Chapter 36: And Then There Were Six Part IV

Chapter Thirty Five: And Then There Were Six Part IV:

At the last second, the Vulture dove down and grabbed Spider-Man. Spider-Man struggled, as the Vulture carried him high into the air.

“It’s not going to be that easy!” shouted the Vulture as he threw Spider-Man done. Once again, Spider-Man spiraled towards the ground, but once again the Vulture dove down, before he grabbed Spider-Man and pulled himself up. “I’ve been waiting for this for months! Revenge Spider-Man, I’m not getting any younger and the time is now! I might not be able to get Osborn but I will make you pay!”

Once again, Spider-Man was launched down towards the ground, but this time, he tucked his head and managed to barely grab onto the clothesline wire. His hands slipped on the ice and Vulture dove at him, but the web slinger managed to swing up and onto the back.

“No impudent quips?” demanded the Vulture, as he spiraled through the air, with Spider-Man hanging onto the hover pack, just barely able to keep on the ride, as he tried to find a way to unscrew it.

“No time to waste them on you!” shouted Spider-Man in frustration, he was finally starting to crack and he could not pry the hover pack open and he lost his grip, before the Vulture threw him down. Spider-Man managed to mostly brace himself for the fall.

CRACK!

Spider-Man slid off the side of the building, very barely holding on, as the Vulture dove at him. The web slinger tried to pull himself up but he could barely stand.

“Broken ankle, that’s all I need right now,” thought Spider-Man but the Vulture dove down and grabbed Spider-Man by the shoulder, before he pulled the web slinger up into the air and Spider-Man struggled, but the Vulture had a tight grip on him.

“Now, any last words Spider-Man?” asked the Vulture but he did not let Spider-Man respond. “On second thought, I’ll just kill you!”

The Vulture threw Spider-Man down towards the ground. Spider-Man felt himself fall at an insane rate but he eyed a particularly thick snow bank. In a split decision, he managed to slightly slow and redirect himself down. He bounced off of the snow before he slid down. The fall was cushioned and would have been a lot worse had he splattered on the hard, frozen pavement.

Not that he did not have his share of aches and pains, as he slid down and landed. Spider-Man laid in the snow, breathing heavily, but despite the fact that his body was racked with pain, he managed to get himself to his feet.

“Hey, Vulture!” called Spider-Man, wincing as his ribs hurt from the strain of yelling but the Vulture had heard him and turned, in shock. “Yeah, that’s right, I’m talking to you, you big old bald buzzard! Is that the best you can....give me?”

“Still alive?” demanded the Vulture but he held up his gloves, with metal tips extracted for them. “Well not for long!”

The Vulture dove right at the air, right towards Spider-Man but this time, the web slinger dodged the attack. The villain dove up and attempted to dive bomb Spider-Man once more but the web slinger propelled a large chunk of ice up, that the Vulture had to duck.

“Time for me to clip your wings, Toomes,” said Spider-Man but once again, the Vulture was not in the mood and he dove right down towards Spider-Man. Once again, the web head narrowly avoided an attack and Vulture flew up and dove right down, nearly slicing Spider-Man with the claws this time. An acid dripped from them, burning small holes through the snow.

“Okay, have to avoid that,” thought Spider-Man as he watched his dangerous adversary circle him. Vulture dove at him, an absolute insane look on his face. Once again, Spider-Man just narrowly avoided his enemy and the Vulture had to fly back up before he smashed into the ground. With a movement, Spider-Man removed one of Kraven’s tranquilizer darts from inside his glove. “Got to time this right, Spidey, one wrong move and he’s going to skew you with those claws.”

The Vulture gave a crazed cry.

“DIE!” shouted the Vulture, as he dove right towards Spider-Man but the web slinger, gritting his teeth in an attempt ignore the damage in his injured ankle, leapt up right towards the Vulture. The old villain was caught off guard and Spider-Man managed to throw himself right on the Vulture’s back. He stopped from plummeting the ground, flying low, before he went into the air, trying to throw Spider-Man off but the web slinger remained focused on the task at hand. Steadily, he held the dart, but the Vulture grabbed it out of his hands. “I bet you thought you were going to plunge this into my neck and put me down like an old dog?”

