The Invincible Spider-Man
Chapter 35: Every Rose Has Its Thorns
"This is The Daily Bugle. The city is in a panic following the death of the Mayor, and after a threat given by a mysterious figure known as Rose. We now have reports of multiple firefights taking place in the city, especially in the Upper East Side and Central Park," said the reporter, on the news.
The police were engaged in a massive shootout. There were only 2 policemen and over 6 of Rose's mercenaries. A car had been overturned on the road, and the police were using their cars as cover.
"You die today, pigs!" shouted one of the mercenaries, as he hopped on top of the overturned car and aimed at the cops. However, just before he could pull the trigger, a web stuck onto the gun and was yanked out of his hand.
"Sorry, but the teacher must always confiscate dangerous toys!" shouted Spider-Man, as he yanked the other mercenaries weapons too. He webbed up one of their legs and pulled them to the ground. He then kicked another one and backflipped off of him, before shooting a web and delivering a powerful kick to another one. He then did a quick handstand and kicked another guy in the chest, before finally webbing up another one to the overturned car.
"Thanks Spider-Man, we need all the help we can get," thanked the officer.
"Anytime, Officer." Replied Spider-Man, as he shot a web towards a building and propelled himself upwards.
"All Units! Backup requested in a firefight, location is the Upper West Side, Oscorp Tower, over." Said the police-scanner, as Spider-Man swung there too stop it.
"Sure, keep causing more chaos, it's not like I need to eat lunch." Groaned Spider-Man.
Jean sat in her office, looking through files of previous mob bosses.
"Captain, backup is requested at Oscorp, should I go?" asked a detective as she entered her office.
"Okay, Yuri. Take Peralta with you too," said Jean, as she continued analyzing the old documents. This piqued Yuri's interest.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Looking for any connection between Rose and previous mob bosses. He seems to be doing this for revenge. I don't know, it's just a hunch," replied Jean, zipping through Sylvio Manfredi's folder.
"That rose he always leaves could be an indication of something maybe? An old identity, or like a tribute?" suggested Yuri.
"Maybe, I'll continue trying to find something," she said, as Yuri walked out of the office. Jean scanned other documents, hoping to find at least some connection to Rose's identity. That's when she noticed something: Wilson Fisk. One of his earliest victims had a rose on their chest when they died.
"Could Rose be getting revenge against Wilson Fisk?" she thought, as she checked the victim's profile.
"Hisaka…Johann Hisaka…" she read. "Years ago, he threatened to expose Fisk's criminal work. Wilson Fisk had him killed…" Jean's eyes went wide.
"Next of kin, his son: Ricardo Hisaka…"
Jean quickly rushed across the room to the NYPD Database room, and quickly searched up Ricardo Hisaka's name in the Database.
"No criminal records…no records at all…does he even exist? Ah, here! Apartment number 62 in Greenwich." She thought, as she took out her phone to call Spider-Man.
"He's busy trying to save my men and bring the city under control. Maybe not now…" she thought, hesitantly pocketing her mobile phone, and walking out of the precinct.
"Nathan! I'm pinned down here, I could use a hand!" shouted Yuri, as she took cover behind a police car, and Nathan was behind another police car.
"I'm out of ammo!" shouted Nathan, a fellow police officer, as the mercenaries continued their barrage of bullets.
"Backup requested! Oscorp Tower!" shouted Yuri, through her walkie-talkie.
Few of the mercenaries barged into Oscorp Tower and started shooting up the place, as employees ran left and right. Alistair Smythe was watching everything happen from the 3rd floor. He quickly rushed to a nearby scientist.
"Is the SO-1 ready?" he asked.
"Yes, Mr Smythe. But it's still in the prototype stage," explained the scientist.
"It doesn't matter, deploy the SO-1!" Ordered Smythe, as the scientist ran to the Robotics section.
"Get Smythe down here!" demanded one of the mercenaries, as they took 5 employees hostage.
