Spider-Man: The New Animated Series: Season 2
Episode 7: Evil's Ugliness: Part Two
It had been two days since the three-way battle between the angels, demons, and cops at May Parker's house. And in the lower levels of the angels' secret base beneath New York, Ivan was still torturing Brian.
Ivan decided to take a break from administering the torture, replacing his tools around his belt, and looked down at the tied-up human-disguised demon in the wooden chair, who was bleeding and bruised in various different places around his body after two days of torture. "I'm getting real tired of your stubbornness, Brian," Ivan said. "Now just admit that you work for Ugly Kid, and I'll spare you any further agony by killing you quickly and painlessly."
"Please," Brian said weakly, his voice hoarse. "I'm telling you the truth. I don't work for Ugly Kid!"
"Well, then, I guess that means it's back to torturing you," Ivan said, preparing to take out a couple of his tools again.
All of a sudden, the ground behind Ivan exploded, and he was flung forward right to Brian's feet. The Russian angel turned on his back, and saw the demons Niske, Botya, and Majes jump out of the smoking hole. Ivan jumped up and rushed toward them in order to fight, a couple of his tools already in hand; however, once he reached them, Niske easily knocked both tools out of his hands and then walked around the angel as Botya and Majes got into a two-on-one fistfight with him.
Meanwhile, Niske approached the tied-up Brian, taking out a syringe and a bottle of black liquid. She opened up the bottle and injected the syringe into the liquid once she got to Brian.
"What're you doing here?" Brian asked angrily. "What do you want from me?"
"Why, we want to set you free, is all, Brian," Niske said with a fake smile, making it sound like she and Brian were friends, even though that time had long since passed.
Then Niske injected the syringe right into the side of Brian's neck. Strangely, he didn't feel any pain, so he made no noise when this happened. After Niske took the syringe out of his neck, capped the bottle, and put them both back into the pouches of her belt where they first came from, Brian's eyes suddenly turned red for six seconds. Once those seconds came to pass, he closed his eyes, and he looked back up at Niske with a conspiratorial smile as she began untying him.
"Thanks for the help," Brian said once he was untied and on his feet.
"You wanna have the honors?" Niske asked as she took out her gun and handed it to Brian. She then nodded her head in Ivan, Botya, and Majes's direction to indicate what she meant.
"Don't mind if I do," he replied. Then he called out to Botya and Majes, "Hey, guys, could you move out of the way?"
Without hesitation, Botya and Majes rolled off to different sides of the room, immediately breaking away from their fight with Ivan when they did, and the Russian angel turned back in shock when he saw the gun pointed in his direction.
Less than a second later, Brian fired off a silent shot–thanks to Niske for proofing the gun against sound just for this occasion–and Ivan fell back dead.
"In Soviet Russia, bullets kill you," Brian quipped in a mock-Russian accent as Botya and Majes went back to the smoking hole and pulled out a canister of gasoline each.
"Uh, bullets kill you anyway... You know what, never mind, let's go," Niske said as she gestured for Brian to give her back her gun.
After Brian complied, Botya and Majes completed dousing the room with gas, and Niske finished it off by taking out a match, striking it against her arm, starting a flame, and then threw the fiery match elsewhere in the cell. Once that fire struck a gasoline-doused surface, the whole room started to go up in flames, and all four human-disguised demons disappeared into the smoking hole. Less than a minute later, a few angels arrived to find out what all the commotion was about, and they were killed in the resulting explosion for their trouble.
~o~
The next day, Peter awoke to a knock on his door. "Coming!" he called as he crawled out of bed. He slipped on some pants and a shirt, and went over to the door. When he opened it, he kind of regretted putting on his clothes when he saw Mary Jane standing there. "Oh, hey, MJ," he said.
"Hey, Peter," she replied. "I have something to tell you."
"Oh, yeah, what is it?" Peter asked.
"Well, it's... um... it's... uh..."
But before she could say what it was, the door behind her–the door that led into Bernie's apartment (no longer shared with Brian since it turned out he was a traitor)–and Bernie said, "Peter, could you come in here for a while?"