Spider-Man saw the Vulture’s gloves, with the clawed tips filled with acid.

“Well yeah, that’s my first plan,” said Spider-Man as he managed to pull the glove off. The tranquilzer dart flew to the ground. “But this will do just nicely!”

Spider-Man quickly pried open the tips of the gloves before the acid dropped onto the hover pack and the top melting, causing sparks to fly.

“You fool!” shouted the Vulture, as he started to regain control, he managed to get to a good height before he was flying erratically and was reaching the ground, just barely managing to stay in the air. “YOU FOOL!”

“You’re the fool, Vulture, stay still!” shouted Spider-Man frantically, as the cagey old villain seemed to try to be falling, despite his flight system being mostly compromised.

”If, I fall, I’m taking you with me!” shouted the Vulture, as he tried to launch Spider-Man off of his back but the web head hung on, as they continued to spiral towards the ground.

“A few seconds before I crash,” thought Spider-Man frantically. “Think, do something, man this is going to suck no matter what I do!”

Spider-Man breathed heavily, before he grabbed the Vulture around the head and did a somersault. Still the stubborn old man attempted to dive off but Spider-Man managed to somehow engineer the fall to happen on a low snow covered building. He managed to somehow brace himself, where he landed on the part with the softest landing.

Of course, the fact that he basically used the Vulture as a crash pad helped. He landed, before he gingerly pulled himself off of his enemy, who had been knocked unconscious from the fall and was shallowly breathing. Spider-Man slumped over, hobbling on his bad ankle.

“Not broken, I don’t think, but sprained, well it could be worse,” muttered Spider-Man to himself, as his good leg nearly buckled out from underneath him. “Vulture looks like he took a nasty spill but he’ll live. Doubt he’ll be up for revenge again any time soon.”

A beeping sound brought Spider-Man out of his thoughts and after a few seconds, he noticed that it was on the Vulture. Quickly, on a whim, he answered it.

“Hello, Spider-Man,” said the voice of Doctor Octopus in the most polite manner possible, if he was checking up on an old friend.

“Octavius, I through playing your games!” shouted Spider-Man. “I thought you wanted to face me, but I guess the great criminal mastermind has to hide behind others.”

“I wouldn’t mock me with an innocent life at stake,” responded Doctor Octopus crisply. “Miss Stacy is safe and alive, for the moment. As it is, it will only take one movement and I could snap her neck.”

Spider-Man’s hand shook as he nearly dropped the phone in anger.

“But I’m a fair man, Spider-Man, you’ve earned the right to face Doctor Octopus,” continued Doctor Octopus. “And you shall but this will be the last time. Now listen very carefully, because I don’t like to repeat myself and the girl’s chances of living will be increased if you arrive before my patience grows thin.”

-

Time ticked by, as Gwen sat, in the darkened room. She had not heard a word from Doctor Octopus but she supposed it might have been good news. He would have triumphed if he would have succeeded.

Whether or not he would live up to his word and release her, well that was another matter entirely.

It felt like days but it was only several hours and with no way out, all she could do was sit and wait.

Every noise lead to a misguided hope that help was on the way and it was just the noise of heavy wind kicking up.

A rattle and Gwen slowly turned, for lack of anything else better to do, but she looked up as a window behind her several feet was opened and in surprise when she saw had walked in.

“It can’t be,” thought Gwen but she breathed a sigh of relief. Peter carefully scaled the ceiling above her, a bit beaten and battered but still breathing and alive. “His powers…they did come back.”

Spider-Man crawled above, very nearly losing his grip, mostly because his hands were wet. Carefully, he landed down, right on the bad ankle and just held himself up against a chair, before he stepped forward to.

“You’re alive,” muttered Gwen, breathing a sigh of relief, as Spider-Man moved towards the cage.

