Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Spectacular Characters or Marvel Characters.
A DARK VOID
Usually, during a school night, most high school students either work on homework, or a big project, or go out with their friends, and have some fun. Meanwhile, a small minority of highschool students, like Peter Parker and Harry Osborn, have to deal with something far more thrilling.
"You FRAMED YOUR OWN SON!" Spider-Man exclaimed in shock.
"I protected HARRY! If I were sent to prison, who would've made a man out of him… Just look at what he's done today… I've never been prouder of the boy," Norman proclaimed about his son.
"Who are you kidding? You were saving your own sorry butt, NOT HARRY'S!"
"Potato Patato, once you're out of the picture, I'll make everything right…"
"You would know right if you blew up your glider!" The Web-Head shoved the bomb on the rear engine of the glider.
'Beep-Beep-Beep-AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!' Norman's glider blew a gasket. The blast plunged him into the deep pool of his own goblin bombs.
'BAM-BAM-BAM-AHAHAHAAAHAHAHA!' Those explosives erupted with immense laughter, with Norman Osborn in the vicinity. His son helplessly watched in horror from the helicopter.
"DAD!" the boy's voice strangled. Peter gazed up, horrified at his act towards the Green Goblin.
'What have I done?..'
The next few days, the Daily Bugle would proclaim in their newspapers, like it was Gospel.
"SPIDER-MENACE! RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH OF NORMAN OSBORN!"
Then during the eulogy of Norman Osborn's funeral, Harry weakly proclaimed,
"Nobody understands how that substance can affect you. All my father needed was help… but Spider-man didn't help him. He's no better than the freaks he's put away!"
Then the world around Peter went dark. Shattered like glass, everywhere he turned. Till something came crashing down on him, and knocked him out.
Suddenly, Peter woke up restrained by his own thick spider-webbing. He repeatedly tried to escape out of the thick webbing. His brown eyes darted in every single direction, but there was nothing but darkness. There was nothing he could do. Every move to escape from the thickening web has faltered. The web responded and suffocated his whole body. It restricted him from doing what he desired.
And Peter grew tired. He gave New York his all, every single spec of himself, to his beloved city.
But there was something in that empty dark void. It was a tiny glimmer of light that was seen. It wasn't even a hallucination. However, the dark embodied someone.
"You should've seen this coming, Pete!" A voice emerged out of the dark.
The voice sounded familiar to his best bud, Harry Osborn.
"Harry?!"
"I thought you were different from the rest, Pete. People thought you were different from the rest. You were their savior. You were my best bud. Now, people are going to see who you really are… Spider-Man," Harry expressed.
Suddenly, Harry launched a goblin pumpkin bomb, landing near Peter's feet. His eyes grew in horror.
"HARRY, YOU GOTTA STOP THIS! PLEASE DUDE!"
"Greet my father for me… in hell."
The Bomb frantically sounded, 'BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-AHAHAHAHAHA!'
…
REPUTATION - PARKER'S RESIDENCE
"HARRY NO!" Peter screamed.
He launched himself out of a twin size mattress and landed on the rough carpet. He woke up in a spiral, with sweat all over his face, hands, and chest.
'It's only a bad dream, only a bad dream, Pete. Relax, Relax… relax-'
His Aunt May pounded on his door.
"Dear, are you awake? You're going to be late for school… again"
"Ye-Yeah, I'm awake, Aunt May," he yawned.
He grimaced from the sharp pain from his lower abdomen.
'Ow Ow Ow, seriously need to get some padding. And some body spray… jeez, I smell like barbecue'
10 minutes before school started, a drowsy Peter sluggishly raced down the stairs. He overslept again. The past 4 out of 5 days, until today, which makes it 5 out of 5 days. He's lucky he only been late once in those days, especially being five weeks into this school year.
"What's gotten into you, Peter... you've woken up late every day this week!"
"Sorry Aunt May, I-"
"Now, don't explain. That'll waste time… just finish your meal," she urged.
