Hey everyone, happy Friday, time for a new update. It now all begins. The final showdown for Jay and his villains begin and a hidden surprise awaits in the end of this chapter. I apologize if this chapter is like long, I got lost and couldn't stop writing because I was excited about all of it. With that being said, enjoy! :D
Chapter 28: Night of Frights and Surprises
Halloween night. Night of frights and fear. Goblins and ghouls stalking the night in hopes to spite fear to those wondering by. Vampires gliding across the night's sky as bats in search for blood. Under the full moon, werewolves howl under the bright light as their transformation were finished and can stalk fresh prey to join their bloodclan. And skeletons rising from the hallowed grounds of cemeteries to dance around the gravestones in celebration of the Night of Horror. Only that those are legends and stories and don't exist, except for the Underworld skeletons. Tonight was the night for both tricks and treats in either spooky or cheerful costumes.
A chirp of laughter formed in a boy's throat as he raced down the decorative streets of Ninjago City with his sister and cousin following behind him. In his gloved hands was a plastic pumpkin bucket to collect candy of various kinds which he tossed in the air as he walked and caught it like he was hero of his costume he chosen; Spiderman. The boy wasn't full of energy from not sugar, but being excited to be dressed up as the famed web-swinging hero of Ninjago City. Basically his costume was designed in lycra like Spiderman's, which made him ecstatic to be like the hero. And as he walked down the streets, he had to stop in front of a shop window to stare and marvel at himself to have his smile growing bigger. "This is awesome!" he chirped. "I'm like Spiderman!" He turned to his tailing sister and cousin. "Well, don't I!?"
A smile formed on the red haired girl's face to her little brother's enthusiasm on his Halloween costume to nod as he did indeed look like the superhero. She was happy as long he was happy. Her cousin had to be too though despite he and his friends were against Spiderman. They'll know though to not judge him. "Yes." she replied. "Most certainly are. You look great as him." She drifted her icy blue eyes away to giggle a little to see him cock his head a bit to know he was confused. "But you may have competition though when we get to that costume party at the comic bookstore." and pointed her direction to prove a point over his shoulder.
Lloyd had to look over his shoulder to see what his sister had meant to pull his mask up to his forehead to blink. All around he saw were kids in Spiderman costumes too. She was right. He did have competition. Some costumes looked bulky for they had fake muscles made in the chest and arms. Some looked tacky as they were trying hard to be Spiderman. And some looked like they didn't even tried to make their costume. To which the green ninja snorted in disbelief. To him, his costume was more likely like Spiderman's in the end. "Pffh. As if." he snorted. "I got this in the bag. My costume will amaze those at the party. I even can show them my autograph of Spiderman. But maybe Faolan would get more voters for being saved by Spiderman at Ninjago Square when Electro first came." He kept thinking the outcomes, but shook his head as it didn't matter. "Never mind. My costume will win for sure." He pulled his mask down over his face to make a pose with his arms held out like he was firing webs from his wrists. "Because I look exactly like Spiderman."
"Yeah you do, Lloyd." Lucas smiled and tried to ruffle his hair under the mask. "You may be our enemy for Halloween, but as long you're happy with the costume, I can't be annoyed with you." He patted his cousin's back as they walked down more toward their destination, the water ninja felt something was following them, but shrugged. "Anyway I'm grateful though for Dawn's help to make your costume." he said absentmindly. "Without her, I would've been stuck. But glad she was there, which also got me a black eye from Cole. Geez he's worse than Kai if someone he cares was talking with another. Really uncalled for."
"At least it wasn't too bad on that." Laurie stated. "If anything was worse, he could've put you in a coma. Which you should be grateful for." She glanced over at him with a cocky smile to see him stick his tongue out playfully to laugh a little. But it soon disappeared as the hairs on the back of her neck stood as she walked to glance over her shoulders and saw nothing, but could feel something odd. "Do you ever get the feeling as if someone was spying y-" A shrill cry filled the girl's ears to make her cover them tightly with her cousin and saw something black rush past them in the air and soon heard her brother scream. In reaction, she averted her eyes toward him and saw he was gone, but lifted her head to gasp. Her brother was in the air in the grip of...Spiderman? "Lloyd!" she cried.
