Spider-Frog: The Wall Hopper
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Disney doesn't sue. Please.
Chapter 06: Cataclysmic Dynamo
Andrias looked at the reports from Olivia; she had reviewed what Frakes did for their new project and gave the go-ahead. Frakes experiments with the blue gem and some samples left over from the frog that ate the spider had yielded results. Frakes couldn't replicate the powers, but it gave her some insight into the methods in which it transferred traits.
Another project Frakes had almost done and finished thanks to this research, and it gave him some ideas for his future projects.
With Yunan by his side, he went to the stage, and Andrias put on that same practiced smile. The crowd and press erupted in applause for the Kingpin of the city. Why wouldn't they? He was like Santa Claus 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Countless hospitals had wings named after him, research into cures and numerous diseases was funded by him or his company, homeless shelters, food banks, educational programs, and more were only around because he flipped the bill. About 30% of the business in the city depended on a deal with his companies, and another 20% were the shell companies he ran secretly.
Of course, they didn't know he also ran the crime in the city as the Kingpin. His organization owned the docks and was helping transport illegal goods; many groups paid him to get their things without trouble. He had paid off leaders in every police station, along with the cops in charge of investigating crimes relating to him. Since he had this position, he took a take from all significant crimes, including gangs and mobs, since he helped facilitate and cover their crimes. There was a rule about the criminal organization: they were never to say his name; that's where the title Kingpin came from; they needed a way to identify him. Anyone stupid enough to say his name they only made that mistake once.
And with all the tech they managed to steal from Toomes, they sold it to street criminals for untraceable money; all those weapons would get blamed on Toomes. If people thought he sold it or it got stolen when he got arrested, it didn't matter; his name would get dragged through the mud.
Even in front of all the reporters in the city, Andrias was confident that no one had a clue.
"It's good to see you all this fine morning. I know it's early, and I'm sure you'd all rather have a nice cup of coffee so I won't take long." There was some polite laughter. "Today, King Energy is happy to show you what might be the first step in developing clean energy. It is all-natural, to boot. Yunan, do the thing!"
Yunan moved to the side and yanked away a curtain that covered a large tank.
The pressed moved to take a look at these yellow caterpillar creatures, and every once in a while, sparks shot between their horn. They crawled around eating leaves with their mandibles.
"My scientists have dubbed these cute little guys, Zapapedes. I'll leave you to read the scientific papers on all the details, and my scientist will be up later to explain it all. To summarize, my scientists have genetically engineered these creatures, several insects, and creatures like the humble electric eel. Long and short, these fellows produce roughly one industrial worth of energy, well, each one. We plan to develop whole farms and use them to power everything. And that's not all these fellow produce metallic wire-like worms produce silk. Their waste is even being harvested to use to make cleaning products. Plus, since they eat leaves it just giving us excuses to plant more trees."
Andrias pointed to a screen that showed an artist's depiction of a building with trees growing in the middle and an electrical creature running around.
"It's a nifty system that every time the little buggers spark off, the energy is drawn to the ground into conductors. The numbers will be in the papers now, but I have something else in mind. We brought you here for a proof of concept."
The nearby screen flashed up images of various people.
"We've invited all these influences for our little endeavor. For the next week, these influencers will livestream, make videos, and play games. We are providing the power and facilities for them to use. All this an effort to be a new power source is a viable source."
The cameras flashed.
Mentally, Andrias sighed; on the surface, this seemed like a blatant publicity scheme. Get a bunch of influencers to use their facilities, say that it works, and get a lot of publicity. People would constantly document the project; countless people would note if it failed for a second. If no power interruptions happened, well, then it would seem viable.
But like most of his endeavors, he had many levels planned.
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Ford was a bit upset when he found out about the event that Andrias held. Not that the reporter did an awful job, but more that he didn't ask enough questions. This level of genetic manipulation was leaps and bounds beyond anything anyone had come close to. Ford worried someone would try to apply such methods to weapon applications.
