PREVIOUSLY: After seeing an explosion on the news, Spider-Man swung uptown and is now busy tangling with one of his deadliest foes, the vicious Scorpion!
HEROES: The Fan Fiction Magazine presents:
The Spectacular Spider-Man
Episode Four – “Caught In A Web”
The only thing I can think of that’s creepier than a giant monster is a giant monster wearing a green suit, smiling as he tosses a manhole cover at my face. Gargan’s teeth are like daggers, jagged and pointy. I’m still a little loopy from the bear hug he gave me with his tail but my spider-sense is still working at peak efficiency. I hopped over the manhole cover and triggered both of my webshooters, covering the Scorpion’s feet in gooey webbing.
“I’ll rip your arms off!” the Scorpion screamed as he clawed at the fresh coating of webbing.
That’s the thing with Gargan. I can toss my best banter at him all day long and it will just bounce right off. He’d be a horrible stage partner, especially on improv night. The guy is psychopathic, plain and simple. He doesn’t care about getting a good one-liner in there as long as there’s some ol’ fashioned blood-letting.
So, instead of wasting a zinger I shot a webline at the streetlight overhead and swung in to put the finishing touches on this underactor. I kicked my feet out at just the right moment to transfer all of my momentum directly into Gargan’s chin. He tried to roll with the hit, but my webbing saw to it that he stayed put. He took the brunt of the impact like a champ, but I knew I had just knocked some serious sense into him.
I released the webline and fell onto his shoulders. Scorpion is one big hombre so it wasn’t difficult to balance my weight, even without the aid of my patented sticky-grip. Spider-grip? Spidey-hold? Whatever you call it.
“You’re…you’re dead wallcrawler…”
“Sure, sure,” I replied. He was obviously winded from my last hit and was beginning to tire. “Whatever you say. Just do me one favor, Gargan. Promise me you’ll never write from prison. I know we’ve meant a lot to each other over the years, but I think it’s about time we saw other people.”
Breaking up is hard to do. I was worried he wouldn’t take it well, so I punctuated the sentiment by slamming both of my elbows directly into the top of his skull. I was careful not to use too much of my enhanced strength, since making a corpse out of the moron would only add fuel to Jameson’s fire. I’ve been reckless with my power before and there is no way that is ever happening again.
The dual blows to his head made the Scorpion sway a little bit to the left. I hopped off his broad shoulders and clung to the side of the streetlight, watching with pleasure as Gargan fell face forward into the sidewalk like we were in a cartoon. There’s something to be said about the lost art of pratfalls.
Sirens were finally reaching my ears as I stepped off the streetlight and touched down right in from of the unconscious Scorpion. New York’s finest are just that, but sometimes I wish they would hurry it up a little. Not that I want anyone else being responsible for this nutcase’s actions, but it would be nice to have a little back-up. I caught a glimpse of a squad car rocketing around a corner about a block away, which meant it was time for me to leave. I’m not a spotlight kind of arachnid.
I threw down a heavy coating of webfluid to make sure Gargan wouldn’t be standing up on his own for awhile and quickly scurried up the side of the closest building. It was broad daylight so I wouldn’t be slipping into the shadows, but I had to at least get out of the general vicinity. Even though I respected the NYPD they didn’t hold the same respect for me. The last thing I needed was some rookie eager to bag his first big collar.
As I hopped across a couple rooftops I couldn’t get one thing out of my mind: why did the Scorpion need explosives to blow open the bank? Gargan was just as strong as I was so he should have no problem ripping a vault door open. He must have been working with someone, and the list comprised of those names was ridiculously long.
The thought unsettled me. If my intuition was right then this was far from over.
TO BE CONTINUED