The bathroom in Adrian’s headquarters had a leak from the faucet, the room was so quiet that you could hear water droplets tapping on the porcelain sink. Scott focused on the sound, letting everything else fade to the background. He stared at his shirtless body in the mirror, his body changed so much so fast that it didn’t even look recognizable anymore. His arms were strong and toned and his chest developed chiseled abs. Littered across his body were bruises and scars given to him by police batons and douchebag superheroes.
Scott was tired, a fact he’d been trying to ignore for a while now, but his body was loud and difficult to ignore. His eyes felt heavy to keep open and his head was aching. Still, sleep would have to wait. Today was the day, and Scott had waited too long to back down now.
Slowly he put the Black Tarantula costume over his body, it was recently stitched back together by Phineas. He took a deep breath before putting the mask on.
“Let’s do this.”
——
Scott regrouped with Adrian, Jamie, Flint and Felicia. He noticed that it was the first time all five of them were in their costumes together. Phineas sat on a metal folding chair and clapped his hands.
“You’re all ready for the runway show.”
“Thanks Phineas.” Adrian scoffed. “You all know your roles, let’s do this. No mistakes.”
“Got it boss.” Scott replied.
“Jamie, you ride shotgun with Flint, the rest of us pile in the back.”
As the group shuffled into the vehicle Felicia smiled at Scott, her eyes flashed with excitement. “You ready for this?”
“I’m always ready.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
The engine came alive with a low hum and drove out of the garage and towards the bank.
——
It was a sunny weekday in lower Manhattan, pigeons flew over the heads of people walking to and from their jobs. The bank had large windows to let all the sunlight peer in, and a decorative fountain at the end of a flight of stairs right before the front entrance. Flint drove the van as close as possible to the entrance and the group rushed out of the vehicle like it was rehearsed beforehand. As they left the van, Flint disguised himself by turning his head into a clump of sand in the shape of a person’s face without features.
Scott felt his heart pounding as him and the others raced up the flight of stairs. “Oh god this is happening.” The first one through the door was Shocker, who immediately charged his vibroshock gauntlets and unleashed a blast at the nearest guard inside. The man was sent tumbling to the ground and laid there dazed and confused.
“Everyone down on the ground!” Scott yelled at the bank staff and clients, his voice disguised by the voice modulator.
Horrified screams and an ear piercing siren echoed through the bank and from behind a pillar a guard aimed his pistol at the group of robbers, hoping to catch them off guard. Scott’s spider senses tingled, he instinctively shot a web at the gun and pulled on it hard enough to cause the weapon to slip out of his hands.
“I won’t repeat myself again. On the ground!” Scott ordered.
Everyone in the bank dropped to the ground without resisting, so Shocker paced around and collected any weapons he could find and the others dashed towards the vault. It was located at the very end of the east wing of the building, and required you to get through a locked door to get there. Scott sidestepped the ‘grab keys’ part of the plan by running full speed and drop kicking it, saving the group time by knocking the door of its hinges. Black Cat and The Vulture ran ahead of Scott and were met by two men in riot gear with rifles aimed at them.
“Behind me!” Vulture ordered.
Cat slinked behind Vulture, who expanded the metallic bladed wings out from his back and used them as a makeshift shield to block the oncoming gunfire. The guards unloaded on the wings, bullets made a loud bang when they slammed into the blades. Scott grabbed a flashbang grenade and tossed it over Cat and Vulture, it rolled across the floor until it reached the two gunmen and exploded. The men stumbled, blinded and deafened momentarily by the blast. It was enough time for Cat to tackle one of the guards and Scott to swiftly knockout the other with a punch to the jaw.
Vulture approached the vault and pulled out the Particle Ray from a duffel bag. He flicked a switch and held it with two hands, aimed the device at the door and fired a bright blue beam. On contact with the adamantium door, the metal began to appear translucent with a blue staticky hue over it.
“Okay.” Vulture braced himself. “Here goes nothing.”
Adrian had volunteered to test the device back at HQ after seeing an apple get tossed through the particle field and make it out the other side unphased, but even after multiple jumps through he still felt nervous attempting it. With a sigh, he ran and jumped through the door and landed inside the vault, surrounded by wads of cash and bars of gold. Under his mask a grin crept across his face.