"Uh, sure, no problem, Bernie," he said, understanding that whatever Lange had to say would have something to do with taking out Ugly Kid–the bastard who put Aunt May into a coma. Peter then looked at MJ. "Maybe next time, babe." He gave her a brief kiss on the side of her cheek and then joined Bernie in his apartment. The human-disguised angel closed the door on her before she could even ask what was going on.
With that, Mary Jane decided to leave, hoping to tell Peter "the news."
Meanwhile, in Bernie's apartment, he and Peter sat around the computer that showed Lange's face, now absent Brian's seat.
"Brian has escaped from our base," Lange said without preamble. "Last night, it went up in flames, killing a few of our fellow angels. We searched the wreckage of the cell after the fires in the room died down, and we found no traces of Brian's remains, unlike how we found the remains of our angels, including the interrogation specialist, Ivan."
"How could Brian have escaped and set the room on fire when he did it?" Peter asked.
"We do not know," Lange said. "And we could not find any security videos that were supposed to have monitored the progress of Brian's torture. From the security room, they appear to be missing."
"Could an infiltration team of demons do this?" Bernie asked.
"I find it unlikely that any infiltration team of demons could pull off something like this given the high state of our security, Bernie," Lange replied. "But I do not see any other alternative–except that, as unthinkable as it is, we may have a turncoat angel in our organization."
"Well, gee, angels betraying angels, now that's unheard of," Peter said sarcastically, reflecting on the treachery of Satan and his followers to God and His followers.
"Regardless," Lange continued, ignoring Peter's comment, "the mystery of the missing security footage is an internal matter that we, down in the base, are currently looking into. In the meantime, however, something that you two will have to deal with yourselves is in finding and killing Brian as your primary target, along with Niske, Botya, and Majes as your secondary targets. Brian poses too much of a threat to our organization with what he knows and what knowledge about us that he has already given to the Antichrist. He must be stopped at all costs. Understood?"
"Yes, we do," Peter and Bernie said simultaneously with the nods of their heads.
"Good." Then there was a knock at the door. "Ah, that must me Jeff, the new third member of your trio. He will be taking Brian's place as loyal angel this time. Anyway, you know your mission. Lange out."
After Lange's visage disappeared from the screen, replaced with total blackness, Bernie answered the door.
"Hey, Bernie," the angel Jeff said.
"Hey, Jeff," Bernie said as Peter approached the two angels. "Uh, Jeff, this is Peter, I'm sure you've heard of him."
Peter and Jeff greeted each other as they shook each other's hands. "Yes, I've heard of you, Peter," Jeff said. "Miss Lange says that you're supposed to be a big help to us in defeating Ugly Kid, according to what Uatu told her."
"Well, I do my best in helping out as Spider-Man," Peter said modestly.
"Good man," Jeff acknowledged with a nod. "Now, let's not waste anymore time; we have a mission to accomplish."
And with that, after Bernie closed and locked the door to his apartment, just as Peter did likewise, the trio left the apartment building. They then went into an alley so that Peter could strip down into his Spider-Man costume, complete as he pulled his full-on mask over his head, just as Bernie and Jeff pulled over their own ski masks as their disguise. Then Spider-Man threw the two angels to one of the rooftops, where they rolled to a stop so that they didn't hurt themselves upon landing. The superhero then swung himself up right after them so that they could begin their search away from the scrutinizing eyes of the public on the streets below.
For the next ten minutes, Spider-Man joined Bernie and Jeff in leaping over short distances in between rooftops, and he helped them over greater gaps by having Jeff attach himself to the superhero's back, and then Bernie on Jeff's back, and despite the greater weight added to him, Spider-Man still swung relatively gracefully to the next rooftop.
When those ten minutes were up, Spider-Man's cellphone rang just as he, Bernie, and Jeff all landed on a rooftop after a short gap jump. The two angels stood there waiting for him to take his call, and he answered it a few seconds later. "Hello?" he said to the phone.
"Peter Parker?" the voice on the other end asked.
"Yeah, that's me. Who is this?"
"I'm Dr. Illgue, from New York General. Your aunt has just awaken from her coma, and she wants you at her bedside."
