Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse
A Tangled Web we Weave
Six
"You want to lecture more at the school?" her superior at Alchemax Labs asked
"As work on my other project is suspended," Liz Octavius said wryly, "I have the time. Of course, I will make sure to keep myself available for any in-house consults."
"I'll have to bounce it up to Mr Fisk," the spineless middle manager quibbled, "but I don't see why not."
"Thank you," Liv said dryly.
Liv went back to her lab, then logged on to the server. No consult requests or messages. 'Clearly I'm no longer the golden boy of the facility,' Liz mused.
"Hey, Liv!" Rhona Burchill waved cheerfully. The black haired scientist was one of Wilson's former criminal recruits... she had tangled with the Fantastic Four.
"Rhona. Tampering with your own brain again?" she answered dryly.
The other scientist pouted. "That was a temporary psychotic break. I'm cured now," Rhona smiled eerily.
"Right," Liv answered dryly.
"Have you ever considered connecting your waldos directly to your brain?" Rhona asked her conversationally.
"You'd get pain feedback if they were damaged," Liv noted as she went by her, then locked up her office.
"Ah. Point," Rhoda conceded.
Liv checked out of the main desk, then headed out. She smiled to herself as she stood in the sun, then walked over to her small car.
Meanwhile...
Rhoda waited until Liv was gone, then she casually hacked the lock. All doors in the facility used magnetic key cards, theoretically secure, but she was a GENIUS. It only took a few seconds, and she was in.
After searching the room for any obvious discoveries, Rhoda booted up the PC. She was surprised to find it password locked... Rhoda had broken into several of her coworkers computers, most were totally unsecured. Interesting.
Rhoda took out a device, then plugged it into a USB port. Her code breaker was able to crack any password! The device worked, then suddenly the PC screen lit up.
"Huh?" Rhoda blinked.
'NAUGHTY NAUGHTY' read the screen, then cartoony skull and crossbones symbols appeared all over.
"Ack!" Rhoda yelped.
Her codebreaker gave a loud 'POP' noise, then began to emit blue smoke. She swiftly unhooked the device, but she suspected it was too late. Rhoda cracked the case, swiftly determining that the circuit boards were fried.
"You rigged a security system to feed back electricity into foreign hardware," Rhoda muttered, impressed. "Liv, you BASTARD."
Swiftly cleaning up her mess, Rhoda slipped out of Liv's lab, re-locked it up, then headed to her own lab. She sat down at her desk, already fishing out the parts she'd need to fix the device.
"I'm impressed...," Rhoda muttered as she went to work.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
THWIP!
Spider-man gracefully swung between buildings, constantly aware of his spider-sense. More than anything else, it warned him of any danger.
"Miles?" the voice in his earpiece said, "police incident, over near Queens."
"Right, May," Spider-man changed direction.
He arrived in several minutes, and noted worriedly his father, Jefferson Davis, was among the cops on scene. They were facing off against what looked like a dude in battle armor.
"Beetle, you are wanted on multiple felonies! Surrender!" Jefferson ordered him over the megaphone.
'Beetle?' Miles blinked. The name sounded goofy, but the armor was bulky and intimidating looking. Also, his spider-sense was going off strongly...
"NEVER!" Beetle yelled, and fired off metal spikes from the top of each arm. They flew like bullets, and headed right for the cops.
Spider-man bounded inbetween them, spraying webbing to create a barrier. One or two slipped by, and one police car exploded on impact.
"Shit!" Jefferson yelped as a nearby car burst into flames.
'Yup, he's trouble,' Miles thought. Dodging more spikes Spider-man bounced around the armored figure, tagging him with webbing from all directions.
Beetle popped a FLAME THROWER from his shoulder and burned it away.
"Da fuck?" Spider-man blinked, surprised.
Deciding discretion was the better part of valor, Beetle popped a pair of wings from his back, then in a burst of rockets took off into the sky.
"DA FUCK," Spider-man repeated, blinking. In seconds it was too late to try to tag him with a web line... and honestly Miles wasn't sure the webs would hold against that thrust.
"Thanks!" at least one cop called, after.
After a few moments Miles swung away, disappearing before the cops could try to arrest him for various stuff.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Good afternoon, students!" Liv Octavius beamed.
"Hurrah!" various students cried.
Cindy Moon beamed happily, as the scientist leaned against the teacher's desk. Apparently she was joining the faculty full time!
"Just to kill the rumors, I am not coming in full time," Liv added.
"Aww," several students pouted.
"I will be coming in regularly, however," Liv continued.
Just then the classroom door opened and Miles creeped in, looking rather embarassed.
"Ah, Mister Morales," Liv said dryly.
"Sorry I'm late. I was out, and there was a armored dude and, well..." Miles trailed off.
"Sit, sit," Liv waved. "Having lived in New York this long, that's actually a reasonable excuse for being late," she noted.
Miles sat down, sighing in relief.
"All right, let's get into this week's topic..." Liv continued.
Cindy listened attentively as Liv covered the topic, with some amusing personal digressions. She also called on various students, most of whom knew the answers.
Cindy fought back a twinge of envy over Miles getting called on often.
"Cindy! Your turn," Liv grinned.
"Yes ma'am," Cindy grinned back.
They finished up, then Liv let them go without homework.
"BEST TEACHER EVER," Cindy enthused.
Miles chuckled, "Yeah, yeah..."
Cindy stuck her tongue out. "So you were really late because of a villain?" she asked.
"Traffic stopped as everyone looked," Miles explained.
Cindy was dubious, but decided not to push.
"We've got the lab project coming up... you wanna team up with me and Ned?" Miles offered.
"As long as I don't have to be the secretary," Cindy said dangerously.
"No, never," Miles promised.
"Good," Cindy nodded. "It HAS happened, even here."
To be continued...
Notes: Rhona Burchill was the 'Mad Thinker' of the Ultimate series, who actually surgically connected part of her brothers brain to hers. I'm assuming she pled temporary insanity...
I need to figure out which mad scientists are at Alchemax. I think Fisk has been collecting supervillains from around the Spider-Verse and that he's using them to try to save his wife and kids.