Watching the events unfold on a dozen monitors in front of and around him, Mr X the darkened room serving as his base of operations made it unable to render any anger or displeasure in his facial expression. He took a long drag of a cigarette, too long for it to be any good for his lungs, in time to blow out smoke as footage played that forced him to confront an uncomfortable truth. There, strapped to a bridge, was the man in costume he had hired. The Vulture had failed in his mission.

Those who did not fulfil their end of the deal, no matter how difficult the task he'd employed them for turned out to be, received no mercy from Mr X. He himself would do nothing. Another of his subordinates, acting as his hand, would be more than happy to carry out business in his place, especially with all of his focus needing to be on an endeavour turning out to be greater than his last attempt. Take over Wood Oak City, and remove from it the two blighters with any chance of stopping him. Actually, three blighters.

Spider-Man. He'd been accounted for and Mr X had actively influenced his involvement in the conflict by taking hostage the woman closest to the man's heart. Still, he was playing a dangerous game. He knew what Axel and Blaze were capable of; feats not just any human could achieve.

They were also just that. Human feats. Mr X had his doubts about Blaze's long-time companion, but he knew the girl was human, and he knew Spider-Man couldn't be. He leaned back further into his chair, taking another contemplative puff of smoke. If things were to continue smoothly, Spider-Man needed to be removed from the equation. And to do that, he would need a super-being of his own. Silence echoed throughout his private suite. It did not provide him with answers. It only further highlighted his lack of any.

That silence did not hold for much longer, and Mr X knew that when the door creaked open, there was only one person it could be. No one else would dare come into his chambers without knocking prior. He pulled out a chair for the man to be comfortably seated. At least, as comfortably one his size could be.

"Take a seat. Glass of wine?"

He interpreted the creature's growl, an inhuman sound Mr X was not used to hearing, as declining.

Said creature was an eerie combination of recognisable attributes and aspects that could not be further from humanity. Venom insisted on being recognised as a collective, and that was the only name Mr X cared to know them by. Their jet-black suit, similar to Spider-Man's red and blue costume, stretched over hulking muscles, giving them the appearance of an alien adonis. It was less a suit, though, and more a living defense system. Mr X had witnessed firsthand what it could do when he first became allied with Venom. Shooting forth tendrils with enough force to pierce a windshield was no problem. Nor was using those same tendrils to wrap around and squeeze the life out of a person's neck.

If there was anyone Mr X thought likely of coming out victorious in battle against the comparatively pathetic Spider-Man, it would have to be Venom.
Venom had their own plans.

"Looks like Toomes didn't hold up his end of the bargain," Mr X said as he ground a cancer stick into nothing, placing it on an ashtray. There was little point in discussing the old man's fate or expressing any sorrow. He knew the price of failure. "Enough about him. Ya have anyone else for me?"
Venom's expression changed, the corners of his mouth slowly turning up. His fangs were just as sharp, if not sharper, than any cobra.

"As a matter of fact, we do." His voice, a deep, trembling bass, could send a cold shiver running down most men's spines, and those eyes, blank canvases of white, only added to the fear factor. They were the only things visible in a room of complete darkness.

"Alright. Bring 'em in." Mr X dismissed him with a wave.

He expected Venom to come back with another villain. Maybe one with biceps to rival his, or one that was intimidating in a more reserved sense. What Mr X didn't expect though, was Venom to be pulling along a wheelchair-bound man.

"Alistair Smythe," he said in a forward manner, but not before his potential employer gave him a scrutinizing glance. He appeared much younger than himself or the Vulture and had a grin suggesting unfounded confidence or just plain arrogance. Alistair's attention was focused on the monitors.

"I see you're also dealing with a pest problem. Spider-Man's a tough foe, I'll give him that much. But he's not invincible. Against the power of technology, my technology, nothing is. I've had a breed of robots in development for a while. Originally they were only made to counteract Spider-Man and his powers, although I can easily adjust their attack parameters."

"What do you call this breed o' robots, Smythe?" He arched a brow.

"Spider-Slayers. An apt name, wouldn't you agree?"

"It'll do fine." Mr X was not as dismissive of Alistair's proposal on the inside as he outwardly projected. The young man was right. Somewhat. Technology would always win over human strength due to lack of human weaknesses.