Adrenaline soon pumped into both teens to watch the green ninja being carried by the web swinging hero. What had gotten into Spiderman to do this and why a different suit? That didn't matter right now, they had to save Lloyd. "Come on!" Lucas exclaimed and grabbed Laurie's hand to start running. "We have to inform the guys." He reached up to his ear piece to press the symbol he was marked as the water ninja; a storm cloud. "Guys, huge emergency!" he shouted. "Spiderman has gone rogue and took Lloyd. This guy should've been stopped long ago. We're sending you our distress signal." He flicked a small switch to start signaling their location as they ran.
Laurie kept her icy blue eyes on her brother as he was swinging away with his screams filling the air. It froze her heart to have him stolen from her. And it made it worse when the black suited Spiderman was swinging farther away. Was this a doing from her father and his Mega-Weapon? It had to be or not. "We're gonna lose them!" she cried out while trying to keep up with her cousin.
"Not on my watch!" the grey ninja growled and slipped under his cousin to have her on his back. Both hands were held out in front of him at two fire hydrants parallel on the streets and both hydrants burst with pressurized liquid streaming out and soon swarm around the teens. The Ninja of Winds gasped as the water surrounded them to panic but realized she could breathe, how was she able to do this she had to wonder? With the water surrounding the two guardians, the water ninja jumped to feel airborne with the liquid and soon took off in pursuit in the skies against Spiderman. A trick or talent he favored with his elemental powers. The two, or mostly Lucas for controlling the jet, kept their distance until they realized they were heading for the bay on the edge of the city and the power grid that powers Ninjago City. "I got a bad feeling about this." he muttered. "But looks like he's heading for that station that's being constructed. We'll land there then."
The orange ninja had to nod to her cousin's choice and felt their altitude reducing until they landed in one of the high story floors in construction and the water around them evaporated. To which then the girl sighed in relief as she got off his back to feel a bit dizzy. She couldn't tell if she was sea sick or air sick from flying in water. "Next time, warn me when doing that." she exclaimed and smacked his arm to make him chuckle. "Lloyd may be used to it, but that doesn't mean I am too."
"I'll try to remember next time." said Lucas and observed his surroundings. He stopped as he found Lloyd's mask on the floor to pick it up and stuffed it in his sweatshirt pocket. "But right now, let's get Lloyd out of here."
The wind ninja nodded and followed after the water ninja in the poorly lit power station except for a few lamps that lit various areas of the station. But as she kept searching around for her kidnapped brother, her voice cracked a bit and choked on her words as the area and floors of empty walls and beams had black strands of web stretching across the station. It was almost like a spider's lair from a movie she once watched with Kai for a movie date night. Lucas imagined the same to relapse his experience of exploring in the Underworld Spider Queen's lair and almost becoming her prey when being haunted by her. Both soon snapped out of it as they heard the green ninja's familiar scream and quickly rushed over to the source and spotted the boy trapped to a beam with black threads ensnaring him still; like a trapped bug.
In reaction as being the older sibling, Laurie quickly checked on her brother to see he was shaken up in fear. Lucas was the same for his little cousin to try and break the threads off of him. "Lloyd, are you all right?" she asked, concerned for his pale, shaken form.
Lloyd took a quick second to find his voice, but his emerald green grew wide in horror. "B-B-Behind you!" he screamed. The sheer cry from the odd Spiderman alerted the two guardians to turn quickly but saw white eyes and darkness.
"Is this the place?" Kai had asked as he climbed out of the Ultra Sonic Raider to lift his head at the large power station, similar to the one in the Lightning Fields he read in a magazine, under construction to turn to his friends and Sensei Wu as they joined him. "I don't get it. Also what are those over there?" pointed at the odd small towers that looked like spires with coils, lights flickering like if they were collecting energy.
"Those are some energy convertors for the power grid to the city." Zane stated as they walked past the gated fence to the grid. His dark blue eyes scanned and analyzed every working function that participated in operation to generating electricity and developed a visual blue print of the power grid. And after reviewing each design of the various sections of the grid, it astounded him. "It appears that this power grid is powered by the river in a form of hydrogen power to conduct electricity and these spires convert and store the energy to be evenly spread throughout the city than what other grids were to send them in different sections of the city and some places got little power than the other." He paused to see the creator's name to sigh. "To whoever created this plan to help power the city is none other than...Maxwell Dillions or Electro."
"Really?" Cole wondered as he glanced over his shoulder. He received a nod from the ice ninja to nod as they reached the base of the station to call for an elevator to sigh. "It's a shame still Spiderman killed him, but we can talk about that later. Right now we have to stop Spiderman now for suddenly going rogue. If he kidnapped Lloyd and we haven't heard anything from Lucas or Laurie, something bad has happened. And we got to stop him."
