Disclaimer: As before, I'm a little lacking in clever quips at the moment. So, here's the next chapter of the story. Enjoy.
As always, I own nothing at all.
Chapter XXVII
The rioting prisoners of Riker's Island were fighting a losing battle against the NYPD, the Riker's security and the added assistance of Hawkeye and Black Widow. In fact, the two Avengers had taken down more inmates than the security and the police combined. It seemed natural to them to be able to hold their own against these lowlifes with ease without the rest of the Avengers. These inmates weren't Loki or Ultron or even the Red Skull, and that made them easy to beat.
Widow put her martial arts skills to effective use against any inmates stupid enough to even think they had a chance against her. There were a lot of them that thought that way. Widow delivered a dizzying array of punches and kicks and mixed them with a series of takedowns. The inmates that were lucky enough to get as closer to Widow to actually touch her ended up wishing they hadn't. Widow used her weaponized gloves and threw lets and rights, with each blow sending an electrical charge through the unfortunate fools that crossed her.
Meanwhile, Hawkeye used his bow to marvelous effect. The multiple arrow tips he had in his quiver were launched against inmate after inmate. None of the arrows were lethal, instead used to subdue the inmates with netting or an adhesive agent. Other arrows carried a charge similar to Black Widow's gloves, but with tiny hooks to attach to the victims and avoid permanent damage. Not that Hawkeye had an issue with causing damage! For the foolish inmates that dew closer to him, Hawkeye got creative by use his bow a weapon itself. He knocked down three or four inmates at a time.
Then Hawkeye and Black Widow combined their skills. Black Widow maneuvered hapless inmates into range of Hawkeye's arrows and within moments, those inmates were subdued or otherwise knocked out. The security guards and the police rounded up the beaten inmates under direction from Capt. DeWolff, while Hawkeye and Widow kept on putting the remaining inmates down.
"Frankly, I'm a little disappointed with these guys." Hawkeye said to Widow.
Widow took down another inmate with a head scissors maneuver. "Why's that?"
Hawkeye smashed his bow into the face of another inmate when he stated, "I was expecting a little more of a challenge, Nat. I'm actually getting bored right now."
"What'd you expect, Clint? These guys aren't exactly HYDRA," Widow exclaimed before she flipped another inmate up over her shoulders and down to his face. "At least HYDRA can take a few hits now and then."
"I guess so!" Hawkeye cracked and inmate in the jaw.
"Spider-Man's still in the prison, Clint. You want to go give him a hand while I take care of business here?" Widow asked.
"Nah, it's Spider-Man, Nat. He does whatever a spider can," Hawkeye said and beat down another inmate. "I'm sure he's perfectly fine."
Spider-Man was nearly down and out on the floor in the detention area with Rhino and Hydro-Man standing right over him. Rhino hoisted the fallen hero up by his arm and swung his nearly limp form back down into the floor. Then he tossed Spider-Man across the area. Hydro-Man blasted Spider-Man with a water jet that sent Spider-Man further across the area. With all that momentum, Spider-Man was slammed into the steel bars of one of the cells. The bars didn't budge one inch, but it felt like every one of Spider-Man bones was cracked as he dropped right back down to the floor. It wasn't long before Rhino and Hydro-Man were standing over Spider-Man again. They were ready to thrash him some more.
"Ow," Spider-Man whimpered when he looked up at the two villains. "Either of you guys ready to give up?"
""He's still got some fight left in him, Rhino. What do you think; you want to squash him, or should I go ahead and just drown him?" Hydro-Man asked.
Rhino picked Spider-Man up by the fabric of his costume and held him up. "I was kind of thinking of just sticking him with my horn."
