Chapter 23: Attack of the Spider Slayers

Chapter 23: Attack of the Spider-Slayers:


"Behold, the finished model, the Black Widow Slayer," announced Smythe to Professor Warren and the mysterious Dr. Essex who had preferred to conceal his identity with a trench coat, hat, sunglasses, and a scarf wrapped around his head. He had informed Smythe that he had often terrified people with his sinister appearance. "The ultimate in robotic seek and capture technology, along with lethal protocols enabled if the user so requires."

"It's an impressive looking toy, Professor Smythe," said Essex in a cold, indifferent expression. "But will it accomplish the task that I've set out for it to do?"

"It will capture Spider-Man no problem, it is one hundred times stronger than any man and certainly many times stronger than any spider man with a high degree of weapon systems," responded Smythe as he looked at his two benefactors, both of which seemed indifferent.

"Very well, Smythe, your little spider slayer robot seems like it may do the job that Dr. Essex is requesting," said Warren crisply, eyes narrowing with a calm expression on his face. "But remember, failure is not an option. Spider-Man must be brought before us, captured and secured. The Black Widow had better do its job for your sake."

"And remember, do it by any means necessary, all that I ask is there is enough DNA left to harvest," said Essex in a tone that made Smythe and even Warren shiver, but Essex turned. The fact that this Spider-Man had been all indications been infected by his genetically altered spider boded well for his plans to force the evolution of humanity to their most powerful level. Exactly what mandated the change would unlock many secrets and would allow him to tap into vast well of power previously unknown.

At the X-Mansion, Kitty Pryde sat, with a tired and frustrated expression on her face. She had just spent three hours in a Danger Room session that was particularly stressful and caused her to become a bundle of nerves. She had done her best, at least she thought, but that was not good enough for Logan, who had put together the tough Danger Room sessions and seemed intent on trying to cause them lasting bodily harm before breakfast each and every day. Still, from what she heard, Professor Xavier had insisted to Logan that he had toned it down a lot from what he wanted. After an argument about coddling the other members of the team, Logan grudgingly agreed but Kitty would hate to see what the session looked like otherwise.

"Kitty, I doubt anyone with an IQ beyond single digits is going to actually be fooled by that get up," argued Jean that morning. "Why do you even think you need a disguise anyway? You're just going to school…"

"Yeah, but I'm an X-Men now and I don't want people to put two and two together," said Kitty. "You heard the Professor, people are beginning to catch onto mutants, they're going to know who we are. It's bad enough that I'm going to have my first day as a Freshman in a new town. The only reason I'm going is that my parents wanted me to continue a normal education."

"Well to be fair, mutant powers aren't everything, but the Professor doesn't twist anyone's arm to actually go to public school," said Jean in a consoling voice.

"Yes, Freshman year, I can hardly wait," said Kitty in a dry sarcastic voice but she looked at the mirror. Her hair was done up in a bun with thick looking glasses. The more she thought about it, it looked absurd, but there was only one thing to do. She cleared her throat before she began to talk in a really exaggerated and overdone British accent or rather what a stereotypical American thought that a British accent would be. "And now I think I'm completely ready to tackle this, I hope."

"Peter told me you were going to do that, but I wasn't sure you were going to actually go through with it," said Gwen as she walked into the room with an amused expression on his face, as Peter looked like he could hardly catch his breath as he was doubled over with laughter.

"You must be Gwen," said Kitty in an excited voice. "Peter's told me so much about you."

"Only good things, I hope," said Gwen with a smile.

"Trust me, I know better than to tell anyone anything but," replied Peter before he added. "And why would I even say anything bad about you Gwen? Anything like that would be a complete lie."

"Well Kitty you better get out the door soon, Peter and Gwen are running a few minutes late as is and you wouldn't want to keep them waiting," said Jean and Gwen looked surprised, none of them had said anything.

"Telepath," muttered Peter and Gwen nodded, with a slight shudder.

"Right, so let's get going then," said Kitty as she followed Peter and Gwen out the door where they stopped to see Logan standing in the hallway. Logan stopped, smelling a very familiar scent in the hallway, before he turned right towards Peter, with a sign of recognition.

"Web head," said Logan with in a cool look as he looked at Peter. "You better keep an eye on her and make sure anyone doesn't give her any crap."

"How did you know?" asked Peter, who had not remembered telling Logan about his duel identity.

"The nose, knows, bub," said Logan with what could be loosely interpreted as a smile as he gave them one final look before he looked at Kitty. "Stay out of trouble kid and keep your head low."

"Trouble, why would I get into trouble?" asked Kitty as Gwen and Peter looked at each other.

"You're hanging around the web head, he tends to be a magnet for all kinds of creeps and weirdoes, almost as much as I tend to be," said Logan with a humorless expression on his face.

"Right, we better get going, Mr. Logan, isn't it?" asked Gwen in a would be casual voice.

"Just Logan," said Logan as he turned to walk off without another word or a backwards glance.

