Spider-Man: LOUD Season 1 Chapter 4
"The Avian Adversary"
Sunday had come faster than expected. Lucy was currently just out of the shower, she wore black tights with black knee high boots, a black skirt that reached to her lower thigh, and a white and black striped shirt, she had her nails painted black, and had her hair down. She walked down the stairs and sat down on the couch alongside her younger sister Lana.
"Where's Lincoln? He should be going to my poetry reading with me and Haiku." Lucy asked her sister.
"He'll meet you there, said he had to drop something off at Clyde's house first." She responded, sounding completely uninterested.
After a few minutes they heard a knock on the door, Lucy got up and opened it to find her best friend Haiku standing on her porch. She wore a black and red plaid skirt that reached her knees, black knee high socks with black calf-high boots, and a black and red corset top with a black undershirt that covered all of her exposed areas.
"Hey Lucy." She greeted. "I love your nails." Lucy responded in a dead tone of voice. Haiku had painted her nails a blood red color. "Thanks, I painted them red after the blood of my enemies." She responded. Haiku looked around the inside of the house's living room, "Where's Lincoln? I thought he was coming with us." She asked. "He'll meet us there, he has to do something real quick." The girls left and started to make their way towards the poetry reading they were attending.
"Sir I don't understand the point of endangering a bunch of kids like that!" Dr. Octavius stated. He was currently talking to Norman Osborn in his office inside of Oscorp tower.
"Of course you don't Otto, you don't understand my genius." Norman responded.
"Why would you purposefully put children in danger like that?" Otto questioned. Norman looked down at Otto, "You see Otto, what you fail to understand is the target age demographic of the building we shot up. The target demographic is children between the ages of 10 and 18, and bringing in how quickly Spider-Man showed up to the scene this means he was already in the area or inside of the building when we got there. Considering his build and height, the most logical conclusion is that Spider-Man is most likely a high schooler." Norman stated in a high and mighty tone, proud of his research results.
Otto seemed appalled at this, "Norman, you could have killed innocent children!" Norman turns around, no longer facing Otto.
"It's all worth it in the long run. If our avian friend fails today then we'll need all of the research we can get." That's all Norman says, before shooing Otto out of his office.
Lucy and Haiku had just arrived at their poetry reading, it was a place called the Burnt Bean. It was in a more shy part of town, just down from the bigger part of Royal Woods. Lincoln stood just outside, scrolling through social media apps on his phone.
"Hey Lincoln." Lucy greets. Lincoln looks up from his phone and sees the two, Lincoln is wearing a dark gray undershirt with an orange button up shirt that's been unbuttoned, with dark blue jeans, and white and red running shoes.
"Hey girls, you excited?" Lincoln asks the goth girls as he puts his cell phone in his back pocket.
"I'm so happy I could die." Haiku states with a monotone voice, the expression on her face as blank as a brand new white board. He just stares at her, confused.
"Alright then." Lincoln says still unsure if she was joking. He opens the door to the building and lets the two girls in, before following inside himself.
Upon entering Lincoln was surrounded by a feeling of estrangement. Everyone in the building was either goth, or alt. Even though he was the only non-goth person there, he felt strangely welcome, and very home. The Burnt Bean was a smaller cafe and poetry place, with a darker interior aesthetic, making it feel super cozy.
He followed his younger sister and her friend over to a booth at the side of the entrance. Lucy and Haiku sat at one side while Lincoln sat at the opposing side.
"Feeling nervous?" Lucy asked him. Lincoln's eyes shot towards his sisters.
"No, why?" He asked.
"Because you're fidgeting, and you're looking all over the place." She states blatantly.
Lincoln's eyes widened in a surprised expression. "You noticed that?" He asks.
"It was hard not to notice." Haiku chimes in. They all turn their attention to the opposite side of the cafe, where a counter sits, a barista taking orders.
"Hey, you girls want something to drink?" Lincoln asks as he points over to the order counter.
