Chapter 25: And Sinister Was His Name Part Two

Chapter Twenty Five: And Sinister Was His Name Part Two

Marvel Girl opened her eyes groggily. It took her about a moment to recollect her thoughts, before she pulled herself to her feet. She watched, as Cyclops was stirring slightly, but the other members of the X-Men had been rendered unconscious. She sensed that someone was there, but no one was responding. Even Professor Xavier had been knocked unconscious.

“Jean?” muttered Cyclops groggily. “Those mutants…attack…is everyone alright?”

“No, knocked out, all of them, except for us, I guess my mental shield worked but the Professor’s didn’t,” responded Marvel Girl, as she was confused at how this could be. Her telepathy was far less advanced than Professor Xavier’s but yet there he was, unconscious and she was still in one piece. In concentration, she tried to get though but it was a futile effort. “I can’t reach them, only enough to know that they’re still alive, only mentally stunned, if that’s possible.”

“So then everyone is present then accounted for, just unconscious,” said Cyclops weakly, attempting to verify the situation and Jean nodded, but suddenly her eyes darted around, seeing that one person was missing.

“Except for Spider-Man,” replied Marvel Girl. “Gone, they must have kidnapped him when we were indisposed but there might be one person who could tell us exactly where they’ve take him.”

Cyclops turned around and saw a battered Sabertooth move right towards Wolverine, in an attempt to put the finishing touches on his unconscious foe. Quickly, Cyclops unleashed an optic blast, sending Sabertooth back from his teammate. The blow was enough to disable Sabertooth for a second but Marvel Girl stepped in. Sabertooth was off the ground, just a few inches, because of the telekinesis.

“Where is Spider-Man?” demanded Cyclops forcefully. “Who are you working for?”

Sabertooth just responded with a loud sadistic round of laughter.

“Please you little wimp, like I’d tell you my secrets,” said Sabertooth. “You two aren’t going to be do nothing to me, with Xavier and Wolverine knocked out, they’re the only two who could control me for long. Besides, it’s not like you can hurt me, I have a healing factor just like the runt on the floor and he’s the only one who could even put a dent in me, if he had the guts to that is and if he did have guts, I’d just tear them out.”

“He’s right,” said Cyclops as Marvel Girl just looked at Sabertooth, going through all the options, which were very few. They could hold off Sabertooth until the Professor woke up and tried to gain some information as to the whereabouts of Spider-Man but that could take time, time that they did not have. “Now what do we do?”

“I was kind of hoping you would have a suggestion, Scott,” said Marvel Girl in a defeated voice, before she decided to take the only situation. “Well, I guess I’m going to have to try reading his mind.”“Didn’t the Professor say that his mind was even more screwed up than Logan’s?” asked Cyclops.

“Yes, my mind is more complex and twisted than the runt’s, you won’t be the same if you step in, girlie,” said Sabertooth with a snarl. “You don’t even have the powers, not like that pathetic old man Xavier could even delve into my mind without getting a headache. You’re soft and weak and once you let your guard down, I’ll mangle that pretty little face and…”

Sabertooth was cut off, as Jean tried to get into his mind with all the concentration she could muster. She meant nothing but a shredded patchwork of unconnected and sometimes vague memories, and that was not even seeing the giant blank spots darker than the blackest nights that someone appeared to not have wanted Sabertooth or anyone reading his mind to access.

-

It was getting very late and perhaps it was just her, but Gwen was getting rather worried. Several hours earlier, Wolverine had taken Peter to the X-Mansion on a matter of grave importance and there had been no word back from Peter then. She tried to call both Peter’s cell and his Aunt May at home, but no answer on either end and she found herself making her way towards Peter’s house, in a panicked, hurried manner. In the back of her mind, despite mostly accepting her boyfriend’s other identity, she did have a tendency to dread something bad happening. Peter had pulled himself through some rather tight scraps and lived to fight another day.

Something told her, a feeling in the back of her mind, that nothing was right. Perhaps she was being paranoid, but better to be safe and sorry.

“No one’s home,” thought Gwen in a panicked manner. “Now I know something’s wrong. Well you don’t be a Police Captain’s daughter without knowing a few tricks. Maybe the GPS on Peter’s cell phone…seems like an invasion of privacy, but if he’s in trouble, I have to try something.”

-

Jean stepped back, her temples throbbing, as Cyclops moved forward.

“Anything?” asked Cyclops.

“Not much I’m afraid, just a bunch of vague memories that I can’t even figure out how they make sense and just a lot of darkness,” said Marvel Girl before she added as an afterthought. “And the name Sinister kept popping up on occasion, it was about the only clear thing. I can’t get anything other than that, I managed to knock him out, it should last long enough for us to figure out what to do. I wish I could’ve delved deeper, but I would have lobotomized him.”

“Not that I wouldn’t blame you,” said Cyclops but Marvel Girl just gave him a slightly disapproving look.

“Knowing his state of mind, he may have been even harder to control, someone tampered with his mind before, many times over” said Marvel Girl but she screwed her eyes shut, trying to make sense of what she saw in Sabertooth’s head. The word Sinister and several vague images, she was certain if she had just one piece of information to tie it together, basically needing a miracle. She dropped Sabertooth, who had been put to sleep and was brought out of her state of trying to piece this entire mess together by the ringing of Kitty’s cell phone. At first, it did not seem to pressing to pick it up but when she saw who was calling she quickly picked it up.