"I believe they are finally ready. What do you say? A joining between two parties who both wish to see Spider-Man crushed like the bug he is?" Had the lights not been on, the curtains been drawn, Mr X and his associate would have seen the dark grin on Alistair's face, brought on by the mention of crushing Spider-Man.

"I need to see these Spider-Slayers of yours in action," Mr X said, placing a hand on his chin.

"A field test of sorts?"

"Exactly. And you'll get your chance to take 'em for a ride very, very soon."

On the central monitor, a bike could be seen speeding down an otherwise desolate highway.

...

When the working day was done and the skies had long since turned dark, Axel made it a habit to take a cruise on his motorbike through the open roads of Wood Oak. Driving alone brought him the comfort he sadly couldn't articulate through anything more complicated than wistful sighs and a stare off into the distance while muttering about how those were indeed the days. Axel recalled owning a motorbike. Maybe he'd lost a bet against Adam on who was the stronger fighter, or some punk had decided to start his deviant career early and made off with it. In any case, Axel had no motorbike of his own, but reminiscing was making him wish he did.

Eddie was having a considerably less blissful time for multiple differing reasons. For one, his ears hadn't stopped ringing from the lecturing which, to Eddie, dragged on much longer than it had in reality. Neither Axel nor Blaze let him hear the end of how he should never, ever go off on his own again. He never would. Running into a psychopath and an old man in a buzzard costume taught him that much. He'd also been made quickly aware of the lesson of holding on tight. Eddie's trademark cap was flying about so wildly it was dangerously close to blowing off his head. Oh well. So long as he stayed close to Axel, Blaze, and Spider-Man, who at present was somehow managing to keep ahead, then things wouldn't get much worse.

Blaze fared no better when it came to comfort. Eddie's hands clung too tightly to her waist to be able to relax, and then there was the fact she couldn't exhale without seeing her own breath. While she had never been one to wear clothing in excess, Blaze had been made painfully aware of the importance of wrapping up warm. She left her jacket at home. Blaze wanted to kick herself.

It wasn't all bad news.

"We're almost there," Blaze, surprisingly, was the first to point it out despite a certain web-slinger's higher vantage point. She gestured towards a highway sign; Welcome to Funland! Enjoy your stay! Displayed in bold white letters for anyone passing by to see, along with a waving clown. In the moment, rather than an encouraging advertisement, it seemed more like they were being welcomed into their dooms.

"I can even see the castle in the distance!" Spider-Man shouted to be heard by his companions below. He viewed web-slinging as the superior method of travel, despite his New York roots. Still, if he didn't feel a little isolated being so far away from the others…

Eddie moved his face away from her back in the interest of getting a better view. Lo and behold, nestled between the trees, was a castle the likes of which the boy had never seen before. Towering spires were lavishly decorated with gold with the attention to detail drawing and keeping his eyes on them. He'd only ever seen castles in fairy tales and illustrated in storybooks. But Funland Castle was real. A place he, present circumstances notwithstanding, was dying to go. It being real only added to the magic. Maybe he'd have the chance to go on a ride or two after the latest batch of punks were finished off. Maybe.

They soon reached their destination and Axel parked the bike outside of Funland's gates. It was the only vehicle there, on two wheels or otherwise. Leaves blew past a ticket booth that should have been occupied.

"Be prepared," he told the others. "X's guys could come from anywhere. And Eddie…"

"Yeah, I got it. Stay behind you at all times and don't go off on my own." Eddie hoped that would be enough to make Axel happy, and he hoped the blonde hadn't seen him rolling his eyes.

"Good."

"This would be a great time to have a flashlight, gang," Spider-Man mused.

Funland had an odd beauty in its emptiness. Sparkling fountains occupied walkways decorated to appear as streets, but none of the usual patrons occupied them. In their place were shadows. One could easily have cloaked themselves in the darkness and go by unnoticed; a concept that frightened Eddie to his core. Was he going to let anyone know he was scared? No. Was he going to show he was scared? Never. Eddie skated along with a face conveying bravery his heart did not have, eyes darting every which way.