Sitting in his hospital bed, he looked over everything his office sent. The doctors wanted to keep an eye on him for a bit longer, and he was still doing therapy sessions; his back was hurt during the collapse, along with some damage to his arm and shoulder. Lilith didn't feel better; she had a minor concussion, her left arm was broken, her legs had taken severe damage, and she had minor organ damage. The doctors said they were close to rupturing organs, and she had minor internal bleeding. Worse, there were signs of hypertension, fatigue, and vitamin deficiency, which didn't help her heal.
Ford blames himself; he knows Lilith is working hard and staying late, but he doesn't imagine she has worked almost without sleep since she started working. He would talk to her when things were better.
While he could admit he often worked his employees hard to get results and stories, He didn't want them working selves to death.
Right now, they just had to take care of her health; they might need minor surgery.
Still, something was wrong with Lilith's situation, and he didn't know how to broach it.
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The girls sat around the lunchroom table during lunch. They had most of the table to themselves; after all, people gave the injured Marcy some space, plus they were afraid she'd charge them into a disaster, and Anne's peculiar changes had pushed some people aside. Anne wasn't showing up to tennis practice because she kept ruining the equipment, plus that little outburst against Maggie had scared people away. Sasha was the only one with good social standing, though her company didn't help.
Marcy was going on about the news stories about Spider-Frog. After the fight against Shocker, then taking out the Wrecking Crew, Spider-frog had been seen taking down robbers and purse-snatchers alike.
"It's just so amazing that we have our own superhero!" Marcy proclaimed. "I can't believe you guys missed it. The lights go off, and Shocker gets yanked up."
Sasha huffed, "Can't believe that name stuck; his power was that crazy sound attack, not electricity."
"Yeah, that's weird. I don't remember him saying it's his name."
"Me neither," Anne added, "Not that I was around him at any time." Anne quickly added.
"I wonder who they are?" Marcy looked at a picture from a newspaper of a spider frog.
"I'm sure we will never know," Anne said confidently.
"I'm not so sure," Marcy noted, "Let's see, they seem about our age. Maybe they go to our school. Maybe they followed the Shocker to the school, but it seems more likely they were already here."
Anne choked on her drink. "W-what? Why?"
"They showed up just after he showed up. Considering the time of day and their age, they would likely have to be in school at the time."
"Uh," Anne tried to think of something, "I mean, there are other schools."
"Considering the time between the Shocker and Spider-Frog showed up, the only other school that anyone could make reasonable time for would be the high school."
"Yeah! Maybe it's the high school!"
"Doubtful; if they were high school students, they would still need to sneak past the police into our school. Plus, it's only a guess they could be older. Their build might lean towards someone a bit older, but hey, look at you, Anne." Marcy grabbed Anne's arm and rolled up a sleeve. "You've put on some muscle lately. Makes you look a bit older."
Anne blushed wildly; she had to get them off her trail.
"She does also have some sort of family support," Marcy added as she held up a photo showing some of Spider-Frog's ripped suit that revealed some abs she'd gotten. "Muscles require a healthy dose of protein, and she must be regularly eating. I imagine Superpowers still needs food and regular exercise to maintain her physique. If they didn't have family support, they wouldn't be able to get the food or have time to still go to school. They would need a job, and I doubt they could manage school, a job, and crime fighting."
While they looked at the picture, Anne pushed her food tray away. Marcy was right; she was working out because she always tried to stay healthy but felt she needed to do more. Marcy even got the food; she'd been craving protein more and starchy foods. She thought the starch helped with the webs; if she ate less, it made it harder for her to make them. Luckily, her parents just thought it was because of a growth spurt.
"Nah," Sasha waved off Marcy. "Come one, Mar. She's probably some sort of rich, trust fund kid. Probably how she got some weird tech to make those webs."
"Yup! 100%!" Anne agreed.
"Hm, maybe. I was toying with a chemical compound and device to try to mimic that, so it's theoretically possible."
"Plus," Sasha smiled, "I think we'd know if Spider- Spider-Frog was at the school."
"Yeah." Anne agreed.
"How many girls have that kinda of body?"
"Wait, what?"
