Disclaimer: Seeing as I managed to get the second chapter finished ahead of time, I figured I might as well get it up and running. (Or swinging, I guess.) I'm not surprised I haven't received any responses, but it is early yet so I should give it time.
Just to reiterate, this is a 2014 reimagining of The Amazing Spider-Man #121-122. Yes, I'm just realizing that the story-arc spanned two issues.
As always, I don't own the rights to Spider-Man or any supporting characters.
Chapter II
"Good morning, Manhattan. It is Saturday, June 12 at 11:22 A.M. Temperatures are a balmy 68 degrees with clear sky and abundant sunshine."
Our top story this morning; Wednesday's high speed car chase through downtown Soho was thwarted once again by New York's resident, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. The NYPD later took the culprit into custody, indentified as 35 year old Abner Jenkins. Jenkins, a former aircraft mechanic for Quest Aerospace, attempted to abscond with several components for unknown purposes. The parts have since been returned to the factory from which Jenkins stole them."
"In other news, OsCorp CEO and industrial magnate Norman Osborn is due to return to the public eye after four months of self-imposed reclusiveness to announce the reopening of OsCorp Industries. Late last year, Mr. Osborn was among several high-ranking persons that also included Wilson Fisk, Silvio Manfredi and Martin Li to be abducted by the mysterious criminal known as the Green Goblin. A motive behind the kidnappings has not been determined as of yet and the Green Goblin currently remains at large."
A familiar red and blue figure streaked across the New York City skyline in plain view of onlookers down on the streets below. It was certainly an image which they'd come to expect. High above and swinging on strands of web lines and jaunting from building to building was Spider-Man. He'd become a fixture in Manhattan since his first appearance two years ago, taking on not just common crooks but a variable cornucopia of colorful super criminals. The most notable had been the like of Doctor Octopus, the Vulture, the Lizard, Venom and Carnage. Other antagonistic villains like Shocker, Scorpion and the Chameleon came to mind, and Spider-Man beat them all. And each time, he always had a moment to throw a few choice one-liners into the mix.
The people loved him and for good reason; he was always putting his life on the line for his city. At the moment as he was vaulting about between the skyscrapers, Spider-Man was on the hunt for Abner Jenkins, the guy he'd helped apprehend days earlier. According to the latest news reports, Jenkins was broken out of New York State Penitentiary by an unknown benefactor. Spider-Man wasn't a betting guy but he suspected Jenkins had some underworld connections. He knew that Jenkins, prior to his arrest, was under the employ of Wilson Fisk, AKA, Kingpin. There were rumors that Jenkins jump ship to work for Silvio Manfredi, AKA, Silvermane. Still, there was never any substantial evidence to either claim.
That investigation had to come later. Spider-Man was swinging up 82nd and Lexington toward Quest Tower, the main headquarters for Quest Aerospace. Quest Aerospace was the company that Abner Jenkins used to work for and ironically who he tried to steal from. Whatever was happening at Quest Tower had his name written all over it. Spider-Man was going to catch the guy. He always did. What would make it any different? Landing atop a building half a mile away from his destination, Spider-Man wasn't surprised to find Quest Tower still standing. Several news helicopters circled the upper floors of the building along with a single NYPD patrol chopper. A miniscule plume of a light gray smoke seeped out of a broken window.
Firing a web line toward the nearest chopper, Channel 5 reading across the hull, Spider-Man bounded forward toward Quest Tower. The chopper weaved slightly in the air, which was surprising since Spider-Man barely weighed that much anyway. The pilot and the news reporter, a young woman of Chinese-American decent, spotted the web slinger as he swung from their chopper to the next one.
"This is Whitney Chang with Channel 5 News continuing our coverage of the commotion at Quest Tower. If you're just joining, Spider-Man has just arrived and he is on route to Quest Tower. We'll have more in this developing story as it unfolds."
Spider-Man continued toward the building, swinging from chopper to chopper until he was close enough for mighty bound. He literally dove into the building through a broken window and skidded across the ruby-red floor of the office in which he landed. The office itself was in shambles, broken glass from the window on the floor and decorative items no longer in whatever place they used to be. Spider-Man looked back at the window and noted the manner in which it was broken.
Whoever did all this came from outside, is if the broken glass wasn't obvious enough. The only persons who can get this high are the Vulture… and the Green Goblin. Spider-Man thought to himself and shudder at the last notion.