Without warning, Spider-Man fired a glob of webbing into Rhino's eyes to blind the hulking brute. Rhino staggered while he was still grasping Spider-Man, while Hydro-Man tried to blast the hero. Spider-Man managed to get free at the last minute and swing to safety, while the jet of water hit Rhino. Rhino didn't budge from the jet, but the floor was made slick. In his efforts to remove the webbing from his face, Rhino slipped a hit the floor hard. Hydro-Man was stunned and briefly distracted, giving Spider-Man a chance to swing right into him. The impact of Spider-Man's feet into Hydro-Man's torso left the watery villain with an upper body for a few moments, while Spider-Man clung to the ceiling.
Rhino pulled the webbing from his face while Hydro-Man reformed is upper body, and Spider-Man quipped, "Seriously, Rhino? Did you actually say you were going to stick me with your horn?"
"Yeah!"
"Dude; you've got issues."
"Shut up, insect!" Hydro-Man shouted and cut loose with another water jet.
Spider-Man swung across the area from one wall to the next one and perched himself there. "Spiders are arachnids. Arachnids! I'm begging you to get it right, Bobby Boucher."
"I SAID SHUT UP!"
Spider-Man managed to dodge another water jet but was still caught by a third and thrown to the floor. "Well, that struck a nerve." he said just as his spider sense went off.
Rhino was barreling right toward Spider-Man at full speed, but Spider-Man was able to dodge to the side to the incoming assault. Rhino slammed into the wall again, while Hydro-Man tried to blast Spider-Man with two separate water jets. Spider-Man fired a web line and started swinging around the detention area as fast she the line could take him. Hydro-Man continued to launch jet after jet, missing Spider-Man repeatedly. Spider-Man felt his spider sense go off again, and he quickly realized he was swinging toward a charging Rhino. A web line shot straight to the ceiling saved Spider-Man, yanking him straight up and out of the way of Rhino's charge. But Hydro-Man seemed to anticipate the move and cut the line with a water jet.
Spider-Man tumbled back toward Rhino, who was waiting to catch the hero and possibly crush him in his arm. But Spider-Man instead landed on Rhino's back and rode him like he was a mechanical bull in a saloon. Rhino tried to reach for Spider-Man but couldn't, so he started running toward the walls at high speed. Spider-Man moved to avoid getting stamped into the walls while staying attached to Rhino and further frustrating the villain. Another high-speed crash into the walls did next to nothing to get rid of Spider-Man, but the Rhino suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.
Spider-Man wasn't prepared for that and his own momentum carried him off Rhino's back, bringing him within range of a waiting Hydro-Man. Hydro-Man unleashed a blast of water to the floor where he expected Spider-Man to land, but Spider-Man hopped back up to avoid the blast. Spider-Man closed in and threw a hard punch that literally exploded Hydro-Man's head in a shower of liquid. Spider-Man landed before a beheaded Hydro-Man and looked back to see Rhino charging from the other side. Hopping out of the way, Spider-Man allowed Rhino to charge passed him and collide with Hydro-Man, causing the latter to explode into liquid.
Rhino seemed to slip on the slick floor and fell face first, while Spider-Man clung to wall above the duo. "Talk about uncoordinated, boys! You've got me thinking Beetle fared better than you."
Rhino made it up to a knee and replied, "What, there's another bug like you?"
The puddle on the floor burst up, taking the shape Hydro-Man upper torso on a pillar of liquid. "It doesn't matter; bugs still drown."
Hydro-Man shot out another jet of water, missing Spider-Man when the hero swung clear of the blast. Spider-Man landed between the villains just as Rhino was charging him again, while Hydro-Man shrank to his normal height. He tried blasting Spider-Man from behind with another jet of water, but Spider-Man jumped over Rhino. Rhino took the full force of the water jet while Spider-Man landed right by the entrance into the Vault. As he started down that way, Hydro-Man cut loose with a wall of water like a tsunami.
Spider-Man had to swing down the way, passing by the cells of the other contained super villains. The wall of water was catching up to him fast, eventually colliding with him. The wall carried Spider-Man all the way into the heart of the Vault, crashing through a closed gate before he crashed down the floor again. He was down for a few minutes, but Hydro-Man and Rhino hadn't gotten to him yet. As he started to rise, feeling the aches all over his body, Spider-Man realized that he was in a much larger area than before. A large machine was present in the room undisturbed and undamaged since the riot began.