——
The police department cafeteria was empty aside from Gabriel, who sat on a bench sketching a woman’s face in a notepad dedicated to artwork. The smell of pancakes caught Gabriel’s attention, he looked up and saw Philip with a plastic bag filled with boxes of hot food.
“Got the iHop.” Philip smiled.
“Good.” Gabriel closed the sketchbook shut. “I’m starving.”
The two detectives cracked open the plastic bins to get to the breakfast inside, which Gabriel inhaled like a dog to a steak. Meanwhile Philip made sure to lather each pancake with butter before pouring just the right amount of maple syrup on them. When it was finally ready to be devoured Jean’s voice suddenly blared over their radios, interrupting the moment of sweet anticipation.
“There’s an armed robbery going down at Chase Bank, word is we have superhumans at the scene. All units head there now.”
“Dammit.” Philip groaned.
——
A hundred dollar bill was a rare sight for Scott, but now he held an entire stack of them in his hands. There was no time to bask the moment in though, into the duffel bag it went. Scott, Felicia and Adrian dumped everything valuable they could grab into their duffel bags. Scott’s hands moved fast as he boarded as much as possible, his skin had goosebumps from the fear of getting caught - but it was an exciting feeling.
“Okay, let’s go!” Adrian beckoned the others.
All three of them zipped up their bags and dashed out of the vault making a mad dash for the exit. They regrouped with Jamie in the main lobby and rushed out the door. Once outside Adrian used his wings to glide to the van, while Scott and Felicia swung over and Jamie used his vibroshock blasts to launch himself. Everyone shuffled into the van and Flint floored it out of there with a swarm of police cars turning onto the street the van was parked on.
“We’re being followed.” Felicia shouted to Adrian and Flint.
“We need to lose the cops.”
“I got it.” Scott spoke up.
Scott climbed onto the hood of the van and stuck to it by his fingertips as it sped through the New York streets narrowly dodging oncoming traffic. The police cruisers were chasing after them and catching up quickly so Scott fired a flurry of web balls at them. The webs went splat onto the windshield and stuck on there, obscuring the view of the road in front of the drivers.
At the back of the swarm of police cars were Philip and Gabriel, who watched as cars swerved off the road and crashed into light poles and buildings.
“This is turning into a shit show.” Philip muttered under his breath.
“Tell me about it.” Gabriel said as he spun the wheel to avoid an out of control car. “We need to end this once and for all.”
Gabriel pushed down on the pedal and revved the engine, charging towards the speeding van. Above the skyscrapers a news helicopter was hovering and spectating the event.
From the roof of the van Scott smirked at the cop’s futile attempts to stop him and his friends until he saw a woman about to be hit by a car in the corner of his eye. One of the vehicles veered off the road and was seconds away from turning the lady into blood splatter. His gut reaction was to shoot a web and pull the lady out of the way, which caused her to narrowly avoid the crash but accidentally dragged her across the concrete. Scott cringed at the painful looking tumble he caused. “Better hurt than dead I guess.”
In the driver’s seat Flint knew their getaway location was closeby, he just needed to lose the police long enough for them to ditch the van. He decided to try a risky move and made a sharp right turn into oncoming traffic, the sudden shift of the vehicle whipped Scott left and right.
“F**k! What are you doing?!” He yelled from on the roof of the van.
Before Flint had time to respond, a car almost slammed into the front of the van. He narrowly avoided disaster with a sudden right turn, but the car still grinded against the entire left side of the vehicle, scratching paint and knocking the mirror off in the process.
Gabriel and Philip were some of the last officers close to the van as they had managed to avoid the many hazards created by the bank robbers. As they turned into the intersection to continue after the van, they were suddenly hit by the vehicle that Flint grazed. The collision stopped the officers dead in their tracks, shattered the windshield and forced the airbags to deploy. Their vehicle was completely totaled on the impact, and both men sat in the wreck unconscious and bleeding profusely.
Adrian sat in shotgun, and quietly watched the road with an intense focus.
“We’re almost there.” He told the group in a near whisper.
