Chapter Thirteen: The Wind In The Will o'

Let this chapter be prefaced by the statement that there are unfortunately no frogs here today. Those of you who got the title reference will now revel in appreciation of such a terrible joke, and those who don't will question the quality of this story and maybe think about reading another Spidey story. I have a recommendation for you, read the one with Tony Stark's daughter as the OC. What was that? There are literally thousands of stories like that? Well, never fear. I can guarantee you that this is the only place where you shall behold the blinding (and quite frankly surprising) might of the winsome Will O The Wisp!

A rather Spider-Man-shaped projectile was thrown into the side of a bus with enough blunt force to turn a regular dude into mush, shattering the windows and shaking the thing down to its tyres.

Screams pierced the air as panicked civilians leapt out of the wrecked vehicle, leaving a discombobulated Peter to recover from that ridiculous blow.

"Ow." He sighed. Contrary to what first impressions may suggest, Will o' The Wisp was actually a heavy hitter. He had the ability to alter his molecular density; an incredibly deadly force on its own, but coupled with gravitational negation and light manipulation, it was a cocktail of destruction. Alright now that the fancy wordplay is done, he can make himself heavier without getting fatter, he can fly, and he can shoot lights out of his hands.

Think about a beach ball and a bowling ball. They can be around the same size, but you would prefer to be hit in the head with a beach ball because it is mostly air. A bowling bowl is hard and heavy because it is molecularly dense, so yes you would lose quite a few brain cells and maybe die. Will o' can make himself dense on command, meaning that he can actually hurt Spidey.

Will o' came hurtling forward with his fist raised, but he wasn't counting on Peter's trusty Spider Sense to give him a heads up. Spidey shot a web line into Will o's face and tugged it downward. The villain was pummelled into the pavement face first as Peter flipped through the air and landed a two-footed stomp on his back.

The guy snarled a bit, probably because it hurt, but Peter was already on the move. Another bound followed, and he raised both hands to fire webs onto the wrecked bus that his ass just made a hole in. Gritting his teeth and giving it everything he had, he tugged like he never tugged before.

He pulled the bus towards him, the midsection of it slamming straight into Will o's face.

Spidey landed, feeling a little good about himself, but it wasn't to last. Will o' slowly started getting up.

However, figures on the side of the street caught his eye. It was Annabelle...and Aunt May. His heart froze in his chest. "Hey, ladies!" He called.

"U-Us?" Annabelle mouthed.

Spidey hollered "Get yourselves to safety!"

He felt his heartrate slow as Annabelle and May rushed along with the crowds. However, The Wisp roared "You are nothing to me, insect!"

"I'm...an arachnid actually." Spidey muttered lowly.

The Wisp lunged forward like a human missile, further increasing his molecular density. Peter was slammed in the chest by the hundreds of kilograms of force, and felt some of his ribs give way. Yay.

Will o' swept a fist across Spidey's face, shattering one of his polarised eye pieces that protected him from the light emissions.

"Me and my big mouth." Peter coughed.

"I'm going to squash you like the bug you are."

Peter, tasting blood in his mouth, used his lesser-known super power here in this desperate time; the ability to make stupid, unfunny jokes at very inappropriate times that could result in his very painful demise. "How...very original. And I can see that you're miss-classifying me once again as an insect. I feel personally attacked, and I don't appreciate this attitude at all."

True to his word, Will o' heightened his density and swung his fists towards the red-draped hero. Spidey jumped backward, only barely avoiding the villains rampage. His heavy fists crashed against the ground and the pavement cracked beneath them. Damn. Peter could almost feel the weight of those punches jolting in his bones. Could bones break just from watching the ground split apart? Peter certainly hoped not.

Just as the criminal was preparing to sprint towards Spider-Man, something fell from the sky. It flipped and jiggled, then finally broke against the dense head of Will o' the Wisp - coating him in thick green goo.

"Oi! Bon Jovi!" A familiar voice pierced the sanctity of Peter's mind. He groaned, loudly, not even caring enough to hide his disappointment. It was Protonslaught. The worst hero...no, scratch that. The worst person to ever exist. "Don't touch that bug!"

"...Both of you guys need to repeat first grade science. Spiders have eight legs, and are therefore not insects."

"You have two legs." Protonslaught remarked dryly.

Peter, despite his somewhat serious injuries, simply glanced at her, then back at the ground. "Well, you're not wrong."

"Enough with this endless bickering." The Wisp snarled as he became intangible, allowing the strange goop that Protonslaught dropped on his head to pass through his body seamlessly. He then reappeared in his corporeal form as he continued "You're so distracted that you need this stunted imbecile to help you? She's done nothing but make a fool of herself and keep you all busy."

Protonslaught seemed to twitch at the insults. "...Hey, he's supposed to be talking shit about me, not you." She said, pointing at Spidey.

"Inept and easily offended. How repulsive." The Wisp snapped.

Protonslaught leapt forward, and Peter's eyes widened in shock. Will o' wasn't a joke like Stilt-Man or the Kangaroo...he could give some of the Avengers a rough time. She was going to get flattened in a second. "Wait, don't!" He cried.