"Oh good, I found the generator. Guess the agonizing pain I'm feeling was totally worth it." Spider-Man said to himself when he felt the Earth shaking.
Rhino appeared at the generator room's entrance, followed closely by Hydro-Man. "Nowhere left to run, bug. Just you and us." Rhino bellowed.
"Better make it a good one, horny." Spider-Man stated.
Rhino snarled and charged forward, heedless of whatever plan Spider-Man could've had in store. Spider-Man slipped to the side and let Rhino pass by, and the brute ran into the wall. The walls were reinforced concrete and, as Rhino found out, they hit back. He was knocked out by the impact if only for a few minutes, but it still left Spider-Man to deal with Hydro-Man. He was caught off guard in a rare moment of Hydro-Man blasting him with a jet of water. Another jet of water came at Spider-Man, but he was able to avoid the blast. Another jet followed, then another, and every one was aimed at Spider-Man as he ran around the room. With enough momentum, Spider-Man shot out a web line and took off.
Hydro-Man wasn't finished and cut loose with more jets of water, trying to blast Spider-Man out of the air with little success. He did manage to cut the line Spider-Man swung on, but Spider-Man simply fired off another line to catch himself. Spider-Man continued to swing back and forth between water jets and further frustrated Hydro-Man to the point of recklessness. Releasing the line in mid-flight, Spider-Man shot a series of impact webbing at Hydro-Man. The impact webbing went right through Hydro-Man, briefly leaving gaping holes in his body. It was more of a distraction than annoyance, and Hydro-Man wasn't ready for Spider-Man to kick his right arm off.
After slamming right through Hydro-Man, Spider-Man briefly clung to the wall behind the water villain. Hydro-Man reformed his missing limb and unleashed another water jet, and Spider-Man swung clear of the blast once again. Spider-Man clung to the ceiling where he bounded from short blasts of water. Hydro-Man then got created; he shot two water jets to the floor and the jets collided with each other. Within seconds, a cyclone formed and grew high enough to reach the ceiling, forcing Spider-Man to swing away from it. He was barely able to avoid being caught in the swirling vortex Hydro-Man had created and he swung back and forth around it.
The cyclone, under Hydro-Man's guidance and control, seemed to follow Spider-Man all around the generator room. Spider-Man stayed ahead of the unnatural body of water for as long as he could, but he was eventually caught in the swirling vortex. He was thrown about like a ragdoll before being tossed hard to the floor and soaked to the marrow. Spider-Man struggled to move like feeling like he'd just ben thrown from a washing machine in the middle of the Atlantic.
"Now I know how Noah felt," he quipped just as a huge shadow loomed. Rhino was standing over him, and he wasn't happy. "Oh, crap!"
Rhino made a grab for Spider-Man, who barely avoided being caught. Spider-Man was about to get clear but Hydro-Man's cyclone was blocking his escape. Rhino grabbed Spider-Man by his leg and swung him over his head back into the cyclone. Like before, Spider-Man was churned around inside the cyclone. There was the added effect of being thrown from wall to wall while still being churned. At this rate, Spider-Man wasn't going to last much longer. Hydro-Man released Spider-Man and let him fly, right back into Rhino's massive hands.
Rhino started to squeeze Spider-Man in his arms, while Spider-Man struggled to get free of his hulking foe's grasp. Try as he might, Spider-Man was beginning to fade when Hydro-Man dissipated his cyclone. Hydro-Man swirled his right arm into a funnel while Rhino continued to squeeze.
"Drop him, Rhino. I'm going to finish him off, right here and right now." Hydro-Man declared.
"Screw off, Bench. I've got my own score to settle with this creep." Rhino spat and continued to squeeze. He was stopped by a direct blast of water and in the process, dropped Spider-Man.
Hydro-Man was ready to unleash another water jet. "I wasn't asking."
