“So, Pete, what do you say?” Grady said, smiling wide.
“Sorry man, I’d love to hang out, but I can’t today” I said, as we made our way through the office. His face fell, but his smile returned quickly.
“That’s no problem. Just let me know when you’re free” he said.
“I’ll see if I can do something this weekend” I said.
“Perfect. See you tomorrow Pete” he said.
“See you Grady” I said. He turned down the hall to the lab as I made my way towards the exit. I stepped through the glass doors and quickly made my way into the fire escape stairwell.
I leapt up the stairs, between the stairwell gaps, as I pulled off my work clothes revealing my suit underneath. I fished my mask out my bag and pulled it on as I emerged onto the roof. I stuffed my clothes into my bag and zipped it shut, before pulling on my gloves. I flexed my fingers and stared out over the city. Work was finally over. It was time to get down to business.
I slingshot myself from the roof and fired a web swinging amongst the skyscrapers. I scanned below, searching for anything suspicious but found nothing. Today was a good day. Eventually I came to a stop, landing on the side of an abandoned building and crawling in through an open window. I closed it behind me and made my way through the empty space, before coming to a locked door. I opened it with a key and stepped inside my base of operations.
A single dingy old table sat in the middle of the room pieces of paper strewn across it, along with a bunch of web cartridges and other tech I’d been messing around with recently. A few costumes hung on hangers above my portable heater, which sat next to the washing machine. The room smelled like washing detergent. I sighed and slumped into the lawn chair at the foot of the table, scouring over the mess of papers, before glancing at the map on the wall.
It was large. Four A1 sheets of paper of that showed the entirety of New York city. Small newspaper cut outs of villains faces and the symbols of gangs and illegal organisations lined the map, filling portions of it up. On the wall next to it was a small A5 sheet of paper that represented the Hortz-Bruig that had six cut-outs on it. I sighed. When I looked between the two and thought about what it all meant, it felt depressing.
I stood up and webbed the receiver I had on the floor. I turned it on receiver flipping through the frequencies to pick something up. I was met mostly with white noise before a voice came over the line. A thief near W 110th street and a burst fire hydrant on W 115th. Hmm… then I think I’d focus on Harlem today. That way I could deal with the stuff on the way. I went to leave but paused. I grabbed a cut-out, pulling Marko’s face off the map and sticking it on the small A5 sheet.
“Oh, that does feel good” I said chuckling to myself. I leapt out the window, grabbing a few web cartridges on the way out, and fell through the air before firing a web.
I swung enjoying the freeing sensation of soaring through the city. I waved as I passed a few people pointing up at me, then focused back on the view. Everything was so nice from up here. Seeing how the roads stretched out, the rooftops of smaller buildings, the raging fire, all of it practically glowing under the- wait raging fire. I spun turning my attention to the black smoke that oozed out of one of the buildings, pooling into the sky. I turned around instantly, picking up the pace as I sped towards it. I quickly pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialled 911.
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“This is emergency services; how may I be of assistance?”
“Big fire near East 29th St. Come quick. You’re gonna need a few fire trucks and ambulances” I said, hanging up before they could even respond. I swung faster, glancing at intermittent cracks in the glass leading up the building, before throwing myself into the smoke. I landed a wave of heat hitting me as I crouched and looked around. I was looking at an office space, or what was left of it. The smoke was pouring this way out of the building, and for the most part it seemed like only near this part of the window was on fire. There weren’t any people here. That could be good or bad. I looked around the window, putting out small fires with my webs. It wasn’t enough, I needed to turn on the sprinkler system. Suddenly my spider sense buzzed and I weaved as a large mechanical stinger cut through the air, stabbing into the floor. I heard a screech as something leapt towards me and I kicked at it, sending it to the floor.
I webbed my attacker down, then their mechanical stinger. I wafted the smoke away to get a clearer look at them, when my spider-sense buzzed. I leapt back as my attacker went up in a ball of fire, the heat washing over me as the flames licked the front of my costume. I flipped and landed on my feet, before quickly webbing up all the small fires that had spread further into the office. I heard shouts from below and cursed, rushing forward towards the hole in the ground.
Was I fighting explosive robots? Just my luck. I dived through the hole and quickly webbed out the flaming debris that had crashed to the ground. I looked around. I was in a lab, the sounds of rushing footsteps and people screaming just outside the doors. I rushed forwards and burst through the door into a large lobby. Scientists in lab coats rushed around in a panic as two of the robots with mechanical stingers attacked, stabbing through people. Shit. I webbed them both back, yanking them through the air, they crashed to the ground but recovered quickly, turning to me and attacking. I ducked under one of their tails and grabbed it, slamming them into each other and flinging them back into the empty lab. I rushed inside and leapt over a slash of a stinger before dodging a barrage of blows. I couldn’t risk triggering another explosion in a lab like this, so webbing them to the floor was of the table. Would hitting them too hard cause an explosion too? Crap, this was dangerous. I needed to disable them somehow. Or I could just let them explode in the air. I’d done it when Tinkerer had tried to detonate those bombs last year. Yeah, I could do that.
I grabbed one of their stingers and used it to deflect the other before webbing them together, throwing off their movements. I used the chance and grabbed them both, leaping towards the hole in the ceiling. I shot through the hole in the floor and out the whole in the window, then I threw the two upwards as far as I could and webbed them together. They writhed about as they ascended, and then a flash off light darkened the sky. I shielded my eyes, as I landed on the side of the building.
When I looked up again, a cloud of smoke slowly dissipated as pieces of debris fell through the air. I quickly fired out a net of webs, catching them debris before it reached the ground. I rushed back inside. The smoke was mostly gone now, all the small fires put out by my web. I rushed through the building to check. No more robots. It was safe. Well as safe as it could be with a huge whole in the side of the building.
I let out a relieved breath and turned, jogging back to make sure the people were ok. I frowned, as I ran through the lobby. Wait a second. I recognised this place. It was Icarus Labs. I’d interviewed here. I glanced down the hall then out the window at the last wisps of smoke. Explosive robots attacking a successful research lab. This wasn’t a coincidence.
-
“…then I threw them up into the air, and that was it. But as I said, Captain Stacy, I don’t think this was a coincidence” I said, deepening my voice slightly.
“And you said there were three of them?” George replied.
“Yeah. Four if the first explosion was one of them, but I only fought three” I said.
“Explosive killer robots huh? Things never do calm down around here” he mumbled, scribbling down something in his notepad before putting it away.
“Well thanks for the help, Spider-Man, it’s a damn good thing you got here quickly. Could’ve been a lot worse if you hadn’t”
“I got lucky I was in the area” I said.
“Luck or no luck, you saved a lot of people today” he said, looking up at the building, staring at the shattered glass surrounding the hole. “Lord knows we don’t need any more explosions in this city.”
I felt a pang in my heart, but it faded quickly. He offered a hand with a warm smile. I shook it, his grip firm.
“Take care of yourself. The city needs you” he said.
“Will do” I responded. He stepped back, taking a look at the fire trucks, and police cars around us.
“Well, it was nice talking to you despite the circumstances. I’ve got to run, people to save and all. We all good here?” I asked.
“Yeah, we can handle the rest” he said. I flashed a thumbs up and turned to run away but George called out to me.
“Oh Spidey one last thing before you go. Watch out for the Prowler. Word on the street is he’s doing a big job in Brooklyn”
“Got it. See you captain!” I said, before swinging away. I guess I knew what my mission was for the next few days.