Spider-Man: The New Animated Series Season 2: Against All Odds
Episode 5: Sins of the Past
Nearly two years earlier, Ben Parker sat in his car, waiting for his nephew, Peter, to come out of the New York Public Library.
All of a sudden, there was a tap on the driver's window. Startled, Ben looked over, and found a man with a gun pointing in his direction. Not knowing how to react in this situation, Ben was dumbfounded as the crook opened his unlocked door.
"I need your car," the thug said as he pulled the old man out of his vehicle. To Ben, he didn't sound very enthusiastic like a lot of other thugs in the city would be when they pulled a car jacking; it sounded as if this particular thug was somehow forced into doing this, an action he didn't want to do.
"Listen, sir, you don't wanna do this," Ben said, relatively calm considering the circumstances; he dealt with far worse men in all his years in living in this city, and he had a gut instinct that he could resolve this situation with no violence or theft.
"I know that, but I have no choice," the crook said, his tone somewhat apologetic.
"Look, why don't you just put the gun down, and go home?" Ben asked, looking straight into the thug's eyes.
When the crook looked back, what Ben saw there was a sudden look of realization, as if the old man before him had miraculously found the cure for cancer; a cancer the thug may had, and sought so long for even a brief respite.
Suddenly, another man, presumably this thug's partner, accidentally bumped into the man before Ben. The gun in his hand accidentally went off, and the thug before the old man screamed as the latter collapsed to the ground.
The thug's partner, with a briefcase with must've been money, had already gotten into Ben's car, and decided to drive off without his dumbfounded partner. Even despite his old age, Ben didn't immediately die from a gunshot that would have killed someone considerably younger, and his life would hang on a tenuous balance for several more minutes as he watched his car drive off, along with the deeply regretful thug run away.
And even after a crowd blockaded by a few police officers around his body had gathered, and Peter had broke through to hold his uncle's hand in the old man's last few moments, Ben still didn't really hold anything against the thug who shot him; he did feel angry at the crook who took his car though. However, he felt pity to that crook who shot him that was shared with the thought of how his wife, May, and their nephew would cope in his loss.
After Ben died there, his nephew, who had secretly gained superhuman spider powers unbeknownst to anyone else at the time, went after the crook who stole his car, believing that he was the one who killed his uncle; indirectly, that was true, as he did startle his partner into pulling the trigger. Peter managed to track the carjacker right into an abandoned warehouse, where he beat the living daylights out of him before he saw who he was; the man who he let go from stealing money at the wrestling ring that Peter himself fought in that night.
Ben Parker's nephew defeated that thug, who had suffered a fall that very well nearly killed him. While Peter thought that who he believed to be his uncle's killer was gone, Dennis Carradine, the carjacker, would spend several weeks in a prison hospital to heal from the broken bones he suffered as a direct result of the fall, along with some minor bruises from when he was beaten and a twisted wrist. Then, later, after Peter graduated from high school months later, he would become New York's guardian superhero, Spider-Man.
As all this happened, Ben's true murderer, Flint Marko, would spend almost the next two years, continually running from the law as he tried to get money for his sick daughter, Penny.
The Antichrist Ugly Kid, whose plans were in ruling all of reality, gathered up what useful information his number one spy knew about Spider-Man and his alter ego, Peter Parker, and learned something particularly interesting; while Parker believed who he thought was his uncle's killer to be dead rather than in prison, having healed from his wounds on that fateful night long ago, the real culprit was still on the loose. On his orders, Ugly Kid's own spies in the N.Y.P.D. pulled up what files they could find regarding at least rumors of Flint Marko's whereabouts. It was rumored that he was running around in New Jersey.
Ugly Kid then sent out a few more spies to find Marko in New Jersey, but not to come into direct contact with him, and those spies confirmed the crook's presence there, which was something that the police themselves weren't too sure of. Afterwards, the Antichrist managed to pull a few strings to set something in motion.
To have Spider-Man know who his uncle's killer really is.
