Hello there!
Welcome to next Issue of Spider-Verse I: When I Swing By.
Hope you'll enjoy and now to story time.
It was late into the evening, inside a parking lot. A petty thief named Herman Schultz, used a small device to remove the lock and alarm from a BMW. Opening the door and sliding into the drivers seat, the would-be car thief begins to hotwire the engine. But he was startled and he got shocked by a spark when he heard someone cough in the backseat.
"You know, in the future, if you're gonna steal cars." Spider-Man said casually, "Don't dress like a car thief, man."
"What!?" Herman said looking behind him, "Are you a cop?"
"Really? You seriously think I'm a cop?" Spider-Man said, looking over himself, "Cop in a skintight red and black suit?"
"Your..." Herman said shocked when he realized who was in the car with him, "Your that Spider dude."
"It's Spider-Man, actually but points for trying." Spider-Man said wiggling his finger at him, "You know, you're... you got a mind of true scholar, sir."
Herman attempted to get out, but found the door being pulled closed by a string of web. Failing several times, Herman rolled open the window as he looked scared behind him.
"Good thinking, good thinking. Get the window." Spider-Man said as he watched Herman crawl out of the now open car window, "There you go, you got it!"
Herman stood back up, looking into the car to find Spider-Man gone. He turned around only to be kicked back. Recovering he saw Spider-Man standing in front of him, blocking his escape route. He reached into his jean pocket and pulled out a knife, holding it to the side.
"Is that a knife?" Spider-Man said curiously, "Is that a real knife?"
"Yes, it's a real knife." Herman said with a nod, "Just let me go..."
Spider-Man falls on his knees, weakly holding up his hands, "My weakness, it's small knives. Anything, but knives!" he said dramatically before suddenly shooting a blob of web, capturing the hand of the thief holding the knife and pinning him against the wall behind him.
"Oh, it's so simple." Spider-Man said as he laughed, "That was cool, man."
"What the hell is this?" Herman said looking to his webbed up hand.
"Just webbing that I shoot out of my wrist. Pretty gross actually." Spider-Man said casually, shooting a web blob again capturing the thief's other hand. He pretends to sneeze and shoot another web which lands in the middle of the Herman's crotch.
"Come on, let me go!" Herman said but Spider-Man keeps shooting web at him as he laughed, "Stop it! That isn't funny!"
"It is kind of funny." Spider-Man said as he shoots another web which lands on the thief's mouth, shutting him up as as the sound of a police siren pierced the night air.
Turning around, Spider-Man saw a police officer riding a motorcycle driving up. "Oh, the boys in blue are here!" he said, waving the cop over, "I got him!"
The officer was now close enough that Spider-Man could read the name 'Frank Castle' on his badge. The officer stops his motorbike arrives, he points his gun at Spider-Man, "Freeze! You in the tights, don't move!"
"You serious?" Spider-Man said surprised.
"Who are you?" officer Castle said.
"Seems no one gets the concept of the mask." Spider-Man said as he moves towards the cop.
"Freeze!" Officer Castle starts shooting at Spider-Man, which the spider themed hero easily dodges and then disarmed him of his gun with a web.
"I just did eighty percent of your job!" Spider-Man said, throwing the gun to the ground, "That's how you repay me?"
More sirens where heard as more police, driving in cars, began to arrive. Spider-Man shoots a web makes a run for it by swinging away.
Later that evening, he swung through the night sky of New York, after a thrilling chase from the police helicopters. He wasn't sure how many times he thought about it, but this feeling of swinging between the buildings, the speed, the g-force, the feeling of freedom, this feeling would never get old. But between the night wind, his ears picked up the sound of sniffing and the sound of crying.
Taking a sudden turn, he began to follow the sound, and he soon touched down on a roof with a water tower on it. In the shadows, he could make out a female, sitting there with her legs pulled up to her chest.
"Hey." Spider-Man said as he carefully approached the girl, "Are you okay?"
