Spider-Man: The New Animated Series Season 2: Against All Odds
Episode 4: Scorpion Sting
During the nighttime of New York City, in the middle of Manhattan, a patch of street suddenly exploded into debris and chunks of rock and concrete, disrupting a steady flow of traffic. Cars crashed into each other, as those in the forefront of this explosion abruptly slammed on their brakes in order to avoid any damage to their vehicles, though that point became moot when those crashes from behind ensued.
From out of the hole that was the aftermath of the explosion in the road, a scorpion-like humanoid jumped out of the ground. He began to attack random vehicles and pedestrians in his way with his brute strength, lengthy tail, and acid that shot out from that tail. Nearby police cars zoomed out of their current positions and raced down whatever streets they were on to stop this new menace. The officers in the police cruisers scurried out of their vehicles, aimed their weapons at the scorpion-like man, and called for him to halt.
When the scorpion-like being refused to listen to the cops, the latter began to shoot him. But their bullets hit nothing but the being's armored hide, which seemed more impenetrable than a rhino's. Still, even through the armor, the scorpion-like figure felt at least the microcosm of the bullets' regular impacting forces, so he turned to the nearest group of parked police cruisers to attack the cops there. The first attack he brought upon them was a small acid wave that shot out of his tail. The acid didn't touch any of the officers themselves, but it hit the hoods of their cars. The acid ate through the metal of the hoods until they reached the vehicles' engines, causing the cars to explode.
Very few of the cops at these cars were aware of the impending danger to the cars in time, and even fewer managed to make it in time to at least get thrown off by the forces of the resulting explosions of their vehicles. All the other cops were instantly fried hotter and faster than an oven-cooked chicken. Some of these victims were even reduced to ash; whether or not any of their funerals would be burials or cremations was a moot point now, as those unfortunate victims would already be nothing more than ash in vases later; assuming that even their ashes would make it out of this one, if any.
The cops from the other sides of the street, seeing the explosions of the cars that the scorpion-like being attacked, had no choice but to leave their vehicles unattended so that they could go and take of this menace themselves. These cops squeezed their way past the accidentally-made blockade of crashed vehicles, or what remains of them there were since this new monster appeared, and even had to step over some dead bodies–some which were still somewhat intact, others melted through to expose the innards of their bodies–just so they could reach the scorpion-like being. That was a big mistake on these officers' part, as, again, like before, the bullets didn't seem to do anything to penetrate this man's hide, and he just took care of these officers as easily as his preceding victims.
As the carnage proceeded, Spider-Man swung in, and crouched on the ledge of a nearby rooftop to observe the horrors being conducted by this new supervillain. Several seconds later, he took out of his camera, set it to auto-shoot, and spout out a small web to stick it to the ledge beneath him, he spout out another web-line and swung in just as the scorpion-like being turned around to face him. The force of Spider-Man's double-kick to his chest sent him flying backwards into the brick-layered building behind him. He hit it with such force that, after he collapsed like a ragdoll to the ground, a few loose bricks followed with him, though only a couple hit him on the way down.
The scorpion-like being looked up from his prone position and up ahead to Spider-Man, who stood tall and proud even amidst numerous dead bodies in various dispositions of mutilation and decomposition and destroyed cars.
"Spider-Man," the being said in a gravelly voice as he pushed himself to his feet. "Just the man I wanted to see. I figured this random act of violence in the streets would get your attention."
"Have you ever considered e-mail as a first resort?" Spider-Man quipped even despite the catastrophe around him.
"Didn't think superheros had any. The name's Scorpion; the ultimate predator against the spider."
More green acid shot out from the Scorpion's tail as it rocketed towards Spider-Man. The superhero leapt up out of the way, and he flipped towards the supervillain to give him a double-kick to his unarmored face; the only thing on the Scorpion that was unarmored, in fact. But the supervillain blocked the attack by smacking his wrist against Spider-Man's incoming ankles, and flipped him back towards the roof of a destroyed car.
