Flight of the Vulture

Adrian checked his data pad as he and a group of other scientists were watching the latest demonstration of their newest project. He was hoping that the tests were more fruitful than last time if they want to keep their jobs.

Adrian Toomes was an old man in his early sixties with a bald head and a pointed nose that almost looked like a beak. He was part of the R&D department of WaynePowers. He came a long way since just owning a private company built from nothing more than his wit.

And now, all his hard work will finally be realized.

He looked up from his data pad to see a man putting on a green harness. "How goes everything today, Mr. Bestman?"

"I feel fine, sir." Bestman answered.

"Good, hopefully tests today will prove better results." Adrian said as he turned to one of the scientists. "Begin Magnetic Wing Suspension."

The scientist nodded and pressed a few buttons on the control console. Then out of the ground came two blade like wings that had metal razor-sharp feathers on it appeared beside Bestman. Two spots on the back of the harness started to glow red and the wings were pulled towards those spots and attached themselves to the harness.

"Suspension complete." The scientist said.

"Excellent. Why don't we start with a simple hover." Adrian said as he addressed Bestman.

Bestman nodded and the turbines on his harness turned on. He then began to rise up in the air until he was fifteen feet off the ground and just hovered there for a moment. Adrian smiled as he felt like that everything he's worked hard for has finally come into fruition.

"Now we just need to set up some targets." Adrian said as he pressed a few buttons on the data pad.

Wooden mannequins came up from the ground and Bestman stared at them intensely. He swiped his one of his arms and then the bladed feathers were launched from the wing. The blades pieced and sliced their targets as if they were made out of tissue paper. As soon as they were done shredding their targets, the feather blades came flying back and reattached themselves to the wings.

"Excellent!" Adrian said happily. "When Powers sees the work we've put into this, he'll have no choice but to double our funding!"

The other scientist in the room smiled when they heard that. The happy moment was ruined when the doors of the laboratory opened and Powers' private security force opened the door and started confiscating all of their work, much to the scientists' confusion and Adrian's anger. One of the men who came in was Derek Powers' right hand man and top employee Mr. Fixx.

"What is going on here?!" Adrian demanded angrily.

"We thank you for your time here Mr. Toomes, but your experiments and all of your work have been declared obsolete and therefore no longer fit to be part of this company." Mr. Fixx said calmly.

"On who's authority?!" Adrian exclaimed in anger.

/

Max smiled as a crew of delivery men came in using their forklifts to carry the parts he needed to build the machine he designed. It may have taken awhile, but he now had everything he needed to cement his place here.

Max turned around and spotted another forklift moving very slowly as it carried a large glass tank filled with electric eels. "Now just keep them steady. These specimens are vital to this operation."

The guy driving the forklift gave him a dismissive wave. "Kid, I've been driving this thing for years, I think I know how to work it."

The driver never noticed a small bump on the ground until it was too late. That bumped caused the forklift to jerk, and in doing so almost drop the glass tank of eels on Max. Max screamed in fright as he saw that the tank was coming right towards him.

He raised his arms in a feeble attempt to protect himself...but he was luckily saved by something unexpected.

Two long metal tentacle with three claws came forward and grabbed the sides of the glass case. Max looked behind him and saw Octavius with a harness around his torso that had four metal tentacles attached to it. Two of them were still by his side while the other two grabbed the glass case.

Max breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks doc, that was a close one. So what's with the extra appendages?" Max asked curiously.

"These arms are the next stage of handling dangerous material." Otto explained as his mechanical arms spread out. "These arms allow me to work at a safe distance without risking any harm to myself."

"Now that's pretty cool." Max said in awe.

Otto placed the glass case down and soon helped out in unloading the equipment with the help of his extra mechanical arms. Max took out a data pad too catalog everything, making sure that they've had everything they needed.

Powers stepped out of an elevator and looked around at all the equipment with a raised eyebrow. "All this had better be worth it, Mr. Dillon." Powers said.

Max smiled with confidence. "Trust me sir, when this bad boy is finished, everything you've worked hard for will come into fruition."

"Careful with that ego, Dillon. Don't let it go to your head." Powers warned.