"Good old Wolverine, always the chatty one," remarked Peter in a low voice when he was sure the mutant was out of site as the three walked out the door, to continue their walk to school before he turned towards Kitty. "You really aren't going to keep up that faked British accent all year."

"I'll keep it up as long as I can manage," said Kitty in the overdone accent as Gwen and Peter struggled to maintain a straight face.

"Okay, you want to go to the end of this corridor and turn to the right, to get the Freshman assembly and they'll answer all your questions right there," explained Peter and Kitty responded with a nod, before she turned.

"Right, see you later, Peter, Gwen," said Kitty as she walked off before Gwen and Peter turned to each other.

"Let's go find Harry," said Gwen as they had walked down the hallway. The past few weeks, Harry had been overseas on Oscorp business, which he had been very frustrated with as it had eaten a good deal of his summer vacation out. "Harry!"

"Oh, hello, Gwen, Pete," said Harry calmly which was a distinct change from the last time they talked to Harry. He had been quite frazzled and under an insane amount of stress to say the least but now he looked like he was in a pretty good mood, almost tranquil.

"How have you been holding up lately?" asked Peter.

"Better than can be expected, given what's gone on over the summer," said Harry happily almost skipping. Gwen and Peter exchanged a look of astonishment.

"That's good to here Harry, I thought you would be tired after all those flights you had to go on," said Gwen before she lowered her voice, so no one else could hear them. "Any idea of what's going on with your father? Is he going to be released any time soon?"

"I think he's enjoying the free vacation, I mean look who my father is, he would have been able to get out of that institution any time he wants, besides I'm totally handling it, "said Harry in a calm voice. "Oscorp, the business runs itself, I've just had to listen to my advisors and let them do most of the work, they're getting paid for it, so they should help me out every now and again.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" asked Peter and Harry looked at him. "Letting your advisors do all the work, I mean, what if they make a bad decision which costs you the company?"

"Yeah Harry, how would you face your father?" questioned Gwen but Harry just waved it off as if was of no concern to him.

"Guys, guys, everything's fine, what's with the third degree, I mean don't worry, my father hired these men, he had to have trusted them to an extent to run the business," said Harry with a wide smile, before he turned, seeing a very familiar figure walking to the side. "Liz!"

"Harry, I haven't seen you in so long," said Liz as she walked towards Harry before she embraced him and gave him a quick kiss. "How are you?"

"Fabulous, I'm just great," said Harry as he turned to Gwen and Peter. "Don't you two worry about me, everything's fine, you two are the best friends I've ever had and nothing will change that. I mean another school year, everything's going to be a blast and I'm the head of a major national corporation, what can go wrong?

"Never ask that question Harry, trust me, you won't like the results," said Peter with a shudder but Harry just raised his eyebrow, before they turned, walking off to get their schedules before the school year began.

"Ah, Peter, good to see you again!" said Dr. Curt Connors with a good natured smile on his face, as Peter walked into the classroom a few minutes earlier. He was a teaching assistant for the Freshman biology class at Midtown high. "Just finishing up some last minute notes, I think I might be onto something with this latest line of research."

"Hello Dr. Connors, good to see you again," said Peter before he remembered something. "I thought you were going to only stay for the rest of the year."

"Yes, that was correct Peter, but my wife found that she liked the city and convinced me to say and there are a few good research opportunities here regardless," responded Dr. Connors. "Not to mention one of the older teachers retired, so I felt this would be the best place for me to continue."

"Trust me, I think you made a good choice and a man of your caliber would be an asset to the students of Midtown," said Peter.

"Thank you for your kind words, Peter," said Dr. Connors as he walked towards the back. "Now I believe I need to go over what you need to do for this teaching assistant job. Not too much, most of the time you can sit and catch up on other work but there will be times where I might need your help to mark papers and assist in an experiment every now and again."

"I can handle that Dr. Connors," said Peter as he watched a group of terrified Freshman walk in one at a time, their first class for many of them, as he sat down in the seat that Dr. Connors indicated to him.

"Black Widow Spider Slayer protocols are completely on line," said Smythe as he continued to press a series of commands, inputting all of the data that he could, as regarding Spider-Man. Dr. Essex seemed rather reluctant to share information but he did part away with enough data about the genetically enhanced spiders to get the Spider Slayer up and functional. "Objective, find and capture Spider-Man by any means necessary."

"Command understand, objective capture Spider-Man, data processed, scanning for target right now, match found within scanning limits, mission objective, seek and capture Spider-Man, with lethal protocols online should subject prove to be problematic," said the Black Widow in a robotic voice, before the robot turned, rising up off of the ground on all eight of its robotic legs before it moved forward, blasting the door open, before it hovered up into the air.

The Black Widow continued to rise several feet up into the air, before it blasted off into the distance. Smythe turned, watching his creation move towards the city with a satisfied look on his face. With any luck, he would not have to launch the other three Slayers that he created. They were larger, with more destructive weapons yes but also widely untested. The Black Widow Slayer was the only one that he had an opportunity to completely test.

