Ugh, I'm sick of school! I need a vacation! And what do ya know, I'm doing just that next week for thanksgiving! Can anyone say 'Florida here I come!' I am so coming back with a tan. But anyway, while I'm away, I plan on devoting some desperately needed writing time on my fanfics. So hopefully, by the time I come back, there'll be another chapter for "Screams of the Spider" and "Reflections." But don't hold me to that…^_^
So enjoy as I put Spidey through the ringer as he finally meets five of his worst enemies…
Disclaimer: Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously without permission by Marvel comics and Stan Lee. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. (Now try and beat that disclaimer…)
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"Police are still releasing no new information about the bank bombing that occurred two days ago which claimed six lives; one of the victims killed at the hands of the now wanted, Spiderman. Eye witness reports and bank security cameras from the scene have confirmed past allegations that there were two men at the scene dressed as Spiderman. Authorities have made no definite statement whether the murder was committed by the real Spiderman or by the imposter."
"Both men are wanted by the NYPD for questioning and a warrant for Spiderman's arrest has been issued. According to information that was released by the authorities, both men displayed the same wall climbing powers Spiderman is known to possess. Until more facts of the incident are known, the police are encouraging people to stay in their homes and to not venture out into the streets. New York has been put on a citywide alert for Spiderman. Police are asking anyone with information on Spiderman's or the look-alike's whereabouts to contact them at 555-555-555…"
The anchorman's voice turned into a monotone drone as Peter turned his back on the television with a disdainful snort and tiredly walked to the set of windows that stood along the far side of his apartment. Stepping up to the window sill, the young man slowly leaned forward and rested his forehead against the cold glass of the window to look out onto the street far below.
He could tell it was going to be a cold, rainy fall day. Gray clouds hung overhead, threatening another rainstorm just like the one that had struck the city two nights ago. The wind whistled sharply against the windowpanes, encouraging the distraught man to turn away from the drafty window and retreat farther into his warm apartment where the TV still hummed the morning news softly in the far corner.
Pulling his head away from the window, Peter turned to begin his incessant pacing anew. Hanging his head in emotional exhaustion, Peter rubbed his eyes tiredly, trying to remove the fuzziness that clouded the corners of his vision from lack of sleep and stress. Swiping a hand through his unruly brown hair, the boy trudged over to the dark blue, second hand sofa his Aunt May had given him when he had moved out. Falling into the cushions with a heaving sigh, Peter tried to vainly piece together some remnant of his life the way it had been before his world had suddenly crumbled around him in only a manner of days.
Pulling his legs up onto the couch and against his chest, Peter let his head rest on his bent knees. Thinking back to the day before, the young man still felt the same sickening cringe in his stomach and distinct feeling of being a moment away from throwing up that had first struck him when the light of realization had dawned on him. The "imposter" Spiderman didn't only share Peter's powers, but also looked like him. And even though he had looked at the facts from every conceivable angle to debunk his original conclusion, he always came to the same answer. Even accepting this frightening fact, Peter still had to wonder, 'How?'
How could there be another person out there in the world with the same powers as him? How could this malicious man who had killed innocent people in cold blood look exactly like him? This mysterious double had to be a clone. Had to be. There was no other explanation. But the Spiderman double had said that he wasn't. And for some reason that sickened Peter's stomach even more, he didn't think the man had been lying…
What did this look alike plan to do with his information if he knew his secret identity? What had he hoped to accomplish by selling Jameson those photos of Spiderman? And what was he still planning? There were too many unanswered questions.
"What do I do?" Peter muttered into the air helplessly, as if seeking answers from some unseen presence above. How much he just wanted to talk to someone right then. It didn't really matter who. But more than anyone, Peter wanted Mary Jane to be there.
But he couldn't let her know, couldn't let her close to him right then. Things had become suddenly so complicated that Peter dared not let MJ be caught up in the situation. If this double looked like him and knew his secret identity, then MJ was in danger as long as there was this imposter out there. Who knew what he would do to her if she became involved?
There were several messages from MJ on Peter's answering machine, all of them unanswered. She had called numerous times over the course of the previous day begging Peter to tell her what was wrong and what she could do to help. She had even threatened to come over to his apartment, but after probably the tenth call, she had finally given up and left Peter alone to confront his problems alone until he came to her.
