Chapter 3: Ruffled Feathers

"Mr. Mayor, permission to speak freely?" Carlie Cooper asked. She and Mayor J Jonah Jameson Jr. were standing on the roof of the police station.

"Permission granted Detective Cooper. After all, your witnessing a golden age, one with a city run by me!" Jonah said.

"This is a f**king stupid idea." Carlie said.

"Detective, I need to talk to him, and I don't think either of us have his phone number." Jonah said.

'Well, that's not exactly true.' Carlie thought.

"Now light it up!" The mayor ordered. Carlie sighed, before flipping a switch. Instantly, a giant spider emblem appeared in the sky.

"I hope to god he doesn't make a-" Carlie began to say, when a voice cut her off.

"Harvey Dent. Can he be trusted?" Spider-Man asked in a gruff voice from the shadows.

"Are you done?" Carlie asked.

"Hey, I'm not the one risking a lawsuit from DC Comics." Spider-Man said, and all of a sudden the Spider Signal shorted out.

"What the hell?! Do you know how much taxpayer money that cost? I'll have your-" Jonah began to yell.

"Put it on my tab." Spider-Man said. "I've got a lot of enemies in this city. I don't think it helps my webby little head stay connected to my body if they know where I'm going to be."

"Fine. I'll get rid of it." Jonah said, and Spider-Man tossed him a phone.

"This is a StarkPhone triple encrypted by Tony Stark himself. Use this if you need to reach me." Spider-Man said. "Now why did you call me here?" Jonah mumbled something. "I'm sorry, what?" Spider-Man asked.

"I said I need your help." The mayor said, and Spider-Man's jaw dropped.

"The apocalypse has begun. Any minute now The Blob's going to show up in a speedo and Galactus will start devouring the Earth." He said.

"Horrifying mental image aside, your actions over the recent months have made me reevaluate my stance on you." His Honor said, though anyone could tell he was straining himself to say this. "You saved the Earth from Doctor Octopus, and you did this city a great justice by defeating the Spider-Queen. You are an amazing hero and a credit to this fine city." At this point, Jonah looked like he wanted to bite off his own tongue. Spider-Man stood still for a few seconds, before recomposing himself.

"Uh, thanks, I guess." The Friendly Neighborhood Avenger said.

"Now onto the real reason I called you here." Jonah said. "Chief Pratchett, who couldn't be here because of a family engagement, has requested that you and detective Cooper work together once again. Recently, the Vulture's gang have been committing several robberies."

"I know. I stopped one last week." Spider-Man said, remembering the bird thing he fought in MJ's. "Any idea what he's after?"

"I don't know. That's why you two are going to work together to figure it out." Jonah said, and began walking away. "I need a drink. Those words left a bad taste in my mouth." As soon as he left, Spider-Man began pumping his fist in the air.

"Yes yes yes yes! Finally!" He said, and Carlie looked at him strangely. "What? I've been waiting for him to say something positive about me for years! And I have the whole thing recorded on my googles! The Avengers are never going to believe this!" He said. "Best. Day. Ever. Of all time."

"Are you done?" Carlie asked.

"Yeah, I think I got the joy out of my system. Now we get down to business." Spider-Man said.

NYPD Crime Lab

"What do we know so far about these robberies?" Spider-Man asked.

"They started about a week ago. So far, the only things that have been stolen are a few pricy trinkets." Carlie said. "What did that thing take at MJ's?"

"Betty Bran told me that it stole some documents that must have belonged to the previous owner." Spider-Man said. "But what does Vulture want with a bunch of papers?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Carlie said, and they stood in silence for a few minutes.

"Look, Carlie, I'm sorry I hurt you when I was in Ock's body." Peter said.

"I know that Pete. It's my own fault for not listening to what you had to say." Carlie said. "Besides, the bullet only hit soft tissue. No permanent harm done." She quickly changed the subject. "Did you tag that thing with a spider tracer?"

"Yeah, but it's either out of range or destroyed." Spider-Man said. "I've got Spider-Bots all over the city, and they'll let me know the minute anything turns up." At that moment, a device on Spider-Man's wrist began to beep. "Well speak of the devil! A lot of them were just spotted going into an abandoned building on 5th street."

"How'd you know that without even checking your watch thing?" Carlie asked.

