Everyone was gathering over a portable TV in The Daily Bugle, all watching the news. The son of JJ, the astronaut, was coming back to earth today. It was a big deal and everybody was having their fingers crossed he'd be landing safe and sound.
In a great surprise during the mission, the astronauts discovered a mysterious rock named Promethium X. It was supposed to be a powerful source of energy. Had the potential for world changing effects for a brand new power source. The kind that could bring out the worst types of characters.
Peter was silently speaking to Foswell about everything that happened with The Sin Eater and Eddie Brock, as a decision was also made that day about his working status.
"He was fired?"
Mr. Foswell nodded. "I'm afraid JJ wasn't at all happy obviously. He wasn't in a very forgiving mood, Brock was already on his last legs. Feel horrible for the guy."
"He wasn't exactly an angel." Peter replied, not feeling as sympathetic.
"Eddie didn't exactly deserve it, he had a mouth to feed. I understand his plight, we're going to pitch him some money until he gets back on his feet. Even JJ agreed to help out." Foswell continued saying.
With a sigh Peter nodded. "I'll try scrapping up some money for him."
"I could donate for you, it's alright. Know how tight your money situation is too. You should be keeping your money, not trying to imply you should give any if you can't."
"Thank you Mr. Foswell. It helps a lot." Peter replied, then both turned their attention back to the tv.
JJ was looking concerned as it reported about a problem with the ship.
"We've gotten word that an unknown disturbance has occurred, we'll be keeping everyone up to date as soon as we hear more. It's unclear if this will affect the landing."
Everyone looked concerned, most of all JJ for his son praying even for a safe landing as they did, Peter made certain he'd be ready to rush out as soon as anymore reports were had, he'd do whatever it'd take to help.
Elsewhere, more devious characters were keeping tabs on the news, one being Hammerhead. He wasn't doing so hot in life recently. After his arrest, this time he went back underground hoping to hide out from all the other big players. Primarily Tomestone who wasn't happy with him pulling a ghost act. Fortunately for himself, he had a lot of loyal thugs who worked for him. Lesser on the fornate side of things, money was starting to dry up and this latest scheme happened to be a big spender. While also having the chance for a major payout. Stealing the rock, Promethium X. Even if it meant attacking a heavily protected place, this guy would do it.
Hammerhead turned to his hired gun. "You only get paid, assuming those pin heads can even land the shuttle!"
"Fair enough deal, let's hope they land. I'd really enjoy us both getting rich." The man replied, crossing his arms. "What's the game plan after huh? You get all that money, a guy like you is going to want to spend too large time!"
"Watch that tongue! You better think more carefully when speaking!" Hammerhead snapped at him.
The man looked at him. "A thick head won't do much, if I chose to drown you." Hydro Man responded not looking phased. "I want out of this stinking city, no part in your inevitable gangwar! No, I'm leaving as soon as you pay up."
"Come on, could use a guy of your power! Think about it? More money and a damn fine shot at killing Spider-Man! He locked you up in the first place!"
"True, he did. That little nuisance, I'd enjoy taking him out and some more money." Hydro Man admitted.
"Great to hear, see. I'm going to be running this town. That all is hinged on you getting me that damn rock!" Hammerhead smirked.
Then on the news, a change was happening.
"This just in! The shuttle is out of control! We've got word, worst case scenario it could crash into the george washington bridge or the water! Recommending everyone to get out of that area now!"
Hammerhead turned to Hydro Man. "Sounds like a perfect opportunity for you." He smiled sinisterly, as his asset headed out.
Elsewhere, Eddie Brock was at home, listening to the news and got ready to head out.
"You can't be serious! Reporting on that story is insanely dangerous? And why would your old boss even care! Think about yourself!" His wife Anne yelled at him.
"We need the money, you know that!" Eddie replied.
"Get a job at a grocery store! Something besides this! You need to accept it Eddie, I'm sorry but your reputation is ruined. Please, just think." She pleaded.
Eddie shook his head. "Being a reporter is my dream job!"
She grabbed his hand. "I know it is Eddie, you can get it back. Not at The Bugle, but you'll be able to live that dream again. Just have patience, besides. You've been under so much pressure. Could be good for you, I remember when you used to have fun. I want to see that Eddie again." Anne replied to him.
"You're right Anne, I'm sorry. Bet you miss when I used to be more cheerful huh? Alright, I'll stay put. I promise. No more trouble." He said genuinely and smiled a bit.
"That's the smile I missed seeing." She smiled back.
"Me too. Yours that is. Brighter than the sun. I'm sure our son will be getting his smile from you." Eddie remarked feeling more cheerful than usual.
