XVII. Escalation
At half past eleven, the Jackal sat with Doctor Octopus at a corner table in Drago's Bar. The rest of the bar's seedy clientele had already long since vacated the premises. The presence of Doc Ock and the creepy, giggling masked man in green made them too nervous to want to stick around. Ock sipped from a wineglass and said, "If this is Spider-Man's idea of a trap, then it is singularly inept. He has no leverage he can employ against us. Scarlet Spider is a unique and valuable asset, yes, but ultimately nothing more than a means to our end, namely to distract and ultimately destroy the wall-crawler himself."
For the first time in his short career as a costumed criminal, the Jackal was nervous. "I wouldn't be so overconfident. He's planning something; I just can't figure out what." He tapped his claws on the table and looked around at the empty bar. "I wish Electro had decided to show up."
"Oh, tsk-tsk, no," said Ock. "There's a reason that Norman and I didn't bring Max in on this in the first place. He's too unstable, too unpredictable. I prefer all the variables in my equations to be… calculable." One metal tentacle held up a spicy chicken-wing, which Ock took a bite of before demurely wiping his mouth with a cloth napkin. "Oh, Mr. Drago? While the fare in your establishment—'bar food' is a most apt vernacular description—leaves something to be desired, I believe we're nevertheless ready for our check."
Blackie Drago stood up from his hiding-spot behind the bar, so terrified that his knees were knocking together. "Uh… on the house, what say?"
"How very kind," said Otto with just a hint of menace in his voice.
• • •
All that evening long, Mary Jane had studiously avoided two topics of conversation: how she felt about her recent transformation into the Scarlet Spider, and what sorts of things she would do now that this new power was hers alone to control. While Peter taught Gwen the finer points of synthesizing web-fluid, and she in turn speculated on several possible variations and improvements on the base formula, Mary Jane spent her time practicing her aim with her web-shooters (at least until she ran out of all her old, second-rate webbing).
Now, as midnight approached, Peter and MJ were swinging back towards Hell's Kitchen, to confront (and hopefully defeat, capture, and unmask) a dire foe. As they approached their destination, Peter asked MJ to recite aloud the rules that he'd laid down for them. "Okay," said MJ. "Number one, no names. You're Spidey, I'm Scarlet. Number two, focus on dodging; if they can't hit you, they can't hurt you—hit back when they open themselves up, which they will, eventually. Number three, don't forget that I have webs; and don't forget that they can run out either."
"And most importantly?" prompted Peter.
"Number four," said MJ, "civilians are top priority. Never let anyone get hurt."
"Perfect," said Peter. "No more rehearsals now; this is opening night. Think you're ready for the big show?"
"I… yeah," said MJ. "Let's do this."
"All right," said Peter. "Just like we planned. I go in first; you go around back. When you hear the fighting start—"
"I jump in and take the bad guys by surprise," said MJ. "Got it."
While MJ leaped up into the alleyway so that she could swing around behind the building, Peter went for the front door. Bursting through it, he shouted, "Jackal! I have your—whoa!" His spider-sense went off instantly, and he found himself dodging swipes from crackling, electrified claws and the four familiar metal arms of Doctor Octopus.
"Greetings, arachnid," said Ock, rising up off the ground on two tentacles. "Shall we discuss the terms of your surrender?"
"Oh, you know me," said Spidey, casually dodging attacks from both of his assailants. "I prefer to go down swinging."
Ock smiled. "I'd hoped you'd say that." Coming back down to the ground, he planted both feet firmly on the floor and swung all four of his metal arms in tandem at Spider-Man, wielding them like a gigantic club. Spidey rolled with the blow and therefore wasn't hurt very badly by it, but it still put him off balance.
A second later, the Jackal was upon him, throwing swipes and kicks that put holes in the floor and sent up small showers of splinters wherever Spider-Man only just managed to roll out of the way. Almost in a straight line, following him across the floor, he dodged a swift kick from the Jackal and then each of Ock's arms coming down from above, trying to spear him through but only crashing into the floor instead. Then he was on his feet again and made ready to fire his web-shooters, only for the Jackal to activate another gadget, this one built into his mask. A bright flash of light flared from the Jackal's eyes, and Spidey found himself momentarily blinded.
