Spider-Man: The New Animated Series Season 2: Against All Odds
Episode 6: Evil's Ugliness: Part 1
In the New York City Airport at night, several passengers got off of Flight 66 in a hurry and with looks of fear on their faces. Those who disembarked from other flights, or those waiting for their own flights, looked at the former passengers of Flight 66 in wonderment.
That was before the most hideous adolescent that anyone had ever seen was among the last passengers to disembark from Flight 66. Wearing a blood-red suit, he had horrible, wrinkled, pale white skin that showed his arteries and veins; sharp, wooden teeth at odd, crooked angles in his mouth; and blood-red eyes that were much darker than his suit. With this hideous adolescent was a posse of darkly dressed individuals who looked unremarkable, unlike the ugly teenager they were with.
Everyone was staring unabashedly at the grotesque kid, and the sounds of infants and toddlers crying from wherever the teenager and his posse went was always in the background. Otherwise, things went relatively uneventful as the adolescent and his group checked through luggage and airport security. The guards were thrown off by the teenager's appearance, but as one of them checked all of their passports and saw that everything was in order, he let them pass.
The hideous teenager's name on his passport said RICHARD ILLGUE.
Near the exit of the airport, Richard Illgue and his posse met up with a limo driver who held up a sign saying the ugly teenager's name. The driver led the group outside and to his limo, where he opened several of the limo's doors, and Illgue and his posse went into the car through the various entrances.
Once they were all inside, the driver closed all of the doors and then walked all the way around the limo to get into the driver's seat. After he sat in, he started the car and began driving without asking where Illgue or any other member of his group wanted to go to.
Because the driver already knew where Illgue wanted to go. For the driver was a demon from Hell who owed his allegiances to the Antichrist, and Illgue was really Ugly Kid, the son of the Devil–his pseudonym of Richard Illgue was the final result of spelling "Ugly Kid" backwards; you would first get Dik Ylgu, then Dick Ylgu, then Richard Ylgu, and finally, Richard Illgue.
Back in the airport, a few minutes after "Richard Illgue" left in the limo, the eyes of everyone who saw Ugly Kid began bleeding. They all started to scream in agony before their eyes burst into blood, and they fell to the floor, rolling around in screeching agony and in pools of their own blood that continued to leak out from their empty eye sockets. Those now getting off from their arriving flights all walked into a bloodbath that literally painted the airport red everywhere. The same was happening to the passengers now getting on Flight 66 and those passengers of other flights who had looked upon the visage of Ugly Kid. Even the pilots of Flight 66 were now dead, but since their passengers shared the same fate, no one aboard that plane ever cared that their flight wouldn't take them anywhere.
All of this was merely the beginning of the end.
~o~
Later that evening, in Peter's apartment, he was watching the news, and he was horrified to see all the blood and the eyeless dead bodies that littered the New York City Airport. Then his phone rang, causing him to turn off the TV before the report could say what could possibly have caused all those deaths, and he answered the call. "Hello?"
"Peter, it's me, Aunt May," the kindly old voice replied at the other end of the line.
"Oh, hey, Aunt May, what's up?"
"Can you come over right now, Peter?" Her voice sounded rather abrupt and cut, and not the warm and loving voice he came to know. Even whenever she sounded angry to him, she didn't sound this... unusual. "Please?" She said that after a silent moment between them.
In that silent moment, Peter had tried to assess what was going on with May. "Sure, Aunt May, but what is it?"
"Y-you'll see when you come over," May replied. "Goodbye, Peter." With that, she hung up the phone.
Less than thirty seconds later, Peter was out the door to his apartment and heading downstairs so that he could head over to Aunt May's.
~o~
Meanwhile, Brian and Bernie were just relaxing in their apartment, with Brian pretending he was reading Hamlet when he was really looking at a Playboy he hid in one of Shakespeare's greatest plays. Bernie, meanwhile, despite his angelic background, pretended he was reading The Cat in the Hat when he was looking at pictures from the 1800s where women showed their ankles like they showed the rest of their body. Like Brian, he was getting turned on by it. They both sat way apart from each other; Brian sitting at the kitchen table whilst Bernie sat on the couch.
