With Otto:
They were ready. Toomes' old contacts had proved useful — among them another sharp mind, someone clever enough to harness the power locked inside the alien technology. Otto was impressed, but this wasn't the time to indulge his curiosity.
Toomes got his wings back. Electro obtained a powerful containment suit designed to channel the alien technology's formidable output. They were ready.
Otto hacked into the city's servers and located Norman's home address in minutes — child's play. It never ceased to amaze him how much a sufficiently applied intellect could accomplish that lesser men never even imagined.
He sent Vulture ahead to scout. Sure enough, Norman and his son had their bags packed and were leaving with a police escort — three cruisers at the front of their vehicle, four behind. Well protected. But not well enough.
"Where are they now?" Otto asked into the radio.
"Coming down 7th Avenue. They'll reach Times Square in five minutes," Vulture reported.
"That's where we strike," Otto replied. "Keep eyes on them — we're two blocks out. We'll intercept on schedule."
"Understood," Toomes replied, closing the channel.
"Can't we just move already?!" Electro cried out. "Why do we have to wait so damn long? Can't I just fry them now? I want this over so I can kill the Spider!"
Otto turned to his impatient companion. "We are waiting until they reach Times Square because that is where Aleksei can operate the Rhino exo-armor at maximum effectiveness. If we strike now, Osborn escapes."
Electro scoffed. "Whatever."
"I can see them!" Shocker called out from the roof of their vehicle. "They're almost here!"
"Then let's begin. Rhino — phase one," Otto commanded.
"Ready," came the reply from inside the suit. The main hatch sealed shut.
On 45th Street and 8th Avenue, a large truck sat blocking an entire lane, its engine idling. Traffic was light behind it, and most drivers barely registered its presence. Then the driver stepped out of the cab and walked away at a brisk pace.
Honk!
A cab driver stuck his head out the window. "Move it, asshole!"
BOOM!
The rear of the truck began to shudder from side to side. Every vehicle on the road slowed to a stop. The cab driver's expression shifted from annoyance to alarm — he threw his car into reverse.
BOOM!
The cargo doors blew off their hinges and slammed into the cab. The driver died instantly.
"Sinister Six — strike!" Otto commanded as the Rhino armor launched out of the truck bed, landing directly on the destroyed taxi and crushing it flat. Bone snapped. Blood sprayed. They didn't pause to look.
"Now this is what I'm talking about!" Electro yelled as he stepped into the light. His full green containment suit clung to him like leather. He tore off his gloves and mask and threw them aside, grinning as he lifted into the air. "Let's blow some things up!"
"FIGHT!" Marko roared as he poured out in a tidal wave of sand. Shocker and Otto rode the Rhino armor as it accelerated toward Times Square.
"Get out of the way!"
"Run!"
People screamed as the Rhino charged down 45th Street, one of the most congested roads in the city. Tourists and locals alike scrambled from their vehicles. Those who recognized the machine and remembered what it could do got out and ran. The ones who didn't understand what they were looking at were not so fortunate. The Rhino hurled cars into the pavement and sidewalks, the impacts crushing whoever hadn't moved in time.
Shocker laughed. "This is incredible! Hey, Rhino — throw something high! I want to see if I can hit it!"
The pilot obliged, snatching up a car and launching it high into the air. Shocker leveled his gauntlets and blasted it upward further with a vibration wave. "Look at it go! Hey, Sparky — try frying it!"
"One fireball, coming up!" Electro howled as he soared higher and sent a massive arc of electricity toward the tumbling vehicle.
The bolt curved as it reached the blue minivan. Inside, a mother clutched her daughter. The little girl screamed. Her mother screamed louder. They saw the lightning coming for them, and they knew.
And then a red-and-gold armored figure flew in front of them, arms spread wide. The lightning hit dead center — but the armor didn't move. It absorbed everything, every joule of it, and held its position.
The minivan was still falling. The mother and daughter were still screaming — until suddenly the car stopped mid-air, hovering in place with a gentle bounce.
"Hey," I called out from outside the car. The woman and her daughter stared at me. "You two should get out of here." I broke the door open and tossed it aside. "Jarvis — send a suit."
"Yes, sir," the AI replied as a second Iron Man armor descended, collected the mother and daughter, and flew them clear.
"What's the damage, Bruce?" I asked.
