It was two weeks later now, Peter was being more careful about keeping on top of things when it came to The Crime Master watching him. It was tough going to the Bugle pretending everything was fine seeing Leeds working there, investigating The Crime Master and giving Foswell false leads keeping him off his back. It was despicable and Peter couldn't wait to knock that smug face off Ned.
He figured out too some goons were following him, so it made it difficult sometimes avoiding them and suiting up as Spider-Man. It was important to keep going out to help people while keeping out of their suspicion, he didn't think they knew he was Spider-Man as it'd be something Ned would want to keep close. Over the two weeks he did master avoiding them and decided now it'd be finally time to inform Captain Stacy about everything.
Am I really going to do this? If I tell Gwen's dad about my identity it could be a major deal and change everything for all of us. Okay Peter, I have to be smart about it and be absolutely sure if I do. Can't believe I've gotten to this point, jezz.
Peter approached Stacy on a rooftop. "I'm very disappointed there isn't a Spider-Man signal here." He remarked.
"That seems impractical and would be costly and dangerous." Stacy replied.
"Wouldn't it be cool though?"
Stacy looked not as much in the mood for fun and games. "I feel like we had an important reason for meeting, you said we did and sounded concerned."
"Yes, well you see I've met someone." Peter started saying.
"I hope this isn't about your love life." Stacy remarked.
Peter chuckled. "Yeah I wish it was. But no, I discovered who The Crime Master is, it's a reporter by the name of Ned Leeds. He works at The Daily Bugle and he's been trying to throw off the whole investigation inside of there. Maybe he could even be trying to throw it off in the police force too, I've got no clue. All I know is Ned Leeds is dangerous and very powerful. I think he might've almost brought an end to your favorite web slinger too if he really wanted." He explained.
"That's a lot to take in, do you have any actionable evidence of who he is and what he's done?" Asked Stacy looking skeptical.
Peter lowered and shaked his head. "Not a shred of evidence I'm afraid, I wish I had something to use against him."
"Having his name is an important step, I can set up a case for him and try keeping an eye on him." Stacy proposed.
"I forgot to mention this, but he did threaten everyone I know, he kinda knows my secret identity too. He took off my mask and I think he's serious."
"Sounds serious, you're not anyone I know right?" Stacy asked, looking at Peter.
He didn't respond and could feel some sweat building up.
"I'm sorry. It doesn't matter. Even if you are, I know you'd not risk anyone's safety. It's something we have to do when dealing with someone like The Crime Master."
Spidey felt relieved. "Yeah, uh Crime Master is dangerous and I'm not exactly sure of what to do here. I'm not going to let him win, but letting the people I care about get in danger doesn't seem good either." He said, trying to switch the matter away from his identity, still not making up his mind about telling Stacy.
"Sounds like you don't have any good options."
"That's very reassuring." Peter replied with an overwhelming amount of sarcasm.
Stacy nodded. "You're in a dangerous situation here, but it's good you came to me. We're going to get to the bottom of this. I promise even though I don't know who you are, I won't let anyone you care about get harmed." He said with a hint of potentially knowing who he was.
"Okay, that's good. What should I do now?" Peter questioned unsure.
"Simply put, keep doing what you're doing. Stay low."
Spider-Man nodded and then had a bad feeling. "You know, in my experience I've found it's always easier said than done. Times like this I've got a horrible feeling trouble is afoot and going to spring out any second now."
As he said it, Stacy's pager was going off.
Oh boy.
Stacy answered it and listened to the police radio hearing about something major.
"We have a major situation right now! Breakout at Rikers Prison! I repeat a breakout is currently in progress!" A voice exclaimed.
"You see what I said? Every time, always." Peter remarked throwing his hands up and then fell over. "Can I have a moment to rest, do you think?"
"You have to go Spider-Man." He replied.
"Yeah of course I do, wonderful, just wonderful. Well I'll try to not die." Spidey said, looking over the rooftop. "Here we go." He leaped off and started heading towards the breakout determined.
Once he got closer his phone started to ring, it was as usual MJ. "Hey, this might not be the best timing." He started saying.
"Have you heard about the prison break?" She asked.
"I'm heading there right now, so uh everything is alright between us right?"
"Yes of course it is don't worry, I just needed to tell you. I saw my dad on TV helping with that breakout." She expressed not sounding as interested in their status understandably so with that in mind.
"Oh, uh. Maybe he's turning himself in? No I'm sorry that's stupid. This isn't good he's helping, it must mean it's Ned Leeds. I can't let this happen." Peter declared.
