Depicts characters such as: Emma Frost, Rogue, Johnny Storm, Vivian Vision, Magik, as well as some retooled old faces and brand new characters.
Without further ado, please enjoy.
1 . Like the wind.
It was a particularly cold winter night. I leaped from building to building, propelling myself with my web fluid. The speed was the only thing that kept me actually warm. I stopped at the railing of a building, adjusting my transponder. It had been having weird glitches lately, and sometimes the sound was just unbearable.
Looking at the expense of The Big Apple, however, my mind kept bouncing back to the talk I had with Isla last night. After a night of deliberation (and bad guy butt-kicking), I started to see her point more clearly. I don't feel like it was a fight or anything, but I still wanted to apologize for being a bad friend. I should have tried to listen to her more.
The closer I got to her house, the more my heart ached. It was like my spider-sense was tingling, but it was also… different? Not much physical, more of a spiritual feeling. I felt sorrow, panic. I felt like I was too late. Like I was losing… something. I had to get there faster. This couldn't be good.
"The Avengers? Never heard of them. Do they have dental?", asked Christina, shooting me a sarcastic smile. She wasn't taking any of what I said seriously.
"It's not time to mess around, Chris." I retorted. "I mean it. Stark approached me last night." I let out a long, heavy sigh. Christina was getting on my nerves, as usual. It wasn't time to make jokes, though. This decision could change everything, and I couldn't just make it myself.
"I don't know about this one, Sam." Said Isla, somber in her voice. "Haven't you watched the news? Those guys are fighting each other. This is bigger than any of us." She stood up to the window, looking down on the street. It was clear she didn't like where this was going.
She had a point. Since the public and governmental pressure to push the Registration Act two weeks ago, reports of fighting between members of the Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, were popping up everywhere. I didn't understand much of the politics behind it, nor did I care. We all signed up to help people. Sacrifices had and should be made, right? Without control, maybe we weren't much different than the villains we fight with every week.
"You guys know what I really care about here, though. '' I said, getting up and walking towards Isla. "With this Avengers sponsorship, we could stop living from paycheck to paycheck! More money would mean more ways to experiment with new gadgets. And, you know, it would put a roof over our heads. No more running away. No more uncertainty. " I rested my hand on her shoulder.
I meant it. I couldn't care less about being an Avenger, or whatever. But the security it would bring us three is something we - I used to dream a lot about. I just wanted to provide for them. To make our lives better.
Without much thought, Isla walked away from me, looking down. Did I do something wrong?
"You don't get it, do you?" She asked.
"What do you mean?"
"This is not about you, Sam." She looked back at me, tears forming under her eyes. "Don't you know what Stark and them are doing to people who are refusing to register?!"
"Yeah, I do, but-"
"And you still want to fight for him?! Against your community, against your friends?!" She was shouting by now. Chris tried to hide herself on her seat, going lower and lower.
I never saw Isla act like this before. "B-But think about how much better our lives could be! We would finally be able to provide for ourselves!"
"Not we, right, Samuel? You. You would be able to provide for us. You know Chris and I have jobs, so don't give me this money bullcrap, now."
"Yeah, but I feel bad about you spending all your money on me."
"We don't spend it on you, Sam. We spend it on our operation here. And we do what we do not because of you. We do it to save people's lives. Can't you see it?! The Spider is bigger than you!" She shouted at me. Her hands were shaking.
"I guess, but…" I had no arguments. She wasn't wrong. But I still felt bad about being a burden on them. If it wasn't for me, there wouldn't be any Spider, and there wouldn't be any need to throw their life away like this.
"And what about my family? My dad, my mom? What if, after you reveal your identity, they come after them? What then?!"
"I can keep them safe, I can keep you safe, just…"
I looked to the ground, stunned. My confidence wavered, her words getting to me. I could see through my peripheral vision Isla crying profusely. Wiping away her tears, she stomped away, grabbing her bag.
