The Invincible Spider-Man
Chapter 34: Burning Bridges
Spider-Man was in shock, as he took off his mask, staring at the bodies mutilated on the hospital floor. He ran his gloved hand through his messy hair.
"Did…did doc do this?" he thought to himself, horrified as he walked around. The male doctor's back was arched at an unnatural angle, as his eyes lay open, glassy as they reflected the terror in his final moments.
Something glinted in the destruction, near the female doctor's body. Peter walked up to it and picked it up.
"The inhibitor chip!" exclaimed Peter. "Without this…he wouldn't be in control of the neural interface. The energy levels would surge, and…shit!" said Peter, as he put his mask back on and looked out the broken window. There seemed to be dents made in the brick outer wall of the hospital.
"These must have been made by doc's mechanical arms. Did he climb up?" thought Peter, as he crawled out the window and started to crawl up the wall, towards the roof.
"He came up to the roof, then where did he go?" thought Peter.
All of a sudden, the ground shook as Peter noticed a huge explosion on the Brooklyn Bridge, destroying it halfway through.
"What the hell!" he shouted, as he started to swing towards it, as fast he could while alternating between left and right hand swings. As he swung at breakneck speed, he got a call from Gwen.
"Gwen! Can't talk right now!" he said quickly.
"Did you see those explosions?!" she said frantically.
"Explosions? Plural? Isn't it only the Brooklyn Bridge?" asked Peter
"The Manhattan and Triboro Bridges too!" said Gwen.
"Crap! Gwen I gotta go, I'll get back to you as soon as I can!" said Peter, as he dodged a building at the last minute due to his hectic swinging. He quickly called up Captain DeWolff, as he saw an explosion on the Williamsburg bridge too.
"Captain! Send units to the Triboro, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges! I'll handle the Brooklyn Bridge!" shouted Spider-Man as he quickly swung to the bridge.
"Got it. Make sure everyone is safe." said Jean, as she cut the call.
Spider-Man zipped up to a construction crane as he observed what was happening. An explosion seemed to have occurred at the center of the bridge, causing both parts to break off, creating a huge gap in the middle. "Oh this is bad," thought Peter, as the bridge was becoming more and more unstable.
Peter quickly swung in and noticed a woman lying down and holding her leg in pain, just as debris was about to fall on top of her. Spider-Man quickly shot a web at her back and yanked her away from the falling debris, before swinging her away to safety.
There was a little kid stuck under a pile of rubble, and he was struggling to get out.
"HELP! MY SON!" shouted his mother, trying to lift the rubble off of him. Spider-Man quickly ran over to the rubble, and managed to lift it off of the boy. "GO GO GO!" shouted Spider-Man, as the boy crawled out and ran with his mom.
"Thank you, Spider-Man!" she said, as they both ran. Before Spider-Man could even catch a break, he noticed a car tipping over the edge of the gap made in the bridge. The driver and his family were still stuck in.
"No no no no no!" exclaimed Spider-Man, as he spun a number of webs to the back of the car and pulled as hard as he could. He managed to pull the car halfway up, where people could get out.
"Get out of the car!" shouted Spider-Man, as the people quickly got out and Spider-Man let go, causing the car to plummet down into the water. Other cars were sliding down too, and Peter jumped high up in the air, and spun a number of strands of webbing to all the cars. Holding the webbing in his right hand, he swung to a beam of the bridge and clung onto it with his feet. He pulled as hard as he could, using the beam for support and got the cars far enough from the gap that people could get out and run away.
He jumped back down to the ground, which was getting more and more unstable. Spider-Man ran and helped some people to their feet, swinging them away to safety. The first part of the bridge that he was standing on started to bend downwards, into the gaping hole which led into the water. People started slipping down.
Spider-Man shot two webs on either side of the bending bridge and he pulled as hard as he could, fixating his feet on the ground. The bridge was pulled back to its normal level.
"UGHHHH!" he grunted, as people managed to get to their feet and climb out, running off of the bridge. Spider-Man slowly let go off the webs.