"I know, you've got to stop them, no matter what. Don't like it, stop him being my dad and all of that." MJ said seriously.
Peter nodded to himself. "Don't worry I won't, I'll do everything I can. Wish me luck? I feel like I'm going to need it."
"Good luck Peter, this is your first prison break isn't it?"
"Yeah, it is. Let's hope it'll go better than I expect. My goal is to get us all to have a sing along long enough so they don't end up killing me. I mean who'd be feeling the urge for murder when you can sing a song right?" Peter said, really expecting the worst.
"Not sure if the bad guys will follow your logic Peter." MJ said sarcastically. "Not even sure if I am."
Peter laughed. "Oh yeah, I'm so screwed."
He hung up and kept on swinging.
Peter soon arrived at the prison seeing the danger, a fire was happening on one side along with a big hole next to it. A few people could be spotted there standing around and a few more running out. Wasn't sure if they were guards or prisoners, all the while helicopters were flying around the prison. It didn't matter he rushed over there landing in front of some now clearly prisoners.
"Hey, did I send any of you to jail?" He asked.
They all looked at each other and rushed at Spider-Man saying nothing to answer his questions annoyingly. "Fine then, let's just get all of you back into your cells then." He leaped up in the air shooting webs at them starting to bunch them together getting at least half stuck. He then kicked down two more webbing them to the ground and smacked another out cold webbing them down too. Finally the last one ran off back into the prison freaking out. Though one more came out looking pretty jacked.
"Hey! I remember you. Rhino guy!"
"Indeed, clearly my intellect wasn't enough to beat you. Against what I once believed possible, I built up my muscle capacity. Being locked up in a cage has done wonders for my physical health. Enough to beat you."
Spider-Man tried to not laugh and knocked him out in a single punch. "Sure showed him. Not enough muscle I'm afraid." Peter remarked heading inside.
Okay, what am I heading into here? Please do nothing too dangerous to me universe.
Like before on que, trouble approached in the form of an old face. Hammerhead with a bunch of his goons.
"Oh hey, Hammerhead! It's been awhile, last time we met I kicked you butt if I remember correctly, how've you been?" Spider-Man quipped.
Hammerhead cracked his knuckles. "I'm going to enjoy breaking you in two. I've been waiting for you, see I heard about this breakout being planned. The new guy, Crime Master, needed some muscle for killing Kingpin and needed some to distract the dashing hero arriving soon. You can imagine what job I took." He smiled.
"What muscle is he after?" Questioned Spidey seriously.
"Wouldn't you like to know, boys, let's kick this bug's ass!" Hammerhead exclaimed, motioning his guys to attack.
Spider-Man leaped up and kicked back Hammerhead. "Good thing you bundles of joys don't have access to guns! I shouldn't have said that." He realized.
The goons rushed him trying their best to grab him before he jumped back up into the air sticking to the ceiling. "I'd make a joke about this being an unfair fight from my perspective, but that'd be a lie." He said making a large webbing net to drop down on the thugs watching him tangling them all up coming back face to face with Hammerhead who was looking angry.
"Bet your proud of yourself for beating these mooks. They're nothing, how about a real challenge!" Hammerhead exclaimed, rushing towards Spider-Man who tried the same tricks, but got shot at making him dooge, falling back down meeting his enemy's very large hard head knocking him back.
Spider-Man grabbed his body where he was hit. "Ouch, that's going to leave a mark for a few days."
Hammerhead smirked, getting a gun tossed at him with some more of the prisoners approaching all armed and now including some more old friends, this time being The Enforcers looking ready for some payback.
"Oh hey, my favorite trio of bad guys. You're here to kill me too aren't you? Don't you guys hate Hammerhead?" He asked confused and concerned for his safety.
"Guess what bug, we hate you even more." Montana stated looking pissed.
Spider-Man sighed. "I was hoping we could all sing along or something. But no! Why would we all have a lovely sing along, what an insane idea!" He exclaimed, avoiding the incoming gunfire and hid somewhere for a moment.
"Everyone get after him! You stupid mooks!" Hammerhead shouted.
The Enforcers and some thugs glared over at him.
"You're not the boss of us Hammerhead!" One of them exclaimed.
Hammerhead approached the thug grabbing their throat. "You think you're a wise guy huh? Very smart and tough huh? Who does it feel like now?"
Ox shoved Hammerhead getting the goon loose.
