Chapter 41: My Fantastic Enemies Part Two

Chapter Forty One: My Fantastic Enemies Part Two:

Spider-Man felt his heart thumping across his chest, as he began to plummet further and further. He took aim with his good web shooter but found that he was much too high up and much too far away to latch onto anything. He continued his descent down, barely any time to think.

“Well, I guess I’m going to have to hope for a miracle,” thought Spider-Man. “A really improbable miracle that has a one and a billion chance of….”

Spider-Man’s thoughts were stopped by a sudden stop. He felt all of the air knocked out of him but it was much too soon for him to splatter all over the pavement. He lifted his head up, as he realized that he was on the top of balloon.

“Hot air balloon, who knew,” muttered Spider-Man as he carefully slid down, dropping into the basket. “About time something went right for me.”

He gave his head a small shake to clear it and looked down to the city. He managed to see a blur from above, as he carefully directed his ride just a bit. The Invisible Woman was in the process of freeing her teammates one by one, as Spider-Man put a hand to his forehead. The Fantastic Four, while rattled, had reunited and Spider-Man looked at them, as they quickly moved.

“With any luck, they’ll lead me to the source of all of this craziness,” thought Spider-Man, as when he lowered down far enough, he shot a line of webbing down. Wrapping around a light post, Spider-Man slid down, before he swung down. “There they go.”

The web slinger swung after them at a discrete distance. Until he had figured this completely out, he could not afford another fight with the Fantastic Four. Considering the last one took a lot out of him, it would not be the best idea right now. He had thought that they were heading to the Baxter Building but they took a detour of sorts.

“Interesting,” thought Spider-Man as he kept a careful amount of distance, but just enough to not to lose track of the Fantastic Four. “Odd, I know about this place. That art studio has been abandoned for three years…since just a little bit after the accident that turned the Four into their super powered selves. Curious.”

Spider-Man clung to the edge of the building and scaled up the wall, carefully managing to push an opened window, just enough where he could slip inside, but not too much, where he could attract attention. He began crawling down, as he saw the Fantastic Four, dropping their ill gotten gains on the floor, along with the huge piles of goodies that had been accumulated. Spider-Man’s eyes widened, but he had heard movement from the shadows, as a pair of hands reached out, to examine some of his newly acquired wealth.

“The Fantastic Four, reduced to mere puppets under my control,” said the shadowed figure. “Just imagine the glory, not that I’ll stick around to learn about any of it. I need you to commit one more heist, my super powered puppets. There is a convoy of armored trucks that is transporting precious gems from town. With an armed police escort, but you should have no trouble. The moment you have lifted all the contraband, my control of you will be released and you will be held accountable for your crimes, with no knowledge that you have ever been in my presence.”

“You won’t get away with this,” murmured Mr. Fantastic but the figure in the shadows just laughed.

“You have no choice, once I exert my control, you will bow before me!” shouted the figure, as he held up a clay duplicate of Mr. Fantastic and arched the spine forcing the member of the Fantastic Four to bow before him. “I have done what many have dared to dream. I have bent the Fantastic Four to my will and they can do my bidding. Yet all good things must come to an end and they will be brought down, because they have no choice.”

“Too bad you need to work just a little bit more on your villain monologues, because they quite frankly stink!” shouted Spider-Man as he leapt from the wall, right towards the shadows, and reached forward, catching the mysterious figure unaware. “Okay, the ruthless mastermind who is manipulating the Fantastic Four is….some creepy old man playing with dolls?”

Sure enough, stood there, bald, with sunken looking eye lids and three teeth, all of them which were fixed in a crooked smirk directed towards Spider-Man.

“Bah, they are not dolls, they are sophisticated art sculptures,” stated the man in a crazed voice. “Do you know who I am?”

“The poster child for the people that parents warn their children not to accept rides from?” asked Spider-Man, as he held the man up.

“I am the Puppet Master,” said the man creepily. “And the power that the Fantastic Four have, I now control!”

A blast of fire had caused Spider-Man’s concentration to break, as the Puppet Master had made his way up a set of stairs to a podium. The Fantastic Four circled Spider-Man, with the web slinger just narrowly avoiding being pounded into a fine paste.