"Power at 200% capacity," came the scientist's dry reply through the comms. He wasn't on the street — I would never put him in direct danger. He was back at the Tower, piloting this suit remotely while Jarvis managed two additional reserve units Tony had left behind.
I stood on a large web I had spun between buildings to serve as a catch net for the minivan. It hovered over 45th Street. The screaming had stopped. People had stopped running. Even the Rhino had slowed. Everyone was staring up at me.
I walked to the edge of the web and crouched, looking down at the five figures assembled in the street below.
"Did you miss me?" I asked, keeping my voice light — though what I felt inside was anything but. All these people. Dead in an instant, for no reason beyond Otto's wounded pride and a wife who wasn't even gone.
"Spider-Man! I'm going to destroy you!" Electro roared as he came surging toward me.
"Not quite," Bruce maneuvered his suit in front of mine and fired a unibeam strong enough to launch Electro a full city block. He crashed into the center of Times Square. The civilians who hadn't already fled screamed and ran.
"Bruce — handle him. I'll manage the rest," I said.
"Right. Jarvis — assist Spider-Man," Bruce instructed as he moved off toward Electro, who was already climbing back to his feet.
"I have no quarrel with you, Spider-Man!" Otto called out. "Leave now and no one else needs to get hurt."
"Speak for yourself!" Shocker bellowed. "I came here for one reason — and it's him! I'm going to take him apart!"
I shot a web line and covered his mouth. He screamed, but nothing intelligible came out. "Much better. And no, Otto — I can't walk away. Not from this."
"And why not?"
"Look around you," I said quietly.
Otto did. And for just a moment, something flickered across his face as he took in the wreckage, the overturned cars, the still shapes on the pavement.
I sighed. "Unfortunate — but necessary. No one will stand in the way of my revenge. Not now, not ever! Osborn will pay for what he did to me!"
"Putting innocent people in danger is never justified, Otto! Never!"
"Why do you care so much?!" Otto demanded. "You quit! Doom broke you! You walked away! Why come back?!"
I looked at him and I knew the answer. "Because I had to." I clicked my comms. "Sexy — alert SHIELD and the police. Tell them to prepare six containment cells, individually configured for each target."
"Understood, Spider."
"Good." I leaped off the web and swung down toward him. "Now let's get this done."
"Foolish arachnid," Otto growled. "Marko — destroy him!"
"Pudding!" Marko bellowed as he came charging at me in a wall of sand. I fired a second web line and pulled hard to the side, letting the surging mass sweep past harmlessly.
I landed on the street, rolled, and turned. Marko grew as he turned on me, his form expanding with his fury. "Spider hurt Marko! Spider pay!"
"Guess you remember me, huh, big guy? Well, I remember you too." I thrust both palms forward, firing repulsor blasts straight into the sand monster, blowing two ragged holes through his center.
"ARGH!" He roared and reformed. "Kill!" He charged again — and I glanced back and spotted what I'd been looking for. A fire hydrant. There was a reason I'd given up the high ground for street level.
I back-kicked the hydrant clean off its base. A column of water erupted upward. I leaped clear as Marko barreled through it. The moment the water hit him he began to lose cohesion — his form softening, sagging, collapsing into wet sand. Water and Sandman. Third grade science for the win.
I turned to Otto and fired two repulsor blasts at him. He brought his mechanical arms up as shields — the impact was enough to knock both him and Shocker, who was directly behind him, off the Rhino's back. Otto landed hard. "Destroy him!" he snarled.
The Rhino turned toward me and charged. I waited until the last possible second, then jumped clear. It crashed into the wall behind me, tearing through brick and steel. I dropped onto its back and brought both palms down, firing into the exoskeleton.
"Get off!" the pilot screamed as two heavy machine guns deployed from the shoulder mountings and swiveled toward me.
"Please," I scoffed, blasting both barrels apart with my repulsors before they could fire. "You'll need to do a lot better than that."
"Like this?!" Otto's arms shot toward me from two directions.
My spider-sense flagged them before he had finished the word. I leaped, his arms punching into the building where I had been standing a half second earlier. I shot a web line, arcing around to approach from his flank.
"Not this time!" Shocker blasted me with a vibration wave, sending me off course and into a wall.
"Are you serious?!" I snarled as I peeled myself free — just in time to see the Rhino reversing out of the building and turning to face me. A missile rack deployed from its back, locking onto my position.
"Fire!" Otto commanded.
The missile launched.