Peter agreed and quickly dug into his crispy waffles and blueberry pancakes. Aunt May left Peter's side to finish breakfast and sat on her lounge chair to tune into the latest morning news. And Peter couldn't stop himself and tuned in to the morning news.
"Breaking News this morning, from Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. The convicted serial killer, Cletus Kasady, who escaped from the Ravencroft Institute late last night, has been caught and arrested early this morning. Although there haven't been official police witnesses to state this, there have been several eyewitnesses that have caught another sighting of the mysterious man in black. Some of the witnesses have dubbed this individual 'The Devil of Hell's Kitchen.' They claim that he's the man who took down Cletus Kasady and several other convicts these past few weeks. Especially during the recent arsons from the local gang members. Which leaves most of this community wondering, could we officially have our sights on a new crime fighter in New York?"
Aunt May instantly turned to Peter, with her eyes wide open.
"Peter, assure me that you won't go into that neighborhood, no matter what the Bugle tells you, don't go… Hell's Kitchen is a grim area, always has been. Now with those mysterious men like that running around-"
"Aunt May, I promise… I won't. I don't want to worry you."
'However, Spider-Man can take a peek at this new guy. Plus, I bet Jonah would want some pics, especially in uncharted territories like these'
"Good, now hurry! Just eat it while you're walking, but be sure to check to watch where you're going"
She patted on his back while he shoved so much of his breakfast into his mouth.
In the background, the news continued to report, which Peter couldn't help but overhear.
"In other unfortunate news this morning, there was another fire near a complex in Hell's Kitchen, which all the civilians inside were evacuated. There have been waves of suspected-arsons these past several weeks. Some officials believe the perpetrator was the cat-burglar alias: The Black Cat. However, we have new footage of the same individual captured on security cameras, who was near the area, at the same times as the fires erupted. The individual wore a mask that fully covers their face and a hoodie. This dangerous individual has something mechanical around his forearm. Some witnesses have dubbed this individual, The Prowler. And we are issuing a warning to PLEASE don't approach these dangerous individuals."
'This is the stuff that makes me smell like smoke half the day. And Black Cat wasn't even there… or I didn't see her there, when I swung by. But she's probably avoiding me… for good reason. Plus, Cat isn't usually the type of kitty to burn homes down. Especially for innocent people. Hmmm, we probably need to chat soon, whether or not she likes it. And the other guy… he kept me up all night, and I barely got a glimpse of the dude. Just kept running'
"C'mon sweetie, you can't be daydreaming. You must hurry! It's 7:20!" she reminded.
"On my way out. Love you!" he pecked her on the check.
"Ahem…"
"What?" Peter stood there, confused.
"Honey, you're not going with your awful smelling breath, Peter" Aunt May quickly searched through her purse and handed Peter a pack of white breath mints.
The news continued in the background, 'When we come back from the commercial break, we will discuss how this nominee for New York City's mayor pushed his mayoral campaign recently. Be back after the break.'
As soon as Peter got out the door, that infamous spandex suit was on, and he swung into Manhattan like a cold summer breeze, gliding above tall towers. If he took the bus, he would've been late once he got to one bus stop. Luckily, web-slinging took half the time and avoided all the awkward stares. Well, he still gets some awkward stares from disapproving parents. Sometimes you must give and take.
Suddenly, a roaring sound came from a dark alley, "HELP, SOMEBODY HELP!"
Instantly, without a second thought, Spider-Man headed over. There were two masked men who cornered and beaten a young man.
"He screwed up!" one masked man exclaimed.
"I know the kid messed up, alright? Now we gotta take him out!"
"We have to call Wesley… or we have to call Mr. F-"
"We don't SAY HIS NAME," The other masked man insisted.
The young man frantically apologized, "G-guys, I'm so sorry… please, not like this. I'll do anything. C'mon, I've got a girlfriend and a newborn, I have a FAMILY!"
He had butterflies in his stomach, scared of masked men's aggressiveness.