"Warren, this is Smythe, the Spider Slayer has captured the target, please stand by," said Smythe as he watched a blip on the screen, that would follow the progress of the Spider Slayer.

The entirety of the school day went pretty much without incident.

At least until the bell rang and the day ended, as Peter and Gwen heard snatches of conversation that were quite interesting to say the least. Harry had bolted immediately as the bell rang to attend another stockholders meeting, but that seemed to be quite the regular occurrence at Oscorp.

"Did you hear about that giant robot trashing downtown?" asked a voice.

"Yeah I did, people are freaking out, man I might just hang around here as long as I can," said another voice.

"Yeah, I know what I mean, I'm glad we're here where it's safe," said another student. "I mean other than the Hulk showing up at that dance last year, nothing exciting has ever happened."

"Giant robot, I've about had my fill with those," muttered Peter as he looked in his bag, web shooters and costume ready.

"So do you think you should check it out," muttered Kitty to Peter as she showed up.

"No, a giant robot seems like more of a Fantastic Four thing to check out," replied Peter but they group stopped. The spider sense was going off again.

"Peter?" asked Gwen uncertainly as she saw a look that was a combination of horror and confusion, wondering what was up but she got her question answered almost immediately, where a laser blast blew the nearest entrance open. Several people shrieked in absolute horror as a giant black robot that looked like a giant spider. "Oh right, that's wrong."

"That's very wrong," added Kitty, very nearly dropping the faux accent but managing to catch herself in time.

The giant robot moved in, a red light blinking, ignoring the shrieks of the people in its path.

"Scanners indicate objective Spider-Man is within, prepare to move in for capture," said the Black Widow as it turned around, matching, as the entire hallway was clogged. Peter froze, it was after Spider-Man and there was no way he could get out of there in time. "Search and capture Spider-Man!"

"Hey, you overgrown tin toy, you don't want to get a piece of Spider-Man, he'll take you apart!" shouted Flash Thompson and Peter just rolled his eyes. He appreciated the support, even if it was Flash, but this wasn't really the time to be showing up.

"Objective, destroy Spider-Man no matter what," said the Black Widow Spider Slayer as it moved forward but Flash stood in the way. The Slayer did not even wait, rather it shot a white ribbon forward, wrapping it around the brash teenager. With a thug, Flash was thrown off to the side, as Gwen, Peter, and Kitty slipped around the corner, but there was an explosion and a loud crash. "Spider-Man within detection radius, complete objective no matter what."

"We've got to get out of here, it's right around the corner," muttered Gwen but Kitty shrieked in horror when the glowing red eyes of the Spider Slayer came around the corner. She quickly grabbed both of their arms and threw them backwards through the lockers, within the walls. They were still intangible, as Peter took out the web shooter, before he put it on and pulled them up out of site, as the sounds of destruction was heard. They were in the upstairs area just outside of the gym locker rooms. A second later, Kitty released her powers as the group dropped to the ground. Gwen looked towards the younger girl, with a slightly irritated look on her face. "Next time you try something like that, please warn me."

"Sorry," said Kitty in an apologetic voice, but there was a thumping from right below them that stopped before something was moving underneath them. "It's coming up the stairs, its right beneath us, I can hear it."

"Both of you, get to safety now, I hope I can figure out how to defeat it, no I don't need any help, I can handle it," said Peter, as he shooed them out, without another word, as he slipped inside the locker room which was thankfully empty, before he got dressed into his Spider-Man costume as quickly as he could manage. He slipped on his mask and web shooters, before a loud blast echoed from below him and there was a large hole as the Black Window Spider Slayer had climbed right into the hole.

"Spider-Man detected, containment protocols are online!" declared the Spider Slayer before a laser blaster rose out from underneath it and Spider-Man was just barely able to leap out of the way.

"I hate robots, I really, really hate robots," thought Spider-Man in an agitated tone as a locker was blown enough right behind him. Spider-Man dodged an attack, before he propelled himself behind the Slayer with a back flip and tried to maneuver around it, searching out a weak point "I can't even quip, because there is no way to get underneath its skin because it's a humorless, emotionless machine."


A large chain with a hook shot out of the front of the Spider Slayer but Spider-Man only just swung out of the way. He swung forward and kicked right at the Spider Slayer but his attack just bounced off it. He lifted up a trash can and threw it right at the Slayer but the robot blasted it to bits and Spider-Man attempted to trick the Spider Slayer, but its detection system was second to none. It moved around, quickly seeking Spider-Man. It sprung right towards the web head but Spider-Man dodged out of the way. It landed on down, before it spun around and shot a blast of some sticky substance right towards Spider-Man, but he dodged that particular attack.