Spider-Man crashed through the roof on his back in an unoccupied vehicle, as the occupants of the car must've already left to escape the Scorpion's wrath, if they hadn't already been killed by him. He then saw the supervillain himself, having already leapt high into the air from his previous position, suddenly descend on him from a few storeys up. Spider-Man flipped back and out of the car from the hole in the roof that the Scorpion made of the superhero's body, and the supervillain himself, upon landing in the destroyed car, smashed right through it, rendering it into two pieces.
As Spider-Man landed on his feet, ready to face the Scorpion again, the latter picked up both pieces of the destroyed car and threw it right towards his opponent. Spider-Man leapt up high over the pieces, spout out two web-lines–one for each piece of the destroyed car–and used all his strength to throw it right back toward the Scorpion. However, the latter punched right through each piece with each fist, then, as Spider-Man began to descend back to the ground from his jump, the Scorpion leapt up high in a parabolic arc to meet Spider-Man. His timing was perfect, although Spider-Man was able to punch him right in his face and send him back down to the ground.
But as he landed on his back, he got up just as quickly and swung up his tail at Spider-Man, who was then just a few meters up from the ground. The superhero flew sideways for several meters, his body nearly licking the flames of the fires of one of the police cruisers that the Scorpion destroyed. Upon landing to the ground, Spider-Man rolled numerous times before gracefully recovering amidst this roll and flipping right back up to his feet, his back facing where the Scorpion was now. He swiftly turned around in time to see the Scorpion, having already made another superhuman leap, soar straight over the flaming cars, and upon landing, he charged straight for Spider-Man.
The superhero met his opponent head-on, and kicked out with a foot, which the Scorpion easily grabbed with both hands and use to swing Spider-Man around a couple times before flinging him off into a brick wall. But the agile superhero arrested his trajectory by grabbing a lamppost heading his way, and then swinging himself back as a human rocket for the Scorpion. His brief flight had him end up tackling the supervillain to the ground, where they rolled a few times, punching and kicking each other, until their roll stopped, and this punch-and-kick contest was ended by the Scorpion who managed to get past Spider-Man's defenses and kick him in the chest. The superhero went flying backwards, but once again stopped himself by spouting out a web-line to the Scorpion's chest, and then yanked himself back to his foe at full speed.
The Scorpion rolled out of the way, but Spider-Man spout out another web-line to a nearby building, which changed his momentum and swung him down to Scorpion's new position. There, he planted a firm, hard kick into his face, which he saw knocked out a few teeth, along with making his nose a little bloody. But even despite this, the Scorpion didn't back down, and he made a kick himself into Spider-Man's back that the superhero's spider-sense didn't warn him about in time. He then flew right through the window of the apartment of a family having a quiet time watching TV. Spider-Man's body smashed through the television set, destroying it and rendering it to pieces, and the family screamed and panicked at the violence brought into their home as Spider-Man lay prone on the floor.
The Scorpion charged to the apartment that Spider-Man landed in, and he busted a whole through the wall that had framed the broken window. The family decided it was best to leave, and they scurried out the door of their home while Spider-Man turned on his back and flipped backwards from a punch that the Scorpion nearly brought to his face. While the punch made a small crater in the floor, Spider-Man charged his opponent again, but the latter gave him a good uppercut that knocked him down to the floor. Then the Scorpion dragged Spider-Man outside by his ankle, and flung him toward a burning police car.
But Spider-Man regained his senses just in time to change his trajectory into a flip over the burning vehicle and landing on the other side completely flame-free. He spun around and saw Scorpion seemingly flying toward him, but Spider-Man jumped up and planted another good kick straight into the bridge of his opponent's nose. The latter flew back and landed on his back, which he then changed into a backwards roll and got up in a crouch. He stood up to his full height as Spider-Man swung towards him at full speed again, but the Scorpion moved out of the way while simultaneously giving his opponent a clothesline punch to the jaw, knocking him down on his back.