I ran — straight up the face of a building, leaping higher with every bound. The heat-seeker stayed right behind me, closing. I needed something to redirect it.
My eyes found Bruce. He was still trading blows with Electro.
"Hey, lightbulb!" I called out as I swung toward them at full speed.
"You!" Electro turned.
"Bet you can't hit me!"
"What are you doing?!" Bruce shouted.
"Watch and learn!" Electro fired a massive arc of superheated plasma directly at me. I released my web line and immediately fired both repulsors downward, the thrust launching me upward. The plasma bolt slammed into the missile.
BOOM!
The explosion caught me from below and sent me hurtling upward even faster. I felt the heat against my feet — and with it, a flash of something else. Phantom pain in my back. The sky above me suddenly darkened. I was falling — arms shattered, legs gone, Doom's face overhead.
"Got you," Bruce's voice crackled in my ear as two metal arms caught me from below. He pulled me in as he descended. "Peter? Are you all right?"
"No," I gasped. "Doom — it's — no. I'm pushing past it." I forced the memory down. I refused to let the ghost of him keep me grounded. Not here. Not today.
"I'm getting you out of here. Jarvis, take over—"
KRA-TANG!
A mechanical arm punched through the drone suit's empty head and tore it free. A second drove through the chest plate and through the arc reactor. The arm lifted the ruined suit — and me with it — and flung us both aside.
I tumbled free of the wreckage, landed badly, and dragged myself upright. My arms were still shaking. I looked up.
They were all assembled.
Otto stood atop the Rhino, commanding and composed. Electro smiled like a man who had already won. Shocker grinned. Sandman had dragged himself clear of the water and was rebuilding, now roughly half his full size, but intact.
"You are no match for our combined power, Spider-Man! Surrender — now!" Otto called out with something that looked almost like satisfaction. He glanced over his shoulder. I followed his gaze — Norman's car was pulling to the curb with its police escort. "And everything comes together."
No. I can't let them reach those people. Doesn't matter who — I won't let them be hurt.
I got to my feet. My hands were still shaking. I growled internally. I am not a coward. I will not be afraid of these people. Not ever again. If I die here, I die. But I will not die on my knees.
The memory of nearly dying dissolved into nothing. "Hey — morons! You still have to come through me!"
Electro snarled. "With pleasure."
"No — Norman is the objective! He comes first!" Otto snapped.
"I joined this operation for one reason only: killing Spider-Man! And I'm doing it right now!" Electro roared, sending a blast of electricity directly at me.
I held my ground and smiled beneath my helmet. This is going to hurt.
ZOOP!
The Parker Blood coating in my suit absorbed the charge, feeding it into my arc reactor. That was the reason I had built the system in the first place — total electrical immunity. The HUD read 400% power capacity. I smiled.
"How is he still standing?!" Shocker cried out.
"I know — shocking, isn't it?" I chuckled, then pushed my chest plate forward. A unibeam — three times my standard output — fired into their ranks.
"Move!" Otto threw himself clear. The others scattered — except the Rhino. Too large to get out of the way, too slow to react in time.
I hit it dead center. The impact took it clean off its feet and sent it tumbling backward, belly exposed, as my beam continued to pour into its undercarriage.
When it finally collided with the building behind it, the armor was reduced to a broken pile of scrap. I cut the beam. Power back down to 100%.
"One down, five to go."
"You little punk!" Electro came screaming at me — only for an Iron Man armor to sweep in and spear him in the midsection, driving him up into the air.
"I've taken over one of the suits Jarvis was running," Bruce's voice came through my earpiece. "I've got Electro. Take the others."
"With pleasure." I fired a web line at Shocker, whose eyes were still fixed on the smoking wreckage of the Rhino armor. I hauled him up into the air, let him swing toward me, and cracked him across the jaw as he arrived.
He hit the pavement on his back and didn't get up. "Two down, four to go."
"Marko — attack!" Otto ordered.
Marko shuffled. "No...water man."
"Marko! I'm ordering you to fight!"
Marko sighed heavily and launched himself at me. I fell back, and he swung wildly — I jumped, dodged, ducked, staying mobile. I scanned the street. I needed a hydrant.
There — jackpot. I moved toward it, but as I touched down my spider-sense screamed. One of Otto's arms connected before I could clear it, slamming into me and sending me skidding across Times Square.
I landed on my feet and looked up as Marko came at me. "That trick won't work a second time!" Otto called out.