When he got a better look at her, he saw that it indeed was a girl. She had long wild curly brown hair with a streak of white in it. But to his surprise she had skin covered in blue fur, and a forked tail. Tears shimmering in the corners of her completely yellow eyes.
"Okay, I admit..." he said surprised, "Did not see this coming." before crouching down.
"Your... That Spider Dude." the girl said, speaking with a Southern accent, "Your real?"
"Actually it's Spider-Man. I'm real when it's useful." Spider-Man said, gesturing to her, "What about you? You got a name?"
"Anna Marie." she said, drying her eyes, "Am I... Don't I scare ya?"
"Your appearance is a surprise, but something so cute can't be scary." he said half jokingly, "Is everything alright?"
"Just a argument that got out of hand..." she said, looking at her three fingered hand, "My powers got a bit out of control."
"Those things happen." Spider-Man said with a knowing nod as he remembered the first morning with his powers, "Can I help you with anything? Maybe get you back home to... where ever it is."
"I guess." she said, "I live at a boarding home in Bayville."
"That's not too far." Spider-Man said standing up and holding out his hand, "Let's get you home Anna Marie."
She smiled up at him, her gloved hand accepting his hand, "Call me Rogue."
The following morning, Peter stepped out of the elevator and into the floor belonging to the newspaper the Daily Bugle. With a envelope containing a stack of pictures of Spider-Man stopping the car thief, he walked to the back of the floor where the man was he was suppose to meet.
"...Did a caveman proofread this piece!?" the Editor-in-Chief John Jonah Jameson shouted, "Where's my sports editor? I want him in my office in fourteen seconds! Where's my coffee!? And where's that Parker guy!?"
"Coffee, decaf." his brunette secretary said, handing him his cup, "And Peter Parker is here." she gestured to Peter.
"This is Parker!?" Jameson said as he gestured for Peter to follow him into his office, "I was expecting someone old enough to have, you know, armpit hair."
Sitting down behind his desk, he gestured for Peter to take one of the two seats where they where joined by the Bugles city Editor Joseph 'Robbie' Robertson. Taking the envelope, Jameson took out the stack of photo's and began to look through them, occasionally glancing up at Peter.
"Crap, crap." he said, dropping the stack on his desk, "Mega crap."
The door to his office opened to reveal another Daily Bugle photographer, his camera hanging around his neck, his dirty blonde hair was one big mess, his tired face was covered in a five o'clock shadow.
"Brock! Your fired!" Jameson shouted, making Brock look at him in surprise, pointing at the teen opposite of his desk, "This Parker kid finally got me a usable photo of Spider-Man."
"You can't fire Eddie, Jonah." Robbie said rubbing his head, "He's still on that Kingpin case."
"Right. Brock, your unfired." Jameson said turning back to Peter, "I give you two hundred bucks for all of them."
"That seems a bit low." Eddie Brock said suddenly, as he looked over the pictures on Jameson's desk, "Photo's like these, any other paper would buy them for a lot more."
"Fine. I give you four hundred. Higher than even freelances get." Jameson said as he lit up a cigar before giving one of the photo's to Robbie, "Tear up page one, run this photo instead. Headline 'Spider-Man: Hero or Menace?'."
"Menace?" Peter said surprised, "But he was stopping that car thief..."
"You take the pictures, I'll make up the headlines. Okay, alright? That okay with you?" Jameson said as he wrote something down, "Give this to the girl at the desk so you get paid. You bring me more photo's of that news selling clown, maybe I'll take them off your hands."
Moments later, Peter was pushed out of Jameson's office and his brunette secretary waved him over to her desk.
"Uh... Mr. Jameson said I should give this to you." Peter said, handing over the piece of paper.
"Yeah, I heard." the secretary said with a smile, "I'm Betty."
"Hi Betty." Peter said a bit awkward as he found the slightly older woman kind of pretty, "So how do you work for a walking embolism like Jameson?"
"Mr. Jameson's a decent man." Betty said as she wrote down a check, "Deep down."
