EXCITING NEWS: www.spideytas.cjb.net is up! It has special features to go along with this series. I recommend reading these there. There are pictures and short video clips if you're able to handle the download. I hope you enjoy the site and the rest of the final season of Spider-Man: The Animated Series!
Spider-Man: TAS
Season 6: The Final Chapter
Episode 4: Empire's End, Part II
And So It Begins…
Three heroes sat brooding on the ledge of a building well over fifty stories. The trio only sat about twenty stories up, however. None of them cared much for the view at the moment.
Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Black Cat had all just been out smarted by the mob boss known as the Kingpin. The large man had used their weakness of compassion against them and the heroes weren't taking the fact too well considering there was a good chance the Kingpin might get away once again. There was no evidence against him. None of the three had any ideas on how to catch the Kingpin so they now sat in silence thinking over the past few hours. Finally one of them spoke.
"It's kind of addicting, isn't it?" Spidey asked.
"Huh?"
Daredevil and Black Cat looked up, startled by the broken silence.
"This superhero stuff. It's addicting."
Spider-Man received two blank stares from his companions.
"The silence… it was bugging me," Spider-Man admitted.
"We should pack it in for tonight," Daredevil said. "We'll meet here tomorrow at nine A.M."
"Nine? In the morning?!" Black Cat exclaimed in disbelief.
"Yes, that would be the time of day A.M. stand for," Spider-Man mocked.
"I'm never up that early!"
"Then don't come. We don't need you here," Daredevil bluntly stated before leaping off the ledge and disappearing into the dark night.
"If you want to talk, Cat, now's the time," Spider-Man informed his old partner.
"Spider… What happened between us?" Black Cat walked up to Spider-Man and took his scarlet hands in her own black leather ones.
"Things have changed, Cat. I have… I have another life, you know. When we met, I had fallen into some tough times and being Spider-Man was all I had going for me. Especially once I met you. But now my life behind the mask has come back together. Things have worked out and…"
"You don't have to explain any more," Cat cut in. She lifted Spider-Man's mask and the two shared a passionate kiss.
Why am I doing this? Peter scolded himself. Mary Jane is at home waiting for me and I'm out here kissing some… wannabe superhero wearing tight leather.
The kiss ended.
"I love you, Spider, and I know you love me. Why else would you kiss me like that? Don't deny the feelings in your…"
"The feelings within me are for someone else, Cat. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I kissed you. I'm sorry I didn't end whatever we have left of a relationship a long time ago. The spark between us that has been slowly dying just went out. I won't kiss you again."
Tears were slowly making their way down the Black Cat's cheeks, but she didn't wipe them away. She wore them with pride. She was never ashamed for the feelings she felt for Spider-Man.
"If our lips ever meet again it'll be for CPR purposes. But, you know, don't go hurting yourself just to try to kiss me again, OK?"
Black Cat laughed in spite of herself and she wiped her tears away, feeling a little better about the situation now that a joke had been made.
"This other woman… is she a kind woman? Pretty? Smart?" Cat asked curiously.
"You know what curiosity did to the cat," Spider-Man said. The woman beside him didn't laugh at this so Spidey went on. "She's all that and so much more. You have now idea how much you've helped me. If you knew the life behind this mask you'd know that your help in the past might be a vital part of me being alive today. Thanks for being a great friend. Hopefully we can continue to see each other… as friends"
Spider-Man held out his hand to Black Cat and after a moment's hesitation she shook the hand of the man she loved. She heaved a sigh then, like Daredevil, dove off the ledge and swung off into the night.
"That wasn't as easy as it looked, Bruce," Spider-Man said, looking over at the gargoyle by his side. "Don't give me that look. It was hard! Heh… You know, Bruce, sometimes I think you're the best friend I've ever had. Relationships are actually much more complicated than they seem on TV. It's so black and white on television, but that's mostly because I can't afford a better one… Ba dum, tch. Yeah… Anyway, I really care about Felecia. Honestly. But Mary Jane means so much more to me and I could never live with myself for having an affair as Spider-Man. How dishonest would that be, Bruce? My wife trusts me when I put on these tights. I have to hold that trust." Spider-Man paused and allowed everything he had just said to sink in. Not for Bruce, the Gargoyle, obviously. For himself. He needed to make sure everything he had said made perfect sense, which it did. "Thanks buddy. That's the most stimulating conversation I've had all night. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a beautiful redhead to entertain back home."