"My googles can display information from my Spider-Bots." Spider-Man said. "Call Watanabe and tell her to get a containment unit ready for the vulture." He said as he leapt out the window. 'Man, it's been a while since I saw the Vulture.' Spider-Man thought. 'He was one of the first villains I fought as Spider-Man, and the pictures I took of me fighting him were the first I ever sold to the Bugle.' He monologued as he swung through the city. 'But where did he get these bird things from? They don't look like something Smythe made, and I doubt Ock made them for him. Maybe the Jackal made them? No, Kaine killed him. Mr. Sinister? I should ask Logan, but I don't think he'd help a human like Adrian Toomes. I wish I had at least slashed it with my talons so I could have a DNA sample, or plant some micro-tracers.' At that moment, something occurred to Spider-Man. 'Wait, I'm thinking of this all wrong. I've been looking at this assuming that these things aren't human. But what if they are? That would explain why it went straight for the safe, but why would it run? The average criminal-turned-super criminal would stay and fight, but judging from how quickly it turned and ran, it was almost as of it was afraid of me.' He stopped and stood on the building across the street from where his Spider-Bots located the creatures. 'Alright, time to find out.' Spider-Man swung into an open window, and activated his talons.

"Alright, who's ready for…bird…soup." Spider-Man said. In front of him lay an army of thugs wearing Vulture gear and those creatures, and sitting in the middle of them all on some sort of throne was none other than the Vulture himself.

"Welcome to my humble nest Spider. It's a pleasure to see you again." Vulture said. "What brings you to my humble abode?"

"Oh you know, I was in the neighborhood, so I decided to be friendly and drop in. Say, while I'm here, can I borrow some sugar?" Spider-Man said.

"Y'know, I'm glad you're here, bug boy. Saves me the trouble of having to hunt you down myself!" Vulture said. "Get him!" At the Vulture's orders, two of the creatures charged at Spider-Man.

"Wow. There are so many better villain speeches you could have made than 'get him.'" Spider-Man said as he leapt over the creatures, and they both crashed into each other.

"Ouch! Are you ok Jason?" One of them asked to Spider-Man's shock.

"Yeah, sorry Billy." The other one said.

"Ok, what is going on here?" Spider-Man asked, and reached down and unmasked them, revealing two children about seven or eight years old. "W-what?"

"So now you know." Vulture said. "I found all these little street urchins homeless and alone, and recruited them into my crew. In exchange for teaching them to read and write, they steal a few things for me here and-"

"You bastard!" Spider-Man yelled. "Who do you think you are? Using helpless children for your own gain? You're even worse than Octavius!" As Spider-Man spoke, he remembered the stories Flash told him of how his father beat him. How some days he would come to school with bruises, how he lived under that monster for years. But for some reason, it wasn't just the memories of that that angered Spider-Man. He had been in Octavius's body for days, and had experienced the memories of the torment Otto endured from his father.

"Don't get me started on Octavius!" Vulture yelled. "I was there with him since the beginning of the Sinister Six! Despite our differences, Otto Octavius was one of the few people I could call 'friend', and what do I get for my troubles? NOTHING! He was content to let me sit here and burn with the rest of the world while he and the other members of his Sinister Six saved the world!" The members of the Vulture's gang just stood there and watched as their boss and New York's friendly neighborhood hero yelled their lungs out. "And what did he get for his trouble? A cozy grave in some god-forsaken cemetery! Well not me! The Vulture isn't going to bow down to anyone anymore!" The Vulture extended his wings, and dove at Spider-Man.

"Come at me bro!" Spider-Man said as he met the Vulture head on, the impact

"Tell me Spider-Man, did you weep at his funeral?" Vulture asked as the two barreled across the skies. "Did you shed a tear at the fact that Otto Gunther Octavius, the man who tormented you for years, was dead? "Did you ever think to get to know the man behind the name? The real Otto Octavius?" Vulture flung Spider-Man at the street, and Spider-Man used a web-line to stop his fall and swing right back up to punch Vulture in the gut.

"I knew him better than you'd think!" Spider-Man said as he leapt on too of Vulture and began punching him, only for Vulture to perform a barrel roll and knock Spider-Man off.

"Give up Spider-Man! I've upgraded my equipment since we last met!" The old supervillain said as he launched several flèches from his wings. Spider-Man dodged each and every one, except for two he caught with his hands. His Spider Sense went off, and he tossed them right before they exploded.

"Jokes on you bird brain: so have I!" Spider-Man said, and he shot two webs which connected with Vulture's arms. Suddenly, he was no longer able to steer, and was descending rapidly. "Electromagnetic webbing. Did you honestly think I'd use the electromagnetic inverter trick again? I promised Ock I would become a better Spider-Man, and by god, I'm going to do that!"

"We'll see who's become a better version of themselves!" Vulture said, and pressed a button on his wrist. Electricity began to run down the webs, and Spider-Man let go just before it reached him. Without the proportionate strength of a spider holding him down, Vulture was able to tear off the webbing, and regained control of his harness.

"Nice trick. Let's see if you can do that again." Spider-Man said, and he and the Vulture charged at each other.

A nice restaurant

"It's a lovely night Susan." Reed Richards said.