'She has be upset about me canceling our date then running out on her yesterday,' Peter thought miserably with a twinge of guilt. But he couldn't risk calling her to apologize because he knew she would ask too many questions that he just couldn't answer. He didn't blame her if she was mad at him. He knew he deserved it for how he had left MJ standing alone the previous day staring at his back as he took off in a rush to scour the Bugle building for any sign of the double. And for his desperate attempt, he had found nothing.
Peter didn't even dare let Spiderman himself look into the situation further. The framed superhero was public enemy number one right now. Every police officer in the whole New York area was out in force looking for the wall crawler and probably wouldn't hesitate to try to take the wall crawler down if they spotted him swinging through the streets. So for now, Peter was lying low, watching the news for any reports of the double. He was going to have to let the imposter Spiderman make the first move. The poor boy had stayed up all night waiting for his double to resurface but the city had remained quiet. And even though Peter was used to long nights, he was exhausted from lack of sleep and emotional stress brought on by the whole situation.
Turning his attention back to the television he had been watching, Peter let his head drop back onto the back of the couch. His eyes felt heavy with exhaustion, but he knew he couldn't fall asleep. He had to keep watch on the news for any reports of his double, it was all he cold do. Murmurs of the five day forecast hummed from the set as the young man fought against his tired eyelids that were slowly sliding shut. 'Just for a minute,' he finally conceded as his eyes became too heavy to fight, 'I just need to rest my eyes…'
Despite all his good intentions, the young man began to fall into the dark void of unconsciousness. But before Peter lost his battle with exhaustion a sudden explosion sounded from the television, flames licking the one corner of the screen. Startled awake by the loud noise, Peter quickly bolted upright and looked at the screen in a state of momentary confusion, now fully awake.
Dark smoke clouded the screen as the faint outline of the anchorman wafted in and out of view, the man coughing violently as he shielded his face with his arms from the blast of the explosion. As the smoke cleared slightly, Peter could hear frightened shouts from off camera, all muffled and unintelligible in the chaos.
Suddenly, from the corner of the screen flashed another wall of crackling, white hot energy that seared the back wall of the news desk to a charred black. The anchorman's frightened voice rang out over the set, "Oh my god…Not them!"
More screams of terror rang out from off screen as crashes and loud rumbles of what Peter assumed were impact concussions rocked the camera as though it were filming in an earthquake.
"Oh my god…" Peter murmured in surprise and shock. Jumping up from the edge of the couch, the boy stood in the middle of his living room looking down at the screen, eye widened in dread. It couldn't be…
As though confirming Peter's sinking suspicion, a blur of red and blue in the shape of a man suddenly jumped onto the counter of the news desk, crouching down on all fours to stare down at the fear paralyzed newscaster. Gracefully, the costumed man that crouched on the news desk shot out a hand to grip the frightened reporters jacket. Without saying a word, the newcomer merely flipped his wrist, sending the anchorman sailing over the counter and crashing somewhere off screen.
Turning his head towards the camera, the shimmering sliver eyepiece of the man's crimson mask filled the television screen, reflecting the flickering light of flames that burned somewhere off to the web swinger's side. It was Spiderman…
"Good morning," chirped the Spiderman mischievously as he went to sit on the very edge of the desk facing the camera, his legs dangling off the side casually, "I'm sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled program, but I have an announcement courtesy of the new and improved Sinister Six…"
"Oh, god, please don't let this be happening…" Peter pleaded, his hands clenched into tight balls at his sides as he stared at the screen, face a blank expression of disbelief.
"I'm here to announce that, as of today, I have official joined the Sinister Six. To show the people watching this that I'm not lying, will my associates please step forward…"
As the Spiderman on screen finished, Peter saw Electro, Venom, the Vulture, Mysterio, and Doctor Octopus came into view as they stepped around from both sides to stand behind the news desk, their muscular bodies blocking the charred backdrop and filling the screen behind Spiderman. Still tinkered on the edge of the desk, his legs crossed at the ankles in casualness, Spiderman continued, "Besides breaking into this news station to announce my new partnership, we also wanted to warn the people of New York to prepare for what we are dubbing the 'Reign of Terror," the worst assault of evil to ever befall this miserable city…"
Peter felt his stomach clench in fear as he stared at the television, his double confidently explaining the extent of the Six's plan to attack the city, including massive crime sprees and killings. Breaking out of his thoughts, Peter knew what he had to do. He had to get to that news station to stop the gathered group of some of Spidey's most powerful and dangerous enemies.
