Spider-Man: LOUD Season 1 Chapter 3
"A Delightful Day"
Norman Osborn sat at his desk, his computer in front of him. He had pulled up the news article about Spider-Man stopping the Sandman. He takes a sip from his glass of alcohol. He sets down the glass and closes the browser tab. He pushes a button on his desk.
"Otto, I require your presence." He speaks into the device on his desk.
A couple minutes later Otto Octavius enters the room. "Yes Mr. Osborn?" Otto speaks in a firm tone.
"Are you aware that our 'Sandman' here has failed?" Norman informs Otto in an authoritarian tone.
Otto nods, "Yes Mr. Osborn." Otto replies, getting slightly nervous.
Norman gets up from his desk and walks over to a table that holds more alcoholic drinks on it. He pours himself a new glass and swirls it around in his hand. "Which means you failed. This was your idea, and you know what I do with failures." Norman tells Otto threateningly. Otto gulps and takes a step back.
Norman walks toward Otto, "I know, I'll fix it. We'll just get more test subjects." Otto replies hastily.
"You better. Because if your next subject doesn't get rid of our arachnid problem…" Norman pauses, he leans in to Otto getting closer, "You'll be the next one." He finishes his sentence, walking away from Otto. "Now get out of my sight, I have more work to do."
Otto gulps, he quickly and quietly leaves the room, leaving Norman by himself. He walks over to his computer and sits down, he sends confirmation to his lab to start production on a new physical enhancement drug, one by the name of Globulin Green.
The next day on Saturday Lincoln and his group of friends were hanging out at Gus's Games and Grub. "Y'know, I'm surprised that after all this time Gus's is still the place we choose to hang." Stella comments.
"Gus's or not, the best part is at the end of the week, being able to hang out with my best buds." Lincoln stated before taking a bite of a slice of pizza.
"Couldn't have said it better myself." Rusty says while playfully shoving into Lincoln. They continued eating pizza and pretty much anything that was on the menu. At one point Rusty and Lincoln had a pizza eating competition, to see who could eat the most pizza the fastest. Lincoln had ended up being the victor, his appetite had significantly shot up since he became Spider-Man, maybe to even rival Lynn's.
"Hoo boy, how do you keep the weight off?" Liam expressed happiness for his friend for winning.
Lincoln looked at Liam with a smile, whipping some pizza sauce off of his bottom lip, "I workout, you know, eat your green vegetables." Lincoln expressed.
"Darn tootin!" Liam grabs a celery stick and dips it in some ranch "My momma tells me all the time!"
About an hour later all of Lincoln's friends were at the game stations. Liam and Zach were playing Skeeball, Clyde and Lincoln were on Dance Dance Revolution, and Stella and Rusty were on Whack-a-Mole. "Great dancing buddy!" Clyde expressed to his friend, they had just finished a game.
"Thanks, I'm gonna hit the showers real quick." Lincoln hops off the DDR machine and strolls over to the bathroom, when opening the door a familiar tingling sensation befalls him, he looks around with a confused expression. "Here? Of all places? Now?" Lincoln thought with such confusion, who would attack a place like Gus's games and Grub? He entered the bathroom to change. Just then a large armored truck pulled up to Gus's Games and Grub. Most people stopped what they were doing and looked out the window at the truck. They watched as armed men with full body armor came piling out of the truck and made their way to the front entrance.
Stella gathers all of her friends together aside from Lincoln. "Guys, where's Lincoln?" Stella whispers to all of them.
"He told me he was going to the bathroom." Clyde whispered back, in a worried tone. Just then the armed men burst through the door, "Start the search, don't leave until he shows up." One of them barked orders to the others.
Everyone's hearts started racing, they wondered what was going on, "no one leaves until who shows up?" Was a thought that went through all of their minds.
"Hey what do you think-" Gus came to stop the men charging into his restaurant before getting knocked to the floor by the butt end of a rifle, the man aimed his gun at Gus ready to fire, before Spider-Man burst through the front door and knocked him away and webbed him to the ground.
"Everybody run! I'll cover you!" Spider-Man shouted out to everyone. Most of everyone started running out the back entrance, except for Stella who was frozen in fear. Spider-Man turned to face the left over men, "Okay so here's the plan, I'm gonna jump and kick you, then I'm gonna backflip over that guy, punch you in the face, then you're gonna start shooting at me, I'm gonna dodge the bullets, web your gun, make a really funny joke, everybody will laugh, then I'm gonna throw your gun back at you, and finally I'll web you, and then throw you to the other side of the building, is everyone tuned in? Because I am NOT repeating myself." Spider-Man quipped.