"Like Marianas Trench deep?" Peter said with an awkward smile as he was handed his check.
Walking to the elevator, Peter came across Eddie Brock pouring himself a cup of coffee. Walking over to him, "Mr. Brock!" he called out, "Thank you for the help back there."
"Don't mention it, kid." Eddie waved it off, "We Daily Bugle photographers need to look out for each other."
"Sorry about taking the Spider-Man job from you." Peter began.
"It's alright, Peter. You took a load of my back actually. Now I can finally get a good nights sleep." he said with a laugh, "If you really want to make it up to me, stop it with the Mr. Brock. Just call me Eddie."
"Alright." Peter said as the elevator arrived, "Well, thanks again Eddie."
"As I said, don't mentioned it." Eddie said, "Oh, and welcome to the Daily Bugle, Peter."
"Seriously!?" Peter said the following evening, already there for their sleep over night, "A cute blue furred demon girl."
"Not sure if she was a demon." Aiden taking a sip from his drink, "But she was cute."
"Sounds like someone has a crush." Peter said smugly.
"W-What? Me a crush?" Aiden said as the elevator of the front door opened and out of it stepped was not only Gwen but Cindy as well.
"Evening." Gwen said gesturing to the the shy Korean girl, "Brought a plus one with me."
"H-Hey! G-Gwen overheard me not going to the game and invited me." Cindy said a bit embarrassed, "I-I hope it's not a bother."
"Of course not, make yourselves at home." Aiden said walking towards the kitchen, "Anybody want something to drink?" and they all requested something to drink.
"That is... a big TV." Cindy noted, looking at the massive television screen build into the wall before looking around the room, "This entire place is huge. How many rooms does it have?"
"A master bedroom, ten rooms, five which are bedrooms, each coming with their own bathroom, a outdoor and indoor pool, a home movie theater, a home gym, a dinner room, kitchen, my own personal study." Thomas said, who had came into the living room, fixing his suit, "And of course the garage."
"Oh, hey Mr. A." Gwen said just as Aiden came out of the kitchen holding a tray with their drinks along with some snacks.
"Dad? I thought you would be in your hobby room the entire night?" Aiden said surprised at how formal his dad was dressed, "Where are you going?"
"Emergency meeting at Arclight Industries. Nothing too serious, just about the Oscorp buyout." Thomas said with an assuring smile, "Aiden, can I talk to you for a second?"
Placing the tray down on the glass coffee table, Aiden followed his dad towards the elevator where he pressed the button to open it.
"Okay, I'm going to be blunt." Thomas said seriously, "Is there something wrong with those girls?"
"What?" Aiden said.
"They spend time with you willingly, I assume." Thomas said with a laugh, "I'll be back late, don't wait up." before stepping in the elevator.
"Your dad seems nice." Cindy said once Aiden rejoined them.
"He's alright." Aiden said as he sits next to Gwen, "He wants to adopt Peter though."
Cindy tries to sit next to him but Peter sits down. "Hey, uh... I wanted to sit there." she said trying to act casual, pointing to his seat, "I was just, I wanted to... okay."
But Peter scooted over, gesturing for her to take his seat. Timidly, she took her seat slightly sinking into the soft sofa.
Eating their snacks and drinking their soda's, they were watching the 'Potter and Kent Chronicles: Year 4: Goblet of Fire'. They were just at the scene where the other two wizarding schools arrived at Hogwarts for the Tri-wizard tournament.
"Uh..." Cindy said, leaning closer to Aiden, "Why are you and Gwen smirking?"
"Because of this scene or rather two things in it, actually." Aiden whispered back with a smirk, when the French magic school of Beauxbatons entered.
"There she is!" Gwen said with a laugh a bit louder than intended, "The Fleur Canon, destroyer of the Clarry and Clarione ships."
"It's because up until then, the fans shipped Clark with Hermione or Harry. As for the second one..." Aiden whispered, but they could guess correctly which one it was as Gwen chuckled when the actor portraying Clark Kent got a confused look, which the internet had turned into a meme called 'visibly confused Clark'.