Gripping the bottom of his baggy ESU hooded sweatshirt, the boy hurriedly pulled the piece of clothing up over his head to reveal the top half of his Spiderman costume underneath. Bolting towards the nearby window in a blur of color, Peter stripped the rest of the civilian clothes from over his superhero costume he had been wearing constantly since finding out about his look alike the day before so that he would be prepared for such a moment's notice.
Shaking his jeans from around his ankle where he then kicked them to the floor uncaringly in his haste, the young man whipped out the red mask that was stashed in the waist band of his costume and pulled it quickly over his head. Swiping his gloves into place on his hands, Spiderman retched open his apartment's window. Cold wind buffeting his chest as he leapt into a crouch on the narrow windowsill.
Behind him, Spiderman heard the trail end of his double's voice drift over to him from the television that still played inside his apartment, "The Sinister Six are also going to take this time to officially call out the one 'superhero' that may think he can stop us," the double said, deliberately emphasizing the word with disgust. Staring into the camera he riddled dangerously, "He knows who he is…But just so that nobody out there gets any false hopes, I'd like to mention that he has no chance in hell of beating us…"
"We'll see about that," Spidey snorted defiantly as he kicked off from the window sill and snapped off a web line to snag a nearby parapet across the street. Swinging off into the concrete canyons of the city, the wall crawler made a bee line for the nearby new station situated just ten blocks away from his Manhattan apartment. Burning through his head as Spidey sped away towards the station was the lingering doubt if he could actually take on this newest version of the deadly Sinister Six.
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In the near distance, Spidey could make out a char edged, gaping hole in the side of the WPXI news station. The hole stood at least twenty stories off the ground, attesting to the superpowers needed to pull off such an attack on the building without the use of any helicopters or other such flying devices.
Swinging towards the battered building, Spidey could smell the faint stench of burning human flesh wafting on the chilly fall breeze towards him. Gritting his teeth together in rage, the wall crawler had a feeling that there had been at least a few civilian casualties that had been caught up in the initial blast that had carved the massive hole in the side of the news station.
Closing in on the crippled station, Spiderman allowed the momentum of his swing to shot him in a straight line towards the building as he reached the lowest point of the arch just as he was about to start the ascent towards the apex on the edge of his webbing. Dropping the strand of webbing the web swinger flew through the air like a human projectile missile. Connecting with the brick surface of the building on his feet with the grace of an aerial gymnast, Spiderman gripped hold of the wall with his adhesive fingertips and toes.
Craning his head up towards the crater that lay several stories above him, the web swinger skittered up the building face like a bug. Quickly covering the distance between him and hole that lead right into the station's newsroom, Spiderman reached the edge of the crater. Pulling himself up into the rubble strewn newsroom, the wall crawler scanned the room in disbelief.
Laying in neat little packages, numerous bundles of squirming people littered the station floor. Several twisted bodies dotted the room, blood pooling beneath the motionless forms. Muffled whimpers of fear resonated from behind organic spider web gags as the surviving victims of the attack saw Spiderman stand straight beside the edge of the hole in the outer wall of the station. But nowhere was there any sign of the super villains that Spidey had come to find.
"Oh no. I'm too late," Spidey cried with regret as he rushed towards the nearest victim that lay in a thick cocoon of webbing. Stooping quickly beside the encased victim, Spidey gripped a handful of webbing between his hands and tore the strands from the person's head, revealing a young woman who Spiderman recognized as the station's weather girl. "Are you OK?" he asked worriedly, pulling more of the steel hard webs from the woman's body to free her.
"Help! Security! He's back!" the auburn haired woman screamed in terror as the webbing was removed from her eyes and she saw the same mask worn by the man that had attacked the station only minutes earlier, "Please help me! He's going to kill me!"
"Whoa whoa!" Spidey cried, trying to hush the frightened woman's screams, "I'm not who you think I am. I'm the good guy, really!" But his words fell on deaf ears as the woman struggled to flee even though her legs still remained encased in a layer of webbing. Spiderman could tell by the frightened look in her eyes that nothing he said was going to convince the woman of his good intentions and of his innocence.
But before Spiderman could say anything, an intense shock vibrated through his brain from the back of his skull. His spider-sense screaming insistently through his brain, the wall crawler indistinctively dove to the side just as a bolt of skin searing electricity licked the patch of floor where he had just been standing.
"Get away from that woman, you murder!" ordered an angry booming voice as Spidey recovered from his dive and came out of his roll on his shoulder to spring to his feet gracefully a good fifteen feet away from the terrified weather girl.
