The Invincible Spider-Man
Chapter 39: Refurbished
Spider-Man swung away from Otto's lab, lost in confusion as to what just happened.
"The neural interface must be affecting him, altering his inhibitions, his personality. I should've gone back!" lamented Peter, as he landed on a rooftop, overlooking Times Square. It was almost morning, and Peter wanted to watch the sunrise.
"You know, talking to one's self has proven to be therapeutic. Maybe it's time I try some of that?" said Peter, sitting down and trying to recount everything that's happened.
"Rose wants revenge on his father, and now Otto might be in danger. One crisis at a time, Peter," he told himself.
"My first priority should be taking down Rose. I can focus on Otto on the arms later, at least after the city is saved," just as he said that, he got a call from Phineas Mason.
"Tinkerer? What's the occasion?" asked Peter.
"Spider-Man, I have the new suit ready. You can come and collect it from my workshop," informed Phineas.
"Cool, I'll be right there!" said Peter, shooting a web at a taller building and swinging off from it.
He arrived at the workshop, where he saw Tinkerer working on something. Something red and blue.
"Oh hello, Spider-Man. Just putting on the finishing touches," said Phineas, as he continued. Peter looked around the workshop. It seemed to be really old, and was named "Mason Workshops".
"So, I'm guessing you founded this workshop?" asked Spider-Man, curious as Phineas chuckled.
"I wish I could take credit for that. My great grandfather started the business, and over the years it's become more of a family inheritance, and has constantly evolved. Until of course, we went bankrupt. Nevertheless, a friend of mine, Melvin Potter helped me jumpstart the place, and together we'd work on a lot of new things," explained Phineas.
"Melvin Potter…why does that sound so familiar?" asked Spider-Man.
"Unfortunately, the tech we were working on, at least what I thought we were working for recreation and to have a good time, he was using them to commit crimes as The Gladiator," sighed Phineas, pointing at a corner of the workshop, where there were two dusty saw blades.
"Phineas, if you knew how dangerous a life of crime is, why'd you start working for Tombstone?"
"His assistant, Mac Gargan came to me and offered me a job at Tricorp, as long as I build experimental armors for him. I didn't know what they were for, but when I found out I was already in too deep," replied Phineas, as he finished up the suit. He handed it to Peter, who walked into another room to change.
He came back, all dressed in the new suit. It had the classic red and blue color scheme, with a large black spider covering a chest region, and seemed to be latching on to his back. His arms were also red with slightly raised silver webbing, and the back of his suit also had a smaller black spider. His knuckles were also black on red, with concealed web shooters. There was also a utility belt, and his legs were blue for the most part, with his boots red. The mask had much more visible webbing, and the eye lenses seemed to move.
"What do you think?" asked Phineas. Peter was in awe.
"This is something else!" he said, ecstatic.
"The chest portion of the suit is low density Kevlar, which'll keep you bulletproof but also let you be more flexible. Your knees and knuckled, as well as your boots are made up of carbon fiber, which'll basically make sure you punch and kick harder. Also, the lenses are now reactive, which'll give you much more free vision. Along with the concealed web shooters, so that no one can rip them off your hands. The new shooters can also store a lot more webbing. And you may have noticed the utility belt, which isn't very bulky and can allow for more movement and dexterity. You can store spare web fluid cartridges as well as anything else you can carry," explained Phineas.
"Phineas, I owe you a hundred," said Peter, still chuckling.
"Take it out for a spin! Let's see how it works," suggested Phineas, as Spider-Man nodded and zipped out of the skylight.
He instantly felt much more free while swinging, like there was nothing resisting his movement. He landed on the side of the building, ran up the wall much faster, and one-armed slingshotted himself off of the roof and flipped backwards into a headfirst dive, something he never could've done before. He shot another web and swung high up, keeping his momentum and doing a double front-flip and a corkscrew, before shooting another web at the last time, skimming the street with his gloved fingers. He continued swinging a few inches up from the street, side flipping over the truck and swinging high up into the sky, as the Sun came up.
"WOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!" shouted Peter, as he did a series of flips in the air, landed on a rooftop and sprinted across it, before doing a backflip off of the edge and going back into a dive, shooting another web and swinging upside down.
Peter reached school early, his hair a frizzy mess and his back aching.