"You seemed to be really enjoying yourself." Aiden said to the blonde next to him.
"Why wouldn't I?" Gwen said between her laughs, "I know its pretty much agreed that Year 3 was when the movies actually got good and Year 6 is often seen as the more funny one, for some reason this one resulted in so many memes. Like 'Emotionally Barren Clark' and 'Creeper Kara'."
The two laughed, until Aiden got a notification on his phone. Both Aiden and Peter knew it was a message that something was going on in the city.
"Sorry." Aiden said, holding his phone in hands as he stood up, "I got to take this."
"Do we need to pause the movie?" Gwen said turning to look at him.
"No, just keep watching." Aiden assured them, "I'll be right back.", before heading to the hall.
As he left, Gwen found herself kind of drifting away from the movie as she stared in the direction he had walked off. She only got out of it when Cindy very closely waved her hand in front of her face.
"Hello! Earth to Gwen." Cindy said, finally getting the attention, "Everything alright?"
"Yeah, just..." Gwen muttered, "Beautiful view." as she took a drink from her coke.
"Right..." Peter said, looking at his phone as he got a message from Aiden, "Couldn't just text me like a normal person." seeing a text filled with nothing but emojis.
Swinging through the sky, Spider-Man headed to where the commotion was and to his surprise the news he got was was at least partially correct.
Down in the streets below, cars where thrown aside by what appeared to be a massive rhino knocking them aside. What the report didn't mention was that this rhino was walking on two legs and appeared to be wearing polished powered armor.
"Oi!" Spider-Man said, swinging down and shooting a web to his face, "Is that a rhino horn or are you just happy to see me?"
"Spider-Man!" the massive man shouted in a deep Russian accent, ripping the web off his face.
"Rhino-Man!" Spider-Man said as he began to lead Rhino away from the populated streets.
But where could you find deserted in a city of eight million?
Spider-Man evaded a sewer cover before landing and sticking to the side of the building. Rhino charged forward right through the wall. As it began to crumble, Spider-Man jumped off but found his leg caught in the iron grip of the Rhino, who smacked him into the pavement.
He felt the world spin as Rhino threw him through the air, winds howling in his ears before he came crashing down hard into a grassy field, wiping up some earth.
"It's okay, don't worry. Nothing is broken." Spider-Man muttered, as he got back to his feet, "Except my spine, a few ribs. Maybe everything else..."
Spider-Man looked around in shock, as light shined down on him as he had landed on Midtown High's Football field, which being the night of the big game, was filled with students, teachers and families of the two schools competing.
"Oh..." Spider-Man said as the Rhino came charging on the field, heading towards him, "Poop."
It all happened so fast, Spider-Man evaded the Rhino as from under the bleachers a blast of red energy shot towards the shed resulting in a large explosion.
During the chaos of fleeing people, Rhino made his escape. Without any hesitation, Spider-Man first set off to help people, some who where trapped by debris.
Checking under the bleachers, to make sure no civilians where caught under it. He spotted a young brunette male sat among the burning ruble, his eyes covered. Spotting a pair of sunglasses with ruby red lenses close to him.
"Yo kid, you alright?" Spider-Man said hurrying inside, shooting a string of web to pull the glasses to his hand, "These yours?"
"Y-Yeah." the teen said as he put them on before looking at him behind red tinted lenses, "Whoa, your the Spider-Man."
"The one and only." Spider-Man said, helping the teen to his feet, "Let's get you out of here."
Lifting an arm over his shoulder, Spider-Man helped the teen out from under the bleachers where it seemed a few of the teens friends had been looking for him.
"Scott! Thank god your okay." a girl with bright red hair and sparkling green eyes said, "Is that?..."
"That's Spider-Man." a girl with a familiar Southern accent said. She had long wild curly brown hair with a streak of white in it. But unlike her blue fur covered skin and yellow eyes, it was now fair skinned and green eyes.