It had been less than two years since Dennis Carradine was incarcerated, and now, unexpectedly, an anonymous benefactor had bailed him out finally. Carradine was now out on the streets, enjoying freedom, and his benefactor had even given him a new job, even if it was as a fruit stand vendor. His life of crime was now over–even if he did miss it somewhat.
Around the corner of where Carradine's fruit stand currently was, the man who put him in jail, Peter Parker, and his new girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson, were taking a nice leisurely walk, as it was Peter's day off. The photos Peter took of Spider-Man's final fight with the Scorpion three days earlier had paid him enough to pay for not only his rent, but to take Mary Jane out on a date to see a movie. Sure, as usual, the photos used for the various spots on different angles for the story of Spider-Man's final fight with the Scorpion were made to be part of J. Jonah Jameson's tool to continue slandering the vigilante at every chance he got. But to Peter, Jameson could call his superhero alter ego the Antichrist for all he cared–even as he pretty much figured that what Brian told him about that whole deal was true ever since the two of them, and Bernie, had to fight Niske, Botya, and Majes.
Peter and Mary Jane continued their stroll, just chitchatting about their lives and how much they continued to miss Harry, even if the grief was so much less than during or shortly after his funeral. That came to an end when they reached the corner, and Peter saw the one person he didn't think he'd ever see again in a million years, even if he went to Hell itself and saw this guy's spirit here.
It was the man who killed Uncle Ben, who was now selling oranges to pedestrians on the street who were interested. Ben's murderer was blissfully selling the fruit until he looked off to his side, and saw Peter's face, staring back at him angrily.
"Peter, what's wrong?" Mary Jane asked.
Immediately, Ben's killer abruptly closed the stand, even as it was hours from its closing schedule, and he ran off, attracting some nearby attention, none of them being cops, for there didn't seem to be any in this area right now.
"Hey, what's with that guy?" MJ asked when she noticed Ben's murder/fruit stand vendor running away.
"MJ, go home," Peter said without looking at his girlfriend.
"What?" she asked once he took two steps forward.
He stopped in his tracks and turned around to look her in the eye. "Just do it. I have some unfinished business to take care of."
Peter turned back, not waiting for a response from his girlfriend, and he charged across the sidewalk to chase down the man who killed his uncle all those years ago.
Carradine rounded an alley, finding that there was another exit at the opposite end, and he charged for it in order to escape the man who put him in prison; considering that he believed that he killed his uncle, Carradine didn't think that explaining that he was let out legally would help him out.
But before he was even halfway through the alley, he was tackled down to the ground from behind. Then, once he was turned on his back, the guy who put him in jail gave Carradine a direct punch to the face before the former crook even had a chance to defend himself. Once the whiteness from his vision cleared, he found that his arm was now in a painful position behind his back as the rest of his body was pressed to a brick wall in the alley.
"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" Peter said to Ben's murderer without any restrained contempt.
"Please!" Carradine cried out. "I was let out early! I was given a new job! Okay? Just please, leave me alone!"
"Who the hell would wanna let you out early?" Peter asked in a tone that mixed retort with genuine curiosity.
"I have no idea!" Carradine answered. "All I know is that I've been given a new lease on life, and I'm not putting it to waste, man!"
Carradine was then spun around and shoved back into the wall behind him so that his eyes were on even level with the man who was indirectly responsible for having his bones broken for weeks.
"Listen, man!" Carradine said. "I didn't kill your uncle!"
Peter snorted. "Yeah, right. And I'm the President of the United States."
"No, no, it's true," Carradine said. "I know who killed your uncle. It was my partner, Flint Marko. While you let me get away with the money, Flint got him outta the car so that he and I could take it. But he shot him, and I took off without him; the cops were already coming thanks to the sound of the gunshot."
"Oh, yeah?" Peter asked. "If that's so, then where's this Flint Marko then?"
"I don't know," Carradine answered. "I didn't see him in prison, so he must still be out there, if he hadn't already been caught."
"Peter!" MJ called out from the end of the alley that Peter and Carradine came in through. The two men looked at her as she called out, "What're you doing?"