"What about Jay?" Zane asked concern on the lightning ninja. "We're going to need all the help we ca-"
"Who cares about him!?" Kai grumbled after slamming his fist into a console that Cole pressed to call on the elevator as he was getting impatient. He may have stopped the elevator now, but that didn't matter with him. The thought of the blue ninja made his skin crawl with fire burning in hatred. Especially when he harmed his sister. He should've killed him when he had his chance. "I don't want to see his face for what he did to my sister and know we can do this without him." He felt something whack his head rather hard to have him wince and hold his head to turn as his teacher was glaring at him for the comment. He knew his sensei was still pestered with him for the other night. "You know it's true, Sensei."
"But Jay is still your brother, Kai." the elder grimaced at the fire ninja. "It doesn't give you the right still for holding a grudge or trying to kill him. That's not honor in a ninja."
"Look, we can discuss this later." the fire ninja grumbled. "WE can do this without HIM. It's us against this bug creep."
"I wouldn't be sure, Ninja." a reverberating voice growled. The three ninja and elder felt themselves become tense as they knew that voice; a voice of a dead man. Their eyes searched around to the quietness but soon a blue-white light shined around the grid and static sparks of electricity flew from the spires and soon took plasmic form to merge together and soon a body was reanimated. The fire, ice, and earth ninja quickly drew their weapons as Electro's body was suspended in the air to notice he was in a different set of clothes; a black, formfitting suit that reached to his neck with fingerless gloves, different than the baggy pants and sweatshirt. The nindroid quickly analyzed him to notice his suit was capable of accelerating his powers, they felt stuck. "As for your friend, you'd wish he was here." Electro said as he floated closer to them with electricity dancing in his palms.
All the three ninja and elder could do was slowly back away from the man as he flew closer to them until their backs were pressed against a wall. They could fight him to fend for themselves, but without their elemental powers, they might as well be limited. Lucas could use his powers still to short circuit the man, but he was missing with his cousins and also be the one to electrocution for being water. Oh where was Jay for being the lightning ninja? He'll know what to do. And why was Spiderman on Electro's side if they were enemies. So many questions.
The red, black, and white ninja and Sensei Wu stood rigid to the electric man as his electricity bounced around to have them trapped; they couldn't do a thing. Not even Zane's shurikens could distract him to have them run for it after he threw them. Kai realized they were hooped now. "I-I actually take back what I said." he gulped. "We do need Jay now. His element is like his so he would know what to do." He watched Electro smirk to waver his hands and screamed in pain as the man fired his powers to the four. The fire ninja couldn't hear his voice or his brothers or Sensei Wu's to the radiating pain tingling their bodies, (disrupting Zane's circuits in his case), as it was worse than Jay's old golden nunchucks. The firing purplish, plasmic bolts suppressed and all three ninjas and teacher collapsed to black out in exhaustion.
The night was quiet and still for Nya as she walked down the deserted streets of Ninjago city. Halloween to her was a fun day, but with the things happening around her made her not want to celebrate and go to the Halloween party she and her friends were invited to at the comic bookstore by Lloyd. So a stroll in the night felt peaceful and if she came across to a rogue nindroid mimicking Jay, she'll know what to do. Out there was the real Jay and she will do everything to find him. With or without her friends.
As the girl continued pacing down the streets, her chocolate eyes noticed the streetlights were flickering a little as well as other lights around her. Like a electrical discharge was happening. Something didn't feel right. But what? "So," a familiar voice caused Nya to stop and turned toward the alley to gasp. She recognized the one as Jay 2 and not Jay and saw he looked different. A black suit that covered his body from the neck down made of what though. She felt frozen to move. "Enjoying the evening?" he sneered to with a smirk forming to reveal her his sharpened canine teeth. And before the girl could scream for help, a clawed hand of his draped over her mouth as he screeched.
"We have breaking news happening over at the Ninjago City power grid!" Gale Gossip reported through the camera on live TV. Jay lifted his head from his manga book of Starfarer he was reading to the mention of breaking news and grabbed the remote to increase the volume to listen with his aunt. Something didn't feel right to him. "Terror is rising in the city as the power grid is being targeted by none other than Electro. Police have tried to breach past to stop and contain him from blackening the city, but they can't as a black suited Spiderman joins in to aide him." Electro? A black suited Spiderman? Jay was puzzled. "Has Spiderman gone dark or is this an imposter?"