"Oh, come on, I'm not the only one who noticed. She's got a good figure on her," Sasha pointed at some of the pictures on the table, "That suit doesn't do too much to hide those nice curves, well-toned muscles, and a nice pair of-"
"I- Ah!" Anne tried to object, unsure what to say, as her face turned bright red.
"And a nice butt." Marcy smiled as she pointed to a picture of Spider-Frog swinging away.
"Oooh, ~ nice catch, Marcy. Seeing her leave is, "I hate to see you leave but love to watch you go"."
The girls giggled to themselves as Anne tried to shrink in her chair.
"Speaking of super bods, what do you think of the Black Cat?"
Marcy shrugged, "I don't get an opinion."
"What?! You got all these theories about Spider, and not even you think of the cat as cute?"
"Well, I don't have much to work with. There aren't any pictures of her; the ones we have of her are in the shadows or blurry. I mean, I guess that's the idea. She gives up that dark, mysterious femme fatale vibe."
"Come on, Anne, you think Black Cat has it going on."
Anne lost herself in her memories as she pictured the cute blonde in the black catsuit giving her the playful devilish smile. Black cat moving so close to her that she could smell her, see her bright blue eyes, her soft-looking lips curl up and so close that they could ki-
"Anne?"
"Yes!" Anne tried to recover as she looked at her friends, "Uh, I mean, I guess I could see it. Black Cat is probably very pretty."
Sasha held her head and smiled, "I like her style. She seems to have this neat chocker. Do you guys think I could pull that look off?"
"Hm, a bit retro but with the right accessory, yeah." Marcy shared the idea.
Anne just tried to forget what her friend had been saying, or Black Cat smiled when she leaned in.
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Tiffany pulled up her hood; not many people paid all that much attention to her. They paid attention to Giffany, not her.
At first glance, she looked like a twenty-something girl with messy clothes and messy brown hair, and maybe in the end, that was all she was. When she was in college, she fell in love seven times; it was the same story each time. She fell in love, head over heels love, and they would break up with her and toss her aside. After seven, she felt broken; she stayed in her apartment, and her parents tried to get her out, but in the end, even they tossed her aside. Bored out of her mind, she started to play games and stream. Then she made a character a popular girl who everyone adored, and thus the Vtuber Giffany was born. It made her money.
Tiff was hesitant to show up with all the other influencers. Andrias gave everyone a healthy portion of the money to show up, all the equipment upgrades they got were nice, and he didn't even ask people to praise his weird power source. Just use it and show it was stable.
People were running with it; some were using the free trip to LA to travel blog. Some science guys were getting tours of the facilities. One would be a journalist who was having an interview with the big guy himself. Some guys were working together, making videos. Some Screwball was climbing outside the building; Tiff almost wanted them to fall. She was so annoying.
Some other Vtubers were doing collaborations and stuff. Tiffany was mostly alone; she was only out of the room they gave her because the cafeteria was pretty good, and they didn't charge them.
Tiff sighed, watching all the other people busy working; she went to get pizza and hoped they had mochi ice cream.
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Captain Wu was tired; in the last few weeks, they had a bank robber with exploding hands, a guy in a bird suit, a master of disguise, a construction crew with suped-up tools, and the list was growing. Since Spider-Frog showed up, these weirdos were coming out, and there were rumors of weird tech being used by people with powers roaming the streets.
The captain looked at the picture on the wall. He thought Spider-Frog was trying to do good, but he couldn't let her run around calling out these crazies.
He looked at the picture of Marcy on his desk; he would love this, something out of her comic books.
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Marcy worked in the science lab with the IT Girls nearby, bringing her stuff. She had chemicals building nearby as she worked on soldering pieces into a glove. She didn't have any incredible superpowers, but she had a big brain and a lot of imagination.
Around the table, there were dozens of papers with sketches and scientific plans. Marcy opened her phone to the happenings with the Andrias event, both on the influencers and the research about the new little bugs.