Peter and Carradine turned back to regard each other, and the former let go of the latter.
"So you're a fruit stand vendor now, huh?" Peter asked.
"Yeah," Carradine answered with a nervous nod.
A tense moment between them followed as Peter stared down at the man who may just be lying when he said he didn't kill his uncle. "Just watch yourself," Peter said before turning away and headed back to Mary Jane.
As they both left the alley, MJ briefly looked back over to regard Carradine in curiosity as he leaned back against the wall behind him in relief. She turned back to her boyfriend and asked, "What was that all about?"
"Long story, MJ," Peter said. "And I'm gonna find out if what he told me was the truth."
Later that day, Peter walked into N.Y.P.D. He walked straight up to the officer behind the counter, who was currently busy on some paperwork to notice Peter right now. Peter recognized her as the cop who tried to hold him back from joining his uncle's side in his last moments.
"Excuse me," Peter calmly asserted himself, keeping his emotions in check with the anticipation of finding out if the man he thought was Ben's murderer was just the guy who stole his car.
The clerk looked up, set down her pen, and asked, "May I help you?"
"Do you have anything on a guy named Flint Marko?" Peter asked, not caring if the cop did recognize him or not.
The clerk regarded Peter with a curious look before sitting back in an attentive stance. "What do you know about Marko, kid?"
"I ran into a guy who knew him," Peter answered. "I thought that guy killed my uncle, Ben Parker, nearly two years ago in a carjacking incident."
"Ben Parker?" the cop asked before putting her hand to her chin in wonderment. "The name does sound familiar." She looked back at Peter again and her eyes widened in recognition. "Hey, don't I know you?"
"Yeah, you tried to hold me back from my uncle who then died of a gunshot," Peter affirmed without sounding too angry about it.
"Hey, yeah, it is you," the cop said. She held out her hand. "Officer Jeanne DeWolffe, at your service."
"Peter Parker. It's nice to meet you, Officer DeWolffe," Peter said neutrally as he shook her hand. "Now, did Flint Marko really kill my uncle, or was it Dennis Carradine after all?"
"Well, if you really must know, Peter–may I call you Peter?" DeWolffe asked.
Peter shrugged. "Yeah, sure, go ahead, Officer DeWolffe."
"Well, Peter, we at first thought that Carradine was the one who killed your uncle," DeWolffe explained. "But when we interrogated him about it and his carjacking of your uncle's vehicle, he confessed to stealing the car, but not to killing your uncle. To that, he laid blame to his partner, Marko. We interviewed some witnesses who saw the shooting and the subsequent carjacking, and they all confirmed that it was indeed Marko who shot your uncle."
Then Peter's eyes widened in shock. After all this time, him being Spider-Man, saving the lives of others he didn't know about, stopping crooks and supervillains from rampaging through the streets–all because he thought he had let the man who killed his uncle go before the latter event happened. And now, he was being told that Uncle Ben's death wasn't his fault after all, and that it couldn't be stopped even if he did stop Carradine when he took all that money?
DeWolffe saw the unfortunate surprise reflected in Peter's eyes. "Look, kid, I'm sorry. I know this must be hard for you, thinking that your uncle's killer met justice, but–"
"Where is Marko?" Peter abruptly interrupted.
Taken aback, DeWolffe made an exception of Peter's sudden outburst and said, "Ya plan on goin' after him?"
"So he's not in jail then," Peter surmised, avoiding DeWolffe's question.
"Not that I know, but I'll check the records just in case," she said. She then pulled out a case file beneath her desk and opened it up to reveal a file on Flint Marko, and Peter saw the face from an upside down angle. But considering how he viewed things like this frequently as Spider-Man, he had no trouble discerning what Marko looked like right side up. As he focused on Marko's face, DeWolffe looked at the information at the side of the photo. When she was done, she looked back up at Peter and said, "Sorry, he's still on the loose."
"I see," Peter said. "Thank you. That's all I needed to know. Goodbye, Officer DeWolffe." With that, he turned around and began heading out to the exit of the police department.