However, just as he was about to move, his Spider-Sense tingled wildly, as he backflipped out of the way. Another car, with a driver was sliding off of the bridge and down the gap. Spider-Man quickly shot two webs and held on. The driver tried to get out, but the door wouldn't budge. Noticing this, Spider-Man attached the web to a lamppost and quickly scrambled to the car, ripping off the door entirely and saving the man.
"This is crazy…" he thought, as he noticed other people sliding off of the bridge. He leaped ahead and grabbed a man's hand before he could fall, and webbed up a civilian to prevent him from falling. He saw someone fall into the gap and down into the water.
"Shit!" he said, as he dove off of the gap, grabbed the person before they could fall, and shot a web to a support beam on the bridge, swinging out from the side and back on the bridge, as the person ran to safety.
Spider-Man got some other people out of the rubble, but his Spider-Sense went off. He turned around, and before he could do anything, a huge bus slammed straight into him as it slid down the gap, causing Peter to be knocked off the bridge.
Before he could hit the water however, he quickly shot a web at the underside of the second part of the bridge as he swung up the side of the bridge and landed on the other side that had broken off.
Before another empty sliding car could hit him, he flipped over it, but that's when he noticed something far worse. There was a truck carrying a tank of highly flammable Butane, which had overturned towards the side of the bridge, and the tank was leaking.
"Butane… oh fu-"
Before Spider-Man could finish, the truck exploded with another huge explosion, sending Peter flying back to the right side of the bridge. Before he could get up, another sliding car knocked him down.
Thanks to the second explosion, the cables holding the bridge snapped, and the second part of the bridge which had separated, was now tilting to the left, causing people to tumble down and almost fall off.
"No no no!" said Spider-Man, as he tried jumping, but his leg hurt like Hell. Despite the pain, he leapt across the bridge and spun two webs, which stuck to two people.
With all his might, Spider-Man managed to pull one of them back up. "Get off the bridge! Go, go!" said Spider-Man, as the civilian hurriedly ran away. However, steel cables were flying everywhere, and Spider-Man was still trying to pull one person up. A steel cable violently slammed into Peter, causing him to fly and tumble across the bridge, and he let go of the web carrying the man.
"NO!" shouted Spider-Man, as he instantly shot a web to the side of the bridge, and while swinging, he grabbed the man just as he was going to hit the water. Spider-Man swung back up to the bridge, and the man ran away.
More cables started to snap, and Peter knew he had to do something. There were still people on both sides of the bridge, and they were on the verge of toppling over, as they tried to resist gravity. As another steel cable slashed at him, he grabbed it as it violently thrashed around. As he held on to it while the cable went higher, he leapt off of it, webbing the cables to the beams so it doesn't hit anyone.
He shot another web to a support beam, and shot webs to the different cables thrashing about, making them stick to support beams. He landed back on the ground, but without cables the bridge was tilting to the left a lot more, and becoming more and more unstable.
"I hope I live to regret this…" he thought, as he shot two webs to two beams of the bridge and catapulted upwards. While in mid-air, he spun a number of webs where the cables had snapped. One end of the web attached to the top of one beam and one end attached to the bottom on the bridge. He continued spinning webs like this where there were missing steel cables, as their tensile strength was strong enough to act as makeshift cables, but only for a short while.
"There's no saving the Brooklyn Bridge, but I can make sure people can get out safely…here goes nothing!" said Spider-Man.
Spider-Man then swung straight in the air, high above the middle of the gap between the bridge, as he shot one web on a beam of first part of the separated bridge, and another one on a beam of the second part of the bridge. With all his might, he started pulling them together, making the gap significantly smaller so that people could jump over it. Surprisingly, he managed to keep both parts stable and pulled them back together temporarily, to allow people to cross over the gap and get to safety.
"It looks like the Spider-Man is trying to hold the bridge together, at least until everyone is evacuated!" said a news reporter from a helicopter, as he documented the entire incident. People on the street started to cheer as they saw this incredible feat literally being pulled off.
"AAAGGHHHHH!" grunted Spider-Man, as he continued holding and pulling the bridge together, hoping the webs don't snap. His suit started tearing at the seams, but he managed to hold it together, even though it felt like his arms and muscles were being torn apart. "God…DAMMIT!" he shouted, as his muscles started to feel like they were burning, and his wrists felt like at any moment they would snap backwards awkwardly.