He paused at the faint cries of a woman somewhere within the building. Bounding onto the far wall, Spider-Man crawled along to bypass the debris to into a wide hallway. The hallway had seen better days; there were a series of scorch marks along the walls and the florescent ceiling lights were left dangling and flickering. Spider-Man bounded across the hall, hopping from one wall to the next and back again. It was more out of instinct that anything else. The faint screams were growing slightly louder and Spider-Man figured he was getting close to the source. He also had the sneaking suspicion that whoever caused this was still in the building.
Spider-Man arrived at the source of the cries, which were coming from behind a set of double doors. His attempts to open them were met with resistance but that wasn't going to stop him. Vaulting back against the wall and firing a pair of web lines to either side of the doors, Spider-Man sling shot his way through. The impact sent both doors flinging wide open, while Spider-Man bounded into the room and landed onto a banister.
"Anybody home?" he said.
Inside of the room were a group of people, five to be precise and strapped together in chairs. "Spider-Man, thank God you're here." A comely young brunette said and drew the attention of the other hostages to Spider-Man.
Spider-Man hopped down to greet the hostage. "Don't worry about a thing…" he said and noted the woman's name. "…Christine. I'll get you all out of here."
"How do you know my name?" Christine asked.
Spider-Man reached for the name tag on her red office jacket and replied, "Says so right here on your name tag; Christine McGuire. Hey, you're not related to Tobey McGuire? I think his movies are terrible."
"Hey, you've got to get us out of here, Spider-Man," one of the other hostages said, a man with graying brown hair and couple of wrinkles that suggested he was approaching middle age. "They guy who did all this; he's a nutcase."
"Don't worry, I specialize in trouncing nut cases." Spider-Man said confidently.
"Yeah, but this guy's a whole new level of weird," another male hostage added. "Wears a red and silver, insect-looking outfit. And he can fly, too."
"Sounds like fun." Spider-Man said before his spider-sense went off.
A second later, Spider-Man leapt up and over the hostages to dodge a bolt of light before it struck him. A whole series of bolts came at him, but he was able to duck and weave and dodge every one of them with ease. A final bolt missed and Spider-Man clung to the ceiling of the room. Out of the smoke emerged the perpetrator behind the invasion of Quest Tower. Decked out in a red and silver outfit, he hovered above the terrified hostages. A harness with rapid moving capsules akin to wings kept him airborne, moving so fast that the eyes couldn't follow. He also wore the strangest looking mask Spider-Man had ever seen so far; a silver, doubled pronged visage with yellow orbs to resemble eyes.
"Wow, that's a cool suit," Spider-Man said when the culprit landed on the floor. "And by cool, I mean extremely gaudy, cumbersome and derivative… and really just flat-out ugly."
"You don't remember me; do you, Spider-Man?" The villain said.
"Uh, let me think; you attacked Quest Tower, you're wearing Quest Aerospace flight equipment and you've got some kind of grudge against Quest as a whole," Spider-Man listed off before snapping his fingers. "I got it; you're Jameson. Oh, PLEASE be Jameson!"
"SHUT UP," the villain said and shot another bolt and Spider-Man, missing him by a couple of feet. Then the villain opened his mask and revealed his face. "You recognize me now?"
Spider-Man put his hands on each side of his face and replied, "Abner Jenkins?! Didn't I kick your backside a few days ago? I guess I've got to do it again."
Abner Jenkins closed his mask and took flight above the hostage. "Not this time. This time, I'm kicking your ass. Oh, and you can call me Beetle."
"Beetle? Seriously? Why not try a more sensible moniker, like Cockroach Man or the Human Fly or Wasp," Spider-Man said and then quickly retracted, "Actually, the Wasp name's already taken."
Spider-Man bounded clear of another bolt from the self-proclaimed Beetle and also avoided several more in succession. He unloaded with a series of web shots back at Beetle, who was equally able to avoid the webs as they came, and then he fired back. Spider-Man, as he'd always done, made effective use of his agility. He bounded throughout the room to avoid the bolts, but was careful not to get too close to the hostages. That wasn't to say they weren't terrified by all the chaos around them. Spider-Man knew he had to get them out of there, but it didn't seem like Beetle was going to make it easy. It was never that easy.
