Spider-Man: LOUD Season 1 Chapter 2
"A Sandy Situation"
"Damn!" Lincoln shouted. He was hanging out with Clyde. They were playing some fighting games while snacking on some chips and dip.
"Ah, good games man." Lincoln told his friend as he offered up a fist bump. Clyde gladly accepted the fist bump and got ready to play another match.
"Hey Lincoln?" Clyde had his head down. Lincoln looked over to face Clyde.
"What's up?" Clyde opened his mouth to speak, but stood silent for a moment, almost as if he was deciding if he was pushing boundaries with what he was about to say.
"So, yesterday when you stared off into space, what were you thinking about?" Lincoln knew this question would come up sooner or later, so he decided to just answer honestly.
"Well, uh…you see…" Lincoln's throat got dry, he knew Clyde would ask this question eventually, why is he so nervous? "I uh, saw Girl Jordan, and I um…" Clyde stared at his friend expectantly, "I uh…kinda, have a tiny crush on her." Lincoln finished his sentence getting quieter near the end.
Clyde's eyes lit up with excitement. "That's great buddy! I remember the first time I fell in love!" Clyde started to speak, "It was with Lori wasn't it?" Lincoln interrupted Clyde before he could speak any further.
Clyde paused for a minute, "Uh, nevermind that! So, what do you like about her?"
Lincoln sat and thought for a minute, "Well, I like her can-do attitude, her positivity is very infectious, she's very intelligent, her beauty is unrivaled, I love the way her braided ponytail swings as she walks, and her laugh is just…I love it." Lincoln gets a little more sentimental as he says that last part. Clyde stares at his friend, proud at his confession.
"Jordan is a great girl, I always kind of thought you two would be cute together." Clyde admitted.
Lincoln's eyes widened as he was taken aback, "R-really?" Clyde doesn't speak, he just simply nods. "Oh, well…that's good to know I have someone egging me on." Lincoln continues.
They get back to playing the game, both players pick their characters and start the match. Clyde starts off with a long combo string that brings Lincoln down to a quarter of his health.
"You used to be a lot better at this game, what happened?" Clyde asks his white-haired friend.
"I stopped playing for a little bit, I just had…other obligations to tend to first." Lincoln admitted.
"Like what?" Clyde asked, Lincoln froze for a second.
"Shit! Did I just talk myself into a corner? Is there a way I can tell him I'm NOT Spider-Man? Think Loud think!" Lincoln thought to himself. "Well…I'm gonna be the oldest sibling in the house soon, with Lynn leaving for college in a couple weeks…"
Clyde kept listening to his friend more interested in the conversation they were having than the game, "...I just wanted to know what it was like, y'know…the responsibility." Lincoln finished his excuse, Clyde seemed satisfied with that answer.
Deep inside of an Oscorp facility located in Royal Woods big things were happening. A man with orange hair walked up to a wall of glass. He looked over to the man on his left and nodded. The other man had thick glasses and black hair, he was wearing a lab coat. He pushed a button, and from within the glass a man was revealed to be bound to the wall with locks. The man was Flint Marko, the criminal Spider-Man had taken down last night. He started to awaken.
"W-what the hell? Where the hell am I?!" Flint shouted at the top of his lungs, fearing for his life.
"Stay calm, we needn't hurt you." The man with the lab coat expressed.
"Then why the hell you got me locked up in some cage?!" He continued to shout, he was not letting up for them.
"Flint Marko I assume? It's great to meet you. My name is Norman Osborn." The man with orange hair stated.
Flint got a confused look on his face, "Osborn? The creator of Oscorp? What the hell do you need a small-time crook like me for?"
Norman looked at Flint, "I have a proposal for you. One I'm sure you'll enjoy."
Flint stayed silent, listening in for the next tidbit of information. "You fought Spider-Man last night at approximately 11:23 PM yesterday, you also fought him 4 more times within the last 3 months." Norman had addressed the thing Flint hated the most, Spider-Man.
He got an angry look on his face. "Yeah, so what? I got a history with the spider, you gonna mock me from that high horse you're sitting on?" Flint said this in a louder tone, not shouting, but louder than an inside voice a teacher would tell you to use.