“Yeah barely, got to get you out of here, before Octopus catches onto the fact I came in another way,” said Spider-Man as he tried to pry the cage open. “Locked, great, hang on, I’ll find something to get it open.”

No sooner had Spider-Man said those words, someone had stirred behind him.

“SPIDER-MAN, WATCH OUT!” shouted Gwen just as his spider sense had went off and just a split second before Doctor Octopus had knocked him down from behind, with a rapid fire blow by one of his robotic arms. Spider-Man landed on the ground with a thud.

“So predictable, Spider-Man,” said Doctor Octopus in a bored voice, as his arms shot out, but Spider-Man dodged the attacks, trying to keep Octopus away from Gwen, so she would not get injured. “I knew you would locate an alternate entrance and try to get the girl out of here safely, pathetic and predictable as always.”

The arms swung right towards Spider-Man but the web head nimbly dodged him.

“One innocent and you’re stop at nothing to save them, despite the obvious signs that you should have stopped while you still had breath in your body,” taunted Doctor Octopus as he watched Spider-Man’s limp and eyes averted to the large black burn mark on the front of his uniform, where Electro zapped him. “You are weak Spider-Man!”

“You’re the one that is weak, using an innocent to drive me out!” shouted Spider-Man as he aimed a kick but Doctor Octopus caught his foot with a robotic arm. The foot with the bad ankle and Spider-Man bit his tongue, he would not scream.

Doctor Octopus turned and swung, causing Spider-Man to smash against the wall. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Gwen watch, in paralyzed horror, as he continued to be smashed around the room by Doctor Octopus. His powers may have been back but they were still too weak and there was no way he was going to be able to trick someone with the intelligence of Doctor Octopus.

“There are countless ways to break each and every bone in your body, Spider-Man,” said Doctor Octopus as he tossed Spider-Man right in front of the cage. Gwen held onto the bars, she looked down, helpless, hopeless. Doctor Octopus kneeled down, careful to keep a distance. “Admit it, I’m your superior in every way, Spider-Man!”

“I’m not done yet,” said Spider-Man but it hurt to breathe. Summoning every bit of strength he could, he dove right towards Doctor Octopus, hands reached, to rip the power source but Doctor Octopus blocked Spider-Man at the last possible second.

“Once again, predictable,” said Doctor Octopus in a nearly bored voice, as he tossed Spider-Man to the side and he landed right on the ground. “Always with the obvious tricks arachnid. Save the innocent girl, disable the power source, I suppose you’re going to try to use that pathetic concoction that you call webbing, next.”

“I would if I could,” grumbled Spider-Man as he avoided the robotic arms of Ock once again. The mad scientist seemed particularly content with destroying Spider-Man at his own leisure and with the power source, that leisure could last many hours. He had to do something, as he just barely avoided a shot, which smashed open a glass case, causing a fire extinguisher to drop on the ground with a loud smash and Spider-Man did an awkward roll to avoid being smashed by the remnants of the glass case after Doctor Octopus had ripped it off of the wall.

Quickly, Spider-Man grabbed the fire extinguisher, and sprayed the exhaust right at Doctor Octopus. The villain was more annoyed by this than anything, and his robotic arm shot out, before he ripped the extinguisher right out of the hands of Spider-Man. Spider-Man staggered and Doctor Octopus grabbed onto the shoulder of Spider-Man and hoisted him up, before he slammed the web slinger down at the ground.

He saw Gwen out of the corner of his eye and remembered that he was supposed to be here to save her.

Of course, no one bothered telling Doctor Octopus that, as the villain had Spider-Man pinned to the ground. Spider-Man managed to grab the robotic arm, as it was inches away from his throat and he struggled, kicking his feet, but his muscles felt weak and he could barely even keep a grip of the arm.

“My powers,” thought Spider-Man desperately, as the robotic arm slipped, just inches away from his head and smashed into the floor. “They can’t be going again! NO, NO, NO!”

“It’s not as poetic as you would have hoped, is it Spider-Man?” asked Doctor Octopus, as a robotic arm each had pinned Spider-Man to the ground by his shoulders, the web head too weak to room. “You were to defeat me, rescue the girl, play the hero defeating the villain. But I have never been one to go for conventional wisdom and dutifully bow to the norms that society has laid down for me.”