Yet, even in his libido, Bernie still somehow had a clear enough mind to snap out of those old photos and look over to Brian and asked, "Hey, Brian, why do you think Niske, Botya, Majes, or any other of Ugly Kid's demons just come over here and kill us?"
Brian closed the book, looked over to Bernie, and said, "What do you mean? They don't know where we live."
"Oh, yeah, well, what about when Niske, Botya, and Majes were over in Peter's apartment with that crazy chick Christina?" Bernie asked. "Surely, they must've figured we came out of this apartment right before we all went into that Mexican standoff. I mean, c'mon, both doors were left open, so either of those three demons could've seen that our door was open, we came out of that apartment, and they'd remember it so they could come over here and kill us. And even if they were too stressed and distracted by all that happened when we got in there, you'd think they'd probably return, because how else could we just be in this apartment just as they were raiding Peter's apartment?"
"Huh," Brian said. "You know, that's actually a very good point you bring up there, Bernie."
"Yeah, I know," Bernie said with a nod of his head. "Do you think there maybe something else going on, like Ugly Kid is preparing for something really big that he hasn't done before? Like, something that he's been planning for years, if not all these centuries he's been on this planet?"
"Well, that is indeed something that's been pretty damn scary to think about, I'll admit," Brian admitted. "Like everything he's done all this time was just a distraction while he's really been planning something else entirely. But, even if that is so, we don't have any substantial evidence to back that claim up for Lange or any of the others, now do we, Bernie?"
Bernie sighed. "No, we don't. But another thing that boggles is why Jesus doesn't just come back to this universe on this planet so that He can just deal with Ugly Kid Himself in like a day rather than have us try to look for the Antichrist for all these centuries with no results."
"Bernie, you know that Jesus is working with His Father in order to right the wrongs throughout the Multiverse caused by the imbalance that Ugly Kid has wrought upon thanks to what he did in Hell," Brian reminded his angelic counterpart. "I did forget to mention that to Peter, but, oh, what the hell, he's already on our side in fighting the Antichrist. So is there anything else that boggles you mind, Bernie?"
"Yeah, just one," Bernie replied.
"Shoot."
Bernie raised any eyebrow. "I don't have a gun. And what do I shoot if I did have one?"
"No, I meant tell me what else boggles your mind, Bernie," Brian explained himself.
"Oh," Bernie said. "Well, it's just that... why do some of us angels and demons have these names, like you and I, for example, that're pretty much the same as what every other North American names their kids, and then there're Memmon, Niske, Botya, Majes, Jesus, etc. who all have these weird names. I mean, what's up with that?"
Brian raised an eyebrow this time. "So you're just wondering this now?"
"Well, yeah, why not?"
Brian sighed. "You know what boggles my mind about this whole hunt for Ugly Kid?"
"Well, you didn't answer my question of 'why not' regarding why you asked me about why I was just wondering why some of us have regular North American names and some of us have weird names, but go on."
"Well, it's just..." Brian trailed off so he could regard Bernie. "You know, this whole thing with you flip-flopping between being an intellectual to rival my wits and just being an idiot confuses the hell out of me, Bernie. But that's not what boggles my mind, I mean I've gotten used to you by now, I just wanted to point that to you."
"Well, why now?"
"Why not?"
"Douché," Bernie replied.
"The term is touché, Bernie," Brian corrected his angelic counterpart. "But anyway, here's what boggles my mind–why is Peter going to be such a useful tool to us in our centuries-long hunt for the Antichrist? I mean, we've been hunting Ugly Kid down for hundreds of years, and then all of a sudden, Uatu appears before Lange and only just tells her that this superhero, who retired like months earlier, is going to be useful to us? Geez, you'd think Uatu would've told us Peter would be useful while he was actively being a superhero. But that's not what really bothers me. What really bothers me about Peter's whole involvement in this is that he isn't even really an angel or a demon! He's a human! A superhuman, at that, but still, he's got no concept of the supernatural, so how the hell would he really be any real help to us once we're really confronted by Ugly Kid? I mean, Niske, Botya, and Majes are nothing compared to the power of the Antichrist, no matter how much his powers are reduced in any of the mortal realms."