Unable to aim now, his webs missed both targets. He felt spider-sense again and leapt upward… which was when Doc Ock managed to catch him by the ankle and slam him bodily into the ground again. Peter let out a startled "oof!" as Ock picked him up and slapped him into the ceiling and then back into the floor again, a couple of extra times for good measure, before winding him up in all four of his arms and starting to squeeze.
Doctor Octopus chuckled in sadistic glee. "After all the times you've humiliated me, Spider-Man, I'm going to enjoy crushing the life out of you—" And then a hard object with a great deal of kinetic energy imparted to it bonked Octavius on the head, and everything went black.
• • •
From the back door, Mary Jane had heard the fighting start immediately, but she didn't simply burst in and start swinging her fists. Honestly, she'd never done anything even remotely like that before, and so she wouldn't even know how to start. There was perhaps a bit of fear involved too, which kept MJ from displaying the same kind of easy bravado that Peter did in dangerous situations. But her concern for Peter outweighed her anxiety and her inexperience, and so she crept into the bar, but stealthily.
The Jackal and Doctor Octopus were there, fighting Peter. They were brutal in their attacks, but Pete was like a red and blue blur. They couldn't touch him—MJ could barely see him—until Jackal pulled his little flare-trick, and Ock grabbed Peter and started throwing him around. MJ looked around for some kind of weapon; she was crouching behind one of the numerous pool tables in Drago's dank little dive of a bar. When Octavius had all of his attention on Peter and was starting to crush the life out of him, MJ realized two things. First, she had to do something right that very instant. Second, just as Peter had said, they always eventually opened themselves up to an attack of opportunity. And so, picking up a billiard ball off the table, MJ hurled it with all of her considerable might, right at Doc Ock's head.
Now, Doc Ock's metal arms gave him unimaginable strength and agility. They also had all kinds of gadgets mounted inside the actuator-driven claws on the ends, including cameras, which gave Ock a certain measure of hyper-awareness to his surroundings. If those arms had been moving freely, rather than wrapped around a single victim, Doc Ock might have seen that small projectile coming. As it was, though, he was taken completely by surprise—and while his arms made for a formidable weapon indeed, the man fused into their harness was ultimately a mere mortal. This meant that when the pool-ball struck his cranium, he was instantly rendered unconscious. His arms fell slack, and Peter was able to crawl free with only a few bruised ribs to show for his trouble.
The Jackal was astonished to see Scarlet Spider leap out into the open. "What?" he cried. "No! Impossible!"
"Believe it, Jackal," said Mary Jane. "After what you've done to me—the things you made me do—you've really got this coming!" She cracked her knuckles and slowly advanced.
"I am your master!" he insisted. "Cellar door, Watson. Kill Spider-Man!"
Mary Jane paused, mid-stride. She swooned a little bit and groaned. For more than a fleeting moment, she was actually going to do it—to turn on Peter and attack him. Then she shook her head and shouted, "No! Never again!"
Peter was up now, and he stood next to Mary Jane. Together, Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider made an intimidating pair. "You heard the lady, Jackal. She doesn't take orders from you, not anymore."
The Jackal was crouched low to the ground, all of his muscles tense, like a cornered wild animal. And that was just how he behaved. He sprang for the front door and went running off down the street on all fours, looking for all the world like a rabid werewolf in green.
"I did not see that coming," said Peter.
"We have to go after him!" said MJ.
"One of us has to make sure that Doc Ock here gets picked up by the police. Stay here—"
"Are you nuts?!" said MJ. "The cops think I'm a bad guy! You stay; I'm going!" She raced for the door.
Peter couldn't stop her; when he tried, his ribs protested. Now that the adrenaline from the fight was wearing off, the mere act of breathing was painful. "Okay," he wheezed, grabbing his own torso. "Ribs… not just bruised. Cracked. Ow…"
• • •
As the Jackal fled, he activated his communicator. "Norman!" he said in a panicked voice. "The asset has been scrubbed! Repeat, the asset has been scrubbed!"
Several long seconds passed, and no answer came. Warren was sure that one or both of the spiders would be hot on his heels. Sure enough, he soon heard the sound of a spinning web, and when he looked over his shoulder, he could see that Scarlet Spider was several stories overhead, swinging his way and gaining ground rapidly. "Norman," he hissed into his comm, "please!"