The supervillain then lifted up his foot and proceeded to drop it down to curb-stomp Spider-Man. But the latter grabbed the foot with both hands, threw it off his direction, also knocking out his foe's balance a bit, before he gracefully leapt to his feet and delivered another solid hit to the Scorpion's face, knocking out yet another tooth. The supervillain flew back from the blow, and had to push himself to his feet in order to get up. He stared at Spider-Man from a short distance with a growl, baring his teeth–the ones that Spider-Man hadn't knocked out, and whose gaps could be seen every time the Scorpion would open his mouth now.
Spider-Man prepared himself for another round with the Scorpion, but the supervillain surprised him by turning around and running away. The superhero decided to follow him, and swung after the Scorpion just as the latter reached a closed sewer manhole. He lifted off the lid and jumped down inside, the lid following him in its descent to close snugly around the hole. Spider-Man landed near the manhole, lifted it, and dropped in.
But once he landed, he looked around, but couldn't find any sign of the Scorpion.
"Damn," he muttered to himself.
He then heard the sewer lid above him move completely out of the way, and looked up to see Officer Barr and another cop above him pointing their weapons at him. "Freeze, Spider-Man!" Barr shouted.
But, as expected, the superhero ducked out of Barr and his colleague's line of aim to move down the sewage tunnel. In response, Barr motioned to several cops to follow him down so that they can chase Spider-Man. However, by the time they all made it down, they found out that Spider-Man was already gone.
A couple blocks away, Spider-Man came out of the sewers after lifting a manhole out of the way in an alley. He replaced the lid, and smelled himself.
"Whew!" he commented. "Boy, am I gonna need a tomato juice bath. And to think that it only works for skunks."
Snapping out his self-repertoire from something he noticed out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a light-skinned African-American teenage girl, along with two long-haired, stone-faced (they kind of looked like marijuana smokers rather than the strong-silent type stone-faced kind) Caucasian boys about the same age as her, standing in the only exit out of the alley with him. One of the boys had jet-black hair while the other had dirty blond hair.
The girl smiled a bit too enthusiastically. "Hi, Petey," she said, tilting her head in an odd, erratic direction. "You'll be seeing us around again sometime soon." Suddenly changing her attitude to business-like, "Enjoy the rest of the night, Mr. Parker," though she said it rather quickly compared to the slow, mock-ominous way she said he previous sentences. Once she was done speaking, she and her two male accomplices turned and walked out of the alley, disappearing out of sight from around the corner.
Spider-Man obviously followed so that he could know what the girl was talking about, who and the other guys with her were, how she his identity, etc., even if they would go out in the open about it. He found the three teens walking away in light foot traffic.
"Hey, wait," he called, following them.
The three teens turned around, the girl putting back on her overly-cheerful smile, while the blank expressions of the males stayed on. But before Spider-Man could get any closer to them, they just faded away into nothingness as they waved goodbye.
And no one else on the street noticed this happening.
"What the hell?" Spider-Man murmured to no one in particular, setting down the backup camera he just took out and used to take a photo of the three teens before they completely disappeared into thin air.
Shaking his head in clearance, he ignored the pedestrians who began to stare at him due to his fame (or infamy, depending on who you talked to) or why he had a camera in his hands. He then put the backup camera back in his pocket swung off to recollect his first camera before anyone either asked for his autograph or tried to throw vegetables at him in contempt.
The next day, Peter knocked on Brian and Bernie's apartment door, and it was the former who opened it.
"Who'd have figured it'd be you who'd want to see Bernie and I for a change?" Brian retorted.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Peter replied unenthusiastically. "I don't wanna see you two. I just came here because I was wondering whether or not either you or Bernie would recognize these three." As he said this, Brian invited him and closed the door while Peter took out the photograph he took of the three disappearing teenagers and handed it to Brian to look at. "No one else seemed to notice them on the street. And if you don't either, they're the ones who are looking straight at the camera when I took this shot. Do you see 'em?"