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Anne found herself sitting on the roof of the buildings downtown. She pulled out what she got from the restaurant and some meal worms she packed for Spring. After her parents went to bed, she'd sneak out to do a bit of patrol. Anne knew many weird crimes were starting to happen in the city, many creepy guys with strange costumes, gimmicks, and weird tech. The news said that after the Heron was beaten, some of his techs from his company were stolen or sold off before they could be confiscated and were now circulating on the streets. There were some rumors some people had been inspired by the Heron and were making their tech for sale. Anne wondered if what she was doing was causing it.
"Anne, don't worry." Sprig thought to her, "It's not your fault. The bird guys came first. If anything, it was his fault."
"I guess you're right,
"Uh, you talking to your frog?" A voice spoke from behind her.
Anne blinked to see the Black Cat standing behind her.
"How does she keep sneaking up on us!?"
"Yeah," Anne explained, "It's kinda a thing we can do; we can just communicate. It's like a power thing."
Black Cat sat beside her, "Okay, yeah, I've been meaning to ask. How can you do what you do? What are you, a witch, kid? Witch Children? Witch Breed?
"I don't think those are real?" Anne told her, "Stuff happened; a spider was zapped by a weird laser, right?"
"Yup." Sprig told her as he ate a worm.
"Sprig here ate it, and some stuff happened, and he kinda bit me."
"It was an accident; you just kinda grabbed me."
"I said I was sorry about that, and I guess he still had some weird science radiation on him. I think that passed."
"Probably, I don't feel tingly like I did."
"Yeah,"
Cat wasn't sure what was happening; she only heard half the conversation. She stared at her blankly, "Okay, sure, don't tell me how you got your powers." Then she noticed the food bag, "Is that Thai food?"
"Yeah," Anne held it up, showing the familiar Thai Go logo on its side. "Want some?"
"Uh, sure, you got the pat thai?"
Sasha wasn't sure exactly what to do with the costume; part of her wanted to give this up and try to live an everyday life. She had only wanted to get into this to care for something; then, she got in the suit again to help save her school. Was that even true? She had the suit already hidden in her backpack? Was she looking for an excuse?
Sasha would love to discuss this with her friends, but she knew they'd never understand. She hoped that Spider-Frog could give her some insight.
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Tiffany sighed. The week was almost over; the contract would be made, and she could return home. Sure, they gave them a nice room, a good working space, and free food, but she didn't want to be there. She didn't want to be around people; she learned long ago that people couldn't be trusted. She was better off without them.
At least she had her fans; they adored her, at least Giffany; she didn't think they'd feel the same about Tiffany. And after the rejections of her love, her family, well, she didn't want to know if they'd reject her. Tiffany made sure no one found her authentic self; it wouldn't be a lie to say that she didn't do anything with the other influencers because she didn't trust anyone to spill the beans. So far, if anyone asked, she lied and told them she was an editor for a creator she made up, and no one asked anything else.
Well, it just proves to her how shallow everyone could be.
Things were better when she only trusted herself. She walked back into the soundproof workspace and started her stream.
Minutes later, the doors exploded.
Two men in whole-body suits walked in.
The crowd murmured; the idea they talked about was that this was some video people were filming. Several people took out their phones to film this.
One man wore a blue and white suit covered with boomerangs. The other man wore a black and purple suit.
The purple man yelled, "Okay, everyone, just stay calm and don't do anything stupid. We are here for one thing and one thing!" He motioned to the massive tank in the center that held the bugs. The purple man bounced off the floor, tossing people about.
"No one needs to get hurt."
The other man threw around boomerangs, forcing people back.
"Okay, I should have let you go first. That's not as intimidating."
"Oh, and the name Ricochet is?"
"At least I didn't go with the name Boomerang."
"Just shut up! Get the internet nerds in one spot; Overdrive will be here any minute. Let's get the tank ready to move."
"Fine." Boomerang started to round up everyone in a corner, throwing a few of his names sake to make sure they went where they were supposed to.
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Screens worldwide flashed the image of a young girl in a white and blue school uniform with pink hair and a computer cable as a hair bow.
"Thanks for the gifted subs, Richard KO!" Giffany spoke with a sweet voice.
The chat suddenly went wild.