"Well, hey, Brian, don't forget we're no more powerful," Bernie said. "In fact, Peter's actually stronger, faster, and more agile than us, and even has superpowers, whereas we only have the ability to not age. And don't you remember that he fought and killed Shikata in single combat?"
"Oh, yeah, I forgot about Shikata," Brian said. "Hey, do you think we should probably tell Peter of who she really was?"
"Does it even matter anymore?" Bernie retorted.
"Another good point there," Brian replied.
Suddenly, their computer beeped, and they went straight over to respond to the call that would most undoubtedly come from Lange.
When the woman appeared on the screen, the first thing she said was, "Brian, Bernie, bringing Mr. Parker into this will be unnecessary this time; considering how he decided to seek revenge on Flint Marko a week ago, I have considered to leave him out of some missions I find he doesn't need to necessarily know about, such as this one."
"Okay then," Brian said. "So what's our mission?"
"Your mission will be the mission of every angel throughout the continent," Lange explained, "as well as those who are flying in to New York from elsewhere around the planet."
Both Brian and Bernie's eyes widened. "You don't mean..." Brian trailed off as he tried to absorb the implications of what was going to happen just before Lange herself said it.
"Yes, I do," Lange said. "The Antichrist is here, in Manhattan–and it is time to kill him."
"But wait," Bernie said, "shouldn't Peter be in on this? After all, Uatu did say–"
"I know what Uatu said, Bernie," Lange interrupted. "However, the reason that I find that Mr. Parker will not have to be informed of this is because at this point, he should already be heading in the Antichrist's destination."
"What do you mean?" Brian asked.
"When the Antichrist came out of the New York City Airport earlier today," Lange began explaining, "and subsequently left a trail of dead bodies in his wake, one of our spies who neither the Antichrist or any of his demons had seen discreetly threw a tracking beacon behind the limo that Memmon took. We tracked him down, and he has ended up in the residence of Mrs. May Parker."
"That's Peter aunt!" Bernie pointed out.
"That is correct," Lange stated. "And that leaves almost no doubt that he will be using May Parker as bait to lead her nephew into a trap. When Mr. Parker gets there, and the Antichrist springs his trap, we will be ready as we arrive, spring our own trap, and finally be done with Memmon as the balance between good and evil will be restored in the aftermath. You two will rendezvous with myself and the rest of the angels currently in New York at Forest Hills, Queens, in half an hour. And remember, do not tell Mr. Parker, even if you want to. Lange out."
~o~
Less than half an hour later, the cab Peter took dropped him off in front of Aunt May's house. He paid for the ride that took him from his apartment, and as soon as he was out and the back passenger door was closed, the taxi took off as Peter approached the front door. He knocked on it a few times, and the door opened up into a darkened house.
Suspicious, even though his spider-sense wasn't tingling, he walked inside, but didn't even see Aunt May opening the door even with the limited vision provided thanks to the darkness.
"Aunt May? Hello?" Peter called out.
Suddenly, his spider-sense came alive just as the lights immediately flashed on, and in the split second that followed before he went into combat mode, he saw about ten or so people surrounding him in a circle. They charged him when that second was over, and he barely had time to flip back. But the circle of people didn't ram into each other, and one of them turned around to kick Peter, who made his landing, in the torso, sending him flying back into the door behind him.
He crashed against it, and fell to the floor beneath him. He looked up, but the next thing he saw was a boot in the face that caused a flash of white. When it cleared, he found himself grabbed by the back collar of his shirt and thrown right back into the circle on his front. He turned on his back, and kicked one of the people down to the ground before performing a breakdance-like maneuver that knocked the rest of them down on their backs. When they were all down, he flipped to his feet, and met the few people who had the time to get back up and charge him. Each of them was a relatively formidable combatants against Peter's abilities, to whom he defeated out of desperation in each brief duel before he had to face the next one. Eventually, however, even his own strength and agility began to wane under the onslaught of the attackers until one of them hit him behind the head and knocked him prone to the floor once more.