"Well, can I talk to her on the phone then?" Spider-Man asked.
"Actually, she says that she wants you here to talk to," Dr. Illgue said.
"Um, this isn't really a good time..."
"What's going on?" Bernie asked.
"Oh, hold on," Spider-Man said before covering the mouthpiece of his cell before turning his attention to Bernie and Jeff. "Uh, my aunt wants me to be with her now that she's awoken from her coma."
"Well, Peter, I don't think Lange is gonna tolerate that after that Flint Marko thing–" Bernie began to say.
"You know what, Peter, you should go and see your aunt," Jeff interrupted Bernie.
"What?" Spider-Man and Bernie asked simultaneously.
"Look, don't worry about the mission, Bernie and I can handle it ourselves," Jeff said. "We'll be fine. Your aunt needs you more than this mission does."
"You mean you'll cover for me, Jeff?" Spider-Man asked.
"Yeah, sure," Jeff shrugged.
"Well, what about you, Bernie, what do you think of this?" Spider-Man asked the other angel.
"Okay, Peter, as your friend, I'll agree with Jeff here and we'll both cover for you so that Lange won't get on your ass about it," Bernie said.
"Well, thank you both," Spider-Man said sincerely before getting back on the phone. "I'll be over there, doc." Then he closed up the phone, replaced it, and turned back to the angels. "I owe you both. Especially you, Jeff, since we just met. You really are an angel for letting me do this."
Jeff laughed. "Oh, stop it," he said playfully as he waved a hand. At this, Bernie rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"Well, see ya, guys," he said. Then he turned away from them, and then he jumped and swung off the rooftop, and to the hospital.
~o~
After Spider-Man changed back into Peter Parker in a dark alley across the street from New York General Hospital, Peter walked out of that alley and into the hospital.
Once inside, he approached the counter to ask for which room May Parker was in, when suddenly, from off to the side, Dr. Illgue, the doctor who Peter and Mary Jane saw on the night May fell into the coma thanks to Ugly Kid, came over to Peter.
"Mr. Parker!" Illgue called. "If you'll just come with me, I'll take you to see your Aunt May."
"Ah, thanks, doc," Peter said as he followed Illgue to an elevator.
A few minutes later, after Peter and Illgue were on the floor that Aunt May's room would be at, the good doctor had Peter trail along straight to the room. Illgue opened the door, and Peter walked inside, horrified when he saw Aunt May begin to scream in terror and agony. He rushed over to her side, not caring why no one outside the room or passing by seemed to notice this scene, while Illgue closed the door behind him after he entered the room.
"Aunt May! What's wrong?" Peter asked as he grabbed her hand in a vain attempt to console her.
May stopped screaming and looked over at her nephew, breathing hard in fear, and she whispered, "H-he's here. And he's not going to stop, Peter!" And she went back to screaming in hysteria, as if she were seeing some horrible, nightmarish things up in the air that Peter couldn't see.
"Oh, I'll stop, all right," Peter heard an all-too familiar voice say behind him. He swung around to see Dr. Illgue say in the Antichrist's voice, "But I'm just having so much fun with her, it's kinda hard for me to quit scaring the crap out of an innocent, fragile old woman like your aunt–who could very well die from a heart attack or an unexpected stroke if I keep this up–which I will!" Illgue laughed in Ugly Kid's voice as he shape-shifted into the Antichrist himself.
Peter then quickly took out his Heaven gun and fired in Ugly Kid's direction. But when Peter fired his gun, the Antichrist wasn't even there anymore, as he had already dropped to his back on the floor and pushed himself into a forward slide in Peter's direction. Once Ugly Kid was at Peter's feet, he kicked the Heaven gun out of his hand and into the air, where the Antichrist quickly leapt to his feet, gave Peter a shove that flew him straight back over May's bed, and as he landed on the other side, Ugly Kid grabbed the Heaven gun and crushed it in his bare hands.