"And it has its own webbing, perfect, just wonderful," thought Spider-Man in a frustrated manner. "I've got to get this thing out of the school, but getting it away from innocent people, that's going to be another matter entirely. I've got to get this thing on the run."


Spider-Man pried open a window, before he shot his webbing around the lockers and pulled them to the ground. They landed with a loud crash on the ground and the Black Widow smashed right through them, denting them, but Spider-Man shot his webbing out, hooking onto a lightpost, before he propelled himself forward on his webbing. He bounced off, before landing down on the street. He needed a few minutes to think of a strategy and he could not do it with that robot right on his tail.

He scaled the wall to the top of the building but above him, the Black Widow Slayer had launched itself towards, flying at an insane speed before it landed right in front of him. Several rapid fire shots of webbing were aimed right towards him but somehow the web slinger managed to avoid the attacks time and time again, but it turned out that this was merely a distraction as before he knew it, he was completely covered from the waist down in the sticky substance, unable to move himself from that position.

He struggled, but he was pretty much glued to the top of the building. No way out, no matter how much he tried.

"I can't get out and that thing…wait that light, that must be how that thing is finding me, some kind of targeting sensor or something, well I'll take care of that right away," thought Spider-Man in desperately, shooting his webbing forward. It latched onto the light, covering it up, but two lasers rose out of the robot. "Great, out of the frying pan and right into the fire. Nice one, Spidey."


"Targeting sensors compromised, new objective, switch to adaption sequence, lethal protocols are online," declared the Black Widow Slayer, but Spider-Man blasted a line of webbing right towards a passing plane. Much to his relief, his webbing reached enough and the force lifted him up into the air, before the Black Widow Slayer could blast him right to bits.

He was not quite out of the woods yet. The webbing melted right off of the Black Widow Slayer before it began to launch itself off the ground. Spider-Man released his webbing and began freefalling to the ground. The Black Widow had moved towards him but Spider-Man was ready. He had to time this just right but an acrobatic move had slowed him down just enough for him to mount the Spider Slayer.

"Error, unintended cargo, prepare to release," declared the Black Widow Slayer in its usual bland tone, before the panel that Spider-Man was sitting on ejected itself upwards. The web head was propelled high into the air but gravity proved to be a harsh mistress as he was sent down hard.

"Not such a good idea," thought Spider-Man but he tucked his head in between his legs, trying to avoid crashing right into the ground. Once he was close enough, he shot two lines of webbing, latching onto a beam, before lowering himself to the ground. "Construction zone, well I beat Electro and Sandman in one before, so I kind of have the home field advantage."


Spider-Man had no time to think as the Spider-Slayer blasted a chain outwards, which wrapped around Spider-Man. The web slinger dropped to the ground and struggled but the chain had held him in place.

"Stronger than my spider strength, whoever designed this must have had too much time to study me on their hands," gasped Spider-Man as he struggled, but he then began to roll, just as a stun ray was about to fry him. He rolled over, summoning all the strength to snap the chain but he was blasted right down to the ground. He was in unbearable pain as the Black Widow Slayer closed in on him.

"Target ready for acquisition, ready to return to base with target," said the Black Widow Slayer as it moved in for its objective but Spider-Man had the strength to pull himself up. He shot a line of webbing up, pulling himself out of the way and he swung off to the side, breathing rather heavily.

"Okay, I have seconds, can't think, just got to do, Spidey," thought Spider-Man as he moved over to a wrecking ball. The Black Widow had only seconds. "Do it now, I hope I can slip this thing off, got it."


The wrecking ball dropped down, just as the Black Widow lifted off the ground. It smashed right onto the robot, causing its legs to thrash underneath but it was far from finished with its attempts to free itself. A struggle, as Spider-Man shot webbing to pin it underneath the wrecking ball. The Spider Slayer attempted to free itself, but Spider-Man dropped down, before he shot as much webbing as he could right into the hydraulic parts of the Spider Slayer. Smoke rose from the top of the rapidly overheating spider slayer, with sparks flying from it. Spider-Man leapt behind a large stake of heavy pipes, as the Spider Slayer self destructed, blowing to bits. Several pieces of scrap metal went flying, as Spider-Man slumped forward. The wall crawler had managed to defeat his robotic adversary but not without a fight.

"Detection failed, restoring back up power, sending data from battle back to base," said the Black Widow as Spider-Man attempted to move in but it went dead. Not that he thought it would be the simplest thing to do, but perhaps he could have taken in apart and tried to figure out exactly how it worked. Spider-Man turned, before he slumped to the ground, the non functioning robot having given him more trouble than he could have ever thought it might.

"I wonder what that thing meant about data being transported," thought Spider-Man but he just shrugged it off. He was a bit battered, he decided that it would best to shrug it off to lick his wounds and recover from the battle.