“Hello, Kitty?” asked Gwen

“No Gwen, it’s Jean, there’s been a bit of a situation here, regarding…Kitty being knocked out and Spider-Man being captured by someone,” said Jean and she could almost here Gwen taking a deep breath and the phone shake on her. “Don’t worry, Scott and I have it under control and we’re working to get him back, just hold tight and don’t worry, we won’t let him get hurt.”

“You have no idea where Peter is, do you?” asked Gwen in a forced calm voice, she did not really need telepathy to figure that part out. “Good thing I might have figured something out. I can’t be sure exactly where he is, but he’s somewhere off the coast, on a remote island. Exactly where, I don’t know.”

“I know where he is exactly now, thanks Gwen,” said Jean before she frowned. “How exactly did you…”

“GPS on his cell phone,” said Gwen quickly and Jean looked dumbstruck at having not figured out to take that simple step. “Please bring him back safely, wherever he is.”

“I will, don’t worry,” said Jean, but she wished the entire team could have gone on this mission, as those mutants that attacked him had handily defeated the X-Men and while she had no clue who this Sinister guy was, he seemed like bad news if someone like Sabertooth worked for him. “Get to the Blackbird, Scott, we need to leave now.”

“Now?” asked Cyclops.

“Yes, because if we wait until the Professor and the others wake up, we will be too late, much too late.”

-

Spider-Man saw the face of Sinister in the shadows, as Sinister took one step forward. With one tug, the warped geneticist casually removed Spider-Man’s mask, causing Peter to flinch in pain, Sinister seemed rather unimpressed by the face that stared out in front of him.

“Just a child getting the luckiest break of his life by getting phenomenal superhuman powers,” said Sinister icily as he walked over, to get the baseline DNA results that he could get without any deep cutting. 

“Impressive Spider-Man and quite a scientific paradox. Your DNA is remarkable and completely unique, even without the genetic material that the spider introduced into you.”

Peter suddenly looked up, morbid curiosity getting the better of him.

“What can you tell me about your parents, Spider-Man?” asked Sinister.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but they died when I was young, I wouldn’t know that much about them,” said Peter through gritted teeth.

“A pity, but I doubt they were mutants, your DNA tells me as much, but perhaps they were subjected to some type of genetic manipulation, done quite poorly I might add,” said Sinister as he looked at the results, analyzing the data, checking over calculations. “Not quite an X-Gene that caused you to survive the introduction, because you would be far more powerful but it’s something similar. Something quite intriguing that is going to accelerate my final work to its fullest extent. You see, Spider-Man, humans like you will be the norm once I’ve finished weeding out the weak. The strong will survive and the world will be reshaped into something more suited for the future health of evolution.”

Sinister paused for a scant few seconds, before he walked over to a covered tray and placed his hands on a cloth.

“But enough small talk, Spider-Man, it’s time to get to work,” said Sinister as he slowly pulled the cloth off, revealing a number of surgical tools. “Time to see what your DNA can truly tell us, I barely scratched the surface so time to cut beneath the surface and find out what exactly makes Spider-Man, Spider-Man.”

Sinister reached over and picked up a surgical saw, a twisted grin appearing on face and Spider-Man looked up, as Sinister approached him.

“Uh, hate to break this to you, Dr. Essex, but I’m sure this isn’t covered under my medical insurance,” said Spider-Man but his usual quipping was rather forced and did not nearly have the same effect as it would under normal circumstances.

“Ah yes Spider-Man, I do admire your attempt to try and find some humor in this situation, but I can assure you I am not one of your little villains who gets a costume and some moderate degree of power, gaining the foolish notion that he is actually something,” said Sinister as his red eyes glistened maliciously in the distance. Peter Parker’s palms were sweating, his heart was thumping, and Sinister’s appearance added to the horror. He tried to thrash violently, in an attempt to free himself from his restraints but it was about his useless as he expected. “Oh and I feel as if I’m obligated to mention this, but this may hurt at first. Don’t fret though young Spider-Man, the pain will be over, once you’ve bled enough.”

“I have to get out, free myself, that blade, I can see that steel it won’t be long before its slicing through my skin,” thought Peter as his palms were completely soaked with sweat and he could feel his heart thumping against his chest. “He’s drawing it out, making me suffer, just because he can, it’s not like I can stop me.”

A sound of fighting could be heard from outside and Sinister paused long enough, to see Harpoon of the Marauders flying right through the doorway of the lab. Another optic blast had backed of off the mutant, as Archlight went flying down to the ground. Sinister just turned away from Spider-Man, with a calm, nearly bored expression on his face, as he could hear his Marauders being picked apart outside.

“Right on schedule,” muttered Sinister triumphantly as he saw Vertigo drop to the ground outside the hallway and Marvel Girl and Cyclops step into the room.

“Let me guess, Sinister!” shouted Cyclops.