“Okay, this is not working out as planned,” thought Spider-Man. “These guys held off invading alien armies by themselves. Hordes of Doom bots, powerful galactic beings who have devoured entire worlds. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BEAT THEM?”

“You can run Spider-Man, but you can’t hide,” said the Puppet Master with a malevolent and quite twisted grin. “I now control the Fantastic Four. Ironic, isn’t it? Considering that it was their fault that I’m this way. You see, my entire life’s work was trashed, because of that little experiment by Reed Richards. It very nearly killed me and left me catatonic for two years. Yet, I endured and discovered that I could make sculptures with the clay that had been affected by the accident. I can make the likeness of anyone and control them. Why, I could bring entire countries to their knees with a few sculptures of key figures?”

“Why don’t you then?” asked Spider-Man, who was hoping that he could keep the Puppet Master talking, so he could break the spell that the villain had over the Fantastic Four. Right now, he was a bit busy fighting for his life but if he could somehow whether the storm long enough.

“I am a simple man, with simple pleasures, I was content to live my life until it was ruined but I feel properly compensated,” said the Puppet Master as he gave a nod towards the piles of ill gotten wealth at his feet. “Foolish child, you can’t hope to take down the Fantastic Four, especially when they are under my control. All of this wealth will be mine and I will leave the city, with the Fantastic Four implicated in both the thefts and the murder of Spider-Man. No one will ever connect me. It’s the prefect crime!”

“Guys, snap out of it,” said Spider-Man urgently, snapping his fingers and waving his hands around while trying to avoid the attacks. He was cutting it closer and closer every time. In fact he did not even know he could cut it that close. “You’re the Fantastic Four. Surely, you’re powerful enough to resist this guy!”

“They aren’t hearing you!” sang the Puppet Master. “That’s it my pawns. Obliterate that insect! Squash him like the bug he is!”

Spider-Man spiraled in the air, barely avoiding getting wrapped up by Mr. Fantastic, as he watched the Puppet Master continued to direct traffic. He very nearly was lit up like a Roman candle by the Human Torch, as he looked around, before he shot a line of webbing around a hook on the other end of the wall.

“One chance, better do this while he’s laughing like a crazed madman,” thought Spider-Man as he swung over, before he managed to extract one of the clay figures from grip of the Puppet Master. A blast of fire forced Spider-Man to bail before he could get any more.

“All right, Puppet Master, now time to fight fire with fire,” said Spider-Man as he held up the sculpture of the Thing as he lifted it up but nothing had happened. Rather the Thing had just stood in the middle of the room, immobile and Spider-Man had to avoid the attacks of the rest of the Fantastic Four. “Okay…how do you turn this blasted thing on?”

“Fool, they won’t work unless I’m using them, since we share a similar point of origin,” said the Puppet Master gleefully. “You’d be better off trying to destroy it but I doubt that would happen, considering it will take an immense amount of pressure to break the clay once it has solidified.”

“Will this do?” asked Spider-Man as he struggled and after a few seconds, had crushed the clay sculpture of the Thing in his hand.

“NO!” shouted the Puppet Master. “There should have been no way…”

“What just happened?” grumbled the Thing as he shook his head. The last thing he remembered, they were just getting back from a mission in space and now he ended up here.

“This guy put you under some kind of spell and controlled you with these sculptures, long story, but we have to get them away from him to break the spell,” said Spider-Man, just as the remaining three members of the Fantastic Four still under the Puppet Master’s control.

“Gotcha, web head,” said the Thing, as he rushed forward and attempted to clobber the Puppet Master, but an invisible force field appeared on him. “Ah, Susie’s force fields, I can’t even break them! Spidey, give me a hand.”

“I’d love to, but I’m a little tied up,” said Spider-Man, as the limbs of Mr. Fantastic wrapped around him, as the Human Torch stood, glowing, about ready to torch Spider-Man, but the Thing turned his attention.

“This is going to hurt me a lot more than it hurts you, matchstick and believe me, it’s going to hurt a lot!” cried the Thing, as he had punched the Human Torch backwards and caused him to land on the ground. The Puppet Master turned to force his minion up, but Spider-Man managed to pull the sculpture of Mr. Fantastic away from the Puppet Master was distracted. It was a split second, but that was all the reflexes of Spider-Man needed.