"Wait, kid," DeWolffe stopped him when he was halfway to the door. "Are you planning on going after him?"
Peter turned back to face the cop with a disinterested look, as if he regarded her as some kind of insect that he can easily squash. "What if I am?"
"Well, I'm afraid I can't let you do that," she said. "That's the job of the police. We don't tolerate vigilante actions in this city; especially now that Spider-Man's back."
"It's your job, huh?" Peter asked.
DeWolffe nodded. "Yes, it is."
"Then why is a common crook like Flint Marko been out on the loose for the past two years, huh?" Peter asked, restrained anger breaking through what calm he was able to muster earlier. "Wouldn't you guys have found him already? If you guys can't find him, then who can?"
"Certainly not vigilantes," DeWolffe retorted.
Without another word, Peter turned back around and walked out the door. DeWolffe tried to follow, but by the time she made it out the door, she looked around, but couldn't find Peter anywhere.
A few blocks away, Spider-Man was already swinging off to find out where Flint Marko was.
Back in their apartment, Brian and Bernie, who were just relaxing and watching some TV, suddenly shot to their feet from the sound of the odd buzzing noise that let them know that Lange was calling them. While Bernie rushed over to the computer to activate the monitor so that Lange could communicate to them, Brian headed over to Peter's apartment to tell him that there was a new mission for them.
But after the first knock, Peter didn't answer. A few seconds later, Brian tried again, but still, the door didn't open. So Brian took out his cellphone and called Peter.
Meanwhile, as Spider-Man's cellphone rang, he let go of the current web-line he was currently holding on to and swung himself down to a rooftop. He took out his phone and saw that it was Brian calling him.
It was most likely a new mission that Lange assigned for him, Brian, and Bernie, Spider-Man correctly guessed. So, instead of answering it, he shut off his phone, replaced it, and continued to swing off to find Flint Marko.
Back outside the door of Peter's apartment, Brian, seeing that Peter wasn't answering his cell, decided to cancel the call, and returned back to the apartment he shared with Bernie. He sat down with him, as the two of them faced Lange on the computer monitor.
"Where is Mr. Parker, Brian?" Lange asked.
Brian shrugged. "I don't know. I checked his apartment and I tried to call him, but nothing."
"Well, wherever he is, try to find him along the way of your mission," Lange said. "And that mission is to investigate a recent sighting of Niske, Botya, and Majes down in the Bronx. Search the Bronx and kill those three demons when you get the chance. Inform Spider-Man of this objective when you find him. Lange out." The monitor immediately blanked out to let Brian and Bernie go about their new mission.
~o~
Spider-Man spent the next two hours, swinging about New York, trying to find Flint Marko until nighttime fell over the city. He already searched the Bronx–and left there long before Brian and Bernie would arrive to try to fulfill their mission objectives–along with Uptown, Downtown, and several other places in New York. By the time he got to New Jersey, the last place he would look, he thought he would just give up, go home, and rejoin Brian and Bernie with whatever mission they needed to accomplish.
But it was in New Jersey where Spider-Man finally found Marko.
As the vigilante hid behind the ledge of a rooftop in order to avoid the searching glare of a couple cops in a passing police cruiser, he peered over the ledge he hid, and heard a noise off to the side in the direction of an alley. That noise was the rustling of garbage, and it sounded a bit too loud to be caused by a rat or another similarly small creature. Spider-Man immediately saw Flint Marko peer out from out of the dumpster he hid himself in and look both ways at each open end of the alley before vaulting out of the mess of garbage.
Marko ran out of one end of the alley, and Spider-Man followed him along from the ledge of the roof that overlooked that alley. Ben Parker's real murderer turned in one direction once he exited the alley and made a dash. Spider-Man jumped over a couple rooftops behind Marko to follow him. The crook stopped dead in his tracks once he saw red and blue lights flashing that only came from a police cruiser from around the corner up ahead. A car had been stopped there, and a guy came out with a gun, which he tried to shoot at the cops that were there. But it jammed, and the crook was immediately tackled to the ground by those two cops so that he could be handcuffed and arrested. At this, Marko quickly looked around and dodged into the next alleyway before the cops, having arrested the thug, could notice him. Meanwhile, Spider-Man already landed on the ledge that overlooked this alley.