Luckily, everyone managed to get off the bridge and to safety.
"Everyone's been evacuated! The bridge is secure now!" shouted the reporter.
Spider-Man let go off the bridges in exhaustion, as he fell down to the water below, and the Brooklyn Bridge collapsed.
Spider-Man came to on the banks of the river, where a lot of people were looking down at him.
"Is he okay?" asked one of them.
"Hopefully…what he was doing was…impossible." said another.
Spider-Man quickly sat up, and realized he still had his mask on. Before he could get to his feet, a man knelt down to him.
"That was amazing, what you did for us. On behalf of all of us, thank you Spider-Man." smiled the man as he put an arm on Spider-Man's shoulder, and Peter weakly nodded as the boy who he had saved came to him, and gave Peter a hug. "Thank you, Mr Spider-Man." he said, and Peter smiled underneath his mask. He got to his feet, nodded in approval to the other citizens, and painfully swung away.
He zipped up to a nearby rooftop, as he took off his mask and lay down in exhaustion, his arms feeling like cement boulders.
"I'm gonna feel that in the morning…" he groaned, as Jean called him.
"Saw your heroics, good work," she said.
"Forget about that…how was work on the other bridges?" asked Peter
"Not as bad as Brooklyn, but we managed to keep casualties at a…minimum level," she said, in a disappointed tone on the last few words. Spider-Man heavily sighed. "This was a coordinated attack. What other bridges were involved?" asked Peter.
"4 of them," informed Jean.
"What?! Four bridges at the same time…who could've done this?"
"I don't know, but everyone's panicking right now. The best thing people can do now is stay in their homes," said Jean.
"Okay, so everything's under control?"
"That's the best case scenario,"
"What's the worst case?"
"You really wanna know? Rioting, looting, you name it,"
"Shouldn't have asked. I'll get back to you on this." said Peter, as he cut the call.
He sighed as he stood up, every part of his throbbing with pain.
"I should head home, it's almost morning. Luckily, the Queensboro Bridge wasn't blown up." said Peter, shooting a web towards another building and swinging away
"And once again, my suit is super torn. I should make spare suits…" thought Peter, as he entered his house in Queens. May seemed to be asleep.
Peter sat on the couch in the living room as he put on the news, with a bowl of cereal. It was almost morning.
"The police were able to evacuate as many people as possible from the bridges, sadly not everyone was able to be saved, with an estimated 36 casualties, and many more wounded. However, the highlight of the night was most definitely Spider-Man, who was able to pull together the entirety of the massive Brooklyn Bridge, saving everyone trapped there." said the reporter. Peter smiled to himself, as Gwen called up.
"Peter! Are you all right?' she asked.
"Yeah I'm fine. Just a bit sore," he replied, groaning as he held his shoulder.
"What you did was…amazing. I don't think even the Hulk could do that!"
"Yeah. I still need to find out who was behind these bombings,"
"Apparently, the mayor will be addressing the city today morning regarding the terrorist attacks. And we need to talk. Not right now, but in school," she said.
"Uhh sure…" replied Peter, a little anxious. He heard May coming down the stairs. "Okay, I'll talk to you later then?" he said.
"Yeah, sure." Said Gwen, as she cut the call. May walked down the stairs. "It's Saturday and Peter Parker is up so early? Are the pigs flying?" chuckled May, as she walked to the kitchen.
"Just wanted to catch up on the news. Besides, I wasn't getting much sleep," replied Peter. May made herself a cup of tea, as she sat down next to Peter.
"You know, these couch talks are becoming a routine thing. Maybe you should've become a therapist," joked Peter, and May chuckled as she sipped her tea.
"In other news, local high school teacher and neuroscientist, Doctor Otto Octavius recently escaped from his hospital room, leaving two dead doctors in his wake. He is considered literally armed and dangerous, with 4 mechanical tentacles. If anyone has information on his whereabouts, please inform the NYPD…" said the reporter.
"Oh, it never ends…" groaned Peter, burying his face in his right arm. May put her hand on Peter's back.
"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure he's just confused," reassured Aunt May.
"I hope." Replied Peter.
