Chapter 1-4
The bright yellow and orange colors of the plane on fire contrasted with the snowy-white grounds like a juxtaposition in a painting. The streets of New York were lit up with red and green Christmas lights but all seemed to have forgotten the fact it was December when they saw the plane coming down.
The plane touched down on an empty beach, skidding across the ground to a slow but sure stop. It left drag prints the size of the Iron Giant in its wake, smoke steaming off of the back of the plane that lit the sky up with black smoke.
When it settled in the middle of the snow-filled beach with the right-wing partially submerged in the ice-cold water, only did the police sirens echo in the distance.
The plane remained mostly intact for the most part, with scrapes running along the sides of the plane and a huge chunk of the plane taken out of the back of the plane. The hole looked to be small in size, about the size of a wrecking ball but the fire made the hole look bigger.
One of the passengers who survived the crash pulled themselves out of their seats and moved over to the door. He pried the door open and cause an inflatable slide to open beneath him. He slid down the slide and climbed onto the snow-filled beach.
First responders were on the scene with the injured man pointing to the plane, crying and sobbing.
"S-save them!"
Donned in his Spider-Man outfit, David Dante swung to the wreckage on the beach and landed on the edge of a building, perching down and observing the crash from his position.
A plane crash, the first time I've ever seen one of those in person. Let's finish this up quickly so I can investigate Felicia's father.
Spidey frontflips off the edge and swings over to the beach. He leaps off a streetlight and soars thirty feet through the air before landing in front of the plane. Without thinking, he ran into the plane and began unbuckling as many passengers as he could and helping them get out of there.
Spidey came out of the plane moments later carrying an elderly lady who was holding a dead little girl in her hands.
Children. I like children; I don't have to put up TOO much of a guard around them and they're carefree. I hate child killers and child molesters, they're just repulsive.
Spidey sighs heavily before patting the woman's back and escorting her to the police and paramedics.
I will admit, there is a little part of me that is disappointed that this child died. Then again, people die all the time, death doesn't discriminate. Death doesn't care if you're black, white, old, young, boy, girl, non-bi, or whatever. If you die, you die. Now THAT'S equality at its finest.
One of the cops drew a gun. "Freeze, Spider-Man."
And here I was thinking I was going to get off somewhat scot-free by being in front of these cops saving people.
"No shit, it's snowing, of course I'm freezing." He pretended to shiver as he rolled his eyes behind his mask. "Seriously, though, are you a dumbass, dumbass? Now's not the time to be aiming guns at me."
"I don't care, you're under arrest, murder-"
Spidey webs the policeman's gun out of his grip and swings it through the air before smacking the officer in the face with it, busting his lip and earning gasps from several civilians who came by on the scene.
That was satisfying.
"Get your head together," Spidey said simply. "Get your priorities straight."
"Spider-Man hit me!' the officer shouted. "Someone shoot him!"
Oh, you're one of THOSE people.
The officer standing directly behind him smacked him upside the head. "Forget Spider-Man."
"But he's a murderer."
"He's also helping the survivors in the plane."
"Listen to your fellow officer," Spidey chimed in. "He's wise beyond his years and he looks younger than you by twenty decades."
Before he could allow the officer to retort, Spidey jumped back to the plane and pulled more survivors out.
One of the survivors was trapped underneath a seat and the survivors around her tried pulling the seat off, only to meet failure.
Strangers helping strangers. Animal instinct, no morality involved at all, just basic instinct.
"Back away."
Spidey walked up to the survivor and ripped the seat off of her with just one arm. He picked up the wounded survivor, bridal style, and looked down at her wound.
"Your bone is sticking out of your leg," he said in a matter-a-factly tone. "I'll get you to the paramedics."
"HURRY!" she cried in agony.
Spidey sprinted through the plane's exit and with one jump pealed all the way over to the nearest set of available paramedics. He carefully planted her down on the gurney and pushed her into the ambulance.
"Thank you, Spider-Man," one of the grateful paramedics said.
"No thanks needed."
He leaped back to the plane and ran inside to use his heightened senses to sniff out any survivors that were hidden from his sight. A series of cries echoed in one of the lavatories and he stiffened when he realized who the survivor was.
I love my heightened senses. I have improved my eyesight, taste, touch, and hearing. While my spider-sense may be overrated, I will admit that it's good that my hearing has improved as well. How else would I know that there's a little girl trapped in the lavatory?
He raced to the lavatory and he put his ear to the door. Sure enough, the cries and sobs were still there. He quickly punched his way through the door and he tore it open. Sitting on the floor under the sink was a young girl about five or so with a gash on her forehead. She tried to pick herself up but her left arm wouldn't move and she sobbed harder at the sight of Spider-Man.