Flint pressed forward, speeding down the street but now there was little resistance. For a moment everyone felt a sense of relief, maybe they had dodged the police and were almost in the clear? It almost seemed too easy. Then as they passed under a bridge everyone heard the sound of a thud hitting the roof.
Scott, who also heard the sound from behind him, turned around and saw a man in a green jumpsuit with a yellow mask covering his face. He didn’t recognize the man known as Iron Fist, so he smirked at him under his black mask.
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“You a friend of Hydro-Man?” Scott joked.
“Oh yeah.” Iron Fist joked back to him, “We’re gonna put an end to you.”
Hearing those words caused a chill to run down Scott’s spine, he didn’t expect this guy to actually be working with his enemy. Suddenly the realization came over him; ‘He’s on his way too.’ Scott had only a few seconds to decide what to do, and aggression was his plan. ‘Okay then, I’ll hit you as hard as I hit him.’
Scott ran towards Iron Fist and threw punch after punch, which his opponent blocked easily with one arm. ‘How the f**k?!’ Iron Fist proceed to deliver a barrage of punches faster than Scott could react, his spider sense would flare up but his body wasn’t fast enough to dodge or block. Hell, he could barely even see the punches coming. Thinking fast, Scott stuck Iron Fist’s legs to the van with a web and swung for a kick with all of his might. Iron Fist caught his leg in mid air and threw the spider-themed bank robber off of the vehicle. Scott landed on a parked car and cracked the windshield on impact, he laid there stunned and unable to move. From the back of the van Felicia and Jamie were watching from a small window on the door.
“Scott was knocked off the van!” Jamie yelled over the radio.
“We can’t stop. We have to leave him.” Adrian responded calmly.
“What?!” Jamie questioned loudly.
Felicia didn’t hesitate, she swung the door open and wrapped her whip onto a street lamp to swing over to Scott.
“Get on the hood and deal with whoever’s on top of us.” Adrian ordered.
“No. F**k that, I’m not leaving him behind.” Jamie protested.
Adrian sighed. “Jamie don’t -”
Jamie launched himself out of the van before Adrian could finish his sentence. “I’ll deal with anyone else, you just get the money out of here.”
“Okay.” Flint nodded.
Down the street from them, Scott’s back was aching something fierce. Slowly he pulled himself off the windshield, glass cracked and chipped as he moved. Then a voice called out to him.
“Hey.”
Scott looked over to see the black woman who confronted him at Ryker’s Island, she was aiming a Glock at him. Beside her was a tall, muscular superhero that he knew by name; Luke Cage. Scott didn’t feel like cracking a joke, so he shot a web at Cage’s face and rolled off the windshield and behind the car, creating cover for himself against the oncoming bullet fire. The gunshots made a loud bang that nearly made Scott’s ears ring, he felt the bullets pang against the metal of the car and kept his head down.
“Get down and put your hands behind your head.” Misty ordered as she reloaded her gun.
The sound of a whip cracked in the air as a metal coil wrapped around Misty’s arms and pulled them away from Scott. Felicia and Jamie confronted the people trying to arrest their friend. Luke managed to rip the webs off of his face and gritted his teeth in frustration.
The five of them clashed in a bloody and chaotic fight. From the eyes of a spectator it lasted less than thirty seconds, but for Scott it felt as if time slowed down. First Jamie held his hands together and unleashed a massive shockwave at Cage, who braced himself and withstood the force of the attack without so much as a scratch. Scott felt a second wind and saw an opportunity to attack, so he did a somersault over the car and webbed himself towards Cage. Jamie’s attack left Luke distracted and wide open for a sucker punch, but when Scott’s fist connected with his jaw it almost broke. Cage’s skin was as tough as a brick wall, and it seemed like the punch hurt Scott more than it did Luke. Despite that, there was no time to focus on pain.
Scott rolled across the street to dodge an incoming punch from Cage, shot a web at a mailbox and pulled it off the curb with all of his might. He swung the web like it was a rope and launched the mailbox attached to it at Luke. On contact the mailbox shattered and sent papers flying everywhere, meanwhile Luke was sent on his back and reeling from the impact.
“First the Wrecking Crew and now you? Where can I buy the titanium skin plastic surgery you’re all getting?” Scott jeered.