"You should've thought of that before you screwed up this job! If the man in charge found out about this, we all won't have our families!"
"I'm sorry, kid, but we have to do this-" One masked man pointed the gun right at the young man's temple, ready to blow his brains out.
Until a familiar, long spider web flung the weapon away.
"Well, you don't have to do this at all. Seriously, let's make this quick. I'm gonna be late to school," Spider-Man snarkingly proposed.
"SPIDER-MAN! I thought the feds arrested you-"
The web-slinger instantly webbed the one masked man's mouth shut. He webbed them up and strung them up in a giant spider web.
"What can I say? I'm one of those Spiders that don't stay webbed down for a long time." He poked fun at the webbed up suspects.
The masked hero lowered himself and checked on the victim.
"Spidey, Thank you, thank you, thank you! Without you… I wouldn't see my newborn. I knew all those headlines about you weren't true. The Bugle's so wrong about you. Just thank you so much-"
"Don't mention it…"
Beneath the mask, Peter had the biggest smile on his face. He saved another person, and this time, he appreciated it. Made his heart tingle a bit. Sure, he shouldn't be doing this gig for appreciation… but it was nice to get it.
Yet his smile wouldn't last when Peter heard the school bell roar in the distance. He immediately checked his phone.
7:25!
"Shoot. I got 5 minutes!"
MIDTOWN MANHATTAN MAGNET HIGH SCHOOL
There were two bells in the morning in high school. The 7:25 bell or the so-called, 'relax… you're not gonna be late' bell. Just told students to head to their class, with 5 minutes left to spare… that bell was nothing to worry about.
But the 7:30 late bell or the so-called 'hurry up or you're dead,' bell. The late bell was the death sentence for those who care about their attendance. Once that bell rang, and you weren't in class, you're screwed. Since the number of tardy kids rose, The Principal of Midtown Magnet made it official that security would tighten up, and sweep up the unfortunate few that don't run to class on time.
After Peter frantically changed out of his Spidey-suit, he rushed through the double doors of the roof. He quickly headed down the flight of stairs to his 1st period English Class. But security was currently through the hallways. And they grabbed a few students before they could rush into their classes and brought them into Principal Davis' office. One of those unfortunate few today was Peter Parker. The senior slowly dragged his feet to the principal's office with an unenthusiastic look on his face.
The Principal sat in front of him and scanned through his emails.
"Well, I assume there was a lot of traffic on the way, Mr. Parker, because it's not like you to be late, son."
"Yeah, you can say that." 'I assume saving a guy from two muggers was considered… traffic'
"I know this isn't your first time being late. You've been wandering the halls after the late bell has rung, now twice this week"
"Sorry Mr. Davis, I've been busy-"
"Mr. Parker, I understand that. And you seem like a good kid, but as I can see your grades have plummeted compared to your junior year. It's unlike you. It seems like you're lacking focus"
"Yeah, I know…"
"Then you should know that you should make the choice to be here… on time. It's all up to you," The principal spouted. "Also know that I have to call your aunt about this," he added.
Peter reluctantly nodded and avoided eye contact with his principal. His eyes peeked down to his shoes with one thought on his mind; 'Aunt May's gonna kill me.'
During passing period, Peter headed to the boy's restroom, until he was stopped in his tracks by his familiar blonde friend in the hallway.
"H-hey Gwen," He awkwardly greeted.
The blonde physically changed a lot from junior year. She dropped the clunky glasses, the salmon-colored polo & red vest and gained contacts, a salmon-colored overcoat & a sleek black-top. Contacts emphasized her gorgeous bright blue eyes, and the elegant black top highlighted her curvature. And the King Geek was lost in the beauty of Ms. Stacy.
However, that didn't last forever when Gwen snapped him out his daze, and asked, "Peter, do you know what you missed for English?"
"Uh Gwen, we'll talk about it later at the lab."
"Umm, you didn't check your email, did you?"