Peter then looked up, and saw the half of the circle formed by the attackers in front of him part before their hideous leader came in, laughing evilly under his breath as he looked down at the defeated combatant now at his feet.
It was Ugly Kid, Peter recognized.
"Hello, Peter Parker," Ugly Kid said, "or should I call you Spider-Man?"
"You can call me whatever the hell you want," Peter said as he stood up to his feet. "Where is my Aunt May?"
"Bring her in," Ugly Kid called out back.
Then May was half-dragged in as Majes held her by the arm, from which she tried vainly to struggle out of, and behind them were Niske and Botya. May's struggle stopped once she finally looked ahead and called out, "Peter!"
"Aunt May!" Peter called back.
"What's going on here?" May asked in a scared tone.
"Look, everything's going to be all right, Aunt May," Peter lied, trying futilely to calm his aunt down.
"Now that's even more to the contrary than Britney Spears having a marriage that lasts for more than a few years," Ugly Kid replied with a snort.
"What do you want?" Peter asked the Antichrist.
"Hasn't Brian already told you that?" Ugly Kid retorted. "I want to be ruler over all things that exist, Peter. But for now, what I want is your soul."
Peter made a wry face. "Coming from someone like you, why am I not surprised?"
"Yes, I'll admit, it's quite a cliché," Ugly Kid said. "But nevertheless, I think you know what's gonna happen if you disagree to my... offer." That statement was punctuated when Majes forced Aunt May to her knees and then put a knife to her throat.
"Peter!" May cried out.
Peter looked in fear at what might happen to his aunt, and then looked back to the Antichrist as Ugly Kid asked, "So what's it gonna be, Peter? I sure as my home–you know, Hell–you get it? Sure as hell? Eh, anyway, I sure know you're not gonna sacrifice your aunt for yourself. Brian's told me you're not that kind of a selfish guy."
"Wait, what was that you said about Brian?" Peter asked with widened eyes.
"Oh, you mean what Brian informed me, because he's a spy of mine?" Ugly Kid retorted. "Yeah, throughout these years, he's been secretly giving me information about the actions of the angels in their attempts to take me out."
"Brian? A traitor?" Peter asked in shock.
"What, a demon from Hell, who claims to be the only remaining loyalist to the Devil to escape my wrath?" Ugly Kid retorted again. With sarcasm, he added, "Oh, what a shock that he would lie so that he'd throw you and the angels off my trail! I mean, that's worthy of an M. Night Shamalyan movie, don't you think?"
"But that can't be true even if he was really working for you!" Peter exclaimed. "Bernie's been making sure he can't do anything stupid, as much of an idiot as he is."
"There are other ways that neither Bernie or any of the other angels don't know about for Brian to communicate what knowledge he harvests from those God-loving idiots," Ugly Kid said. "But that's all irrelevant now, as my plans are going to such fruition that there's no way the angels could stop me. Once I inform Brian that it's time to get out, he'll get out, and he'll serve me just as the demons you see around you serve me."
As Peter absorbed what Ugly Kid just told him about Brian's treachery, May asked, "Peter! What's he talking about? What's going to happen to us?"
Ugly Kid turned from Peter, trusting his demons to stop him in case he tried to do anything stupid, and the Antichrist said to May, "Oh, nothing will happen to you, my dear–unless, of course, your nephew refuses to give up his very essence to me; otherwise, I'll kill you, and your soul shall spend the rest of eternity in the burning fires of Hell, never to see your late husband in Heaven." He said that last part in a matter-of-fact manner, as if he were simply ordering out from McDonald's or something like that.
"And how can I trust you to keep your promise, when what would most likely happen, from what I know of you, is that you'll just take her soul after you take mine?" Peter asked, forcing the Antichrist to turn back and face him.
"Oh, really, Peter, why would you distrust me so?" Ugly Kid asked. "I mean, just because I'm the primary incarnation of evil and all its mortal forms, such as deceit, and have been portrayed as such in countless Hollywood movies and ancient legends, like Christianity, why would you think I'd break such a promise?" He said that last part in a mock-innocent tone.
