CHAPTER SIX: Thunder Storm



I hate drug dealers. Oh, of course you knew that. But, seriously, I can't stand the bastards. So, here I was, in an alley, watching some assholes trying to make a deal. Well, naturally, I had to stop them. There were five guys in the alley. The first thing I did was drop the from wall and plant my foot into the back of one of the dealers. Upon my landing, I had rendered him unconscious. The other assholes just stared at me, so I had to take advantage of the situation. I slapped the guy in front of me and then rammed my fist into his sternum. As he fell, I turned and hook-kicked the guy on the side of me, knocking him out. The guy behind him swung at me with a knife. I leapt out of the way of his blade, bounced off of the nearby wall, and kicked him in the side of the head. The last guy tried to run. I smiled under my mask and held out my hand. All I had to do was will the webbing and I would stop him in his tracks. Well, I did, and this is what happened: the webbing got stuck in my damned glove.

"God-damnit!" I screamed out loud.

It had never occurred to me that I didn't have a way to get my webbing out of my glove. Sure, Tiffany had made me this great costume, but neither of us had really thought about how the hell I was supposed to fire my webs through the damned glove. So, the last asshole managed to escape.

********

Later that night, I was in my room, taking a razor-blade to the wrists of my gloves. As I was doing that, the phone rang. I reached over to my dresser and picked it up.

"Hello?" I said.

"Hey, baby." It was Tiffany.

"Hey, boo. What's goin' on?"

"Nothin'. What are you doing?"

"Slitting my wrists."

"What?"

"The wrists on my gloves, that is."

"Don't ever scare me like that again!"

"I'm sorry, baby." I struggled to hold in a laugh.

"Why are you cutting the wrists on your gloves, anyway?" asked Tiffany.

"....I'd rather not talk about it. Anyway, what's goin' on?"

"I'm lonely. I need somebody to talk to."

"Well, here I am."

And so, we talked. For a long, long, long time. I don't think I fell asleep until about five in the morning. Naturally, I had to wake up at five-thirty to get ready for school.

********

Here we were in my favorite (read: least favorite) class of them all: Chemistry. The teacher, Dr. Zipin was, quite possibly, the most boring teacher in the world. When he gave a lecture, the classroom was like a battlefield during World War Three. We were the casualties of war, laying all over the place, groaning in pain as we slowly slipped out of the world of the living. Well, it wasn't so much groaning, more like snoring as we found ourselves draped over our desks like tablecloths. Dr. Zipin was giving some boring lecture about electricity, and how certain things cause electricity to be grounded and what can prevent conductivity and some other bullshit that I didn't need to know. I mean, when would I actually need to know this stuff? I wasn't trying to be an electrician or something.

Suddenly, my saving grace had arrived in the form of the school intercom. My head shot up immediately. Hell, any interruption was a blessing at this point. I could hear the principal, Ms. Holloman, speaking on the intercom. When she spoke, it sounded as though her mouth was full of donuts, but even that voice was a step above the sleep-inducing terror that was Dr. Zipin's voice.

"Please pardon the interruption, Parkway students and staff," Ms. Holloman said. "Would all teachers please escort their classes to the auditorium for an impromptu assembly? I repeat, all teachers, please escort your students to the auditorium immediately."

The next thing I knew, a herd of buffalo had just rushed past me and out of the room. At least, that's what it sounded like. Dr. Zipin just watched with his jaw agape as his class proceeded to abandon him. After everybody had left, I gathered my stuff and made my way to the auditorium.

Within a few minutes, the whole school was inside of the auditorium. I went all the way to the back, where Brian was seated. Oddly enough, Angel was not sitting with him.

"Yo, where's Angel?" I asked him.

"Over there," Brian said as he nodded his head to the left.

Surely, Angel was there, sitting with Andre. It was bad enough that she was sitting with him and not me, but imagine how pissed off I was when I saw that the asshole had his arm around her. I immediately made my way towards Angel and sat down beside her.

"Hey," I said, trying to get her attention.

"Oh, hi Rob," she hesitantly replied.

"Where you been? I ain't seen you in a minute."

"I've been around."

"You don't take the bus with me and Brian no more."

"I've just been busy."

Suddenly, the asshole decided to throw in his two cents.

"Yeah, she's been busy. And my friend's about to sit in that seat, playa," Andre said to me.

"Your friend can wait," I said without bothering to look at him. "You been alright, Angel?"

"I'm fine, Rob. Besides, why worry about me? Don't you like hanging around Tiffany now?" There was a particular bit of venom in her voice when she said that.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you need to raise up out that seat," Andre the asshole perked up again.