"No, why?"
"Dr. Warren emailed all of the interns that the lab will be closed until further notice."
"Oh okay, t-thanks for letting me know Gwen, now gotta head to class"
"Ahem…" She gave him 'the look.' A look that can guilt the strongest of souls, especially the soul of a geek.
"Oh, yeah… so what did I miss for AP English?"
"Well, we still have to work on that literature research project, Pete… the one you haven't contributed to..."
"Sorry Gwen, I try doing as much of the project at home"
"You should meet with Mary Jane as well, remember she's part of our group."
"Yeah, promise," he nodded. 'Don't make promises you can't keep, Pete.'
Out of nowhere, Harry Osborn appeared from behind her and warmly embraced Gwen.
"Hey Babe," Harry greeted her with a peck on the cheek.
"Um, Bye, Har, bye, Gwen," Pete quickly bided farewell.
He felt awkward around the pair, first because he didn't like public displays of affection. Second, Harry was with his dream girl, the girl he wanted to be with since last year. But that didn't happen.
"What's up with Pete?" Harry asked.
"I-I don't know…" Gwen concernly gazed at her best friend.
"I'll try to find him later," Harry assured.
As much as Harry didn't trust Peter recently, he still noticed how off his best bud has been. It was pretty sad to look at. Like a beaten up dog wandering around an area unknown to him.
Fortunately, Peter arrived at his class on time. Unfortunately, his tardy slip was still in hand, which many people noticed, especially his teacher.
"Late to school, again, Mr. Parker?" Mrs. Nelson harshly called him out.
"Yeah," Peter whispers under his breath.
"Good thing you're not late for this class"
He lowered his head to avoid the awkward glares from his classmates as he quietly sneaked to his desk in the front row.
"Anyways, good morning class, since I'm in such a dazzling mood, I'm announcing a new class project. The main objective of this project is to interview a Lawyer about the importance of the law. You will have to create a video and present it to the class. It's like a news interview. This project will be important, so it would make sense for this to be 100 points."
The whole class let out a solemn sigh.
"And since I am in such a great mood, I'll make this assignment easier, as you will be assigned a group…"
"So we don't get to pick our group?" Flash loudly asked.
"That's why it's called an assigned group, Eugene"
Immediately, all the criticisms and displeasures about assigned groups were heard.
"Okay, I'll make it fair, blindly pick two names from the hat," She added.
"Not this again. Last year we did this, I got Norman Osborn's spawn," Flash Thompson proclaimed.
After a few students picked their groupmates out of the hat, Peter was next up to pick.
'Please not Sally, please. Wait, she isn't in this class… I'm good then'
They passed the hat down to him, and Peter shook the hat, like it was a raffle. He closed his eyes and buried his hand into what seemed like a dark void of name slips.
Peter peaked down at the name he had picked and announced, "Hobie Brown?"
He scanned around the whole classroom, but there was no sign of Hobie. Peter's eyes darted to his assigned seat, but he was nowhere to be found.
"Excuse me, Mrs. Nelson, Hobie isn't here." The teacher scanned the classroom in search of Hobie Brown.
"You're right, Mr. Parker. But whenever he comes back, he'll be in your group of three, here, pick another partner," she confirmed.
His hand reached into the pile of names again, mixing through the potential partners. It pulled out the slip of paper in the hope of another absentee. Peter wanted to work on this alone because he didn't want to let others down and drag them down with him. But this time, he wasn't so lucky.
'Oh such Parker luck…'
Peter took a big gulp before he nervously announced, "Um… L-Liz, Allan."
Instantly, her amber eyes fired up once she heard Peter call out her name. From across the classroom, Liz's ear-piercing shriek was heard.
"WAIT. PETEY! Oh no, no, I don't think so. Mrs. Nelson… this must be some mistake!" Liz resisted.
"Not a mistake at all, Ms. Allan. The hat has spoken. You three are a group!" Their teacher proclaimed.