"I guess that means I really have no choice in this matter, now do I you?" Peter asked rhetorically.
"No, you really don't," Ugly Kid replied.
"Well, if that's the case then," Peter said, "then bring it on." He signalled for Ugly Kid to fight him.
"Well, if you just wanna make this harder on yourself... Oh, wait, I forgot!" Ugly Kid exclaimed. Then he looked at a watch that didn't happen to be on his wrist. "The angels should be invading in about five, four, three, two, one."
And just as Ugly Kid expected, the angels invaded Aunt May's house from all sides. Both the front and back doors were busted down, along with numerous windows and even a few sections of wall here and there. All of them were armed with guns, so immediately, the human-disguised demons were on the action as they quickly took out their guns and began shooting down numerous angels before the latter ever had the chance of defending themselves.
After a few seconds, however, the surviving angels managed to find cover wherever they could, or otherwise moved out of the way of the demons' gunfire, and found new positions to begin an even firefight. New demons entered through all of the entrances made by the angels as backup; since the Antichrist expected this, it seemed logical that he would have demons on standby hidden elsewhere in the neighborhood ready to spring into action the moment the angels attacked.
Several angels tried to shoot down Ugly Kid with their Heaven guns, but those opportunists were either taken down quickly by nearby demons who knew what their opponents would do, or they were easily killed by Ugly Kid himself, who got in close whilst simultaneously avoiding gunfire and then broke their necks with his own bare hands. But despite his victories against these angels, Ugly Kid knew that he wouldn't last, even with a weapon. So, as nearby demons began covering for him, he relieved a busied Majes–who was busy trying to shoot down other angels without hitting any of his fellow demons–of holding a distressed May Parker by her arm. Then the Antichrist hurried out the backdoor, now devoid of any angelic threats to Ugly Kid's life, so that the son of the Devil could make his escape.
Meanwhile, as the violence busted out in the house, Peter took cover right behind the dining room, where he defeated all six demons there with single blows before they ever had the chance of pulling their guns on him. The opponents they were battling put bullets in them, and then moved on elsewhere to see what other demons they could kill in the house. Brian and Bernie then rushed in behind Peter from around the corner he came from, taking cover from the larger gunfight going around elsewhere in the house, and Peter turned to them as they rushed up to him.
Once the two of them got to him, Brian procured another Heaven gun and made a gesture to give the weapon to Peter. But the latter then punched him out, and as the human-disguised demon fell unconscious, Peter grabbed the Heaven gun out of midair and aimed it down on Brian's unconscious form.
"Wait!" Bernie cried as he deflected Peter's aim away from Brian's unconscious body. "What're you doing?"
"Brian was a traitor to us all along," Peter explained quickly. "He'd been working for Ugly Kid since day one."
"How do you know that?" Bernie asked as Lange and a few other demons came in from around the corner so they could take cover from the remaining demons.
"Because Ugly Kid told me this," Peter said, and then aimed the weapon down on Brian's form again.
"Hold on!" Bernie stopped Peter. "If that's so, then we need to keep him alive long enough to at least find out what information he gave to Ugly Kid and how." Part of Bernie's tone made it sound like it was a logical conclusion, despite his idiocy, while the other side of Bernie's tone felt like he was sparing Brian's life as a friend.
"Fine," Peter said. "But make sure he doesn't go anywhere."
"Mr. Parker!" Lange called amidst the firefight against the demons from around the corner. "The Antichrist is getting away with your aunt! We can't get past the demons without getting killed! Only you can do so and finally kill Ugly Kid with your Heaven gun!"
"All right!" he called back as he quickly stripped out of his civilian clothes and down into his Spider-Man costume. He then pulled out his mask and said to Bernie, "Also, make sure that you take my clothes when this is all over."
"Okay," Bernie replied as Spider-Man then webbed his Heaven gun on his thigh before jumping up and swung around the corner. He soared above the gunfire and the demons below him were too stressed in taking down their angelic opponents that the superhero was even able to knock out a few with single kicks along the way before he let go of the web-line and allowed his body to fly straight out the backdoor.
