Post by Drake on Dec 16, 2014 17:42:39 GMT -5
#5: Rise of the Sinister Six Part 2
It’s a Small Spider-Verse After All
By Drake
“Please, don’t fight, Spider Totem. I promise I’ll make your death quick.”
Of all the wackjobs and superfreaks Spider-Man had fought, this guy easily took the Oscar for ‘Creepiest Bad Guy of the Year.’ His golden oldies sea diving helmet and weird 19th century suit were easily the least freaky things about him. His scratchy, echoing voice, and glowing pitchfork screamed Halloween horror villain…which made Spidey the blonde chick all alone in a graveyard.
Oh, how Spider-Man hated horror movies!
“Haven’t you heard?” Spidey back flipped to dodge what would have been a lethal blow. “That mask and those clothes are so two weeks ago!”
Spider-Man webbed up a door off the remains of a car and threw it at the monstrous man. Like he was batting a fly, the helmeted villain smacked the door away with his hand.
“After so long, after so many spider slayings, I’ve grown tired of the wit,” the villain mused.
“Listen, Mystery Machine, I don’t know where you came from, or who you are, but I can promise you there’s only one of me!” Spider-Man leapt towards the villain, readying a powerful kick, but instead found himself hanging in the air by his throat.
“My name is Karn, an exiled son of the Inheritors, the greatest beings to ever populate the Multiverse, and I assure you, Spider.” The hero lit up with an eerie orange glow that seemed to be sucked into Karn’s body. “You are not the first Totem I have killed, and you will not be the last.”
Suddenly, Karn was pulled away and thrown into a stop sign, leaving Spider-Man alive, if only barely. The webbed wonder’s savior? A…Spider-Woman!
“Jeez, you are trying way too hard with the whole ‘I’m evil and mysterious; fear me’ attitude.” The new spider-hero seemed to grin under her mask and hood. “Could you be any more cliché?”
Spider-Woman was dressed in a white and black costume patterned similarly to Peter’s, only it was sleeker and had a full mask. The young woman cocked her head to the side.
“And, wow, Spider-Man, you look lame without your hoodie.”
“Tll me bout’t,” Spidey managed, barely managing to stand. It was like Karn had literally sucked out some of his life force. If the new spider-hero hadn’t saved him, then…
“Two Spider Totems?” Karn shook off the blow like it was nothing. “Father, after these slayings shall I be allowed to rejoin you?” He shouted off into the sky.
“Make it five, Bram Stoker.”
As if Spider-Man’s day couldn’t get weirder, he now had four other Spider-people on his hands. The first, obviously Spider-Woman. The second was a Spider-Man dressed in a black trenchcoat, pants and boots, with a mask and goggles to match. The third—the one who’d spoken—had on a white jacket like a doctor’s, and red and blue spandex. Who the hell wears spandex anymore? The last, an imposing figure dressed in red and black spandex with six red metal arms on his back.
“You again!” Karn declared, pointing to the red and black Spider-Man, “Father, I’ll slay this impetuous fool and his compatriots for you! Then, please, let me return!”
“Doc Spider, ‘30s, take the left and right. Distract him. I’ll get this world’s Spiders,” the red and black Spider-Man ordered, already leaping over Karn’s attack while the six armed Spider-Man pulled him away with webs.
By this point, Spider-Woman was by Spider-Man’s side, helping him stand.
“Thanks for the save. Who’re you?” Spidey asked.
“Spider-Woman,” the fem-hero replied.
“They yours?” Spider-Man nodded towards the battle currently going on and the Spider-Man approaching them.
“No…whoever they are, well,” Spider-Woman paused, before continuing, “I don’t think they’re from around here.”
The red and black Spider-Man landed in front of the two other Spiders atop two of his metallic arms. Without wasting a second, he procured a needle from his suit and jammed it into Spider-Man’s neck.
“Ow!” Spider-Man grabbed his neck, “What the hell was that? And who are you to go jamming things into people? Christ!”
“It’s adrenaline, you babbling idiot! As for me?” The man’s chest swelled, “I am your savior, the leader of the resistance of Spider-Men and Women. I am the Superior Spider-Man!”
“What?”
“Do not ask questions—Doc Spider, 30s, here, now! We’re leaving!—Now, prepare for multiversal travel, children,” Superior stated.
“Multiversal travel…” Spider-Woman muttered.
“No!” Spider-Man argued, “Tell us what the hell is going on!”
“Boy!” Superior grabbed Spider-Man by his shirt, “We are at WAR! You will come with me if you want to live!”