They hugged feeling better for now.
Back at The Bugle, Peter was now starting to creep away. Which was easy enough as anyone was glued to the screen. Insepted for JJ who argued with Robbie about taking a helicopter out there to find his son himself.
Peter rushed to the roof and suited up swinging off the building, heading towards the potential crash site. Gotta move it, now, now. A spaceship is falling down. Not exactly was something I ever dreamed of dealing with. Least of all JJ's son! I wonder what could've possibly caused them to go off course? This isn't good, at all! Good grief, could an alien have attacked? Some sabotage, man made? Whatever the case, what's the plan here Peter? Doubt a web is going to stop a falling spaceship! He reasoned and rushed as fast as he could, sitting on top of one of the tallest buildings keeping his eyes peeled for the shuttle.
Waiting for a couple minutes paid off, watching it come burning in from the atmosphere flying towards the bridge.
Spider-Man slapped his head. "I should've been making sure the bridge was clear!" He realized and rushed towards it checking now, while lacking a lot of time. Moving as fast as possible was critical right now, as he rushed to the bridge checking every car quickly to make sure it was cleared out, as the shuttle crashed into the bridge behind him. "I bet JJ would be having mixed feelings right about now!"
As he kept on searching as quickly as possible, the cost seemed clear. Now he leaped off the bridge webbing onto it watching the shuttle's destruction come to an end. Now it was safer to approach, he did exactly that, hopping back onto the bridge getting close to the ship seeing it was heavily damaged and a lot of cars were destroyed. "Really wishing I could've minimized some of this destruction. Doesn't matter, I need to check for survivors. I really hope everyone made it."
Spider-Man leaped aboard and ripped off the door heading inside. Finding strangely enough claw marks aboard. "What on earth? I joked about an alien, this better not turn into something out of a horror movie!" Looking around some more, a couple people were harmed but alive fortunately. "Hey, do you know where John Jameson is?"
"No, there was a monster. It, it. Claws." They said weakly and passed out.
"A monster? Okay, not egure to find out about that. Hopefully it's gone." Spider-Man looked around more carefully and discovered John with his space suit ripped apart, but he was still alive. "Thank heavens you're okay. Did you happen to see a monster? Some of the crew mentioned that. I mean not to mention, you're not looking so good. I need to get you all out of here."
"Monster? No, I don't remember anything. There was something." He grabbed his head. "Something was messin with my concentration and then, nothing. Until now." He then looked around. "We crashed, are my people okay?"
Spider-Man nodded and reached to pick him up. "Yes, everyone is alive. You crashed on the George Washington bridge. It's a miracle that everyone is okay. I'd say that's enough excitement for one day let's get you all out of here."
"Thank you Spider-Man, you probably know my father. I happen to disagree with him on his treatment of you. This only further proves it."
"Wow, that wasn't what I was expecting. That means a lot Mr. Jameson." Spidey replied surprised, knowing he was a kinder person, but not that he disagreed about his dad's stance on Spider-Man.
"Now, please get all my crew out first." He said genuinely, which Peter listened to.
He brought them all together and started taking them out onto the bridge, noticing the news helicopters. "Sure bring the news foke, an ambience? Na. National guard? No way!" He joked to himself while getting them to safety and felt his spider-sense go off before he could get John out. "What now?" He was answered by a blast of water knocking him into the ship, putting it closer to the edge.
"I was hoping to run into you, little freak." Hydro Man said looking pissed.
"Ah, great. You're not here to settle a score right now, are you?" Spider-Man asked.
"Of course not, I'm taking that rock. Stand back, or I'll be forced to kill you. Or maybe I'll kill the rest of these astronauts. Say, where's the hero? John Jameson? Would that be enough to back off?"
Spider-Man got into position. "No way I'm letting that happen."
"Not a wise decision, after all. Look where we are." He pointed out absorbing a lot of the water from the river below.
He sighed. "Good choices weren't ever my speciality."
"Certainly not." Hydro Man replied and started to grow in size blasting a lot of water at Spider-Man who wasn't ready for that kind of attack.