"Well, I don't think I see any..." Brian trailed off before his eyes widened, as if there was something on the photo that either just appeared, or hadn't noticed before. "Yes, now I see them. They just appeared right before my eyes." Interestingly, it always looked like those three teens had been in that picture to Peter. Brian looked right up at him. "Yes, I do know them, both in their true forms and in these disguises of theirs from previous interactions with them during our centuries of working in different universes. They were fellow demons I worked with, who were also one of the traitors to side with Ugly Kid. The girl's name is Jessica; the guy with the dark hair is Dillon; and the last guy is Tyler." He pointed them out on the photo before looking back up at Peter.
"They appeared before you?" Brian asked after he looked up from the photo.
"Yeah," Peter answered. "Can you explain why no one else there had noticed their presence, or why you didn't see them at first?"
"Oh, it's an old demon trick," Brian answered, setting the photo down on the coffee table of his shared apartment with Bernie. "But it only works if the demons themselves are in Hell, The same works with angels. But it doesn't work on angels nor demons who are disguised as humans or any other species exist in the Multiverse when they actually are in whatever mortal worlds they're in. You see, what they would do is that their spectral forms would only appear in the minds of whoever they want to see them. That explains why no one else saw them."
"So why do they appear at all in the photo, if it was only in my mind?" Peter asked.
"Well, when it comes to cameras, those who have seen them will be the only ones to view them in the pictures taken of them," Brian answered. "Now the reason that I can is that Jessica, Dillon, and Tyler must've wanted me to see in the photo what you saw of them."
"Why would they wanna do that?" Peter asked.
Brian shrugged. "Maybe they wanted me to identify them so I could explain who they are to you. Not sure why they'd want me to do that. Did they say anything to you that would explain their intentions?"
"Jessica revealed that she, Dillon, and Tyler all knew who I was, and that I'd see them soon," Peter answered.
"Huh," Brian said with an eyebrow raised. "I wonder why they do that. Usually, demons don't appear before mortals like that just to inform them of what they know about them, or just to tell them that they'd see 'em soon. It has happened before, because some demons like to screw with some mortals to make them look like psychos just for the hell of it, and Jessica by herself is a relatively lighthearted demon who may find some fun in it. Dillon and Tyler wouldn't, it's not their MO, even though they accompany Jessica a lot. But since it hasn't mentally scarred you, I'm not sure what they wanted from you, or how this even furthers Ugly Kid's agenda in taking over the Multiverse."
"Are you sure that those three didn't just fail to scare the wits out of me?" Peter asked. "Like it was their mission, assigned to them by Ugly Kid, to make me into emotional spaghetti so I'd be less of a threat to the Antichrist?"
"That's definitely not the case," Brian said. "If that was their mission, they surely would've succeeded; demons never fail in their missions to psychologically scar a person to the point of rendering them inadequate to do anything substantial in life anymore."
"Hmm," Peter scratched his chin in wonderment. "You know, for some reason, I think there maybe something connecting these three with the Scorpion."
"The Scorpion?" Brian asked.
"Yeah, didn't you read the Bugle this morning?" Peter asked. "My fight as Spider-Man against that freak–"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've read the paper, it was on the front page," Brian interrupted. "But what do you have to base this presumed connection between the Scorpion and Jessica, Dillon, and Tyler?"
"Well, nothing really," Peter answered honestly. "I mean, it just occurred after my fight with the Scorpion. But I mean, why didn't occur at any other time? Jessica, Dillon, and Tyler appearing before me, I mean?"
"I'm in the dark about it as much as you are," Brian said. "But that sure isn't something to base a connection between one of the supervillains you fight on a regular basis and something we're not even sure even furthers Ugly Kid's plans."
"I know, I know," Peter sighed. "But don't you think you should investigate this with me?"
"You mean without Bernie?" Brian asked back.
"I'm not sure Bernie would do too well in an investigation like this," Peter said.
"Well, as much as I'm inclined to leave Bernie out of this, I can't anyway," Brian said. "As much as Bernie has been sent by God to annoy the crap out of me, he also looks out for me to make sure that I don't try to turn on the angels, whether or not I work for Satan or Ugly Kid."
