Chapter 283: Along Came a Spider
3rd March 2013, New York City
(Jasmine Sayre POV)
No kid his age should worry about it, but Parker felt very guilty because of what happened to his uncle and his role in his death. He wouldn’t listen to anyone about stopping; it was his way of honoring the man who raised him as his own son.
My thoughts were interrupted by a large explosion. I turned and saw that Spider-Man was fighting Rhino, a man in a mechanized rhinoceros suit. I didn’t understand the role of the horn outside of esthetic reasons. I just shrugged; it was probably some New York weirdness.
The kid seemed to be struggling. Rhino had just grabbed him and threw him towards a parked car. He dodged the incoming fist by webbing away, before attempting to blind the cameras involved by webbing them too.
He seemed to have missed at least one, because Rhino decided to run towards the teenager. The kid should be able to handle it, but I guess I could subtly help him. I did owe him one with the whole thing with Fury’s goons. Nodding to myself, I decided to act.
When the Rhino was running, I chose to telekinetically move his legs slightly. As I expected the man tripped on his own feet and fell into a wall, which I also had strengthened telekinetically. The suit was really badly made, to be honest.
It was like someone tried to make a discount Juggernaut but didn’t really account for all the possibilities that occur during a fight. Plus, the lack of flexibility and maneuverability were big problems when fights occur on the streets. The only decent attack this guy had, was the running charge that would destroy anything in his way, but it took a ridiculous amount of time to start. Honestly, Steve Rogers would destroy this thing in seconds.
I could see why law enforcement wouldn’t really buy something like that. It was relatively expensive – not even close to the price of an Iron Man suit, but it was quite enough to cripple the NYPD budget with a single suit – it was also surprisingly fragile, and would cause too much collateral damage in an urban area. The military wouldn’t touch anything like this with a ten-foot pole. It was just a very bad machine that had no practical uses. It was an interesting concept, but the Rhino gimmick and the obvious corners cut during its manufacturing shows that Oscorp has no faith in the project.
No wonder Osborn chose to give them out to the Kingpin. It was probably very expensive and would act as muscle to the crime lord. At least this way, Osborn wouldn’t lose too much on his investment. It was clever, very unethical and probably illegal, but also very clever. With the way that Tony Stark has been denying the fact that the Iron Man suit is a weapon, any other company capable of building a super suit can just call it a piece of technology and just sell it however they want. Stark broke the system, really, and Osborn was taking advantage of it.
Not that cheap suits like the Rhino could hold up against anyone with a brain and slight superpowers. Honestly, a small EMP would probably fry the thing, and the cameras were very large and exposed. They could be taken out easily.
Not to mention the fact that the movement mechanism was exposed and completely unarmored. Seriously, it reminded me of Stark’s first suit with how a few targeted shots could destroy its mobility entirely.
The Kid’s knowledge of mechanics was impressive enough to understand the mechanisms and know its vulnerabilities. He webbed up part of it and swooped down. He punched a specific part of the suit, near its hip, and the left side of the Rhino froze and stopped moving. However, the kid didn’t seem to sense the right arm of the Rhino coming at him. He mustn’t have honed his spider senses perfectly yet.
Parker would survive the hit, probably because of the suit, but his opponent would be able to run away. I chose to deny him such a chance and messed with the mechanism on the suit’s right arm causing him to miss. The spider themed hero must have noticed how much of a close call it was, and chose to wrap things up. He broke the right side mechanism, and slowly started to break the head of the suit.
He found the mechanism to open the suit and hijacked it. Finally, he grabbed the man inside the suit and webbed him up. The kid looked around, probably sensing that someone had helped him without really understanding what happened. Parker’s spider sense was really interesting, and something that I have never really seen before.
I teleported to the roof of the building. It wouldn’t do for the kid to confront me in the middle of the streets of New York. Somehow, the kid was able to follow my teleportation and looked at me. I just smiled and waved at the teenager who shot a web and leapt towards me.
He just stood there, staring at me. He spoke up in wonder, “Jasmine Sayre…”
“That’s my name kid. Long time no see, kiddo. I see you’re putting my suit to good use.”
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The suit was probably worth billions in the black market, just because of the price of the materials making it. Vibranium was thought to be gone outside of Captain America’s shield, and Adamantium, while available, was very expensive to buy.
The system itself was rudimentary, one that would help the kid and give him an edge but not act as a crutch. I didn’t add an AI or something as stupid. It was a common HUD with facial recognition, connected to various law enforcement databases, as well as an untraceable phone line should he need it. Any vocal commands he wished for, needed to be programmed, and I allowed the software to be as flexible as possible for the kid to use creatively. I didn’t even add any enchantments or anything like that.