Otto managed to discreetly head back to his laboratory warehouse, somehow not being spotted by the New Yorkers, who were way too busy focusing on the explosions on the bridges.
"What went wrong…with the experiment…" he thought, racking his brain and trying to regain his memory. That's when he remembered something.
"Spider-Man…did he…sabotage the experiment? Yes…he tried to pull off the harness and attack me…but how did I lose control?" he asked himself, looking around. He touched the back of his neck.
"The inhibitor chip is missing! Makes sense now…" he said.
All of a sudden, something seemed to snap in him, as he lashed out one of his mech-arms, destroying one of the pillars that held the warehouse up.
"Spider-Man interrupted my experiment! My legacy! No, I will not lose like this! This will not be my legacy!" he shouted, destroying another pillar in anger.
"But…but how…I don't have the resources to rebuild…" just as he thought that, Otto had an epiphany.
"Oscorp…" he snickered to himself.
It was 10 am, and The Mayor was standing outside City Hall, ready to address the city regarding the terrorist attack. All cameras were on him, as almost every single News outlet was there, ready to document the whole city.
The Mayor cleared his throat, as he began to speak into the microphone.
"Citizens of New York City, today we were the victim of a vicious terrorist attacks, which claimed the lives of 36 of our fellow citizens, and injuring many more. Luckily, New York's Finest…and the Spider-Man were able to evacuate the bridges. We are currently looking into this coordinated attack, to pinpoint who exactly was behind this. I can assure you, whatever can be done is-HRRK!"
Before the Mayor could finish, a gunshot rang out, and the bullet went straight through his abdomen. The bullet was fired from the crowd, as everyone gathered there started running away.
Rose, wearing his signature white suit and purple mask walked out from the crowd and shot the Mayor in the head twice, making sure he stayed down. He then shot the police commissioner there too, and everyone else standing next to the mayor.
Rose's men came out of alleyways and fired into the crowd, shooting as many people as possible. There were about 6 of them.
The Mayor's bodyguards charged at him, but he dodged them and slammed one's head on the microphone stand. He kicked another one's knee in, and shot another bodyguard point blank in the face, before stabbing another one with a knife.
As everyone ran in terror, hoping they don't get shot, Rose shot a cameraman in his leg and took his camera, recording himself.
"Pitiful citizens of New York, your Mayor is dead," he said, zooming the camera on the Mayor's dead body. "This city is under my control now, and anyone who opposes me…" said Rose, as he picked up the cameraman by his hair, turning the camera to face the man.
"gets a bullet in their head," said Rose, as he shot the cameraman through his head, recording the whole incident.
"And to New York's Finest…if you try and come after me, you'll just be delaying the inevitable. You may have prevented casualties at our attack on the bridges today, but soon enough, New York will be mine. And this goes to Spider-Man and any other "Superhero"…if you think you can stop me, then please, I beg you to try." threatened Rose, as he threw the camera on the ground and brought his boot down on it.
As the crowd dispersed, he counted at least 50 people dead, as he placed a rose on the Mayor's body and left.
And Rose has finally made his move! Rose is one of the smartest villains that Spider-Man has ever fought in this story (yet). I think this is one of my favorite chapters that I have written, especially the bridge scene which was a blast to plan and write. I realized that I don't have too many set pieces in these past 3 seasons, so I decided to add one like this. Rest assured, there will be many more to come in the future, especially in Season 4 (which is going to be the craziest). Also, Doctor Octopus rises!
I originally wanted to do Season 3 as a mix of Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises, with Rose being like Bane as he takes over Gotham…I mean New York! But I've decided to go the Mister Negative route from the PS4 game, where he leads a gang of terrorists, although Rose is gonna be way different.
Rollerparty: Yeah, Thor definitely has the best character development from the MCU. (But I really don't like how they sorta made him a joke during Endgame). And yeah, I've been taking your advice to make sure my writing can be as perfect as possible! If anyone does have any other critiques, do let me know!
JPrime: I can assure you, Doc Ock is coming, hopefully by the next two three chapters. This season is definitely gonna be longer than the traditional 13 episodes per season, maybe 15 or 16 episodes this time. We'll see.
Yours Truly,
Shadow Strike.