Whirling around on the balls of his feet, the startled web swinger beheld a glowing being hovering just on the other side of the gaping hole that had been carved in the far wall of the newsroom. Hot sparks of energy jumped from around the man's outline as his body glowed a lighter shade of blinding white light. Spidey immediately recognized the electrified man's face as being that of Electro, the human powerhouse.
"So how's my favorite overgrown nightlight doing today?" Spidey asked almost congenially as he back flipped to the other side of the wide newsroom, trying to draw Electro's attention away from the helpless civilians that lay tied in place on the ground all around the wall crawler. He couldn't let any more people get hurt by that maniac.
"Can it, bug!" Electro shouted with a scowl, his face almost demonic as tiny lightening bolts sizzled the chilly air around him, "You're going to be chocking on those stupid wisecracks of yours in a minute. I've had enough of your big mouth!"
"Ouch… Harsh words! Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Spidey remarked, bobbing his head warily from side to side as he watched Electro for any sudden attacks the human lightening rod might decide to throw at him.
"I am going to so enjoy turning you into a statue of burnt charcoal," the villain snarled, the glowing aura of energy around him flaring with new intensity, "You've gone too far today. I'm going to make sure that you don't hurt any more innocent people."
Spiderman's eyebrow screwed up in the form of a question mark on his forehead at Electro's words. What was this guy talking about? Since when did Electro care about innocent people? Usually he only considered them moving target for shooting practice.
"I can say the same about you, hothead. I'm making it my personal mission that I see you and the rest of your buddies rotting behind bars by the end of the day. Now where are they? I know you're not that stupid to try to attack me all by your little itty bitty lonesome," Spiderman said.
Electro's flickering face twisted into an expression of unbridled rage at Spiderman's words. Spidey was sure the human powerhouse was going to launch a barrage of energy blasts at him for his taunts. But before he could get any reaction from Electro, another jolt of his spider-sense gave him just enough time to cringe back as the remains of the already gutted wall blasted inward towards him. Beneath his booted feet, Spidey could feel the whole building shake from the blast. Shielding his hooded face from the debris that showered him from the sudden collapse of the wall, Spiderman felt the chilly fall air from outside whistle around his body.
"Be careful what you wish for, insect," came a familiar voice as Spidey squinted to make out the dark features of a group of men silhouetted by the gray sky on the other side of the demolished newsroom from outside. "You've spun your own noose and we're taking you back with us, dead or alive." Spidey recognized the voice as being that of Mysterio, the master of illusion's voice slightly distorted from behind his fish bowl shaped helmet.
Frowning under his dust covered mask, Spiderman felt his skin crawl as the outlines of some very familiar forms came into focus. Electro still hovered in the air where he had been before but he had now been joined by his four notorious accomplices. Standing before the outnumbered wall crawler stood the melodramatic Mysterio, Dr. Octopus' adamantium tentacle framed body, Venom's drool dripping mouth of needles, and the Vulture's bald head gleaming in the light cast by Electro's flickering form who he hovered beside.
"Give up now, wall crawler," insisted the Vulture with a snaggle toothed snarl at the masked man.
Giving a demonic toothy grin, Venom added in his synthesized voice, "But if you absolutely feel the need to try to get past us, we'll be more then happy to beat you to within an inch of your life so you won't give us any problems on the way back. But don't think for a second that I plan on giving you over to the authorities in one piece…"
"Hmm… I didn't know we were going anywhere," Spidey remarked with a cock of his head to the side.
"Don't play games with us," warned Dr. Octopus grimly, his tentacles dancing behind him like a batch of cobras ready to strike, "You're not getting away with what you did here today. You're going to finally pay for your crimes."
"What are you talking about?!," the wall crawler cried in confusion, "I'm the one that saw you lunatics breaking into this TV station! I have no idea what you guys are talking about. Somebody must have put something in the morning pot of coffee! And I want to know where that imposter is! I have a score to settle with him."
"Enough with this foolishness!" Octavius finally shouted in frustration, the claws at the ends of his tentacles snapping in agitation, "Just get him!"
At the not so good doctor's words, the group of villains made a collective lunge at Spiderman, trying to overtake him by sheer force. Seeing them coming at him with the grace of a high school football team, Spidey didn't even need his spider-sense to know that he had to move if he didn't want to be on the bottom of a massive pile up.