"Okay, okay! But do not shoot," said Smythe, as he walked down the stairs, with his arms raised up. "Please let them go," said Alistair, trying to negotiate with the terrorists. One of them walked behind Alistair and slammed the butt of his gun to his shin, as Alistair fell to one knee as he winced in pain.
"Where are all of your assets?" asked the mercenary. Alistair didn't answer, and the goon slammed the gun harder on his leg, with a sickening crack.
"AAAGHHHH!" shouted Alistair. All of a sudden, a whirring sound was heard. Everyone looked upwards, and all of a sudden a seven foot tall, remote-controlled robot landed on the ground. The mercenaries started shooting at it, as everyone took cover. The robot seemed to be made of a titanium-platinum alloy, as bullets just bounced off of it.
The robot walked up to one of the mercenaries and violently backhanded him, sending him flying, The scientist had been controlling the robot. The goons who were attacking Yuri and Nathan now rushed into the building and started shooting at the robot.
That's when Spider-Man came swinging in, kicking away some of the goons and yanking their guns out of their hands. He then grabbed Alistair and swung him to safety, and saw the scientist controlling the robot.
"I'll take it from here, sir!" said Spider-Man, hopping into the action and webbing up every single mercenary, with the occasional kick to the chest and punch to the face, as the SO-1 deflected bullets and whisked goons off of their feet. Soon enough, everyone was down.
An ambulance quickly came in and rushed Smythe to the hospital, to tend to his broken leg while Peter examined the robot. The scientist walked up to him.
"Oscorp is focusing on Robotics now?" inquired Peter.
"Yeah. Mr Smythe wanted to unveil the SO-1 in a couple of weeks, but then…" sighed the scientist.
"Don't worry, everything will be under control." Reassured Spider-Man, as he walked out of the building, and up to Yuri Watanabe.
"Is anyone hurt?" asked Spider-Man.
"Luckily, no. But we had it under control," said Yuri, a little spiteful. Spider-Man put his arms up in the air.
"Whatever you say." Said Spider-Man, as he swung up towards a rooftop.
"City's out of control. I need to find Rose fast," He thought. Just as he said that, he noticed a figure watching him from a nearby building. A rather multi-limbed figure.
"Otto?" asked Spider-Man, as he quickly swung towards him.
Jean drove her car to the apartment complex, where Ricardo Hisaka lived. She walked up the rickety, unstable stairs with baited breath, a gun in her hand. She walked up to the sixth floor, to apartment 62. The door looked wooden and old, as if termites had feasted on it like it was a Thanksgiving turkey.
Jean knocked on the door. "Ricardo Hisaka, NYPD!" she called out, but there was no response. That's when another civilian walked out of a nearby apartment and noticed Jean at the door. Instinctively, Jean concealed her handgun.
"Do you know where the tenant of this apartment is?" asked Jean. The old lady shook her head.
"A man used to stay here, but he left somewhere a few days back and didn't return. My theory, he ran away with a girl," Chuckled the old woman, walking down the stairs.
Once the woman was out of sight and earshot, Jean kicked down the door, which fell clean off of its hinges with barely any resistance. The room had a thick coating of dust, and an awful smell. It was extremely cramped, with nothing but a small red couch, a small television, a makeshift kitchen and a bed. There was a small desk too, with a number of papers and files.
"Mercenaries in shipping containers…Mayor's assassination…oh God…" thought Jean, as she examined the files. Among them, an address was scribbled.
"A warehouse in the Upper West Side…that must be his hideout. Rose is Ricardo Hisaka!" exclaimed Jean, as she grabbed the piece of paper containing the address and rushed out of the apartment complex.
She got into the car and sped towards the warehouse, ready to get Ricardo Hisaka.
Spider-Man quickly swung to Doctor Octavius, who was also wearing a pair of black sunglasses, the arms were still attached to him.
"Dr Octavius?" asked Spider-Man, cautiously.