Peter then leapt to his feet and vaulted over the bed to Ugly Kid, but the latter jumped back, having Peter land on all fours like a cat, but his opponent kicked him up the chin and down on his back. Then Ugly Kid grabbed Peter by the neck and flung him across the room, having him soar above Aunt May's bed and crash into the wall behind him. Peter then collapsed to the floor like a ragdoll before he leapt to his feet, only to find Ugly Kid maintaining a not-too-loose grip on May's neck. She screamed even louder and in more terror when she saw the Antichrist's face.
"Leave her alone!" Peter cried out.
"Why?" Ugly Kid retorted.
"Your fight's with me, Ugly Kid, so if you want me, come and get me," Peter intoned. "But leave her out of this."
"Hmm," Ugly Kid moaned as if he were genuinely thinking about Peter's proposal. Then he abruptly said, "Nah, I'll keep her into this." And then May's screams were renewed with a different intensity. But then they gradually died down, and she went into a blissful sleep as Ugly Kid looked back up at Peter, "Unless, of course, you'll do something for me, and I'll make sure that your aunt remembers nothing of this."
Peter snorted. "Like your home, I will."
"Hey, that was my joke–Never mind. Anyway, if you want this old bag to continue living what precious few years she has on this planet without the knowledge that I could very well turn all of the Multiverse into an exact replica of Hell, you'll run a little errand for me. If you don't..." Ugly Kid then gestured his hand right next to May's ear, and out from his wrist shot a snake that entered her ear and caused her to wake up screaming again. "This'll continue to happen for another hour until she dies. Understood?"
"No dice," Peter said without hesitation.
Then he shot out one web-line from each of his hands in Ugly Kid's direction, but the Antichrist grabbed both lines and pulled him in his direction. Peter flew forward as a result and got smacked in the face by Ugly Kid, falling to his back at the Antichrist's feet. Once his vision cleared, however, Peter didn't give up as he kicked out with both feet into Ugly Kid's torso. But he grabbed him by the ankles, stopping the double blow, and then swung him around the room three times before flinging him up to the ceiling where he crashed through the spinning fan there. He landed on the other side of May's bed, and got the wind knocked out of him when Ugly Kid flipped over that bed and landed on Peter's chest.
After Ugly Kid flipped off of Peter's chest, he landed back on the other side of the bed and had the snake slither from the same wrist go into May's ear again. After her latest scream, during which Peter forced himself to his feet, Ugly Kid asked, "So, what's it gonna be, Peter?"
Seeing as how he couldn't defeat the Antichrist like this, Peter sighed in defeat and asked, "What do you want me to do?"
"I'm sure I called you away from that mission to find Brian, right?" Ugly Kid retorted.
"How do you know about that?" Peter asked.
"Oh, c'mon now," Ugly Kid said. "Surely, you know that Brian has escaped from the angels' secret base and is now in my hands, correct?"
"Yes, but–"
"But nothing," Ugly Kid interrupted. "Here's what you'll have to do for me: You get Brian into this hospital room in two hours alive, or I just outright kill your aunt and have her soul end up in Hell."
"Wait, if he's working for you, then why don't you just send for him yourself?" Peter asked.
"That there is irrelevant for you to know," Ugly Kid replied. "You get me Brian, or your aunt dies. Get it?"
"I got it, but where do I look? He could be anywhere, if he's not already in one of your own secret hideouts."
"Here's a tip: He'll be leading some of my own demons to attack the infrastructure in this city that covers up the angels' base in several minutes tops."
"And what and where is this infrastructure that covers the angels' base, since I've never been there myself?" Peter asked.
"You remember that church that was across the street from the warehouse where you pushed that Indian chick off that warehouse's roof?" Ugly Kid asked.
"Yeah," Peter said reluctantly, despised at the reminder of what the Gaines Twins made him to Indy. "That's where it is?"
"No, it's at a punk rock dance studio at the other side of town, of course that's where the angels' base is located beneath! Now go there now, because the clock is ticking down for your aunt."
Breathing out through his nose in anger, Peter stripped down to being Spider-Man again, turned around, opened May's hospital room's window, and perched on the window's frame before he briefly turned back and asked Ugly Kid, "How can I make sure you'll keep your word?"
Ugly Kid snorted. "You can't."
With that, Spider-Man turned back and swung back out into the city.