"Speaking of Bernie, where is he?" Peter asked, looking around the apartment.
"He's in bed, still sleeping, not looking out to make sure I don't try to turn on the angels," Brian said sardonically.
"Huh," Peter said with a nod. "Well, if we have to take Bernie along with us to look for the Scorpion and see if there is a connection between him and Ugly Kid, I guess we'll have to take Bernie along."
"Not until we first get permission from Miss Bitch–I mean, Beatrice Lange," Brian said. "You won't tell her I called her a bitch, will you?"
Peter shook his head. "So long as you don't tell Bernie that I considered leaving him out of this because he's an idiot."
"Oh, he wouldn't take it so personally, he's pretty much aware of his own stupidity," Brian said. "It is interesting how he actually demonstrates some real bouts of intelligence though."
"Yeah, that is surprising," Peter commented as Brian turned around and walked to Bernie's bedroom, Peter following him.
Brian opened the door and called, "Rise and shine, you stupid idiot," even as the alarm clock rang with an intentionally irritating buzz.
Bernie finally awoke rather groggily, and banged the clock silent. "Why would you call me a stupid idiot, Brian?"
"And you said he was aware of his stupidity," Peter murmured in Brian's ear so that Bernie couldn't hear.
Ignoring Peter, Brian said, "Bernie, your alarm clock has been on for ten minutes already. Why aren't you up yet?"
"Well, haven't you thought that I might've developed some kind of wall to my ears to the irritatingness of this clock?"
Brian rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "Bernie..." He trailed off before stopping himself and saying, "I've already prepared breakfast for you."
"Okay," Bernie said, and then got out of bed. He followed Peter and Brian out of his room, only to be disappointed that there was no food on the kitchen table. "Hey, where's breakfast?"
"You'll get it when we go to McDonald's later on," Brian said. "I only said I prepared breakfast for you so you'd get your ass up."
"Well, if that's the case, then why should I believe you if you do take me to McDonald's if it's just another lie?" Bernie asked.
"Look, Bernie, I'll get you breakfast from McDonald's if you don't believe that Brian will do it," Peter said. "Now, look, there was a supervillain called the Scorpion I fought last night, and after my battle with the Scorpion, I met up with three teenage demons. Now we're gonna call Beatrice Lange so we can get permission to see if there's a connection."
Bernie shrugged. "Okay."
The three of them headed over to the computer, and as Brian began to set the controls up to contact Lange, he murmured to no one in particular, "I don't see why the hell we need to get permission to do this investigation as if we were fricking children–Oh, Miss Lange, good, communications between us are better than before, it seems!" Lange's stern face had appeared on the monitor just as Brian said "Children."
"What was it you were saying about children, Brian?" Lange asked, unfazed.
"Umm..."
"Uh, Miss Lange," Peter interjected, "if you don't mind, there is something that I would like to report."
"Go ahead, Mr. Parker," Lange said without preamble.
Peter briefly turned and fired a web-line to the photo he left on Brian and Bernie's coffee table. He yanked it over into his hand and then showed it to Lange. "Do you see any three particular people in this photograph, Miss Lange?"
"No one I know of–hey, wait, yes, now I do," Lange said. "Brian, aren't those three of the demons you once worked with?"
"Yes, they are, Miss Lange," Brian answered.
"Wait, what're you guys talking about?" Bernie asked as he craned his neck to see the photo. Peter shifted the photo from Lange's sight into Bernie's. "Well, I don't see anybody–hey, it's Jessica, Dillon, and Tyler!" Bernie looked from the picture to Peter. "What did they say to you, Peter?"
"Bernie," Lange interjected, "let me be the one to ask the questions about this matter."
"Yes, Miss Lange," Bernie said downtrodden, looking at his feet like a sad puppy.
Lange shifted her attention from Bernie to Peter, and then asked pretty the same question. "Mr. Parker, what did they say to you?"
Peter told her what he told Brian, what he and Brian previously discussed about the matter, and concluded it with his unsupported hypothesis that there was a connection between Ugly Kid and the Scorpion.