Spider-Man, like the two heroes before him, jumped off the ledge and swung off into the night, but unlike the heroes before him he decided to entertain himself with a tune very similar to "Sweet Home Alabama."
"Sweet home in the ghetto…" Spider-Man's voice cried out. The tune was familiar but incredibly out of key.
Peter made it home safely, as he often managed to do. He also made it home, which, by some miracle, he always managed to do.
He crawled in through his bedroom window. The only light supplied to the room came from the hallway. Peter took off his now disgusting Spider-Man suit and tossed it to the side. He then slipped on a pair of pants. All this was done silently and no normal person (i.e. no super hearing or anything of that nature) could have possibly known he had arrived. No one, that is, except for the person who constantly finds herself waiting for a man to crawl through the window late at night or early in the morning as the case often is.
Peter saw a gorgeous woman's silhouette in the doorway.
"I think I'm developing a spider-sense of my own," Mary Jane said. She walked in and hugged her husband.
"That would be frightening," Peter answered as he kissed his lovely wife. "Would that mean I'm transferring something during bedtime activities? And if so, what would that mean for a potential baby?"
"Okay, enough with the dirty euphemisms and talks of children. We can worry about your protégé later."
Peter laughed, then MJ did the same.
"I got a visit from a man named Roderick Kingsley," MJ continued.
"The owner of Kingsley International?" Peter inquired
"Exactly. He offered me a modeling job!" MJ said excitedly as she grabbed the different parts of Peter's costume carelessly strewn across the bedroom floor.
"That's excellent. How did he know you?" Peter was now getting out of the pants he had just put on now that his wife was getting ready for bed.
"He saw my work at wonder studios," MJ said as she picked up a scarlet glove, the last remaining piece of the costume.
"Oh, don't bother washing that tonight," Peter immediately said once he was conscience of his wife's actions.
"But it's…"
"Disgusting, yes. But it'll never be dry before tomorrow morning."
"But your spare is almost dry now. I washed that earlier. I'm just going to toss this in the wash room and I'll wash it tomorrow."
Mary Jane left the room as Peter crawled into bed. He winced at some aches and pains left over from earlier but he managed to ease himself down into a comfortable position.
When MJ returned Peter said, "MJ, you're the greatest."
MJ slipped off her nightgown and got into bed beside the man she loved. As MJ put her arm over Peter, her husband winced. She quickly retracted her arm but Peter caught it and replaced it. She cuddled closer.
"Nothing seems to hurt as much now. What would I do without you?"
"What did you do without me?" MJ asked lightheartedly.
"I don't know. Aunt May always refused to sew and clean my Spidey suit."
MJ giggled.
"I have to leave at about eight tomorrow."
"So what are we going to do during the day?" MJ asked, though she knew perfectly well her husband was referring to A.M. and not P.M., but a little optimism never hurt.
"That, uh, is what I'm doing during the day," Peter said in a sorrowful tone.
"But it's Saturday!" MJ complained, again in a playful fashion. She knew she was going to have to get used to this.
"Try telling the Kingpin that," Peter suggested. "Seriously. Maybe he'll agree everyone needs a break."
"You goof!"
The couple laughed once more before falling asleep.
When Peter got out of bed the following morning at 7:30 Mary Jane was awake. She usually was when Peter got up early, but she rarely got out of bed herself. She waited for her husband to leave before going back to sleep.
After Peter had eaten a very light breakfast (don't want to eat too much before doing some heavy aerobatics) and had changed into his Spider-Man costume (minus the mask which he held in his hand) he knelt down by the bed to kiss his wife goodbye.