The doors in the laboratory were slammed opened and Adrian Toomes came marching in. "POWERS!"

"Ah, Adrian. To what do I owe the pleasure." Powers said casually.

"Don't play coy with me Powers!" Adrian said as he pointed right in Powers' face. "What is the meaning of canceling my research and shutting down my projects?!"

Powers didn't raise his voice in anger and simply smirked at the scientist. He calmly moved the angry old man's hand out of his face before answering. "It's nothing personal Adrian, it's just that your research has been put on the bench."

"But we are on the brink of a breakthrough. My Tech-Flight suit works perfectly!" Adrian tried to reason.

"Toomes, your suit reminds me of the story of Icarus. You try too hard and you'll find yourself heading towards the sun." Powers said as he turned his back to him.

"But...but..." Adrian stuttered.

"The fact of the matter is, nobody is interested anymore in technological warfare. Bio-Chemical warfare, now that is where the money lies." Powers turned his head to give the old scientist one last look. "Your work is obsolete Toomes, time to move on."

Adrian growled in anger as he stomped towards his boss. "We are not done, Powers!"

Powers didn't dignify the man with a response as he just snapped his fingers. Mr. Fixx came up behind Toomes and grabbed him by the shoulder.

"One more outburst like that Toomes, and flying too close to the sun will be the least of your problems." Powers said threateningly.

Adrian growled in anger, but then lowered his head as he allowed Fixx to guide him out of the room. None of the scientists in the room said anything as they watched Adrian being escorted out.

As Adrian was being led out, his thoughts were running rampant on what he should do now. He's worked hard for this company for decades, and this is the thanks he gets for all his hard work? He gave it his all for this company, and now Powers thinks he can just brush him off to the side?

'No...no this is not over.' Adrian thought angrily. 'Powers...you have no idea the kind of enemy you have made.'

/

Gotham City Park

A large crowd gathered as people with news cameras and reporters gathered by a podium with a large ribbon on it. Everyone gathered for the unveiling of the new section of the Gotham City Park, funded by Derek Powers himself.

Among the crowd was Nick as he held a pen and notepad. He heard about this event and decided that this seemed like easy money if he sent this to Mr. Fireheart at the Gotham Gazette. As he was busy taking notes about what he was seeing, he spotted his friends Terry and Dana walking by hand in hand.

"Hey guys." Nick greeted as he walked up to them. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We were just taking a little stroll and saw this large crowd. We wanted to see what it was about." Dana answered.

"What is going on here?" Terry asked as he spotted the large crowd.

"Powers is going to unveil this new botanical sanctuary section at the park." Nick answered.

"So, what are you doing here?" Terry asked.

"Decided to try and make some easy cash and report on this event. Figured take a break from the craziness and try my hand at something a bit normal happening in this city." Nick answered before directing his attention at Terry. "Hey man, thanks again for being my witness in the article I gave on the incident at the mall."

"Sure thing man, it was actually pretty cool seeing Spider-Man in action first hand." Terry said.

"What was he like?" Dana asked him with a smile.

"Honestly, besides the suit and the powers, he seems like a really cool guy who wants to help." Terry said as he recalled the fight he witnessed with the Shocker.

Nick smiled when his friend said that. "Hey, somebody has to help this city."

"Amen to that." Dana said.

Pretty soon cameras started flashing when a limo drove by and parked right by a red carpet. The door opened and Derek Powers stepped out smiled to the cameras. Flash photography was everywhere and people were asking him a lot of questions as most reporters do, but he just ignored them and made his way past them.

Powers stepped up to the podium and stood in front of the microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming to such a glorious occasion. This park has been through so much, dare I say, doom and gloom throughout the years that I believe it's time this city gives something back."

Pulling out a pair of giant scissors, Powers cut the ribbon and gestured behind him to show everyone a fresh clean pathway through the park. It was surrounded by fields of different colored and beautiful flowers. Everyone clapped in applause when they saw the beauty of this brand new section of the park, even Nick, Terry, and Dana.