“CATCH!” shouted Spider-Man as his line of webbing snapped and caused the sculpture to fly into the hands of the Thing. “Crush it, it will break the spell, hurry, I’m about ready to suffocate.”

The Thing crushed the sculpture in his hands, with a bit more ease than Spider-Man and it crumbled to dust. Mr. Fantastic shook his hand, finding himself wrapped around Spider-Man immediately, he released Spider-Man.

“He had us under his control Stretch,” explained the Thing. “The web head here freed me and I freed you.”

“But Sue and Johnny are still under his command,” said Mr. Fantastic as he calculated it in his mind. “All three of us have to get him at once, perhaps we can grab the other two sculptures.”

“Less talking, more doing!” shouted Spider-Man as he avoided a flame beam and they jumped around. Mr. Fantastic and the Thing took one side and Spider-Man arched to the other side. The Puppet Master raised the Invisible Woman sculpture and caused the two members of the Fantastic Four to smack against a force field. Spider-Man reached forward, to grab the sculpture of the Human Torch, but he found himself smashed against a second force field.

“As if I was going to give up this easily,” said the Puppet Master, but the arm of Mr. Fantastic stretched behind him and pulled the Human Torch sculpture out of his hand.

“I think I’ll be taking that, you know it really isn’t wise to play with fire,” said Mr. Fantastic.

“Man, lay off the puns, Stretch,” said the Thing, as the sculpture was thrown to Spider-Man who managed to crush it easily releasing the Human Torch

“Who…what…when…why…how?” mumbled the Human Torch.

“We’ll explain later, right now Sue’s still underneath that madman’s control, it is imperative that we destroy that statue and break the spell,” said Mr. Fantastic but the Invisible Woman stepped in front of the Puppet Master before a force dome had appeared around him and the two figures had gone completely invisible.

“And I have the most powerful of you meddlesome heroes still under my control,” said the Puppet Master with a sadistic grin. “You three are nothing, the Invisible Woman will help me get out of the city and there will be nothing you can do about it. You won’t be able to see me.”

“Yeah, well you won’t be able to get out if the exits are blocked!” shouted the Human Torch as he shot fireballs from his hands, blocking the doors and the windows with flames.

“Do you think this minor inconvenience will stop the power that I now control?” asked the Puppet Master with contempt.

“He’s got a point, that won’t stop him for long, not with the force field,” said Mr. Fantastic, as Spider-Man ripped open the web cartridge before he began to wrap the webbing around him, covering from head to toe.

“And what’s the web head doing?” asked the Thing and the Human Torch and Mr. Fantastic were equally confused.

“Throw me right into the force field!” said Spider-Man suddenly.

“What?” asked Mr. Fantastic.

“You heard me, do it quickly, while we still have some time!” shouted Spider-Man urgently and the Thing just shrugged, before he picked Spider-Man off the ground.

“Whatever ya, say,” said the Thing, as he launched Spider-Man right into the force doom. The specially made webbing had managed to cause slight disturbances through the force field, long enough for Spider-Man to get his hands on the Puppet Master and rip the remaining clay statue from his hands.

“Johnny, think fast!” shouted Spider-Man as he launched the Invisible Woman statue and the Human Torch raised his hand, before he blasted it with a fireball. The statue melted, before the remnants of the clay splattered down to the ground, as the webbing around Spider-Man had dissolved, the process accelerated having gone though the force field, as the Invisible Woman groggily came too, collapsing from the over exertion of using her powers without break. “The game’s over, Puppet Master!”

“You think that I have not prepared for your defeat,” said the Puppet Master with a twisted toothless grin, as he reached into a bag behind him. “Behold!”

The Puppet Master held up an exact replica of Spider-Man and suddenly, the hero’s spider sense went into overdrive!

A voice told him to attack the Fantastic Four but he managed to fight it, somehow. His spider sense had somehow blocked the mind control of the Puppet Master.

“What are you waiting for?” asked the Puppet Master, as he grabbed the arms and tried to force the web head to attack the Four. “Attack him, I am your master, obey me, Spider-Man!”

