SPIDER-MAN 2: Enter the Red Demon

A fanfiction by Chipolata

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Chapter 2

"Hello, Mrs. Briefs. Remember me?" The man asked.

     He stood proudly, in a mechanical suit which had what looked like a tail attached to the back. The 'tail' was the mechanical arm that had grabbed and lifted Bulma. He had a helmet on his head, which only revealed the bottom half of his face. He was grinning.

     "Remember you? I've never met you in my life!" Bulma shouted.

     The grin disappeared.

     "Wrong answer." The man said, and tightened the tail's grip.

     Bulma screamed.

     "Put her down!" A voice demanded.

     The man turned. Standing at the Gym Entrance was The Great Saiyaman (Gohan) and The Great Saiyawoman (Videl).

     "Not likely." The man said.

     "Then we have no choice but to stop you by force." Great Saiyaman told him then got into a fighting stance.

     Gohan and Videl charged at him. The man dodged Gohan's attack with amazing speed and punched Videl sharply in the gut. Videl collapsed, winded and in pain. Gohan turned.

     "Videl!" He cried.

     The man laughed. "You fool! I am no ordinary man! This suit significantly increases my speed and strength! I designed it myself!"

     "What do you want?" Gohan asked.

     "Revenge." The man stated. He turned Bulma upside down and lowered her until they were face to face. "I'm here to get revenge on those who hurt me! I'm going to hurt them! I'm going to hurt you, Mrs. Briefs, and I'm going to hurt the Kingpin, and then, then! Then I'm going to get my revenge on Spider-man, and that accursed Golden Fighter!"

     "Golden Fighter?" Gohan asked. "You mean, me?"

     Gohan remembered back to his first day of school at Orange Star High. On the way there he'd turned Super-Saiyan to stop a bank robbery. By the time first class had started everyone was talking about a Golden Fighter. Gohan had taken the Great Saiyaman identity to stop them talk.

     "What? You?" The man asked.

     He walked up to Gohan and grabbed his chin. He looked really closely at him. Then he lowered him slightly.

     "You're not him. You're not the Golden Fighter!" The man said. "You're not that fighter from the warehouse!"

     "The warehouse?" Bulma murmured.

     The man swung Gohan around by the neck, not hard enough to kill Gohan, but enough to keep a good grip. The man was in a rage. It seemed the memory of this fighter was enough to send him round the twist.

     "I hate him! He ruined everything!" He growled.

     "Oh, come on. He can't be that bad." Someone said behind him.

     The man turned. Hanging upside-down from a web was Spider-man.

     "Spider-man! I should have known!" The man said. "I'll get you!"

     The man charged at Spider-man, who with great ease flipped onto the man's back as he ran past.

     "I think you should let the nice lady and super-hero go." Spider-man told him.

     "You pest!" The man yelled.

     "Hard way it is then," Spider-man said.

     Spider-man reached behind his head. He grabbed the 'tail' of the suit and with a quick twist snapped it in two. He lowered the severed section to the ground to let Bulma go.

     The man dropped Gohan and grabbed Spider-man. He held Spider-man above the ground, and pinned his arms to his side. Spider-man struggled against the bind.

     "Ha ha! Not so easy, is it Spider-man? I'd like to see that Golden Fighter break this grip as easily as he broke your restraints last time!" The man laughed.

     'Last time?' Spider-man wondered. 'Golden Fighter? And he mentioned a warehouse to Gohan... Oh, no! Not him again!'

     "You? But I thought you were in jail!" Spider-man exclaimed.

     "I got out! All I did was destroy private property and hit a police officer!" The man said.

     "Wonderful! But there's something you should know." Spider-man said.

     "What's that?" The man asked.

     "You've left your weak-spot wide open." And with that, Spider-man flipped his legs up and kicked the man on the chin.

     The man fell, unconscious.

     "Are you okay?" Spider-man asked the three other people still awake.

     Videl nodded, still clutching her gut. Gohan smiled weakly, rubbing his neck. Bulma tugged off the mechanical arm, brushed off her clothes and straightened her hair.

     "Okay then. See you soon!" Spider-man spun a web and swung out the hole in the wall.

     "Wait!" Gohan called.

     But Spider-man was gone.

Vegeta emerged from the men's room. Gohan, Videl and Bulma were standing next to the man in the weird suit. Vegeta walked up to them.

     Bulma turned, furious.

     "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!!" She raged.

     "Watching." Vegeta told her. "That's what you told me to do."

     Bulma was speechless with anger.

     Vegeta looked down at the guy.

     "Who's this?" He asked.

     Gohan looked down at the guy in the suit.

     "I don't know. He said he knew Bulma, and some guy he called the Kingpin." Gohan told him.

     "The Kingpin? My friend Peter told me about him. He's behind most of the crimes in New York. The only ones who know who he really is are the ones who aren't in the position to tell." Vegeta said.

     "Peter?" Gohan asked.

     "He lives in New York too." Vegeta said. "We met a while ago. We keep in touch. But what would Bulma have to do with the Kingpin?"

     "This is the first I heard of him." Bulma told them. "Besides, he knew Spider-man too. And some Golden Fighter."

     "Curious. Very curious." Videl said.

     They all stared at the guy for a moment.

     "Uh, this may seem like a silly question," Gohan started, "But why don't we take his mask off?"

     "Great idea, Gohan!" Bulma said. "Vegeta, you do it."

     "What?" Vegeta snapped. "Oh, alright."

     Vegeta removed the helmet.

     "Hey, I know him! He's an ex-employee, somebody Evans!" Bulma exclaimed. "We fired him because we caught him stealing equipment."

     Evans stirred.

     "Uhn... where..? You!" Evans snapped awake. "I'll get you!" He lashed the broken tail at Bulma.

     "I don't think so." Vegeta grabbed the tail.

     Vegeta turned off the suit.

     "So," Videl said. "You made this high-tech suit just so you could get even with Mrs. Briefs who fired you? And a crime boss?"

     "Yeah," Evans said. "And I would've gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for that meddling Spider-man."