"This is very disappointing, Miles. I had other plans tonight."
"Listen to me! I need your help!" he insisted. "I don't know that I can beat them on my own!" For all his gadgetry, for all his genetic enhancements, Miles Warren was still ultimately more of a scientist than a fighter. Even though he'd managed to use his extraordinary scientific acumen to give himself superhuman abilities similar to those that he'd given to Kraven the Hunter, he still lacked the skill needed to use those abilities to their fullest potential.
From wherever he was, Norman Osborn released a long-suffering sigh. "Very well. I'll acquire the targets. Best of luck, Miles."
"Norman? Norman!" Warren realized in that moment that Osborn had abandoned him. That was also the moment that Scarlet Spider came swinging down from on high, delivering a powerful kick with both legs that sent the Jackal flying into a streetlamp (and bending the lamppost ninety degrees).
"Jackal!" shouted Mary Jane, running up to the stunned criminal. He was getting up, slowly, but she just balled a fist and decked him across the jaw. "Violated my mind!" she spat. He was on the ground; she sat on him. "Turned me into a killer!" Another punch. "Made me fight Spider-Man, who I love!" She was really letting him have it now. The Jackal's mask was torn, and blood was seeping through it in considerable quantities. On the sixth or maybe the seventh punch—MJ didn't know, she'd lost count—something cracked inside that mask, and the Jackal stopped groaning. His body fell limp.
While there had been a few people out on the streets in this neighborhood at a quarter past midnight, those few had all run away screaming at the sight of Jackal and Scarlet Spider. So it was a nearly deserted scene—only Scarlet Spider, sitting on top of the unmoving body of the Jackal, staring in horror at her own bruised and bloodied fist—that Spider-Man and the NYPD found before them when they arrived.
Peter walked up behind MJ while the police cars were still screeching to a halt, their lights flashing and sirens wailing. "Scarlet… is he…?"
"I don't know," said MJ.
A car-door slammed. Captain DeWolff and several cops in full riot gear approached the scene, their weapons trained on Scarlet Spider. "Everybody on the ground, right now," hollered DeWolff.
"Hey!" shouted Peter. "I already told you, Scarlet Spider's not the bad guy here! She—"
"I don't care!" said DeWolff. "We have her on closed-circuit video, killing people in cold blood at Riker's Island! Now, if you're not going to help me bring her in, that means you're aiding and abetting a wanted criminal, and interfering in a police investigation—"
"Just WAIT A SECOND!" shouted Peter. He pointed at the Jackal. "Can we, maybe, unmask this guy first, and make sure he's not, you know, dead?"
"All right," said DeWolff. "The Jackal first. Then Scarlet Spider." She pointed at Spider-Man and said, "Then you, if you pull anything."
"Thank you!" snapped Peter. He knelt down, pulled off the Jackal's mask, and gasped. Despite the many cuts and contusions, he instantly recognized the face. "Holy shnikies. It's Dr. Warren."
"You know this guy?" asked Captain DeWolff.
"Dr. Miles Warren," said Peter. "He's a geneticist. I guess that explains how he gave himself super-powers. And Scarlet Spider, for that matter." As he spoke, Peter felt for a pulse. He discovered, to his great relief, that MJ hadn't killed Dr. Warren. But she had beaten the man very nearly to a bloody pulp, and whether or not he regained consciousness anytime soon, he would probably be in the hospital for quite a long while indeed.
"Wait, wait; what?" said DeWolff.
"Okay, listen," said MJ. "The only reason I did anything bad is because this tool here had me under some kind of mind-control."
DeWolff stared at MJ and said, "You really expect me to believe that?"
Peter answered by saying, "Look, if you're going to be dealing with crimes involving super-villains, you're going to have to start getting used to this kind of thing."
"Uh… no I don't," said DeWolff. "Nope; not buying it for a second. Scarlet Spider, take off that mask and place your hands over your head; I'm placing you under arrest." The riot-cops closed in, and the police captain went for her handcuffs. "You have the right to remain silent—"
They were interrupted by the sound of an electronic chime, coming from the Jackal. A light on his gloved wrist was blinking softly.
"What is that?" asked DeWolff.
