Hello there!
Welcome to next Issue of Spider-Verse I: When I Swing By.
Hope you'll enjoy and now to story time.
Spider-Man was swinging towards Arclight Tower, having stopped a attempted robbery on his way to the internship. Sticking high up to a wall of the skyscraper and slipping through a loose air vent he had been using for a few weeks now. He crawled through the vent until he came to the grate which would lead to one of the rest rooms.
Making sure nobody was around, he crawled over the ceiling and dropped down into one of the stalls, where he swapped into his normal clothes and with his suit in his bag, he walked out of the bathroom and towards Bioscience.
Everyone in the department was so caught up in their own work that they didn't pay him any attention. Something he was thankful for as he walked over to his usual work spot. As he began to experiment for the day, a certain blonde friend of his noticed him.
"Hey." Gwen said, sliding over to him on her chair, "What took you so long?"
"Well it is Monday." Aiden said as he thought of an excuse, "So B track."
"But..." Gwen said confused, "It's Thursday."
"...No wonder they look weird at me when I showed up." Aiden said as if he just realized, "Can you hand me that beaker?"
"Sure thing." she said with a laugh, doing just so and their hands accidently touched. A pleasant spark shot between the two as their eyes locked.
But their moment together was interrupted too quickly by a cough behind them. Looking away from her blue eyes to see an annoyed Dr. Warren looking at them with a disapproving look on his face.
"Look who decided to show up." Dr. Warren said, checking his watch, "Only two hours late."
"I know, I'm sorry sir." Aiden said quickly, "It's a jungle out there."
"Whatever, just get to work." Dr. Warren said turning around, "And try not to drag down Miss Stacy with you." before he walked away.
"So..." Gwen said once they where back to work, "Do you like branzino? Its a fish."
"I know what a branzino is." Aiden said, "Sure, I like it. Why?"
"Well... I promised you dinner so... You can come to this address at eight tomorrow." Gwen said quickly writing something down on a note before passing it on to Aiden, "It's apartment 1965... I didn't write that part down... I don't know why I..."
"I'll remember it." Aiden said with a laugh as they continued the work.
During the evening, Aiden was back home with Peter, both where in the kitchen getting something to snack on before they would be playing some games.
"So Pete, we got this football game against Bayville High coming up." Aiden said, looking into the fridge, "What are the plans?"
"Sleepover at your place, watch movies and play video games all night? Though I guess it could be fun to attend, with you and Gwen." Peter said before changing the subject once his friend returned out of the fridge with a bottle of coke, "Speaking of our mutual friend. Tomorrow, date night with Gwen."
"Date night? What?" Aiden said surprised as he put the bottle down, "No, we are just going to have dinner at her place."
"Yeah, yeah." Peter said waving him off, "What is your plan?"
"Go over and eat branzino?" Aiden said, getting a confused look from his friend, "...It's a fish."
"I know what a branzino is. What are you going to wear?" Peter said, rolling his eyes when Aiden gestured to the clothes he was wearing, "Seriously!?"
"...What's wrong with the way I dress? I'll be fine, Pete. I survived fighting a giant lizard, I can handle eating branzino at Gwen's." Aiden said with a smirk, "Speaking of, your still looking for a side job?"
"Yeah, why?" Peter said, before Aiden pointed to a Daily Bugle Newspaper laying on the counter. On the front was another blurred photo of Spider-Man with the text above promising a reward for good pictures of Spider-Man.
"Could be rather lucrative." Aiden said with a wink as they walked out of the kitchen with the bottle.
Crossing the living room, they walked past the open balcony door where they heard Thomas call for them. Walking out of the house, they found Thomas sitting at a table with a laptop on it.
"Boys, I am sure you know this summer its time for another Stark Expo in Miami." Thomas said, leaning back into his chair, "And how Arclight Industries is always a part of it."
"How can I forget? Pete rarely shuts up about it." Aiden said gesturing to his friend, "But is it still going to happen? With the entire Stark disappearing thing?"
"I'm surprised you haven't heard. They found Tony somewhere in the desert, it seems some terrorist group had kidnapped him to develop weapons for them. But he managed to escape a few days ago. But back to the topic of Stark Expo." Thomas said as he stood up, "I want the both of you to keep that week of your summer vacation open. Because you two have been selected to be part of the Arclight crew that will be attending."
"Seriously!?" Aiden and Peter said.
A loud zooming sounds came closer, making the three turn around to see a robotic flight suit, with wings shaped like a green bird of prey came swooping down, "Arclight!" the pilot shouted before grabbing Thomas by the shoulders with its feet and taking off.
"...Dad!" Aiden shouted as he watched his father being dragged off into the sky.