“Bravo, boy, I see you are remotely intelligent, in addition to power, that’s an attractive combination for one’s genetic material,” said Sinister calmly but he stepped right next to Spider-Man. “I’ll not let you embarrass yourselves by boisterous talk about you being so good that you found me or you fought off my abilities to knock you unconscious, when in fact I allowed you to remain conscious and let that foolish brute Sabertooth there with a clue that Miss Grey would be able to put together and I am pleased to think that my plans had worked.”

“You mean you planned this?” demanded Cyclops as he would have used his optic blasts on Sinister, had he not been standing right in front of Spider-Man. Had Sinister moved, Spider-Man would be seriously hurt.

“We walked straight into a trap,” said Marvel Girl in a horrified tone of voice.

“Of course you did, you foolish children” said Sinister mockingly as he flicked a black orb that suddenly bombarded both mutants and caused them to collapse to the ground, severe, deliberating headaches caused by their mutant powers being forced within them. Sinister walked forward, they were both paralyzed and with little effort, he placed them both on surgical tables, before slapping bracelets around their wrists. “I’ll have to thank Professor Warren for these mutant power nullifying cuffs, they will block your powers. He can really be a devious little jackal sometimes.”

Sinister chuckled but he stopped when he saw that Jean Grey was trying to fight the powers of the mutant power suppressers and much to his astonishment, her powers were nearly potent enough to override such technology, but naturally he had plans. With a press of a button, she was shocked with a nearly lethal amount of electricity, that would in fact kill a normal human but was quite unpleasant for even the most powerful mutant. Jean screamed loudly, blood curdling screams as her body was racked with pain.

“JEAN!” shouted Cyclops in a horrified voice. “STOP IT YOU MONSTER! YOU’RE HURTING HER!”

“I am aware of that, Mr. Summers,” said Sinister in a voice completely devoid of any sympathy but despite the horrifying screams that he heard, Peter managed to get his wits to himself long enough to realize that for the moment, Sinister’s attention was elsewhere, away from him and perhaps if he had timed this just right, he could free himself. “She was being disobedient and needed to learn her proper place.”

The loud screams stopped as Sinister held the remote in his hand.

“I bet you would like nothing better than to blow me to bits right now, Mr. Summers but those bracelets completely block out your powers,” said Sinister, as he casually took off the visor from over Cyclops’s eyes and sure enough, the mutant could open his eyes, without blasting everything around him. He felt rather weak and sick and that part was done by design.

“I’ll make you pay for this, when I get out of here!” yelled Cyclops.

“Ah how touching,” said Sinister in the most un-sincere voice imaginable but Peter managed to shift the operating table he was on just enough. He saw a torch on the table of surgical tools and if he remembered right, given the proper temperature, he could melt the restraints and free himself and once he did, he would have only one shot to get that remote control away from Sinister. He caught Cyclops’s eye who responded with a scowl. “That’s right boy, no matter what I do to Jean right here, you can just sit there and watch and like it because I can do anything I want and you are both powerless to stop me.”

Peter managed to grab the blowtorch but at that moment, Sinister turned around. Quickly, on an instant, he turned the blowtorch right at Sinister’s face, causing the crazed scientist to be burned temporarily and that allowed him enough time to free himself. With a dive, he went for Sinister but Sinister caught him, before flinging the wall crawler right into a metal cabinet. He landed hard before he slumped to the ground and Sinister walked over, putting his foot on Peter’s chest and forcing the hero to the ground.

“Quite pathetic for something that was created off of my research, I bet you thought you were going to take me by surprise and grab this remote to free your little friends,” said Sinister, taunting Peter by waving the remote in his face, while applying more pressure with his own foot, grinding it right in his chest. “You thought wrong, because compared to me, your powers are that of an insect compared to a God. Or rather in your case, an arachnid compared to a god.”

“You think an awful lot of yourself, Essex, but still, you’ve preyed to some of the same mistakes…” said Peter, as he attempted to push Sinister’s foot off and managed to slide underneath but Sinister just waved his hand and a telekinetic blast knocked the wall crawler backwards, causing him to crash down to the ground.

Peter shakily rose up and another one caught him flush right in the chest and he found himself right back on the same operating table that he just freed himself. Sinister picked up the surgical saw and prepared to pick up right where he left off before he was interrupted.

At the last second, Peter managed to block the handle of the saw. The blade was spinning, just mere centimeters away from his chest. Any closer and he would be sliced right open but he placed his legs underneath Sinister and managed to kick him off. Sinister staggered back and Peter dodged the saw being swung at him. Landing right on his feet, Peter stood right against Sinister.

“Impossible, there should be no way you should have regained your full strength this soon,” said Sinister, saying it more out of making a scientific observation, than showing any anger and he was quite content with picking apart the carcass later to find out why this had happened. Two attacks were narrowly avoided.

“I recover a lot quicker than I look, Essex,” said Peter, as he leapt up but this proved to be quite the cardinal error as Sinister grabbed him by the ankles and swung him, sending him flying right onto a nearby table. 

Sinister waved his hand and Peter was flung off the table. He held his arms out instinctively but remembered he had no web shooters and he was nailed flush in the chest. He could feel the pain.

