as you think you are, are you Toomes?" asked Spider-Man.

"But- you'll fry us both!" shouted Vulture, as Spider-Man aimed the baton to the sky.

"Not exactly. Spot, now!" shouted Spider-Man, through his comms. Just as the air around them began to crackle, a portal opened up under them. Just as the lightning struck, they fell into the portal. The lightning hit Sandman, and the copious amount of heat froze him into place, as glass.

Spider-Man steered Vulture down to the glass Sandman's abdomen, where the normal Sandman was clearly visible.

"Here we go!" shouted Spider-Man, as he rammed Vulture straight through the glass, and right into Flint.

Vulture and Sandman were both knocked down, as Spider-Man webbed them up and high-fived Daredevil and Spot. That's when Spider-Man walked up to Vulture, who was still a little conscious.

"So, tell me who made you this armour. Was it Octavius?" asked Peter. Vulture snickered.

"It was your guy. Your pal, Mason," said Vulture, falling unconscious.

"Phineas? He…betrayed me? God…dammit!" cursed Spider-Man as he swung away towards Tinkerer's workshop, without saying anything to Daredevil and Spot.

Spider-Man bust the door to Tinkerer's workshop, only to find him sitting on his chair.

"Phineas? Why? That's all I'm asking," said Peter, but he was met with no response.

"Come on, Mason. Just tell me!" said Spider-Man. Still no response.

Spider-Man walked up to the chair cautiously. Phineas still wasn't moving.

The whole workshop was dark, and looked clean from what Peter could tell.

Peter slowly spun the chair around, and was met with a dummy, along with a bomb in its hand.

The bomb exploded, destroying everything in a 5 block radius.

"Peter, it's the Biochemistry test, where are you?!" asked Carlie, as she rushed through the boys dormitory and towards Peter's room.

"Peter, quickly-whoa." She said, as she took a look at the room. There was Chinese food, written down science experiments, and of course the large investigation board on The Altruist.

"What the Hell is this?" she asked, picking up a briefcase with the initials R.P.

She opened it up, and there were a bunch of files.

"Project V3…with an ID Number of N0M…?" she asked herself. Her curiosity overcame her, as she started going through the files.

Peter crawled out of the wreckage, barely able to catch his breath as he managed to stand up. His leg, hips, chest, arms, neck, everything hurt like Hell. He got out of the flames, as firefighters came on the scene.

"Any evidence…gone…" panted Spider-Man, as he got back to his feet.

"Spider-Man, are you okay?" asked a firefighter.

"What're you doin', don't help him!" said another. "He's a mutie!" he continued.

"Come on, he's no mutant! You ain't one, right?" asked the firefighter.

"I'm not," said Peter coldly, to both the mutant haters, as he swung away painfully back to ESU.

What he didn't know, was that he had someone watching him. It was Doctor Octopus.

"Did you know?" asked a voice. Otto turned around to be face to face with Black Cat, tears down her eyes.

"Know what?" asked Otto.

"About my father. Did you know?!" she asked, lunging at him, but Otto smacked her away with an arm.

"I didn't. The Altruist didn't tell me everything, you know?" replied Otto.

"Did he tell you who he was?" asked Felicia.

"Sylvio Manfredi," replied Otto.

"Is dead," she said.

"Impossible!" replied Otto.

"Bastard played all of us," said Felicia.

"He didn't play me. I'm not a part of his game," replied Otto stubbornly.

"Someway, somehow, we all are," replied Black Cat.

As soon as Peter got to his window at ESU, his Spider-Sense tingled. Jumping to the side of the window and peered in, only to see Carlie and Mary Jane in his room.

"Ah shit," he said, as he watched them peer over his investigatory board.

Spider-Man rushed to an alleyway, thinking of any viable excused, as he put on his normal clothes and ran back into campus. He rushed up the stairwell, only to run into Dr Connors.

"Dr Connors! I thought the city was under lockdown, how are you here?" asked Peter, curiously.

"I live nearby, so I have permission. That's beside the point, where've you been Peter?" asked Curt. Peter's brain started going a mile a minute, and he finally came up with an excuse.

"An old friend was back in town. I haven't seen him in like 4 years, so I had to go meet him. I'm so so sorry that I forgot to inform anyone," apologized Peter.