Powers turned back to the microphone and continued speaking. "Everyone one of these beautiful flowers was genetically replicated by WaynePowers science. Once extinct exotic flora that was destroyed by mankind's greed, can now be replicated to bring back a little prosperity to our beloved community." Everyone continued to applause at the speech the CEO was giving.

Nick continued taking notes about the event, but then his spider sense started to act up. Now on high alert, Nick looked around and gave everything he saw a critical glance. What's strange was that nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, but his spider sense was going crazy.

Dana clapped along with Terry, but she looked up and spotted something strange. "Hey, what's that?" She asked, getting the attention of her boyfriend and friend.

They looked to what she was pointing, and it looked like some kind of winged creature heading right towards them. Pretty soon everybody saw it coming as it flew around in the distance and was approaching them.

"Maybe it's some kind of after show special?" Terry guessed.

Nick continued to glare as the thing flew in closer. It almost looked like a man with wings.

Powers also managed to spot the strange object flying at them and raised an inquisitive eyebrow when he also noticed that it was a man in a flying suit. He then gasped in shock as he recognized that flying suit. The man in the suit flew straight towards him and used these blade-like talons to grab Powers by the shoulders and flew him straight up.

"AAAHHH!" Powers screamed in fright as he was being pulled up by this mysterious flyer.

The crowd screamed in fright as they didn't know what was happening. Everyone was either taking pictures on what was happening while others were running away in fright.

Dana and Terry's eyes widened at the situation and were also about to take off, but Terry stopped when he noticed something. "Where'd Nick go?"

Dana looked around and also noticed he wasn't there. "Nick?! Where are you?!" She called out.

While they were too busy looking for him, Nick ran into an alley and pulled out his mask from his bag and put it on. He lifted up his shirt to reveal his spider suit under it.

Powers never really shook in fear before, but as this winged figure continue to rise up in the air, he couldn't help but do so for the first time. As soon as they up high enough, the winged figure stopped their ascent and just floated in the air.

Powers looked up and glared at the figure carrying him in its talons. "Whoever you are, I promise you are making a big mistake."

The figure looked down and Powers saw that this person wore a green helmet with a pointy orange visor. The visor then retracted and Powers was able to see the face of the one who captured him. It was the face of Adrian Toomes.

"On the contrary Powers, this might be my greatest idea yet." Toomes said with a hint of anger.

"Toomes?!" Powers said in shock.

"Oh no Powers, Toomes was weak in your eyes. I am now something you can truly fear. I am the Vulture!" Toomes said as the visor came back on.

"Listen Toomes, if this is about me cutting your projects, you must understand that it is just the way business works." Powers tried to reason.

"You know powers, there is one problem with that story you told me about Icarus." Vulture said as he narrowed his eyes at his former boss. "Icarus was a complete moron who had his head up in the clouds. But if you wish to see someone fall..." Toomes then gave an evil smile, "...then FALL!"

The talons on Vulture's suit let him go and he watched with sickening as Powers screamed in distress. Everyone watching this screamed as well as they could not do anything to stop this.

Dana and Terry looked on in fright, but then she spotted something else approaching them from high up. She instantly smiled when she figured out who it was. "It's Spider-Man!"

Spider-Man swung up high and spotted Powers falling down and narrowed his eyes when he saw Vulture. He shot another web and swung upwards and delivered a swinging double kick right at Vulture. The moment the kick landed, he then started to dive downwards right towards the falling business man. He shot a web that caught Powers and shot another web at a building.

He swung down gently until he managed to safely drop Powers back into the ground and land right next to him. "You alright, sir?" Spider-Man asked.

Powers fixed up his suit as he looked towards the hero. "As well as I can be, but still, thank you for the assist."

Spider-Man gave a two fingered salute and launched a web line at a building. He landed and stuck right on the side of the building and watched as Vulture floated down in front of the hero.

"Do you realize what you've just done?!" Vulture shouted in anger.

"I just prevented you from making a big littering disaster. I mean, come on, we're next to a public park for crying out loud. You can't toss things away so willy nilly." Spider-Man joked.

Vulture screamed in anger as he flew forward and charged at the hero. He brought out his talons in an attempt to slice him with his metal claws, but Spider-Man jumped out of the way just in time. He launched another web and swung away from the scene with Vulture giving chase. Spider-Man looked behind him to see Vulture chasing him and tried to swing faster.