The other two robotic arms had grabbed Spider-Man’s ankles and Doctor Octopus pulled him closer. His arms were held in the top two robotic arms and his legs were held in the bottom two.

“The Kingpin tried to kill me but what he failed to realize is that he should have stuck around to make sure the job was finished,” said Doctor Octopus in a sadistic voice. “I’m not going, until I hear the last breath leave your body, Spider-Man!”

With that declaration, Spider-Man struggled, as Doctor Octopus’s arms slowly extended, slowly pulling his limbs in four separate directions. He had felt pain beyond anything he ever imagined.

Spider-Man barely suppressed a scream. He was being slowly drawn and quartered by the robotic arms of this mad man. He would be pulled to shreds in no time flat.

If he could only be so lucky to pass out from the pain before he was ripped to blood shreds.

“STOP!” shouted Gwen, her hands clenched together. She could not take it anymore, watching Peter suffer like this and Doctor Octopus paused for a brief second, as she got up and attempted to push the door open but it remained immobile.

“I’m afraid it must be done,” replied Doctor Octopus, more to himself than to the girl. “I’m sure you’ll get over his death, as would others who have deluded themselves into thinking that Spider-Man is a hero. Besides, I’m sure some new foolish do gooder will spring up. There is always one fool with a death wish.”

As Doctor Octopus was busy talking, Spider-Man noticed that his foot was free. Quickly, while Octopus was distracted, he pulled the foot and aimed a kick right at the face of Doctor Octopus. The villain was knocked backwards and somehow, Spider-Man managed to free his arms and other leg, before he landed on his feet. The sleeves and pant legs were torn slightly, with drops of blood but he jumped up, with another kick right to the face.

A robotic arm right to the shoulder had caught Spider-Man off guard, but Doctor Octopus had pulled Spider-Man up, he had noticed a loosened electrical wire above.

“Well it worked with Electro,” thought Spider-Man as he kicked off of Doctor Octopus’s robotic arm, before he pulled it up, causing the wire to wrap around the upper left arm.

With a drop, Spider-Man landed, once again trying to shut the pain out of his injured ankle. Doctor Octopus screamed, as the explosion knocked him backwards, before it caused the power source to his arms to shut down. As he moved over, Gwen looked at him from the cage, anxiously.

“Are you okay?” asked Spider-Man.

“I really should be asking you that question,” said Gwen, but Spider-Man managed to get the lock open, with a little effort. He extended a hand and helped her out of the cage.

For a brief second, he thought the worst was over.

Needless to say, he thought wrong!

Doctor Octopus began to stir, his robotic arms twitching, as he laid on the ground, before he pulled himself up. The power source was not completely burned out and immediately, Doctor Octopus’s arm shot forward and smashed right into Spider-Man’s back, before he pulled the web head off of the ground and flung him across the room.

“You thought this was going to be easy, Spider-Man,” said Doctor Octopus as he advanced on Spider-Man, but his control on the arms were a little off needless to say.

On the other end of the room, Gwen stood, frustrated. She wished she could help in someway but she would do more harm than good. It was a perfect chance for her to escape but she just could not leave Peter here.

She looked around and right to her side, she saw a switch on the wall. Edging over carefully, Gwen noticed that it was the overload mechanism for the separate power source. I

On a hunch, she pulled the switch. It seemed better than the alternative.

“It’s time to end this now, Spider-Man!” shouted Doctor Octopus but a loud humming had caused him to drop the battered, and beaten Spider-Man as he was held. He turned, with a cool, sadistic look on his face, staring at Gwen, standing next to the switch. “You’d wish you wouldn’t have done that, young lady.”

Spider-Man struggled to his feet. To say he was in unbearable pain would not be far off but he saw Doctor Octopus, and quickly, digging down as deep as he could manage. He sprang right towards Doctor Octopus but the villain casually turned around. Spider-Man found himself swatted to the side by the robotic arm.