"Aiden! I-I'll call the cops!" Peter said as he ran into the house, "You do your spider thing! Quickly go!"
Aiden nodded as he began to take his clothes off, revealing his suit underneath it.
Soaring over the high rise buildings of Manhattan, blowing harshly into Thomas face as just over the wind could hear the pilot shout, "Tell the truth, Arclight! Can your Tech Flight do this!?" before diving down in a steep fall before rising back up and flying close to the buildings.
"Toomes?" Thomas said once he realized who was carrying him.
"No! Not Toomes now! I'm what you called me!" Toomes shouted, "I'm the Vulture!"
"...I called you a buzzard." Thomas pointed out, "You can't even get the name right."
In anger, Vulture threw Thomas into the air, letting him free fall for a bit before catching him again with his feet.
"Toomes, stop." Thomas tried to reason with his captor, "What will any of this accomplish?"
"A means to an end, Arclight. Something you know all about." Vulture snarled, "You will announce to the world that Adrian Toomes is the genius behind Tech Flight. You will pay me all that I am owed and you will publicly apologize for stealing my invention!"
Vulture dropped his hostage again, letting him free fall a little longer. But before he could dive down to grab Thomas again, he was picked up when Spider-Man swung by and caught him.
"Talking about playing hardcore hot potato!" Spider-Man said as he began to swing away with his father hanging from his back.
"What is this!?" Vulture shouted as he began to give chase, "These skies are mine now!"
"Who are you?" Thomas said to his savior.
"I am vengeance. I am the night." Spider-Man began in a deep voice before he laughed, "No, just kidding. I'm just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man."
"Spider-Man?" Thomas said surprised, "Your real?"
"I'm real when it's useful." Spider-Man said as he dived out of the path of the Vulture.
Outside the NYPD Headquarters, where Captain Stacy was just came out through the revolving door talking with his collage Detective Yuri.
"A giant lizard shows and then he just disappears?" Captain Stacy said shaking his head, "What am I? The mayor of Tokyo?"
Suddenly a black and red blur swung down, dropping Thomas in front of them before swinging off again.
"What's going on?" Detective Yuri said as she moved forward.
"Explanations inside!" Thomas said quickly as Captain Stacy gave him a shoulder and helped him inside the building.
Having no real way to get to his target and with Spider-Man chasing after him, Vulture began to climb high enough so his pursuer couldn't follow anymore.
Sticking to the side of a building, Spider-Man could only watch as the Vulture became a small green dot in the sky.
The following day, Spider-Man touched down on the roof top of Gwen's apartment building as he was currently on the phone with Peter, talking about the previous day.
"I'm just glad your dad's okay." Peter said relieved, "What did you use as excuse for not calling the cops?"
"Told my dad I was trying to follow them on foot... Yeah, he thought it was a stupid idea too." Spider-Man said as he began to change out of his clothes, "Got to go Pete, I'll try to snap a few pictures for you tonight."
"Thanks, I really appreciate it Aiden." the friend said, "And good luck tonight."
"If I can handle a giant lizard and a flying bird, I can handle dining with Gwen's family." Aiden said, now wearing a nice white dress shirt and dark pants. Trying to fix his hair after wearing his mask, suit secured in his backpack, he took a deep breath before exiting the roof.
Taking the elevator down, he walked into a hallway until he found himself in front of the door leading to apartment 1965. He rang the door bell and a few seconds later, it swung open to reveal not Gwen, but a rather stern looking man with graying hair. The eye's gave away that this man must be her father.
"You must be Aiden." Gwen's father said holding out his hand, "Nice to meet you, George Stacy."
"Yes, uhm... Hi! I'm Aiden." Aiden said shaking his hand, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Stacy."
"Call me George." Captain Stacy said stepping aside to let the young man into the spacious apartment, "I hope you like branzino."
"Who doesn't?" Aiden said with a grin.
Not much later, Aiden was sitting across from Gwen with Captain Stacy sitting at the head of the dining table, each having a plate with a fish, risotto and some green peas with carrot slices. While it smelled really good and Aiden couldn't wait to dig in, he had some trouble with his fish as he was subtilty poking it with his knife.
"Your having trouble there?" Gwen said with a mouth full of rice, "The head goes on the other..."
"Gwen." Captain Stacy said with a laugh, "Just help your friend with his fish."
Shaking her head, she stood up walked around the table before taking the knife and fork from Aiden.
"So dad, how was your day?" Gwen said she began to cut his fish for him, "Have you managed to catch the Spider-Man?"
"So it's confirmed he's a man?" Aiden said as he was handed his eating utensils back and Gwen walked back to her seat.
"Following the testimony from Thomas Arclight, after he was nearly dropped on me by the Spider-Man yesterday, yes we do know he's a man." Captain Stacy said, "But no we didn't catch him."