There, he saw yet another gunfight going on in Aunt May's backyard between the angels and demons, and saw a limo begin to drive off. Spider-Man knew that there would be no way for a limo to be in this neighborhood, so it had to belong to Ugly Kid. He then jumped over some incoming bullets, both from intended shots by demons and stray bullets from both sides of the firefight, and Spider-Man then swung after the limo.
~o~
Brian woke up as the gunfight in May Parker's house continued, and he looked around, finding that his own Heaven gun was gone. He then looked in the direction where Bernie, Lange, and the human-disguised angels with them were shooting off bullets in the direction of demons from around the corner of the cover they hid behind. Brian noticed that Bernie had two guns rather than just the required one.
Brian then jumped to his feet and rushed over to Bernie, whose back was turned to him in his concentration to kill demons with both guns. "Hey, Bernie, why do you have my–"
But before Brian could finish the question, Bernie stopped shooting for five seconds and then elbowed Brian in the face, knocking him out again.
~o~
Inside the limo that Spider-Man was chasing after, May Parker struggled against Ugly Kid's grip on both her wrists in her attempt to escape his clutches. In her vain attempt to escape, she screamed in complete fear as she looked at his horrible face, his flicking lizard-like tongue, and his evil laugh. Even in her hysteria, she knew that the Antichrist was merely toying with her before he would grow tired of it and just end this struggle.
And surely, that was what had happened as Ugly Kid pushed back on her wrists, simultaneously releasing them, and the old woman's head slammed back into the window behind her. It wasn't enough to crack it, but it certainly was enough to knock her out cold.
Outside the driving car, Spider-Man continued to swing, but he couldn't get into any good positions to land on its roof and deal with Ugly Kid, especially since the driver was veering the car around in various maneuvers meant to throw the superhero off. But such field of movement gradually narrowed once he began entering the city limits and heavier traffic came about. From keeping from crashing into cars that drove alongside the speeding limo, the driver substituted maneuverability for more speed, which made it more difficult for Spider-Man to catch up.
Even as the limo began running through red lights and just barely avoiding getting hit from either side by other driving cars, it was quite a while before a cop car joined in on the chase to stop the limo from endangering itself and other drivers and pedestrians in the city. And it wasn't long before a few other cop cars joined in on the chase, and a few opportunistic cops in a couple of the cars leaned slightly out of their windows to take some potshots at Spider-Man. But thanks to the superhero's spider-sense, speed, and agility, he was able to avoid all of the bullets from even grazing him whilst keeping up with the limo containing the Antichrist and Aunt May.
~o~
Just as the cops joined in on the chase between Spider-Man and Ugly Kid, various other units began rushing to May Parker's house, thanks to some calls from the neighbors, in order to deal with the now-dying firefight between the remaining angels and demons there. Led by Officer Barr, with fellow Officer Jeanne DeWolffe at his side, they and their colleagues rushed into all of the entrances of the house made by the angels that invaded. Once they were inside, the firefight's flame had been fuelled with a third party of members joining in on the violence.
But that rise in violence gradually died down again when the surviving angels and demons found that they had all run out of bullets, so they rushed to confront each other and the cops. Half of each of them were successful in disarming and defeating their new cop opponents in their own ways; the angels in simply knocking the officers unconscious, whilst the demons simply killed them with fatal blows or breaks of necks. The other half of each human-disguised party were unsuccessful in dealing with their freshly armed foes and were gunned down for their trouble.
Fortunately for them, neither Bernie nor Lange were among the latter party, and they dealt with the various demon and cop opponents that came their way. Bernie himself managed to deal with Officer Barr fairly easily as he deflected the shot that the cop took on him with a simple arm sweep to Barr's forearm before grabbing his weapon wrist and twisting it hard so that he dropped his weapon. Bernie then finished Barr off by knocking him unconscious with the cop's own baton before he rushed to start a one-on-two fistfight against Botya and Majes all by himself.
As for Lange, she managed to similarly disarm DeWolffe, but got into a fistfight against the trained officer that lasted a good ten seconds before she knocked her out with a single roundhouse-kick to the head. Then Lange turned and was kicked in the midriff by Niske, which started their own fight.