"Me and my assistant are not here to mock you in any way, we need you for something, and seeing as you've had a few run-ins with Spider-Man in the past you seem like the best person for the job." Norman turned to look at his assistant, "Otto, bring him closer." The man named Otto pulled a lever on his control panel and brought Flint closer to the glass dividing the room.
"We're offering you a chance at redemption against Spider-Man. We'll let you fight him without any police involvement whatsoever. Just you and him, alone."
Flint looked angrier than before, "And what, get my ass kicked again? I'm not stupid, he's just gonna use his stupid powers against me again!"
Flint expressed to Norman what his biggest pet peeve with Spider-Man was, his powers. If things were just a little different, if Spider-Man didn't have his fancy powers, or if he had had powers instead of Spider-Man, he could have been a millionaire off of robberies by now.
"You won't fail this time, because you'll have superpowers too." Norman dropped this bombshell on Flint.
He looked at Norman quizzically, "How so?"
A grin grew across Norman's face.
The same day in English class Lincoln sat down to prepare for the lesson that was going to be taught that day, when he heard a familiar voice next to him, "Hey Lincoln."
He knew that voice all too well, he turned to see Girl Jordan setting down her school supplies and sitting down in the seat next to him.
"Girl Jordan? Since when were you in this class?" Lincoln said in a surprised tone.
The last time he'd had Girl Jordan in one of his classes was in Freshman year in their Math class. Girl Jordan looks at Lincoln and smiles, "I got transferred to this class. I started overperforming in my last English class, so they sent me here…"
she lightly bumped Lincoln's arm with her elbow, "...guess that means we're just too much of a smarty pants to be in the other class huh?" Lincoln smiled, Jordan genuinely made him happy, that smile, that damn smile.
"Yeah, you could say that, I mean Lisa's tutoring definitely helped up my grades."
Jordan smiled, "Oh, yeah Lisa is kind of a genius isn't she?" She wasn't wrong, the now 9 year old Lisa had an IQ of 235, which was a very impressive feat.
"She takes education pretty seriously, after all, education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or self-confidence." Lincoln stated.
Jordan looked at Lincoln with a slightly open mouth, "Robert Frost, I love Robert Frost." Jordan had gotten Lincoln's quoting.
He looks to her "I-me too, my sister Lucy talks about him all the time, how he was too great for his generation," he looks to the left "...whatever that means."
Jordan giggles at Lincoln's comment. "I didn't know you were into poetry Lincoln, that's…so sweet." Jordan says the last part in a more sweet tone, a red blush appearing on her cheeks as she looks away from Lincoln.
"Now's your chance Lincoln! You have something in common! Ask her to hang out! Or, just do something, anything!" Lincoln thought loudly to himself, "I-uh…maybe…we…uh…" Lincoln stutters "ANYTHING BUT THAT YOU OAF!" Lincoln mentally facepalms.
Jordan stares at Lincoln with a bewildered smile on her face, "If you're asking me to hang out sometime, then it's a yes." Jordan tells him.
"Damn, she understood that? I don't even think I understood that." Lincoln again mentally facepalms. Both teenagers then turn to the front of the class to begin their lesson.
In that same Oscorp facility, deep underground lies a testing room. Layed out similarly to the room Flint Marko was given his offer in. Now, Flint stands in a glass tube with cardiac event monitors strapped to his now bare chest. Norman Osborn and Otto Octavius stood on the other side of the glass that again separated them from Flint.
"So, this thing is supposed to give me superpowers right? So I can finally get back at Spider-Man?" Flint asked with a slight hint of worry in his voice.
"Correct, you'll not only be freeing yourself of Spider-Man, but you'll also be helping out the sales for Oscorp's home security systems." Norman states his true reason for offering Flint superpowers.
Flint looks at Norman with a hint of anger in his eyes, "So that's what this is really about? To make more money for your already rich ass?" Flint started to get furious, "Get me out of here! If it ain't makin' me money why should I care?!" Flint started shouting.
Norman looked at Otto and nodded. Otto pushed a button on the control panel in front of him. Giant fans started up, tons of machinery started buzzing and whirring.
"Hey! What the hell is this?! Did you not hear me? Get me out of here!" Flint keeps shouting for his freedom, but to no alas.
The glass tube he's in starts glowing, electricity starts shooting into Flint's body, giving him the most painful experience in his life, "GHAAAAAAHAHHH!" Flint starts screaming in pain, his body starts bubbling, it feels as if he's being torn apart. And finally, he explodes into a giant pile of sand.