She probably thinks I'm a monster with this mask on. I would take it off to win her trust... but I think there are other ways to win her trust.
Spidey put his hands up to show he meant no harm. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to get you out of here."
He reaches to grab her, but she recoils and slaps his hand.
"Hey, I'm not going to hurt you, I pinky promise," he promised in a soft voice. "Pinky swear. I'll get you out of here and back to your parents."
The girl's sobbing seemed to soften for a fraction but she still remained wary of him.
Spidey held his hands out and moved in to grab her. "It's okay, you're fine." He gently wraps his arms around her and carefully picks her up, mindful of her possible broken arm.
Once he had her picked up, she tearfully wrapped her arms and legs around him and held onto him tightly, sobbing into his shoulder. "It's okay," he reassured and stroked the back of her head soothingly. Spidey turned and jogged out of the lavatory and towards the emergency exits.
Something in the corner of his eye froze him in his track. There were two holes in the plane. One on the roof and one on the floor beneath him.
They were hit by something from above. I can tell because of the direction of the debris. So they were hit by something from above and it went through the bottom of the plane. Like a person getting shot, a bullet hits their front and then exits their back. But what could've caused the plane crash? It definitely wasn't a rocket because the hole is too big for a rocket? I'll investigate later but I know for a fact this was NOT an act of terrorism.
He ran out of the emergency exit and he carefully ran over to the nearest paramedic and carefully handed the little girl to him.
"Good job, Spider-Man," the paramedic praised.
"Worry about her," the vigilante ordered. "I'm going back in to see if I can find anybody else."
Out of all the passengers on that plane, I hope that little girl makes it out of all of them. She's too innocent to die, especially from a plane crash.
It had been about forty-five minutes since the plane crash and the fires from the plane had been put out by the fire department. Spidey decided to stay away from the wreckage and let the police and first responders do their job, so he stayed perched on a nearby streetlight.
A car pulled up directly beneath him. His spider-sense didn't go off for he know who the driver was.
Ah, my favorite fanatic, here on time.
"Spider-Man," Eddie Brock called out. He took out his camera and took pictures of the masked vigilante. "What the hell happened here?"
"A plane crash," Spidey monotoned. "Wasn't that part obvious to ya?"
"I know it's a plane crash, what happened when you got here?"
Spidey shrugged. "Saved people from the wreckage, did some investigation, the usual work." He felt like he was forgetting something and it took him a second to realize what it was. "Oh, and I slapped a cop in the face with his own gun."
Eddie chuckled. "Why?"
"He aimed a gun at me, even when I was helping people. Cops in this town have serious trust issues."
Eddie took pictures of the plane crash before looking back at Spidey. "Any reason as to what caused the crash?"
Something hit them from above. I have a few theories but there's only ONE thing I can think of.
Spidey shook his head. "No cause, only speculation. Apparently, there was something that fell out of the sky and shot through the plane like a bullet. There was an entrance hole at the top of the plane and an exit one at the bottom."
Eddie looked over to the back of the plane and took pictures of where the firefighters were dousing flames. He made sure to take pictures of every spot on the plane, not wasting any film as he captured every detail.
"I wonder if Jameson is going to somehow blame you for this plane crash," Eddie wondered aloud.
Jameson, my favorite critique. He calls me a menace, which I am, and instead of advocating for my arrest, he uses my popularity to seel Spidey photos. Ah well, at least he's got his priorities straight and is doing his job. Accepting pictures of a person you hate to make sure you get your job done, now THAT is what a working man does. I almost admire him if I gave a fuck about him.
Spidey clicked his tongue. "I doubt it. The cause of this plane crash was completely out of my hand. Even if I was suited up, I wouldn't be able to stop this plane crash, or at the very least, stop the plane crash with everybody on board alive." He looks at his alter-ego friend. "I suggest getting statements from the survivors and asking them what happened." He looks over his shoulder. "My work here is done."
"Wait!"
Spidey already took off.
Eddie turned and ran towards the nearest ambulance with a survivor. He held up his camera and pressed the record button.
"Excuse me, sir, Eddie Brock with the Daily Bugle. Any comment on what happened?"
"Something hit the plane," the survivor said quickly with wide eyes, "giant rock hit the plane. Crashed into the plane from the sky."
"A giant rock crashed into the plane? It sounds like a meteorite. Anything else you can comment on?"
"M-my heart." He put a hand to his chest. "My heart pounded in my chest, t-thought it was going to explode."
Eddie nodded solemnly. "I'm glad you're okay, sir. I'm glad you're alive."
