Spider-Bat: New Way Home

Chapter Nine: Changes

Despite what everyone in the mission control tower had witnessed, the government made them all swear to secrecy not to tell anyone about what had transpired. At that point the news channels had only covered the launch itself, and as far as the world needed to know, the Space Shuttle Discovery 13 was on its way to Mars.

Keeping J. Jonah Jameson quiet was the hardest part of all. Not only was he the editor-in-chief of the Daily Bugle, but his son, John Jameson, was also the Captain for the space shuttle mission… which was now lost in space, possibly somewhere near planet Neptune. The government also went to the extremes of detaining J.J. and taking away his cell phone for several hours, or at least until the Daily Bugle had already printed the story that J.J. had told them to print earlier that day; the one that would read, John Jameson- National Hero And First Man On Mars. J.J. would most likely not want to write a retraction anyway; and it still gave his son the recognition J.J. wanted him to have. And- as long as the government could convince him that they could get his son back, he would most likely be willing to play along.

Bruce, Reed, and Victor were given permission to leave immediately because the Discovery 13 only had enough resources to last a year; maybe seventeen months if they managed to ration their supplies.

Reed thought it would be best if they drew up all the plans for the rescue mission back at his newest laboratory, which was located in the Baxter building in Manhattan. Reed chose that building because it was thirty-five stories tall and he could see everything when he gazed out the window, though his dreams and imagination stretched much farther than that, further out than anyone's eyes could possibly see.

He had already been working on a prototype starship, one that could hold up to Banner's worm-hole equation, readying himself and his team to fly amongst the stars one day, which seemed to be happening a bit sooner than he had originally planned.

There were already two other members on his team; a pilot- and long time friend- by the name of Ben Grimm, and a smart woman, who also happened to be Reed's love interest, Sue Storm; now having Banner and Doom come on board made five total. Plus, Sue always had her twelve year old, smart, yet full of himself, brother hanging around the lab. Every-now-and-then Johnny's smug remarks would get under Ben's thick skin, but Ben would just tune him out by placing a couple small rocks in his own ears. Due to Ben's stocky appearance, Johnny had already nicknamed him Rockhead anyway.

Reed was glad that Victor chose to mostly finance the mission himself. Reed had his own money, but most of it was wrapped up in the Baxter building and his starship project. There would have been no way he could have afforded the Gamma-technology Bruce was working on as well.

The whole team knew it would take at least six months to get everything set up for the launch, and that would mean working around the clock. Since Bruce would be staying in Manhattan, he would have to entrust the Sterns brothers to handle setting up the two Gamma-blasters back at the military base. Bruce would send them specific calculated data, and the Sterns brothers would apply the math accordingly to the blasters. His only worry was the fact that they would now have to handle twice the amount of Gamma-radiation; because it would take one Gamma-blast big enough to make it to the SSD13, and another blast big enough to make it back home.

Bruce would also have to help figure out a way to prepare Reed's starship, so that it could travel faster than that of six worm-holes combined; and Bruce already knew one worm-hole could go as fast as light speed. Six times its speed would be over FOUR BILLION miles per hour. He was counting on Reed to come up with the inertia sequence for those types of high speeds.

Reed also had some brilliant ideas of how to keep the ship protected. Any ship going that fast would need to have a malleable barrier, one that could absorb the vibrating impact of six times that of light speed, and they hoped his stretchy substance could hold up to the challenge. In fact, the two rocks that Ben kept in his ears were covered with Reed's invention. That was why they worked so well to block out Johnny's smug comments.

Johnny would do other things to get to Ben. Sometimes he would hold a lighter to the back of his neck just to see how many seconds it would take for Ben's thick skin to finally feel it. He had made it to about ten seconds once, but after Ben finally felt the extreme heat, he chased Johnny around the room, yelling out, "It's Clobberin' time!"

The crew also had to worry about the strange anomaly that had occurred during the Discovery 13 mission- where the worm-hole closed up prematurely, possibly caused by the drag of something much bigger coming through from the opposite direction. They still didn't know what the skull-shaped figure was. Plus, after bringing up newer images of the anomaly, they could almost swear the gigantic skull had tentacles dragging below it. It wasn't until the crew was about six months in, nearing completion- when one of them would finally find out what it was.

It happened back in New Mexico, at the military base where the Sterns brothers were doing their last bit of prepping for the Gamma-blasters.

Phillip sat at his computer station running the number sequences for the last bit of Gamma-radiation they needed for completion, while at the same time, Samuel was down below the platform installing the components which would strategically hold the Gamma emissions in place. This was the most dangerous part of the job because it put Samuel very close to the radiated storage containers. Although Samuel was being safe, wearing a biohazard suit, if enough Gamma-radiation leaked out, it would eat through his suit within minutes of exposure.

Suddenly, in the middle of one of the timing sequences, there was a heavy knock on the door. In walked Head of Research Emil Blonsky. Emil was formerly a British Royal Marine before transferring to General Ross's special unit.

"Phillip Sterns!" Emil called out, gazing around the large science lab.

Phillip stepped out from behind his computer desk. "Yes?" he answered, wondering why his name was being called.

"General Ross would like to have a word with you!" Emil spouted.

Phillip was still confused. "Since when does General Ross need me?" he thought to himself. "Can it wait? We are in the middle of an important process. We are handling quite a bit of radiation here," he yelled out.

Emil stood strong. "It is URGENT!" he insisted. "I need you to come with me right now."

Phillip paused the sequence and yelled down at Samuel. "Hey! Apparently General Ross needs to see me! I paused the sequence for now! Just hold tight! I'll be right back!"