"Peter, there are always consequences to your actions, you need to understand that. You've missed over three classes and missed a Biochemistry test too. Make sure this doesn't happen again," said Curt sternly, as Peter nodded his head.

He walked up to his room, only to see Carlie and MJ staring back at him. MJ had that look on her face which basically said that she wanted an explanation. Peter sighed heavily.

"Fine, I guess you guys deserve to know," said Peter.

"The truth," interrupted MJ.

"Yeah. The truth is…" started Peter. The atmosphere was heavy with tension, and it kept rising.

"I…have been participating in these online betting games, kinda. Ones where you basically bet who'd win a fight. You know, Iron Man vs Captain America, Wolverine vs Hulk, etc," explained Peter.

"What about this weird…Sherlock Holmes and Dexter thing you've got here?" asked Carlie.

"Well, recently they were hosting a tournament as to who the Altruist is, y'know, that guy on the news?" asked Peter.

"Yeah. So why all of this?" asked MJ.

"The truth is, I'm kind of addicted to this. It's very low betting, like barely 5 dollars, but it just feels good when you win," explained Peter. "Sometimes it can be high risk though," continued Peter.

"Is that why you've been missing classes? For this?!" asked Carlie.

"More or less. But you don't understand, in the tournaments, the money goes to charity. So even though I'm addicted to it, I feel like I'll be helping someone, even though the risk is high. It's sort of my responsibility," justified Peter.

"But dude, this is literally hampering your life! When was the last time you went out with Gwen? Or even talked to her?" asked MJ.

"I'm working on that," said Peter.

"Look, we don't want to lecture you on all this, but you have to try and quit this addiction. Even though in the end it's for something good, it's very dangerous and risky, and it even affects your normal life as Peter Parker," said Carlie.

"Okay. Thanks," said Peter, as Carlie and MJ walked out.

Peter sighed as he sat down on his bed. He stared at his father's briefcase, something seemed off about it. Shrugging it off, he went to bed.

Felicia walked into her apartment, only to find the door already unlocked. Sighing, she walked in anyways, knowing exactly what she would find.

And sure enough, there was a man in a black trench coat and black fedora, standing in the shadows, with a gun in his hand.

"Miss Hardy, you've played your part in my game," he said, pointing the gun at her from his hip. Felicia stood there, extending her claws.

"You lied to me. About everything!" she said. Before she could even do anything, The Altruist shot her in the stomach. Felicia stumbled back towards the wall, and fell down. As she gasped for breath, the Altruist walked up towards her.

"I suppose I owe you this much…" said The Altruist, as he took off his fedora, and stepped into the light. Felicia's eyes went wide.

"It's you."

And that's Chapter 51! A lot happened in this chapter, and we are nearing The Altruist's endgame. And I hope you caught the easter egg to V3-N0M, who will be coming soon. Very soon…

In other news, wow everything sucks right now lol. Prom was a total disaster, and I left early from there. And my preliminary exam results are below satisfactory for me, to say the least. But if Dark Souls has taught me anything, we just gotta keep on chugging, taking these blows like a champ.

In other news, i finally decided to watch The Boys season 1, and wow it is amazing! It just takes the idea of superheroes and flips it on its head, and it was amazingly done! I give Season 1 a 10/10. The only other show i've given a 10/10 to is Daredevil Season 3. And of course, Falcon and The Winter Soldier is going really well too, and so are the DC CW shows, especially Superman and Lois!

Also be sure to check out Rollerparty's Invincible X-Men! And as for another announcement, The Invincible Doctor Strange will be getting a Season 2 soon, as soon as Deadpool Season 1 wraps up!

JPrime: Thanks! And don't worry, everything will be cleared up!

Spider-Sonic 123: Hopefully soon!

Guest (1): I actually did lol, I sorta grouped them together with Chapter 49's reviews!
Guest (2): Not a bad idea! I do feel like Spot and Peter could have a great friendship!

Fate-Be Changed: Maybe, you never know! Although the Sinister Six will most definitely have some sort of internal conflict amongst each other, like Scorpion and Doc Ock right now!

redbirds12: Thanks, although that was a cop-out lol. And yeah, Norman still has a part to play this season! Thanks!

Marvel Nerd: We will definitely see Elektra sometime in the future, but not anytime soon, sorry! Elektra did show up in Season one though!

Yours Truly,

Shadow Strike.