Chapter 8

Negotiation



"When do you think they'll call?" the joker asked

Skippy turned away from the work being done to access the servers that controlled credit dispersal. "In a minute or two."

"How will they which number?"

"Well go over to that window and shoot it out."

The joker went over aimed his weapon and shot out the glass. The noise could be heard far down below. Screams could be heard as the police and people avoided the glass and bullets. Skippy moved from where he was and over to the broken window.

"Then what?" The gang member asked

"Watch"

With one simple movement, Skippy put his hand on the gang member and pushed him out the window. The young man screamed as he fell, Skippy watched with a grin on his face until he couldn't see him nor heard his screams.

"Three.....two.....one...."

Just then the phone began to ring.

Skippy picked up the phone. "Yesssss?"

"This is Captain Bullock out of the Major Crimes Unit."

"You're not a negotiator."

"Well we don't have one at the moment. You had the luck of doing this right at the moment some splicers are holding hostages at Amusement Mile."

"Damn, I'm missing out on that."

"Well one can't be the only game in town. By the way what should I call you?"

"You can call me Skippy."

"Skippy?"

"Like the Peanut Butter."

"What is it you want, Skippy?"

"Oh the usual stuff, plane fuled up, allowing me to take out the creds this bank holds. Letting us go to a country who don't exactly like your kind of people."

"Sorry, France has extradition treaties."

"I'm not talking frog country. But that's not the case."

"What is the case?"

"The fact I don't want trouble."

"How do you know you want start any?"

"You'll have to trust me."

"How will that be possible? You just push one of your men out the window."

"He didn't have much going for him, Captain. Believe me, besides the kid was a little slow on the upload if you get my drift."

"I do"

"Well, tell you what I'll do. You don't send your pork products over and try to do Rambo s&*% and I'll release the hostages."

"When?"

"In a few minutes."

"What's your definition of few?"

"A somewhat liberal one, goodbye Captain."

Skippy hung up the phone, he felt pretty smug about himself and he went back to supervising the work done to get those credits.





He had been going down the shafts for seemed like hours. He really knew it only had been few minutes. He needed to know where he was. It was time to come out of hiding.

Spider-man noticed a vent to his left. He kicked it out with his legs and dropped to the floor. He was about to come out when heard voices. He glanced and noticed three Jokerz with automatic weapons. He could hear what sounded like construction. Spidey figured he must've been at the top vault on the 60th floor. He had a ways to go before he arrived at Aunt May's floor.

The three gang members walked casually down the hallway as one kept working. They passed the vent not even realizing someone was there. That's when Spidey made his move.

He stealth fully dropped behind them and then shots lines of webbing which stuck to their weapons. He then yanked them out of the Jokerz hands.

"What the-?" One member asked before Spidey punched him in the face. The other two were short work and all three were on the floor. None of them were going to be able to participate in gang activity in a while.

He found the fourth joker at the vault door. He didn't even notice Spider-man til he noticed the shadow.

"Hello?"

"Hi" Spidey said. He then took care of the fourth joker and immobile him in webbing. He didn't know how many were left. But he figured there couldn't be many more.

He made sure he wasn't seen by the security cameras. In fact he covered them with webbing thinking whatever the Jokerz were doing. They would stop and come looking for him. Spider-man didn't fear these people and he was prepared to deal with them







"We're almost there." Brock told May as they went down the hallway that led to the emergency exit.

"Not yet, ladies" A voice said to them.

Both ladies were shocked when they saw the garishly dressed security guard. He was holding what appeared to be a machine gun. He had it trained on both Brock and Parker.

"Now if you ladies can come with me." Spark told them. "Oh I wouldn't recommend trying to do anything the contrary. Ya see I've got the gun and well I'm sure you know our rep. So just walk back up to where you came from and we won't have problems."

"If we refuse?" Parker ask

"Well this will happen." Spark raised his gun and swung in like a club breaking Brock's arm. Brock yelled out in pain which quickly went to a whimper.

"Now please back to your offices."

Parker and Brock had no choice but to go back to their offices.





"There it is, Skip. The mother load." The joker who had been working on the server said to him.

"Where are the numbers?" Skippy asked

The joker picked up a small computer screen which indicated accounts. One was of LS Financial. The other was that of an offshore bank account in an island off the Indonesian coast.

"Now watch the figures."

Skippy watched as the numbers got smaller on one side and larger than the other. In just a matter of seconds they had Seventy-five million in credits.

Just then the phone rang. Skippy picked it up. "Yeah"

"It's thug, we've got someone in here."

"I told them not to send anybody."

"This isn't GCPD."

"How do you know?"

"The fact I've found four of our crew covered in what looks like spider webs."

Skippy put down the phone and thought about what he just heard and then realized who was in the building.

"Spider-man" He said to himself

"Who?" Thug called out. "Skip, you there?"

Skippy put the receiver back to his ear. "Yeah I'm here. Get out of their soon as you can. Leave the members who've already been stopped. Besides it means a bigger share for us."

"Got it."

"Go to the escape location and wait for me. I'll have the access codes for the money."

"All right, Skip."

He hung up the phone and then called for Bullock.

"Yeah"

"I'm releasing the hostages."

"Good, we'll do our part."

Skippy hung up the phone and then began to finish up.





Bullock waited and just as he been told the people inside the lobby were being led outside. The QRT surrounded them and brought them back over the perimeter.

"We're ready, sir" Savage told Bullock.

"I understand just wait a little longer."

That's when the sound of rapid gunfire erupted through out the building.