Although there was no open exit at the end of this alley, there were metal stairs that Marko decided to climb up in order to reach to the rooftops. He climbed about three floors before Spider-Man unexpectedly swung in and kicked both his feet into the crook's chest. He flew back over the railing behind him, and crashed right on top of a garbage can, which tumbled along with him to the ground, spilling out all of its trash.
Lying on his back, Marko pushed himself up, only to find Spider-Man land at his feet just as he sat up on his haunches. The crook looked up in fear at the vigilante, who looked down at him before simply saying in a threatening tone, "Flint Marko."
"Spider-Man!" Marko said. "How do you know my name? What do you want?"
Before the conversation could go any further, they both looked in the direction of the alley's exit and heard an incoming car coming in from around the corner of the alley. It must have been the police cruiser they both saw before Marko entered the alley.
When the police cruiser that was flashing those lights drove by, neither of the two cops in the car saw anything in the alley, and they resumed their drive down to N.Y.P.D. to put the punk they had in the back behind bars.
Meanwhile, Spider-Man hung Marko upside down via a web-line on the crook's ankle. "Please! Don't drop me! I'll do anything you want! Just don't kill me!"
Then, unexpectedly, Spider-Man let go of the web-line attached to Marko's ankle, and he descended right towards the ground in a death scream.
But his descent was abruptly stopped when Spider-Man had just as quickly grabbed the web-line after he dropped a few floors to catch Marko in time. The vigilante then leapt straight back up to the roof with Marko still hanging on the web-line in his hand.
"Why are you doing this?" Marko cried. "What do you want from me?"
"First, I want you to remember Ben Parker," Spider-Man said.
Marko, still terrified under his circumstances, looked up from the ground several levels below him to look up at Spider-Man and asked, "Who?" After that, he was dropped again, and made it a few more floors closer to the ground before he was caught again.
Spider-Man made two jumps back up to the roof from where he caught Marko this time and angrily asked, "Do you remember, two years ago, the old man you shot down in cold blood? Huh? Huh?" He dropped Marko once more, and he still screamed as he descended, only to be caught in time and then pulled all the way back up to look into the reflectiveness of Spider-Man's lenses "Well? Do you? Do you?"
Marko, fear written all over his face, stammered in terror for a bit before managing to ask, "What does it matter you anyway?"
Spider-Man pulled Marko a few inches closer to him before yelling in his face, "Everything!"
Then he threw Marko right back overhead, and he crashed near the opposite ledge of the rooftop. The crook gradually pushed himself to his feet before Spider-Man spout out a web-line for his chest and reeled him in for a good smack to the face that sent Marko crashing to the ground of the roof behind him. Spider-Man then picked Marko up by the collar of his green-striped shirt, and gave him another punch that sent him flying back a few meters.
But before Spider-Man could further attack Marko, his spider-sense tingled, and he swerved around to find Niske, Botya, and Majes standing right there. Niske kicked him straight in the chest and sent him flying back straight over Marko. Then the three demons crowded around the crook and Niske threw down something in her hand that produced white smoke. Spider-Man jumped right into the smoke, but came out the other side rolling almost off the ledge of the rooftop in front of him. He turned around and saw the smoke dissipate into nothingness before his eyes.
~o~
In the Bronx, at Brian's command, Bernie kicked open the backdoor of yet another abandoned warehouse they've searched in this part of New York.
"This is the last abandoned warehouse here in the Bronx, Bernie," Brian said. "Niske, Botya, and Majes have got to be here."
The two of them searched the entire abandoned warehouse for several minutes before they looked right in the last room. That room was sparsely furnished, and in the center was a bomb that was ticking down from 00:00:15.
"Run, Bernie!" Brian exclaimed.