"Isla, wai-" I tried to stop her, but all it was met with was a door slam. The sound reverberated through my mind, deafening all my thoughts. Defeated, I walked over to the couch, slumping down.
My heart started beating fast again, the hair in the back of my neck standing up. I knew what was going on. There was something coming for me! In the middle of the air, I launched my web fluid and changed my trajectory, dodging a goblin-bomb by an inch. Hanging from the side of a building, I shot my webs towards the bomb, rapidly swinging it on to the air, making it explode on nothing.
"What the hell is going on…" I said under my breath. A high pitched gutural maniacal laugh boomed through the streets, reverberating on the glasses of the buildings. I knew exactly who was the perpetrator. An old friend of mine.
"Hobgoblin", I cursed. Is her demonical, quasi-possessed presence the thing messing with my senses? I didn't have much time to think, however. I dodged two beans of pure electrical energy, going straight for my chest. In a hurry, I felt my heart slow down, activating my super-speed. I had to get the fight away from the streets. I shot my webs towards the top of the building, slingshotting me upwards.
In the air, as the world was slow around me due to my speed powers, I saw two of my enemies flying towards me: the weirdly religious Hobgoblin, and the not-so-cheery Electro. I instantly knew something was up. They couldn't have different personalities and motives, they never would just team up without a reason. Landing on the building, I opened my arms, as if inviting them.
"Ladies! How did you know it was my birthday? A card would suffice, you know."
"Shut up, you maggot." Hissed Hobgoblin with her distorted, demonic voice. She was still catching up to the roof of the building with her fiery skull glider. "The Lord has plans for thy, so please, stay still while I PASS HIS JUDGMENT ON THY SINNING, DISGUSTING SOUL!" She exclaimed, throwing a bunch of fire-bombs at me.
I looked up at the sky, looking for the moon. "Full. Just as I like it." Without much struggle, my form started to shake, and in the blink of an eye I had already deactivated all the bombs. Not only that, I was already right up on Hobgoblin's face, throwing a sonic boosted punch on her cheek which sent her flying. The sonic boom left behind shook the whole block behind me.
"You guys know better than not to mess with me on full moon nights. What's going on, gang? You miss me that much?" I said, trying to balance myself on top of her glider. Just one problem, though. I forgot it was magically linked to her, and that it would disappear at any moment, just like it did. "Woo- WOAAAAAAAH!"
I fell through probably hundreds of feet, before I instinctively tried to swing with my webs to gain some sort of composure. My web-shooters were not making for swinging, per say, more for propelling. But it would have to work.
THWIP! As the webs hit the building, I started swinging. I felt the familiar energy surge from Electro behind me, shooting her thunderbolts in my direction. Dodging, I came face to face with the Hobgoblin, who forced me to change my trajectory. They kept doing this for a while, as if they were…
"Wait, you guys are not trying to lead me anywhere, are you?" I shouted at them between heavy breaths. "You know I would love to come to the surprise party, but I really have somewhere to go."
"Stay still, you puny insect! Feel my WRATH!" exclaimed the goblin-woman. She was, strangely, being way more aggressive towards me than Electro was. In fact, the walking battery still hadn't even uttered a word since she started chasing me down, and had barely tried to do any actual damage to me.
I reached for my transmitter on my ear between swings. "Hey, gang? " I asked, only receiving a weird, garbled noise. Shit. Great time to malfunction. I gotta get a look at them with the girls when I'm free. Gotta improvise, now.
"Hey, Bible for brains, tell me something." I said, dodging a particularly nasty fire-bomb. Ouch. "Why is Miss Cable Wiring back there so quiet for, anyway? Spider bit her tongue?"
She didn't answer. Well, not verbally, anyway. In response, she let out an ear-piercing scream, confusing my spider-sense and making me go into a free-fall. Dazed and confused, I could piece out snippets of what sounded like a shouting contest. Electro sounded pissed. Are you stupid? Spider-Boy needs to arrive alive or we are not being paid.