The Concrete Jungle

Part One

Sergei Kravinoff was a man born into wealth. He had enjoyed its trappings and luxuries all too often. Many mistook this for weakness, but they were wrong. Kraven as he preferred to be called had hunted wild game hundreds of times and twice killed a lion with only his bare hands.

He was a member of aristocracy but often felt more comfortable in the deep jungles of the Congo. That wasn't to say Kraven enjoyed what society offered.

At the moment he was at his Estate in London. He was in the game room playing pool and winning. "So, have you dug up any information on my brother's murderer?" He said behind his thick Russian accent.

"Yes, but it was exceedingly difficult." Said Kraven's lawyer Jack Miller, a native of the British nation. "Your brother was mysterious enough while he lived and it only got worse after his death."

Kraven nodded, "I never approved of the choices he made during his life." The hunter remarked, "He allowed those scientist to butcher him, to alter his very being. It was degrading to the family and put my father in his grave. Even worse when he decided to throw his name away and call himself Chameleon and become a common thug."

Miller grimaced and watched the balls run across the pool table as he slowly lost to Kraven. "If you hated your brother so much why are you so interested in his murderer?"

"He was a Kravinoff, an attack on one is an attack on all." He gazed at the last ball as it rolled slowly towards the corner but stopped a few feet short. "Honor must be upheld."

"I see." Miller walked towards one of the seats placed near the doorway and took his suitcase and placed it on the pool table. He opened his suitcase and pulled out several pictures and handed them to Kraven. "His name is Spider-Man. The NYPD is offering a five hundred thousand dollar reward for his arrest."

Kraven rocked his head back, "New York." He gazed at the picture of Spider-Man swinging past a traffic light. "I've never heard of this man."

"Not surprising." Miller remarked, "He's only appeared on the scene since late April early May."

"Hmm…Charter a flight for New York immediately." Kraven ordered.

Miller tilted his head, puzzled, "I thought you were going to hire somebody to handle him."

"No, I am going to settle this debt, personally." He informed his practical lawyer coldly.

Miller stared at the image of Spider-Man on the photos again and then his employer, "How?"

Kraven smiled. "Like I do all prey. First, I will be forced to locate him. Then, I begin to stalk and learn his patterns. Once that that is accomplished, the real hunt begins. Man against man."

"Do you understand what you're getting yourself into?" Miller warned, "This is not some zebra."

Kraven grabbed one of the pool balls and looked at it for a moment and then effortlessly crushed it in his hands. "Neither am I."

"Hey, MJ, wait up." Called out Harry Osborn with Gwen Stacy at his side. In the halls of Midtown High at the end of yet another routine and long day,

The redhead watched the pair plod through the hallway towards her, "Oh, hey Harry."

The young Osborn sighed, "Have you heard any news about Peter?" Almost a week and a half had passed since his best friend had vanished from his hospital bed.

MJ shook her head, "Nothing yet."

Gwen had a look of annoyance swept across her face, "It just doesn't make any sense. How could he just vanish like that?"

"I'm sure he's fine." Mary Jane assured the blond.

"How the hell would you know?" Gwen said disapprovingly.

MJ shrugged, "I have a good feeling. I know Pete, he'll be fine."

"Know him?" Gwen barked, "You were just a friend, I was his girlfriend, I think I knew a thing or two more about him than you." Her eyes began to water, "I just don't understand why he wouldn't tell me if something was wrong. Was it something I did?"

Without delaying any longer, MJ turned away and began to continue on her path towards the doors. She rolled her eyes at hearing Gwen begin to wail, "Oh brother."

"Hey, MJ!" Harry called from down the hall once again, "We're still on for dinner tonight?"

"Sure." She replied.

Harry grinned, "That's great news, I'll come around to pick you up at eight." He turned his attention back to an increasingly hysterical Gwen, "Yes, I'm sure he thought you were pretty."

Ben rubbed his eyes slowly and brushed his white hair back wearily. He was seated at the computer in Peter's bedroom and was intently staring at the screen.

There was nothing that the elderly man could do about his nephew at the moment, that was entirely in Peter's own hands, but he was going to be damned if he sat on the couch and did nothing.

"This damned machine." He remarked, "How the hell does Peter use this thing, it so blasted complicated!"

Ben moved the mouse and clicked okay on the error message and tried his search again. This time he was met with success and smiled almost immediately.

According to Peter, the goon that had put him in the hospital and forced him to run was the Green Goblin. He looked at the long list of websites given to him, most from newspapers such as the Post, Times and the Bugle. He selected the link from the latter and was immediately directed to an on-line article.

There on the computer screen was an image of the Green Goblin atop his glider grinning straight towards the photographer with a mad look in his eyes. "Okay you creep. Let's see if we can find out just who the hell you are."

Spider-Man landed on the rooftop barely avoiding a barrage of machine-gun fire. His black costume made it difficult for the thugs to locate him in the night.

Few of the criminals would ever suspect that Peter Parker had been the one to bust up their drug meeting on the roof of a broken down building. "Why can't somebody nail that jerk?" The mob leader demanded furiously.

"I'll answer that one." Peter said closing in on the criminals and engaging them with his stunning agility. "Its because I'm faster, stronger, nicer, a better dresser, and a hell of a nice guy."

"Whack him!" A crime lord barked before taking aim with his pistol.

Peter smirked, "Hey didn't I see you on the Sopranos once?" He fired a burst of webbing that enveloped the gunman's hand.

Spider-sense gave him the heads up on two thugs coming from the rear. Peter pulled off a back flip and landed within a foot of each enemy. Peter launched an impressive but brief assault and both of his attackers were down in a heartbeat. Wasting no time, Peter leapt across the roof, knocking one drug dealer out in the process.

The remaining criminals quickly attempted to make a retreat when it became obvious they had no chance of defeating their foe. In short order and with effective use of the suit's organic webbing, Peter apprehended all of them before one could even reach a doorway leading back down the stairs into the building. "Now I have one question." He said eying the entire gang of thugs restrained by a layer of webbing. "Does anyone here know Robert De Niro?"

Peter, for lack of a better word, was having a blast. After making sure that the cops had arrived fashionably late as ever he had swung away, resting on a nearby rooftop.

"I love this suit." He remarked. Since he gotten the suit, he had become faster, stronger than ever and even hadn't eaten in two days and wasn't the slightest bit hungry, things were starting to go his way. Every moment he was in this suit he felt more in control than he ever had during his entire life "Baby, I think this is the start of a beautiful relationship." He grinned at tug at a piece of the suit carefully, "I can call you baby, can't I?"

Kraven stared at Spider-Man through the scope mounted on his rifle. "Impressive." He said from a rooftop several blocks away from the target.

He picked his rifle up and slung it over his shoulder by its strap. "I have never observed one such as him." Kraven stroked his goatee. He was dressed in a black denim jacket and pants. His hair flowed freely contributing to the animalistic look in his face.

From what Kraven learned thus far, Spider-Man was homeless, traveling through the city day and night, his endurance seemed inhuman.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small vial. Kraven stared into the red substance inside. "This will be my greatest challenge yet." Kraven pulled the cork out and after a short moment gulped the contents down.

Clenching his teeth tightly, he felt the elixir pumping through his veins. "Soon, brother, revenge will be ours."