~o~
Less than half an hour later, in the one-way alley across the street from the church that covered over the angels' secret base, a manhole was lifted up and removed from the hole it was placed in. First to come out was Brian, then Niske, then Botya and Majes, and then several other human-disguised demons that followed.
Once all of the demons were on the surface and facing the church across the street, Niske turned to Brian and asked, "So, what's the plan? Ugly Kid has assigned you to lead us to invade that church and destroy the base beneath. How are we to do that when we confront all those angels down below?"
"That's not gonna happen," all of the demons heard a voice from up above say.
They all looked above and saw Spider-Man crouching on the ledge of one of the alley's buildings. He then spout out a web-line that found its mark on the small of Brian's back, and then he yanked him all the way up.
But once Brian was in a close distance to Spider-Man, he quickly took out his gun, but before he could fire, the vigilante knocked the weapon out of his hand. However, Brian managed to follow up by tackling Spider-Man back onto the roof. The two of them rolled around there for a while before the superhero was able to kick the human-disguised demon off of him.
The two of them leapt up to their feet, rushed to each other, and engaged in a fistfight while, back in the alley that Spider-Man pulled Brian from, Niske, Botya, Majes, and all of the other demons were either using a ladder or the alley's metal staircase on the side of the building that Spider-Man and Brian were currently fighting on.
Once all of those demons finally reached the rooftop, Spider-Man was able to get past Brian's defenses and knock him out with a single superhuman punch to the face. But even though Brian would be out of it for a while now, Spider-Man's spider-sense activated just in the nick of time to react to the threat of the demons from the alley; he managed to shift from the position he was in when he defeated Brian and spout out two web-lines, one for each of the first demons who either came up on the ladder or by the staircase, and yanked their guns out of their hands. Two seconds later, those demons were bonked in the heads when Spider-Man used the same web-lines he previously used mere seconds earlier to fling the weapons back to their previous owners, knocking them unconscious and having them fall back to their deaths in the alley below.
Seeing what would happen if they would use their weapons, the rest of the demons holstered their guns and came up two at a time to charge Spider-Man in the direct approach. However, the first two demons once again made the mistake of trying to use their guns again once they got in close; since Spider-Man was faster in reflexes, he was able to get past the defenses of one of those first two demons, quickly grab his weapon arm, and use it to dispatch the other demon before using the gun again on its owner.
From then on, the next few demons who were able to see what happened to two of their kind decided not to use weapons and just attack Spider-Man with their might alone. However, those demons who didn't see what happened to the comrades who were gunned down ended up having the same fates, and even a few of the demons who decided not to use their guns were shot down for their trouble in trying to defeat Spider-Man.
Meanwhile, as the fight on the rooftop progressed, Bernie and Jeff, their ski masks off so as to avoid attention and suspicion from the public they were among, happened to be in the streets below, and the sounds of gunfire had frightened the nearby civilians. In no time, the sirens of the police and ambulance began ringing from several blocks away.
"Do you think Peter finally found Brian and the demons he was with?" Jeff asked Bernie as he nodded his head to the roof of the building where the shooting came from.
"If that's so, I wonder how his visit with his aunt at the hospital went," Bernie said as he and Jeff went into the alley that would lead them to the roof.
They pulled out and slipped over their ski masks before Jeff took the ladder and Bernie took the staircase. Less than a minute later, both angels found that Spider-Man was fighting against a few human-disguised demons without guns as they battled amongst the corpses of all the other demons. Both Bernie and Jeff didn't notice Brian's unconscious form among the bodies as they rushed in to join Spider-Man against the few demons; using their Heaven guns would have hurt or killed the superhero.
Eventually, the few demons that Spider-Man, Bernie, and Jeff were fighting, which included Niske, Botya, and Majes, decided to retreat the way they and their now-dead brethren first came to the roof from. Most of the remaining demons were gunned down along the way by Bernie and Jeff, so the only ones to escape as they slid down the ladder were Niske, Botya, and Majes. The former two demons jumped into the open manhole in the middle of the alley first as Bernie and Jeff vainly tried to shoot them down, and it was Majes who was the last to go as he pulled the sewer lid over the manhole above him.