"Huh, what's the matter, chat? Other streamers? Oh, are you watching other streams when you should give me your undivided attention? Uh?" Tiffany was confused; the chat was speeding too fast for her to read.
"You need to get out of there!"
"Run!"
"Lock the door!"
Giffany started getting scared, "Okay, this is getting a little creepy, guys."
"Look at the other stream!"
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Ricochet typed something into his phone after putting some cables onto the tank. He watched as a blue liquid at the edge of the tank swished; the reports said it was a chemical drink that kept the bugs healthy.
Boomerang held his namesake aloft, pushing all the influencers back into the corner.
"Don't do anything stupid, and everyone goes home."
"Then I guess you're exempt from this rule, Captain Dunce Cap!"
Boomerang looked up to see the familiar figure of Spider-Frog crawling on the ceiling.
"Spider-Frog! How did you get here so fast? Overdrive would have shut off the alarms!"
Spider-Frog pulled out her phone, "Dude, half the people here were already live streaming when you broke in here. The other half started when you did!"
Boomerang looked around at many influencers who had half-hidden cell phones and noticed all the active cameras and computers left around the room.
"On the bright side, you are trending."
"What hashtag?"
"#CostumedIdiots."
"My costume is awesome!"
"I think you missed the big issue."
"I don't miss."
Boomerang threw his namesake at Spider-Frog; she leaped off the ceiling as the razor-sharp weapons flew at her. Anne had been trying to meditate; it wasn't her thing, but it was helping her focus her tingle. It was almost like the world went slower. She could feel where the boomerangs were going, and with a deep breath, she spun in the air, dodging them; as she moved through them, she raised a fist. Boomerang found a fist collide with his face, launching him back.
The helmet took the brunt of the attack, but already he could do some damage.
"Ooh, do you have powers?" Spider-Frog asked, "Be honest, I got to know how much I should hold back." She cracked her knuckles for effect. "Like, how much can you lift? I've lifted a car."
Boomerang had felt bad about fighting a teenage girl, then remembered this girl could easily tear off both his arms.
Boomerang hurled three boomerangs in quick succession. Spider-Frog quickly shot her webs at two, knocking them out of the air. That was what the villain was planning for; he expected the last one to land and hit her.
At that moment, a tiny frog jumped out of her hood and rushed towards the boomerang. Sprig shot out his tongue mid-air, grabbing it and hurling it back at Boomerang.
"Ow!" Boomerang hissed, his suit was padded, but it still hurt. "Wait, did you sick your pet sidekick at me?"
"Partner!" Sprig insisted, wagging his finger at the bad guy.
"Is it pointing at me?"
"You do have some sidekick feel," Spider-Frog suggested.
"And now you're ignoring me to talk to your frog."
"Hey!"
"I'm joking. I'll make it up." She cleared her voice, "Watch for the Spectacular Sprig."
"Better." Sprig held up his head.
Boomerang just pulled out the boomerang. "Uh, what are we doing here?"
"We were in the middle of taking you down."
"Right, we were."
Tingle.
"What?"
Spider-Frog was launched into the wall by Ricochet. Spider Frog realizes there are two villains, and then her phone buzzes, showing her a new trending item.
"#Spider-Fail! How is this already trending?" She looked to the side where the influencers were busy alerting their followers about the fight.
Spider-Frog had to dodge as Ricochet tried to cannonball himself.
"Come on! I'm doing pretty good. This is all self-taught." Spider-Frog kept jumping around, dodging the villain. She shot a web at the wall, quickly yanking her away with a quick turn.
"Stop moving!" Ricochet yelled.
"Yeah, not going to do that."
Spider-Frog has a distinct advantage against this baddie; Anne had the proportional jumping ability of a spider and a frog, which was stacked. Ricochet's suit allowed him to bounce around, and Anne's powers let her get out of reach.
Boomerang kept throwing the weapons at the frog and found it hard to hit such a small, fast-moving target.
Boomerang tossed another boomerang to have Sprig jump off it. Sprig stuck to a wall, looking menacing at the villain.
Boomerang reached for another weapon when he realized he was out of the boomerangs.
"You didn't keep track, did ya?"