Bolt after bolt, Beetle shot off a rapid stream of fire at Spider-Man, but Spider-Man was ever cagey. He bounded from wall to floor and back again, used numerous web lines to swing up from the floor to the ceiling. Landing on the railing above the floor were the hostages were, Spider-Man swung out of the way of an oncoming bolt and straight at Beetle with grace. Then he put his leg out front and said limbs were buried into Beetle's abdomen. The blow sent Beetle out of a then-unbroken window and out of sight for the moment.
A moment later, Beetle was back in full force and shooting at rapid fire at Spider-Man – and the hostages. How he managed to miss the hostage completely was astonishing and it made Spider-Man if Beetle was missing by design or was just a bad shot. Spider-Man fired a web line and swung out of the broken window toward Beetle, who had taken flight toward the city. Spider-Man landed just at the edge of the defenestrated window and fired off another web line, missing Beetle by a few inches. He fired another line and was set to take off when Christine called out to him in terror.
"No, don't leave us here, Spider-Man. Please." she said to the hero.
"Don't worry, Christine. I'll be back on a hot New York minute." Then Spider-Man was long gone out the window.
Christine still shouted, "No. Come back."
Spider-Man was already in pursuit of Beetle, quickly catching a brief glimpse of the latest entry in his rogue's gallery. Beetle had made it to the lower standing buildings, forcing Spider-Man to swan dive from the tower after him. Firing a web line toward the nearest building, Spider-Man swung across the sky line with earnest and poise but it appeared that Beetle had somehow given him the slip. Either Beetle truly had gotten away or he was waiting for the moment when he could ambush Spider-Man as he was searching. Neither scenario boded well for Spider-Man or anyone else if and when Beetle struck again.
Then his spider-sense went off. Spider-Man bounded clear of a hailstorm of bolts from above. Beetle reappeared, unleashing an assault that a normal person couldn't have avoided. Spider-Man was no normal person. He retaliated with an onslaught on his own, shooting web shots right back at Beetle. Beetle nearly as agile as Spider-Man, and he was pelted several times by the projectiles before taking off further into the city. Spider-Man gave chase after Beetle and kept the villain in full view. He also had to avoid the random shots that Beetle unloaded on him, something he did with ease. He was no Green Goblin or Shocker or Vulture, but he came pretty close.
Beetle stayed well ahead of Spider-Man by focusing solely on trying to outrun him, periodically turning to further pepper the web slinger with a storm of bolts. Spider-Man deftly dodged the bolts while remaining in motion as he'd done so many times in the past against common crooks and super villains alike. He shot a web line that stuck unto Beetle's leg, and Beetle felt the sudden tug of extra weight on him. Spider-Man held on to the line before Beetle surprising and just of deftly spun around in a twisting motion.
The momentum sent Spider-Man slamming into the wall of a brick building where he quickly recovered, and it was right on time too. Beetle unloaded another spray of bolts at Spider-Man, who once again put his agility to proper use. On the wall, Spider-Man seemed to flow in between the bolts as they came striking the parts of the wall that his arms or legs occupied moments earlier. Beetle proved unrelenting and cupped his hands together. He charged up a larger and more powerful bolt and let it loose, and Spider-Man barely managed to avoid the blast when he bounded clear of it. The bolt left a scorch mark where Spider-Man was situated mere seconds ago.
Beetle fired more bolts in a vain attempt to put Spider-Man down for the count and maybe unmask him, but Spider-Man was all quick to be stopped. Eventually, Spider-Man bounded forward and directly up and over Beetle. By the time Beetle knew what happening, it was already too late. From behind Beetle, Spider-Man snagged him with two separate web line embedding to his back. Then Spider-Man flipped Beetle directly over him and into the side of the opposite building. Beetle literally slammed front side first into the building, spread-eagle style. To keep him there, Spider-Man engulfed Beetle in a web net and then mockingly greeted the subdued villain.
"You made it WAY to easy, pal; I barely even broke a sweat. And yes, I do sweat under the mask." he said to Beetle.
Beetle simply laughed, "You're not as bright as like to think you are."
"How do you figure?"
"When we left the tower, I activated a detonator pack on the hostage's chairs. It's set to blow in the next two minutes," Beetle revealed. "So what're you going to do? Bring me in to the cops or save the hostages?"
Without a second thought, Spider-Man fired off a web line and swung back toward Quest Tower. He shouted back, "Don't go anywhere, Roachi Roach."
"THE NAME IS BEETLE!"