He dropped to the ground, and struggled his to his feet, in time, for Doctor Octopus to grab onto a large section of the roof, right above where Gwen was and prepared to bring the building down right around them.

Spider-Man instinctively leapt forward, to pull Gwen out of the way, inadvertently falling into the path of the falling debris, which caused the floor to collapse right underneath him.

By that time, Doctor Octopus had departed, smashing open the wall, as the computer continued to heat up and would trigger a chain reaction.

Gwen stepped forward but she had to step back, as a large chunk of metal fell from above. It landed right in the caved hole, which buried the trapped web slinger in the hole.

“No, this can’t be happening!” thought Gwen, horrified, blood dripping down her cheek from a scratch that had been opened on her face from getting nicked by the fallen debris. “I can’t have…I can’t…I killed him.”

“Evacuate immediately,” said prerecorded voice. “Computer will overheat to critical mass in approximately three minutes.”

-

Down in the hole, Spider-Man laid, the large metal contraption over him. He was down in the hole in a way where it did not fall completely on top of it. Otherwise he would have been crushed immediately.

“It ends like this,” thought Spider-Man, as he tried, but could not move it. “I’m done. That might have been it for my powers, I would have been able to climb out of the hole in time if it wasn’t, before this thing fell on me!”

“Peter!” shouted a voice from above.

“Gwen?” thought Spider-Man.

“Get out of here!” managed Spider-Man, as he gasped, barely able to breathe. “Save yourself, don’t worry about me, I’m finished, Gwen, I can’t budge this thing!”

-

Gwen was going through a multitude of emotions right now. A small logical part of her said that she should just save herself before it was too late.

“Peter!” shouted Gwen helplessly and there was a moment’s pause before there was a response. It was muffled but she could make out what was being said.

“Get out of here!” shouted Spider-Man from underneath the rubble, in a pained voice. “Save yourself, don’t worry about me. I’m finished, Gwen I can’t budge this thing!”

“I won’t!” shouted Gwen.

“You have to!” yelled Spider-Man back.

“No, I’m not going to leave you!” shouted Gwen, as she tried to push to move the piece of metal, but it was useless.

“GO!” shouted Spider-Man in a panicked and pained voice. “Get out of here now! There’s no hope for me but you can still save…save…yourself!”

Spider-Man’s voice trailed off, as Gwen stood.

“I won’t,” said Gwen firmly. “If I was trapped under there, you wouldn’t run out the door!”

“That’s d-different,” managed Spider-Man.

“Maybe because you have powers and I don’t, but I don’t care, I’m not going to run out!” shouted Gwen, as she looked at the computer. Surely there was some way to shut this down but while the lever could be easily pulled, there appeared to be no shut off. There was humming and it could pop at any second. There was a wide space in the wall that she could easily escape.

“But….I can’t budge this thing,” managed Spider-Man. “I’m useless, my powers are completely gone….this time for good! Please go Gwen. I don’t my last minutes filled with regret that I couldn’t save one more person! I’m nothing without my powers. NOTHING!”

“Don’t say that!” shouted Gwen angrily. “You’re more without your powers than most people would be with them. And I’m not leaving Peter, when this thing blows up….”

Gwen left her words hanging.

-

“Stubborn, sticks to her convictions, she’s worse than I am sometimes,” thought Spider-Man, as he struggled underneath the debris. “She didn’t give up on you, Pete. Are you going to give up on her? There’s still time, but not much. It’s not over yet. Just a few more seconds, come on, they returned before. Work now!”

Spider-Man struggled, hands firmly on the large piece of metal. He struggled, the stabbing pain in his shoulders but he shut it out. A burst of adrenaline, as he pushed the metal up over him. He breathed heavily, as he exerted all the force he could.

For a second, the metal sank back down, but Spider-Man gripped onto the bottom and pushed with all of his might. His body was racked with the pain of fighting six sinister villains, but Spider-Man managed to work, his spider strength returning suddenly and his powers back.