The machine cools down, and eventually comes to a stop. Norman and Otto examine the pile of sand where Flint Marko used to stand.
"Well, there will be other test subjects." Norman turns around to leave before hearing the sand shift. He turns around to face the sand transforming into Flint.
"I'll do your stupid chore for you." Flint turns to sand and flies through the holes in the glass wall, he turns back into Flint and walks up to Norman, "But I ain't doin' it for you." Flint sticks his finger into Norman's chest.
"You said there'd be no police interference right?" Flint asked, Norman nodded.
"Just to make things that much easier, I'll pay off the cops so you can get your revenge." Flint turns to sand and flies through the ventilation shaft before exiting Oscorp, and flying through the city as a breeze of sand in the wind.
Lincoln decided to catch a ride with his family in Vanzilla after school today. During the ride home Lana was scrolling through her news feed on her phone.
She leaned over to Lincoln "Look! Spider-Man stopped another burglary last night!" Lana beamed at Lincoln. Lana was a huge Spider-Man fan, probably the biggest one in not only the Loud family, but also Royal Woods as a whole. Lincoln looked over at the security camera footage on her phone. It showed Spider-Man webbing up Flint and putting the bag of jewelry back, before webbing him to a lamppost.
"Spider-Man is so cool! I wish I could meet him just once! It wouldn't even have to be him saving me, I just wanna tell him how cool he is." Lana expresses her love of Spider-Man.
Lincoln smiles, "I'm sure he already knows." Lincoln said in a sweeter tone than normal.
"Wicked." A voice from behind them comes through, Lana jumps before looking behind her, Lincoln however just turns.
Lucy Loud had been watching the security camera footage over their shoulders. Lucy was 13 now, she wore a black skirt that reached the top of her knees, white knee high socks, black slip on shoes, a black and white striped long sleeve shirt, she had black hair that was tied up in a ponytail, but undone it would reach around upper back, it was tied up using a hair clip that resembled a bat, she had her bangs so long that it covered both of her eyes.
"Lucy, don't scare us like that!" Lana complained to her older goth sister.
"Lincoln wasn't scared." Lucy replied.
"I already knew you were there." Lincoln said.
"How? She was as quiet as a ghost." Lana asked while looking at Lincoln quizzically, Lucy joined in on this quizzical look, although you couldn't see her eyes, you could tell she had one of her eyebrows raised.
"Just, call it an older brother's intuition. Like how Lori knew who ate her leftovers." Lincoln was of course lying. He really knew this because of his Spider-Sense, a power that allowed him to detect danger, he didn't necessarily see Lucy as dangerous, and his Spider-Sense didn't ring to alert him of Lucy, his Spider-Sense is just an ever present field of detection that allows him to see in practically every direction at once.
Upon arriving home, the Louds were greeted by the mother Rita Loud. She worked from home nowadays, since she was a journalist she could just email and text her reports to her coworkers and bosses.
Lynn went to her bedroom to workout, Lisa went to her bedroom to do some experiments, Lana and Lola sat down on the couch to watch some TV, Lily went to the kitchen to do her homework, and Lincoln stopped in the middle of walking to the stairs, it was a text from Stella, asking him if he wanted to hang with the group tomorrow, he quickly responded with a positive, before Lucy walked in front of him. He looked up from his phone to his 4 foot 11 inches (1.49 meters) tall little sister.
"What's up Luce?" he asked.
Lucy started twiddling her thumbs, and biting her lip, before she spoke, "So…me and Haiku were wondering if you wanted to come to a poetry reading with us on Sunday…" Lucy looked nervous, she seemed like she knew he'd say no. This clearly meant a lot to her.
"...I mean, me and Haiku are planning on reading some stuff too…if you don't wanna come you don't have to, we were just…wondering." Lucy looked so nervous she'd cry.
Lincoln smiled and put his hand on her head, "Yeah, I'll be there. And don't be nervous. You guys are gonna do great, you have enough experience writing poetry that you'll blow everyone out of the water." Lincoln gave a reassuring head pat to his goth sister.
She looked up to him, looking him in the eyes for the first time since this interaction started, and smiled. "Thanks Lincoln…I really appreciate it." A little moment of silence befell the two as Lincoln took his hand off of Lucy's head.