Christine was the first to notice the literal ticking time bomb below the chairs that she and her fellow hostages were trapped on. The digital clock was bright orange and ticking away at less than one minute and counting. The other hostages struggled against their own bound but Christine was petrified beyond rationale to really do much of anything. Why in the world did Spider-Man have to take off after that Beetle lunatic? As if her question was suddenly answered, Spider-Man returned through the same window that Beetle destroyed prior.
"Told you I'd be back," he announced while sliding to a stop right by the hostages. One by one, he snapped the bounds. "There's a stairwell down the hall and to the right. Get to it."
Two of the hostages hustled out of the room in haste while the timer was down to twenty-five seconds. Christine was about to follow when she was suddenly jerked to a halt. She looked back to find her office jacket caught in a jagged edge on the detonator. Twenty seconds remained on the clock. Spider-Man didn't have time to stop the detonator, so he focused on getting Christine free. He hoped those other hostages made it to the stairwell when he managed to remove Christine's jacket from her person with fifteen seconds left and coming. Taking Christine in one arm, Spider-Man approached the window and looked down toward the city.
"I hope you're not afraid of heights, Christine." he said to her.
"What?!"
Spider-Man then lunged out of the window with Christine's arms wrapped around his neck and shoulders, without responding once to Christine's response. Christine did naturally produce a scream of terror as she and Spider-Man plummeted a dozen feet below. Back inside the building, the timer counted down to zero. An explosion of the upper floor of Quest Tower followed, blowing shard of glass and pieces of office furniture every which way. The explosion was mostly contained, and the helicopters watching it all unfold were in no real danger.
The same couldn't be said for Christine as she held on for dear life to Spider-Man, thinking him to be craziest bastard since her ex-husband. As they dropped further toward the nearest building, (and she was still screaming) Spider-Man shot off a quick web line. Holding the line tightly, Spider-Man swung clear of Quest Tower with Christine still holding on as tightly as possible. They both swung a couple blocks away from Quest Tower, eventually coming to rest on the roof of an apartment and right in front of a pigeon coop. Christine had her eyes shut the whole time when she felt solid ground underneath her feet and when she opened her teary eyes, she saw that same solid ground. And she saw Spider-Man standing before her.
"See, that wasn't so bad," he said, and Christine shakily removed herself from him and ready to burst into hysterics. "Uh, uh, no need to get teary eyed or mushy. C'mon, chin up, Christine. Chin up."
"Th… thank… you." Christine barely managed to respond despite being totally shell-shocked.
"Hey, it's why I'm here." Spider-Man said before shooting a web line and swinging out of sight.
Christine feebly waved her hand and muttered, "Amazing!" And then she fainted.
Spider-Man was quick to return to where he left Beetle last, only to find the remains of his web net and Beetle long gone. Spider-Man was mentally kicking himself, but he knew well ahead that it had to be Beetle or the hostages. He chose the hostages, and Beetle got away. Focusing his attention now on the commotion at Quest Tower, Spider-Man swung back to the site of the chaos. Landing atop an adjacent building, Spider-Man took in the scene.
The helicopters, both NYPD and News, were still high above surveying and/or filming the scene. Down below at the base of the tower, there were a number of emergency vehicles and countless people running around. There were also the occupants of the tower leaving the building. It amazed Spider-Man that Quest Tower was still standing after being gutted by that blast. Then again, it was a contained explosion, probably something Beetle hadn't planned on. It didn't prevent a plume of smoke from spewing out of the building but at least it was still standing. Still, the sight of it and the choppers and the emergency vehicles didn't relieve Spider-Man's other great fear.
Jameson's gonna have a field day with this, he thought. He knew he wasn't wrong.
Author's Note: That's it for the second chapter, and there's a little to talk about. First and foremost is if those with eagle eyes take a very close look at the opening sentence, you might notice the numbers read a specific numerical sequence. Look very closely.
Second is the mention Wilson Fisk, Silvio Manfredi and Martin Li, better known in the comics as Kingpin, Silvermane and Mr. Negative respectively. Whether or not they will appear later on is to be determined.
Whitney Chang (from The Amazing Spider-Man video game) makes a cameo, while the character Christine McGuire is a minor, original character. Note the sly little inside joke on her last name.
I mentioned that other villains would appear and the first of them is Beetle. I won't reveal any others but some have been mentioned. Of the mentioned, Venom and Carnage WILL NOT appear.
Finally, it was established that Spider-Man has been around for two years in this timeline of sorts. And yes; he's got his snarky one-liners.
So pretty please with sugar and Emma Stone on top, review.