"Spider-Man. Please, give me a chance to explain myself," pleaded Otto, as he lowered himself down.
"Okay…but the doctors-"
"Were going to saw off my arms with a chainsaw. They didn't know the repercussions of doing that. They even took out the inhibitor chip," said Otto.
"I have it with me. Is there any way to fix it?" asked Spider-Man.
"Yes, but it will take a while. Time it appears the city doesn't have," replied Otto.
"I've got that covered. We need to get you back to normal. Who knows the side effects of this, there could be severe neurological damage, doctor," explained Spider-Man.
"I know the risks, Spider-Man. And I truly am sorry for what I did. But for the longest time, I have been…inspired by the likes of you. You, Tony Stark, etc. I was hoping, that I could help you bring the city back to normalcy, especially with the wave of terrorist attacks," said Otto, as he retracted his arms back a little, to look a little non-threatening.
Spider-Man was perplexed. "Doctor…I don't know what to say to that…" he said, clearly caught off-guard by Otto's proposition.
"I know it seems out of the blue, but now I have these arms, I have these…powers, which I can use! The real crime would be not using my strengths for the greater good. I have this power, and I want to use it to help," explained Otto.
Spider-Man thought for a while. "With great power…comes great responsibility…" echoed in his mind, as he looked at Otto, and realized he wanted to do the same as Peter. If Peter took it upon himself to be Spider-Man, who is he to stop Otto?
"I'll uh…think about it…" said Spider-Man, as he swung away. Otto walked…or crawled away too.
Spider-Man stuck to the wall of a building and took out his phone. "Haven't talked to him in like 2 years…but I sure could use his advice…" thought Spider-Man, as he called up Matt Murdock.
Surprisingly, Matt answered.
"Matt? Hey, it's Peter. Peter Parker," said Peter.
"Peter! My God, how long's it been? What's going on?" asked Matt, delighted to hear his fellow vigilante Spider-Man after so long.
"I'm guessing you haven't had access to a television, have you?" asked Peter, chuckling a little under his mask.
"Not often. Elektra and I have been training extensively with The Chaste, but we do watch the news occasionally. Congratulations on stopping that Goblin guy and Lizard, by the way," said Matt, happy to see his so-so protégé become more of a superhero.
"Man…there is a lot to catch up on…" said Peter.
Jean arrived at the warehouse, which seemed inconspicuous enough. But she knew that when things look okay, it's usually worse. She took out her handgun and walked up to it. The warehouse was rather large, enough to hold a small army.
Jean waked in, and there was nothing. The warehouse was completely empty. As soon as Jean took one step inside, her foot got stuck in a bear trap.
"AAGHH!" she shouted, as she tried to free her leg. However, Rose came out of the shadows.
"So you came! I gotta be honest, I thought Spider-Kid would appear," chuckled Rose, with his arms behind his back. Jean just stared at him.
"Oh don't worry, I'm not going to kill you!" laughed Rose. "I am just…going to…wait," said Rose, taking a chair and sitting back in the shadows. He pressed a button and all the lights came back on, and it turned out that the room was lined with Rose's mercenaries.
"Men, get out of the room, and go do your tasks. You know which ones…" said Rose, as the men left. Rose snatched Jean's phone, and sent Spider-Man a text, which contained the address of the warehouse.
"So yeah, he just shows up out of nowhere and asks if he can help me save the city," finished Spider-Man.
"First of all, I've missed so much. I mean, electric men and people with fishbowl helmets?" said Matt. "Anyways, back to the point, do you trust Otto?"
"Yeah, he's been my teacher for so long. And I genuinely believe he's just misunderstood. But at the same time, I don't want to take any risks. Like, he doesn't have the inhibitor chip, so there's no knowing as to how…you know…stable he is. I worry that with the inhibitor chip gone, there'd be side effects. Changes in personality, irregular mood, and for all we know this newfound purpose of his is itself a side effect," vented Peter.
