PREVIOUSLY: Spidey had just gotten back to his apartment when he saw a news report about an explosion somewhere uptown!
HEROES: The Fan Fiction Magazine presents
The Spectacular Spider-Man
Episode 2 – “The Scorpion Strikes”
More often than not I find myself wondering what I do this for. Adrenaline? Tradition? Chicks? Why do we do anything? It’s a tantalizing question for the ages and more than a little hard to figure out when you’re avoiding an SUV that’s just been tossed into the air.
“Sit still, wall-crawler!”
The guy making the threats is none other than my good ol’ buddy Mac Gargan, or as you probably know him, the Scorpion. Mac has a rough life…at least that’s what he’d tell you over tea. Nothing a few C-notes wouldn’t cure, which I suspect is his reasoning since I just caught him trying to rob the First Bank of New York. Though, I’m not sure why he used explosives to rip the vault open when his enhanced abilities would have worked just fine.
“Sorry, Gargan,” I yelled back as I pulled my webline taut and sprung over the SUV, “I’ve caught the ADHD. Can’t sit still for the life of me.”
Even though I’m giving off a vibe of reckless good cheer I’m actually scarred out of my mind of what that stray Hummer might do to bystanders. I somersaulted forward in the air and kicked down hard with my feet, catching Gargan in the center of his chest and knocking him off balance. Using him as a springboard, I bounced off of the Scorpion and fired off two quip thwips! of webbing at the SUV. I’ve gotten good enough with my aim that I usually hit what I’m gunning for, even while sailing through the air. One webline caught the Hummer’s bumper and the other stuck to the undercarriage, which gave me a decent angle to yank down on.
The SUV stopped short in the air and slammed down onto the street, which just had to have snapped the front axle. Thanks to my increased speed and strength I had saved a pair of tourists that were too busy snapping away photos of the city’s resident arachno-hero…but had put myself in the perfect position for Gargan to sucker-punch me.
My spider-sense had been buzzing but stopping the Hummer had distracted me and I was paying the price for it. The force of his punch sent me reeling into a stupor, giving him the perfect opportunity to grab me with his big, green arms.
“Why do you always turn up?” he asked as his massive arms started to squeeze the life out of me.
“Why…do you always…have anchovy breath?”
I guess answering a question with a question must be one of his pet peeves because he just growled at me. Scorpion let his arms loosen, giving me a moment to taste some sweet oxygen before he wrapped his tail around my legs and held me overhead for the world to see. I felt like a caught fish that had just been clubbed, held up next to a scale.
“Always the smart mouth,” Gargan chided. My vision was a little fuzzy but I could make out a vicious sneer on his face. “You won’t be cracking jokes after I crack your skull.”
The Scorpion’s tail tightened around me and I saw little, tiny stars begin to creep into my peripheral vision. Having done this for a few years now I could recognize unconsciousness when it was about to come a’knocking. Unless I figured a way to unlatch myself from Gargan’s tail I was going to be one crushed webhead.