“At your full power, you still aren’t enough to beat me, Spider-Man,” taunted Sinister, but Peter was not done yet. Peter Parker was many things but a quitter he was not and he bounced back up to his feet and dove right towards Sinister. Sinister flung his adversary off, but reaching forward, he grabbed onto the remote control device and smashed it right on the ground. “You fool, what have you done?”

“SPIDER-MAN WATCH OUT!” shouted Cyclops and Peter realized what he done, as the blasts from Cyclops’s eyes came back at full power now that the mutant power suppressors were nullified. Sinister managed to put up some kind of shield to block it, and Peter threw himself behind a metal cabinet, as Marvel Girl released herself, still very weakened, as Cyclops screwed his eyes shut.

Sinister was up as both of the mutants were freed and Spider-Man was had now pulled his mask on. Cyclops took a step forward and released a high impact optic blast right towards Sinister but he was too crafty and avoided it.

Rather, Sinister waved forward and his followers stepped in right in front of him.

“Marauders, you can eliminate them right now, I have sufficient genetic material from all three of them,” ordered Sinister calmly, as he moved forward. Marvel Girl attempted to stop him but Sinister was ready, repelling her powers back at her somehow. Vertigo unleashed her powers, causing the three to be caught off guard and dizzy, as Sinister slipped something in a briefcase before he bolted.

“I don’t think you can see it, but your boss just ran off and if we defeat you, I doubt he’s coming back,” said Spider-Man as he tried to fight his way, just barely able to avoid a charged harpoon from harpoon that blew up the ground.

“The thing is that we don’t plan on losing to you, Spider-Man,” said Harpoon as he threw two more of his charged weapons, with Cyclops managing to fight through enough of Vertigo’s attack and knocked the weapons, rendering them to dust. Spider-Man scaled the wall, avoiding the spinning attacks of Riptide, before he jumped up the mutant, covering his eyes, as the battle raged on around him.

“You’ll lose your lunch, before I lose this fight!” shouted Riptide but no matter how much he tried to throw off Spider-Man, the wall crawler held on with all of his might and no matter what, he was not flung off, not even for a second. Rather, Riptide had eventually spun right into a wall, knocking himself off, as Archlight, grabbed Cyclops and threw him to the ground, but Jean lifted the powerful mutant off the ground and Spider-Man spotted his web shooters and several web cartridges lying on a table of notes.

Quickly, the web slinger took them, as Vertigo stepped forward, to release her attacks, but Spider-Man webbed her mouth shut, before webbing her arms and legs together and without another word, she was rendered unable to use her mutant powers.

Archlight was disposed off, but Harpoon was still fighting, having knocked Cyclops off balance. He threw another one of his charged harpoons, blowing up the ground beneath Marvel Girl, but he faced off against Spider-Man.

“Ready to dance, wall crawler?” asked Harpoon menacingly.

“Bring it,” said Spider-Man without a beat as he circled Harpoon. Harpoon aimed right at Spider-Man and flung one of his super charged harpoons, but with a fluid and expert movement, Spider-Man shot a line of webbing around the super charged harpoon and flicked it back, causing the weapon to blow up the ground right underneath Harpoon and send the mutant flying right into the air. Webbing him up, he caused Harpoon to struggle but he was quickly put down.

“Is that all of them?” asked Cyclops, adopting a business like tone of voice.

“I believe so,” said Marvel Girl and Spider-Man looked at them, before he nodded in confirmation, Riptide, Harpoon, Vertigo, and Archlight had been wrapped up, to be most likely sent to the same mutant containment facility that the Brotherhood was. “But Sinister, he got away with something.”

“Genetic samples I heard,” said Spider-Man and the two mutants. “He managed to steal something from you two as well, I know he got some samples from me and if you two hadn’t shown up when you had…well let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty. Don’t worry, I’ll be alright…I’ve been through worse.”

“Although off the top of the head, I can’t think of anything and come to think of it, this was the tightest spot I’ve been in,” thought Spider-Man still rather shaken from the ordeal but he quickly tried not to think about it, especially considering broadcasting his thoughts would make it very hard to fool a telepath.

“Professor Xavier,” said Marvel Girl suddenly, causing Spider-Man and Cyclops to jump. “Yes, he wants us back immediately, now that I’ve explained everything to him, including you Spider-Man, he fears that Sinister might have done something to you, he’ll explain more when we get there, everyone’s awake, safe, Logan’s brooding about being knocked out and not being able to fight.”

“That figures,” said Cyclops but he turned, with the three making their way back to the Blackbird to return to the X-Mansion.

-

“PETER!” shouted Gwen in surprise as she jumped off the front step and rushed towards Peter, embracing him. “Thank God, you got out alive!”

“Yes, thankfully,” muttered Peter, as Gwen stepped back to give him room to breath. She looked at him with shock. He had a completely haunted look on his face.

“Peter, something happened to you,” said Gwen but Peter just looked at her. “What?”

“Nothing Gwen,” said Peter quickly, not wanting to drag her into this. Not tonight. “I’m fine.”

“Well you seem to be doing a pretty good impression of someone who is most certainly not fine,” answered Gwen but Peter just turned his back on her and moved her way to the door.