"Probably won't be long now though right?" Aiden said as he took a bite of his fish.
"I don't know." Captain Stacy said, "I know the people upstairs want him locked up, but I'm not sure..."
"Someone dressing up in spandex, going around swinging from those ropes." Aiden said with a shrug, "I'm no psychiatrist or anything, but it seems like he got some issues."
"Maybe. Personally I believe he's just a guy trying to do the right thing, protecting innocent people from bad guys." Captain Stacy said, "Only difference between him and me is I wear a badge, but he wears a mask."
"Like an outlaw." Aiden pointed out.
At the end of the evening, Gwen walked with him to the elevator as Captain Stacy bit him goodbye at the front door.
"Thank you for having me." Aiden said, shaking hands with the man, "I'm sorry if I insulted you. It was not my intention."
"It's okay, Aiden." Captain Stacy said accepting the handshake, "To paraphrase Hegel. Advancement cannot occur without both thesis..."
But it was Aiden who finished for him, "And antithesis."
"I like him." Captain Stacy said to his daughter before he closed the door as the two walked down the hall.
As they stood in the elevator, Gwen let out a sigh of relieve as she pressed the down button.
"Well that was something." she said pressing the elevator button.
"I'm sorry. I was kind of nervous." Aiden said rubbing the back of his head, "I thought he was going to arrest me at one point."
"No, I wouldn't have let him arrest you." Gwen said with a laugh, "I hope you had a good time."
"Yeah, I had." Aiden said with a smile, "The branzino was real good, Gwen."
"Thanks, I worked hard on it." Gwen said with a smile, "So... Your going to that football game against Bayville High?"
"Don't think so." Aiden said with a shrug, "Pete and I usually just stay home and play video games or watch movies when there is a school sport event."
"Oh, that's cool I guess." Gwen said, "You guys have room for one more?"
"S-Sure!" Aiden said with a awkward smile, "Your always welcome."
Changing into his suit, Spider-Man was swinging home which was much quicker than taking the subway back.
Swinging through the air, he spotted a limousine driving crazy as it was being attacked by the Vulture. Landing on the roof, the Vulture began to use the claws on his boots to tear it off to reveal a frightened Thomas sitting in the back only for Vulture to feel two set of feet in his face, knocking him off.
Spider-Man landed in the limousine right next to a surprised Thomas. "Sweet ride. The sunroof come standard?" he said before jumping out and punching the flying Vulture.
The Vulture spins around in the air but he soon recovers and catches Spider-Man's incoming kick, before the spider hero flips from out Vulture's grasp; in turn, he lands a punch to the jaw, and Vulture finds it much more difficult to land a blow on the Spider-Man.
"Why!?" Vulture shouted in anger, "Why do you defend that thief, Arclight!?"
"I have my reasons." Spider-Man said in a low voice.
The fight carries its momentum as Spider-Man chases Vulture down, planting a firm kick in the midsection that he follows up with a knee strike; denting the material which the suit was made out of. Though Spider-Man keeps going on the offensive, Vulture catches his kick and pins the Spider against a building. A set of razor sharp feather shaped knifes shot out of Vulture's wings,
He managed to kick the Vulture off him just before the knifes could penetrate his skull. Spider-Man began to free fall, using his web to evade the blades the Vulture was now throwing at him.
Shooting a web to the building, he caught a knife with another string, before pulling himself back and throwing it back to his enemy.
The Vulture could barely evade the returned knife, which scratched his suit. The motion knocking him off balance. His foe distracted, Spider-Man takes the opportunity to use his web to launch himself forward with his web, kicking his back and sticking to it with his feet, with a shot of his web he tore the wings apart.
Reeling his fist back, Spider-Man slammed his fist into the control compartment and shattering it.
"Y-you idiot!" Vulture shouted as he began to lose altitude, "You doomed us both!"
"You really haven't been paying attention." Spider-Man said using his webs to steer them into a nearby roof.
With a loud crash, the two did land with Spider-Man flipping off and landing across in a three-point landing. The Vulture was attempting to get back to his feet, but soon found them sticking to the ground by web.
Spider-Man shot more so that the Vulture's entire body save for his head was covered in web, giving him no way to escape. He looked down at the now pitiful man, for a moment he was thinking of putting a end to him for putting his father in danger.
But he stayed his hand, killing was not the hero way. So he settled for a punch against the head, knocking the Vulture out before swinging away to leave him for the police.
And that's the seventh Issue, hope you enjoy.
Many thanks to everyone who reads, reviews, favorite and follows this story.
If you enjoyed it, don't forget to leave a review.
For now I wish you all a fantastic day and I hope to see you people next time. Bye for now.