Spider-Man saw a building that had a flag pole on the side and web zipped him self right by it. He grabbed on to it and pulled back until the pole bended all the way. When he saw that Vulture was close enough, he let go of the pole.

"Heads up, Big Bird!" Spider-Man declared.

However, instead of the flag pole hitting Vulture like he hoped, he used his bladed wings to slice the pole in half and used his other hand to punch the hero in the face. Spider-Man was sent falling to the ground, but he launched a web line to swing himself back up.

Vulture growled in anger as he launched his bladed feathers right at him, but he managed to dodge each of them. His spider sense flared, however, and he looked behind him to see those same feather blades coming right back at him. He tried to dodge again, but one of them managed to cut him on the side.

"Ah!" Spider-Man exclaimed in pain as he landed on the side of a building. He looked to see the feather blades return to Vulture's metal wings. "Okay, that is just plain cheating!"

Vulture didn't respond as he launched another barrage of feather blades, but Spider-Man jumped out of the way and launched another web line. However, instead of this one sticking to a building, this one stuck to Vulture's chest and he pulled himself right towards the winged villain.

He planted both his feet on the villain's chest and began to punch repeatedly at the villain's face. The visor protected him to an extent, but with a guy who punches with super strength, they still hurt.

Spider-Man tried to punch him again, but Vulture grabbed his wrist and punched him in the face, knocking him off of himself. Seeing that this was becoming too complicated, he started to fly away.

"WE'LL MEET AGAIN, SPIDER-MAN!" Vulture shouted as he flew off in the distance.

Spider-Man watched on as he saw Vulture fly off in the distance, as he was too far away to give chase.

"Great, I'll clear my schedule." Spider-Man said to himself.

/

Nick was in his room as he was cleaning the wound on his side. The cut wasn't too deep, but it still hurt like the dickens. Whatever those wings were made of, they were sharp enough to cut right through his suit, which means that they were going to be a problem. Whoever that guy was, he must've been incredibly smart to come up with something like that.

"Why couldn't I have gotten the really dumb super villains. They at least could go down easily." Nick grumbled to himself as he patched himself up.

Thanks to some medical books he kept, he knew the basics of First Aid, so this was a cinch for him. After that incident with that guy calling himself the Vulture, he had to wonder what that guy's problem was.

From what he could tell, that guy was gunning for Powers and he didn't care if there were witnesses watching. That kind of rage was not something one should take likely. If he was that angry enough to attack him in the middle of the day, chances are that he was going to try this again.

"If that guy's gunning for the head honcho Powers, chances are he's not gonna rest until he gets his chance to nab him again." Nick said to himself. He then gained a mischievous smirk on his face. "Looks like Spider-Man is going on his first steak out...or should I say, 'Spider-Cop' is going on his forced steak out."

...

...

"Yeah, that sounded cooler in my head."

/

WaynePowers Tower

Powers was in his office having a board meeting about the usual business demands that the business brings out every once in a while. His board of directors didn't think it was the right time to have a meeting, what with a psycho with wings after him.

"Is there anything else that we need to discuss?" Powers asked.

"In about a month, the delegate of Casnia should arrive on schedule." One of the board members said.

"You promised him a product, sir. We were wondering if it is ready yet." Another board member said.

Powers chuckled at their worry. "I can assure you everyone, we will make quite a profit with what I intend to sell him. Everything should be all set by the end of the week."

Meanwhile outside...

Spider-Man stuck to the side of the building playing on his game console to pass the time. He looked back at the building to see if his bird of prey target would show up, but so far nothing.

His phone started to ring and he reached into his suit to pick it up and answer. "Hello."

The voice on the other end was Terry. "Hey man, where'd you go? Dana and I tried looking for you, but we couldn't find you."

Nick flinched when he remembered that he incidentally ditched his friends back there. "Oh man, I'm really sorry Terry. The crowd went crazy when that nutcase came flying by and they accidentally carried me with them. I tried calling you, but along the way my phone broke and I just got it fixed." Nick hoped that his excuse was enough to fool his friend.