"One too many backflips, Peter…" he groaned, as he headed to French class. "Ah oui,je suis fatigant…" he chuckled to himself.
After French, he headed down to the cafeteria, where everyone seemed to be gathering around a certain table. At the center was Harry Osborn.
"So, Spider-Man calls me up, and tells me to shut down Times Square, so his identity isn't revealed. And BOOM! I do exactly that," bragged Harry, while others chuckled.
"Good story. I'm guessing Tony Stark came and made you an Avenger too?" asked one of the students sarcastically.
"Haha, don't believe me, go ahead. I know for a fact that I saved Spider-Man's life!" replied Harry, chuckling at himself. He knew that no one would believe him. Peter walked up to him.
"Pete! Hey are you okay? You look exhausted," said Harry.
"Just a ton of calculus homework, nothing much. But what about you? Saving Spider-Man?" asked Peter.
"Seriously! One of his uh…helpers called me up and asked for help!" defended Harry. Peter raised his arms up and chuckled. All of a sudden, Flash and Gwen came running into the cafeteria, once again holding a newspaper by The Daily Bugle.
"Doctor Octopus: Brutal Justice? WHAT?!" asked Peter, startled as he read the headline.
"Yesterday, a gang of ruffians was found in a back alleyway dealing drugs. They were rushed to the hospital immediately. Two of them had compound fractures on their arms and leg, and one had three dislocated vertebrae. The last one had two cracked ribs and a crushed larynx," read out Gwen, horrified.
"Doctor Octavius couldn't have done that. No freakin way!" protested Flash. Peter and Gwen shared a concerned look, remembering their conversation the night before.
"Uh, Gwen. I kinda need to talk about something…" said Harry, pulling Gwen away as Peter raised an eyebrow.
"I wanna meet Spider-Man!" whispered Harry, ecstatically. Gwen quickly glanced at Peter, and then back at Harry.
"Harry…I don't really know…" she began.
"Come on, I saved his life! I think I deserve to at least say hi!" replied Harry.
Gwen sighed. "Fine…I'll see what I can do," and a huge smile carved itself on Harry's face.
Meanwhile, Peter continued to examine the article, still shocked that Otto could've done this. His eyes caught the by-line.
"Ned Leeds…guess I should pay the Bugle a visit…and take some sweet shots of my new suit!" thought Peter. That's when he reached into his bag, and found Rose's mask, that he had kept in a small packet as evidence.
"Maybe I can analyze these granules on the mask at the school lab…" thought Peter, as he walked to the lab.
The lab was more or less empty, with only two students working on a spectrogram. Peter took a microscope and slowly transferred some of the granules onto a slide, and started to view them.
"Seem grainy, with a macromolecular structure…Silicon Dioxide, mixed with something else…a mixture of Calcium Oxide, Silicon Dioxide, Aluminium Trioxide and Iron Trioxide. Such a chemical composition would be a semi-solid but eventually harden over time…wait a minute…" thought Peter, doing chemical equations in his head.
"Cement! It's gotta be that! So cement and sand…maybe a…construction site on a shoreline?" thought Peter, as he accessed the computer and looked up a map of New York City, focusing on beaches.
"There! Well what do you know, "Fisk" construction… that's gotta be where Rose is!" thought Peter, as he looked at the clock, and realized that the break ended 15 minutes ago…
Leaving school with a written note of tardiness, Peter ran into an alleyway and changed into his new suit, before slingshotting upwards and flailing his arms freely, before swinging away again. He set up his camera in certain places, and did various poses to get pictures of the new suit, before gracefully swinging towards the Daily Bugle.
He landed on the rooftop and quickly changed into his normal clothes, before walking down from the terrace entrance and to the office of The Bugle.
He entered the bustling bullpen, where surprisingly it seemed very calm. Peter walked over to Ned and Betty.
"Hey Pete! It's been a while," said Ned, shaking his hand.
"Yeah, I've got new pictures for Jameson. Spider-Man's gotten a new suit!" said Peter, as he showed them the pictures.
"Damnnn, that's slick," commented Betty, while Ned nodded in approval. "Luckily, Jameson is uncharacteristically in a good mood," she joked, as Peter nodded, walking into Jonah's office with the pictures.