The survivor nodded rapidly. "Y-yes. A-a-alive."
As Eddie went around to get more statements from survivors, Captain Walter Hardy pulled up to the scene.
Captain Hardy approached the officer who pulled a gun on Spider-Man. He noticed the bust on his limp. "What happened to you?"
"He got into an altercation with Spider-Man," the second officer from before said. "More concerned about bringing in that web-head than saving people."
"He's a killer," the cop with the busted lip said, "and he assaulted me."
"Was he helping people?"
"Yes but-"
"Then why would you interrupt him when he's in the middle of helping someone."
The officer looked at Hardy with a scowl but said nothing.
"Get back to work and help these people."
A meteorite.
Spidey landed on the top of a building overlooking Time Square and put his hands on the ledge to get his thoughts.
It was a meteorite that caused the plane to crash. This is definitely an unprecedented case, a meteorite crashing into a plane mid-air. Where did the meteorite go and how come there weren't any warnings on any NASA articles?
Spidey leaped over the edge.
Eh, I guess it doesn't matter. What's done is done but I want to see that meteorite.
He swings North, following the path the plane took when it crashed down.
People should be grateful, this was nothing like 9/11. It could've been a hell of a lot worse but it didn't. Can't believe it's been twenty-one years since that incident and I wasn't even born yet.
He reaches the top of the Empire State Building and climbs the pole at the top.
If there was a meteorite of some kind, where did it land?
Spidey clung to the pole with one hand as he took out his phone and checked for any recent articles or updates on social media to see if there were any meteorite sightings.
Gantry Plaza State Park
"What the hell is that?" a blogger asked as he stumbled upon a burning rock in the rock. "What the hell is that indeed?"
On the East Side of town, a blogger who had been traveling at night had been recording himself on the phone when he saw something fall out of the sky.
He caught footage of the plane going down but the one thing he seemed most interested in was what he saw fall from the sky along with the plane.
He edged closer to the pit of smoldering rock and took out his phone to record the phenomenon. He stepped closer and put a foot in the smoldering pit. The meteor that crashed into the ground was about ten feet in diameter and was having black smoke steam off of it.
He zoomed his phone in closer to the meteor.
"I found a meteor," he suddenly cheered, "I might be rich."
Before he could react, a puddle of black goo sprouted out of the giant rock and leaped onto the blogger.
The blogger fell to the ground, dropped his phone, smacked himself like a victim on fire, and gave a blood-curdling scream as the black goo spread over his body like a spider before covering him completely.
The Daily Bugle
The Next Morning
Jameson looked at the photos handed to him and looked at Eddie with a look that said, 'you're-serious?'.
"What's that web-headed menace doing at the plane crash?" Jameson asked.
Eddie already had an answer. "He was helping the police pull people out of the plane. He was saving the lives of survivors."
"Finally, that web-head does something correctly." He puts the photos down. "I'm glad you didn't take pictures of Spider-Man saving people; don't want to give the public the wrong idea about him."
"He's a hero," Eddie proclaimed. "He may be a killer but he still went out of his way to save those people from the wreck. Stop thinking so negatively of him."
"Even if he unmasked himself for the world to see, I'll still think negatively of him." He turned to his right-hand man in the room. "Robbie, run these photos to the editors and have them put them on the Daily Bugle website."
Robbie took the photos. "Whatever you say, Mr. Jameson."
Eddie looked confused. "Website? What do you mean website, Mr. Jameson?"
"You got cotton in your ears, Eddie Burns? The Daily Bugle's upgrading to having news stories posted on the web."
Eddie chuckled. "Really?"
"Yes, really. People nowadays rarely read the newspapers so we're upgrading to the internet and thanks to you in getting pictures of our favorite web-headed menace, the Daily Bugle is listed as one of the most visited news sites in New York."
Eddie smiled. "Does that mean I get a raise?"
"HAHAHAHA!" Jameson laughed in his face. "Get a load of this, Robbie, this boy here wants a raise!" He laughed louder this time, his face turning red and his hand slapping his knee. "Get out of here before you give me a heart attack."
Eddie rolled his eyes and got out of the room.
On his way out, he passed by Ned Leeds and Betty Brant.
"Hey guys," he waved to them. "What's going on with you guys."
Ned and Betty looked awkwardly at each other. Ned answered, "Nothing much. We… uh… Betty and I… uh…"
"We're somewhat going out," Betty answered for the stuttering Ned.
Eddie clapped for them. "Finally bro, and here I was thinking I was the only one who could feel the awkward sexual tension going between you two."
Ned nervously held up his hand. "No, nothing like that. No sex at all, bruh."