Then they turned around, ran right through the threshold of the penultimate room they searched in the warehouse, and Bernie was the one to crash his own body through the window, its glass shards falling to the ground below, so that Brian could follow him without trouble. They descended a few storeys above the ground, but they didn't even hit the concrete below before the warehouse exploded.
The force of the resulting shockwave sent the two of them flying straight over the fence that the warehouse had been surrounded by, and they both landed simultaneously atop a parked car.
Brian and Bernie turned on their fronts in agony atop of the car and looked at the fiery inferno of the burning abandoned warehouse.
"Well, that was an expertly handled cliché, wouldn't you say, Brian?" Bernie asked.
"You know, you watch way too many cheesy 80's action movies, Bernie," Brian replied. "But yes, I do agree, Bruce Willis couldn't have done that escape from the explosion routine any better."
The two of them looked back at the burning warehouse, and rolled off the car to make themselves scarce as police, medics, and firefighters made their incoming presence to the scene noticeable through blares, honks, and other sounds. Brian and Bernie disappeared into an alley, not seen by anyone as they were too focused by the burning warehouse itself, where the human-disguised demon and angel took off their ski masks and began to head back home to report to Lange on what little they accomplished in their mission.
~o~
Elsewhere in New York, Marko woke up on the floor of a darkened room where he couldn't make out his surroundings too well. But the three people who saved from Spider-Man's wrath stood out in the darkness thanks to the light hanging over his head.
"Flint Marko," the woman said, "you are a wanted fugitive responsible for numerous thieveries and one murder that has particularly attracted the attention of Spider-Man. We will offer you protection from him if you do this one simple task." The woman took out something and dropped it before Marko's knees as he tried to get up. "You must kill this woman. Her name is May Parker."
"Parker?" Marko asked as he looked up from the photo of the old woman to the female of the trio before him. "Is she related to that old guy I killed, Ben?"
"She is Ben Parker's widow, yes," the woman of the trio confirmed.
Marko looked back at the photo before returning his attention to the trio before him. "No," he said, shaking his head in refusal. "I can't do this. It was bad enough I had to kill an elderly man. I won't kill his widow. Besides, Spider-Man went after me for killing Ben Parker. How can you assure me protection from him if I kill the old lady?"
"Trust us, we'll protect you," the woman said. "Just kill May Parker, and Spider-Man won't be a problem to you any longer."
"I already said no," Marko said defiantly. "You can't really expect me to do this, can ya?"
"Oh, but we do, and you will," the woman said as one of the men in the trio turned and headed back to a corner of the room. "For you see, if you do indeed decide not to kill May Parker after all, we will kill your daughter."
"Penny?" Marko asked in shock. "You wouldn't!"
"Oh, but we can do so much more to her than merely kill her," the man who didn't leave the woman's side intoned. "We'll torture her for hours on end, make her see, hear, feel, smell, touch, and taste things not meant for any of those senses of any living being; we will traumatize her without limit, rape her, etc. before we ever end her life. There is nothing we can't do to your little daughter, and unless you abide to us, we'll break her neck just as we did to your ex-wife's."
"Emma? No!" Marko pushed himself to his feet, only for the woman to kick him in the ribs and have him fall back down to the ground.
"Yes!" the man who went to the back corner of the room mocked Marko's previous remark. He then dragged in Marko's daughter, Penny, and held a knife to her throat as he held her like a human shield. "Or I can just simply watch a little red waterfall drain from her neck when I open it with this blade. That is, of course, if you don't kill that old bag in the photo there."
"Daddy! Please help me!" Penny cried out.
"Penny!" Marko cried back helplessly.
"So, what's it going to be, Marko?" the woman asked as she and the man who wasn't holding Penny folded their arms before him.
Marko stared at them for a short while before drooping his head to the floor in a defeated sigh, then looking back up at the trio who ended his ex-wife's life, and threatened his daughter's. "All right," he said as he picked up the photo. "I'll do it."
"Good," the woman intoned as the man who held Penny tossed the knife over into Marko's hand, the handle landing perfectly in his palm. "You'll find her tomorrow at the closest grocery store to Queens. We'll make sure no one stops you as you take her outback and use that knife to do what Majes over here would've done to Penny had you refused."