Jay's hazel eyes widen as he watched the footage of Electro, resurrected and causing trouble to baffle him as his aunt was surprised as well. How did he come back after killing him? The auburn teen kept watching Electro disrupting the grid with his powers to see the lights flickering in the den and watched more of the footage to gasp as he watch the black suited Spiderman leaping across the grid and attacking armed police forces to screech loudly. Another Spiderman like him, but how? The more he watched the dark villain of Spiderman, the more tense he became as he seen a close up of the man as he lunged toward the cameraman to gasp more. White triangular eyes and razor sharp teeth in a large grin; like his nightmare. It has become reality.
"Police have tried everything to stop the two, but there is no anvil." the news reporter continued worriedly. "Hope is all lost if Spiderman is partnering with-" She paused as she heard something ringing in her ear piece. But couldn't hear anything, but turned to the power grid. She gasped as large build ups of electricity was spreading and forming into Electro's face.
"Come and stop us, Spiderman!" the voice echoing for Jay. "We have control of this city and you will not win!" and the face disappeared.
"Apparently the real Spiderman is still out there and we hope you're watching this. I even got another messaging saying that they have hostages and been identified as the Ninja of Ninjago."
Jay felt his jaw drop as the camera zoomed on the constructing station to zoom in on the faces of his friends and...Nya. His heart stopped to see his friends were in danger to glance over his shoulder to see his aunt becoming worried as she looked deep into his eyes. His friends were in danger and he had to save them. He ignored the rest of the news to rush out of the den and race upstairs to his room. He had to do something, whether it was going to be dangerous for him as Spiderman. "Jay, wait!" his aunt called out after him, but he ignored her as he entered his room.
In haste, he dug out the case that had his Spiderman suit to open it and lifted the suit by the shoulders to stare at the black spider symbol on the chest with a small frown. What were the outcomes for him if he stood against both Electro and the second Spiderman? Two against one weren't in his favor. But with his friends in danger, it was a risk of life and death he was willingly to take. To which his frown soon turned to a mask of determination to nod to himself. With great power, comes great responsibilities, his uncle's voice ran through his head. Remember that, Jay. Always.
"You were always right, Uncle Ben." he muttered to himself. "With great power comes great responsibilities." He turned his head to meet face to face with his aunt who had a shocked expression on her face as she stared at the suit. "Aunt Mary, I can explain, but I'm needed."
Fear spread through the girl as she was hung by her wrists on the black threads that engulfed the station. Her eyes kept shifting with her brother's, who had finally woken from Electro's powers to show him her fear. She felt sort of relieved to his smile, but it didn't help her as he and her friends were tied together by the black threads of the new Spiderman far from her. But the girl knew it was Jay 2, the android of Jay, doing this with Electro. Why? And why keep her separated from the others? Oh where was the real Jay?
"Guys, I'm scared." Lloyd's voice squeaked to show his share of fear.
Nya lifted her head to glance at the small green ninja who had a huge mask of fear to frown as she too understood him. Not even the comfort of his sister and cousin could keep him safe. His favorite superhero was going bad on him. "We all are too, Lloyd." Lucas' voice chirped as he struggled to move his hands free from his back to grab Lloyd's bound hands to give them a gentle squeeze of safety. "But we'll get out of this one way or another."
"Easier said than done, Lucas." Cole stated and tried to muster all strength he had to try and break free, but couldn't. "But what does he want with us and where can Jay be?"
"I don't know, brother." Zane wondered. "But if he does come, it'll be just him up against Spiderman and Electro. He's no match to them and-"
A loud screech stopped the nindroid to have Nya lift her head as Jay 2 was back to become stiff. She remembered he had something planned for them when he got back and this meant trouble. "Let go of me you wall crawling freak!" a female voice shouted to have the samurai and Ninja watch Spiderman drag a girl, young as Nya with snow-white hair and crystal blue eyes. Some recognized her to blink in confusion. "You were always good and always protecting the city! Protecting its people! Protecting-"
"I used to, Gwen Stacy!" the black suited Spiderman barked at her with a hiss. The girl's eyes went wide to the mention of her name. How did he know her? To that, he chuckled. "Oh I know about you and even this fighter of a girl." He gestured to Nya and fired his wrists to hear her shriek a bit and pulled her free from her restraints to grab her by her shirt to glare at her deeply. "Don't we, Nya?"