“Why don’t you go, Gwen, it’s getting late,” remarked Peter in a rather chilly tone that Gwen was not used to. “I appreciate your sympathy but I don’t need it from you.”

“I was just concerned something happened,” said Gwen shakily.

“Well thanks for your concern, but I don’t need it, no one needs to concern themselves with someone like me!” shouted Peter as he turned from her and she tried to follow him, but Peter shut the door in her face.

“Fine, Peter, if you feel that way, fine!” snapped Gwen losing her temper but she could never in her life have seen Peter act like this, at all. In fact, she could count the times on one hand that Peter actually got angry and still have fingers left over. Most certainly, he had never gotten angry with her.

It convinced her that something had happened and she walked off. It would be futile to try and talk to him right now. She knew that he would talk when ready and not a second before.

-

Try as he might, Peter Parker could not go to sleep, despite the effort. He heard his Aunt May return home shortly after he did, but he could not bring himself to face her or any other normal people. At least not now, not at this moment.

Sinister was all that he saw before he went to sleep. He could not shake his specter any time soon.

-

In a lab, Mr. Sinister smirked, as he put the genetic samples with the countless other mutant specimens he acquired over the year. Today, he was one step closer to forcing the ultimate evolution of this world. The possibilities were endless.

“Warren, you have a new assignment,” said Sinister, as he looked at the test tube containing the Spider-Man genetic sample, with a calculating look on his face. 


Next Part

Chapter 24: And Sinister Was His Name Part One

And Sinister Was His Name Part One.

A pair of thieves ran from the school quickly as possible, with their stolen loot. They had managed to make off with several hundred dollars from the cash register and had ran as quickly as they could manage.

“Hurry, to the car and back to the hide out, we’ll divide it up there,” said one of the hoodlums.

“Yeah, you don’t want Spider-Man to catch us,” said the second hoodlum, but he opened the door, a line of webbing shot out against the door, before Spider-Man swung around to pull it shut.

“No, I don’t think you would want that, but you could never get what you want,” said Spider-Man as he jumped down. One of the hoodlums attacked him but the wall crawler dodged the attack, before he nailed the hoodlum right in the chest with a kick. The second thief swung a crowbar but Spider-Man was too quick. He dodged it with ease and the thief charged in again, but he was tripped up. Before they knew it, they were hung upside down from the light post and Spider-Man took a couple of steps back, nodding as the situation was completely wrapped up. A small crowd gathered around to watch. He turned to them, with a bow, which got more than a few laughs and a few cheers. “No need to thank me, just doing my job.”

Spider-Man swung off into the distance. It appeared that he might actually make it to school with plenty time to spare. He thanked his lucky stars each and every day that no one dangerous had put together exactly who Spider-Man, well no one except to the Green Goblin that was but from what Harry told him, Norman was still safely locked in a mental institution and had not remembered one second of his time as the Green Goblin. That was more than fine with Peter and he dodged quite the bullet there.

Still the fear was always in the back of his head that his status as Spider-Man could put those close to him in danger.

-

The news media had caught Spider-Man’s little morning exploits and a figure in the shadows had watched, with Miles Warren.

“Just think Dr. Essex, all of his extraordinary abilities were off of our work,” said Warren. “Imagine what we could do with an army of Spider-Men…”

“Please don’t flatter yourself Warren, your work would have amounted to nothing had it not been for my help and technically it’s my work, you have barely added to my overall plan for evolution,” said Essex coldly.

“Countless hours and long weekends and I’ve barely added anything!” challenged Warren but Essex just laughed at his bold, but foolish attempt to challenge him.

“Please, you have no idea how insignificant that your meager contribution is,” stated Essex. “Still you do raise one point, the fact remains that Spider-Man has been given great abilities that we can utilized. Out of some strange sense of honor and morality, he has held back in his powers. But there are many unanswered questions. From what little I’m able to find out about Spider-Man, I know enough that there are questions that must be answered and I plan on answering them by any means necessary.”

Warren could have sworn he felt a chill in the room as Essex made this proclamation.

-

“Meeting today,” said Harry but he looked in a cheerful mood as if nothing could get him down. Perhaps it was just Peter, but he would not be looking forward to a board meeting of all things.

“What is it about this time?” asked Gwen.

“Oh, nothing big, just a bunch of environmentalists got their shirts all in a bunch because Oscorp dumped chemicals in the ocean,” said Harry. “Some family sued us even, because their daughter got sick and lost her hearing from playing near the contaminated water.”

“That sounds serious,” said Peter having heard about the scandal Oscorp went through though the Bugle and how it would cost the company millions but Harry just shrugged.

“Not much of my problem, I just have to sit in, be the figure head, I mean it sucks to be the little girl and her family, but hey, it’s not like I did it and it wouldn’t have been the only time that Dad was careless about chemicals,” said Harry with a shrug and this brought up another point to Peter that he was thinking about earlier.

“Any word on how your dad is recovering?” asked Peter curiously.

“Nothing, more of the same, he refuses to cooperate with anyone, he barely talks,” said Harry. “I’m sure if he really wanted to get out, he would, but the goblin formula must have done a number on his brain.”