Spider-Man then did a flying kick to the man in front of him, he then did a backflip over the guy in front of him, he punched the guy to the left of him in the face, the man further away started firing at him, but he dodged all of the bullets and webbed his fun and threw it back at him, he then turned around and webbed one of the guys to the wall, and then threw the last guy to the other side of the building. He stood there accomplished.
"Y'know I'm honestly surprised that that worked, I told you guys exactly what I was gonna do. AH, but I missed the quip, guys can we start over?" He looked to everyone on the floor and webbed to the walls, "Guys? Okay, we'll try again later I guess." He turned around and saw Stella still standing there, just then the man he knocked over when swinging got back up and held Stella at gunpoint.
"Stella!" Spider-Man gasped to himself, his lenses widening at the thought of one his best friends dying.
"Go on Spider-Man! Get close and this girl dies!" The man yelled to Spider-Man. Stella's eyes were paralyzed with fear, she stood frozen while the man held her from behind. She looked to Spider-Man with tears forming in her eyes, her eyes begging him to save her.
"I don't need to get close." Spider-Man whispered to himself. Spider-Man shot a web to the man's gun pointed at Stella's head and pulled, pulling the man and his gun toward Spider-Man, he then ran to the man and kicked him directly in the gut, putting him to his knees, Spider-Man then elbowed him the back of the head, knocking him unconscious.
Spider-Man walked up to Stella, looking her in the eyes and gently holding her arms, "Ste-ma'am, are you alright?" He catches himself before blowing his cover. Stella looks at Spider-Man and hugs him tight. He stands there for a second, "I mean, I won't turn down physical affection." He returns the hug, rubbing his hand across her back, feeling the bump on her upper back where the hook to her bra lies.
He clears his throat, "So, are you okay now?"
She opens her eyes and lets go of him, "Uh yeah, sorry, I just thought I could y'know, repay you for um, saving my life." Stella stuttered out.
"No no, you're fine. Honestly it's the most affection I've received since I started doing this." Spider-Man jokes, this was a lie, he'd been kissed on the cheek before, but that's about the extent of what people were willing to show for him. Stella chuckled at his little joke, starting to feel a little bit better, but only a little bit. "You should probably get out." He tells her. She nods and awkwardly shuffles past him and out the door.
He leaves shortly after checking if everyone he knocked out was still breathing, he hurt people, but he didn't want to kill them, he never wanted to take someone away from their family, because he believed that everyone has at least one person they could go to for help, or someone who loves them.
Stella walks out to her friends, hugging all of them, "Are you okay?" This and many other questions sprang up at Stella when coming back to her friends.
"Guys, I'm fine, I'm fine! Spider-Man saved me." Stella admits to her friends.
"Spider-Man saved you! Did you get to talk to him?!" Rusty freaked out, Rusty much like a lot of other people was a mega Spider-Man fan.
"I guess, it was mostly him talking and me awkwardly nodding to what he said." Stella claimed.
"That's still talking to him!" Rusty said, grabbing Stella's shoulders.
"Woah, hey there partner, I think you're taking this a little too far." Liam said, lightly grabbing Rusty and pulling him off of Stella.
"Yeah, sorry, my bad Stell, I just got really excited." Rusty rubbed the back of his neck lightly.
"You're fine." She replied putting her hands up in a no offense gesture.
Just then, Lincoln runs up to his friends, "Hey guys, that was pretty scary huh?" Lincoln points a thumb back to the building.
"Lincoln? Were you in the bathroom that entire time?!" Clyde asked, shaking his friend.
"Uh, yeah?" Lincoln said, unsure if that's the excuse he should use.
"Lincoln you could've been hurt! Or, or worse!" Clyde pulled out a brown paper bag and started hyperventilating into it.
Lincoln put a hand on his friend's shoulder and took the paper bag down, "Hey, but I wasn't, I'm still here, and I'm still alive." Lincoln reassured his friend. Lincoln took his hand off Clyde's shoulder and looked back at the damage to the store front of Gus's games and grub. He frowned, upset to see his favorite hang out spot ruined. One question still remained in his head though, why would someone do this? To Gus's Games and Grub of all places?
Around 30 minutes had passed before Lincoln's family had come to pick him up. He insisted over the phone that he could just walk home, but his mom and dad refused and came with his siblings to pick him up anyways.