The brief exchange between the villains allowed Spider-Man to recover and use a web line pull himself away to the opposite side of the room. "So now you guys are fighting over who gets to kill me? I'm actually flattered. Hey, Bench, what's it like being classified as a second-rate imitation of Sandman?"
"Shut your much!" Hydro-Man bellowed and shot out a water jet that missed its mark badly.
Spider-Man was clung to the wall just above where Hydro-Man missed his shot. "And Rhino, are you really so stupid that you're going to take orders from a low-level street tough who's smaller than you?"
"Nobody calls me stupid!" Rhino charged forward right then.
Spider-Man bounded off the wall, sailing over Rhino's head as he went and landed between Rhino and Hydro-Man. Rhino halted and banked back around and charged Spider-Man again, while Hydro-Man prepared to blast the wall crawler from behind. Spider-Man timed it and leapt clear, and Hydro-Man ended up blasting Rhino as he was charging. Rhino didn't stop, and he literally ran right through Hydro-Man in a shower of water. The brutish villain slipped and fell down but recovered quickly, while Hydro-Man reformed himself.
"Rhino, what are you? Stupid?" he shouted.
"I said nobody calls me stupid." Rhino angrily retorted.
"Well, I just did. What're you going to do about it, you big dumb jackass?" Hydro-Man retorted.
"JACKASS? THAT"S IT; I'M GONNA KICK YOU'RE ASS!"
"Give it your best shot!" Hydro-Man formed his lower body into a waterspout and blasted Rhino.
Rhino took the full force before charging forward. He made grab for the spout, only for the spout to dissipate and reform behind him. Hydro-Man blasted Rhino again with a larger water jet, this time forcing Rhino back a few step. As all this was going on, Spider-Man was watching and using the time to recover from the beating he'd taken from both villains. He spotted the generator, still inert, and bounded down it. Before restarting it, Spider-Man crawled around the machine to make sure it wasn't damaged. Nothing significant stood out in terms of damage. Octavius stated that an outside force could still affect the machine, and Electro was locked up inside the Vault. The only way would've been that the generator was remotely shut down, and Spider-Man began to have a hunch about who was behind it.
Meanwhile, Hydro-Man and Rhino were still fighting with neither gaining an edge. Hydro-Man halted his assault when he spotted Spider-Man by the generator. Rhino spotted the same thing and, realized they'd been tricked, they both charged after the hero. Spider-Man was still putting the pieced together when he noticed a very telling detail; the generator had OsCorp logo on it. Before he could make the connection, his spider sense went off.
Rhino was dangerously close by that time, forcing Spider-Man to move out of the way. Spider-Man landed in front of Hydro-Man, who was approaching from behind and letting loose with a water jet. Hydro-Man sustained the jet while Spider-Man performed a series of flips to avoid it, while Rhino tired to stay in range of the web slinger. Spider-Man fired a web line and swung around Hydro-Man; he managed to get behind. Hydro-Man wasn't prepared for it and Spider-Man droved his feet right through his chest.
Spider-Man came out the other side and spotted Rhino charging toward him. Moving quickly, Spider-Man jumped over Rhino and let him run through Hydro-Man. Swinging toward the wall, Spider-Man noticed an electrical panel and had a crazy idea. Rhino was upright again, now soaking wet from having ran into Hydro-Man, who was slowly reforming.
"C'mon, big fella; don't be shy!" Spider-Man taunted Rhino, who angrily charged forward. This is so gonna hurt!
The very second that Rhino was within reach, Spider-Man bound off the wall at the last possible moment. Rhino hit the wall with as much force as was expected and in the process, embedded his own horn into the wall. With Rhino stuck and struggling to get his horn free, Spider-Man grabbed one of the power cables from the panel and jabbed the end into Rhino hide. The effect was instantaneous, and very painful; Rhino's body convulsed from the shock while Spider-Man was catapulted across from the shock. The lights in the generator room, and likely the entire Vault, flickered on and off. Spider-Man webbed the cable and pulled it clear of Rhino, leaving the brutish villain inert while still standing with his horn still in the wall.
