Spider-Bat: New Way Home
Chapter Four: Leaving on a Jet Plane
Richard and Mary stood in the Foyer holding baby Peter one last time before leaving for the airfield. It was impossible for Mary to hold back the tears knowing she had only spent so little time with him thus far. Richard tried comforting her the best he could, though he too was trying hard to stay strong, holding back tears of his own.
"We have to go, Mary," Richard sadly spoke, lightly touching Mary's shoulder. "The longer we stay here- the longer we put Peter and the Wayne family in danger."
Mary swallowed the lump in her throat, and then gently handed Peter off to Martha. "Peter is a special boy. Please take good care of him. We will find a way to get him after we know it's safe enough to do so."
Richard placed his hand on Peter's hand, allowing Peter to wrap his little fingers around Richard's index finger. "Be good, son. We love you." Richard said softly.
Then the two of them left for the airfield. They drove away in the same unmarked car they kept hidden in a wooded area behind Wayne Manor.
Upon arrival, the two of them were shocked to see who came down the steps of the plane to greet them.
"I'm so glad to see that you two are still okay!" Carl Brock spoke loudly due to the fact that the plane's engine was whirring so close to them. "I've been on the run for the last six months as well! I'm going with you guys!"
"Where is your wife and child!?" Richard loudly spoke back. "How did you know we would be here!?"
"They are-" Carl was about to speak, but the plane engine began whirring even louder than before. "I'LL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING ONCE WE GET ON THE PLANE!" He projected as loudly as he could.
The three of them quickly made it up the steps, and as soon as they boarded the plane Carl shut the door. He then knocked on the door to the cockpit to let the pilot know it was okay to take off.
The inside of Wayne's private jet was very luxurious. The seats were leather and there was ample space between them. Each seat had a nice table sitting in front of it. And there was enough room to seat eight people comfortably if they so desired. There was a drink station that held several different beverages. It even had a sink in the main cabin area. Towards the back on the left was a closet for hanging coats, and on the right was a restroom.
"Shall I take your coat, Little Miss Prego?" Carl asked Mary, offering to hang her coat in the closet.
"No thanks. I'm still a bit chilly." Mary replied.
"How about you, Big Daddy?" Carl pointing at Richard's sport coat.
"Sure." Richard replied, pulling his jacket off, handing it over to Carl.
Mary glanced back as Carl opened the closet. As Carl reached for a hanger, Mary's eyes widened. What she saw even caused her to start trembling a bit. She tried quietly tapping Richard to get his attention, but he was still trying to get adjusted in his seat. Just when he finally noticed she was trying to get his attention, Carl turned back around, causing Mary to stop seeking Richard's attention for the moment.
Carl sat down in front of them, and then he swiveled his seat around to face the two of them. "So… You guys asked me where my wife and child are. They are safe. I left them with someone I can trust," he finally replied, answering Richard's question from earlier. "I'm going with you guys so that I can assure their safety… and yours' as well."
"How did you know we were here?" Richard asked again.
"It wasn't easy. I first found out that you and Thomas Wayne used to be friends in college. I figured it was a long-shot, but I decided to stake out the area, see if the two of you might happen to stroll down Mountain Drive one day. Then, about three weeks ago, I couldn't believe my eyes when I actually saw one of you driving past me. It was Mary. She had on a wig, sunglasses, and a giant hat, but I knew it was her. So… I followed her. I also couldn't believe my eyes when she got out of the car at the local pharmacy. She's pregnant!? I said to myself. The cure must have worked! I thought we lost it."
"We did lose it. I'm not sure how I am pregnant." Mary responded.
"What did you guys tell the Waynes? I'm sure he had to have something to say about all this." Carl inquired, putting his ear out a little closer.
"We told them-" Richard started to say.
But Mary quickly spoke over him. "-We told them we stole something from Oscorp, and that we were afraid we were going to go to jail, so we burned down our house and tried faking our own deaths. They didn't even know we were there at first because we were hiding out in an abandoned mine shaft about a mile or so from the manor. We only recently went to them because we were running out of supplies and we had nowhere else to turn."
Richard was confused about why Mary was acting so peculiar, making up an entirely fake story to tell Carl.
Carl tilted his head. "Ah. That explains why you disappeared while I was trying to follow you back from the pharmacy. You must have turned off on a hidden road or something."
"Why wouldn't you just confront me at the store?" Mary retorted.
"I couldn't take the chance. I knew Norman would be looking for us, especially after I saw on the news what happened to your home. I was so happy to hear they didn't find your bodies. That's immediately when I got my own affairs in order, and then went out trying to find you guys."