Scott’s attention was diverted to Felicia, who choked for air after Misty drove a punch with her robotic arm into her ribs. Felicia fell to the ground and clutched her chest in pain. He wanted to rush in, drop kick the lady and save Felicia, but Cage got up on his feet faster than Scott or Jamie expected him to. In a split second Luke grabbed Jamie by the throat and slammed him to the street, knocking him unconscious by the impact.
Before Scott could decide who to help something slammed into him with enough force to lift him off his feet. Before he could figure out what the hell was going on he slammed through a window of a nearby building hard enough to shatter it. It became clear to him that somebody tackled him in mid air and was now flying through some office space, but in the time it took to realize that the individual tossed him out another window.
Mid-falling from several stories up, Scott managed to shoot a web at a nearby surface to slow himself down but noticed the web shooter on his wrist fired weaker than usual. He landed on the third floor of a building that was still under construction, with exposed walls and metal foundations. His newly repaired Tarantula costume was damaged again, and Scott could see blood trickling down his arms and chest from the shards of glass that pierced his body. “Shit! No no no! This can’t happen!”
Hovering next to the construction site was somebody Scott was growing tired of seeing; Hydro-Man. This time he was wearing a new costume, one that replaced the real accidents on his suit for a jet black look that reminded Scott of a wasp. He noticed how bruised and beaten Hydro looked from their last encounter, much like he was underneath his mask and outfit.
“You wearing black now? What? You like my look so much you decided to copy it?” Scott taunted his opponent.
Hydro-Man didn’t say a word, he just stared at Scott with violent intentions written over his face. The silence managed to disturb Scott, as through their last encounters he had grown used to the jeers and insults. Hydro-Man not talking back felt… wrong. The water hero launched himself forward in the air and prepared to finish Scott once and for all.
——
Iron Fist rode on top of the speeding van and kept his balance despite many attempts to shake him off, he waited until it seemed right and jumped from the roof to the engine hood where he planned on punching through the windshield to stop the driver. Vulture got up from the passenger seat, ran to the back door of the van and lept out it, extending his metallic wings to fly around the van and catch the martial artist before he could attack Flint. Vulture tackled Iron Fist off of the vehicle and pulled him into the air, where the two men struggled for control.
Iron Fist went on the offensive and drove a knee into Vulture’s rib hard enough to break it. Adrian knew he couldn’t beat Iron Fist in a fight, he was older and significantly less experienced in combat. Unfortunately for Iron Fist, winning the fight wasn’t Adrian’s plan. As long as he got this vigilante off of the van he was happy, so he flew up to the top of a building and let go of the warrior.
Danny rolled across the roof of the building expecting an attack, but when he turned around and entered a fighting stance he saw The Vulture give a wave goodbye and fly away before Danny could realize he was duped.
Meanwhile back at the van, Flint pulled the vehicle into a back alley that was decided to be ‘the drop off point’. He parked the van next to a dumpster, picked up the particle ray and fired it at the floor of the van, turning it translucent. Then he fired another ray at the alleyway floor, which revealed a sewer beneath it. Flint grabbed all three of the heavy duffel bags and tossed them down into the sewer, but before jumping down himself he opened the driver’s side door of the van to throw off the police. Once inside the sewer the holes made by the particle ray closed, making it impossible to know how they escaped. The police would assume Flint escaped on foot and wouldn’t think to check the sewers beneath them. Flint grabbed the duffel bags and the particle ray and thanked god that the accident he endured gave him superhuman strength as well as sand powers.
----
Misty placed a pair of handcuffs on Felicia as she laid on the pavement reeling in pain, then she walked over to the unconscious Jamie and cuffed him as well.
“Luke, take her and Jamie to PD.” she ordered.
“What are you gonna do?” Luke asked.
“I’m going after Hydro-Man and Huntsman.”
“You don’t think your friend will win the fight?”
“No he’ll win. I just don’t trust him, he’s a loose canon.”
Luke gave an understanding nod. “Go. I’ll take care of these two.”
Misty ran towards the construction as Luke carried Felicia and Jamie in each arm like they were suitcases. Felicia squirmed in protest to no avail.
“F**k!” Felicia yelled.