Sprig shot off the wall and punched Boomerang to crack his helmet and drop him.
"Quit jumping around!" Ricochet yelled, getting frustrated.
"Yeah, Okay,"
"Wha-" Ricochet stopped. "What?"
"Web." Spider-Frog pointed to a massive web strung around the wall.
During their chase across the walls, Spider-Frog started to shoot out her web, the string she shot out slowly forming into a massive web that Ricochet, like a fly, got stuck in mid-bounce.
Spider-Frog walked upside down on the web towards him. "Yeah, I jump like a frog but can make webs like a spider. I wanted to be a bit more impressive between you and me." She motioned to the influencers. "Could use some good word of mouth."
Spider-Frog then realized, "Hey, since you are just going to be hanging out, how did you guys plan on getting that tank out?"
As if to answer, a wall exploded as a weird forklift ripped through it.
A man in a black suit with a matching helmet with a blue visor rode it; the vehicle had strange blue patterns going over it. Spider-Frog noticed the suit had a similar glowing pattern, almost like it was spreading from the suit.
"I don't think that guy is forklift certified."
Spider-Frog was far from an expert on forklifts; she had seen some of them at a nearby construction site, and they didn't look like they went this fast. Before she could even react, the forklift rushed to the tank and began to lift.
"Is he trying to steal the tank with a forklift?"
Richocet stuck in the web, "Yeah, that's news to me. We stole an SUV for the job; must have found out we were in a fight and panicked."
"He just stole a forklift from around the corner!"
"Yup!"
"When I became a superhero, I thought I'd be fighting people a little more impressive."
"We're plenty impressive."
"Your power is bouncing, and your partner just throws boomerangs!"
"It's the suit! I don't have any powers."
"Not helping!" Spider-Frog leaped away to try and stop the theft.
Overdrive was supposed to be the getaway driver; he'd burst in when the tank was ready, and they'd strap it on. Overdrive would drive away before the police could get a beat on them. While he waited for their message, he noticed the trending news about the fight. So, he panicked and went to steal the forklift; after all, this was a huge pay, and the man who hired them would not be happy if they failed.
Their boss even hooked them up with their suits; his suit used nano threads to connect to vehicles to upgrade them and give him control. Already, he was lifting the large tank.
The forklift bounced as Spider-Frog landed on the back end.
"Can I see your license?"
Overdrive packed, and he pulled out a laser pistol and fired. Spider-Frog quickly jumped off, avoiding the attacks. Overdrive started to spin the forklift to try and get a better aim.
"Dude, don't!"
There is a reason why one needs a special license to drive a forklift. It's not built like a regular vehicle; the weight is different, and you can't make sudden turns, especially while carrying a load. Just because Overdrive could upgrade it and control it didn't mean he could do anything about the weight. As the forklift spun, the weight shifted and tilted over. The tank rocked and crashed to the ground, cracking; spider web-like cracks quickly wrapped around the tank.
"What the hell was that?" Tiffany stuck her head out of her work cubicle; she was trying to understand her chat, and the loud noise wasn't helping.
Tiffany looked to find a large tank just in front of her door; she thought it was some joke until the crack finally broke, and a flood of blue liquid slammed her into her room and her equipment.
Tiffany felt her head, "What?" She blinked, looking at her avatar glitching out and mimicking her expression. "Ew! What is this?" She was soaked with this weird liquid. She almost didn't feel something strange on her skin; as her eyes widened, she found countless centipede-like bugs crawling over her body.
She tried to swat them off, "Get them off me!"
This was the wrong thing to do, as her attempt scared the bugs, and they tried to defend themselves the only way they could; they sent out electricity and bit, and when they did it, they all started to. All the bigs sent out sparks, feeding into each other and having the girl in the middle of the giant organic circuit.
Tiffany screamed as she was engulfed in a blinding white light. To say that was the worst pain in her life would be putting it mildly; it felt like every nerve in her body was burning.
Spider-Frog raced to try and help her, but her tingle screamed at her to stop; she couldn't help it as her body stopped on its own.