"That's true. But you might need all the help you can get. With the Avengers busy, and the Fantastic Four always being in space, it's up to you, Peter. I've never met Otto, but if you've known him for years, maybe you can trust him. Maybe he really wants to do the right thing," suggested Daredevil.
Just as Matt said that, Peter got a text message from Jean DeWolff. It was the address of the warehouse.
"Hey Matt, I gotta go. Something just came up," said Peter.
"No worries. It was good talking to you, Peter,"
"You too, Matt. Hope we can properly talk someday." Said Peter, as he hung up and headed to the warehouse.
"Why would Jean message me this address? Must be something linked to Rose," thought Spider-Man, as he arrived at the warehouse.
"Well this isn't creepy at all…" thought Spider-Man, as he noticed all the windows had been barred and the warehouse door was open. Spider-Man walked in only to find Jean tied to a chair in the center of the warehouse, bleeding from her head.
"Jean!" he exclaimed as he rushed towards her. But all of a sudden, his Spider-Sense went off. Before he could even do anything, he got electrocuted by the ground. "AAAAGHHHHH!" he yelled, as he fell to the ground, and noticed he was standing on an electric pressure plate.
Once Spider-Man got to his feet, he analyzed the environment. It was completely dark. All of a sudden, a voice boomed out through a speaker.
"Welcome, Spider-Man! We haven't been properly introduced. I am Rose," said Rose, through the speakers.
"What do you want?" asked Spider-Man, trying his best to be intimidating, despite still shivering from the electric shock.
"We are going to play a game. In just about two minutes now, the chair will be electrified, and the police captain will be fried to a crisp. There are two pressure plates in this room, and it's up to you to find them. You're gonna have to hit them at the same time. Tick-Tock." Said Rose.
"Oh God!" said Spider-Man, as he scrambled to find the plates. But the entire floor was concrete, and that's when Peter had an idea. He zipped up to the ceiling, and started to concentrate, focusing his enhanced senses on the ground. That's when he noticed a faint square on the ground towards the right, and another one to the left of the warehouse.
"Thirty seconds!" shouted Rose, as Peter scrambled on the ceiling to the left of the warehouse directly above the pressure plate. Just as he let go of the wall, he shot webbing towards the second pressure plate that was across the room. As soon his foot landed on the first pressure plate, the webs created enough pressure to push the second plate down.
A buzzer went off, and the chair did not light up. Spider-Man rushed to Jean and quickly untied her.
"Captain, are you okay?" asked Spider-Man. Jean nodded weakly, but fell unconscious again.
"Bravo!" shouted Rose, from behind as he stood outside the door of the warehouse. Spider-Man stared back at him. "I have to say, I thoroughly underestimated your skills,"
"Can't say the feeling's mutual. I tend to think too much of my enemies, and you're quite low on that spectrum," said Spider-Man.
"I bet you're thinking…who the Hell is this guy? What does he want, eh? Why is he here, etc," said Rose.
"No, I'm just thinking of the most painful way to kick your ass," replied Spider-Man.
"Oh, you don't need to worry about that! What you need to worry about though, are the explosive charges!" said Rose, as he took out a detonator and pressed the button, as the whole warehouse started crumbling down.
"Shit, shit, shit!" exclaimed Spider-Man, as he grabbed Jean and ran out of the crumbling warehouse, dodging all of the debris.
Rose jumped in a courier truck, and started driving away, with two other cars which were being driven by his men. Spider-Man put down Jean safely outside the warehouse parking lot, and quickly called an ambulance.
"There's no way I'm letting him get away," Thought Spider-Man, as he started swinging after the car.
The cars escorting the truck started opening fire, but Spider-Man managed to dodge all of them gracefully. He started running across a building's wall, vaulted over a neon Chinatown sign and started webbing the tires of the car. He then jumped on top of the car, and climbed on the windshield, punching it repeatedly. However, the driver started driving the car in a zig zag pattern, shaking off Spider-Man as he went tumbling into a bus stand.