Spider-Man tried to focus long enough as it felt like a dozen alarm bells were going off in his head, as the Puppet Master seemed frustrated that his plan could not work and the Human Torch had grabbed him from behind.

“You know, aren’t you a bit too old to play with dolls?” asked the Human Torch, as Mr. Fantastic reached forward and snatched the Spider-Man doll from the grip of the Puppet Master, before it was promptly destroyed. The Puppet Master managed to break free from the grip of the Torch and ran before, but Spider-Man leapt behind him and an uppercut punch leveled the Puppet Master, knocking him to the ground. The Thing and the Human Torch pulled his limp body off the ground, as he whimpered.

“Well, I don’t think that you’re going to have to worry about that guy controlling you,” said Spider-Man, as the Puppet Master was dragged off.

“What I don’t understand is why weren’t you affected?” asked the Invisible Woman.

“Not affected, my head felt like it was splitting open,” said Spider-Man as he rubbed his temples. He still felt the aftershock of his spider sense going off at an insane rate, as he heard a faint echo of a voice, attempting to direct him to do the Puppet Master’s bidding.

“No, I mean, there was no warning, he put us under his power and that was it,” said the Invisible Woman.

“Maybe it affected you guys because the clay was affected by the same blast that caused your powers,” responded Spider-Man with a shrug.

“Maybe,” said Mr. Fantastic as he picked up a chunk of clay, examining it. “I’ll have to run some tests, but you may be right.”

“Right now we have some explaining to do,” said the Thing as he looked at the contraband that they had stolen. “Can’t believe he put us under like that, like puppets.”

“Well, he is the Puppet Master,” said the Human Torch, as the Fantastic Four prepared to make the necessary arrangements to smooth this matter.

-

“Ensure that he has not one bit of clay, otherwise he could control a guard in the prison to let him out,” said Captain Stacy, as they searched the Puppet Master but he was clean and he was put back into a cop car. “You can come out now, Spider-Man.”

Spider-Man exited the shadows.

“Everything should be smoothed out, the Fantastic Four will testify at the Puppet Master’s trial, and this entire mess should be cleared up, Reed Richards is cooperating with some of our experts in taking a look at the clay,” explained Captain Stacy. “I suppose this is a relief that the Fantastic Four are still on the right side of the law.”

“Yes, it is, Captain,” responded Spider-Man.

“As much as I hate to admit this, they would have been beyond our capacity to take down,” muttered Captain Stacy. “I shudder to think what might happen if they had been committing those crimes under their own power. Could you have stopped them, Spider-Man?”

“I don’t think either of us want to know the answer to that question, Captain,” said Spider-Man with a slight shudder. He just barely managed to hold his own against the Fantastic Four. Had things been a little different, he would not be here having this conversation.

-

Peter stood as he paused as cold shivers ran down his spine as he passed Empire State University as he walked around. Remembering the date, Peter knew that it was for good reason. He was lost in his thoughts as Gwen stood there right beside him.

“One year, Gwen” said Peter before she could even ask the question.

“It doesn’t seem like it,” said Gwen.

“Oh, but it is,” said Peter. “It seems like only yesterday.”

“One year,” thought Peter. “One year ago this day, I was a normal teenager and now….I guess you could call me a hero. Or maybe I’m just some punk kid with superpowers who keeps getting in everyone’s way. Regardless I’m different.”

“Wish it would have happened differently,” said Gwen breaking the silence, as she recalled making the suggestion to go to that exhibition with the genetically altered spider that caused this. She felt responsible in a way for everything that Peter had to go through. “Don’t you?”

“I really don’t want to answer that question,” said Peter. “What’s done is done, Gwen. Besides, if it wasn’t me, it might have been someone else.”

“And that someone else could have died with the same bite,” thought Peter. “One year.”

“Hey, how about we go to someplace that’s a bit more cheerful Gwen?” asked Peter. “How about we head to the movies?”

“Sure, Peter, my treat,” said Gwen with a slight smile and Peter opened his mouth to argue, but Gwen promptly kissed him to shut him up and the two walked off hand in hand, with a lone spider on the outside of the ESU building the only one seeing them depart.

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