"So you're asking me permission as to whether or not you, Brian, and Bernie can investigate further into this matter, Mr. Parker, even though you have no evidence to support this claim about a connection between the Antichrist and the recent supervillain who you fought?" Lange asked.
"Yes, I am, Miss Lange," Peter said with a nod.
After a moment of brief contemplation, Lange said, "Very well, you and the boys with you can investigate the matter, though you will be contacted for any mission that is actually assured to be connected to the Antichrist."
"Thank you, Miss Lange," Peter said as Brian moved to cut off communication with the woman.
"However," Lange said, cutting off Brian's attempt to shut off the communication with her, "as per this investigation, your goal is to capture the Scorpion and find out from him if there is indeed a connection between him and the Antichrist's plans in any way, even if he doesn't know about it, if at least directly."
"Well, wait, if we caught and interrogated him to find out if there is a connection between him and Ugly Kid, how would we be able to confirm that if he doesn't know-" Bernie tried to ask, but Brian waved him silent.
"We'll accomplish our mission, Miss Lange," Brian said, "as per the requirements you give to us."
"That's good to hear," Lange said. "Lange out." Then the monitor turned black.
Peter, Brian, and Bernie all left the apartment. And as they left, Peter said, "Trust me, guys, it won't be easy to catch the Scorpion. He's a hard sucker to fight."
"Well, Lange expects us to take this guy in one way or another," Brian said. "And even though she maybe a bitch who'll give us mission parameters that maybe impossible to accomplish, we still have to perform our duties in defeating Ugly Kid, and blah, blah, blah."
Later, after Peter was Spider-Man and Brian and Bernie were both properly disguised in their ski masks, they all sat on the ledge of a rooftop several blocks from their apartment building.
"Okay, so, now what?" Bernie asked. "What do we do, just wait for the Scorpion to appear and attack or something?"
"That's the idea, Bernie," Spider-Man said.
"Well, what if he doesn't appear today?" Bernie asked.
"Yeah, or what if we can find him faster by going underground or something?" Brian also asked.
"For some reason, I think he'll appear," Spider-Man said. "Even if it'll be several blocks away."
"Oh, wonderful," Brian said sardonically. "Once again, we're being led along to this by these unsupported guesses of yours. I'm just glad you're not a crazy mental patient who says that we can defeat Ugly Kid by jumping off this roof and plummeting to our deaths right now."
"I don't know, I'm starting to think that just might work," Spider-Man said with a straight tone.
Brian and Bernie both looked at him nervously.
"I'm just kidding with you two," Spider-Man said as he broke out in laughter.
As Brian sighed in relief, Bernie said, "That's not funny, man."
Then, all of a sudden, the street below the trio exploded into debris, halting the traffic, and the Scorpion jumped right out, immediately causing chaos just as he did the previous night.
"Hey, maybe there is a chance we can catch this guy and find out if there is a connection between him and Ugly Kid," Bernie said.
Spider-Man then pushed himself off the ledge of the roof, and he descended upon the Scorpion. He punched him in the face upon landing, stunning him enough for him to kick the supervillain in the sternum and kick him straight over a pile of the crashed and destroyed cars. As the Scorpion landed hard on the other side of that blockade, Spider-Man leapt over that pile of vehicles and soared straight in to continue his fight with the Scorpion.
Meanwhile, Brian and Bernie were left sitting on the roof. The former looked behind and around him to search through the rest of the roof in order to find out how he and his angelic, yet idiotic, counterpart could get out; considering that Spider-Man deposited them onto this rooftop, they couldn't get off via emergency stairs, because there wasn't any emergency stairs.
"So how do we get down from here?" Bernie asked.
Before Brian could say anything, he looked out to one building on the opposite side of the street, and he found Majes observing the fight between Spider-Man and the Scorpion. Brian then looked around, and sure enough, he found Niske and Botya also observing the fight from the windows of different buildings; from different perspectives to make sure they can get as many points-of-view as possible.