The police and paramedics arrived to find out what all the shooting was about, a few cops seeing the dead bodies in the alley. Bernie and Jeff ducked back before the police could see them when they looked up, and they turned to Spider-Man.
"We gotta get outta here!" Jeff said.
Spider-Man then rushed over to the ledge that the cops and paramedics would come up from, and he webbed them all before any of them could call backup; that would give Bernie and Jeff ample time to escape, and would be more convenient for Spider-Man to take Brian away back to Ugly Kid.
"Hey, it's Brian!" Bernie called over Spider-Man and Jeff as the human-disguised demon groaned as he woke up.
Bernie then aimed his gun, and when Brian's eyes widened at the sight of the barrel staring back at him, Bernie said, "Goodbye, Brian."
But Bernie's shot went wild as Spider-Man deflected the shot away from Brian's head and into the concrete of the roof's ground. The vigilante then stomped on Brian's head to knock him unconscious again.
"What're you doing, Spider-Man?" Jeff asked in disbelief.
"That's not either of your business," Spider-Man said to both angels as flung the stunned Brian's form over his shoulders, webbing the human-disguised demon's hands in between his own shoulder blades.
Then the vigilante ran toward a ledge, leaving a perplexed Bernie and Jeff staring in confusion at what was going on now, and Spider-Man swung away.
~o~
Less than ten minutes later, Spider-Man swung right through the open window of Aunt May's hospital room, Brian still strapped to his back. Ugly Kid stood expectantly at the other side of the unconscious old woman's bed.
Spider-Man then pulled Brian off of his back and laid his unconscious form at his feet. "Okay, I have Brian here, and he's alive. So do you agree to keep to your deal, Ugly Kid?"
"Of course I do," the Antichrist replied as he walked around the bed and approached Spider-Man. He stopped at Brian's unconscious form and kneeled down. Ugly Kid then opened his mouth and inhaled. Soon, a black mist swirled out of Brian's own mouth, entering the Antichrist until it was all gone.
A few seconds later, after Ugly Kid stood up from his current position, Brian moaned to wakefulness again. "Am I going to be punched out again?" he asked to no one in particular. Once he was fully alert, he leapt to his feet to face the Antichrist. "Ugly Kid! What the hell did you tell Peter that made him and all the other angels think I was working for you?"
"Oh, but you really were working for me, Brian," Ugly Kid said slyly. "You just didn't know it."
"Huh?" Spider-Man and Brian asked the same question simultaneously.
"Did you really think I would deliberately let you go from Hell, Brian?" Ugly Kid retorted. "I was counting on you to go to Uatu and tell him what I did in Hell, and then work with the angels for the next few centuries to hunt me down; you see, when you exited Hell, I already had the gateway you used to leave imparted with a spell to implant within you a kind of vision that could be relayed into my own mind, kind of like putting cameras behind your eyeballs; hence, everything you see and know, I see and know as well, Brian, and I can handle it since I'm the Antichrist. But since I already told Peter over here that you were spying for us, even if inadvertently, I decided to take that spell away from you along with the hypnosis potion that Niske injected into you before you escaped your cell in the angels' base; with your position as my primary spy ineffective now, there's no point in keeping you on, nor is there anyway. My plans are in such motion, no one can stop it now even if God did right the Multiverse and decided to come down here right now to defeat me."
"Spell? Potion?" Spider-Man asked, ignoring what Ugly Kid just said about his plans. "I thought you were a demon, Ugly Kid, not a witch."
"I'm the son of the Devil, that's different from a demon," Ugly Kid corrected.
"So, anyway, are you going to take Aunt May's memory of everything from when you invaded her home to what you did to her here?" Spider-Man asked.
"I already told you, I'll do it, Peter, keep your pants on," the Antichrist said as he turned back to the unconscious old woman, opened his mouth, and again, a black swirl flowed out of May's mouth that went into Ugly Kid's.
During this process, Brian turned to Spider-Man and asked, "Wait, wait, wait, you made a deal with him, Peter?"
"I had no choice, Brian," Spider-Man defended himself. "He was going to kill Aunt May if I didn't deliver you to him. But I am sorry for thinking that you'd intentionally betray us, and for hitting you all those times."