The Wisp and Protonslaught locked hands as they attempted to wrangle each other, but Peter spied something odd. There seemed to be some kind of fluctuation at where they touched each other...like their cells were resonating.

Will o' tore an arm free and punched Protonslaught in the gut, and the completely reverse of what should've happened; she didn't get thrown down the street. It was a little anti-climactic actually. It kind of impacted like a normal punch.

"Ah fuck!" Protonslaught hissed. She twirled, then inadvertently tossed The Wisp into a nearby building. He went ploughing through several solid concrete walls.

Spidey gripped the sides of his head in shock. You could see the light bulb that suddenly flicked on above his head. "Holy crap on a cracker!"

Protonslaught didn't seem to understand what exactly she did, so she glanced over at Peter with this clueless look on her face. "Huh...?" She quietly mused.

Peter hurried over to her. "You...you have some kind of control over atoms and molecules! That's why you can make stuff, and why when Wispy altered his mass while you were in physical contact, your cells followed the same instructions! Where you should've been flung twenty metres away, you didn't budge...and you were able to throw him like a tennis ball."

Her eyes widened. "You figured out what I can do? How...wait...a-are you saying that I can actually beat this guy?"

"I'm saying that you're even more powerful than that guy. Just focus on...on being as immovable as possible. Maybe you can influence your mass through thought."

Protonslaught nervously hopped up and down. "O-Okay. I can do that. Yeah...y-yeah, I can."

So, the leather-bound hero conjured images in her mind of solid objects; rocks, brass, the icicle that Captain America was found in. You know, normal everyday things. Then, she thought of mountains - giant, immovable things so connected to the land that they could not be pushed away from it. Protonslaught imagined what it would feel like to be that unshakable.

Will o' the Wisp appeared from the destroyed wall, a scowl on his face that said 'I haven't realised how screwed I am yet'. He severely altered his body's density, so much so that every step left a hole in the street. He threw a punch, and his fist was so heavy that it lagged a little slower than before. It made contact with Protonslaught's jaw...but she didn't budge. It was like watching a child punch a Boulder with all of their might - his wrist was forced backwards until it made an irrefutable 'crack'.

The Wisp cried out in a heady mixture of surprise and pain, a sound that was swiftly cut short by Protonslaught's retaliating punch. This time he wasn't just sent through one building...he went pummelling through several. I know that sounds like a lot of brick walls but don't worry. He didn't die. He was strong enough to take it...and his death doesn't fit the narrative so let's just say, for convenience's sake, that he was knocked out. If you think that's a little lame, then just remember that you were warned about the mediocrity of this battle before reading it.

"I... I did it!" Protonslaught cheered. "Did you see that?! I beat him with one punch!"

At this point, as the reader, you're probably expecting Peter to be mildly annoyed by Protonslaught's cocky and careless attitude. Perhaps you're thinking that our responsible and well-meaning Spider-Man will swiftly remind the cheering girl that Will o' the Wisp was not someone to be taken lightly...he did none of these things.

Instead, Spider-Man seemed just as excited as Protonslaught was. He was a science nerd, after all, it came with the territory. "That's incredible! I thought you were just some second-rate magician, but this...this is unlike anything I've ever seen before. It looks like you can use atomic transmutation to sense and manipulate matter!"

At his science-heavy explanation, Protonslaught's smile wavered and a nervous laugh took its place. "Yeah...I hit him really hard..."

Spidey would have been gobsmacked by this idiotic response, but he was used to it by now. Whenever he started speaking even a little bit scientifically, the people around him acted as if it was an entirely different language. "Do you not understand what that means? You could make anything you wanted! You've been struggling to control your powers because manipulating atoms to reform themselves is...well, it's insane! It should be too difficult for anyone that doesn't understand the intricacies, but you've managed to create things based on pure willpower."

Peter was amazed. Suddenly, he had a whole new respect for Protonslaught. Her will must have been immense to create the things that he had seen in the past... I mean, if this were DC, a Green Lantern ring would be sparkling on her finger at this very moment.

"You really know a lot about this stuff, don't you?" Protonslaught hummed curiously. "Maybe you could teach me! Like a tutor!"

Peter's expression finally fell beneath the mask. He couldn't imagine anything that he would want to do less than spend more time with this loon. "No. Absolutely not."

The woman frowned. "Do you remember that tree accident? I almost hurt those two people, dude, and that will happen a lot more often if you don't help me."

Gah. She just had to appeal to his sense of responsibility (take another shot), didn't she? He hated to admit it but she was right. Her abilities were complex, and suddenly he couldn't completely blame her for struggling to control them. "I don't exactly have a lot of spare time on my hands..."

"I'm sure we'll find time." Protonslaught insisted and Spidey could no longer argue against her. If this avoided the madness that usually followed whenever she appeared, then he was willing to help...that doesn't mean that he was particularly thrilled about it but, hey, this is Peter Parker. He never gets what he wants anyway.