However, Spider-Man quickly shot a web, which stuck to the underside of the car. The car was moving fast and now Peter was being dragged along with it.
"WOOOAAHHAA!" shouted Spider-Man, as he dragged behind the car, somehow managing to avoid traffic. That's when he noticed something, or someone, rushing down a building, towards the second car.
"Otto?! What the-"
Before Spider-Man could finish, the car he was being dragged behind, violently turned right, flinging Peter straight into a wall.
Spider-Man quickly regained his footing, as he zipped up to a lamppost and launched off of it, landing on the first car again, straight on the roof of the car.
"Doctor Octavius, what are you doing?!" he shouted, bewildered, as Otto stuck one titanium tentacles into the second car's tire, and overturning it.
"I've got the cars, Spider-Man! Go after the truck!" he yelled out.
Spider-Man was hesitant, but he eventually nodded and swung after the truck. Otto used his tentacles and managed to stop one car from the front with two of his arms, before grabbing the other car with his other two tentacles.
Meanwhile, Spider-Man landed on the truck and tore off the door to the backseat. He webbed up two of the criminals to a lamppost. Only Rose was remaining now.
Before Spider-Man could do anything, Rose swerved the truck and drove it into Central Park. People jumped out of the way as the truck barreled towards them.
Spider-Man jumped behind the truck and webbed it up and started pulling it, in hopes to stop it from crashing into anyone. He managed to steer the truck straight into Belvedere Castle, where it crashed. Luckily, no one was there.
Spider-Man managed to get up, and he saw a purple mask lying on the ground amongst the rocks.
"Oh god," said Spider-Man, as he rushed to pick up the mask. But that's when Rose appeared behind him.
Spider-Man turned around to face him. He had black, messy hair, with a chiseled jaw. He seemed like he was in his mid to late 20s.
"Who…are you?" asked Spider-Man, readying his fists beside him.
Rose stared at him, anger in his eyes.
"Call me Richard."
"Richard Fisk."
And there you go, Rose's identity has been revealed! I hope it was as impactful as I made it out to be, haha. And I hope you love the twist I have with Doctor Octopus, on how he's more of a hero in the story. But, his arc doesn't end here, that's for sure. This chapter may have raised more questions than answers, but don't worry, everything will be settled in the coming chapters.
redbird12: Thanks! And I actually took a little inspiration from the Miles Morales demo they released. I haven't been this hyped for a game since The Last Of Us Part II (though let's hope Miles Morales fares better)
Rollerparty: Same, I miss the Thor we had in IW. And, I actually really like The Dark Knight Rises lmao. Granted, there's not much Batman in there, and there are a few plot holes, I love how the story is symbolic to Bruce Wayne's journey. One example is how he climbs out of the (Lazarus) Pit and is spiritually revived when he embraces fear again, similar to what the Lazarus Pit literally revives people in the comics. Though I'm not gonna go in depth on the themes of TDKR over here, lol. (In case if none of y'all know, I am OBSESSED with The Dark Knight Trilogy). Also, I haven't forgotten about Daredevil, and without giving any spoilers, he miiiiiight show up in Season 4. If not there then Season 5 for sure. I can guarantee, Matt Murdock will return. And I definitely will describe set pieces better next time, especially since Season 4 will be chock full of them!
JPrime: Unfortunately, you'll have to wait for the next chapter, but it will definitely be worth it!
Shawna1999: Thanks! I wanted to show more scenes of Spider-Man saving people, instead of going after the bad guy and ignoring collateral damage (I'm looking at you, Man Of Steel). And I think it's about time that Spider-Man gets recognition for all the good he does instead of being slandered by Jameson. Sorry, slander is spoken. In print it's libel. (If you get that joke you're a certified legend.)
chiripa012: That is definitely gonna happen, but not right now though!
Yours Truly,
Shadow Strike.