SPIDER-MAN 2: Enter the Red Demon
A fanfiction by Chipolata
- * - * - * - * - * - * -
Chapter 5
Bulma was put off making the suit. After seeing a good friend be hospitalized for a month with severe nerve and muscle problems she decided to not give Fisk the suit, or any of her research notes.
'I can't believe I even considered doing that.' She would think as she watched Piccolo's struggle to walk again.
Gohan was a wreck when he found out. It took Bulma a long time to convince him it was her fault, but Gohan still found a way to spend every minute he could at Piccolo's side.
"So, Mrs Briefs, how are we? Still working on my performance enhancing suit?" Fisk asked via video phone.
"I'm sorry, Mr Fisk," Bulma replied. "I haven't been sleeping very well. A close friend of mine suffered some severe injuries recently. I haven't been able to find much time to work on it."
"What a pity. Still, you must have something for me?"
"I also have reason to believe the suit could do more harm than good to an intelligent mind. I don't think anyone who put on the suit would be in the condition to use it." Bulma told him.
"That does not matter!" Fisk almost shouted. "I need that suit! If you have a problems developing it just send me your notes and other related equipment and I will hire someone else to work on it! If you have a problem, Mrs Briefs, perhaps you should take it to the police? Oh, I forget: I never really asked you to make this suit did I?"
Fisk paused and smiled.
"Don't forget who you're working for, Mrs Briefs. If you don't give me that suit within a week I will come and get it! And you know what that means, don't you?"
Fisk terminated the connection.
Bulma collapsed into a heap on the floor.
"How did I ever get into this mess? I should've known better than to get involved with the Kingpin!" Bulma wailed. "What am I going to do? I can't tell Vegeta or Trunks! They probably wouldn't believe me. And what if they did?"
Bulma sat, searching for an answer.
"I've got it!" She said suddenly. "Spider-man!"
Vegeta swung through the city on his usual Spider-man rounds. He often went on a patrol through the sky-scrapers, as it made it easier to spot crimes going on. He had to be careful and make sure no-one took a photograph of him. He didn't want to be all over the papers.
Vegeta was considering swinging back home and checking on Piccolo when he spotted a young woman standing on top of a sky-scraper, looking suspiciously suicidal. Vegeta wasn't about to ignore this and immediately headed in her direction.
He landed behind her.
"Alright, Miss, don't do anything stupid. Just step away from the edge." He told her.
She turned around.
'BULMA??' Vegeta screamed in his mind.
"Spider-man! Thank goodness. I didn't know how else to contact you." She said, walking over to him.
"What's the problem, Mrs Briefs?" Vegeta asked in his most Peter-like voice.
"Well, it started a while ago..." Bulma began.
Piccolo awoke in his bed at Capsule Corp. His head was throbbing, and the tingly feeling he'd had all over his body since 'the incident' wasn't making it better.
He pushed himself up slowly, grabbed the crutches he used to steady himself while standing and walked into the bathroom.
`The nightmares are getting worse,' He thought as he splashed cool water on his face.
Piccolo turned his cold stare to the reflection in the mirror. Only it wasn't his reflection! Piccolo dropped the hand-towel in shock.
"Hello Piccolo." It said in a cold, high voice.
"Vegeta doesn't know it, but since Oscorp fell Capsule Corp's profits have taken a downturn. If Fisk hadn't come along with his offer, Capsule Corp might have filed for bankruptcy within six months."
Spider-man sat silently in shock.
Bulma sighed.
"How will I ever tell him about the Kingpin? He thinks the suit was just an experiment. And he got on with Fisk so well. I don't know how he'd react to my involvement with criminals." Tears formed in Bulma's eyes.
Spider-man resisted the urge to put his arm around her. Instead, he asked:
"Suit?"
Piccolo stared in horror at the figure in the mirror. It looked like some kind of demon. It had blood red skin. It had long, black hair which was flat and reached past its shoulder blades. Its costume was kind of mystical and medieval.
But scariest of all was its eyes, or lack of them. Piccolo could see right through to the other side of its head, like it was only a mask of some sort.
"What's the matter, Piccolo? Don't you recognise me?" It asked.
"R-r-recognise you?" Piccolo stuttered.
"You should!" It said.
The thing flung back it's head and laughed an evil laugh.
"What do you want from me?" Piccolo asked.
"I'm here to help you. I know what they've done to you."
"They?"
"Bulma. Fisk. Gohan. The ones who forced that suit onto you. The ones who took away your strength and power!" The demon-thing thumped a fist on the mirror.
"But... but Gohan and Bulma... they're my fr--"
"But nothing!" It interrupted. "If they're your friends, why did they do this to you?"
Piccolo stopped.
"I thought so." It said, smirking. "Don't you want to fly again? To fight again? Isn't that what you're supposed to be able to do? I can help, Piccolo! I can get you your strength back!"
"Why do you want to help me?" Piccolo asked.
"Do you want to spend the rest of your life a pawn for those stupid humans and their plans? You've been hurt by those apes for too long!! Ever since you were a small child they couldn't help but take advantage of you."
Piccolo balled his fists and fought back the tears and the horrid memories of his past.
"Now they've taken away your greatest talent! The one thing that got respect in this world!"
Piccolo's war against his past failed, and he felt the warm trickle of a tear sliding down his cheek.
"I can help you, Piccolo!" It pleaded.
Piccolo stood there, his body shaking.
"What... what do you want me to do?" He asked.
The demon-thing grinned.
"I feel so awful about what I did to Piccolo. He's been a friend for a long time now, and the very thought that I could ask him to put on a suit without even doing initial tests to see how it'd react..."
Bulma started crying again.
"It's okay, Ms Briefs. You couldn't have known it'd do something like that. And you said he's recovering, which is good. But right now we should worry about what the Kingpin is gonna do." Spider-man said.
"What should we do?" Bulma asked.
Spider-man thought for a second.
"Show me your lab. Maybe if I get a good look at it all, I'll think of something. And you should tell Vegeta. He needs to know."
"He wouldn't be much help though. His solution to everything is 'blow it up.'" Bulma sighed. "Okay. Can you get to Capsule Corp? My ride is only a one-seater."
"How about I web-swing us both there?" Spider-man offered. "You need a bit of a thrill to cheer you up."
"Oh, I don't know..." Bulma said, uncertain.
"Wooohoooo!!!!" Bulma cried as she and Spider-man swung up-town.
"There it is! That's Capsule Corp." Bulma pointed to the Capsule Corp grounds just ahead of them.
"Okay then, time for a landing trick!" Spider-man said, swinging them onto one of the dome-shaped buildings.
But just as they landed, an enormous explosion ripped apart the side of the main building.
Bulma and Spider-man fell, and Spider-man quickly spun a web and swung to the next building and clung.
"Good thing you used your webbing to tie me around your waist." Bulma said.
"What was that?" Spider-man asked.
"It probably just Vegeta and his stupid gravity training again." Bulma told him.
'That definitely wasn't me,' Vegeta thought.
"Let's check it out." He said, and swung down to the smoking hole that was once a wall.
"Good, Piccolo..." The voice whispered into his ear...