As the light faded, images of a screaming Tiffany were seen on the screen before it went black. Tiffany sat up before collapsing to the ground, burns over her body. The liquid seemed to have evaporated or dried into now gray dust; the bugs all seemed dead and burned to a crisp.
"No!" Spider-Frog ran to the girl; her tingle didn't go off, and she had to assume she was alive.
"Come on, be okay."
Overdrive, seeing what happened, tried to run; Sprig leaped onto him and hit him quickly and often. Spring quickly yanked the fork from the lift and bent it around the man. It was difficult for him but not impossible, and seeing what the man had done, he was motivated; he wasn't going to let him just run. After that he ran towards Anne, he didn't know what he could do but if he could.
"No, no, no," Anne was in a mild panic. "She's not breathing; someone call an ambulance!" Anne had some basic first aid training; he parents thought they should all have some working in the restaurant. Anne looked for a pulse not finding, "Okay, CPR, staying alive, staying alive."
Anne sang to herself, and she started chest compressions, "Come on, come on, come on," Anne continued to sing to herself; they told her to stay in rhythm.
Tiffany's body twitched, and a gasp escaped her lips; she still didn't open her eyes.
Anne's mind was screaming at her; she couldn't let this girl die.
"Okay, the construction is going to slow things down. Police are coming! Ambulance! They won't make it in time!" She took out her phone and tossed it at Sprig, "Find the nearest hospital! Emergency room!"
"Got it!"
Spring had gotten used to using the phone; he liked watching TV shows while Anne was at school. He would also use it to direct Anne while swinging toward crimes.
Anne carefully placed the girl on her back. She could make her whole body stick to anything, so it wasn't hard, but she still wrapped her arms around her. Sprig jumped onto her head.
"Got it!"
"Lead the way!"
Spider-Frog was already running out of the building and shooting webs into buildings.
Several influencers were already uploading the footage. On the crashed stream, Giffany's chat was in an uproar, having heard her scream; every once in a while, a distorted screaming image of the vtuber would flash on their stream.
In the distance, they could hear sirens.
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Ford was looking through files when she saw Spider-Frog swinging by. He wasn't in the best shape but quickly made his way downstairs. He had to try to get any answers if there was any chance.
He reached the bottom through the emergency entrance to hear the doors kicked open, "Help, please!"
A doctor and some nurses rushed to her side, bringing a gurney over to take the unconscious young woman from her.
"What happened?"
Her voice broke, "There- there- she was electrocuted. Her heart stopped. I- I- I got it going again, but she's hurt. Please help her!"
The doctor took her and gave an order to prep a room for her, "We will do everything we can."
Anne wanted to run after them as they rolled Tiffany away, the same images of a hurt Marcy flashing in her head. She wanted to follow, she wanted to help, she wanted to undo this whole thing, but she couldn't help. She turned away and ran out, shooting a web upwards.
Ford could have tried to stop her, but he found pause; her voice broke. Spider-Frog was just a girl, and she was crying; she was going through things that no child should go through.
Ford decided to get on the phone. Something just happened, and he needed to know more.
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Anne sat on the roof of a building watching the hospital; her body was curled up, her knees to her chest.
"Anne, we should go soon. Your parents will get worried."
"I know, just let's wait five more minutes." Anne had her phone beside her, hoping to hear any news about the girl's condition.
She kept flashing to find Marcy buried; the thought made her chest tight and hard to breathe.
0000
Ford thought he would need to work harder to find answers; he didn't expect one of the doctors to ask his thoughts on the test. Ford did tell them he wasn't a medical doctor; he had some familiarity with the human body and its working but not in practice.
"I don't know," Ford said, something he rarely said.
The tests they ran, the EKG, the MRI, and a dozen tests all seemed strange.
"Her brain is running too much electricity; she should be seizing; her heart should have gone into cardiac arrest."
"She should, she isn't, and her brain scans, no one in this hospital has seen anything like it. Do you have any idea?"
"The girl is in a coma; she shouldn't have this kind of activity, nothing close to this. I've seen scans of people struck by lightning, and it's nothing like this. It- it's like- something familiar." Ford sighed; there was something very familiar about how these scans came out. They almost looked like - no, that isn't possible. Except-
"Electro."