The horn of a limo could be heard from the drive outside of the school.

“Got to go, hey, maybe later tonight, you two can meet with Liz and me, for dinner,” said Harry brightly before he paused and looked at Peter. “That is unless you’re not busy at the Bugle again…”

“I’m sure if nothing comes up, we can join you,” said Gwen.

“Yeah it might be fun,” replied Peter.

“Right, cool, got to get going,” said Harry as he quickly moved off, as he nearly knocked over a couple of hapless bystanders on his way out.

“Harry seems to be in a good mood lately, a bit too good to be honest,” said Peter. “It’s scary almost.”

“Well maybe it’s because he doesn’t have to deal with his father,” said Gwen with a shrug of her shoulders.

“No kidding, Norman Osborn gives me the creeps and that’s even not when he’s goblined up,” said a voice which caused Gwen and Peter to jump and suddenly Kitty had just stepped out from behind them.

“Must you phase out of the wall behind us like that,” muttered Peter. “You nearly scared me half to death.”

“Sorry, everything was so crowded, it would be shorter now and I need to be home for Danger Room practice,” said Kitty with s shudder as she remembered the last practice and considering it wasn’t up to Logan’s high standards, they were in fact having a second one. “Don’t worry no one saw me…at least I don’t think they did.”

“Well let’s hope that’s the case,” said Peter with a sigh. That would be a hard one to explain and he just had the strangest feeling that Wolverine would blame him for Kitty inadvertently blowing the entire mutant secrecy thing for some reason.

“Well wouldn’t people be freaking out if they saw me?” asked Kitty.

“She’s got you there, Peter,” said Gwen.

“Parker,” grunted the voice of Logan, also known as Wolverine which caused Peter to turn around in surprise, moving away from Gwen to see what Wolverine had wanted. Kitty moved over as well, looking equally curious at what Logan had wanted. “Over here, I want a word with you, in private, away from prying ears and eyes.”

Gwen opened her mouth to say something.

“It’s okay Gwen, I better see what he wants,” said Peter as he moved over. A look from Logan had caused Kitty to back up. Logan looked at Peter. “What’s up?”

“What’s up is that Xavier got a letter regarding your codename, that has the Professor in a strange mood, I’ve never seen him like this in all the time I’ve know him,” grunted Logan as he looked at Peter. “He’s shut himself up in his study, he barely talked to anyone all day. The only thing he did was to tell me to give you this message and I don’t like playing messenger boy so I’m going to make this brief. Get in your costume and swing on to the Mansion right away. Xavier wants to meet you about this, it’s urgent. Got that Parker?”

“Yeah, I got that,” said Peter as Gwen looked at him with a curious expression on her face but Peter just shrugged and mouthed “got to take care of this, might be late, hopefully talk to you later” before he ran off to don the outside of Spider-Man.

-

Spider-Man raised his hand to knock on the door of the study but the door was opened.

“Come in Spider-Man, I was expecting you,” said Xavier who turned around in his wheelchair, offering a seat to Spider-Man who took it immediately. “Logan told you that I received a letter regarding you or rather your unique origins. Perhaps it is best for you to read this letter so you can understand out serious this situation is.”

Spider-Man reached forward to take the letter and unfolded the piece of paper to read it.

“Xavier, send this message to Spider-Man and let him know that his powers belong to me,” read Spider-Man. “The genetic experiment that created the spider that bit him and gave him his powers was commissioned and funded by me. Therefore, he has stolen his abilities from my research and I intend to take them back one way or another. Tell him that there is no way he could hide. Dr. Nathaniel Essex.”

Spider-Man put down the letter, to digest the contents of it. It was not too difficult to piece everything together at this point.

“He tried to collect me once before already, with those robots,” said Spider-Man as it struck him suddenly. “And now he’s going to try it again, but if he knows how I got my powers, that means he must know exactly who I am.”

Xavier looked thoughtful for a brief moment before he decided to respond.

“Not necessarily and Nathaniel Essex will no doubt be more interested your DNA, than who you are,” responded Xavier and Spider-Man looked at him with a curious, yet startled look. “Perhaps it is best if I tell you who Essex is and the danger he poses to you. Nathaniel Essex was one of the greatest genetic experts of the nineteenth century. In fact, he was in line for several scientific awards his research contributed to curing several diseases in his day. That was until he went mad and decided to turn his research towards more unethical matters.”

“Wait a minute, of the nineteenth century?” asked Spider-Man startled as his eyes widened in awe. “That means if this Essex guy is still alive, he has to be what, almost two hundred years old?”

“Perhaps even older, no one is certain of his age,” inputted Xavier. “The fact remains he wanted to take the evolution of humanity to its ultimate stage. He wished to eliminate the weak where only the strong and powerful would survive. He conducted radical, even for this time, experiments on humans. Unfortunately, willing test subjects were not forth coming. So it goes without saying that Essex managed to gain test subjects through a variety of underhanded means. Blackmail, extortion, cutting deals with corrupt government officials in England and other European countries, and just kidnapping hopeless people off the street. Essex became more and more obsessed in proving his theories, to a point where he tested chemicals on himself. He sought immorality and achieved it, but in a twisted form.”