Meanwhile, as Bernie, Lange, and the other angels continued to combat the other demons and cops in a three-way battle, Brian woke up again. He gradually came up to his feet as he nursed the nose that was hit twice with both of his hands, and from whom the pain could be contributed thanks to Peter and Bernie for one hit each. "God, I hope I don't go through another hit like that again," he muttered under his cupped breath, even as the battle raged around him.
"Freeze!" Brian heard a harsh voice yell out behind him.
Instinctively, and without his own gun, Brian lifted up both his hands, and the cop who called that out knocked him by the nose with the butt of his own gun so that he could go back to do his own part in the battle.
~o~
As the chase in Downtown Manhattan continued, Ugly Kid rolled down a side window, took out a briefcase full of grenades from beneath his seat, pulled off one trigger, and threw it outside towards Spider-Man. The superhero veered out of the way in mid-swing, but unfortunately for him and the victims of the resulting blast, the grenade exploded right against the windshield of the police cruiser that ended up in the automated weapon's path and killed both cops in the car. The vehicle then veered off right onto the sidewalk and, as it was made into a cliché in various other cop movies, it plowed right through a fruit stand.
The same happened to all of the other cop cars currently in the chase, although after their drivers and passengers died, they would crash into various other objects, such as the walls of buildings, fire hydrants, and even people and sometimes pets that they took on walks. Spider-Man knew that a lot of people would be missing spouses and relatives after today, but he had to save Aunt May and kill Ugly Kid, if not for the sake of the Multiverse or the angels, then at least to remove the Antichrist as a threat all on his own.
Eventually, all of the cop cars were out of pursuit with all of their drivers and passengers dead, along with more than a dozen other people and half that number of dogs who ended up killed in the resulting crashes of a few of those cruisers. And just in time, Ugly Kid thought, since he had just run out of grenades; it wouldn't have mattered anyway, since he had a few other briefcases elsewhere in the limo that contained various firearms he could have continued to use against Spider-Man and the police.
But then, the limo was coming up on a city bus, and the driver veered his vehicle out of the way so that it swung to its side as it screeched to a stop, avoiding a crash. However, the open window at the back of the long car from which the Antichrist used the grenades against the police cruisers had Ugly Kid become a target of opportunity for Spider-Man as the latter took out his Heaven gun from the makeshift web-pouch on his thigh.
He immediately took aim and fired.
But the shot went wild and hit the hull of the passing city bus as the limo sped up, having Ugly Kid avoid death once again.
With the chase going on again, Spider-Man eventually started catching up to the limo once more. The driver, seeing in his rearview mirror how the antagonistic superhero was catching up, tried to veer out of the way of two relatively slowly-moving cars that were driving in the same direction ahead of him. But once the human-disguised demon driver had the limo end up in the opposite lane, it met on with another car in a head-on collision that spun the limo right onto the sidewalk on its side.
Ugly Kid was nearly thrown out of the limo through the open window as the car spun around so much faster than a merry-go-round. Once the vehicle was on the sidewalk, however, its spinning stopped once its rear end had ended up in a tilting direction in the subway entrance behind it.
Meanwhile, in the driver's area of the limo, the driver of the car that the limo crashed into wasn't wearing his seatbelt, so he flew through his own windshield and the human-disguised demon's windshield just before the limo went into its spin. Once the spin stopped, both drivers ended up in a brief struggle from which Ugly Kid's driver tried to shoot the other driver with a handgun in the compartment at the side of his door. But the opposing driver took out a switchblade from his pocket, and the shot killed the knife-wielding driver just as the blade killed the demon driver with a simple thrust to the neck.
With both drivers dead, the human-disguised demon driver accidentally set the limo into reverse, and the car drove downstairs into the subway. Spider-Man followed down in a simple swing. Meanwhile, just as the limo ended up at the bottom of the stairs, Ugly Kid jumped out through the open window, leaving May Parker behind as he rolled across the ground. He knocked the feet out of six people in his roll before he jumped up, and ran toward another set of stairs.
