Spider-Man: LOUD Season 1 Chapter 5
"Researching the Foil"
Lincoln awoke in the morning, his body aching. He groaned. He slowly made his way out of his bed, standing up. He put his hand to his chest, feeling the bandages wrapped on him. He looks over to his desk seeing a small black object lying there. He walks over and picks it up, seeing that it's the piece of the Vulture's suit that was ripped off. He walks over and picks it up and inspects it.
"Wait…this is…" He mutters to himself.
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 remembers as clear as day, as if it had just happened yesterday. This was a piece of the Vulture's wingsuit that broke off.
"I could study this." He again mutters to himself.
He turns it around in his hand several times before placing it down in a drawer on his desk, making sure that nobody would see it were they to go into his room.
"I'll deal with that later, I have more important things to deal with." he hears a door open in the hallway after saying this and opens his own door.
He sees Lucy right as she exits her room.
"Lucy wait, I can expla-'' He cuts himself off before he finishes, clutching his side in pain. Lucy ignores him and keeps walking.
He stays there clutching his sides before wandering back into his room. He stands there, still clutching his sides. He looks back at the drawer he put the piece of Vulture's suit in.
"After school I'm gonna examine it, see if I can find any counter play to my avian friend." Lincoln says to himself, he grimaces.
"Now I'm starting to talk like one of those people who play video games for a living."
Adrian Tombs sat at his dining room table scrolling through texts on his phone, he took a sip from his coffee when he heard shifting in the hallway that lay slightly ahead of him to the right. He looks up to see a young girl wearing short pajama shorts that reached her mid thigh and a very loose white shirt with a non-specific album cover on it.
"Morning honey, sleep well?" Adrian asked.
The girl was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, her hair messy and down to her mid back.
"Morning dad.." She says quietly, still rubbing her eyes.
She walks over and opens the fridge, grabbing a small glass bottle of a Starbucks vanilla frappuccino and popped the lid off. She walked over and sat down across from her father and took a sip of her drink.
"I didn't get to see you last night, how's my baby girl been?" Adrian asks the young girl sitting across from him.
"I'm good, I was out with some friends last night." She replied.
"Which ones, uh..Christina was it?" He asks.
"Yeah, Christina and Rachel." She replies.
She takes another sip of her drink before looking at the clock on the microwave sitting on the countertop behind her father.
"I gotta get ready for school now, I'll see you later dad." She stands up and walks toward the hallway she once emerged from.
"I'll see you later Jordan." Adrian speaks. He stands up and grabs his car keys, leaving the house for another day of work.
Lincoln walked into the schools gym, ready for another day of torture. Opening the door to the boys locker room he's engulfed by the smell of sweat and filthy boys. He arrives at his locker on the far end near the back of the room right next to Clyde.
"Hey bud!" Clyde greeted, already wearing his gym clothes, which consisted of a white tank top and red sweatpants with two thin white stripes down the sides.
"Hey Clyde, how's it goin?" Lincoln greeted his long time best friend with a fist bump.
"Not bad, although I'd rather not have to be in gym class." The boy admitted.
"Heh, same. You know me, not only do I not like getting changed in the same room as a bunch of other guys, but I also just don't like physical activities that much." The snow haired boy lied to his friend.
It wasn't that he didn't like getting changed in front of other boys, he didn't mind really, it was because he wears his Spider-Man suit under his regular clothes, so he has to be careful about who's in the locker room with him when he changes.
"I'd better get going now, you know how Mr. Phillips gets when we're late." Clyde leaves his friend alone in the back corner of the locker room, the back corner was divided off from the rest of the room by the lockers that stuck out of the wall. Lincoln quickly looked over the lockers to make sure no one was coming this way or that no one was looking. In the clear he used his super speed to change out of his Spider-Man suit super quickly and into his gym clothes, which consisted of the same white tank top and red sweatpants Clyde wore.
Lincoln stepped outside of the locker room and back into the gym, meeting up with Clyde, Stella and Rusty, the only ones of his friend group that shared the class with him. Rusty wore the same attire that Lincoln and Clyde wore, Stella on the other hand wore red shorts that reached the higher part of her thighs, displaying her curves well, and a white tank top that also displayed the curves of her breasts nicely, with a hint of black underneath where her sports bra lay.