Ducking under the Vulture's razor sharp wing that whistled over his head by the berth of only an inch, Spiderman made a desperate lunge for the massive expanse of dark storm clouded skyline where the side of the building had once stood. There was no way he was going to be able to fight all five of his worst enemies in that compact newsroom filled with innocent people. He needed to get outside where he could maneuver.
Hopping over the rubble of the demolished wall, Spidey was almost at the lip of the crater when his spider-sense suddenly screamed out. Unable to react quick enough, the web swinger felt a smooth metallic object wrap around his ankle. Glancing over his shoulder, Spidey caught a smug look of satisfaction spread across Dr. Octopus's face.
"Oh, sh-" But before could Spidey could finish his curse, he was violently retched off the ground by his ensnared foot and dangled upside down several feet above the floor in front of the doctor. Grimacing under his mask from the stinging pain of the metal tentacle boring into his skin as gravity pulled him downward, Spiderman gritted his teeth together as he looked into the deranged scientist's face.
"We're ending this right here and now," Octavius snarled into Spidey's face, the bright artificial light of the newsroom glinting off the corners of his dark sunglasses. Gathering around the doctor, the other super villains looked at Spiderman with clear scowls of distain, circling their prey in victory.
"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you boys, but I have dinner plans that I just can't cancel. Call my secretary and I'm sure she can put you somewhere in my schedule," the dangling superhero quipped as he whipped his hand up and snapped a thick wad of webbing into the scientist's face. Caught off guard by this surprise attack, the doctor cried out loudly as he clawed at the webbing that wrapped half way around his face, blinding him. Momentarily losing his mental control over his slithering tentacles, Spiderman's attack allowed the wall crawler the few milliseconds he needed to shimmy out of Octavius' grasp.
Dropping to the floor, the masked man landed on his back with a loud 'whooof' of air being knocked out of his lungs by the impact. Springing quickly back onto his feet agilely, Spiderman beat a hasty retreat once again towards the massive hole in the side of the news station. Cries of rage sounded from behind him as Spidey swiveled in mid air at the edge of the crumbling remains of the building and jumped to grip the outer wall of the structure. Pulling himself far enough up on the outer brick wall with his upper body strength until he could get his feet up onto the side of the building, Spiderman then took off up the wall skittering across the face of the structure like a bug.
Only several feet above the demolished newsroom, Spidey felt a searing heat billow up to buffet his back from a blast of blistering electricity that shot out from the inside of the building like a cannon. It seemed that Electro was very trigger happy that day.
'Here comes the cavalry…' the young superhero thought as he picked up the pace and hustled his butt faster up the side of the building, 'Have to get to the roof…'
"Come back a play with us!" Spidey heard from behind him. Stealing a glance behind him, the retreating man saw Venom's slobbering tongue lash the air as the symbiote clad Eddie Brock took chase after Spiderman up the building's face. Gaining ground swiftly on his prey, several slithering black psudopods snaked from off Venom's body, the tentacle's reaching out towards Spiderman hungrily.
"Sorry, smiles. But I'm a board game type of guy," Spidey shouted back over his shoulder as the decretive edging of the roof came into his line of sight. Pushing more effort into his legs, the wall crawler quickly covered the distance that lay between him and horizontal ground above. Crawling over the edge onto the roof, Spiderman's sixth sense gave a warning buzz just as he felt a rush of air hit his back and saw a green blur zoom upward past him from out of the corner of his eye.
"Give up!" screamed Adrian Toomes angrily as he made a wild dive towards the masked man, his winged arm outstretched in a clothes hanger to catch Spidey in the throat. Fortunately for the wall crawler, his spider-sense alerted him to the danger well in advance giving him time to safely dive off to the side.
Springing up onto the metal casing of a nearby rooftop stairwell, Spidey crouched down to prepare for another attack. As he wheeled around to the east side of the building which he had just scaled, Spiderman caught the first glimpses of Dr. Octopus's head emerging over the edge of the rooftop. Using his four metal legs to grip and propel himself up the outer wall of the building, the deranged scientist merely stepped down effortlessly as his tentacles easily hoisted his chubby body up onto the roof.
Following close behind, Electro shot up into the air like a shooting star to then hover like a small sun overhead of the assembling group. Glaring daggers at the crouching arachnid, Electro's eyes flared bolts of electricity in rage. Joining his companion above, the Vulture swooped around in a wide circle to then hover beside the human lightening rod.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Spiderman saw a giant plume of purplish smoke billow up from the side of the rooftop. Stepping out of the swirling mass of mist, Mysterio swept his flowing cape from in front of him dramatically with a flick of his wrist.