“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
“That’s funny.” Felicia responded.
Meanwhile she lifted her legs up to her cuffed hands and fiddled with her boots until she got a hold of a lockpick, and smirked as she repeated a trick daddy taught her all those years ago. Quietly she toyed with the handcuffs while her captor was distracted and smirked when she knew how easy it’d be to escape.
“But this isn’t the circus jackass.” Felicia added.
The handcuffs made a click sound as they opened, causing Felicia to drop from Cage’s grasp. She quickly grabbed the whip and threw it at a street light but when she launched herself off the street and into the air Luke caught her by the ankle and tossed her back onto the ground with a hard thud.
“Ain’t getting away that easy.” He chided.
Cage threw a punch at Felicia hoping for a quick knockout, but she rolled away from it and avoided getting hit. She retracted the metal claws on her gloves and swiped at Luke’s face, but to her surprise they didn’t leave a scratch on him. ‘Superhumans.’ She groaned.
Felicia did what she could to evade the superheroes attacks, but Luke was surprisingly quick on his feet and was experienced against nimbles foes like her. Instead of throwing punches, he went for a body grapple to stop Felicia from jumping away from him. He wrapped his arms around her and held on tight, she kicked and thrashed in a desperate attempt to break free but it was no use.
Trapped in the grapple, Felicia stopped moving, grabbed a gas canister from her belt and released it as close to Cage’s face as she could reach. When the green gas poured out she held her breath, and Luke breathed some of it in before realizing what was happening. He held his breath shortly after but it was no use, he began coughing and let go of Felicia giving her ample time to escape.
For a moment she considered just leaving, but Jamie was still on the ground unconscious. She instead put her gas mask on and opened another canister while Cage was coughing from the first one. Two doses of the gas was enough to bring the superhero down, and with him dealt with she grabbed the cuffed criminal and dragged him into the shadows to safety.
——
Scott jumped out of the way of Hydro’s attack and rolled across the ground, it was becoming clear to him that lack of sleep and the weekly ass kickings were causing him to hit a breaking point. ‘I just need to keep going, Felicia and Jamie need me!’ He thought to himself. His spider senses tingled, so instinctively he ducked his head and Hydro-Man’s punch missed him by mere inches. Scott forced whatever strength he had left into a kick to his enemy’s chest, which sent Hydro-Man tumbling back. He fired his webs to stick Hydro in place, but the web shooters made a ‘tiss’ sound as nothing but air shot out of them. ‘F**k!’
Hydro pulled himself back onto his feet and charged at Scott aggressively, the two chased each other around the construction site as Scott tried to avoid the countless attacks being thrown at him. Despite his heart pounding and fear taking over him, Scott was too slow and caught a torrent of water to the body that forced him through the wooden floor. He landed on the floor a level below the one he broke through with a hard thud, his vision blurred and stars spun around the center of his eyes. Hydro-Man landed in front of him and grabbed the wallcrawler’s collar, pulling him up before driving a punch to his face.
Scott tried to fight back, but his body went limp. Hydro-Man continued letting out his pent up hatred on his opponent by beating him senseless. At some point during the assault, Scott felt a sensation like he was drowning. It became difficult to breathe, all he could see was black and red blurs and the sounds around him were muffled. The last thing Scott felt before going unconscious was the sharp, metallic taste of blood in his mouth.
Hydro-Man raised his fist for another attack, his knuckles were bleeding and in his rage Hydro didn’t realize he had fractured his hand. Right now that didn’t matter, this menace had to die! But before he could deliver the finishing blow a voice belted out from behind him.
“Stop!”
Hydro turned around and saw Misty Knight pointing a gun at him.
“That’s not how we do this. Step away from him.” Misty ordered.
Hydro’s emotions settled down and he looked down at the broken, bloody mess of a person laying defeated in front of him. A sudden sense of guilt and remorse came over him, this isn’t who he’s supposed to be. This isn’t what his parents raised him to do, or what he envisioned when he became a hero. As Misty approached cautiously he launched himself into the air with his water jets and flew away.
Misty placed handcuffs on the unconscious bank robber and radioed out.
“This is Misty Knight, I’ve apprehended The Huntsman. I need a police vehicle, ASAP.”