"Thanks," Marko said with contempt, making the trio know he hated them more than ever now.
~o~
Meanwhile, Peter returned back in the apartment building, but before he could go into his own apartment, the door behind him leading into Brian and Bernie's apartment opened up.
"Peter," Brian's voice came, "where the hell have you been?"
"Out," he said as he began unlocking the door.
"Well, you know, we had a mission, and you didn't even answer your cellphone," Brian said.
"So how'd the mission go then?" Peter asked as he opened the door.
"We were supposed to find Niske, Botya, and Majes somewhere in the Bronx," Brian said. At that, Peter stopped and turned around to hear what else the human-disguised demon would tell him. Brian didn't seem unfazed by Peter's sudden change of attitude as he continued with, "The last warehouse we visited had a bomb in it that Bernie and I barely escaped from. Which means that they were at least there and were most likely using it as a hideout. What about you, did you happen to see them?" Brian asked that last part sarcastically, not believing that was so.
"Actually, I did," Peter said in a borderline-aggressive manner. "And they took away the man who killed my uncle." With that he turned back around, walked into his apartment, and slammed the door in a dumbfound Brian's face.
As soon as Peter was inside, his apartment phone rang. He moved to pick it up. "Hello?" he asked.
"Don't ask who this is," a deep, booming voice said. Peter knew it was one of those voices used to disguise what a person really sounded like. "All you need to know is that I know where and when you can find Flint Marko."
"I'm listening," Peter said without hesitation.
~o~
The next day, as May Parker was shopping for some milk and other groceries, where, curiously, no one else was around her, she was suddenly surprised when a man came from around an aisle slightly behind her and off to the side, and he held a knife to her neck from as he came in right behind her. She almost screamed, but it turned into a weak gasp of fear, and she looked up at all the security cameras in the area to find them all pointed away, as if they had been intentionally set that way.
"C'mon, lady," the man said nervously in her ear. "You're coming with me."
With that, the man dragged her all the way to the rear exit of the grocery store. Along the way, none of the cameras were ever pointed in their way, nor was there anyone else to witness them, even though May knew there were people in the store right now. It was as if people were somehow being blocked from witnessing this man taking her with him.
"Why are you doing this?" May asked.
"Believe me, lady, if you were in my position, you'd understand," the man said.
Not another word was spoken between them before they made it to the back exit, and once they were out in the store's back alley, where no one could see them, the man shoved May to the ground, splashing up water as she went.
The old woman turned on her back and began to crawl away from the man with the knife in his hand. She made it all the way to the back wall, where she was forced to stop, and saw an exit to the alley off to her right. But even if she did make a run for it, doubtless would the man be able to catch her in time and kill her instantly before anyone knew what would happen to her. Even so, it was strange that no one was even walking at the entrance to the alley in order to view the scene.
"Wh-who are you?" May asked the man.
"My name is Flint Marko," the man introduced himself. "And I'm the man who has no choice but to kill you, right here, right now."
"But why?" May asked.
"My daughter is in trouble," he said. "The people who have her are going to kill if I don't end her life. I'm sorry. I really am." For some reason, to May, it seemed like he was apologizing for even more than what he was about to do to her.
Marko advanced on her, and raised the blade to cut her down. But before the knife could descend upon her, his weapon hand was stopped by a web-line to the wrist. Marko turned his head back around to find Spider-Man on the ledge of the rooftop, holding that web-line. He then yanked the line to force Marko back, accidentally dropping the knife right through a hole of a nearby sewer grate.
Spider-Man then flipped off the ledge and descended for Marko. The crook dodged to his right in order to avoid a curb-stomp from the vigilante, but even as Spider-Man landed, he didn't lose any momentum in his movements as he swerved around and delivered a solid roundhouse-kick right across Marko's head. The thug dropped to the ground, but before he could even make it to his knees, Spider-Man smacked his head straight into the ground. He did this two more times before May stopped him.
"Spider-Man, that's enough!" May exclaimed. "You're going to kill him!"