“Energy vampires, Ghosts of Spider-Man past, present, and future,” Spider-Woman pointed to the trenchcoated Spider-Man, All Star, and Superior respectively, “Now you talk about multiversal travel and war. I mean, I’ve been doing this for a week. I don’t know if I’m cut out for…”
“Stop whining!” Superior roared, “All of you teenaged Spiders and Parkers can do nothing but complain and mope!”
“And you won’t shut up while one of your men is getting slaughtered!” Spider-Man leapt past Superior, having noticed Doc Spider was at the mercy of Karn, stabbed straight through the chest. Spider-Man Noir was on the ground further away, struggling to stand.
Spider-Man fired webbing at Karn but the monster of a man caught it and pulled the hero towards him. Again, Spidey found himself caught in Karn’s grasp, while Doc Spider fell to the ground, unmoving.
“Second time’s the charm,” Karn whispered.
----
The last rays of sunlight were extinguished from the sky as a storm blew over Manhattan. The first drop fell down weakly upon the Earth, before a full torrent erupted.
Rory McClane, hearing the noise, glanced upward once and then looked back to the woman sitting across from him.
“Yer plan’s a go. Gimme six hours and yer boys’ll be back in your hands,” McClane explained. Before the woman had a chance to respond, the native Alaskan Mole leaned forward, an eyebrow raised, “Who’re ya, anyway? Not Jennifer. Not Toomes’ old pet. Nevur seen ya befur.”
Felicia Hardy, dressed in a platinum blouse and black skirt to match her bright blonde hair, smirked and crossed her legs before she responded, “Just…think of me as the new girl. And I’m nobody’s pet.”
“So, pet,” McClane grinned when Felicia became visibly irritated, “What’s yer play in all this?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
Without another word, Felicia proceeded to stand up and walk away, as McClane was left to frown at the young woman as she left. A new girl, eh? That meant a new piece in the game, a new mystery to crack. Rory McClane’s frown turned upside down. He always liked a challenge. Better yet, he would enjoy seeing the events to come.
“G’luck, Toomes,” McClane cackled, as a police officer led him out of the room.
----
“LET GO OF HIM!”
Spider-Woman leapt for Karn, hands extended. However, rather than saving Spider-Man’s life yet again, she ended up getting smacked away like a bug. With a crunch, Spider-Woman crashed into a payphone.
“Who knew payphones even existed nowadays,” Spider-Woman weakly quipped, unable to get back up.
“Get up, girl! Get up! Spider-Man needs you!” The voice came through a bluetooth earpiece.
“Chill with the fangirling,” Spider-Woman retorted, “I’m going.”
But the young woman was not the first Spider-hero to the scene. Superior Spider-Man had managed to blast away Karn with bursts of electricity from his metal arms, freeing All Star Spider-Man before he could be drained of all his life force.
“You insolent fool!” Superior pulled All Star off the ground, “Do you want to die? Karn is a member of a species of beings whose sole purpose is to hunt down Spiders like you and I. Do you understand what that means?!”
“They’re not getting invitations to my birthday party,” Spidey said.
“Damn it!” Superior threw All Star to the ground, “If you wish to die, so be it. 30s, here, now!”
“We can’t just leave ‘im,” Noir was at Superior’s side before he’d even ordered it, “Karn’s gonna kill him.” Surely enough, Karn was rising from under the rubble he’d crashed into.
“That’s the point,” Superior Spider-Man replied, “We have already lost one good Spider-Man for this fool. I will not sacrifice another. This ignoramus is nothing special, just another Peter Parker—“
“I’m a Peter Parker!”
“—and a shallow one at that,” Superior said, “Now, Anna Maria, bring us home!”
“You got it, slick.” Superior Spider-Man’s personal AI stated.
“Wait--!” Noir argued, but they were already gone—disappeared to another time and another space.
“They have abandoned you, Spiders,” Karn stepped towards the two remaining Spider-heroes of the All Star-verse. Spider-Woman stood protectively over the barely conscious young hero below her.
“So what? Screw ‘em. This is our home. We won’t let you take it,” Spider-Woman replied defiantly.
“What about this do you not understand?” Karn wondered, “I do not care for your stupid reality. I want only to feed on you.”
Spider-Woman reached back, readying a punch. She knew she wouldn’t be fast enough to get it off before Karn killed her. She knew that her time as a hero was about to be cut short. In fact, she knew she’d die failing the man who had inspired her to put on the mask in the first place. Still, Spider-Woman did not even think for a second of running away. Spider-Man needed her.