Perhaps he wouldn't have to be so on edge, though. The group had been walking for almost a half-hour and other than Eddie swearing he had seen a shadow move, had found nothing out of the ordinary or to suggest the presence of goons. And Mr X's guys were never known for sneakiness. Wherever they were, they were just as much in the dark, in a literal sense, as Axel's squad. There was little light and an abundance of light's enemy. Even the castle, usually adorned in a similar fashion to a Christmas tree, was no beacon. It too was shrouded. Darkness cast a gloom over them all.

They walked through Wild West Town. Nothing. No tumbleweeds blowing past, either. They walked through the Fairytale Kingdom. Still nothing. There was only one area left. Arabian Nights.

Between worrying about his lover and how his feet were starting to hurt (he had joined the others on foot upon park entry), Spider-Man had to wonder if Funland's designers were big fans of Aladdin because the Arabian Nights section seemed a love letter to that movie's Agrabah. He liked what he could make out in the pitch-black. Stalls were selling merchandise and clotheslines hung from window to window. Only thing missing, Spider-Man thought, is a camera crew and some actors.

"Place just seems like a ghost town to me." Blaze noticed Eddie out of the corner of her eye, trembling. No one else saw. Perhaps it had been her usage of 'ghost'.

"Course they are! This is the perfect place for them to hide. Complete darkness, which is exactly why we all need to stick together. Isn't that right, Eddie?"

"Eddie?"

Fixed in position and speech, he stood in front of the Cave of Wonders. Eddie's throat eventually cleared enough to allow the passing of croaked words.

"A..a noise…" He pointed, and his finger wouldn't stop trembling. "the cave...just now…" Eddie listened out for any more sounds, pressing an ear closer to it, with the others feeling inclined to do the same. Axel wouldn't be surprised if the noise had come from deep within; the cave's mouth, fashioned in the gaping maw of a tiger, looked sinister enough. But Eddie could also have just been hearing things.

Hissing, simultaneously insect-like and yet like nothing they had ever heard before, confirmed his worst fears.

Eddie was right to be scared. For, in that cave of wonders, glowed a pair of beady little red eyes, and Eddie practically jumped behind Blaze for cover. He didn't dare look back. He knew the eyes had to be staring at him. Scanning him.

They would not have to wait long to find an answer as to who or what possessed the eyes. Something crawled out from within that gaping maw, large enough to cast a shadow over them all. Slowly, Axel craned his head up. The thing's metallic exterior suggested he was face to face with a mechanism of some sort. Axel was used to dealing with street thugs and, lately, ninjas. Neither Axel nor Blaze could say they had ever fought a robot. Or that they wanted to. His confidence slipping away, Axel found himself eyeing the mechanism's giant pincers that were similar to a scorpion; the spider's natural predator.

Mechanisms whirred, and the robotic scorpion, shifting its great body, set its sights on Spider-Man.

"Axel, Blaze, you two get Eddie away from here!" He said, his voice trailing off as he made an effort to lead the scorpion away from them and follow his trail. His running quickly turned into a full sprint, and then he was swinging from the rooftops of makeshift desert houses. Spider-Man was infinitely more worried about their safety than his. This wouldn't be his first rodeo with technology that was intent on ending his life, nor would it be his last. As he'd hoped, the scorpion was following him on foot. Or rather scuttling along on its violet-coloured pincers. Upon a glance, he was also gaining traction faster than Spider-Man would have hoped. He would need a plan. Preferably one that was quick to come up with.

The ordinary humans may have gone unnoticed, which did not translate into a lack of action. He'd helped rescue their friend from the Vulture's clutches in a situation where none of them would have been able to stop him. For all Axel and Blaze knew, he had saved Eddie's life. They would always fight to save him. With his former partner on the force by his side, Eddie coasting between them, Axel pursued Spider-Man's pursuer.

"What are we gonna do against that thing, Axel? Sure, we're strong, but I don't fancy the odds of our fists winning out against metal." Blaze's heels strode over the giant tracks left in the scorpion's wake. "I say we leave it to Spider-Man."

"Chances are he probably can't do it alone either. He needs our help, even if it might not look like it."

"And just what are we gonna do to help?" She asked.

But Axel didn't have a clue.

No matter how quickly he swung, Spider-Man was never more than a few feet away from the scorpion's reach. Whatever corporation or person had designed the predatory robot, he grudgingly admitted, had done a fantastic job.