"Hey everyone, sorry I'm a little late, you know how I am." Lincoln greeted his friends.
"You're fine, we haven't gotten started yet." Stella assured her friend with a simple wave off motion.
"A shame the boys and girls are separated for gym, I bet a few of them could have used the good ol' Rusty charm." The ginger haired teen stated as he flexed his biceps, which were surprisingly well built.
Stella rolled her eyes in both annoyance and pity.
"Oh poor Rusty, what ever will you do?" Stella said in a sarcastic manner.
"More like what will the ladies do?" Rusty said, not noticing the sarcasm in Stella's voice.
Just after saying that the bell rang.
"Oh, I'm off guys catch ya later!" Stella jogged off to where the girls were meeting up.
Lincoln couldn't help but watch Stella run off, seeing her meet up with the other girls in his gym class. He caught a glimpse of Jordan, weaning the same gym shorts and tank top Stella wore, but instead having a track suit jacket tied around her waist, and no sports bra being visible, due to her wearing a white one.
"Lincoln?" A voice called out to him.
He snapped out of his watching and looked over to Clyde, the one that called out to him.
"You okay buddy? You've been staring at the girls for a while now." Rusty says.
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Just…spacing out." The albino haired teen admitted.
"I get it, you wanna get with a girl! Don't worry pal, your old friend Rusty's got you covered." Rusty says playfully while lightly elbowing Lincoln's side.
"No, good guess though." The boy came back.
All the boys wandered over to the center of the gym where all the boys were meeting up, where they would then be informed that the game they were playing was dodgeball. The class was separated into two different groups of equal players. Clyde, Rusty, and Lincoln thankfully all getting onto the same side.
"Oh boy, here we go." Rusty says in a worried tone.
The teacher's whistle blew marking the start of the game. Immediately Chandler on the opposite team dashes up to the front and grabs two balls, throwing them hitting two members of Lincoln's team.
"Great, already short two people." Lincoln thinks to himself.
Suddenly his Spider-Sense went off, he dived to his left, avoiding one of the balls that was being thrown.
"Nice dodge buddy!" Clyde shouts towards his friend while giving him a thumbs up.
Currently Rusty was running all over the place avoiding dodgeballs before getting hit by one square in the face and getting knocked to the ground.
"Dang it." Rusty says.
"Already down 8 people, they're only down 2." Lincoln thinks to himself.
The dodgeball game lasts very shortly until it's just Lincoln left against almost the entire team. One throws a dodgeball and Lincoln dodges it by hopping to the right. Another one is thrown, he again dodges it, this time by rolling under it. A third one is thrown, he catches it this time getting the thrower out.
"Nice moves Loud!" The teacher shouts from the sideline.
Everyone on the sidelines was watching him, some had shocked expressions, not knowing Lincoln was so spry.
Lincoln sighs, "Secret identities reek." Is all Lincoln says before purposefully getting hit in the chest by a dodgeball to not arouse any more attention than he already has.
"GET FUCKED LINCOLN LOUD!" Chandler shouts from across the gym.
Lincoln just groans to himself.
The whistle blows again, marking the end of the game.
"There's only ten more minutes of class left, go change and have a good rest of your day." The teacher says walking toward his office.
Lincoln sits down on the bleacher not really tired due to his enhanced stamina and durability his spider powers grant him. His thoughts are interrupted when Stella sits beside him, sweat dripping down her face, making her tank top partially see through, making her black sports bra even more visible. He turns to look at her, trying his best not to look at her gazongas.
"Rough day huh?" He says to her.
"Yeah, all we did was run around outside for a little and do some stretches." Stella replies.
"That can be pretty rough." Lincoln replies not really knowing how else to.
"It's made even more annoying that the only things the girls talk to me about is how I got saved by Spider-Man." Stella says.
"I assume you don't like that?" Lincoln asks, sensing the hint of frustration in her voice.
"It's not that bad, but I hate that that's how people know me. I don't wanna be known as the girl who was saved by Spider-Man." She says, her hands on her knees, she faces down.
Lincoln stares at her waiting for her to continue.