"You looking for a fight, Ox?" Hammerhead said cocky.
"We're looking for a fight if you are Hammerhead. You no good damn fool!" Fancy Dan exclaimed, getting up in his face.
Peter popped back up on the ceiling. "You guys are breaking my heart seeing you all fighting each other. Why can't we all just be friends! And please lock ourselves back up in your cells. I'll even lock myself up if you'll all follow!"
"Shut up freak! I've had it with you!" Hammerhead exclaimed, opening fire at him and while he did Ox smacked his gut. "Fine you want a fight you have it!" They started to brawl each other while some goons cheered them up. Then the rest including the other two Enforcers hunted down Spider-Man firing at him.
"Come on guys can't you help your buddy Ox out?" Peter proposed to them.
"He'll be fine, but you won't be an annoying critter!" Montana exclaimed, firing at him.
Spider-Man evaded the gunfire easily. "Your aim is impeccable. I bet you're missing your whip, aren't you cowboy?"
"I don't need to whip to end your miserable life bug!" He kept on firing, running in front and Spidey set up a trap shooting a webline in their lags, making Montana fall first. Then the rest fell on top of him, apart from Fancy Dan who leaped over it shooting at Spider-Man at what felt like slow motion.
"You can't get away that easily!" He expressed on his tail still.
"Come on Dan buddy, can't we call a truce? You know I'm going to beat you!" Spidey informed swinging away. "I wish we could've all just sung a song, why not JailHouse Rock? If you guys don't know that one then I can't even. You guys are just hopeless if we can't all just chill out and do the JailHouse Rock!" Dan kept on shooting.
"And I've got more important issues going on, like catching Crime Master! You know he's after your boss right? Fisk? He wants him dead!" Peter continued.
Fancy Dan stopped. "He's after the boss? He claimed to be helping the boss. I can't believe we fell for his tricks." He said, shaking his head.
Spidey approached on guard. "Really? Could we have a truce then?" His spider-sense wasn't going off which seemed promising.
"Yeah, fine. We have a common enemy." He admitted.
Montana and the goons lined with him came up on them.
"We're letting the freak go." Dan said seriously.
"What?! have you lost your mind!"
Dan shook his head. "We'll kill him some other time, but right now The Crime Master tricked us. He's gunning for the boss's seat."
"Damn, I knew we couldn't trust that sneaky bugger. Alright bug, you get a passage for now. You're the only one who can realistically stop Crime Master. He's going that way, looking for a high value prisoner." He said and pointed out the direction.
"Uh, thank you? I think." He swung off towards where he was pointed out. "Please don't be lying, please don't be lying." He repeated to himself.
Shortly Peter reached a different area of the prison finding pretty much everyone there seemingly harmless. All with power dampeners on including yet another formulier face, however this one wasn't one who wanted to kill him, hopefully. It was Mark Allen who he happened to see in a while now and wasn't expecting to see.
"Spider-Man? You came to stop the breakout?" He asked.
He nodded, unsure of how Mark would feel seeing him.
"The bad guys are going that way and uh, no hard feelings." Mark pointed out the way to Crime Master.
"I'm sorry about your sister. I wish I could've done more to help her out. She was a good person and deserved much better than to go to jail, I feel very guilty about it." Spider-Man said, looking down.
Mark looked at him. "It wasn't your fault, I got a letter for Liz. She explained how it was her boyfriend's fault and how you saved her from having everything getting worse. I don't blame you for it."
Hearing that relieved Peter. "Well, tell her Spider-Man say hi. And wish her well." He wasn't sure if Mark could know his identity.
"I'll tell her Spider-Man and good luck."
"Thanks and hey, could you try to get everyone to sing along? I tried getting some of them to do it, but nobody listened to me."
Mark looked bewildered.
"Joking, maybe. Hope to see you again and your sister." He said swinging off.
This lifted Peter's spirit a bit and it was a good thing it did, as he realized the exact prisoner who was broken seeing the hole in the wall and jumped through it spotting The Crime Master motioning the prisoner into the helicopter with Looter alongside him with another familiar face, Chance of all people too. Said prisoner spun around and shot acid at Peter.
"Of course, officer Mac Gargan!" Peter exclaimed.
"I'm not Gargan and certainly not a cop any longer, not after everything I did. I'm the Scorpion now and I've got some scores to settle, let's start with you!"
Peter's spider-sense blared and he got out of the way of a rocket being shot right at him by The Crime Master, but the blast knocked him back to the ground.