Before Brian could say anything more on the matter, Ugly Kid finished inhaling the black swirl from Aunt May, and he turned back to Spider-Man and Brian. "When she wakes up, she'll be wondering what she's doing here in the first place, but she'll be fine."
"I'd say thank you if you weren't a bad guy I was trying to stop," Spider-Man retorted.
"Fair enough," Ugly Kid replied in the same tone.
"So, wait, not that I still intend to kill you, Ugly Kid," Brian interjected, "but if you wanted me when I was already under the hypnosis potion, why didn't you just summon me? Why did you have to have Peter here get me after you sent me on that failed mission to the angels' base?"
"I asked him the same thing," Spider-Man said to Brian before turning his attention back to the Antichrist. "What was all this about, Ugly Kid? And what do you want particularly with Brian here?"
Ugly Kid chuckled. "You know, Peter, instead of complying with my demand to get Brian here, have you ever considered going to the angels after I just told you what I assigned Brian to do, you capture him, and the angels would have invaded this hospital just to kill me? I mean, I would've seen it coming, probably would've escaped, and even killed your aunt beforehand because of your betrayal to me, but still, the thought of going to the angels first never occurred to you? Especially after you were so close to their base, when I told you where it was?"
Spider-Man was silent at that.
"I wonder why you didn't do any of that, Peter," Ugly Kid said. "Was it because that you knew it would jeopardize your aunt's life more if you did? Do you feel so guilt-ridden and emotionally perturbed that you don't want to find your aunt dead the same way you saw your uncle die? Hmm? In your fear for your aunt's life, did you forget why the angels recruited you, to take me out; or did you intentionally block it from your mind so you wouldn't feel so guilty of robbing the angels of a chance in killing me and restoring the balance of good and evil in the Multiverse?"
As Spider-Man stood there, his silence continued, body language unreadable, Brian looked away from his superhero counterpart and back to the Antichrist. "So what about me? What did you want me for? You wanna kill me because I still owe my allegiance to Satan, Ugly Kid?"
"Actually, Brian, I don't really intend to kill you now," Ugly Kid said. "But that time will come soon; sooner than you think. And as you burn in the flames of my home, I'll be laughing at the pathetic allegiance you owed to my father all this time, Brian. But as for why I wanted Peter here to give you to me; it was all something to screw his life up in the long-run."
Brian raised in eyebrow in wonderment, but before he could ask, Spider-Man finally snapped out of his silence and asked, "What're you talking about?"
Ugly Kid smiled evilly, baring his sharp, wooden, and crooked teeth. "You'll see."
With that, he changed back into Dr. Illgue again and turned around. Spider-Man then shot out one web-line for each wrist, but Illgue swiftly spun out of the way and kicked the charging Brian up the jaw, knocking him down to the floor. And when Spider-Man leapt over Aunt May's bed, Illgue grabbed the superhero's wrists and flung him to the floor on his back before curb-stomping his head against the floor.
Now that both Spider-Man and Brian were down for the moment, Illgue turned back again and opened the door, leaving the room. Ten seconds later, the superhero and human-disguised demon got up to their feet and charged out of the room. Once they were out in the hall, people were surprised to find that Spider-Man was in the hospital, but he and Brian paid the crowd no mind as they searched around for Dr. Illgue.
A few seconds later, the superhero and human-disguised demon saw Illgue entering an elevator several meters down the hall. They rushed over to it, but the last thing they saw before the doors closed before them was the disgusting smirk that shone on Illgue's face.
However, that didn't stop Spider-Man as he slipped his fingers through the seam in between the doors and pulled them apart. Brian slipped his head in to look down with Spider-Man as they saw the elevator that the disguised Ugly Kid took descended to the ground floor.
"Hey!" Spider-Man and Brian heard off to the side.
A couple of security guards were rushing in to stop them, but the superhero and human-disguised demon jumped in through the open entrance and descended in a free-fall down towards the elevator, which itself was still descending.