With Rhino subdued, Spider-Man was back at the generator. It seemed oddly convenient that he found the control by the machine, including the elusive red button he joked about earlier. First pushing down on a lever and then bringing it up to reset, Spider-Man went to slam the palm of his hand down on the button. Instead, he simply and gently pressed it with one finger. Within seconds, the generator whirred to life. Spider-Man noted the slight shudder from the machine as it began it steady return to normal operation.
"How 'bout that; I did only have to push the red button." Spider-Man quipped right went his spider sense went off again.
A jet of water cascaded down on Spider-Man, but he moved out of the way. Hydro-Man had reformed fully and loomed over Spider-Man. "It's just you and me now, Spider-Man."
"Can I at least get my proper swimsuit on?"
Hydro-Man cut loose on Spider-Man, shooting a series of water jets while following on a pillar of water. Spider-Man swung ahead of the onslaught, dodging above and below the water jets as they came. Staying ahead of Hydro-Man wasn't quite as easy as it seemed, and Hydro-Man was at least smarter than he appeared. He used his jets to cut the web lines Spider-Man used to stay out of harm's way, but Spider-Man continued to avoid being drenched. Spider-Man clung to a wall and ran across the length of it, with Hydro-Man trying still to soak him. Frustration set in for Hydro-Man, and he morphed the remainder of his body into a liquid entity.
Spider-Man kept running across the wall, passing by the newly active generator and then shooting a line to return to swinging. Hydro-Man continued to follow in his liquid form, seeming growing larger with each passing second. He unleashed a series of liquid tendrils to try to knock Spider-Man out of the air, but Spider-Man was proving to be a difficult target to hit. But then Hydro-Man scored a hit with a single tendril of water, knocking Spider-Man off his line and spiraling through the air. Hydro-Man snagged Spider-Man by the leg and whipped him around the generator room, sending him into one wall and then into another.
After being thrown into the walls, Spider-Man was thrown to the floor and hit it with a thud. Hydro-Man retracted the tendrils and stalked toward Spider-Man, who was struggling to get up from the thrashing. While getting his head together, Spider-Man took notice of a fallen fire extinguisher nearby. It was probably knocked free of its resting place during the earlier fight with Rhino. Spider-Man looked up at Hydro-Man just as the villain was coming down on him in a tidal wave. Shooting a line toward the fire extinguisher, Spider-Man pulled himself toward the fallen suppressor while Hydro-Man missed him completely.
Hydro-Man reformed himself, taking his original height while Spider-Man stood up. "Hey Bench, how about you ditch the water works and come fight me like a man?"
"You want it that bad?" Hydro-Man asked.
"What're you afraid of?" Spider-Man continued to taunt.
Hydro-Man had his arms formed into water but returned them to normal. "Fine, I've got no problem whooping your little ass with my bare hands."
Hydro-Man made his charge as if he was Rhino, heedless of whatever Spider-Man was planning for him. Spider-Man waited as long as he needed to wait until Hydro-Man was close enough. Then he shot a line to the extinguisher. The device was pulled off the floor and into Spider-Man's hands, while Hydro-Man, at the last minute, took his liquid form once again. It was a fatal mistake on the Hydro-Man's part. Spider-Man aimed the nozzle and let the suppressant stream from the nozzle. Hydro-Man almost immediately tried to back off, but it was already too late. After being doused in suppressant foam, Hydro-Man went still and inert, nothing more than a human-sized block of ice.
Spider-Man dropped the extinguisher and breathed a sigh of relief. "Chill out, dude!"
It wasn't long before a squad of police and security officers stormed the generator. One officer aimed his gun and shouted, "FREEZE!"
Spider-Man held his arms up and said, "Me, or him?"
Capt. DeWolff pushed her way passed the officer and said to him, "Stand down, kid," She approached Spider-Man with a wry smirk. "Good job getting that generator back up, Spider-Man."