"You still haven't told us how you knew we would be here." Richard piped up.
"I saw it on the flight charter." Carl replied. "It said there was a flight for two scheduled. I figured it must be you guys… or at least I was hoping so."
Carl then got up out of his seat. "I'm going to go check and see if the pilot needs anything. I'll be right back."
As soon as Carl stepped into the cockpit Richard asked Mary what she was being so jumpy about.
"Did you see the jacket that was hanging in the closet?" Mary whispered.
"No. What about it?"
"It was gray."
"Okay… And?"
"It is the same gray sport coat that the masked man was wearing the night Norman tried having us killed. Plus, Alfred said the gentleman who knocked on the manor earlier today was wearing a gray three piece suit."
"That's preposterous, dear. Carl is in the same predicament we are in. It is probably just a coincidence."
"I'm telling you-" Mary was about to reiterate her point, but Carl came back out, causing her to quiet down again."
After Carl sat back down, Richard began studying Carl's clothes. He couldn't help but notice the similarities between Carl's build and the masked man who tried to kill them; not to mention, his hands had a bit of blood on them. "So… Carl? Did the pilot need anything?" Richard inquired.
"Nope. He's basically flying it on autopilot as we speak." Carl smirked, knowing the pilot was dead.
"How were you able to find out that me and Thomas were old colleagues? And how is it that you are able to see all the different flight charts?"
Before Carl could start talking, Richard took out his cell phone and began typing.
"What are you doing? There isn't any cell service up here. We are 40,000 feet in the sky." Carl asked.
"I'm… I'm just texting Thomas, letting him know we boarded the plane okay. There are other things he should know about and I feel bad for lying to him. I should text him and tell him what really happened," Richard casually tried responding. "I know it won't transmit until after we get closer to landing, but at least I could get it done now."
CLICK! The cocking sound of a gun could be heard.
"I don't think you want to do that." Carl warned, pointing the gun directly at Richard, quickly reaching out and snatching the phone from out of his hand.
"Why, Carl? You know Norman is going to kill you as soon as you kill us. Why would you work for him?" Richard scowled.
"YOU IDIOT!" Carl exclaimed. "I'VE BEEN WORKING FOR NORMAN THE ENTIRE TIME!"
"What?"
"Do you really think I just happened upon you guys in the parking garage? Carl rhetorically asked. "Norman and I have been working together from the jump. It's Octavius who doesn't have any clue as to what's going on."
"But… Why? What was the purpose of all this?" Mary wanted to know.
"Because… The government found out about Banner and Osborn's deal to exchange funding for a sample of the alien compound, and they were wanting to take the alien sample back… by any means necessary. That is why Norman was so eagerly wanting to discover what type of potential the alien compound held; he had the synthetic super-serum which just-so-happens to have the ability to advance any organic growth within months instead of years. Norman knew Banner wouldn't get anywhere with it because Banner was much more interested in his Gamma Ray project than anything else at the time. Norman knew about Mary's condition; about how her fallopian tubes were damaged, and he knew you guys would come crawling to him soon enough… Especially after you found out about Norman's wife somehow being able to get pregnant. He knew you would have pointed out Subject P; suggesting somehow that must've been how it happened, knowing Subject P showed major results in the reproduction stage; BUT HOW WRONG YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN!" Carl declared, almost chuckling as he thought about it. "If you would have used a sample from Project P, your baby would have come out looking like a giant larva, eventually busting out of it would have been a bunch of baby spiders. HA!" He finally couldn't hold in the laugh, especially after hearing himself say it out loud.
Mary and Richard remembered the way the amniotic sac looked after it was removed, the way it resembled a black larva, asking themselves, "Is that what is going to come out of it?"
Mary acted as if she was grabbing her stomach, still pretending she was pregnant. Acting as if she had the thought of spiders coming out of her.
"Don't worry." Carl waved the gun in Mary's direction. "You won't be hatching little spiders. The alien symbiote that formed itself to you was much more advanced than the arachnid's. The alien DNA that now possesses your body is combined with human DNA. It is now evolving even further in your stomach as we speak. Imagine how happy Norman was when he found out his test-sample was still intact."
"How do you know it was the alien DNA that allowed me to get pregnant?" Martha piped up. "How do you know I wasn't just given the wrong diagnosis from the start?"
"Because… Who do you think created your condition in the first place?" Carl informed her, "heh heh heh," chuckling at Mary's naivety. "Norman had an invisible gas floating throughout your lab. It was the gas which caused your fallopian tubes to close in on themselves. Norman already knew what would happen because he had already tested out his theory once before."