Honestly, it was just an indestructible suit with a few perks, not a weapon of mass destruction, like what Stark would probably give the kid. Sure, it was expensive, but I had access to both materials and the system took an hour to make at most. I had already made something similar on a whim a few years back and I only needed to adapt it slightly for the kid.
Speaking of the kid, he was stammering, “Yeah, thank you very much. Not just for that, but also for the life insurance. I know that you had a hand in it…”
I just shrugged, “Yeah, I did. You got me out of a sticky situation, and this was me just saying thank you.”
The kid hesitated for a second before blurting out, “Please tell me you aren’t really a supervillain that used me to destroy SHIELD!”
I burst into laughter at this; this kid was precious, “Damn, you’ve really kept that in for a while, haven’t you?”
He nodded meekly, “You didn’t answer my question.”
“I didn’t really use you for anything. Fury needed a desperate win, and he thought that he could get that through me. There’s a lot about SHIELD that people don’t know, that even Fury didn’t know. The entire organization was compromised, and it needed to be destroyed. The whole mess with the nuke during the invasion was already enough for the UN to dissolve the organization. It was always going to happen, and you just stopped them from taking me out with them. Sure, I could have dealt with it, but you saved me a lot of headaches, so I thanked you for it.”
The kid nodded but was still unsure, “Are you sure about it?”
I raised an eyebrow, “of course I am. Look, if someone really goes digging in SHIELD files, they’ll see everything. I know that Stark was looking into it when I told him. He even told Fury not to go after me, but the guy was just too desperate with the vote coming close. So, kid, I’m guessing that the money helped a bit.”
He nodded but stiffened up, “How did you know who I am?”
I snorted, “Kid, I’m not one of the stupid crime lords that think they own this city. I’m the owner of the most powerful media company in the world. I have access to security cameras all over the planet. It took me minutes to figure out who you were. Smart as you might be, you are still a kid. Don’t worry, I wiped any security footage that might incriminate you, but you need to be more careful.”
Sure, I was talking nonsense, but I could do all these things and would probably find out his secret identity quite easily. Parker just nodded as if it made sense, “Yeah, Aunt May was really getting tired of working too many shifts at the hospital. It’s nice not having to worry about how we would make ends meet. With Uncle Ben gone, things were looking bad for us. It’s nice to see her grieve in peace and not worry about paying the bills.”
“So, kid, tell me. Why are you doing this? You’re a teenager, you’re brilliant, you have so much ahead of you, so much potential. So, why are you spending your nights fighting crime instead of either working on some project or just hanging out with friends? I chose not to interfere and just helped make you as safe as possible.”
The spider themed hero froze and looked at me for a minute without speaking. It was like it was the first time anyone asked him about it. He just nodded to himself and spoke up, “Do you know what happened to my uncle?”
“He died in the invasion, right? He saved a lot of people that day, but he didn’t make it.”
Parker nodded, “Yes, he did. I had these powers from before, you know. I got them during a field trip at Oscorp where one of the irradiated spiders bit me. But I knew that showing anyone what I was capable of would get me either incarcerated or used as a lab rat for the rest of my life, so I pretended that nothing happened. When the invasion came, I hid with my aunt while my Uncle Ben was saving people. I had superpowers, I could have saved so many people, but I didn’t. I was a coward, afraid of being discovered. And when I learnt about how my uncle died, I just felt shame and guilt. He saved so many people while I just hid in the basement with Aunt May. Ever since that day, I decided that if I see something wrong in front of me, it would be my duty to be like my uncle, that I have a responsibility to help them.”
I nodded. It made sense somewhat. It was a very dangerous line of thinking, but it was a noble one, “Just don’t sacrifice yourself trying to save everyone. It’s just a fool’s dream to do so…”
“I’m not an idiot, Ms. Sayre, nor am I suicidal. I know my limits, and I know that I can’t just stop crime altogether. But I can do my best to inspire people, to help make this city even a little bit safer.”
I shrugged, “It’s your life, Parker. You can do whatever you want with it, but just don’t forget your life as Peter Parker in your crusade as Spider-Man. I did my best to protect you with the suit, the rest is on you.”
The kid’s eyes widened at my statement, well the eyes on his mask did. He probably expected me to scold him or something, “Thank you. I don’t know how you made it; it has stood up against some crazy stuff. What’s it made of, by the way. The way it absorbs impacts isn’t normal.”
I just shrugged, “It’s made of an alloy made up of Vibranium and Adamantium. It was the only way I could make sure that you wouldn’t get injured on your little crusade.”
Parker’s shocked yell at my response amused me greatly.
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