Quite frankly panicked by the freakiest monster blasting down a lot of water at him, he dogged for cover for a moment. Think. What can stop a living water source at the river? I don't think I like my answer. Really hoping for a superhero with fire or ice powers to show up now. We'd be amazing friends if they could please show up, right now! Spider-Man looked around and saw nothing, besides a giant amount of water coming right for him. Spider-sense went off naturally, unfortunately considering the size of the incoming blast it knocked him off the bridge along with a few cars. Quickly he webbed onto it, which didn't give a breather. As the water below started rising, making Spider-Man climb up his line as fast as Spider-Man could as he was almost pulled down into the depths. Okay, beating him isn't an option. Save the three astronauts first and get the rock only once everyone is safe. He sighed. My life is nothing short of a stressful mess! Now semi more determined he rushed into attack grabbing the two astronauts, while noticing the space ship was in danger of tipping into the water. "Come on! Hop aboard the Spidey express! Don't worry, no paying involved!" He joked and rushed them off the bridge as Hydro Man chased after him trying to blast them all into the water, managing to bring many automobiles into the river. Which Spidey felt bad for whoever would have to retrieve all those.
After a minute of nearly being knocked off the bridge, he managed to save the three of them, thankfully bringing them to an ambulance. "I'm grabbing one more, if I don't make it. Please send a search party, for both of us. Oh! And light The Avengers signal or something!" He exclaimed.
The paramedics looked at him like he was delirious.
"Ah, never mind." He sighed and headed off. Times like this I wish I had an mp3 player to listen to music. I mean my playmate won't even engage me in conversation! What would I even listen to? It started to rain, making the situation worse naturally. I'll take that as a sign not to listen to music? Or that I should be blessing the rain in Africa more. He joked very corny and rushed to the shuttle leaping aboard finding Hydro Man grabbing the rock.
"Hey, you know. I think I've changed my mind. I'll take John here and you can take the blasted rock if you really want it so badly!" Spider-Man suggested with a shrug.
Hydro Man moved out of the ship, which made Spider-Man sigh of relief as he grabbed John, only for his foe to return.
"I've made a change to my mind too. I've already got a life sentence if I'm caught and almost committed murder." He began saying.
Spider-Man slapped his face. "I don't like where this is going." He tried bring them out of the ship, but got knocked back.
"As I was saying, a couple more murders isn't so bad." He smiled.
"Kill me! Not John! Piss off jerk!" Spider-Man said getting more aggressive.
Hydro Man didn't listen as the ship got flooded with water and started to tip into the water creeping closer and did fall.
"How long can you hold your breath?" Spider-Man asked quickly.
"I'm an astronaut, a long time." He replied.
"Cool, cool. I can't." Spider-Man replied back and felt this could be the end. "Why did I have to fight a sand guy and then water man back to back?" He then wondered as the shuttle hit the water, starting to slowly sink.
"Sandman, right I heard about him." Hydro Man said, appearing in front of them. "Once I'm done here, I'll have to pay him a visit next."
Spider-Man tried using this chance to escape, managing to get them both out, before his enemy figured out what he was doing stopping them. In a last ditch effort, he sighed. "John I'm going to do something very stupid and insane, first chance I get I'm throwing you out of here!" Spider-Man said and tried desperately swimming around from Hydro Man who was all around them.
"You're not getting away." He said, trying to pull them both down.
"Here we go, I really am hoping you make it out of this John." Spidey said and prepared to use all his strength to throw him closer to the first responders.
"I hope you do too, Spider-Man." He replied.
Now with all his strength he managed to throw him forward, though saw him struggling to stay a float, as Spidey was being pulled down. He could breathe very well, everything seemed to get darker and hopeless. Help clearly wasn't coming, he was down below for minutes, he quite frankly wasn't sure how he was alive or why he felt a lot of strength still, trying to fight for his survival. It was almost like he wasn't even in control that moment, it felt like a dream. Or a nightmare.
Every ounce of him tried to fight, to stay alive. Fighting to swim out of the water, which he managed to do against all the odds. It was close to double the length he was under water while The Sin Eater tried to drown him. Peter quite frankly didn't know how he survived or how he managed to get himself back to shore. This is impossible, I should be dead. How did I survive that? He looked at his suit confused. And where did this black gunk come from? He wondered, trying to get it off, but found a pretty sticky staining part of his suit. It doesn't matter. I need to check on John, make sure he made it. I'll fix this later.
Spider-Man for now ignored the black substance on his suit, swinging across the bridge to check on the situation, figuring Hydro Man must've assumed he was a dead man.
Coming over, he found a soaking wet John Jameson with the paramedics working hard to keep him alive.
"Oh my god, did he almost drown?" Spider-Man asked.
Captain Watanabe was there and responded to him. "Divers only found him a minute ago, he was underwater for almost a few minutes. It'd be a miracle if he even survives."
"I tried to save him, Hydro Man. He did this, if not for him and being so close to the river. It could've gone differently. And he got that rock everyone's been talking about."