"Yeah, we're just going to go out, see movies, buy gifts for our families, nothing too major. I'm sure you understand."
Eddie nodded. "I understand. If you guys are up for it, maybe my girlfriend Anne and I can go on a double date with you."
"Maybe," Betty said unsurely. "We'll see, maybe in the future, maybe."
Eddie nodded. "Can I have my paycheck for the photos I submitted?"
"Oh, of course. Give me a few minutes and I'll write you a check."
As Eddie waited for Betty to write up his check, he chatted with Ned for a while.
"So, the Dialy Bugle going completely online now, huh?"
"Yeah. It was my idea. I told Mr. Jameson that newspapers were old-fashioned and that everybody got their information on the internet. I helped him set up the website and everything."
"Oh, did he give you a raise?"
He shook his head. "Have you ever heard Jameson laugh his ass off?"
Eddie nodded. "Oh yeah… just a few minutes ago when I asked for a raise."
Ned nodded. "Yep. Good ol' Jameson, you can always count on Jameson paying us minimum wage and with a commission cap."
"Yep, that's Tripel J for ya, bruh."
Ned shook his head. "But man, that plane crash last night, scared the living shit out of me. I was building a project for an art class when it happened. How the hell does something like that happen?"
"A meteorite hit the plane is what everybody is saying. Thank fucking God it was only a meteor and that the plane landed near an empty beach."
"I wish the plane didn't crash, period."
Betty finished writing up the check and handed it to Eddie. "Keep up the good work, man."
Eddie accepted the check. "Thanks. Merry Christmas."
In the Subway
Hidden underground just below the street was Miles Morales, traveling with his backpack and earbuds playing music. He jumped over a few puddles and used his phone to light a path to see where he was going. He jumped onto a train track beside him, his foot landing on the third rail.
Electricity shot out from the rail and went up his foot but Miles barely reacted. He nearly jumped out of his skin but he held his ground. He took his foot off the rail and continued down his intended path.
Once he reached the end of the path, he stopped in front of a wall that had some graffiti of Spider-Man. He looked around until his hands felt a hidden door. He pushed the door open and it shut carefully behind him.
On the other end of the room was more graffiti with black, red, and blue colors intertwining but standing in front of the graffiti wall was a familiar face.
"I see you remembered our appointment," Ben Reilly said carefully.
Miles took his earbuds out. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."
"We both need to up our game if we want to stop Spider-Man once and for all," Ben declared. "Let's run a review of what we learned last night."
Miles held up his hands. A sparkle of light flickered between his fingers. "How to control my bio-electrokinesis."
"Correct." Ben took something out of his pocket and hid it behind his back. "What else did we learn?"
Miles made his hand become invisible. "How to control my invisibility."
"Good work." Ben threw something at Miles, who caught it in his hands. He examined the object, which appeared to be a wristwatch of some kind. "What is this?"
"A web-shooter," Ben said simply. "I noticed that you're unable to create your own webbing, not unlike the actual Spider-Man."
Miles looked at the wristwatch once more, his eyes brightening up. "Wait a minute, you're saying that Spider-Man can't create his own webbing?"
"No." He pointed to his own wrist, which had a wristwatch attached. "None of us are able to create our own webbing. That's why I created a device I believe is similar to the kind of web-shooters that Spider-Man uses." He reaches to his feet and grabs a suitcase he brought with him. "I made you a suit in here. Tonight, we're going to go for a test run."
"This is going to be so cool," Miles said.
Ben narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "What we're about to do isn't supposed to be fun. We're going to risk life and limb to bring Spider-Man down. If you treat this like a game, you're liable to get yourself killed."
Ben shot a line of webbing out and it stuck to the wristwatch in Miles's hand. He web-yanked the wristwatch back. "If you're in here for fun and games, then you can walk away right now."
"Wait," Miles pleaded, "I'm sorry. I was caught up in the moment, don't take away my web-shooters. I want to bring Spider-Man down, more than anything."
Ben narrowed his eyes at Miles before tossing him the wristwatch back. "Okay then. Your first lesson in Web-Swinging 101 starts tonight. Don't be late."
Miles saluted the older gentleman and turned towards the door. When he opened it, he jumped back in surprise.
An Asian girl fell on her knees through the doorway, most likely because she had been leaning against the door when it opened, and she looked at Ben and Miles with a nervous and innocent look on her face.
She slowly picked herself up, keeping eye contact with Miles as she stood up to her full height.
"H-hi," she nervously waved. "I'm sorry for eavesdropping but…I was wondering if you had room for one more on your team. I can help."