Peter and Liz's eyes quickly glanced at each other before glancing away. They miserably mumbled in unison, "Great…"
…
Later that oh-so-glorious day, Spider-Man quietly 'thwiped' through the tall towers of Manhattan. Being a wanted man, he made sure that he avoided law enforcement at all times. Yet that was the least of his worries.
'Such Parker luck, huh? Isn't it great that I grouped up my ex-girlfriend for this lawyer interview project? Who am I kidding? Liz's gonna kill me. That's not an if either…. Like we haven't even spoken since the break-up, heck, she pretended like I didn't exist till today. But, it's my fault, she needed my help, my support and I left-'
A deafening clang interrupted his thoughts. It came from the infamous neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen.
"Ah, I almost forgot to go there and get pictures. But I seriously gotta tell Jonah to remove my name from those pictures. It hurts than helps…" The web-slinger told himself and swung to the crime scene.
HELL'S KITCHEN
In the meantime, a mysterious figure rushed out of a nearby bank and carried a whole duffle-bag worth of cash on its shoulders. The hooded figure headed into a grim alleyway of the dangerous neighborhood, Hell's Kitchen. He quickly sought for the nearest iron ladder. He eventually found the glorious 'slide-down' ladders and headed up the building.
As soon as the foot landed on the fifth step, he felt a slight tug on his ankle. Then he felt as if someone tightly wrapped their hand around his ankle. Suddenly, his whole body abruptly trembled to the filthy ground. His face met the smelly cement with no cushion. He grimaced at the feeling. But he tried to get back up but felt the presence of something above him. It was like it breathed down on him for his crime. But it wasn't God almighty.
All that was visible were the dark combat boots that stood in front of him. His eyes darted to the sky to see a masked man tower over him. He wore a mask that covered everything on his face except for his mouth. The rest of his outfit was a simple black long sleeve and trousers. But his forearms to his knuckles were wrapped with a stained white cloth. He was the man in black.
"I don't know what you're doing, but it ends now," The Man in Black proclaimed.
He gripped the robber's arm to keep the individual from fleeing. But the individual resisted.
"I'm sorry, but it's not going to end this way," the hooded-figure uttered.
Immediately his armored gauntlets ferociously activated, and his attack began, with a slash, to the Man in Black's chest. He lost grip of the man's arm and defended from the gauntlet's quick attacks. The hooded man unleashed a variety of quick hand to hand attacks, but the Man in Black fought well and unleashed a few of his own. He maintained his ground and landed punches at his chest. But with sturdy metal gauntlets, the punches by the hooded-man caused plenty more damage. Especially a heavy-blow to the jaw which dropped the Man in Black to the ground.
Spider-Man finally arrived at the scene and followed the hooded suspect. The hooded individual flew past the ladders and arrived at the roof. But the Webhead was on his tail.
"Hey, I really can't chase after you all night! I tried doing that yesterday, but I got a curfew, so if you can hand the money over and turn yourself in, we can call it a night," he proposed.
The mysterious man turned around and faced the web-slinger from a distance. His dark appearance blended into the dark sky. Spidey intently focused on this suspect's appearance. Their eyes glowed through the darkness. His dark lavender mask maintained the illusion of stealth with the rest of his dark outfit. But his durable gauntlets shined in the night. 'It's the Prowler.'
"I'd hate to get those fancy gloves dirty."
"And you won't need to," The Prowler proclaimed.
He immediately released smoke pellets near Spider-Man, creating thick smoke that covered him.
Spidey launched himself into the smoke, to find absolutely nobody. He scanned around the whole rooftop, but he was nowhere to be seen. He was gone.
Suddenly, a man appeared behind Spider-Man.
"He got away, huh?"
"Yeah. That kid practically did magic and got away with the money."
He turned around to see The Man in Black.
"I gotta admit, you lasted pretty well for a guy with black pajamas," Spider-Man added.
"Says the kid who swings at night in tight spandex."