"I'm speaking to the lady, in case you weren't payin' attention. You just sit there and be ugly until we're finished talking," I snapped back.

"Enough, you two. Rob, I'm fine. Is that all you wanted to speak to me about?" asked Angel.

"One last thing," I said as I rose. "Don't forget who your real friends are." I made sure to give Andre a little glare before I walked away. When I reached my seat, Brian was just staring up at me in silence. "What?" I asked him.

"You gotta calm down, man," said Brian.

"I'm calm," I replied as I sat back in my seat.

"Yeah, and I'm not a hustler."

"Not a good one," I replied.

Just then, a very pretty light-skinned girl came and sat beside me. The very pretty girl planted a kiss on my cheek. Being as though I was comfortable and didn't feel like getting up, I took the very pretty girl's hand and kissed it. I call that very pretty girl Tiffany.

"What's wrong, baby?" Tiffany asked me.

I could practically hear Brian rolling his eyes.

"I'm chillin'," I said as I kissed her hand again.

"Hey, Brian," Tiffany said to Superhustler. He nodded back to her. "What's wrong? You don't have a CD to sell me?"

"Not today," Brian replied.

"What's wrong with you two? You're both moody as hell," commented Tiffany.

"It's just one of those days, baby," I said to her. Tiffany sat in my lap, and I threw my arms around her waist. "So, what's this assembly about, anyway?"

"I heard it's about that kid that went missing," said Tiffany.

"Somebody went missing?" I asked.

"Don't you remember when we were all in your house, and we were telling you about that kid in tenth grade that went missing?" said Brian.

"I think his name was Jason Thompson," said Tiffany.

I remembered that conversation that we had in my house. I also remember thinking about how I had no idea who that was, being as though I was a senior and he was a sophomore.

"Oh, I remember. I'm surprised they still didn't find him," I said.

At that moment, we could all hear the donut-voiced Ms. Holloman speaking into a microphone. She stood on the stage in the front of the auditorium. Beside her were three policemen, one of which was the chief of police, John Timony. Also, there were two people, a man and a woman, who I assumed were Jason's parents.

"Please settle down, people. As some of you may know, a student of ours has been missing for quite some time. Last week, a few officials from the police department spoke to some of you and asked if you had any information about the whereabouts of our student. Well today, Commissioner Timony would like to speak to all of you about safety."

Then, out of the blue, somebody in the crowd shouted out, "This ain't kindergarten!"

A lot of the people in the auditorium laughed. Ms. Holloman tried to ignore the outburst and go on.

"The reality is, we must all be very aware of what is going on around us. Now, I give you Commissioner Timony," said Ms. Holloman.

Before the commissioner could start speaking, the sound of static could be heard. The noise echoed all throughout the room, and when he tried to speak into the microphone, the noise only got louder. Suddenly, we could all hear a voice speaking into the mic, but nobody could see where it was coming from.

"I have to kill you! I will kill you!" the voice screamed into the mic.

Commissioner Timony stepped back from the mic. Some people in the room started to get up and make their way toward the exits. That's when my danger sense went off. I looked to the exit, where a guy was about to open the door. As soon as he grabbed the door, he screamed and jumped back.

"Damn thing shocked me!" the guy screamed.

The static only got louder as the seconds passed on. Several other foolish people ran to the doors like lemmings and got themselves electrocuted as well. My head was buzzing the whole time as people started swarming around me. My senses lead my attention above the stage, where I could see light forming. A ball of electricity started to form in the air. The ball began to expand until it finally took a more human-like form. Then, the thing actually did turn into a human. I lie to you not. There was a guy literally floating in midair. The guy's body fell and landed on the stage. Suddenly, the guy rose to his feet and started looking around. The man and woman on the stage both looked like they had seen a ghost.

"Jason!" the woman gasped.

Jason's parents ran toward him. Then, out of nowhere, everything seemed to slow down. I could see what was about to happen.

"No!" I screamed.

But it was in vain. Jason turned toward his mother and blasted her with electricity. Within seconds, she was dead. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I mean, this guy was like living electricity or something. First, he had just appeared out of midair, had sealed all of the exits, and was now on the stage and had just killed his mother.

"Jason, what are you doing?" his father asked.

Within a second, Jason had turned to his father and made him suffer the same fate as his mother. Jason had just incinerated his father's body.

"Don't call me that! My name is Electro! And I have to kill him!" Jason yelled as he began to float above the stage. He floated over the crowd and rained lightning down upon people as he flew. "I will kill you! Stop hiding from me! I must kill you!"