"Indeed it is, darling. Can you please pass the salt?" Susan said. It was the patriarch and matriarch of the Fantastic Four and Future Foundation's monthly date night, a night away from leading the world's greatest super family or trying to find a way to create a reality-jumping Fantasticar. Just the two of them and a romantic night on the town. "I still feel kinda bad about what happened to Peter with Otto."

"Sue, trust me, I feel equally as bad about it as you, but we were lucky that Peter was able to reverse the switch." Reed said. "It scares me to think what an ego like Otto could do in Peter's body."

"Me too. I can't believe we didn't pick up on it when Peter's voice mail became 'if I can't be bothered to pick up the phone do deal with your pointless babble, please leave a message, and I may spare a few of my brain cells to deal with your problem.' That should have set off a few warning bells." Susan said. "Did you hear he's back with Mary Jane?"

"I always liked the two of them together. I'm happy for-" Reed started, when Spider-Man and the Vulture crashed through the window.

"Last chance Toomes! Give up now, and I won't be forced to open a can of whoop ass on you!" Spider-Man yelled as he slashed with his talons.

"Never! I'm going to finally do what Otto never could: kill you!" Vulture said as he dodged out of the way. "Then we'll see who the superior fighter is!" Vulture yelled, before he found he could no longer move his arms. "What-?" He looked to see Sue standing with her hand raised.

"He's all your's Spider!" She yelled.

"Thanks for the assist Sue." Spider-Man said, and reared his arm back for a punch.

"Really Spider-Man? You had to get a human chameleon to help you out? That's not a very Amazing or Spectacular take down." Vulture said.

"That's the thing Adrian. I'm trying to be a Superior Spider-Man, and that means getting some help sometimes." Spider-Man said, and knocked out Adrian with a blow to the head. "Thanks for the assist Sue. Hey Reed."

"Hello Spider-Man. How is your evening?" Reed asked.

"Went on a joyride through New York with the old bird over here." Spider-Man said, and noticed Reed and Sue's attire. "Oh man, I'm sorry guys. I didn't mean to interrupt your date. If I had known, I would have rammed Vulture into a billboard of something."

"Don't worry about it. We're always happy to help out a friend." Reed said. "Though if you don't mind, there's some ribeye steak calling my name."

"Of course. See you around guys." Spider-Man said as he created some web-cuffs and swung off, Vulture tucked under his arm. Before long, he arrive at the building on 5th, police vans all over the place. He swung down, and placed the Vulture in a transport.

"Spider-Man!" A female voice said, and Spider-Man looked to see Captain Watanabe and Carlie walking over to him. "What's the deal with all these homeless kids?" Yuri asked.

"They're the creatures that have been robbing the city for the past week. Vulture was promising to teach them to read and write in exchange for them stealing all over he city. You can ask his gang members to confirm the story." Spidey said.

"That's the thing wall-crawler. Most of his gang's in the wind. We got maybe…how much Carlie?" Watanabe asked.

"That guy from the gang unit said about one eighth of known associates of the Vulture were captured. The rest probably turned tail and ran the minute you and old man Toomes started fighting." Carlie said. "We may be able to work out a plea deal for reduced sentencing in exchange for the locations of his other gang members, but I doubt he would take it even if he did know where they were."

"I'll keep an eye out for them." Spider-Man said. 'But where could they have gone? I couldn't have been gone too long before the cops got here. Oh well, that's another problem for another day.'

Sewers

"Man, how did Spider-Man find us so fast?" One of the Vulture's goons asked.

"I heard from Ming in Chinatown that Spider-Man has been upgrading a lot of his equipment lately. He must have some sort of sonar thing now." Another answered. About twenty of the Vulture's gang and half the kids had hidden in the sewers, leaving the rest of the kids to fend for themselves. In this city, one looked out for themselves.

"Sonar? Highly unlikely." A voice said from the shadows. "A sonar wouldn't be able to penetrate buildings, and he wouldn't have known it was you guys in there if it had. No, he found you with a new surveillance system he calls 'Spider Bots.' Odd name, but what else would you expect from a guy called Spider-Man?"

"Who are you?" One of the thugs asked.

"Someone with a business offer." The voice said. "An offer to be on the winning team, to help be the first step towards the toppling of this world order, creating one where you would be able to have anything you wanted. All I ask is your allegiance."

"We're listening." One said, and the rest nodded in agreement. "So what's the name of our new boss?"

"Once upon a time, I was called 'Norman Osborn', then I was called 'Green Goblin'. After a while I was called 'Iron Patriot', then I became 'Super Adaptoid', but now? I have a new name." A light illuminated the tunnel, revealing the smiling visage associated with the Green Goblin. "You may call me the Goblin King!"

Next Time: Back To School