"Good, I'm glad you two got back out safely, yeah I know Gwen," said Spider-Man as he swung across the city, on a random patrol. His ribs were still aching but he thought he would have to do one more patrol of the city, before calling it a day. "I do seem to have a sign on my back that invites psychopaths to attack me, my luck tends to be awful in most cases but at least I got out safely. Yeah bye, maybe we can do something soon if giant robots don't try to attack me again. Better get to the Bugle to drop those photos I managed to get of Spider-Man yesterday to Jameson, okay, bye."

Spider-Man swung, little aware that the Black Widow Spider Slayer was only the beginning of his troubles.

Not even twenty minutes after his defeat of the robot, there were plans being set into motion for his capture.

"Smythe you fool, we give you the plans and the Black Widow Spider Slayer failed to capture the target," said Warren but Smythe was not threatened. "Perhaps if you find this matter not with your time, perhaps you should be having words with Dr. Essex."

"Professor Warren, I understand your concern, but the Black Widow Spider Slayer was the first of four Spider Slayer models that I have created," said Smythe as Warren looked at him with a puzzled look. "Let's just put it this way, before it terminated, the Black Widow Spider Slayer transported all the data here that it gained from its battle with Spider-Man. Future Slayers can learn and adapt to Spider-Man's fighting style along with his abilities and eventually there will be a model that even he could not stop."

"I'll be more impressed when I actually see results," said Warren in the driest tone that he could manage but Smythe walked over, before he unveiled the second Spider Slayer. It was much larger than the first model and it looked even more dangerous than the previous Spider Slayer, only instead of black and red, it was grey and blue.

"Spider Slayer Mega Slayer, your orders are as follows. Assimilate data captured from the Black Widow Spider Slayer and use it to contain and capture Spider-Man before returning to base," ordered Smythe.

"Orders understood and data assimilation began, tracking Spider-Man, preparing to locate target right now," said the Spider Slayer Mega Slayer in the same monotone of the Black Widow before it rose up and crawled quickly underneath the raised garage door before it propelled itself off the ground and moved forward, the tracking blip beeping.

"No one got hurt, sure Flash got a little beat up, but he'll be alright, I mean he's taken worse hits on the Gridiron," thought Spider-Man. "Better make sure no more of those things are out here. The last thing I need is leading it to Aunt May, I don't think I could handle that. Okay, one more go around the city and I can call it a night, hopefully."


Spider-Man was caught off guard by a laser blast where his webbing was sliced. He spiraled down to earth, in horror, but managed to shoot his webbing onto a flagpole, slowing his fall just enough, before he dropped to the ground awkwardly. Thankfully he did not blow out his knees or shatter any bones but he came face to face with the Spider Slayer Mega Slayer, which was blinking.

"Another one?" gasped Spider-Man as he stepped back, a yellow beam erupted from it, but Peter just barely ducked. The trash can behind him was levitated off the ground, before it was dropped and crushed as easily as a soda can that had just been stomped on.

"Target found, target acquisition in process," declared the Mega Slayer, but Spider-Man swung around, blocking an attempt to grab him.

"At least I know how to beat these things, overheat them, and this one I can get underneath better," thought Spider-Man as he pointed his web shooters and fired a large wad of webbing but a field of energy appeared around it, repelling the webbing and caused it to splatter to the ground. "What the…"


The web head had no time to finish that thought, before he back flipped into the air, avoiding another blast. He ducked and dodged, in an attempt to stay just one step ahead of his robotic enemy, but a large net made out of what appeared to be a modified and stronger form of webbing wrapped around Spider-Man. He fell to the ground, squirming and struggling, in an attempt to free himself as a large chain with a hook on the end of it yanked him forward.

"Spider-Man captured, preparing to transport target back to base," declared the Mega Slayer is it dragged its struggling target. The net webbing was rather tight, with no give available whatsoever. Spider-Man attempted to push on it but there was little to no room for him to maneuver out.

"Got to get free, this thing's lifting off the ground and there's no way out," thought Spider-Man as he felt it lift. "If only I can get my arm loose enough where I can hook onto that truck with a line of webbing, it can pull me one way and I can go the other, just about got it, there I have it, one line of webbing coming up."


Spider-Man shot his line of webbing as it latched onto the bumper of a semi truck. For a second, he thought that the robot was going to actually pull the truck off the ground, instead of pulling Spider-Man back down. He was given enough time to shoot another line of webbing down, hooking onto the same bumper and it began to pull him, before he was freed in an instant. Spider-Man braced himself, landing on the ground, before he used a jagged rock to free himself. A slow process and immediately, a laser blast nearly connected with his leg.

"Target reacquisition protocols initiated," said the Mega Slayer before Spider-Man flipped onto back of a pick-up truck.

"Dismantling stupid monotone robot attack protocols initiated," mocked Spider-Man as he pried open a tool box to remove a large wrench. Unfortunately, the Mega Slayer was unaffected by his quip, which was the trouble with fighting robots. They never reacted to your mocking one way or another. Spider-Man leapt into the air and swung the wrench, but he was wobbled, dazed and a slight ringing echoed through his ears. "Maybe not the best idea in the world."