Jason was looking around the room, searching for someone. Then, he stopped. He had found exactly who he was looking for. My danger sense went on high alert right there as I realized who it was he was looking for: it was me. My first instinct was to rise and get Tiffany out of the way.

"Get down!" I yelled as I pushed Tiffany to the floor.

It only took a split second for Jason to attack. A bolt of lightning came my way and blasted me directly in the chest. The next thing I knew, I had been propelled by the blast and crashed through the wall behind me. I ended up landing several feet away in the hallway outside of the auditorium.

I'm not even going to try and act like a big tough guy: that shit hurt. I felt like the skin on my chest had just been singed. There was a big, smoking hole in my shirt, and beneath that, I could see the spider on my costume. I had no idea what the hell Jason had become, but I did know that he was in the auditorium, and so was my girlfriend, along with my two best friends. Looking up, I could see that some people were trying to escape through the hole that Jason had created with my body. I hopped to my feet and dashed into the bathroom. Once there, I removed my clothes and placed them behind the toilet in a stall.

"Ain't no motherfuckin' way I'm gonna let some motherfucker come up in here and start electrocutin' me...motherfucker must be out his motherfuckin' mind, comin' in my motherfuckin' school, hittin' me with some motherfuckin' electricity..." I gracefully spat as I pulled my gloves onto my hands.

I was now in costume. Finally, I pulled on my mask and jumped into an air duct. I crawled my way through the duct until I found myself above the auditorium. Jason was still in there, and still causing carnage. I removed the grating from the duct and dropped down. Then, when I was close enough, I slammed both feet into Jason's back. Jason fell and slammed into the ground, and I landed a few feet away from him on my hands and feet. Even though I put all of my force into that kick, I could still feel a little buzz in them, as if the very kick had shocked me. Jason rose back to his feet and turned to me.

"Jason, calm down!" I demanded.

"My name is Electro! Now leave me!" Jason screamed back at me.

"Interesting name, Jason. But listen, Jason, I don't really wanna fight you, Jason, so come along quietly, Jason, and I won't have to hurt you, Jason, okay, Jason?"

Next thing I knew, I had to leap into the air to avoid being fried by a lightning bolt. I landed directly in front of him.

"Get away from me!" Jason screamed at me.

"Sure, just as soon as I knock your punk ass out," I said as I slammed my fist into his jaw. Again, I felt a little buzz in my arm. It probably was not a good idea to attempt to hit him again.

"I...said...get...away!"

A field formed around Jason and expanded, blasting me backwards. I found myself flying until I landed in front of Commissioner Timony on the stage.

"Who are you?" the commissioner asked me.

"Somebody who needs to take up karate," I responded before getting back up to continue fighting.

Just as I got up, I could see that Jason was going back to attacking random people. That's when my danger sense hit me again. Jason was floating towards Angel and Andre.

"Get away from my woman!" Andre yelled at Jason.

Jason then proceeded to propel Andre halfway across the auditorium.

"You...you're his best friend, aren't you?" Jason asked Angel. "I have to kill you, too..."

I found myself panicking there. I didn't know what to do. I just had to stop Jason before he could hurt my friend. I ran to the edge of the stage, leapt, and tackled Jason. It hurt to even touch him, but I didn't care. There was no way I was going to let him hurt Angel. I wrestled him to the ground and started to pound his head into the floor with both fists. Then I flipped into the air before he could retaliate and landed a few feet away from him. Jason stood back up and held his hands toward me.

"I'll kill you, too!" he screamed.

"Fine, but no killing in the house." I fired webbing at him with both hands, wrapping him in it. Then, with a yank, I tossed him to the side and he flew through the window to the outside. I leapt out of the window and landed outside of the school where Jason was. As soon as I landed outside, I found myself being blasted with electricity. My back was to the wall, and Jason was busy pouring on the pressure. It felt like every fiber of my being was being fried.

"I killed him, and now I'll kill you, too!" Jason screamed.

I was starting to black out. What the hell had I gotten myself into? Here I was, in a red and blue costume, being electrocuted by someone who, just a few weeks ago, had just been another kid who attended my school. My vision was getting blurry, and I was beginning to go numb. With my last bit of feeling, I felt around for something to use to my advantage. That's when I felt a loose brick in the wall. I pulled out the brick and tossed it forward. A second later, the electric current had stopped running through my body. I fell to my hands and knees and started gasping for breath.