"What?"
"The project of a brilliant man named Professor Philo Zog. I need to get some files to compare."
0000
The prison transport bus moved along the desert, and there wasn't even a view as night clouded everything in black. The three would-be villains were sore and grumbling as they were handcuffed to their seats. Overdrive was the only one still in the suit; everyone else had it removed and only because they could take it off.
Their guard looked at the horizon when several lights flashed up.
"I think we got company; I'll call it in."
"Don't worry about it," The driver told him before he turned the wheel suddenly.
The vehicle swerved and fell to its side.
Several black cars stopped at the overturned vehicle; the guard climbed out and tried to have them down. A shot rang out in the dark, and the man fell. Behind him, holding a gun, was the driver.
A large man exited the front black car, "Good work, William.
"Thank you, sir."
Men walked out of the cars and began pulling the men out.
The driver pulled out a bag that held their suit and handed it to the men he quickly uncuffed.
The three men gulped as they stood before the Kingpin.
Andrias smiled at them, "Don't look so scared, boys; you have done well."
He motioned to Yunan, brought a large black bag filled with money, and tossed it to them.
"Now the official story will be because of that suit Overdrive- that's what you are going with, correct?"
"Yes, sir."
"You could manipulate the transport vehicle enough, causing it to turn over. In all the Chaos, you three escaped your confines and stole a gun, killing the poor guard. His family will receive full benefits, and he will get an award posthumously. Very sad." He didn't sound sad, "And you three beat poor William unconscious- which reminds me. William."
"I understand, sir,"
"Good man, I'll ensure your chief gives extra time off with pay."
William moved to the side where Andria's men began to beat him, all to make it look real.
The three men looked on in horror.
Andrias smiled, "Now, boys, take the car in the back. The paperwork is in the glove compartment, along with fake IDs for all of you. Now, I suggest you boys leave town and keep a low profile for a long time."
They said their thanks and quickly ran into the car.
They weren't master criminals; they were trying to get the gadgets and things from the Triplet Tinkers but didn't have the money. Andrias found out and made them an offer: he'd pay for their items and give them a payout.
Andrias returned to his car and looked at the news on his tablet. His stocks were diving; no one blamed him. Andrias had found a nice warm light for mankind to share, and what was he supposed to do about three crazed men trying to steal it? He wasn't upset; this would blow over in time, and he'd do an interview showing he was upset that all the work was gone. The truth was that the Zapapedes were a dead end; they were hard to produce and could only be made via the samples from the gem, which were limited. It was just not cost-effective or practical. That was one of the reasons he sabotaged it. The other was an experiment he was working on.
He called Olivia, "Oliva Stromm, please update me on the project."
Olivia's voice sounded tired, not that she didn't always sound tired, "Confusing, sir. We bought off the right people to the hospital, and the blood samples lined up with Frakes' predictions. Though the young woman is still in a coma."
"Well, I suppose it was to be expected, electrocuted and all."
"That's the thing, her brain waves are not of someone in a coma; they seem active and similar to the Overdrives suit control system."
"So you did look over the triplet's designs."
"Yes, they aren't without their talent. I need to do some more research before I finalize my findings."
"Sum up your theory."
"Her body is healing rapidly, and her mind is active. I just don't think it's where it should be."
0000
The streaming site was having a rough day; one of their biggest streamers was electrocuted on live stream, and since then, they have been having severe issues. People were already claiming that she had died and were haunting the site; she wasn't dead, as the news site reported.
One of the techs turned on a screen; one of the issues was that the streamer's channel was still active, and they couldn't shut it down. What was worse, people claimed her model would randomly start moving, and some swore it screamed.
They looked at the screen and saw the model staring at them, their mouth moving as if to scream, pounding against the screen.
A screech and distorted words came out, "Let me out!"
Author's Notes: I don't have a lot to say, Its late here and i'm tired. I might update this later if I can think of something to say but for now just getting going. Please review and tell me what you guys think and like.