"Guys look!" Lana shouted from the couch, she pointed to the TV, on it there was a giant creature made of sand terrorizing the bank, but no police were showing up.
"What the hell." Lincoln whispered to himself. Everyone's attention turned to the TV.
"Hey Lincoln…" Lucy turned to address her brother, only to find him missing.
In downtown Royal Woods the bank was being robbed, a giant sand creature was breaking everything and taking all of the money. Spider-Man swung in and landed on a lamppost just outside of the bank.
He spotted the sand creature "Hey Sandy Cheeks you're supposed to only withdraw your cash, not other peoples!" Spider-Man quipped, the sand creature turned around and lunged at Spider-Man, he leapt off the lamppost to avoid the first attack, but then got smacked by a second attack that predicted his evasion route.
Spider-Man landed on the road and looked up, the sand creature flew in front of him and landed on the ground, and it morphed into none other than Flint Marko.
His eyes widened in surprise, "Happy to see me again so soon?" Flint Remarked.
"Flint, what happened, who did this to you?!" Spider-Man questioned Flint but to no avail.
"Flint Marko is dead! I'm the Sandman now!" The newly named Sandman enlarged his fist to make a bigger weapon, he went to smash it down on Spider-Man, before he jumped out of the way.
Spider-Man went for a punch in the face only for it to be caught by the sand. He then crouched down and did a leg sweep, obliterating the lower legs of Sandman, causing him to fall to the ground, Spider-Man went for an overhead kick to the head only for Sandman to flatten to the ground shift behind Spider-Man. He slammed his foot into the road causing it to crack around his foot, he turned around to face Sandman and sent a fist straight through his torso, only for it to be stuck inside.
He tries pulling and pulling but to no use.
"Oh…that's not good…" He remarked. Sandman's fist became a larger version of itself, Spider-Man looked Sandman in the eyes, Sandman punched Spider-Man and sent him flying into a car.
He gets up to see Sandman approaching him menacingly. "Sand sand sand, think! What does sand not like?" He thought for a second only for his head to drift to one place, "Water." He finished his train of thought and started swinging away from Sandman.
"Oh you ain't gettin' away that easy!" Sandman turns back into a gust of sand flowing through the wind, chasing after Spider-Man. They soon arrive at the Royal Woods lakeside beach. Spider-Man gets caught in the leg by Sandman catching up to him.
He falls off of his web and lands on the rough coarse sand, "Ugh, I hate sand." Spider-Man remarks as he stands up.
Sandman forms back into a human shape as Spider-Man picks up his arm and gestures for Sandman to come closer. Sandman leaps toward Spider-Man only for him to evade to the side and for Sandman to fall into the water of the lake. He turns into mud, unable to hold himself together.
"No! No! No! This was supposed to be my turn to win!" Sandman melts into the lake, now one with mother nature. Spider-Man pulls his phone out of his pocket to realize that it's 7 PM, and that he should be home soon.
Back at the Loud Residence everyone is getting ready for bed. Spider-Man sticks to the wall and crawls around, he stops by Lucy's bedroom, to see her relaxing on her bed wearing a black nightgown that went to her knees, she was reading a book by Mark Twain. He crawls further to his bedroom window and crawls through. He takes off his Spider-Man suit and changes into his normal attire, he goes out of his bedroom to sneak to the bathroom. He opens the door, no one out in the hallway.
He makes very quiet steps to the bathroom before "Lincoln!" A high pitched voice comes from the stairwell, he looks over to see his blonde little sister Lola standing in the stairway.
"Uh, hey Lola, what's up?" Lincoln tried acting nonchalantly to not stir up any drama.
Lola rushes over to Lincoln "What's up? Linky you disappeared!" Lola expressed concern over her big brother. She may not show it, but she really does care for Lincoln and her other siblings.
"Oh that, I just got really thirsty and rushed out to get something to drink!" Lincoln lied. Lola pouted, "Lincoln, you know I won't fall for that." He started sweating. "You're so mysterious Linky, just please don't do this again, we love you. I'm only letting you off the hook this once." Lola let go of Lincoln.
"Thanks, good night." Lincoln continued to the bathroom, as Lola watched on.
To be continued in Season 1 Chapter 3…