By the time the elevator finally reached the ground level, Spider-Man broke both his and Brian's fall by abruptly spouting out a web-line to a higher level and grabbing Brian before he landed in a fatal splat. The superhero then let go of the web-line and allowed himself and his companion to drop the last few meters, both landing in a crouch, and then Spider-Man wasted no second in pulling a section of the elevator's roof off so that he and Brian could drop in respectively.
Those already in the elevator were startled with Spider-Man and Brian's unorthodox arrival into the elevator, and neither of them wasted any second being courteous in replacing the section of the elevator's roof that Spider-Man pulled off as they rudely but necessarily pushed past the people in front of them and slipped right through the closing elevator entrance.
But once the two of them found themselves in the lobby of the hospital, they looked around, but couldn't find Dr. Illgue anywhere.
However, they did find Bernie and Jeff approach them from the direction of the hospital's entrance.
"Wait, I can explain–" Spider-Man tried to say.
"Lange wants to see you," Bernie said. "The both of you."
Without saying another word, both Spider-Man and Brian were reluctantly led out of the hospital. Jeff hailed a cab once they were outside, and all four of them climbed in.
"Huh," the cabbie said when he looked in his rearview mirror. "Never thought I'd be driving Spider-Man around."
Jeff then told the cabbie what their destination was, and he drove them to the church that hid the angels' base.
~o~
Several minutes later, after Jeff paid the fine for the trip from the hospital, Spider-Man and Brian were led out by Bernie and Jeff and were led into the church.
Not much longer later, after the four of them travelled to the underground of the church, Bernie and Jeff escorted their companions into a room with a long table and one chair at either end of that table. At the opposite end of where the four of them were, Lange sat there patiently.
"Bernie, Jeff, you may both leave now," she said. "But keep in mind, I will be reprimanding the both of you for allowing Mr. Parker to abandon the parameters of his mission."
"Understood, Miss Lange," Jeff nodded.
"Got it," Bernie also nodded before he and Jeff left.
"Uatu has told me something that concerns the both of you," Lange said to Spider-Man and Brian. "It has been about all that has happened since the Antichrist had arrived in New York City. The revelation he made of your betrayal, Brian, was only half-true; you had been inadvertently giving the Antichrist secrets of ours."
"I know," Brian said with a nod of his head. "But he took that spell away; he has no use for me anymore."
"Why has he not killed you then?" Lange asked.
Brian shrugged. "He said there was a better time for it later."
Lange then looked over to Spider-Man. "And you, Mr. Parker. Take a seat." Spider-Man hesitantly complied while Lange said, "Brian, your business here is done; now that the Antichrist doesn't know what you know from hereon, you are reinstated as a member of the hunting party against him. On behalf of the angels, I apologize for the torture you endured."
Brian nodded. "Thank you, Miss Lange." Then he left.
"So," Lange said to Spider-Man, "Uatu has told me that had saved Brian from death–for the Antichrist."
"I didn't do it for Ugly Kid, Lange," Spider-Man said angrily, "I did it for my aunt; he was gonna kill her if I didn't do what he said."
Lange leaned forward, scrutinizing the superhero. "Do you really think your aunt was worth obeying–"
"Of course she was worth it!" Spider-Man screamed. "I would do anything for her! Anything!"
"Even if that meant damning the Multiverse and sealing her fate, along with the fate of every single living being in all of existence?"
"Yes!" Spider-Man answered defiantly.
Lange leaned back slowly. "What you have done, Mr. Parker, was unforgivable. While you did save Brian's life, you have given the Antichrist a very important thing; willful obedience, even when you knew the consequences your actions would bring upon the Multiverse by allowing Memmon his continued existence."
When Lange said that, what Ugly Kid told him back in the hospital struck Spider-Man to his core again.
"However," Lange continued, "your action, served under the Antichrist, could be remedied, by serving evil in another way."
"So, wait, my punishment for serving evil is to serve it again?" Spider-Man asked. "That doesn't make any sense!"
"You are not being punished for serving evil generally, you are reprimanded for serving the Antichrist specifically," Lange said. "And as I said, I am offering you a chance to redeem yourself of such a sin."
Spider-Man sighed in defeat. "What do you want me to do?"