One of the robotic arms swung right towards Spider-Man, knocking the web slinger to the ground with a crash. Spider-Man was in pain, but he shrugged everything off before he got to his feet, somehow, someway, as he looked at the Mega Slayer, wondering what he would have to do to defeat this thing.

"Target captured, target capture and contain," declared the Mega Slayer in montone but Spider-Man shot lines of webbing at the legs, in an attempt to tie them together. This did not work, rather they snapped, but he spotted an electrical circuit box nearby. Breathing heavily, Spider-Man leapt over.

"Come on you overgrown tin can, think you can blast me," said Spider-Man and the Mega Slayer, despite obviously not having any way to hear Spider-Man's taunt, did indeed try to blast him. Spider-Man leapt around, causing the electrical circuit box to be blown open. Sparks flew and the Mega Slayer moved forward, but Spider-Man grabbed one of the legs, before he jammed it right into the electrical box.

"Error, error, abort, error, abort," declared the Mega Slayer as it short circuited. "Transferring data right now, prepare for next way."

"Another one," gasped Spider-Man in frustration, as he nearly collapsed from the battering he was taking. To be honest, he had no idea if he could even handle one more round with any of these robots, as he looked to the sky but saw none. He wondered if it was a good idea to go home now, perhaps he should hang around for a bit more.

"This secret identity thing, yeah, it's starting to become a pain, even more so with robots that can track you down easily and here I was thinking that the IRS were efficient at finding people," thought Spider-Man in desperation, as he turned, before he swung off. He was banged up from his battle with both robots and he shuddered to think what would happen if there was another one yet to come.


"Smythe, my superior is beginning to grow annoyed with your lack of success in obtaining Spider-Man," said Warren over the communication and Smythe just gritted his teeth. The Black Widow, he had fully expected it to be a test run against Spider-Man but the fact that he beat the Mega Slayer was proof that this was not going to be the easy money that he thought it was. "You're saying he short circuited it. How does something like that happen?"

"It will not happen again, right now the third version of the Spider Slayer, the Ultra Slayer is being assimilated with the data obtained from the Mega Slayer and the Black Widow," explained Smythe. "It will be foolproof."

"I don't want to hear empty promises Smythe but rather action," said Warren in a cold, dismissive tone. "The fact is that Dr. Essex is far from a patient man. His research on Spider-Man is required to begin sooner rather than later."

"He'll have his specimen, because on the off chance that the Ultra Slayer is defeated, then I'm going to deploy the final slayer, one that not even an army of Spider-Men could defeat," said Smythe who was getting about as frustrated as Warren was. At first, this was just a means to get some extra income, but now he felt he had to create a robot that would do the job and humiliate Spider-Man. In a way, it had become rather personal between the two. He did not like when he was upstaged and made to look like a common inept fool.

Unfortunately this afternoon was far from over.

A loud humming sound, along with a gust of wind that nearly blew him off of his feet had caused him to step back, eyes widened in horror as he looked at his newest, perhaps most dangerous adversary.

"Oh come on, you have got to be kidding me!" shouted Spider-Man throwing his hands up in frustration as he looked at his newest robot that was the size of a small water tower, with legs and weapons systems.

Quickly, Spider-Man swung out of the way, attempting to maneuver it around, but the legs retracted, before a helicopter blade rose out of the top of it. The chopper found its way up to where Spider-Man was before a blue blast was sent right towards the web head.

Another series of blasts but Spider-Man managed to move out the way, until he dropped to the ground. He felt his hand go numb as he dropped to the ground. The Ultra Slayer dropped down to face its adversary.

"Target, contain," declared the Ultra Slayer as its lights scanned Spider-Man, almost as if it was analyzing him but Spider-Man, while barely able to lift his right hand, was able to awkwardly turn his left hand to shoot webbing right at the Spider-Slayer but a blade shot out immediately, slicing it to nothing. Spider-Man turned, watching as a thick cable shoot out, attempting to wrap around his legs, but Spider-Man dodged the attack, with sparks flying everywhere.

Clutching his chest, breathing heavily, Spider-Man tried to book, shoving a dumpster in the way but the Ultra Slayer pulled it up before tossing it to the side like a paper ball.

"Got to get this thing away from civilization," muttered Spider-Man as he swung forward, but the helicopter blade rose up out of the Ultra Slayer. It stalked its target with ruthless efficiently, sending a missile right at him. Spider-Man dodged the attack, but the sonic pulses had weakened him, dropping to his knees. The electrified cable attempted to wrap around the wall crawler once again but Spider-Man flipped over it, before he scaled the building. The Spider Slayer seemed to see that coming, as it blasted oil right onto the wall. Not even his grip could keep him from slipping, before crumpling right to the ground.