"Always have to be the one to make a dramatic entrance, don't ya?" Spidey quipped as the purplish mist faded away into nothing behind the illusionist.
"This is the end of the line," Dr. Octopus remarked as he and the other villains stared back at the cornered web swinger who crouched low on the nearby boxy stairwell casing, "You may have thought you could escape from us into this world, but we don't intend to let you corrupt this place like you did ours. We refuse to let your evil reek havoc in this world."
"You're not going to ruin any more lives, bug," Venom hissed from behind his rolling red tongue, the symbiote's psudopods whipping the air around him in clear agitation.
"What are you weirdoes talking about?!" Spidey cried out loudly in bewilderment, extremely caught off guard by these mysterious riddles.
"We're talking about how you killed innocent people the day before yesterday," answered the Vulture with a scowl spread across his wrinkled head, "And now this. You deserve to rot away in the deepest darkest jail cell they can find to throw you in."
"I can say the same about you Toomes," Spidey pointed out defiantly, "I don't know where you get off blaming me for this mess when I saw you breaking into that station! And I want to know where that other guy is! Is this one of his sick and twisted ideas to blame me for something else that I would never, never do!? Is it?!" Anger tainted his voice as he looked back at the group of convicted murders that dared say he was responsible for the deaths of innocent people.
"Do not try to fool us, bug," Electro growled dangerously from above, spontaneous sparks of pure electricity jumping off his body, "We caught you red-handed at the scene of the crime. You're going to pay for your crimes one way or the other. You're out numbered. Give up!"
"No! I will never let you murders get away with this!"
"Then you've just forfeited your live…" Quentin Beck whispered with violence in his tone, "We'll take you back dead if we really must. It makes no difference to me. I think a death at our hands would be more appropriate for a murderous scum like you then actually letting you live to spend the rest of your days living off the people of this country like a parasite in some maximum security prison anyway…assuming the judge didn't give you the death sentence, of course."
Taking this as their cue to attack, the men lunged at Spiderman all at once, fanning out to surround him. Corkscrewing off the stair shed, Spiderman leapt up just as blast of electricity scorched the place where he had been standing. Tingling at the base of his skull, the web swinger's spider-sense screamed to him as danger overtook him from all sides.
Dodging a punch here and a kick there, Spiderman felt himself quickly becoming overwhelmed by the group of super powered men as he was slowly driven towards the edge of the rooftop. Several blows battered the wall crawler's body mercilessly as he struggled to block and exchange attacks with his relentless protagonists.
But as he fought valiantly for his life, the web swinger noticed that Dr. Octopus had not taken part in the frontal assault. The pudgy scientist merely stood off to the side, his forehead wrinkled up in grim contemplation. Even from across the wide TV station rooftop littered with radio antennas and satellite dishes, Spiderman could feel Octavius' shaded eyes boring into him, silently sizing him up. But the masked superhero could not take the time to question the eight legged spectator. Four other super powered men were still out for his blood.
'Can't keep this up,' Spidey's thoughts screamed in distress as one of Venom's fists connected with his jaw, sending him flying backwards to crash violently against a nearby air conditioning unit. Quickly struggling to his shaky feet, the masked man felt his spider-sense cry out again as one of the Vulture's razor edged wings zoomed towards his head like a guillotine ready to lop off his head.
Flipping a thick strand of webbing to snare the tip of Toomes' wing, Spiderman pulled down hard on the line sending the bird like villain crashing to the ground several feet in front of him. Before the wall crawler could take a second to savor his small victory, another buzz rang through his brain.
Heat enveloped around the unnumbered man as he screamed out in pain. Smashing into his back, one of Electro's energy blasts turned the back of the young superhero's red and blue costume to a blackened crisp. Recovering himself before falling to the ground, Spidey snapped off a strand of webbing to snag the tip of one of the numerous radio antennas that sprouted up from the news station's rooftop.
Pulling the strand taunt, Spiderman used the flexible webbing to bungee him skyward up to the top of the station's main radio tower. Landing on one of the upper horizontal beams of the tower, Spiderman gasped for breath as he waited for the immediate sting of Electro's surprise attack to dull away in the chilly fall air that whistled around him.
But before the web swinger could form a plan to somehow make it out of his deadly situation alive, he felt the twenty foot metal structure he stood on suddenly shake violently beneath him. Swiveling himself out from his perch to sight down the radio tower, Spidey's stomach dropped as he saw Venom hugging the base of the steel structure, his tooth grin pulled back in a mischievous grin.