"I just…I wanna be strong enough to save myself." Stella vents, she sits up and waves her hands, "Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful for what he did for me, I wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for him, but I wanna be able to save myself if I'm ever put in that position again, I don't want to just be a damsel in distress." Stella vents her frustrations she's been having for the past few days.
Lincoln looks at her clearly feeling bad for her. "That's respectable, not everyone is okay with just being a damsel in distress." He confides in his friend.
"Thanks for listening, my parents signed me up for kickboxing lessons per my request, so I'm pretty hyped for that." She admits.
Lincoln's eyes light up, "That's cool, when do you start?"
Stella looks at her friend, "I start on Wednesday this week. And I really do appreciate you listening to me, you're the first person I've been able to talk to about this."
Lincoln smiles and nods. "No problem, and uh..speaking of problems…"
Stella gives Lincoln a quizzical look, "What did you do this time?"
"Let's just say that I may or may not have accidentally pissed off Lucy." Lincoln admits while putting his arms in a defensive position.
"So you're asking me for advice?"
Lincoln continues his defensive position, "Yes?"
Stella chuckles a little, "Lucy likes poetry and literature right? So maybe try that. I'm not gonna guarantee it'll work, but it might just get you off the burner." She suggests.
Lincoln stops his defensive position, "Hey, that's not bad."
"I know, I'll catch you later Lincoln." Stella stands up and starts walking toward the girls locker room, Lincoln can't help but eye her tank top that reveals the back of her sports bra, then his eyes trail down toward her lower section, watching her hips sway from side to side alongside her butt. He quickly snaps out of it.
"Jeez Loud, that's one of your friends, calm down." Lincoln tells himself.
Just then the bell rings, Lincoln gains a surprised look "I gotta hurry or else I'm gonna be late for class!" He hurries off to the boys locker room.
Adrian had parked his car in the parking lot of the Oscorp building, he stepped out and was walking to the front door, swinging his car keys and whistling a familiar tune before reaching the front entrance. He wore a black leather jacket with a light brown fluff on the neck end, some dark gray cargo pants, and some black work opened the door, holding it open for a woman getting off her shift, then walked inside. There he stood at the front desk.
"Welcome to Oscorp, do you have an appointment here today?" The darker skinned lady managing the front desk asked.
"Yeah, Norman asked to see me today?" He says.
The woman goes to her computer and types in some words before turning back to him.
"Adrian Tombs?" She questions.
"That's me." He responds quickly.
"I'm going to have to see some form of identification." She asks.
"Oh, of course." He pulls out his wallet and takes out his ID, handing it to the lady.
She inspects his ID for a quick second before handing it back.
"Okay, you're gonna go to that middle elevator there," The lady pointed to a set of 3 elevators across the main lobby, "And you're gonna push the manager button, and you'll input this code." She hands Adrian a white slip of paper with a code on it, it read "14101475".
"Thank you ma'am." Adrian takes the slip of paper and gives the lady a nod before taking off toward the elevator.
He enters the elevator and inputs the code, and the elevator starts ascending.
Up in Norman Osborn's office he's typing away at his computer, sending emails about the recently started Globulin Green, a performance enhancing drug that's just entered the development phase. He hears a knock on his door and then sends his email.
"Enter." He says coldly.
Adrian enters the building and arms held high, "Norman, what's up buddy? How's it goin?"
Norman just simply stares, "First off I'm not your buddy, pal, and it's going awful."
Adrian's arms drop to his sides, however his smile persists. "How come?"
Norman stands up and walks closer to Adrian. "That hit I sent you on days ago for Spider-Man, was not complete like you stated it was."
Adrian's smile finally fades from his face. "W-what do you mean? I saw him right there on the concrete, I threw him through a building and lied on the concrete below unmoving, the bitch is dead."
Norman turned around his computer monitor showcasing a picture of Spider-Man swinging from afar. "This picture was taken at 7:28 this morning, and if it was taken this morning, when I sent you on that hit days ago, you failed."
Adrian examined the picture closely, almost as if he was in disbelief. "I, I could try again, I mean I gave him a good fight didn't I?"
"You did give him a good fight, which is why I will let you try again, but the fight doesn't matter to me, what matters to me is that you were unharmed in the fight for the most part. And that's why I won't be paying you that money I promised for this hit." Norman stated.