"Looks like some kind of communicator," said Spider-Man. He pulled it off the Jackal's wrist and activated it. "Who is it?" he sang in a falsetto voice.
The answer came in the form of mocking goblin laughter. "Meh-heh-heh-heh. Can the Spiders come out to play?" Then the line went dead.
"That was the Green Goblin!" said MJ.
"Please," said Peter, pleading with Captain DeWolff. "Innocent lives are in danger. I need her help to beat Gobby. You've already collared Doc Ock and the Jackal tonight. If you let us, we can bring down the Green Goblin too!"
DeWolff groaned. "All right; fine. I'll let you go, just this once. But," she said, pointing a finger at Scarlet Spider, "you are still wanted for multiple felonies, including murder. If I ever see you wearing that costume again, I will arrest you. And, Spider-Man, guess what? You've just made yourself her accomplice. Which means the same goes for you too.
"I am not Captain George Stacy. I will not tolerate vigilantes taking the law into their own hands. And I will never tolerate a known killer escaping justice. You both understand me?"
"Clear as crystal, chief," said Spidey. He and Scarlet spun some webs and swung off.
One of the riot-cops turned to Captain DeWolff and said, "Why'd you let them go like that, Captain?"
DeWolff rolled her eyes. "You've got eyes and ears, don't you? They sounded like they were, what, fourteen, maybe fifteen years old? Even if we arrested them, they'd just wind up in juvie. But maybe this way, I can scare some sense into those kids before they get themselves killed!"
None of the other cops milling around the scene said anything to that. A few of them looked around nervously, though, as if they wanted to argue but didn't want to step out of line with the captain.
"Yeah, okay, maybe not," sighed DeWolff. "But it was worth a shot."
• • •
Mary Jane and Peter raced towards home with all possible speed. But, as fast as webs were, a glider was faster. Just as their houses came into view, an exploding pumpkin-bomb took out most of the roof of MJ's house and singed a bit of Peter's next door. "Oh no!" cried MJ. She and Peter were now running and leaping across the rooftops, since there were no longer any buildings nearby tall enough to swing from.
While many residents of the neighborhood were screaming or running for cover or calling for the authorities, a few of the bravest had formed a small crowd on the street. The Green Goblin was flying in lazy circles around MJ's house. When Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider appeared, he laughed madly and flew inside. The spider-pair landed on MJ's front yard and found a sickening sight waiting there to greet them: Philip Watson, dead on the lawn, having suffered multiple stab-wounds from the blades on the front of Green Goblin's glider.
MJ very nearly lost it. She turned to Peter and buried her head in his neck, sobbing softly. "Dad…" she wept. "We're too late…"
Over at the Parker house, Aunt May and Gwen Stacy were just now rushing out the front door to see what in the world was going on. They saw the massive damage to the Watsons' home; they saw the gathered crowd; and they saw Spider-Man standing on the Watsons' front lawn, holding Scarlet Spider close.
"Oh, shit!" said Gwen.
Aunt May didn't even register Gwen's language. She was thinking the very same thing. That was only magnified when the Green Goblin came flying out from the Watsons' house, carrying the struggling form of a sobbing, hysterical Madeline Watson. That was just about it for May Parker; she felt a pain in her arm, her heart seized up, and she checked out. Seconds later, she was lying on the ground, and Gwen was running for a phone.
The Green Goblin swooped close down to the spider-duo and taunted, "Come and get me, if you dare!" And then he was off, taking MJ's mom with him.
Now Mary Jane was seeing red. It was like she wasn't in control of herself. She fired a web at the Goblin's glider, and she hit the back of it dead on. As the Green Goblin sailed off into the sky, she was yanked along with him, clinging to the web-line for dear life.
Peter was just about to go running after them, when he happened to glance over into his own yard, where he saw Aunt May lying on the ground, Gwen kneeling down next to her. "—need an ambulance, now!" Gwen was saying. "I think she's had a heart attack!"
Peter didn't know what to do. But Gwen looked him in the eye and shouted, "I've got this; get your spider-butt after them! GO!"
And so, despite the fact that the greater part of him wanted nothing more than to stay and make sure that Aunt May was okay, he took to the rooftops and went racing after MJ and the Goblin.