"This thing, it knows everything I do it seems," said Spider-Man as another stun rocket flew right towards him but Spider-Man wrapped his webbing around it before he swung it right towards the robot but the Ultra Slayer was ready. The rocket was blasted with a ray that caused it to vibrate until it crumbled to dust. Spider-Man began to breath heavily as he dropped to a knee, wondering what it would take to defeat such an imposing threat.


The Ultra Slayer turned, before it shot two more stun rockets but Spider-Man pulled himself out of the way. He shot several lines of webbing to barricade his adversary right in the alley way, which sadly was only for seconds, as the Ultra Slayer found its way towards him, before he was blasted right off the ground. Every bit of his body was stunned and the Ultra Slayer hovered off the ground, before he grabbed Spider-Man and the top opened, obviously a place to where it could transport the contained Spider-Man. Spider-Man struggled against the grip of the Ultra Slayer, before he looked at the opening.

"Maybe I can jam up this one on the inside," thought Spider-Man desperately as he was closer to be captured than he ever thought he would. Desperately, he removed his web shooters and triggered the release pin, before he dropped them down. The webbing exploded, causing the inside of the Ultra Slayer to be clogged up. Spider-Man was dropped down to the ground, still a bit weakened, but the robot was spiraling out of control. With an tricky, but careful maneuver, Spider-Man removed his remaining web cartridges from his belt. He flicked them inside, with the heat generated by the Spider-Slayer causing the webbing within to be released. "Yes, thanks to science."


Spider-Man dropped to his knees, but suddenly there was a loud whirling sound and a heavy wind that nearly threw him to his back. With wide eyes and a horrified expression on his face, he came face to face with the biggest robot left. Slumped against the wall of the abandoned warehouse, Spider-Man looked, eyes widened. This was the biggest one yet and the most dangerous.

"Where do people keep getting these things?" thought Spider-Man as a large canon was aimed right towards him and it fired a blue energy beam. The web head just very narrowly avoided being blasted from the impact. The wall was burned right behind him and he leapt up, pointing his arm. "Oh right, I threw my web shooters and all my webbing in that last robot like a complete idiot. In hindsight, that might be my dumbest move ever. Great now Spidey, you've got a big robot and no gimmicks, exactly how are you going to beat this one."


Spider-Man somersaulted over the robot but a large metal cable with a hook grabbed around him and clamped around him. He tried to pry himself up as he was pulled right towards the robot. IT had none of the vocal commands of the previous models, it was apparent that it learned from how well Spider-Man had utilized its own command declarations against him. Spider-Man was pulled forward, as the Slayer turned, before its legs morphed into rocket thrusters and began rising off of the ground. Spider-Man attempted to pull himself free, but there was no way out. The sounds of sirens could be heard, but the Spider Slayer pointed a blue energy canon, creating a force dome around the cars, preventing anyone from exiting them and giving Spider-Man the help that he needed to escape.

"After all of this, it ends like this, I can't believe it, this thing is crushing me and it could easily kill me just like that," thought Spider-Man in desperately, as he looked up, before he looked a familiar. "What's she doing here?"


"Hey you, you overgrown bucket of bolts, put him down!" shouted Kitty from the ground but Spider-Man tried to get free but the Spider Slayer continued to move inch by inch up the ground. She threw a piece of rubble that had been dislodged in the fight up, smashing into the Spider Slayer.

"Kitty, get out of here," managed Spider-Man as he tried to get free but the Spider Slayer had turned its attention to the young mutant. Its eyes blinked, turning towards her before it lowered down. A deadly looking orange light appeared and blasted towards the girl, who screamed, before she went totally intangible, causing it to blow a whole of the wall. "Get out of here before you get blasted into bits!"

"Can't sorry, a certain someone would prefer if you get back in one piece and she would totally kill me if I brought back a mangled corpse," said Kitty as she tried to climb up on the Spider-Slayer, reaching forward, before pulling Spider-Man out but there was a large vibration which caused them to both go solid.

"Don't suppose you can get any back up," said Spider-Man and Kitty shook her head.

"Sorry, everyone was out of the Mansion, I figured I could handle it myself, I did leave a note you know," said Kitty, as Spider-Man dodged the attack.

"Great, whatever, we'll talk about this later, just get me inside that thing so I can try and disable it and do it quickly, it has something that negates your powers," said Spider-Man as he tried to get in position, as the young girl shoved him forward, he was inside the Spider Slayer, as the heat was overwhelming.

"Hurry, I don't know how long I can hold these powers, before passing out," muttered Kitty, as the inside continued to heat up as Peter looked at the controls, it was a complex piece of machinery, one he could not begin to figure out, even when he was not really pressed for time.

"I hope I pull the right wire," muttered Spider-Man suddenly.

"And if you don't?" inquired Kitty in a panicked voice.

"I don't know, but I can guarantee you it won't be pretty," replied Spider-Man as he concentrated. "Now which wire should I pull."

"Red, duh, it's like always red," said Kitty, and Spider-Man hoped that she was right. The heat negated his spider sense and Spider-Man grabbed the wire and for one fleeting, happy second, he thought he was out of the woods.