"That's the idea," he said darkly. "And considering that this is the same man who killed your husband, you should be thanking me."
Instead of doing what Spider-Man just suggested, May was taken aback, and asked, "How do you know about Ben?"
Spider-Man was hesitant in his response, but he came with answering, "I know your nephew, Peter. You may know that he takes pictures of me for the Daily Bugle. He told me quite a bit you and your late husband, and how the both of you raised him like you were his parents."
"Oh," May said. "Well, if Peter told you about me, then he must've also told you that I don't condone this type of violence on anyone, even if he did kill my husband."
Spider-Man got to his feet and asked, "Why?"
"Because he has enough problems as it is," May answered for Marko.
"Oh, yeah, he has," a voice came from the rooftop that Spider-Man just came from. The vigilante and May turned, and found a man, Majes, standing there with a frightened little girl in his grasp. "But since he failed to end your life, May Parker, just as he did your husband's, I shall end the life of his daughter, as promised." And with that, he took out a knife and slit the girl`s throat.
"No!" Spider-Man and May both screamed as Majes dropped the girl's body to the ground. Spider-Man swung in to catch her, but as expected, he was too late. She was already dead. He and May looked back up, and found that Majes was already gone.
Marko woke up not too long after, and he immediately went to his daughter's corpse, crying in grief. Spider-Man swung away, and May would give a statement as the police would take a defeated Marko away.
As Spider-Man traveled back to his apartment, he knew that he had no grudge against Marko anymore; the man had already suffered enough, so death wouldn't mean anything to Peter Parker anyway.
And even Peter had to admit; no one should have to suffer like that.
~o~
In Niske, Botya, and Majes's new hideout, they stood before Ugly Kid's spectral form.
"The fear, anger, and sadness from Marko was delicious as it could be," the Antichrist intoned. "It still holds, however, that you three failed to see to it that Parker's rage and hatred for Marko didn't bloom as it should. Nevertheless, the compensation from Marko's pain has been so great, I would just as well reward all three of you–if I was such a generous person, which I'm not, obviously."
"What about the failure to kill Brian and that idiot angel counterpart of his?" Niske asked.
"To be honest with you, I never actually expected that bomb to go off in time to kill those two," Ugly Kid said. "I just did it for two reasons. One, there were just way too many reports thanks to the angels' spies of where you guys were hiding out. Two, I needed to make sure Brian and Bernie didn't screw things up when it came to the whole Marko business. Alas with that, though, I guess that was kind of my fault, but mostly your fault, in my consideration to get Marko to kill May Parker, have you guys kill his daughter anyway before his eyes, and then have Spider-Man kill him. But, oh, well, it's what happens when you gamble like that, and even someone such as I doesn't always have that kind of luck; but we all gamble in our own ways, don`t we? Anyway, it'll be all the more delicious for me when the time comes when Brian and Bernie really will die in the end."
"So what was the point of the bomb then, master?" Botya asked.
"Oh, that was the third reason I forgot to mention. That was because I like explosions," Ugly Kid said simply. "You know how much they remind of home. Don't explosions remind you fellas of home?"
"They do," the three demons all said with a nod.
"Of course they do," Ugly Kid said. "But anyway, we're not here to talk about explosions, as beautiful as they are. I'm tellin' ya, boys–and girl–just as I've already told all the other demons not currently in my presence this one thing: all hell's gonna break loose real soon. Y'all know what that means, do ya?"
Niske, Botya, and Majes all nodded wordlessly.
"But... before that happens, there're few things we still gotta do. Pieces still need to be moved around on the proverbial chessboard, all to set up for one big checkmate against the Big Man in the Sky Himself. And when that checkmate happens, I shall be the new God. No one will stand in my way. The gambles we take from hereon out will all count. But one man continues to stands in my way, and unless we take him out first in every way imaginable, I will be defeated. However, although my recent plan to harbor his own darkness has failed, what will follow will see to it that what has failed will succeed in a different way. Because I am Ugly Kid, the Antichrist, and the future ruler of all the Multiverse."