"Forget him Scorpion! We need to leave right now! Besides, I have an understanding with the spider!." The Crime Master exclaimed.
Yeah right. Peter thought, getting back up while Scorpion hopped into the helicopter, as it flew off Spider-Man tried to follow, but he was too late . They were going to escape if not for the rocket knocking him down temporarily he would've caught up.
He decided against chasing them, heading back inside, webbing up the hole made for one, then head back to the cellblock where Hammerhead was.
Arriving there he found the guards starting to round up the prisoners, but found Hammerhead and The Enforcers were heading towards the open wall.
"Oh heck no!" Spider-Man exclaimed, chasing after them, webbing back Ox who was furthest behind the bunch bringing them to the ground and webbed them up as the guards caught up.
The other two Enforcers turned around and aimed at Spider-Man, but he raised both his legs, knocking them out as the guards caught up to grab them. "So much for a truce I guess, oh well. Till next time guys!" He waved to them.
Spider-Man went out the hole and his spider-sense went off as Hammerhead smacked him once more with his head knocking him down. "Ouch, why does this keep happening to me?" He wondered and jumped back to his feet, kicking Hammerhead in the process and jumped over him webbing his head bringing the foe crashing down to the head having the head now suck in the ground.
"Hey! Let me go! I'm feeling light headed!" Hammerhead exclaimed furiously, trying to wave his hands around.
"It's the idea, you'll probably pass out soon and then you'll be returned to your hotel stay. No cake for you." Peter said sarcastically, giving him a wave as the guards came out. "I'm really hoping they'll be able to make you want to stay inside of your room during your stay this time. Ah well. I'm sure I'll have to send you back to jail again, can't ever keep a good Hammerhead down right?" He said with lots of sarcasm, proud for beating his foe again.
"Freeze! On your knees!" The guards shouted guns raised up as they approached Spider-Man and Hammerhead.
Spider-Man looked disappointed. "You guys can't honestly believe I'm responsible for this breakout? You saw the crazy bad guys in helicopters right? And saw me stop the very cranky prisoners? Which I blame you guys for, we could've given them better accommodations and maybe they'd be less pissed off right?" He suggested.
"Final warning!" They continued to say.
"Fine then." Spider-Man shrugged and swung off avoiding gunfire.
Always have to love my own team shooting at me. Now I've got to deal with the return of Scorpion working with Ned Leeds, great, just great. Oh and Chance is back out too, my migraines shall be returning soon if he keeps saying chance. At least I stopped some more of my greatest hits from escaping. Could've been worse. Tiny victories I guess. Spidey thought to himself leaving the area.
Elsewhere in the helicopter carrying Ned Leeds and his allies they had some things to discuss as they escaped.
"You want Fisk dead don't you? He ruined your life and together we want him dead, we've got the power to make it a reality. How does that sound?"
"Like a great idea,'' Gargon replied with a smirk.
"Wonderful, we've almost found him and Spider-Man won't be an issue. More so now with your strength. Nobody will stop us from getting our revenge." Ned declared.
Looter looked out the helicopter. "And my freedom." He muttered to himself.
"Yes and that my friend. It's almost over. With Fisk's death you're free to do whatever your heart desires. Same with you Scorpion. We've all got a bright future ahead." Ned said proudly feeling on top of the world.
"And I'll be able to fix my debt once we kill Spider-Man right? I just want to start over, do something new! Something not illegal anymore, that's possible right?" Chance asked.
Ned glared over at him. "Yes, Chance. You'll have your shot and your freedom, if you listen. Same with you, Scorpion, like I said. We'll all get what we're after. Spider-Man won't stand in our way. Nobody will."
Hope you all enjoyed that explosive chapter, I was happy to pull off a prison break. Finally, it's a classic for superheroes not being able to keep their villains locked up. It's nice bringing back Scorpion for a rematch with Spider-Man at last, looking forward to that as I do have plans for him long term. Hopefully I'll be able to execute them. Along with a future story for Chance. (That I already wrote now and planned a follow up) I enjoy taking a crack at unknown villains of Spidey's large roster.
It's always nice having Hammerhead and The Enforcers appear to cause Spidey some troubles. Along with Mark Allen having that small appearance was nice too, I knew it was a great opportunity to show him again. Overall, I felt it was a fun chapter to write for and exciting seeing things heat up as The Crime Master gets closer to his goal. This arc ends at chapter 45 and I've got a lot more planned.
In fact, I'm currently writing chapter 68. Lol.