Samuel stared down at the container of Gamma-radiation he was holding in his hand. "Can't you just unpause the sequence and let me finish up on this last one!?

"No, it's too dangerous! Just sit tight! I'll be right back!"

"Fine!" Samuel hollered back, watching as the two of them left the building.

Samuel sat there for a few seconds. Then, the seconds seemed to turn into a few minutes. "What the hell is taking him so damn long?"

After a couple more minutes went by, Samuel decided he didn't want to wait any longer. "Screw it! I only have this last one to install, and then I can get out of this damn suit for today!" he declared, walking up the steps to the computer station and restarting the timing sequence.

He then had to make it back down in a hurry because the timing sequence would be opening up a chamber to transfer the Gamma-radiation from the canister to the blaster. If the timing was off, it could throw off the entire equation for opening a black hole; and they didn't have enough radiation to mess that up. Plus, Samuel thought he could show his brother how easily he could finish up without his help.

However, upon trying to rush back down, he accidentally snagged his biohazard suit on the edge of the computer desk, tearing a hole in the suit, and completely causing the computer desk to fall over in the process.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Samuel cursed repeatedly, looking down at a now busted computer.

He then looked down towards the Gamma-blaster. "I can do this," he encouraged himself. "All I have to do is place the canister in the chamber and we're home free."

After making it back down, he grabbed the canister and placed it between two rolling gears. Because the gears were timed, he would have to wait for the exact second to insert the canister. He had the countdown in his head.

"10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3…"

Suddenly, before he could count down to the number 2, the crank-shaft sharply spun unexpectedly, pinning Samuel's arm in the machine, also causing him to drop the canister in between two gears. He would have to get the canister out of there quickly before the crank-shaft managed to spin again. If not, it would get crushed, allowing Gamma-radiation to contaminate the entire building, possibly the entire military base.

Samuel started trying to slowly wiggle his arm, hoping he could figure out a good enough angle to pull it out. Just as he started to feel his arm coming free, the crank-shaft tried to spin again.

"AAAARRRRGGGG!" Samuel bellowed in agony, his arm now the only thing stopping the machine from crushing the canister, wedged in between the two gears, and crushing him.

He knew once his arm gave out that the canister would bust and that would guarantee certain death for him.

He then put his other arm inside, grabbing hold of the gear with his usable hand, hoping he could hold it until someone came to his rescue. But it was to no avail-

The crank-shaft broke through, crushing the rest of Samuel's arm and simultaneously crushing the other hand that he had just placed on the gear. But… Worst of all… The canister had also been crushed, sending green Gamma-radiation spewing all over the inside of the Gamma-blaster and onto Samuel's biohazard suit.

He was stuck. There was no way for him to survive what was happening. He could already feel the sting of the radiation as it seeped its way into the area of the suit that he snagged on the computer desk moments ago.

A few minutes later, the suit was beginning to dissolve, and Samuel could feel the heat coming through its piercings. At first the feeling was intense pain, but soon it almost became numbing, and he knew he was about to die.

Suddenly, time itself seemed to have stopped. Samuel thought that he must be in some state of Nirvana. That's because time didn't matter to him anymore. His time was up.

That was when he heard an ominous voice speak out. "Samuel Sterns. My name is Brainiac. I am going to save your life, and then I am going to give you the greatest gift that any human could ever hope for… KNOWLEDGE. More knowledge than any man has ever had on the face of this planet. You will be a leader amongst men," Brainiac proclaimed. "Normally, no mere mortal could absorb this much information, however, thanks to the amount of Gamma-radiation your body has absorbed, you will now be able."

Brainiac ripped off what was left of Samuel's biohazard helmet, and then placed his cold, green fingertips on Samuel's forehead. Just then, Samuel's head began to swell up with infinite wisdom as his eyes turned a bright green. He could see as far back as time itself, and he could imagine all the possibilities of the future. He was suddenly smarter than any man he had ever known.

Brainiac removed his fingertips. He could see Samuel's green eyes rapidly moving back-and-forth with thoughts of brilliant ideas rushing to his brain. "I will allow you to live for as long as you remain loyal to only me." Brainiac warned him. "You will help me absorb all the knowledge of this planet, and we will conquer it together."

Samuel started nodding his head up and down very slowly, acknowledging that he would go along with Brainiac's plans, his eyes still rapidly fluttering with visions.

Meanwhile… Phillip Sterns was confused because Emil had taken him to a bunker to speak to General Ross, but after entering, the place was completely empty and General Ross was nowhere to be found. "I thought you said the General needed to speak with me." He grumbled, turning to face Emil. "I have important work to attend t-"

Phillip was shocked when suddenly he witnessed Emil's face begin to shape-shift into something completely different. It was now face-less, almost manikin-like.

Two eyes opened up on the all-white face, and then a grin formed from out of nowhere. "My name is Chameleon… And you are now my prisoner," he declared, pointing a gun at Phillip, and then pulling the trigger.

THWIP! A dart shot out, embedding itself into Phillip's chest.

Phillip could feel himself becoming paralyzed immediately.

He soon fell to the floor, and was rendered unconscious.

The Chameleon picked him up and began carrying him to a jeep which was parked behind the bunker. "Norman Osborn has some important work he needs you to assist with," he proclaimed, tossing Phillip over his shoulders and into the backseat of the jeep.

Thank you for reading my story thus far. If you have time, please read my friend's story, titled "Ghost Bat Spirit of Vengeance" by Barbatos76.