Spider-Man: Webmaster Welcome To The Cluster - Part 2
"Thank you Joyce. It's a pleasure to see all of you again. In the future I.." Peter began to say once he got to the platform when the mic had acted up so he'd tried to fix it a little before continuing to say "I hope to spend time getting to know each member of our company learning about you individually."
The mic hower had started acting up again and they heard a twisted laugh and the Hyena guy came from the bushes with Flash and Eddie having spider themed costumes appear around them on instinct.
Terry had tackled the Hyena guy when they tried to get up onto the stage keeping them from getting there and knocking them into a wall knocking them out before running over to Peter questioning "You alright?"
"Go to work." Peter told Terry who nodded running off to get changed into his costume while Peter was headed off of the stage.
The Dee Dee twins dropped down onto him but he'd smacked them with his cane knocking them out of his way as he continued to leave as purple smoke began to be released from a trap door on stage and a platform lifted up revealing someone that they thought they'd never see again.
"Hello everyone, Goblin's back in town." A man dressed like the green gobling but a bit more high tech greeted with a wave and a twisted laugh freaking everyone out in the process.
"It can't be." Peter spoke seeing them being surprised that he was even there and the Goblin walked over to him.
"Oh no, your eyes do not decieve you Peter. After all who'd know us better than you would?" Goblin then questioned walking over and bending down to be at Eye level with them.
"Back of Gruesome!" The new Spider-Man called out coming down to jump between Peter and this Goblin guy.
"Ah the new boy." The Goblin spoke looking at them "Not quite the classic red and blue and the bat wing design is a little off but overall not too bad. Woof!" He'd finished stating before calling out, but nothing happened. "Woof!" he'd repeated again and turned to look behind him calling "Woof.."
We then see the spliced Hyena guy moving one of his arms letting out a whimpering noise from where he was unable to get up.
"Good help is so hard to find these days." Goblin spoke and then put his finger up to his ear before calling "Time to go Dee Dee." and pushed a button.
A ship in the shape of an oversized glider appeared and he'd rushed off with the twins and they all jumped inside of it flying off faster than they could be followed. Terry had driven Peter back to the Nest where the others had already been waiting including Gwen.
"What are you all doing here?" Peter then questioned about why they were all there in the nest right now.
"Goblinz are just a bunch of clowns but The Goblin, that's a different story. He's Cluster territory. I've got the entire pricinct checking possible locations with orders to help get the civilians to safety and not engage." Gwen Stacy stated to them about dealing with the Goblin with a sigh before continuing to state "I never though I'd put this old thing on again." and held up her old Ghost Spider costume.
"So, all of you were members of the Cluster, Peter's first hero group? Why'd you quit?" Terry questioned them why they had decided to stop.
"For me, my father wanted me to work for the precint after I graduated. I started working up the ranks and found it more and more difficult to balance the two, I had to hang one of them up. So I chose to retire as Ghost Spider." Gwen answered back about why exactly she quit.
Anti-Venom had ran voice recognition software and got a full match for that of the Gobling and sighs in response. "Perfect match, as for why I quit after watching Peter nearly destroy himself I realized that I couldn't go on like that and started a security firm put the Plumber Training to good use."
"The hero gig worried Sha Shan too much, so we retired and started working as security at her dad's resturant, started learning everything I could from the old man and when he decided it was time to retire that's when we took over." Flash stated about why he and Venom gave up the hero life. "We're on reserve now only to be called for World Invasion level threats for the Front Lines."
"As cliche as the astronaut going on to become a politician is, that's the acual reason I stopped. I figured that I could work my way up and help relations between the world and it's heroes at the same time. I'd hang up the costume but it's kinda keeping me from growing too large due to the spores. Doctor Connors says the new modle should just about be ready to go through." John Jameson answered to them about why he chose to retire as well.
"So that's why the rest of you retired, but what about you?" Terry spoke looking over at Peter before continuing to ask "Why did you quit?"
Immediately the mood had began to shift to a more sorrowfull feel and he looked around at the others seeing the expressions on their faces. "It's not an easy thing to remember." Flash stated to Terry about what happened.
"Not everyone retires with a happy ending Terry." Peter stated to him about what happened to them
"If it's too painful I understand." Terry told his mentor about explaining to him just what happened for him to retire.
Peter shook his head in response and took a heavy breath before stating "She would have been around your age, maybe a year or two older." confusing the new wallcrawler.
~
"Alright everyone, be warry Oct is in there with the Six Stooges and they've kidnapped Norman Osborn." A Spider-Man still wearing the costume with the golden spider design stated to the others. "We can only assume it has something to do with the Goblin."
"So lets go get them already." A brown haired girl spoke about going in to rescue Norman from those guys while dressed in the white and black Plumber suit.
"You're doing nothing but going home Liz. I don't want you two caught in the crossfire." Spider-Man told the girl calling her Liz.