"A Bloody Mary please." Haiku responds, "Make that two." Lucy adds. Lincoln nods then stands up walking over to the line in front of the order counter.
"Catherine Mulligan here, I'm standing in downtown Royal Woods," Lincoln's attention was drawn to a small TV in the corner of the room behind the barista's counter. "Where a winged creature has just been spotted flying around. As it seems to be a human person."
Lincoln couldn't believe his eyes, he was really seeing a human being fly around in some sort of bird costume. "Has the world gone mad?" He whispers to himself, noticing the irony in the statement that Spider-Man is questioning a guy flying around in a bird costume, just days after fighting a guy made entirely out of sand.
He looks behind him, seeing that Lucy and Haiku's attention was drawn towards their cell phones, he looks to the front entrance. He pauses, unsure if what he's about to do is the right thing. He looks back at the TV, then back at Lucy and Haiku, before looking back at the door.
"Sorry girls, but I have to do this." He says to himself.
In Downtown Royal Woods Adrian Tombs flew around, in search of Spider-Man. His giant metal winged backpack gives him the ability to fly. His full face jet pilot mask supplies oxygen no matter where he is in the atmosphere. And giant sharp metal talons on the bottom of his feet, making him taller, and supplies him with an extra weapon.
"If the stupid bug won't show up now, then…" He looks down at an unsuspecting woman walking down the street, "Bingo." He flies down and grabs her with his giant metal talons, flying her super high into the air.
"If he ignores someone in danger, then he's not the hero he claims to be!" He exclaims.
Deep down, Adrian didn't want to hurt this woman, he would never actually drop her, he just assumes the best course of action when trying to get Spider-Man's attention would be to put someone in danger. He releases one of his talons, the woman screams in fear. Just as Vulture is about to give up on this plan he gets a sharp pain jolting through his lower back, as he gets sent forward, the woman disappearing. He halts his momentum and turns around, seeing Spider-Man dive down and catch the woman before hitting the ground. He goes to the sidewalk and puts her down carefully.
"You okay?" Spider-Man asks the woman. She nods, he leaps to the building and runs up the side of the building, Adrian flies toward him, stopping before hitting the building.
"Hey pal, what's the big idea endangering innocent people like that?!" Spider-Man shouts at the flying man.
"Simple, to get your attention." Adrian flies toward Spider-Man, who has a confused look on his face via Adrians words. Spider-Man Leaps up the building, Adrian swoops up, having predicted Spider-Man's next move, and turns upside down, his talons facing Spider-Man.
The webbed superheroes eye lenses widen in surprise, he shrinks down, barely avoiding his winged opponents attack. He lands back on the side of the building. The sky seems to have gotten darker at that moment. He sits there for a moment, watching the large bird themed villain swoop back around and dive bomb towards him. Spider-Man jumps off the building and goes to shoot a web, before his Spider-Sense starts going off like crazy, he looks up to see Adrian directly above him, about to grab him with his large metal talons.
He knows he can't do anything about this, but still tries to think frantically. He's caught in his opponent's grasp, pain shoots through his body as the sharp metal closes quickly across back, sides, and stomach. Adrian flies up quickly, Spider-Man in his grasp.
Lucy still sits with Haiku at their booth. "Do you know where Lincoln went? He's been grabbing those drinks for too long." Lucy asks. Haiku looks her friend in the eyes and shrugs, "I don't know, maybe he had to go to the bathroom." Lucy starts fidgeting, she looks around the rest of the cafe to see if she can spot her brother, but to no avail.
The hero tries to break free of the talons grasp, he grabs the talons and pries them apart, he drops from the avian man's grab.
"Okay, okay, okay, this is getting crazy!" he says as he drops. He shoots a web toward a building and swings to the top of it. He sits for a second, before quickly jumping to his right, his enemy landing harshly next to him. He looks at the large metal bird.
"Who are you?" He asks, slightly out of breath. The bird man looks down at the crouched down Spider-Man.