"We saw him. Bench's powers are highly dangerous around water, it's how he escaped from The Raft. His power was underestimated." She sighed. "We'll find him and make sure he's locked away for the rest of his miserable life. With any luck, we might not bring him in alive." She said that last sentence under her breath, but Spider-Man wasn't focused on that instead on John. Who still wasn't breathing, until they thankfully got him to breathe once more, taking him away.
Spider sighed in relief and swung off, heading home.
Elsewhere, Hydro Man seceded and delivered the Promethium X to Hammerhead.
"Yeah, this'll get us hard cold cash!"
"And remember my fee. Perhaps a bonus, for the death of Spider-Man." He said cocky.
Hammerhead looked pissed at him. "You dense? That web head freak is still alive! I heard he's swinging around just fine!"
"Unless he can breathe under water, there is no way he's still alive." Hydro Man said, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Maybe I hired the wrong guy, get out of my sight. I'll call you again, if I need you." Hammerhead said, looking closely at the rock and headed it over to a couple of his smarter goons.
Back at home, Spider-Man was exhausted and tossed his costume into his closet. Going to need a lot of washing for that! Yuck! He thought to himself heading down stairs seeing Aunt May watching TV. With JJ on the news.
"Spider-Man! That menace is finally showing off his true colors! My son, he's barely alive because of that wall crawler! He left him there to drown, an injured hero, what kind of heroic figure would do that? A villain would! Meanwhile he walks away from this great tragedy without any loss or pain! My son is now in a coma. All the while he's still Swinging around this city like it's his playground, mark my words! This can't last! That menace needs to be stopped once and for all!" JJ walked away from the reporters and Peter heard enough with a sigh.
"I'm going to head to bed now, Aunt May, tuckered out." Peter said and headed right up stairs not feeling about talking, having a lot of thoughts in his head. He nearly did die, I could've been faster. Another good man in a coma because of Spider-Man, not to mention The Bugle didn't know where I went. Let the bad guy win. Got my suit to clean. And I haven't even gotten any time to speak to MJ or my friends. That whole thing, it could've gone completely differently, if only I had more power. More time too. He thought to himself and went to sleep.
As he did, the black goo he ignored from his costume started to move creeping towards him. Of course, he didn't notice this being asleep, but by the time it reached him grabbing a hold, then he felt it. Only it was too late and he awoke in a different place looking into a window at a building upside down.
"Where am I?" Spider-Man wondered allowed, seeing himself in the window. Parker, how on earth did you end up in the middle of Manhattan hanging upside down in a costume you've never seen before!" He exclaimed upon seeing this mysterious new black suit on himself.
At long last, next up. The Alien Costume Part 1. I can't even believe I'm here honestly. This was more of set up for the following storyline, which will be in theory the most intense one yet. With great power, would require a great foe.
I took a lot of inspiration for the set up for the black suit. Mainly the 90's Spider-Man show which I do adore. Ironic how I refused to watch the episodes with Venom and Carnage, now I think they are some of my favorites. (Apart from the last two episodes, I didn't mind that) The series is owed a lot and that last line is ripped right from the first part of the story. I want to make it clear that it was intentional. It was a love letter to that series with all the parts taken and because it's just so classic, the rest of this story is going to play out much differently. That'll be clear next time.
Oh and no judgment to anyone who prefers their own take on the black suit story, everyone has their own favorite of course. The 90's one might not be the objective best one, hard to say. It is my favorite.
Moving on, I enjoyed using the power of Hydro Man. As far as I'm aware, he isn't this powerful in the comics, so I wanted to power him up here to pose a really dangerous threat to Spider-Man.
I'm really looking forward to what's coming now.
(All that was written almost a year ago…haha, I'm slow)
In Response To C.G
Thank you, from what I understand he's recovering now. I saw him a couple of weeks ago and he seemed better with just some permanent downsides unfortunately. I'm very sorry your mother lost one of her brothers and that's terrible you weren't able to go the funeral. I'm very sorry for that happening. Hope your mother is doing better now. And hopefully now the writer's strike has finally ended like people are saying that would be a positive. Okay, so update for Batwoman. I got back to work on it. I think I was making decent progress but unfortunately got sick again just seems to be the flu. Still definitely took away a few days of my writing. Anyways, I'm happy making progress again. I'm definitely more then halfway done with the response section now and the story part. So I've got my fingers crossed Season 3 can finally begin soon. I'm also hopeful if I get back on track I can get episode 2 finished soon too. As long as nothing else goes wrong in my life, I should be okay. Though I am supposed to start another anxiety medication apparently it won't affect my head anyways like the previous one did so that hopefully won't be a problem. Thanks for all the patience.