"Error, foreign obstruction, commence with cleansing and prepare to switch to lethal protocols," declared the Spider Slayer as it began to flash red.

"Oh boy, not good," said Kitty, as she managed to pull them out, before several weapons erupted from the Spider Slayer, pointing rockets at them and there was a countdown timer set to thirty seconds.

"It's going to fire all those things at once unless we find a way to disable it," said Spider-Man as he looked at the Spider Slayer, with a frown.

"Don't you have anything?" asked Kitty.

"Only my camera, I threw my web shooters and my spare webbing into the last one like a complete idiot," responded Spider-Man but he looked at his camera, the only thing he had left in his bag and in a total act of faith, he pressed a button, causing the flash to go off. The Spider Slayer paused, before the weapons were withdrawn, it collapsed to the ground, causing the ground to shake underneath it.

Kitty blinked.

Spider-Man blinked.

The Spider Slayer laid dormant, unmoving, just collapsing after being ready to unload on them with a series of rockets.

"Huh?" asked Kitty in surprise as she watched the robot on the ground, completely immobile and unable to move, as she stepped forward. Casually she tapped on it, but it offered no signs of movement.

"Hello, anyone home," said Spider-Man in absolute shock as he knocked on the robot. He looked from the camera to the robot, back and forth, looking dumbstruck, with a confused look on his face. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"You beat this thing by taking a picture of it?" asked Kitty. "Seriously, really, I mean, no one's not going to believe this when I tell them about it."

"I'm the one who actually won and I don't really believe it," responded Spider-Man in a disbelieving voice, almost expecting the robot to come back to life and blast both himself and Kitty right into bits. "So did you pick up a codename yet?"

"Shadowcat," replied Kitty with a grin as Spider-Man looked at her before he nodded.

"Well, it's better than Marvel Girl," replied Spider-Man which caused Kitty to laugh.

"Don't let Jean hear you talking about her codename like that," said Kitty.

"She's a telepath, if she doesn't already know, that I'm not going to tell her," said Spider-Man as he kicked the Spider Slayer one more time. "Well that was quite the anti climatic victory."

"Yeah tell me about it, if this was in a comic book, I bet you would have people on the Internet within moments talking about how stupid and lame the ending to this fight was," said Kitty with a smile.

"Maybe it's just me, but any ending where I actually remain alive is actually a pretty good one," said Spider-Man as he looked up in the sky, which was completely devoid of any psychotic Spider-Man hating robots.

"Okay, Peter, I concede for once this wasn't your fault that you put yourself in danger," said Gwen but then she frowned. "I'm glad you're fine, more than you can believe."

"I think the greeting you gave me proved that," said Peter with a cheeky grin.

"Someone created these robots, to track you down and they did it," said Gwen. "Someone wants you either killed or captured badly."

"Well, I could start making a list, but we'd be here all day," said Peter.

"Pete, take this seriously," said Gwen in a frustrated voice. "They used technology that was far more advanced than anything that I could think of. That could track you down."

"I know Gwen and believe me, I'm taking this seriously," said Peter as he turned, to look off into the distance as he sat close to Gwen, not really paying as much attention to her as he would have liked. "They can find me again and put everyone else in danger. It's lucky that no one put two and two together."

Gwen remained quiet, she knew what Peter was thinking.

"It's worth the risk for me, Peter and anyone else in my position would agree, or…." Said Gwen trailing off trying to find the right words to express what she was thinking.

"They wouldn't be worthy," muttered Peter.

"Not exactly what I was going for, but close enough," said Gwen thoughtfully grabbing his hand in a comforting manner, as they just sat there, in silence for several minutes.

"I was lucky to win, it was a technically one in a million flaw that allowed me to beat that final robot, I wouldn't be here talking to Gwen right now if I hadn't been so lucky," thought Peter. "Who wants to find me so badly? I don't know why I get this feeling, but it's something more than your average run of the mill nutjob with powers in a costume. I don't want to bring this up with Gwen, I mean, I put her through enough. I mean how many girls would put up with their boyfriend dressing up in a tacky Halloween costume, swinging around the city playing super hero. Would I be as patient if the situations were reversed? I don't even know."


"Smythe had four robots and failed," said Warren in an angry voice. "I can't believe we trusted that inept fool to get the job done."

"Actually Miles, he did get the job done," said Essex over the phone carefully. "I never expected him to capture Spider-Man but I do admit he came closer than I would have imagined. Still his Spider Slayers have given me valuable data about Spider-Man. Data that I can use to move my plans forward. Rest assure that Spider-Man or rather his DNA will serve me well. Not to mention certain X-Men may prove to be great areas of interest."

"X-Men?" asked Warren in confusion.

"Just get back to your work Warren and I'll call upon you when I acquire your assistance," said Essex dismissively before adding in a sinister tone of voice. "And believe me it will be all too soon."

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