"I'm the Vulture." Thunder is heard, rain starts to fall, sky has gotten much darker, clouds cover all of the previous sunlight.
"Nice name, a little tacky, but I have nowhere to speak." He says this in a slightly shaky tone, clearly afraid of his adversary. He jumps up as the Vulture flies toward him. Spider-Man shoots a web that snags the back piece of his wing pack. He zips to the Vulture, landing on his back, they fly off together Adrian flying as recklessly as possible to try and shake off Spider-Man.
"Ha! I fly as dangerously as you please! I won't slip!" Spider-Man boasts this, before a piece of the wing pack he was gripping onto breaks off, making Spider-Man fall off with it. He quickly zips to the side of a building, still holding the piece of broken equipment. His Spider-Sense once again starts blaring, he turns around to see Vulture slam into his side, pushing him through the glass on the building, all he felt at that moment was a blunt pain on his side via Vulture smashing into him, and a sharp pain in the rest of his body via the glass shards cutting him open and sticking inside of him.
He flies through the building, Vulture pushing him through. He flies through the other side, getting cut and impaled on the glass that lied on the other side of the building, and the glass that lied there prior getting pushed in deeper. He'd never felt pain such as this. Vulture shoved him off and while still airborne, sliced down Spider-Man's chest with his giant metal wing.
Spider-Man went flying to the wall that was across the alleyway they were above, slamming into it, then falling 20 feet onto an industrial trash bin, and then onto the hard concrete floor. The Vulture looked on at the job he'd done, convinced Spider-Man was dead, he flew off.
Lucy walked up to the stage, ready to start reading her poem, she looked to the booth where Haiku sat, still not seeing her brother, she exhales deeply as her eyes drop. She feels twinges of tears forming in her eyes, but she forces them back, before grabbing the microphone and starting her poem.
Spider-Man lied on the pavement, agonizing pain coursing through his entire body. "So…cold…" He was deep in though, "The rain….how…how long has it been raining?" He kept still, trying not to move to increase the pain.
"Is this what it feels like to die?" He kept thinking, "I…don't want to die yet…I…Lucy…I need to see Lucy…I need to see her poetry reading…I…I…" He fell unconscious mid thought.
Lucy had finished her reading, the people in the audience clapped. She left the stage and went to Haiku. "Lucy that was beau-" Haiku started to speak only to be cut off.
"Let's go." Lucy said, "What?" That was all Haiku could say, "I said let's go, I don't feel like being here anymore." Lucy walked past Haiku, and all her friend could do was look on at her.
An hour and a half later Spider-Man awakens, the pain has become better, but it was still there. He stands up and holds his side, looking down at the blood that stains the blue of his costume.
"Shit…I have to go now.." He exhales deeply in pain, as he makes his way up the wall and heads home.
He crawls through the window of his bedroom and rips off his costume, cleaning and bandaging his wounds and putting on a clean pair of dark gray sweatpants and a short sleeve orange shirt. He lies down on his bed, looking up at his ceiling, thinking about how he'll face his own sister tomorrow.
Lucy lies in her bed as well. She stares up at the ceiling, holding her pillow in her arms. She thinks back to earlier that day…
- 90 MINUTES PRIOR -
Lucy had held back her tears, she grabbed the microphone stand and adjusted it to reach her mouth. She opened her mouth, and started to speak,
"Brother, someone to look to, someone to love.
Not a bother, but a guide, a person who does too much.
He treats me fairly, and he keeps me safe, asking for little in return.
Although he does not eat dairy, he knows how to fill not only his, but my stomach with food.
And despite him joking around, and taking little seriously, I know he cares, I know he loves me dearly.
Brother, someone who means a lot to me, my hero."
She closes her mouth, looking on to still see no sign of him. She lowers her head and hops off the stage.
- THE PRESENT -
Tears start welling up in her eyes again, she doesn't whisk them away this time however, she lets them come. Lucy was never one who cried much, but tonight, that's how she fell asleep.
To be continued in Season 1 Chapter 5