Miles backed away from the girl cautiously. "Who are you?"
"It's me, Cindy, from school. If you guys are trying to take down Spider-Man, I think I can help."
"What did you get that idea from?" Ben demanded. "And how did you find us?"
Cindy held out her hand and extended her fingers.
Spider-webs shot from the tips of her fingers and stuck to Miles's jacket.
She smiled awkwardly and nervously. "A little power I call my Silk-sense."
Midtown High, Later in the Day
David picked up his backpack and took it with him as he walked out of school. School was ending and he went to the cubby to grab his jacket to combat the cold and put it on. He walked out of the room and into the hallway with the crowd of students.
There was a small crowd of students who were talking about the plane crash beside him.
"Did you see that plane crash last night?" a student asked. "I was taking a shower when I saw the plane coming down?"
"Yeah," the second student said. "I was outside when it happened. The loud noise it made when it crash almost made me shit my pants."
"Almost two-thirds of the people on the plane died, including the pilots."
"Did they say what caused it?"
"They're still investigating but several sources say that a rock from space was the cause."
"Ah great, now we have rocks falling from the sky to worry about."
"This isn't turning out to be that great of a holiday season."
"I'll second that."
This plane crash is all that everyone's talking about. The word I believe it's called is 'vogue'. This plane crash is in 'vogue', apparently.
David pushed the double set of doors open and ran out into the front of the school, where Felicia was already waiting for him.
"What's up, Davey," she said in a sultry voice.
"Not my grades," he laughed. "What about you? What's up?"
"The bounty on my head." She laughed too.
Felicia Hardy, I did a little investigation into your Black Cat persona when I returned home from the plane crash rescue. Even I'M shocked that the Black Cat burglar isn't as notorious as I am. She has powers like I do, commits crimes, and steals just for the hell of it; it's practically disrespectful. I would give the Daily Bugle a piece of my mind but I don't want people looking at my girlfriend in the newspapers, even if the photos were taken by dear Eddie.
David looked around and started walking down the street, Felicia joining him.
"So… are we going to ignore the obvious? Y'know, the plane crash?"
Felicia nodded. "Yeah. I saw the plane crash from my window. Tragic what happened."
"Yeah. It's a good thing Spidey was there to save some of the survivors. Unforatnely, he didn't save all of them."
"Ya can't save everyone, Davey."
"Ain't that the truth, Party-Hardy." The two of them stopped at a streetlight. While they waited for the light to turn red, David turned to Felicia and said, "I found out the cause of the plane crash. It was a meteor that hit the plane mid-air."
"Jesus, that's not something you hear about often."
"A plane crashing?"
"No, a meteor hitting a plane mid-air."
"Yeah. Unprecedented."
"How big was the meteor."
Ahh, meteorites. They crash onto our planet without permission and everyone was to grab at it. Worth money and a lot of rich people would steal it just to get richer. I'll throw Cat a bone, or rather a ball of yarn.
David flashed her a mischievous smile. "About ten feet in diameter. Fell somewhere on the East Side of New York. It was found early this morning and scavenged by a couple of tycoons."
The light turned green. The two of them walked forward.
"Ten feet in diameter?"
David nodded. "Yep. People are probably going to want to burn that meteor to crisps. I mean, a meteor is definitely worth money but it caused a plane crash. Who could blame a couple of corrupt tycoons for taking it for themselves? Just shows how much people care more about other humans than money when they let criminals take the meteor for themselves."
Felicia looked at him with a huge grin on her face. "Yeah, you're right. If humans don't care enough that tycoons steal the meteor for themselves, they certainly won't care if some random and stray cat burglar stole pieces of the meteor from the tycoons."
David nodded. "Yeah, they won't care. I just hope the person who steals the meteor doesn't get caught by Spider-Man."
"Yeah. May God have mercy on their souls."
My early Christmas gift to you, Felicia, is the chance for you to steal from those who both deserve it, AND can afford it.
Central Park
"Now, what do we have here?"
The black goo crawled over the blogger's head once more, covering his face and suffocating him as the alien looked deep into the blogger's mind.
"So, this is what Earth Looks like. I will admit, it's surely a step up from my planet."
He continues to probe at the human's mind.
"This spider guy seems pretty interesting. His name is Spider-Man, an interesting name. My name is Venom."
The black goo sank into the man's skin.
"You won't do as a host and with this guy shooting webs from his wrist, I think I would like to bond to him. Things could be very interesting."
The blogger gasped for air and fell to the ground. He caught his breath and pushed himself against a tree, his hand going to his throat as he gulped in air.
"Come on, Matthew Bloke, let's go find Spider-Man together."