"Well, it can't be helped. I guess it was a good thing Spider-Man was there." Terry said. "So, what are you doing right now?"

"Oh, just bird watching." Nick said. He then spotted something flying by and realized that it was the 'bird' he was waiting for. "Actually man, can I call you back? This really rare bird just flew by and I want to get a good sketch of it."

Terry chuckled at that. "You need better hobbies, Nick."

"Yeah, but it's better than nothing. I'll see you at school." Nick hanged up, launched a web, and swung towards the tower.

Back in the office...

Powers sat down at his desk with his right-hand Mr. Fixx beside him going over the details of the machine that should improve the gas his scientists were working on.

"This machine better be worth the amount I put into it." Powers grumbled to himself.

"Mr. Powers, are you sure that you should be in the office at this time?" Mr. Fixx inquired. "There's no telling when that maniac Toomes could come back."

"Then it's a good thing that we're done for the night." Powers said as he stood up from his seat. "If there's one thing I've learned in the business world, you can't show fear to being threatened."

The moment he got up, the large window to his office exploded as Vulture came bursting through. "POWERS!" Vulture exclaimed in anger.

Powers recoiled as Fixx pulled out a handgun and started firing at the winged villain. Vulture brought up his one of his wings and successfully blocked the bullets. He then shot out a couple of his feather blades and they pinned Fixx to the wall.

"Still think my Tech-Flight is obsolete, Powers?" Vulture said threateningly.

"I never said the suit itself was obsolete, Adrian." Powers said as he glared at his former employee. "I said your work was obsolete. Your ideas would have been revolutionary if not for your incompetence to deliver them effectively."

Vulture growled in rage at his words. He was about to send a flurry of his feather blades at the businessman, but Spider-Man came in from behind like a rocket and slammed right into him from behind.

Vulture looked up to see Spider-Man in front of him and shot two webs on the sides of the walls, then pulled himself back. He then used this to launch him like a slingshot and kick Vulture right out the window and he gave chase. Vulture regained his balance and started flying in circles around the tower with Spider-Man swinging behind him.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?!" Vulture exclaimed.

"I can't help it; this is a no-fly zone. So, I'm going to need you to land and show me your flying license." Spider-Man quipped.

Vulture screamed in annoyance as he did a complete U-turn and charged right at the spider hero with his bladed wings ready to slice him up. Spider-Man saw this coming and twirled in midair to avoid the blades. He shot another web that latched onto Vulture's leg and he held on.

Spider-Man started climbing the web line and soon jumped forward to land on the back of the villain. "Hey there, mind if I hitch a ride?"

"Get off of me!" Vulture exclaimed as he started doing barrel rolls to try and shake the hero off of him.

'Oh God, I hope I don't throw up on the mask.' Spider-Man thought as he continued to hang on tight to the villain. He then started to hear a humming noise and realized that it was coming from the pack at the base of his back that connected the wings. "This sounds important!"

Spider-Man punched right through the pack and started to pull out a bunch of wires as they sparked. Vulture looked back in shock and fear. "No, you idiot! You'll kill us both!"

The power to Vulture's suit started to go out until they started falling and were reaching closer to the ground. Vulture screamed in distress as he saw the ground inching closer and closer.

Spider-Man wasn't worried a he just crossed his arms. "Not so fun when it's you free falling, is it?" He said nonchalantly.

Spider-Man then fired two web lines from his crossed arms and had them stick between two buildings. He attached the webs to Vulture, which instantly stopped their descent and left him dangling in the air. To make sure he wouldn't use those feather blades, Spider-Man wrapped him up in a web cocoon to make sure he wouldn't be moving.

"Now why you just hang around here until the police come and pick you up?" Spider-Man taunted the trapped villain.

Vulture struggled to break free, but found himself completely at the hero's mercy. He then glared hatefully at the hero. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?!"

"Yeah, stopped you from killing someone. It's kind of in the hero guidebook." Spider-Man said simply.

Vulture continued to glare at the hero. "At least that would be one body in my ledger. You have no idea how many bodies Derek Powers' has in his."

Spider-Man narrowed his eyes at that information. "What are you talking about?"