"It wasn't that hard, aside from getting soaked to the marrow and then nearly impaled." Spider-Man quipped.
DeWolff nodded and added, "Hawkeye and Widow are rounding up the last of the inmates. The Riker's security should have everything back under control soon."
"Good to hear, but I can't shake the feeling that something's off about this." Spider-Man's tone was serious, as if the scientist in him was starting to go to work.
"You know what; I agree with you," DeWolff replied. "This is OsCorp tech, supposedly foolproof and not easily tampered with. To have it suddenly fail so inexplicably… something's not right."
Spider-Man found himself agreeing with DeWolff, and he thought back to the word of Doctor Octopus; the machine itself is foolproof, but it can still be compromised… by an outside source.
"Spider-Man?" DeWolff said.
Spider-Man was still thinking about what Octavius told him before it finally dawned on him. "Oh my God…"
Hawkeye and Black Widow had finished rounding up the rest of the inmates and allowing the Riker's guards to take over. Hawkeye stated, "Well, that was fun. Maybe next time, we should think about bringing the Hulk."
"Maybe you should leave the strategies to Cap. We'll all live longer in the end." Widow replied.
"Funny, Nat," Hawkeye said when Spider-Man suddenly dropped in front of the two Avengers. "Hey Spidey, good work on getting the island under…."
"I need to get back to Manhattan… NOW!"
Gwen hid herself away in the closet in Peter's bedroom, armed only with a blunt object she found on the floor. It all happened so quickly that it was a blur. One minute, she was sitting in the living room and watching the news feed about the riot at Riker's Island. The next minute, the Green Goblin ambushed her… in Peter's apartment. It quickly dawned on Gwen that the Green Goblin knew that Peter was Spider-Man and that Peter's worst fear was coming true; the Goblin was targeting her to get to him. She acted quickly, ran for Peter's room, grabbed something, anything to defend herself and hid in the closet.
She tried to keep as quiet as possible when the Green Goblin stalked into the room. His garish visage was visible through the tiny keyhole when Gwen peered through it. Gwen stood up and gently took hold of the knob, ready to run when she had a chance. Without warning, a sharp object cracked right through the door and startled Gwen. This happened repeatedly until the Green Goblin stuck his face through the newly made hole. He leered at Gwen like a demon from the bowels of Hell.
"HERE'S GOBBY!" he bellowed and then cackled.
The Goblin reached into the closet through the hole he'd made, but Gwen suddenly clubbed the villain's hand with her weapon. The strike caused the Goblin to recoil and Gwen forced her way of the closet as quickly as possible. As a result, the door slammed into the Green Goblin and knocked him down. Gwen rushed out the closet and over the Goblin, but she was tripped and fell to the floor when he grabbed her. She tried to crawl away while he tried to pull her back, and she kicked him in the face repeatedly to get free. On the third kick, Gwen was freed and attempted to make a run out of the apartment.
She was in the hall, running as fast as she could toward the living room. Knowing the exit was there, she didn't dare think about looking back. Then out of nowhere, Gwen tripped. It wasn't out of clumsiness, but the result of the Goblin's remote controlled glider appearing right in front of her. Gwen couldn't catch herself in time, and her head hit the corner of the table in the living room, knocking her out. The Green Goblin emerged from the hall and stood over Gwen, using his leg to roll her to her back. A trickle of blood seeped from a wound in her temple, the result of the impact that knocked her out. The Green Goblin crouched beside Gwen's limp form and grinned wickedly.
"You and me... we're going to have a hell of a time." he snarled and silently chuckled.
Author's note: That's it for this two-part event, which means it's almost time for… THE BIG ONE. It will most likely also be a multi-part event so stay tuned for more.
Sorry that I didn't do more with Hawkeye and Black Widow, but this is primarily a Spider-Man story. Personally, I think Hydro-Man was the star of this chapter.
That final scene with Gwen and the Goblin had some slight inspiration from The Shining.
So, leave some feedback and I'll be back with more. Toodles!