"What do you want with my sister you freak!?" Kai barked to struggle harder from the webs.
Spiderman hissed at the fire ninja's attitude to quickly fire a web at his mouth to gag him. The look he received seemed priceless to him to chuckle. "And Kai, such a fiery attitude to those that harm your sister." he smirked. Kai's eyes went wide now on how his name being mentioned. "Am I right, Nya? We know a lot about each other even when we first met."
The Ninja and Gwen looked at each other then at the samurai to see the nervousness in her eyes. She was hiding something from them between her and Spiderman. "Nya, you know who Spiderman is?" Zane asked her. The girl had to look at them from Jay's grip to hang her head shamefully.
Jay 2, or Venom, had to smirk to her as it felt amusing to see her...broken. Even with the Ninja and Gwen Stacy in his grasp, Jay will have a fight he will die for. Where was he though, he needed him for this. There was no way he couldn't refuse to save everyone, even Nya and Gwen. "Oh don't be like that." he said while lifting her head up. "But why don't we share our secrets. Show them who I am. May be they'll like the new me. You did before." He grinned to feel the symbiote move slowly.
THWIP!
The android felt something strike his back to turn on his heels to screech. The Ninja, Nya, and Gwen lifted their heads to gasp as far across from them was a speck of red and blue swinging across Ninjago City to start hearing applause of the crowd below them to become baffled. It was Spiderman, the real Spiderman and the other was a fake. They couldn't have felt more relieved to know that Spiderman was still good. But two Spiderman? How? The cheers and applause grew louder as he disappeared from their peripheral view and he soon broke though the webs that surrounded the constructed power station to land in a crouch and glanced at the hidden android to flinch in a shiver. "For being another Spiderman," he said while crossing his arms. "You know how to be a freak with that grin. No wonder the ladies fear you."
A smirk formed on the creature's face as he was glad Jay finally arrived on perfect timing even. Oh how he loathed the lightning ninja for making him into a useless puppet and he was going to make himself something new and make the auburn teen the most hated person in the world. Starting with betraying Nya, his teammates, his family, and everyone. "I can say the same thing to you, Spiderman." he remarked to chuckle to have him confused with the Ninja. "I'm even glad you showed up. Because I was about to reveal my identity to my teammates."
Jay became confused more as he stared the creature under his mask. Even his friends looked the same as they glanced at each other. Same with Gwen Stacy. What was she doing here to be in this predicament? But Nya however was nervous like she was hiding something. The lightning ninja watch the doppelganger Spiderman's face shifting to realize what it was the symbiote from Oscorp, but his hazel eyes widen to the face to feel his blood draining from his face. No it couldn't be. My gawd, Jay 2. he gasped.
"Jay, what the heck!?" Cole shouted. "Why are you doing this!?"
A hissed escaped from the nindroid to mimic Jay as he glared at the Ninja. "Why!?" he growled. "Because all of you have always tormented me ever since I joined the team. Calling me weak, worst inventor, everything! I finally grew sick of it. And with this symbiote of Oscorp, it's given me more power than all of you. And with Electro's help, we can control this city and soon all of Ninjago. We will be unstoppable. And we'll start by killing you off."
Jay began to panic as his friend's were thinking he was him. And all the things he was telling about him made him feel bad as they sounded a little true. No, he couldn't let him get distracted by that. But he knew what his counterpart was doing, he was drawing him out to reveal himself. He couldn't allow it, but it was to protect them, Nya, and Gwen. "Guys, don't listen to him!" he shouted out to them. "What he says are lies. He's not the real Jay!"
What? Not the real Jay? Who was he then? "What do you mean, Spiderman?" Zane asked.
He never knew when his secret would be exposed, ever. But in this predicament, it was now bound to happen. He was tired of hiding stuff from his family, it always caused trouble in his life. It was how he became Spiderman. "Because," he said while slowly removing his mask to reveal his face. He felt more confident to hear their gasps. He smiled to it. "I'm the real Jay Walker."
Dun dun dunn! Told you there'd be a surprise in the end! Weren't expecting Jay to reveal himself, even to friends. But now it begins, Jay vs. Jay 2, who will win? Find out next week. I got nothing else so thank you for reading the update, leave a review if you like, have a great weekend and I'll see you next week. :D