"You…you can't do that, I need that money, my family needs that money, Norman you-" Adrian was cut off.
"That's Mr. Osborn to you, and if you want that money then you'll kill Spider-Man. You didn't do the job I asked you to do, so I'm not paying you until you finish the job." Norman walked back over to his desk and sat down. "Now get out of my sight and don't come back until you have Spider-Man's head."
Adrian was blown away, he couldn't believe Spider-Man had survived his attack. He started walking toward the elevator once again, determined to kill Spider-Man once and for all, but he'd need a plan first.
Lincoln sat down in his English class, now stoked for the end of the day so he could go home and write something for Lucy. Beside him sat Girl Jordan. He turns to her in a better mood than earlier that day.
"Hey, how's it going?" He simply asks.
She turns and looks at him with a smile. "Hi, I'm not doing too bad, how about you?"
"Alright, you've got a conversation started, granted it was one of the lamest ways to start one, but it was started nonetheless." Lincoln thinks to himself.
"Not bad, I was just wondering if you maybe…" He paused, scratching the back of his head.
Jordan leaned in a little, anticipating what he would say next.
"If you maybe wanted to hang out after school tomorrow?" Lincoln asked, preparing for denial.
Jordan simply smiled, "Yeah, why not? What did you have in mind?"
"Shit, I didn't think I'd get this far, what should we do? Going back to my house is a no go because of my sisters, what else could we do?" Lincoln thought.
"Could we maybe go back to your house?" She asked.
"YES!" Lincoln said quickly, not thinking.
"Great, I'll meet you out by the front entrance after school?" Jordan asked.
"Yeah, sure." Lincoln said, again scratching the back of his head.
With that the two teens turned back to the front of the class, Lincoln now mentally beating himself up.
Lincoln closes his bedroom door behind him, locking it. He sits at his desk and pulls out the piece of Vulture's suit that broke off. He pulls over a microscope that was hidden behind some of the books on his desk. He examines the piece of metal closely.
"Hmm, molecular structure of Scandium, not bad, lightweight enough to fly around but also dense enough to be able to take some damage, and it has a high enough melting point to where he could realistically fly in and out of the atmosphere with it, all he'd need is a lot of fuel and better protection for his body." Lincoln nerds out to himself.
Lincoln pushed aside his microscope and pulled out the piece of Scandium. He examined it closely before breaking it in half, upon exploring the insides he found some circuits that were vital for making the suit fly.
"This is amazing, I could use this to stop his suit from working. I could have the best counterplay there is…" He stops and grimaces again, "There I go again, talking like someone who plays video games for a living."
He pulls out his laptop and starts working on a plastic shell for what he called the Vulture Jammer. He'd print it using a 3D Printer he'd found at a garage sale for only fifty bucks. The couple that had it said it belonged to their son before he went off to college, so they probably didn't know the actual worth of it. With the shell currently being printed he opened another tab and started writing out what he'd give to Lucy. He went through tons of rough drafts and before he knew it was already 10 PM. He yawned as he stretched back. He heard a knock on his door, he looked over and hid his 3D printer and closed his laptop, he walked over to his door and opened it, finding his 9 year old sister Lola standing at his doorway, wearing a pink nightgown that went down to the floor and a little behind her.
"Lola? What are you doing up?" The white haired boy asked.
"I was gonna ask you the same thing. It's 10 o'clock already and you still haven't showered or gone to bed yet. Is anything wrong?" She asked, a hint of concern in her voice.
Lincoln rubbed his eyes. "No, no, just…it's been a long day and I still have school work to do." He quickly came up with an excuse.
His blonde sister looked down and put her hands behind her back, "It's just…you've seemed really stressed lately and you haven't really been spending as much time with us as you normally do."
Lincoln felt like he'd been sucker punched in the heart after hearing his sister say that. How could he do this? She was right after all, he'd been so focused on being Spider-Man lately that he'd forgotten to talk or hang out with his sisters. He put his hand to his chin for a second to think.
"I know," He put his hands on his knees lowering himself to Lola's level, "How about me and you watch some of that show you like so much the uh.. Pageant prisoners."
"You mean Prison Pageants?" Lola asked, cocking her head to the side.