"Well, what do you know," Brian said. "Looks like Peter was right; there really is a connection between Ugly Kid and the Scorpion."
"What?" Bernie asked.
Brian pointed out to Bernie the different places that Niske, Botya, and Majes were all in, and none of the three demons seemed to notice them.
"Oh," Bernie nodded. Then he turned to look at Brian and said, "You know, I also said that there was a connection between them."
Ignoring that comment, Brian said, "Look, you go to that end of the roof–" he pointed the direction Bernie needed to go, then pointed the opposite direction "–and I'll go that way. Maybe there're emergency stairs we can use to get off this roof and get to at least two of those demons." He waved his arm to where Niske, Botya, and Majes were all in.
"Yeah, but which demons do we go for?" Bernie asked.
Brian shook his head. "We'll worry about that after we get off this roof. Just go over there." He pointed over to where he wanted Bernie to go again.
"Okay," Bernie replied with a nod.
Then the two of them got to their feet, and they went to their intended directions.
"There are stairs over here," both of them said simultaneously after they went to their respective directions.
Knowing Bernie's fluctuating stupidity even in the most crucial times, Brian decided to spare any arguments as to which stairs they should take when he said, "Okay, I'll come over there. You lead the way down."
"Okay," Bernie said again as Brian headed over to his direction. Once Brian was with him, Bernie led the way down as they both jumped off the ledge and landed on a flight of metal stairs.
Less than two minutes later, both of them reached the ground, and Bernie asked, "So which demons do we go for?"
"Uh..."
~o~
Once the fight between Spider-Man and the Scorpion led them around a corner at the next block, Niske took out her walkie-talkie and communicated to Botya and Majes, "All right, men, we have to leave our current positions so we can monitor the fight ourselves."
"Why can't we just watch it on the news?" Botya asked. "The media already seems to be here." This was supported as Niske noted that, outside, a news helicopter appeared and headed the direction that Spider-Man and the Scorpion headed to in their fight.
However, Niske also saw from her position that pathetic idealist, Brian, and his idiotic angelic counterpart Bernie at the alley. They were both pointing to Botya and Majes's position. Apparently, they decided that they would go after them.
"Normally, that would be a good idea, Botya," Niske said. "But we have to go nevertheless. Our positions are compromised; the idealist and his idiot guardian angel know where we are. We have to go now."
"Oh, c'mon, why can't you let us fight 'em?" Majes asked. "I've been itching for a rematch against that moronic angel since last week in that crappy apartment."
"As fun as that might be, I don't think that's necessary, Majes," Botya said. "We're supposed to serve Ugly Kid, not have fun."
"Indeed, Botya," Niske said. "Let's go now."
"Oh, all right," Majes said unenthusiastically.
~o~
Brian and Bernie, who had just split up and decide to go to Botya and Majes's positions respectively, both stopped dead in their tracks just as they reached the sides of the streets that the two male demons' positions were at. They did this because they saw that those two demons had left, and saw that the same was true for Niske as she was also gone from where she once was.
The human-disguised demon and angel allied with each other ran back to each other.
"Okay, so what do we do now?" Bernie asked.
"Well, what say we go help Peter take down the Scorpion?" Brian asked.
"Okay," Bernie agreed.
They both made their move, only to find that Spider-Man and the Scorpion were both gone.
"Okay, so what do we do now?" Bernie asked again.
"Oh, I don't know, find them?" Brian asked.
"Okay," Bernie said again.
"You know, you saying 'okay' all the time is really getting annoying," Brian said as he led Bernie down the street to find out where Spider-Man and the Scorpion went in their fight.
~o~
The Scorpion threw Spider-Man straight through a light pole, and it snapped in two pieces whose top half collapsed before the supervillain's feet as his opponent landed hard on his back on the sidewalk. Then, after Spider-Man recovered and leapt to his feet two seconds later, the Scorpion grabbed the broken light pole and threw it right into his foe's direction. But Spider-Man flipped over, grabbing the pole with both hands as he went, and when he landed on his feet after he came out of his flip, he swung it right down to the Scorpion's head.