"Happy to help, but I got a Rhino to catch." Spider-Man said, giving a two finger salute, "Nice to see you again Ann Marie!" before shooting a web and swinging away.
Swinging after him, Spider-Man shot a string of web from each hand launching him forward and into Rhino's chest, smashing the both of them through a grate leading to a tunnel filled with steam pipes.
The Rhino recovered, smacking Spider-Man off him. He rushed forward, lowering his head to impale the arachnid hero on it, but he flips over it making the Rhino run headfirst into a large pipe, releasing the steam within it.
Wrenching his head lose, Rhino looked around only to be unable to see Spider-Man who had retreated into the shadows.
"What's the matter?" Spider-Man taunted as he crawled on the wall, "Not hot enough for you?"
Rhino roared as he took a swing at Spider-Man, who evaded over him to the other side as his fist penetrated another pipe, filling the tunnel with more steam.
"Nothing can crack open my hide!" Rhino shouted, clearly winded and sweating, "Nothing can do that! Kingpin's guys told me! I'm... impenetrable!"
"Oh really?" Spider-Man said as the tunnel continued to fill with steam, "But if nothing can penetrate, you can't perspire. Your face is sweating for your whole body! Probably enough, under most conditions..."
"Oh fuck!" Rhino said, as he realized he's screwed, "I gotta... get outta here..."
"Yeah, good luck with that." Spider-Man said launching himself downward, knocking the Rhino down with his flying kick.
As Rhino began to lose consciousness from the heat, Spider-Man sat on top of him. "Now tell me, who is this Kingpin?"
"T-The Kingpin... Of Crime..." Rhino said delirious from the heat, "W-we never use the K word... Only... Only call him F..." but the Rhino passed out.
"Oh, come on. Couldn't have waited a little longer to pass out?" Spider-Man muttered as he stood up, "A Kingpin of Crime?... That sounds like a comic book villain."
After having informed the cops, Spider-Man made his way home as he crawled through a window in his room. Crawling over the ceiling, he landed back into his room, ripping off his mask and he quickly changed out of his suit and back into normal clothes.
Walking out of the hall, he saw that Cindy was laying crawled up on the sofa covered in a blanket. Peter was slouched down, his head tilted and his glasses askew.
"How long was I gone?" Aiden muttered.
"Just a few hours. Peter and Cindy fell asleep waiting ."
Aiden turned around to see that it was Gwen, her arms crossed in front of her chest and a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, hey Gwen." Aiden said, "...I can explain."
Gwen gestured her head to the balcony, clearly wanting to talk.
"Right." Aiden said with a chuckle, "I'll be right there after I get something to drink."
He was about to head to the kitchen but Gwen already had two bottles of soda. "Way ahead of you." she said and both shared a smile.
Aiden followed after Gwen to the balcony where they where welcomed by the cold night air, looking down on the lights of New York City.
"I thought you got lost." the blonde said, leaning against the railing, "With how big this place is."
"Would be a bit embarrassing if I got lost in my own house." Aiden said with a small chuckle, "Dad needed somethings from his computer."
"It took you that long?" Gwen said giving him a doubting look.
"You know how old people are with technology." Aiden said quickly, "It took a while."
"Aiden, I'm not much older than you." Gwen teased him "You can't be that bad with computers."
"Well..." Aiden said amused, "I believe Einstein once said that time is relative, right?" and they both laughed.
Aiden received a text message from his dad, telling him there was a break in at Arclight Industries and that there experimental Flight Tech Glider had been stolen.
And that's the eight Issue, hope you enjoy.
Many thanks to everyone who reads, reviews, favorite and follows this story.
The beginning of the Issue was actually suppose to be for Aiden's first outing as Spider-Man, but I thought him running into Nightcrawler Rogue, he would have been too casual. It felt more natural after he had fought a giant lizard and a guy in a vulture suit.
If you enjoyed it, don't forget to leave a review.
For now I wish you all a fantastic day and I hope to see you people next time. Bye for now.