"Yeah that one." Lincoln said avoiding eye contact to avoid embarrassment.
"Only if you really want to." Lola said, looking Lincoln in the eyes, swaying her body slightly forward and backward.
"Of course I want to." Lincoln stood up and took Lola's hand and walked her downstairs to the couch and turned the TV on at a low volume. He switched to their DVR and started watching the pre-recorded episodes of Prison Pageants.
"Ooh I love this episode!" Lola says in an excited but low voice, leaning forward, "This is the episode where Cathy tries getting revenge on Tilly because she outdid got the point for most sparkles!"
Lincoln could see the excitement on Lola's face, the sparkle in her eyes. "Never change Lola, never change." He thinks to himself, watching Lola more than he's watching the show.
2 hours later they finish the season they were binging and Lincoln looks over to see Lola asleep on the couch, her head resting on top of a cheap throw pillow they probably got at Walmart. He turned off the TV and picked up Lola, she was as light as a feather due to his immense super strength. He carried her all the way to her bedroom, slowly opening it and placing her on her bed, pulling her covers over her, pushing her princess stuffed doll toward her. He kissed her on her forehead, "Good night princess, don't let the bedbugs bite." He stands up from his kneeling position and walks out of her and her twin sisters bedroom, closing the door behind him.
He stands in the quiet dark hallway for a brief moment, looking over to Lucy's bedroom door, with Lynn being the oldest in the house currently she migrated to her own room, leaving Lucy with her own room as well. He nods and heads back to his own bedroom.
Jordan tossed and turned in her bed, she opened her eyes and looked at her phone on her bedside table, seeing that it was currently 12:36 AM. She sighed in frustration at not being able to sleep. She got up and walked out into the kitchen to grab a glass of water. After grabbing the glass she turns around to see Adrian walk out into the living room dressed for work.
"Dad?" She asks, rubbing her eyes.
"Hey honey what are you doing up so late?" He walks over to his daughter and places a hand on her shoulder.
"I couldn't sleep…so I got a glass of water to maybe cool myself off to help me sleep better." She admits in shame. "What are you doing up? You don't leave for work until later."
"Something came up, I've gotta leave town again." He says.
Jordan looks down, growing a disappointed face. Adrian senses this and kneels down to his daughter's height.
"Hey, I know I've been leaving a lot lately, but trust me it's for a good reason, good things are gonna happen to us very soon okay?" He tells his daughter, "I'll tell you what, after I come back how about me, you, and your mom all go out for dinner, my treat?"
She looks back up into her fathers eyes and smiles, she wraps her arms around him and pulls him into a tight embrace, "That sounds great, thanks dad. I love you."
"I love you too sweetheart." He returns his daughters hug for around 30 seconds before they break off.
He walks over to the front door and takes one last look at his daughter, "For what it's worth, I'm hanging out with someone after school today." Jordan admits.
"Oh, is it Christina, or Rachel or.." Adrian tries guessing.
"It's a boy, his name is Lincoln." She says with a wide smile.
Adrian grows a smile as well, happy to see his daughter growing up into such a nice young woman.
"He sounds wonderful, can't wait to meet him. I'll see you later." He nods to his daughter.
She nods back before he exits their household.
Lucy wakes up to her alarm clock. She hits the button to shut it off before walking over to her door and opening it, finding a note on the other side, she takes it off and reads it, cupping her hand over her mouth at how beautifully written it is.
"Um.." A voice appears from her left.
She looks over to see Lincoln, already dressed in his everyday clothes, she points at the piece of paper.
"Did…did you write this?" Lucy asks.
He simply nods his head.
"For me?" She asks once again.
He nods again.
"I'm really sorry for ditching you the other day Lucy, I really am. I wanna make it up to you. Will you give me another chance?" Lincoln asks.
Lucy walks over to her brother and embraces him, "Of course…I love you Lincoln." She says.
He returns the embrace, "I love you too Luce."
Over at Oscorp one Curt Conners is exiting the building. Lincoln's Ecology teacher works part time as a research scientist, studying cross species genetics. He stops in front of the glass window adorning the front of the building, watching his reflection, he looks down to his right arm, the one that's missing. He looks back up and simply walk away.
To be continued in Season 1 Chapter 6…