Just a few more seconds and Spider-Man with a might heave, shoved the metal off to the side. He watched the computer smoke and he saw Gwen, a relieved look on his face. He barely could move out of the hole, but somehow, he got up enough determination to pull himself on.

“Hang on,” muttered Spider-Man, holding onto Gwen, mainly for support due to his busted up ankle, as well to get her out of here.

Throwing all caution to the wind, Spider-Man leapt right towards the opening. He managed to get enough speed, as he held onto Gwen.

Seconds after they safely cleared the building, the computer overloaded and a loud explosion echoed, causing fire to shoot up, a sickening burning smell and an intense heat indicated one thing to both.

That rescue was cut close. Much too close.

“Gwen, are you alright?” asked Spider-Man as she looked at him and he realized that was a pretty stupid thing to say after the ordeal that she had been through.

“Better now that I’m out here, safe,” said Gwen, as she looked around. “If it wasn’t for me…”

“Octavius could have finished me off at his leisure,” countered Spider-Man cutting her off and the matter was dropped. “I’m just glad that my powers came back in time.”

Gwen opened her mouth to ask what if they did not but on second thought, she did not want to know and she gathered Peter did not want to know either.

“Better get you out of here, safe, your father has to be worried sick about you,” said Spider-Man, adopting a business like tone and Gwen looked at him, with a nod.

-

Days later, Peter could not remember exactly how he got back home without Aunt May knowing he was gone. All that he remembered is that he somehow did, blacking out from the pain the moment that he got to his bed. He had managed to pass off the pain due to lingering after effects of the attack by Sandman under his civilian identity and a heavy bout of the flu.

The good news was, at least in theory, was that his powers were back and he was back on his feet within days, a bit sore, but he might not have been able to walk again had his powers not returned, giving the beating he suffered.

“Peter, I’m so glad to see you!” said Gwen excitedly as she had greeted Peter at the door of her house. In fact, the one time she tried to call Peter, his aunt told her that he was resting, after his own ordeal at the hands of “that dreadful Sandman”. Which was a partial truth, as Aunt May did not know about his ordeals at the hands of Electro, Mysterio, Kraven, the Vulture, and Doctor Octopus.

“So I am Gwen,” said Peter as he sighed. “I don’t know how to feel about this quite frankly.”

“About what Peter?” asked Gwen even though she had an idea.

“They’re back,” muttered Peter, so only Gwen could hear him. “Temporarily gone but they returned and….I think I can live with that now. I have a much better appreciation for what they are. Without them, neither of us would be hear having this conversation.”

Gwen just looked at Peter, the look of conflict on his face. It was almost as if he resigned himself to the fact that he was Spider-Man and had accepted.

“The powers aren’t everything, Peter, you proved that,” said Gwen with a smile. “No matter how much they help.”

Both teenagers laughed at this but suddenly Captain Stacy exited the kitchen, to see what the source of the commotion.

“Hello, Peter,” said Captain Stacy in a calm voice before he turned his to his daughter. “Gwen, could you please leave, I would like to talk to Peter alone for a few minutes?”

“Oh of course, Dad,” said Gwen in confusion but she did as was requested. Peter looked anxious, as his girlfriend’s father looked at him, for a few moments.

“Peter, let it be known that I can’t go on the record about certain things, no matter how appreciated they are,” remarked Captain Stacy slowly as he looked Peter in the eye. “But one thing I can say, is there are no words that can accurately state how grateful I am for Spider-Man. Not only for saving Gwen, but for what he’s done for this city.”

“I’m sure he knows,” replied Peter.

“I’m certain,” answered Captain Stacy with a nod. “And rest assure, that no matter what anyone else says, Spider-Man has proven himself many times over.”

Peter nodded, in confusion, not knowing what to make of this.

“Yeah, listen, I better go, sir, Aunt May might be getting worried, because I’ve not been feeling well lately,” said Peter. “Just wanted to stop by and check up on Gwen.”

“Of course Peter and I have a feeling I’ll be seeing you all too soon,” said Captain Stacy. “Stay safe out there.”

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