"You think that you're some kind of hero for capturing me? Well, you just let the biggest villain of all continue to run rampant by stopping me from killing him." Vulture said.

Spider-Man remained silent for a moment before speaking seriously. "No matter how much of a good deed you preach on about, it isn't worth it if there's blood on your hands."

With that being said, Spider-Man launched a web line and swung away, leaving a fuming Vulture behind glaring back at him.

/

Derek Powers sat in his office as he watched the latest morning news report. It showed his former employee Adrian Toomes being escorted into police custody while his suit was being carried away into storage.

"Currently the culprit who the people have dubbed the 'Vulture,' aka Adrian Toomes, is being escorted to Gotham Federal Custody to stand trial. Mr. Toomes was once an employee for WaynePowers, but his projects were cut off due to budget cuts and lack of results." The female anchorman said.

Powers turned off the TV and laced his fingers together in thought. He was hoping that he could acquire those wings of Toomes in order to further study them in the near future, but sadly they were in police custody now. It doesn't matter in his opinion, because soon it will all come together when the gas is completed.

"I see you've got your window fixed."

Powers looked up to see Spider-Man hanging upside on a web looking down at him. If Powers was surprised by this, he didn't show it on his face.

Powers reached into his desk cabinet and pulled out two glass cups and a bottle of wine. "Apparently it isn't fixed enough if you still managed to get in." He poured the wine in the cups and offered one to the hero as he landed down and faced him. "Would you care for a drink? Think of it as a small token of my appreciation for saving my life."

Spider-Man shook his head, denying the offered drink. "Sorry, but I don't drink and swing. I just wanted to say I'm sorry about your employee."

Powers waved a dismissive hand. "Unfortunate, but necessary if he had to resort to murder to justify his anger."

"Still though, if you hadn't cut him off and maybe given him another chance, he may have not gone absolute crazy and tried to kill you." Spider-Man said.

"All for the sake of business, my friend." Powers said.

"You don't seem that shaken up about it." Spider-Man pointed out.

"Sometimes you have to cut off a finger to save an arm." Powers said with a smirk before returning to his seat. "You know you have done pretty well as a solo act, but imagine what you can do if you had a budget."

Spider-Man raised his eyebrow behind his mask at that. Powers reached into another cabinet in his desk and pulled out a large briefcase. He opened it up and revealed to the hero a whole stack of cash cards.

"There's about a billion worth of credits in this case. All you have to do is sign up for employment at WaynePowers and it will all be yours." Powers said as he offered his hand to the hero.

Spider-Man looked at it for a moment before not taking and walked up to the glass window and opening a door to outside. "Sorry Powers, but I'm good as it is."

Powers still held that smirk as he wasn't deterred by this. "A pity. We could have done some great work together."

"I'm sure." Spider-Man said as he launched a web line and started to swing away.

As he was swinging away, Spider-Man couldn't help but think back to what Vulture about Powers. He could have played it off as a madman trying desperately to save his own skin, but after just having a full conversation with the man he could tell that something seemed...off about him.

'Why do I get the feeling that this isn't going to be the last I see of that guy.' Spider-Man thought to himself. 'I'm going to have to keep a close eye on him.'

/

Hey everybody! Hope you enjoy this newest chapter!

We now get another classic Spider-Man villain in the form of Vulture. If you want to know what he looks like, he has the suit of his PS4 video game appearance, but he has the helmet of the Disney Spider-Man 2017 show, plus I modeled his magnetic blade feathers from the game Web of Shadows. Vulture has always been one of my favorite villains and I just loved him in Spider-Man Homecoming, since Michael Keaton was just perfect for the role.

We also get a face-off between our hero and the big bad Powers himself. I hope you enjoyed reading it, as I tried to capture Powers' cruelty while also having him keep the appearance of savvy businessman.

In case you haven't picked it up yet, I was inspired by two different forms of Spider-Man media for the premise of this chapter. If you can figure out which two it was then you have my Spider-Man fanboy respect.

Anyway, next chapter I'm going to introduce one of my all-time favorite villains. Who is it going to be? Well, you'll just have to wait to find out. See you next time everyone!