"Not bad new guy. Gotta name?"
"Like a superhero name- no-no-no."
"Yeah, if you need ideas, the Bugle and Morning News have dubbed you 'The Mysterious Man in Black' or 'The Devil of Hell's Kitchen.' That one is my favorite."
"I'm no superhero, I'm just a guy… who can't turn a blind eye to injustice in this neighborhood. Especially in my neighborhood. It's my home"
"I respect that," Spidey admitted,
"Look, we should team up and find this guy-"
"Wait, team up? No, no, I'm merely a solo act. The last time I teamed up with someone, it backfired severely. It actually backfired twice… but that's what I get for teaming up with the Rhino. But yeah, I need to do this thing on my own."
"I'm not like them. Plus, we, as a duo, could do some real good in this city… you don't think so?"
"No, this city was in real good shape once the Green Goblin was gone-"
"Was in good shape, past tense. But look at the present tense, this city isn't in peace… Hell's Kitchen is burning before us, and you don't see that?"
"Could be just a gang hit"
"No no. If you smel… saw the way these complexes were burned to ash, you would know there's someone pulling everything. It's like there's something brewing in the criminal underworld, waiting to erupt in this city," the vigilante acknowledged.
"What are you talking about? All the crime bosses in this city, Green Goblin, Silvermane, The Master Planner, and Tombstone, are gone. I took them down, and there are no other crime lords."
"You think Mr. Lincoln had the biggest criminal empire in New York? There's someone bigger-"
"Who? Hammerhead?... if you're talking about the biggest forehead in a criminal empire, then you'd be right."
"Quit joking kid. It's someone bigger than him. I know it"
"L-look Mr. Devil, you seem like a good guy who wants to do the right thing, but I can't drag you down with me… they've turned on me. They don't have to turn on you. But this city is my responsibility… So I'll get to the bottom of this"
The man in black instantly acknowledged, "We live in this city. It's our responsibility-"
"Listen, I'm not a big fan of teaming up, okay? Not anymore at least... sorry," the webhead admitted.
He eyed the cuts on the man's lip and chest.
"You should really get yourself checked out and figure out a name! Then maybe I'll…consider," the webhead acknowledged before he swung away.
'There's someone bigger, I know it,' The Man in Black assured himself, once Spider-Man swung away.
SOMEWHERE IN NEW YORK
Moments passed as the mysterious individual, The Prowler, hustled into a dark neighborhood alley with the stolen money at hand. He huffed and puffed after escaping two vigilantes with a mere scratch. He peeked over to check if there were anymore witnesses. Luckily for him, there was none. Only then, the bright headlights appear out of the neighborhood's darkness as a mysterious matte black vehicle pulled up in front of him.
The windows rolled down to see a clean-cut individual call out to him, "Prowler, get in the car." He did what was told and entered the doors of the large vehicle.
"Sir, the money has been extracted successfully," The clean-cut man assured.
"Excellent, any witnesses this time?" The voice questioned through the phone.
Immediately, the man pulled the phone away from his ear and placed the call on speakerphone. "Kid, were there any witnesses?" He sharply questioned.
The boy nervously gulped, "I'm sorry Mr.-"
"We don't say his name, kid," The man in the clean-cut suit sharply interrupted.
"It's alright, continue," the voice urged.
The kid confessed, "T-There were two. The new guy, the man in black and Spider-Man."
The clean-cut man rolled his eyes at the sound of that. But the man on the phone remained unfazed.
"This is rather unfortunate… but no matter. This is another obstacle, and like the last few months… I have something to handle this obstacle."
The Prowler anxiously asked, "What is it?"
"Be patient, you'll see. Wesley, bring him home. We have plenty ahead of us tomorrow. And I need to remind you, Wesley, the first thing on the agenda: call Mr. Gargan about our appointment in the morning. Then, these vigilantes of New York will be properly handled, starting with Spider-Man," the mysterious voice proclaimed through the phone.
TO BE CONTINUED…