Spider-Man ended up at the bottom of the subway, and saw both the departing Antichrist and the limo, which he saw through the shattered windshield his unconscious Aunt May at the back of the car, as the vehicle drove back to the tracks. And just as that was happening, a subway train was arriving, ready to hit the car once the car was on the tracks; and it'll kill Aunt May.
Making a split-second decision, Spider-Man decided to save May, and he swung over to the car as it was meters from the tracks now. He slipped in through the open window, collected Aunt May, and swung out just as the car tilted back into the tracks. Spider-Man, with the unconscious old lady in his arm, landed several meters away, and looked back as the train plowed right into the car before it eventually stopped in order to allow its current passengers off and let new passengers on.
After Spider-Man set the unconscious May down, he didn't mind the onlookers observing him and his aunt as he looked around, finding that, as he was saving May, Ugly Kid had gotten away.
~o~
Back at May's house, the three-way battle between the remaining angels, demons, and cops concluded, as the survivors of the former two parties decided to retreat via the vehicles they arrived in. All of the cops tried to stop them, and some of them succeeded in killing a few angels and demons along the way.
But among the angels, Bernie and Lange escaped with a few of their comrades, an unconscious Brian on the former's shoulders, and they all got into the bus that Lange used to drive away from the cops. Some of the surviving angels in that bus rolled down their windows and used the guns that they "procured" from their mortal opponents (cops) to shoot out the wheels of the police cruisers so the surviving cops couldn't give chase.
Meanwhile, Niske, Botya, and Majes managed to slip out the back exit of the now-ruined house with very few of their demon comrades with them. They killed what few of the cops that came their way, and slipped into the night that fell, no one knowing where they went.
~o~
Brian woke up once again in a well-lit, spotless, silver-lined cell in the angels' secret headquarters beneath New York. He was tied up with his wrists and ankles bound behind him as he was seated in a wooden chair. In the cell with him was the interrogation specialist angel, the Russian-born Ivan. Sorted around Ivan's belt was an assortment of torture tools meant for Ivan's line of work.
"Peter Parker has told me that you've been a spy for Ugly Kid all this time, Brian," Ivan said with contempt. "How did you manage to get past Bernie's supervision to communicate to the Antichrist? And what kind of information did you give to him?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, Ivan!" Brian cried out in full sincerity. "I may betray the angels for Satan, but not his son! Never that treacherous brat!"
"Well, Parker has claimed that treacherous brat has said you have betrayed us for him," Ivan replied. "So stop lying, make this easier on yourself so that I may kill you simply, and you won't have to endure such torture."
"I'm not lying!" Brian exclaimed. "I swear on my loyalty to the Price of Darkness, Lucifer, that I haven't betrayed you!"
Ivan sighed as he took out one of the torture tools on his belt. "Tsk, tsk, you just can't make it easy on yourself, now can you?" he retorted as he gradually approached Brian.
Brian's subsequent screams could be heard from outside his cell.
"No, no, no! NOOOOOO!"
~o~
Meanwhile, in New York General Hospital, May Parker was lying in a coma; apparently, whatever blow she sustained to the back of her head was near-fatal. Her nephew, Peter, sat at her side, holding her head and silently praying to God–who he hoped would take some time out of balancing out the Multiverse for him–that He would make sure May will get okay; if not see to it Himself that Ugly Kid will die.
Beside him, Mary Jane touched his arm in condolence. "She'll be all right, Peter," she said. "I'm sure of it."
Before Peter could acknowledge his girlfriend's words, a doctor came in. "I'm sorry, but it's time for you guys to go," the doc said.
"All right, we were just on our way out anyway," Mary Jane said, gently pulling Peter up from his seat.
"Yeah," Peter muttered. "We were."
After Peter and Mary Jane were gone, the door to the hospital room closed behind them, the doctor approached Aunt May's bedside, as if to perform a required task as per his duties.
But then that doctor shape-shifted into a smiling Ugly Kid.
The Antichrist then bent next to May's ear, placed both his hands at each side of her head, and snakes slithered out of his wrists and into the old woman's ears. Once the snakes straightened out in her ears, she opened up her now-bright white eyes and screamed a scream that no one outside the room could hear.
To Be Continued...