The supervillain didn't react fast enough and it smashed to pieces, stunning him and giving Spider-Man enough time to charge him and make a direct punch to the face. But the Scorpion recovered just in time, ducked beneath the blow, and came back up with a good uppercut that sent Spider-Man flying upwards. However, before he was even halfway up to roof level of the street both he and the Scorpion were fighting in, he spout out a web-line to the pavement below and yanked himself back to continue his second battle with the supervillain.
But once Spider-Man landed and turned to face the Scorpion again, the latter turned away and began to run towards someone. Spider-Man looked, and found that the supervillain was heading for Mary Jane, who just happened to be on the same street that he and the Scorpion were fighting at, but had been too busy fighting him to notice her here. Now, the supervillain was heading towards her; presumably so that he could use a hostage in order to find a different way to kill his superhero opponent aside from simply continuing the fight. Spider-Man then ran towards MJ as well, but the Scorpion got to her first, grabbed her in one arm, and held her out in front of him as a human shield, his acid-spitting tail aimed at her head.
How many times do MJ and I have to face this old cliché? Spider-Man wondered.
"Don't move, Spider-Man, or I'll–" The Scorpion didn't finish the sentence, as a somehow-flying ski-masked Brian tackled right into MJ's side and right out of the supervillain's threatening grasp. At the same time, this caused a reflexive action on the part of the Scorpion's tail to spit acid, and it spat that acid just as the tip of his tail was aimed straight in his unprotected face.
"No!" Spider-Man shouted as the Scorpion, killed by his own extremely corrosive acid in the face, collapsed on his front, dead. The superhero then looked over and saw Bernie, just lowering his arms from an action that looked like he threw something; it must've been Brian, considering how the latter just flew right into Mary Jane.
After Mary Jane and Brian got to their feet, the latter looked over to the Scorpion's body and muttered, "Oh, damn." Bernie ran over to approach the supervillain's corpse, and turned him over on his back to observe his horribly scarred visage.
"Oops," he said. "I killed him."
Then police cruisers drove around the corner. Knowing his cue, Spider-Man webbed Brian and Bernie onto his back in a simultaneous action as he swiftly jumped up, despite the added weight to his back, and swung away.
~o~
After the three of them got back to their apartment, Peter, Brian, and Bernie reported on what happened with the Scorpion. Though Lange first expressed disapproval over the fact that they failed to bring back the supervillain alive in order to discern whether or not he had a connection to the Antichrist, Brian and Bernie interjected that Niske, Botya, and Majes were observing the fight at precise positions; most likely to report what happened in the fight for Ugly Kid, thus proving Peter's theory that there was indeed a connection between Ugly Kid and the Scorpion.
"Very well; you at least know there is a connection," Lange said. "But what is it?"
"Uh... we don't know about that," Brian said.
"Indeed," Lange said with a measurable restrain of contempt. "Nevertheless, at least this threat has been removed. But our better spies will look into what purpose the Scorpion had served for Ugly Kid, if he hadn't already served it. Is there anything else to report?"
"No," Peter, Brian, and Bernie all answered.
"Very well," Lange said. "Lange out." Then the computer monitor shut off.
After Peter left Brian and Bernie's apartment, he found Mary Jane knocking on his door. "MJ?"
She turned around, and said, "Oh, hey, Peter. Uh, what were you doing in that apartment?"
"Oh, I was just hanging out with a couple of the neighbors," Peter answered. "Trying to make some new friends and all."
"Right," MJ replied. "So were you just about to head back into your own apartment or..."
"Uh, yes, I was."
"Will you invite me in?"
Peter looked at MJ with a perplexed look that gradually dawned to realization. "Yeah. Sure."
MJ smiled. "Thanks."
Then Peter moved past MJ, opened the door, and politely invited her in first. He followed suit, and closed and locked the door behind him.
After a little more consoling between them regarding Harry's loss, it became one of the best nights for either of them.