Out of desperation, he tried a new trick and shot a net of webs onto the mecha-scorpion. Fluid spewed from the creature's mouth in response, melting his webs away to nothing. His best tool was, for all the good it usually did him, useless. Still, Spider-Man wasn't about to give up after one setback. He failed all the time. No, that wasn't the issue. The issue was he still didn't have a plan, and they were headed for cacti, tumbleweeds and saloons. In other words, the Wild West.

Spider-Man could no longer evade the scorpion's grasp. A stinger cut his web into ribbons and he dropped down. Luckily, his fall was cushioned by bales of hay, and he had landed in an alley too narrow for his pursuer to pass through. Exhaling in relief, Spider-Man lied down.

For about the five seconds it took for the menace on eight legs to continue its hunt. Pincers forcibly bent rickety old buildings out of shape. Nothing would stop the mecha-scorpion from its ultimate goal, and as it advanced, Spider-Man was fast running out of ways to stop himself from being terminated.

While he dealt with that life or death dilemma, the others finally caught up and had to duck and weave, avoiding debris flying their way.

"Sounds like it's clearing a path to get to Spider-Man," Blaze's head lowered. "I just don't know what we can do."

"Wait!"
A shout from behind made her and Axel turn their heads. Smacking a fist against the palm of his hand, Eddie said:

"I've got an idea, but it'll only work if you guys listen to me and don't treat me like a baby."

As things stood, they didn't have any other choice.

After Eddie whispered the plan to them and both involved knew their respective parts, Axel played his. He looked back at Eddie one last time, and he was given a thumbs up. Winding his arm back, Axel hurled a rock at Spider-Man's tormentor. His throw would have been enough to make Babe Ruth jealous, and, exactly as they'd planned, it earned the scorpion's attention. Spider-Man was no longer its focus. They were.

"Yo! Spidey! Over here!" Eddie called, waving with all the conviction he could muster. "Spidey" though he knew not why he was being called, got up and shot a web that did not get cut down, landing a few paces away from Eddie, whose juvenile voice was easy to recognise even through the slashing and maddened hissing of the scorpion.

"Now what?" The scorpion was heading for him again.

"See that ride behind you? Get on it, and once the scorpion's followed you there, jump off and use your webs to tie its tail down as much as you can."

"But-"

"You got a better idea?" Eddie raised an eyebrow, and Spider-Man said nothing. "Then go!"

Spider-Man had no ideas bounding about in the old noggin (a rare occurrence) and didn't argue with the child. He leapt nimbly onto a vacant car with the shape and texture of a log. It was a water ride. When he realised that, everything clicked together. Blind rage hindered what should have been perfect judgment, and as its shadow fell upon him, he jumped off, using an amount of webbing to tie down the scorpion's tail that would have been enough to bring down an elephant. Even so, it was just holding, and the scorpion would not stop trying to get free. Determined to a fault.

"Now!"

At Eddie's signal, Blaze, positioned in the operator's booth, pulled a lever and the log disappeared through a hole. What followed was tantamount to torture. Seconds dragged on into minutes. Minutes turned into eternity in waiting. The question on everyone's minds, although none wanted to voice it: Had Eddie's plan been for nothing?

Eventually, the car came back around. Piercing red eyes had turned grey and lifeless. Safe to say, the scorpion had been soaked, put thoroughly out of commission.

"We did it." Blaze sounded as if she had trouble coming to the realisation. "We beat the odds."

"Yep! All thanks to yours truly's plan," Eddie said in a boastful tone without realising he'd come across as quite selfish. Axel needed only to fold his arms to convince Eddie to change his tune. "Which wouldn't have worked without you guys helping." Some part of him did want to bask in selfish glory, but his other half knew better.

Indeed, they had beaten the odds. Where lesser heroes may have failed, perhaps even been killed, the four of them had prevailed. There was only one problem.

"Who the hell is gonna clean up all this?" Spider-Man asked, and all of them laughed because they didn't know either. Damages caused by the scorpion alone would surely, regrettably, cost Funland thousands. Prop buildings and merchandise stores had been reduced to rubble beneath its feet in its war against the web-head.

Axel sighed after a good chuckle. "We'll worry about that after we're done with Mr X."

A riverboat chugged along an artificial river near the group that extended beyond the park, its paddle wheels creating a splash comparable to the water rides.

Axel had an idea.

NEXT: A Slow Dawn...