"Bye honey. Thanks for the support," Peter said as he gave MJ a kiss.
"Bye. Just don't die today!" She joked but was serious.
"Do I ever?" He joked as well, but immediately knocked on wood. "Bye."
Peter whipped on his mask and dove out the window once his spider-sense told him it was all clear.
Daredevil and the Black Cat were waiting by Bruce when Spider-Man arrived.
"Wow, Spider, I made it here before you!" Black Cat mocked.
"Right. Are we ready?" Spider-Man asked.
"Yes. Here's what I've gathered so far," Daredevil began. "Someone going by the alias of the Rose has been trying to eliminate the Kingpin."
"And…?" Spider-Man said.
"That's it. People are being very tight lipped about the situation."
"So your previous statement was you trying to be funny?"
"Trying," Daredevil said in his usual monotonous tone. "Not good enough?"
"It pretty good actually, but you should try talking like someone other than Ben Stein."
"What I don't understand," Black Cat cut in, "is why we just don't go after the Kingpin!" She was flustered.
"Even if we managed to take down the Kingpin, nothing else could serve as bigger catalyst. Every mob boss would be after the position Kingpin once held starting a huge gang war," Spider-Man said. "Of course, to my understanding, the Rose is attempting to start one now!"
"Which is why the Rose is of primary importance right now," Daredevil said. "Though I think it would be a good idea to inquire about this Rose to Fisk. We should start there. I haven't had a chance to talk to him since I learned the 'name' of his new adversary."
"Sounds like a plan," Spider-Man said as the trio jumped off the ledge and swung in the direction of Fisk's building.
"Knock, knock," Spidey said as the three heroes burst through the doors of the Kingpin's office. "Nobody expects the hero inquisition!" Spider-Man jested. Once no one laughed Spidey cleared his throat.
"Back so soon?" the Kingpin chuckled.
"Not for your delightful company, however," Spider-Man said. "We have a question. What do you know about a guy named Rose?"
Wilson Fisk leaned back in his large comfortable chair behind his expensive desk and said, "Nothing."
"I swear to god…!" Black Cat shrieked and started to advance but Daredevil grabbed her arm.
"Somehow I doubt that. He's gunning for you," Spidey informed, "but I'm sure you already knew that. It's going to be hilarious when you die as a result of you tight lips."
"I know as much as you do." Fisk said. "If I knew the Rose's identity he surely wouldn't exist to be a problem today. He has taken some of my best men to use against me and there is still talk among my men about getting employed by this Rose character. Not so much any more, of course, since I tend to have a rather brutal way of silencing such talk."
The Kingpin's grin invoked nausea in the heroes as they could only imagine Fisk's favored method of keeping control over his men.
"The Rose, eh?" came an all too familiar voice from behind. "What an intriguing topic of conversation."
The buzzing in the air hovered by all the heads as some light smoke started to fill the air. Above everyone in the room was a man garbed in yellow and orange flying around on a bat glider.
"Hobgoblin? How did you get out jail?!" Spider-Man exclaimed.
"You foolish hero, you never sent me to jail!" This statement was followed by a loud cackle resembling a laugh Mark Hamil might make.
"That's not the way I remember it," Spider-Man protested.
"You sent that bum Macandale to prison, and he deserved it for soiling my good name and just generally being a stupid crook," the Hobgoblin explained.
"How did you get past my security?" the Kingpin finally asked.
"You shock me, Fisk. Surely the great Kingpin knows there are spies amongst those who work for him."
Fisk's eyes raised in disbelief. It was bad enough he was loosing men to the Rose, now those men were acting as double agents. Fury rose within the great body of the Kingpin.
"One more thing, here's a little something from your good friend, the Rose!"
The Hobgoblin swooped down and dropped an envelope on Fisk's desk before taking off.
"Toodles!" The Hobgoblin yelled on his way out.
The Kingpin continued to wear his frown as he snatched up the envelope and started to rip it open. Then Spider-Man's spider-sense started to blare!
Next: Empire's End, Part III
Things are heating up! Are you ready for some excitement?!