"Uh oh…" Spidey muttered with dread.
"Now now now…." Eddie Brock sang to the stranded wall crawler, "It's not nice to run out on people like that! We think you need a time out!"
Gripping the bottom beam of the radio tower, Venom retched back hard, pulling the support rivets of the structure to pop out of the rooftop in plinging waves. The whole structure groaned loudly as it began to slowly topple to the side like a giant domino.
Hugging the nearest beam he could grab, Spiderman gasped as the entire radio antenna began to tip to the side, falling towards the roof. Whipping his head around, Spidey looked around hurriedly for anything else he could jump to. Seeing a large satellite dish off to his side, he made a wild leap as the radio tower fell to the rooftop below him with a booming crash.
As the wall crawler flew through the air, intent on reaching the satellite dish, a sudden mass slammed into him with a bone crushing jar, sending him into a spiraling nosedive. Crying out in surprise, Spidey heard a cackling laugh from above him just before he crashed onto solid concrete. Landing ungracefully in a massive heap of twisted limbs, Spiderman groaned in pain as the world spun around him.
"How did you like that? Not so tough now since your dealing with others in your own league instead of beating up on helpless people," he heard the Vulture taunt from somewhere high above.
'Great…I probably have a concussion now and I still have five super powered guys hell bent on killing me to deal with,' he thought as he heaved his battered body up. Ignoring the black fuzz that was beginning to tunnel around his vision, Spiderman pulled himself up onto shaky feet to face the super villains that had once again managed to surround him where he had been batted down by Toomes.
"Whoever said you were in the same league as me?" Spidey shot back despite his weakened state, "You guys don't even qualify for the pee wees…" He could only imagine the enraged look that was etched on the old man's face now. He was too battered to lift his head upward to see. Dark patched spotted his eyes as his body sagged visibly with exhaustion.
"Indignant to the very end, I see," Mysterio commented from off to Spidey's side, his purple cape fluttering behind him in the chilly fall breeze that swept across the rooftop, "I must give you credit for lasting this long against all of us, but your luck's just run out, wall crawler."
Reaching into the folds of his cape, the illusionist's gloved hand returned with a small, boxy object gripped between his fingertips. Squeezing the matchbox sized cube, Mysterio then hurled the thing to land several paces in front of the battered superhero. Landing with a soft 'plink,' the cube sat there for a moment, nothing happening. Spidey was about to make a snide comment about Mysterio's shoty handiwork when the cube suddenly exploded in a giant cloud of thick pinkish smoke.
Startled by this attack, Spiderman unconsciously gasped in surprise, unwittingly sucking a lungful of the swirling pink mist into his mouth. His spider-sense screamed through his skull as he felt the smoke enter his lungs. Coughing violently, Spiderman quickly covered his face with his arms to shield his nose and mouth before anymore of the smoke could enter his respiratory track. But the damage had already been done.
The pink smoke continued to swirl all around him as Spidey quickly felt his head going fuzzy and heavy. The back of his throat stung with the bitter aftertaste of Mysterio's strange mist, his arms and legs suddenly feeling weak and clumsy. Trying desperately to command his legs to move to escape from out of the billowing pink cloud, Spiderman felt his muscles suddenly seize up in paralysis. Crashing to his side on the tarred rooftop, the wall crawler's body lay rigid and helpless.
'No…Not like this…I can't let them win.'
Spiderman struggled to move, struggled to escape from certain capture. But his body wouldn't respond. His vision was becoming blurry and fuzzy, the shapes he saw warping and spinning in vibrant colors that were not true to reality. Slowly his eyelids became too heavy to fight anymore as his vision fell away into scary, swirling images only seen in the darkest of nightmares. Succumbing to Mysterio's mist, Spidey's eyes finally slid shut.
Mysterio's smoke began to dissipate as a chilly gut of wind blew across the high rooftop of the news station, whipping around the amassed men that stood at a distance from the fallen superhero's body. The dark storm clouds on the horizon were beginning to sweep in overhead, threatening a tempest.
"What was that!?" the Vulture demanded as he alighted from the air to stand beside Mysterio who stood proudly watching as his pink mist finally wafted away to nothing in the breeze, "You took him down in less then a minute!"