Karn lunged, preparing to impale Spider-Woman with his two-tonged pitchfork. Spider-Woman swung her fist around as fast as she could.
Neither blow hit its target. In fact, Spider-Woman was shocked to realize Karn had altogether disappeared. She was all alone with her nearly costume-less, injured inspiration. Just the two of them in the middle of a battlefield…
“That’s a really creepy kinky thought, isn’t it?” Spider-Woman whispered.
----
Elsewhere
Earth-000
The Master Weaver, a being of immense power and a size to equal that, looked out over the Web of Life before him. The Weaver was an enormous Man-Spider himself, with the legs of a cyborg arachnid and the upper body of a man. A bronze mask soldered with eight red eyes covered his face. Glowing webbing leeched off each of his fingers, connecting him to the massive shifting tapestry before him.
Of all the images moving throughout the Web of Life, the Master Weaver was fixed on one in particular. Earth-727. Spider-Man and Spider-Woman of the All Star-verse had found themselves safe at last, while elsewhere on Earth-2991, home to a Soviet Spider-Man, Karn was hunting.
“Their development must continue, that world’s path undeterred…” The Master Weaver whispered, “Or else the Multiverse will fall. Earth-727 will be kept under my protection…my little secret…”
----
Earth-727
“I KNEW IT!”
Spider-Woman swiveled around, meeting the cold gaze of nearly a dozen cameras and even more reporters in tow. One man in particular wasted no time getting the story, telling it…or rather, his version of it.
“I knew it!” J. Jonah Jameson marched towards the two Spiders, ignoring the cameras behind him.
“Do we keep rolling?” Glory Grant, Daily Bugle Communication’s on-hand camerawoman, asked.
“Yes. Jonah would kill us otherwise,” Chad Bench, Glory’s partner reporter, replied.
“I told everyone Spider-Man was a menace! Now look at this!” Jameson turned to face the cameras, pointing at the two Spider-heroes, “Spider-Man trashed this place…with a lackey! A—a Spider-Woman!”
“I am not his lackey!” Spider-Woman retorted, “And we were fighting this bad guy. Somebody else had to have seen him! He was tall and wore this gold mask and—and…”
“And what? He disappeared?” Jameson demanded.
“Yes! He wasn’t from our universe! He—“
Jameson turned back to the cameras, “Don’t you see, citizens of New York? The so-called ‘heroes’ are crazy! They’re villains! And Spider-Man is the worst of ‘em! A true and blue menace!”
Spider-Woman wasn’t going to waste anymore of her time hearing this crap. She picked up Spider-Man, who groaned at the sudden movement, webbed up all the holes in his backpack, and swung away. Only too late did she realize the one major problem with her sudden departure—she’d left the dead Spider-Man from another world: Doc Spider!
But when she looked back, Doc Spider was gone. If he’d disappeared like Karn, been taken into governmental custody, or any of the thousand things that could have happened, Spider-Woman would never know. Or rather, she hoped she never would.
Fate wouldn’t be so kind.
----
Minutes Ago
A rat-like, brown haired man in a snow white suit stared dumbfounded at the alley floor below him. Just seconds before, there had been a body in that very spot. A body of a Spider-Man from another world—another universe! Luckily for the man, all was not lost. His gaze moved from the ground to the vial in his hand.
In the midst of the battle, while none of the many Spider-heroes were looking, he’d taken the body of the hero once known as Doc Spider. Before it had disappeared, he had taken a sample of its blood. It never hurt to have a backup. In his case, it may have saved his job, and with it his life.
The man reached into his pocket and procured his cellphone. With a few swipes and clicks, the man went into his favorites and called his boss…
“Mr. Kingsley…” the man racked his brain for an excuse, “The body of the dead Spider-Man was taken into SHIELD custody. However, I did manage to acquire a sample of its blood before they got to it.”
“Excellent work, Harrison! SHIELD’s…acquisition is a disappointment, but it’s no skin off my back. Bring the blood to me immediately. The next phase in Project Scorpion begins.” Roderick Kingsley replied from the other side of the line.
“Very well, sir. Is that all?” Harrison Snow asked.
“Oh, I think so.”
“Very good. I’ll leave immediately—“ Harrison began to walk away, but was stopped in his tracks.
“Harrison! Don’t forget—“ Kingsley teased over the line, “Hail Hydra.”
Harrison frowned, but continued the walk to his car.
”Hail Hydra.”