“What do you mean by that, Professor Xavier?” asked Spider-Man.

“His mind was warped, his skin became chalk white, red eyes, fanged teeth, deformed clawed hands and feet, he could not even walk the streets without causing a panic and many rioted, discovering Essex’s lab, burning it and much of his research to the ground,” said Xavier. “Many thought Essex had perished, but given the fact that there is now distinct evidence that he remains alive to this day in your hand.”

“And he’s still experimenting, those spiders, but they were done by Miles Warren,” said Spider-Man in confusion. “So how can…”

“Warren was merely an intermediary to the outside world, Essex could scarcely show his face in public, there must have been other scientists that has worked for him over the decades, but they are mere puppets and serve as only a means to collect data from the outside world where Nathaniel Essex can scarcely venture,” said Professor Xavier. “Nathaniel Essex has had a chance to become much more than human or mutant in the century and a half that he went underground.”

Spider-Man just nodded, he got that Essex was dangerous and rather deranged, but suddenly alarms went off around the mansion. The windows around the student began to snap shut with metal. Xavier rolled forward to investigate the disturbance.

“Professor!” shouted Cyclops in a loud voice, shocked that the security of the Mansion, had been somehow breached. “We have a breach of some kind!”

“At least a half of a dozen mutant energy signatures have been detected by our outer defenses,” added Beast in a calm voice, in an attempt to maintain a level head “And none of them look rather too friendly.”

“Stand by and prepare to defend the mansion and wait for my orders,” said Xavier as Spider-Man got to his feet, but Xavier waved his hand. “So Spider-Man, I detect the presence of a dangerous and quite advanced mutant. It can only be Essex and the letter that he sent was on the express purpose of trapping you here.”

“All the more reason for me to fight,” said Spider-Man.”If Essex is after me than I have to fight…”

“Professor, I’ve activated the defense parameters for the mansion but they don’t seem to be working!” called Marvel Girl in frustration.

“Jean, stand back, I’ll be there momentarily, try and hold off the intruders, whoever they are,” said Professor Xavier as he turned but he paused, sensing the sounds of combat and several loud grunts. The next thing he saw along with Spider-Man was Wolverine and Sabertooth crashing right through the wooden door, brawling. Xavier was just looked at them, not deterred, almost as if this was a common occurrence that he saw dozens of times before.

“Thought you with Magneto, Sabertooth,” grunted Wolverine as he tried to push his head back in an attempt to snap his neck but Sabertooth blocked, before Wolverine was knocked backwards right to the ground. Sabertooth stepped forward and grabbed Wolverine around the throat, as the two mutants struggled against each other.

“That bucket headed chump left me for dead, but this guy, he lets me hurt people, spill their blood and the fact I got to tangle with you is just an added bonus, runt,” said Sabertooth as he shoved Wolverine into the wall and attempted to smash him but Wolverine blocked the attack with his claws. Spider-Man leapt up, somersaulting right towards Sabertooth and catching him right with the both of the feet in the back. Sabertooth was staggered, before he turned around. “Ah you, the boss wants you, breaking Wolverine in half will have to wait.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I won’t be that easy,” said Spider-Man as he shot webbing right into the eyes of the mutant, who staggered, but it allowed Wolverine to spring up, poised for the attack. A slash with his claws and Sabertooth was knocked right backwards into the metal over the windows, before Wolverine smashed his foe’s head right into the metal. A punch and Sabertooth was knocked for a loop. Another punch and Sabertooth was temporarily put out of commission.

“You seem to be popular today,” grunted Wolverine as he looked at Spider-Man before he turned towards Xavier. “A new group of mutants have gotten together, they’re saying that they’ve wanted to claim the kid for some guy named Sinister.”

“Sinister?” asked Xavier but something clicked in his head. It had made perfect sense, it was a wonder that he did not connect the dots before but there would be time for theory later.“Then this is more grave then had realized. Stay alert both of you. As much as I hate to put you in danger, Spider-Man, the others need your help.”

“No problem Professor, I’m on it,” replied Spider-Man, as he walked with Wolverine, as the two moved forward, with the sounds of combat in the hallway. The X-Men were in a battle of the lifetime with a group of nasty looking and foul tempered mutants in dressed in black. Iceman slid down the ice slide but a young man known as Harpoon moved forward, holding a spear in his hand, charging it with his mutant power before he threw it right at the ice. It exploded into bits, sending the ice everywhere, before he leapt up, and smacked the wooden part of the charged spear right over the back of Iceman.

Marvel Girl lifted a table into the air with her telekinesis but a female mutant with green hair named Vertigo released a super sonic scream, causing her concentration to break and to drop to the ground. Beast moved forward, grabbing Vertigo from behind and placed his hand over her mouth. Vertigo struggled as she was promptly silenced.

“I’ll believe we’ll have none of that,” replied Beast as Vertigo tried to struggle, before Beast ran up the walls, with the woman upside down but another mutant, by the name of Riptide spun around at a high speed, generating winds, which caused Cyclops, Marvel Girl, and Shadowcat to be knocked off balance, but Spider-Man shot a line of webbing around the mutant, wrapping it around him. Riptide struggled but was unable to spin for the moment, as he had been trapped.