Lincoln sat on a bench in the parking lot of Gus's Games and Grub when he heard a familiar voice call out "My baby!" He turned to his left to find his mother, father, younger siblings, and Lynn running toward him. He immediately gets adorned with kisses and hugs from his parents and siblings.
"Are you okay? Please tell me you're okay!" His mom asks hastily.
"I'm fine! I'm fine!" He responds while trying to push the hugs and kisses off of him.
"Thank goodness you're okay son, I wouldn't wanna be the only man of the house." His dad said lightly jabbing his son's side with his elbow.
"Lincoln please stay safer! I don't want to lose my only brother!" Lana pleaded.
"Guys, I'm okay, nothing bad happened to me, besides Spider-Man showed up and saved the day." Lincoln said to calm his siblings. Lucy didn't calm however, she looked on at Lincoln, not speaking, or moving.
Just outside of Royal Woods someone was driving into town, they'd just picked up illegal cargo from outside of the state and were bringing it into state. "Yeah, I'll be home soon baby, don't worry. I love you, I'll see you soon." He hung up the phone call. Along his drive he came across a checking station. He stopped his car and rolled down his window.
"Name and ID sir." The Guard at the station ordered.
"Adrian Tombs" The man said, handing the guard his ID. The guard inspected his ID, handing it back.
"Why's there a station here? There isn't normally one." Adrian questioned.
"We've heard about people smuggling illegal cargo into the state, so we're here to prevent that." Answered the guard.
"In Royal Woods? That's uncommon." Adrian responded.
"You'd be surprised, crime rates have really skyrocketed." The Guard stated. Adrian said nothing, he just nodded his head. "You're good to go." The Guard continued. Adrian drove off, into Royal Woods.
Along his drive he stopped by a warehouse. He parked out front and got out of his car, going to the trunk of his car he pulled out a portable cooler. Wheeling it inside of the warehouse he pulled it on top of a table, opening it. He digs through the contents of ice, and half drinken water, and soda bottles to get to the illegal technology he'd smuggled into the state. "Oh yeah, these are gonna sell for a fortune." He said to himself.
"They sure are." Said a man in the shadows. Adrian turns around hastily.
"Who's there?" He shouts.
"Calm yourself, I'm just here to do business." Out of the darkness steps Norman Osborn.
"Norman Osborn? What are you doing here? How'd you find me?" Adrian questions.
"I have my ways. Now it's time for my question." Norman puts his hands behind his back and puts his hands together. "How'd you like to make a bigger profit than what you're used to?" Adrian gained a quizzical look, as Norman gained a smirk.
Back at the Loud House Lincoln had just gotten out of the shower. He was in his bedroom, he had gray sweatpants on, his shirtless chest exposed. He heard a knock on his door before it opened, he looked over to find Lucy opening his door, she catches a glimpse of his shirtless chest and quickly closes the door, "Sorry!" She mutters.
"You're fine, you can come in." He says. Lucy opens the door again, she enters his cramped linen closet bedroom. She wears a tight black tank top with white and black pajama pants.
"Um…how are you?" She asks.
"I'm fine. You?" He responds.
"I'm…good." She pauses for a brief second, almost as if she's thinking about what to say. She looks up to Lincoln, "Are you…um…still coming to mine and Haiku's poetry reading tomorrow?" She asks nervously, she twiddles her thumbs again.
Lincoln looks down at his goth sister. "Of course, I wouldn't break that promise." Lincoln says. Lucy gains a slight smile, "T-thanks Lincoln. I'm just so nervous because I know we always had different interests and I know you're always busy, and-" She gets cut off by Lincoln placing his hand on her bare shoulder.
"Hey, it's gonna be okay, I'll make it work out." Lincoln says with a reassuring smile. Lucy looks up at her brother, she pulls him into a hug, her face pressed against his bare muscular chest. "You should probably head to bed now." He says.
Lucy breaks the hug, "Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow, good night."
Lucy starts to walk off, "Good night Luce." Lincoln says with a wave. Lucy doesn't normally show such affection toward people, but with Lincoln it was a different case. He had always been there for her, and it was nice to know that he still is.
Lincoln closes his bedroom door and turns off his light, lying down in bed for a good night's rest. The thoughts of what happened at Gus's still plaguing his mind. "What would've happened if I didn't save Stella? Would she have…would she have…" He can't even stomach thinking of that last word. "Should I be more careful? I mean, they were there because of me right? If I had been more careful maybe that wouldn't have happened…who knows?" and with that final thought Lincoln finally drifts off to sleep.
To be continued in Season 1 Chapter 4…