"Oh my God. Is that what he did to his wife? Did he force her hand as well?"
"We had it all planned out sooo perfectly. We were going to have you guys steal the sample, then tell the government what had happened, which would have made it look as if our hands were clean of the alien compound. It would have eventually led directly to you guys, but Norman and I would've already retrieved it from your house before the government could have. I too was devastated when I saw that the test-tube had been broken… thanks to this buffoon feeding the damn bat!" Carl waved his gun back over towards Richard. "But I couldn't tell Norman about the test-tube getting broken during the skirmish, or he probably would have killed me. No… I had to play it off as if the plan was still in motion. He didn't find out about the mishap until you guys informed him. I was able to play it off as if I didn't know. What I couldn't figure out though, is how you guys managed to get out of the burning house. The knockout gas should have rendered you unconscious for hours. That is when I realized that somehow the alien compound had in fact bound itself to you after the glass was busted; and it must have been what saved the two of you. At that point I began searching your backgrounds, and discovered how close Richard and Thomas were back in the day. Seeing that he was the closest friend either one of you have, other than Ben and May Parker that is, though we had their house staked out right away, but you two were smart enough to stay away, we figured it was worth a shot to look around near the manor. Other than the Waynes' limo, our traffic cameras finally did pick up on a tan-colored Audi as it came off of Mountain Drive. Eventually I managed to follow you about three weeks ago as you were heading into town. I truly couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Mary entering the pharmacy to purchase prenatal vitamins. Her disguise was good, but I knew it was her. Norman was also enthusiastic about the discovery because this meant one of his test samples was already in progress; I'd say about six months in the process, wouldn't you?"
"I AM NOT ONE OF OSBORN'S LAB RATS!" Mary exclaimed.
"What is it Norman is hoping to get from us?" Richard demanded to know.
"Norman needs Mary and her baby, but… We don't need anything… from you!" Carl replied, inching the gun a little closer to Richard.
Suddenly, Mary's head began buzzing, she knew Carl was going to shoot Richard. Mary instinctively jumped in front of Richard, when-
BANG! The gun went off.
Richard caught Mary after the blast of the gun pushed her into his arms. He could see that she was shot directly in the chest.
Carl was stunned by how quickly Mary reacted. He definitely did not want Mary to die. "SHIT!" He knew Norman would kill him for sure now.
"Fuck it!" Carl huffed. He then stood up, went to the closet, and retrieved a parachute from out of it. "I guess I'm just going to have to make it look like we all died in a terrible plane crash. But first, you die!" He declared, pointing the gun directly at Richard's head.
However, just as he was about to pull the trigger, a heavy jolt of turbulence suddenly caused Carl to stumble backwards. In that moment, Richard pushed Mary to the side and lunged at Carl, grabbing a hold of the wrist that was holding the gun.
BANG! One shot ricocheted off the roof of the cabin.
BANG! Another shot pierced through one of the windows, causing the cabin to depressurize. Soon the bullet hole became a gaping hole as the suction ripped the cabin wall apart, sucking out any items that happened to be loose. The depressurization also caused the plane to start nose diving.
Richard managed to grab hold of one of the captain's chairs, but Carl wasn't so lucky and he began drifting towards the suction. He tried grabbing hold of Mary's limp body, but that only made them both start to get sucked out.
Richard reached out and grabbed a hold of Mary's arm right before the two of them could be flung out. Most of Carl's body was dangling out of the plane, making it even harder for Richard to hold on. Finally the suction was too much for Carl, causing him to lose his grip. Richard watched as Carl quickly drifted away, finally allowing him enough strength to pull Mary closer.
Richard could barely move because the g-forces of the diving plane was keeping his body pressed against his seat, and he knew if he couldn't get control of the plane soon, they would surely be dead within a few seconds.
Suddenly, Richard began to feel something strange happening to his body. Two sharp objects felt like they were ripping through his skin, wanting to protrude from out of his shoulder blades. His fingers began growing longer, and his facial bone structure was shifting into something more animalistic. At the same time his ears were growing to a long sharp point and his teeth were doing the same. His hair changed into fur, until finally-
"ARGH!" Richard screeched in pain as two gigantic bat wings busted from out of his skin.
Richard transformed, now resembling a giant bat creature, and feeling stronger than ever, picked up Mary, and then leapt from out of the plane through the gaping hole, managing to hover above as the plane crashed down into the ocean.