“Okay, I don’t know who you people are, but I’m pretty sure that breaking and entering in a private property is forbidden, even for mutants,” said Spider-Man but Riptide spun around, causing Spider-Man’s webbing to snap and causing the web head to land on the ground with a thud, as Harpoon rushed in, throwing an exploding spear right at him but Spider-Man used his expert agility to dodge the attack. Another mutant, named Arclight, stepped in, waving her arms and sending a shockwave attack, knocking Spider-Man off of his feet.

“The boss wants Spider-Man, do whatever with the rest,” said Archlight, as Spider-Man swung out of the way. Iceman struggled to his feet, before sending a blast of ice but the shockwaves had caused the ice to fly right back at him. Iceman was knocked right off of his back and caught right with another shockwave, but Wolverine leapt in, claws drawn, but Vertigo knocked him off balance with a sonic scream. Wolverine tried to push himself up but another sonic scream and he was further taken down.

“Not going to defeat us that easily, bub,” said Wolverine as he struggled back up for a second time, staggered, dizzied, but while the other X-Men had been knocked off of their feet, along with Spider-Man, Wolverine continued to press on. Professor Xavier wheeled in using his physic abilities.

“You will no longer continue to attack our team, you will decease this at once,” said Xavier, but Vertigo was not willing to be pacified, instead letting out another sonic scream.

“Here, the boss gave us this, send to release it to knock these chumps out!” said Harpoon sadistically as he released a grenade, which blew up, sending a blast of energy right towards the X-Men. Professor Xavier dropped to the ground, clutching his head in agony. Marvel Girl looked dizzied, but barely managed to put up a physic shield, protecting her and Cyclops but she did not have the power to increase it, as Spider-Man, Wolverine, Shadowcat, Iceman, Beast, and Xavier had all been rendered unconscious. Archlight and Riptide grabbed Spider-Man by his arms.

“Let’s go, we have the Spider-Man,” said Archlight in a triumphant voice. “The boss will be pleased with us, he has big plans for him.”

-

Spider-Man groggily opened his eyes, before looking around. He was in a dark room that appeared devoid of all human life, at least the friendly sort and it was musty, cold, damp and there was just something about it that sent shivers down his spine.

“Okay Spidey, here’s the million dollar question,” thought Spider-Man as he found himself strapped to a table. “How did you end up in a place that looks out of a 1950s horror movie? Don’t tell me Mysterio’s taken another crack at directing.”

“Excellent, you’re awake,” said a soft, deadly sounding voice as Spider-Man attempted to pull himself free but found that attempt quite futile. “I would not attempt to free myself, it would eliminate what little strength you’ve had. I have used a chemical on you that will eliminate your Spider Strength. As for any other side effects, well I guess you and I will both have fun figuring that out. Well I’ll have fun figuring out what happens, I can’t say you will.”

The man laughed at his own cruel joke as Spider-Man collapsed. This man, whoever he was, was right, his Spider Strength had been completely eliminated. He had been drugged and now he could not free himself. He could squirm all night long but until this chemical wore off there would be nothing.

“I’m sure Xavier has told you all about me, I hope I spooked him with that letter I sent,” said the mystery man, hidden in the shadows, as Spider-Man was unable to get a close look at his face from his position. “I bet he hoped that I was long gone, as my experiments accounted for many of the mutants that exist in this world today but it is only a small step in the ultimate evolution of this world.”

“Dr. Essex, I presume,” said Spider-Man weakly as he attempted to pull himself free even though it was no good. It was instinct.

“Indeed Spider-Man and you’ve been very naughty,” said Essex in an accusing manner. “Stealing genetic material without permission, you see while Miles Warren had conducted the experiments, it was based off of my research. That one spider bite turned you into the web slinging do-gooder that you are today but I’m curious to exactly why you’re still breathing. Because the genetic material in that spider was meant to kill a normal Homo-sapien had it been interjected into them. Well alone it was harmless, but combined with the DNA of the specimens, it was quite deadly indeed.”

“Wait a minute, if that was the case, then how did I survive?” asked Spider-Man, the most morbid of curiosity getting the better of him.

“That is a question that you or rather your DNA will answer in do time,” responded Essex coldly. “Once I find that out, once you’re picked apart one strand at a time, your DNA will be harvested for future reference. I can gain years of research studying what I’m going to gain from you, it’s a pity that you may only have hours to live once I get to work.”

“You mean you’re going to dissect me alive!” shouted Spider-Man in horror, losing his cool and he was beginning to panic. “That’s…that’s…that’s….sinister.”

“Mr. Sinister to you, Spider-Man,” said Essex or rather Mr. Sinister with a twisted grin and a chilling voice, devoid of all warmth whatsoever, as he stepped out of the shadows to allow Spider-Man to see him for the first time. What he saw caused his blood to run completely cold.

Xavier’s description did not do him any justice, his genetic experiments had given him extended life, but it had warped his looks and perhaps his sanity. Unfortunately, he was both completely insane and a genius as well, a rather powerful combination.

And Spider-Man doubted that he could have been in a more perilous situation. How was he going to get out of this one? 


Next Chapter

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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