"You worry too much we're fine, and besides someone has to drag Norman out while you guys are fighting Oct and the rest of the six.. Or is it five now without Sandman?" She'd stopped to ponder for a second at the end while telling him to relax.
"I'm afraid I'd have to agree with Peter here Liz. At being four and half months you really shouldn't be out here doing this stuff." John Jameson who was still going by Colonel Jupiter at this time stated to her.
"Look, I'm not gonna do any fighting and I'll wait until it's safe." Liz told them all to stop worrying about her being stubborn.
"Your Fiancee is stubborn bro." Eddie stated while in the form of Anti-Venom while looking over at Peter.
"We could just, web her to the wall out here." Flash offered while still going by the hero name Agent Venom.
"Don't even try it." Liz warned about webbing her up to the wall not going to let them do that to her.
"Sorry Liz, but it's for your own good." Gwen stated with her Ghost Spider costume on and lifted her up as the guys webbed Liz to the wall outside of the building.
"HEY, Let me down!" She'd called out struggling to get free but they'd webbed her up pretty good.
'The webbing should be able to hold her until we handle things inside.' The symbiote stated into Flash's mind and Agent Venom says "Alright that should hold, let's go!"
The others nodded and then went into the building to find the villain group to find out just what's going on and heard agruing with Colonel Jupiter holding his hand up for them to wait a moment listening in ono the conversation.
"Look I told you the Goblin is gone, I'm not doing that anymore!" Norman Osborn had called from a table that he'd been strapped to.
"We will see, this machine will digitize the Goblin persona and created a new nanotech I've designed and create a new body for them, we won't have a use for Norman after that's over." Doc Oct stated messing with the controls.
The heroes all looked at one another and nodded as Colonel Jupiter bashed thorugh the doors where Rhino charged at him and the two began to fight against one another with Electro then blasted at the spider themed heroes as they split up while Vulture tried to pick off Ghost Spider and Shocker started going after Agent Venom. Anti-Venom ran to get Norman but his Spider-Sense went off and he'd jumped back dodging the tail of a villain known as Scorpion.
We then see while the villains are focusing on the Cluster that Liz had somehow gotten free from the webbing and was currently trying to unstrap Norman undoing one of his arms and the bit strap on his chest so that he could at least move to undo his other hand while she started undoing his legs. She tried to get Norman out but Doc Oct had noticed and blocked the door that they were going to use to escape.
"Going somewhere?" The Doc questioned them and used his mechanical arms to try to grab them while they tried to get to another exit.
Spider-Man had jumped and dodged Electro's blasts leading him on to attack Oct by mistake and then called "Get out of here now!" to Liz and Norman who tried to get away.
Ghost Spider meanwhile had managed to stir Vulture into Rhino causing him to crash down against them and knocking them through a wall before going to help out against Shocker alongside CJ and they'd continued trying to stop them as Spider-Man attempted to shut down the controls only for his Spider-Sense to go off as Rhino charged at him.
He tried to dodge but Rhino grabbed him by the ankle and slammed him against the floor hard. "I'm gonna enjoy breaking you!" Rhino then called out forcing himself to stomp down on Spider-Man's leg and causing the wall crawler to cry out in pain.
Rhino stomped on him again and then tried to do it a third time not paying attention being too busy trying to break the Spider as CJ had ran over and tackled against the Rhino hard and slamming against the machine causing it to start to malfunction.
"NO! YOU FOOL DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE JUST DONE!" Oct called out while going to try to salvage the machine.
"No idea, but I like it." CJ answered back grabbing Rhino and slamming him into the machine again and then into Doc Oct knocking them into the wall next to the door.
"C'mon bro. We gotta get out of here." Anti-Venom stated picking up Spider-Man to help him get to safety while Agent Venom slammed Scorpion into both Electro and Shocker who'd both misfired and blasted part of the room down onto the machine damaging it further.
They'd all escaped the room as the machine was going haywire and Liz and Norman saw Spider-Man but Anti-Venom says "He'll live." to help calm them about what happened.
As they'd all dragged themselves away from the room one of Doctor Octopus' metal arms had shot out and swung itself around both Norman and Liz pulling them back into the room as Spider-Man called out "LIZ!"
He winced in pain as he tried to get to them dropping onto the floor before forcing himself to jump towards the doors as the spider-sense of every spider themed hero went off and a massive blast went off. All of them had been knocked through the wall behind them by the force of the blast and out of the building crashing down onto the street and the vehicles below setting off the alarms on some of them.
The Blast had lingered slightly before then imploding instead of dissapating and they tried to get up to go and find out what happened only seeing debris and nothing, not even the machine was left as some of the crushed building seeped down through a drain hole leaving them alone.
"That was the last time I'd ever seen any of them again. Soon after I dragged forced myself back onto the street without having time to heal and became a liability so I was benched. Instead of taking the hint and actually taking time to heal I threw myself head first into the company until the board decided I needed a prolonged vacation until I'd finally taken the time to grieve." Peter finally stated with silent tears spilling over.