Jason's forehead had been busted open, but I really don't think he cared. Blood leaked down his face and soaked his clothes. He rose his hand into the air and charged electricity into it. Before he could attack, I ran toward him and hit him with a right uppercut, followed by a left cross, and finally another right uppercut. His body flew into the air, and I leapt into the air after him and planted my right foot into his stomach and sent him crashing back to the ground. Naturally, he couldn't just comply and stay down. No, he had to get back up.

"What is it you want?" I asked him.

"I have to kill him...I have to kill Jordan..." Jason replied.

"Jordan?"

"Robert Jordan...Mr. Osborn said that he would make the hurting stop if I killed Jordan..."

"Osborn? Norman Osborn?"

I thought back to the day that I got my powers. I remembered seeing somebody strapped to a table, getting electrocuted. I remember Norman Osborn calling it the "Electro Project".

"Jason, listen to me. You don't have to do what Osborn tells you to do. Osborn made me like this, too. Come with me, Jason. We can stop him together," I said.

"No! I have to kill Jordan, or the pain won't stop! And I have to kill you for getting in my way!" Jason yelled as he prepared to attack me again.

"Well, you know what? I have very little patience, so you've left me with no other choice."

I leapt toward Jason and began to beat him with all the strength I had left. I beat his head left and right with punches and kicks until I had him right where I wanted him: in the middle of the street. Then I backflipped and landed on a fire hydrant. I grabbed the cap and began to twist it.

"Look at it this way, Jason: at least you won't have to tell Osborn that you failed," I said before pulling the cap off and letting the water blast Jason.

Jason screamed in pain as his body began to flash. The water washed over him, and he backed away from it until he was fully clear of it. I leapt off of the hydrant and kicked Jason in his throat, sending him to the ground. Once he was down, I grabbed him by the head with both hands.

"The pain...I have to stop the pain..." Jason cried.

"I'll stop the pain, Jason," I said.

I applied a bit of pressure, turned, and closed my eyes. I didn't want to see it, but I could hear the sickening crack as I finished the deed. I let go of Jason and stared down at his dead body. I really can't explain the feeling that I had at that moment. Aside from the fact that I was in excruciating pain, aside from the fact that I was in costume in front of my whole school, aside from the fact that somebody had just attacked me with electric powers, there was something else that stuck in my head: I had just killed somebody. Who was I to decide whether a person lived or died? I had just taken a person's life, and that person was only sixteen years old. It wasn't really his fault, but if I hadn't killed him, he would have killed everybody in the school, including my closest friends. I had no choice, right?

Suddenly my danger sense began to buzz again. I looked up, and there were about two dozen cops with their guns trained upon me.

"Lay face down on the ground!" one of them yelled to me.

"No," I replied.

"Remove your mask and lay face down, or we will fire!"

I didn't feel like dealing with the cops. For one thing, I had no idea why the hell they were even after me. Was it because I had killed Jason, or just because they needed to arrest somebody? Whatever the reason, I was not going to stand around and let it happen. I fired a web at a lightpole and yanked myself onto it. The cops began to fire at me, so I had to make a quick exit. I leapt from the pole to the side of the school and hurried up to the top.

I ended up having to sneak back into the school and into the bathroom to get my clothes. I placed my costume into my bookbag and put my clothes back on, along with my singed shirt. After that, I made my way outside. I could hear Brian, Tiffany, and Angel calling my name. Angel was the first to see me. She ran to me and slammed into me with a hug.

"Rob, I thought that thing killed you!" Angel said through tears.

"Ow...that hug might kill me..." I looked down at her and saw the tears rolling down her cheeks. "Hey, don't worry, I'm fine."

"Rob, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry..." said Angel.

"Hey, it's alright." I looked around for a second. "Where's your boyfriend?"

"Andre? The paramedics just got him. He's going to be okay, though."

"Damn!"

"Glad to see you're still in one piece, Rob," said Brian.

"Ditto. I'm sore as hell, though," I replied.

Tiffany approached me and took my hand. She and I walked away and stood against the wall of the school.

"Jason could have killed you," said Tiffany.

"Yeah, I know..." I said.

"Are you alright?"

"Not really."

"What was he? I mean, how did he become...like that?"

"The same guy that turned me into what I am...he turned Jason into that thing...into Electro..."

"What's an Electro?"

"That's what the experiment was called. Electro was like Osborn's personal living weapon. That's what I was supposed to be."

"So Jason was here to kill you?"

"Yeah..."

Tiffany was silent after that, as was I. I don't think either of us wanted to speak of the potential danger that I was in. I was too tired to even think about it. I just wanted to go home and sleep. And I hoped that this would not be a typical day for Spider-Man. I wouldn't be able to take too many more of these.



END OF CHAPTER SIX