"It's a special hallucinogenic gas that I have developed," the master of illusion replied as he walked slowly over to stand over the still form laying motionless several paces away, "I made it specifically to take down this monster, but before I could use it, Spiderman escaped into this dimension."
"Did you kill him?" Electro questioned as he dropped the flickering aura of energy from around his body. Dropping down to the rooftop, the human powerhouse stared down at Spiderman as the others also circled around the unconscious web swinger.
"No. It only knocks the person out for several hours, but while they're out they experience some of the most vivid and realistic hallucinations imaginable," Beck replied emotionlessly, his cape snapping in the wind. Silence hung over the five men as they towered over the helpless body at their feet.
"Looks like the itsy bitsy spider didn't get back up the water spout after all…" Venom hissed with a toothy grin as he stooped beside the still body at his feet, "It's a shame though…We wanted to have a little more fun with him. Spiderman deserves to suffer for what he's done here."
"Well, this went a little easier then I expected, but we got what we came for…" Electro said confidently, looking around at the other men for confirmation.
"I'm not so sure…" cut in a raspy voice before anyone else could answer. Turning to face the speaker, the super powered men saw Dr. Otto Octavius finally moving from the spot he had stood while they had fought Spiderman in their relatively short but violent battle on the news station rooftop.
"What are you talking about, Octavius?" Mysterio inquired coldly.
"I mean, I am not as certain as you men are that this is really the Spiderman we came here to retrieve," the doctor replied with a frown, his sunglass hidden eyes riveted skeptically on the unconscious superhero.
"How do you know?" demanded Toomes, "We all heard on the police dispatch that Spiderman was seen breaking into this station. And we all saw him down there attacking that woman. How can you not believe this is that murderer?"
"Weren't you listening to him before?" Octavius shot back angrily, "This Spiderman said he saw us on the television along with 'another guy' Are you not the least bit curious if this other person could really be the Spiderman we're looking for? Do not forget there are two different Spidermen in this dimension now. And then there are our own alternate selves to deal with. It's all together possible that the Spiderman of our dimension has teamed up with the alternate versions of ourselves…"
"That's impossible!" Venom snarled, "Why would our other selves team up with this murderer?!"
"I don't know, but it is something we must look into before jumping to conclusions," Dr. Octopus answered grimly, "Whatever the case, I believe the answers we seek lie with the Spiderman currently in our control."
"What do we do?" the Vulture questioned as he shot a skeptical frown down to the drugged Spiderman who lay motionless within the circle of men. In the distance, the group of super powered men could hear the first faint wails of police sirens converging on their position from below on street level.
"Whatever we decide to do, we must do it fast," Mysterio interjected hurriedly, "The police are coming. We cannot be found here. It would rise too many questions by the authorities."
"We must move to a more secure location before anything," Octavius quickly replied in an authoritive tone as he snaked two of his metal tentacles down to pick up Spiderman's limp body off the rooftop. Cradling the drugged superhero with one of his extra metallic appendages, Dr. Octopus moved towards the edge of the roof, two of his tentacles carrying him across the expanse like a pair of stilts. Held aloft by the doctor's metal arm that wrapped itself tightly around his waist, Spiderman moaned a barely audible whimper of pain as he was carted behind Octavius.
"I think I know a place we can go," Mysterio offered as he and the others quickly rushed after the retreating doctor. Not acknowledging the illusionist, Dr. Octopus disappeared over the building's edge, his tentacles gripping the stone face of the structure as they carried him and his cargo down.
Close behind the doctor, the Vulture and Electro took to the air in pursuit as Venom shot off a line of symbiote produced webbing similar to that of Spiderman's and shot out into the city. Mysterio followed by disappearing in a thick plume of smoke, leaving the station rooftop empty as though they had never been there, except for the toppled radio tower that lay twisted in a heap off on the far side.
Far below, the police sirens screamed up through the concrete canyons of the city as the squad cars screeched to an abrupt halt before the news station. Low thunder rumbled overhead as the six figures disappeared into the growing darkness of the coming storm. Before the first few drops of rain even hit the ground, the super powered men had vanished from sight, taking with them their unconscious prisoner and leaving the police to swarm the news station where the victims of the Sinister Six's attack still lay ensnared in thick bundles of Spiderman's webbing…
Like I said up top, I hope to get another chapter up soon. But don't forget I thrive on critics and reviews of my work. I read any constructive criticism even-mindedly and to try to work off them to improve the story. Got any suggestions, comments, or concerns? Drop a review and voice them. So until next time, I'm signing out
-LAXgirl