"Hi Mr Jameson…I've got photos of Spider-Man in a new suit…" said Peter, handing him the pictures nervously.
"Oh, there you are Presley! C'mon, lemme see it!" said Jonah, carefully examining the pictures.
"That new suit! Ugh, Hoffman!" shouted Jonah, as Jim Hoffman entered the office.
"Yes, Mr Jameson?" he asked.
"Get me some bleach! I need to wash my eyes off of this! Just looking at this suit should be a sin!" critiqued Jameson, as Peter subtly rolled his eyes.
"I'll give you $300"
"$400"
"$350. Now scram!" said Jameson. Peter happily took what he was offered and walked out of the office.
"Hey Ned, I kinda had to ask you a question regarding Otto Octavius," said Peter.
"Sure, what's up?" replied Ned.
"Are you sure it was him who did that? I mean like 100%?" asked Peter.
"Witnesses saw him swing his tentacles at them, slam them into walls, etc. I know he was your teacher, but I'm definitely sure it was him," sighed Ned, putting a hand on Peter's shoulder. Peter nodded and walked back towards the elevator, as he called up Aunt May.
"Hey May, I kind of need help with something…"
Aunt May was cooking dinner as Peter walked in.
"Hey Peter, what did you wanna talk about?" she asked, sitting at the dinner table.
"I entered an essay writing competition, and I was given a bit of a curveball of a topic," said Peter. "Let's say, a friend of yours was into something…not very good, but you also kind of had a hand in…you know introducing him to whatever he's doing,"
"Oh, well that's a weird one. I guess the best thing to do would be to try and show them what they're doing is bad, instead of telling them it's bad. Show, not tell," explained May.
"But what if they are just unwilling to listen, despite the effect it may have on their life or others?" asked Peter.
"It all depends on how well they know you. If he, or she is a very close friend, then you have to make them listen to you, whatever it takes to make them understand," explained May. "They may hate you for it, but in the end it's what's right for them, especially when their actions are hurting someone else,"
Peter smiled a bit. "Thanks, Aunt May," said Peter, as May smiled. "I'll get to work on the essay now," he told her, as he walked up to his room, took out his suit and leapt out of the window.
He swung over to Otto's lab, ready to do whatever it takes to take off the neural interface and put it in the inhibitor chip. He carried the Daily Bugle newspaper with him, which stated how badly he had injured those men.
"Doctor! We need to talk!" said Peter, but no one was there. Spider-Man noticed the wall, with the scrapes on the ground. It seemed to open off of a hinge. Spider-Man shot two webs and pulled hard at the wall, causing it to creak open like a makeshift door. Spider-Man gasped when he saw what was inside: Newspaper clippings of Spider-Man fighting various enemies, notes on his tactics, his combat style, his weakness, his suit, his web shooters, everything.
"All this time…he's been studying me…analyzing my movements, my tactics…my weaknesses!" gasped Spider-Man, unable to believe what he was seeing. Otto had also written "With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility."
However, "Great Power" had been circled in red, while the rest had been scribbled off…
Richard was at the construction site, preparing for his next, and biggest attack, when he got a message from an unknown number.
"I'm here." Said the number. Rose smiled to himself, as he walked to the back of the site, to meet the person.
"I'm glad to see you've decided to help me. This city indirectly wronged us both. It's time we return the favour," said Rose, as Doctor Octopus smirked.
And there we go! The next two episodes are gonna be the last of Season 3, and then Season 4 will start in January 2021! I sure hope to give an amazing conclusion to this season, and you will definitely not be disappointed!
In other news, yayyy a vaccine has finally been discovered! Here's hoping things go back to normal soon enough! I also went for an Aptitude Test a few days back, and I got the results just now. IQ of 153, so yay!
redbirds12: Yep! Rose and Otto are probably my favorite villains who I've written in this story, apart from Norman Osborn. And mayyyybe Harry may find out? You never know, sometime in the future. And I'll be sure to check out your story on Wattpad too!
Rollerparty: Yesss, The Merc With A Mouth is coming in Season 4! And I wanted to give Harry something to do, since he's kind of been in the background for a while now, but I'll try not to make the same error again! And hopefully I didn't make him too much like "She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named", if you know who I'm talking about.
Yours Truly,
Shadow Strike.