I looked down. Sewer access. I groaned. I really hope Tony made this suit machine-washable. I pried the manhole cover and dropped in. Marko followed, his simplified mind making the decision for him. I sprinted through the grey water, Flint right behind me, slowly realizing something was wrong.
I reached the next manhole, shoved the cover up and vaulted back to street level just as Marko emerged behind me — smaller now, and still damp.
"Here — a gift." I pulled out my liquid nitrogen capsules and threw them at him.
He looked curious. He didn't dodge. He just watched, apparently more interested in the gift than in his own survival.
The moment the capsules hit his chest and neck they detonated. The residual moisture helped the effect spread — instead of freezing a small patch, the cold covered him almost entirely, encasing him in a solid block of ice rather than the partial freeze I had expected.
I blinked down at my belt. Tony must have upgraded the capsule yield.
I turned to Otto. "You're next."
Otto smiled thinly. "Actually — I believe someone else wishes to go next."
"What are you—" My spider-sense fired hard. I threw myself sideways.
It wasn't enough. A tractor beam of energy locked around me and lifted me into the air. I looked up. Vulture smiled down at me from above. "Round two, webs."
I groaned. This was going to be a problem. I swept my arms in a clockwise circle, building a glowing red-gold spell circle, and directed it upward.
"What the fu—"
"Blast away my enemies, oh power of Naraka!"
BOOM!
---
Otto had hoped Toomes would show enough intelligence to finish the job, but no matter. He had served his purpose. Otto gathered himself and moved — his long, powerful arms carrying him in enormous strides toward Norman's car.
One arm punched through a police cruiser's fuel tank and hurled the vehicle into two others. The three-car front escort was gone in an instant.
The black car tried to accelerate away. Otto drove an arm through its engine block and walked calmly to the rear.
"You monster!" The back door flew open and Norman Osborn stepped out, gun raised, and emptied the entire magazine into Otto.
The scientist simply raised his arms and deflected every round. When Norman's gun clicked empty, Otto smiled and raised his mechanical limbs.
"At last, Norman. Right where I want you."
"You monster! Do you know what you've done?! You destroyed my life! My company!"
"You killed my career! I devoted my entire life to that project! And you took it from me!" He sent an arm around Norman's throat and hoisted him off the ground. "And now — I'm going to crush your skull like an eggshell. I'll see you in hell, Norman."
"Get off him!" a young voice cried out.
Harry Osborn jumped out of the car with a second gun and opened fire. Otto deflected the shots with two of his arms — the rounds scattered, most not even coming close. Except one. A lucky graze along Otto's side.
Otto winced. He looked at his hand — red. He saw red. He turned to the boy.
"I'll kill you!"
"Harry — run!" Norman screamed.
Harry threw the empty gun away and ran. He was too slow. Otto snagged him by the ankle and swung him around in a wide arc before releasing him. Harry hit the road hard, his head striking the pavement with a sound that turned Norman's face white.
"Harry!" Norman cried out, reaching toward his son, tears already running down his face. When he saw the blood pooling from Harry's temple, his hands went limp. He turned to Otto. Grief became fury. "I swear it, Otto — even if it's the last thing I ever do. You will die by my hands."
Otto smiled. "Not if you die first."
"INCOMING!" I cried out.
Both men looked up and saw me riding the Vulture like a surfboard, coming down hard and fast. Toomes hit the ground and I leaped clear, driving my fist toward Otto. He raised a tentacle to block — it wouldn't be enough.
My upper two stingers deployed. A flash of black bone and gleaming metal drove straight through Otto's mechanical arm as if it wasn't there.
"How?!" he cried out.
I ducked under his second arm and drove low. Both legs pushed up with everything I had. My left hand — unarmored — cracked Otto across the jaw with everything behind it.
He went airborne. His arms released Norman as he flew. He landed on his back, unconscious.
I stood there, breathing hard. My costume was torn. The leg armor was shredded. I smelled terrible. Vulture had opened some decent cuts across my arms. But I was alive.
I was alive. I had fought them — all of them. And I was still standing.
"Harry! Harry!" Norman called out behind me. The moment broke. I turned and ran toward him.
"How is he?" I asked.
"You have to help him! Please — take him to a hospital!" Norman lifted Harry in his arms and pushed him toward me, his eyes desperate.
"Yeah — yeah, of course." I pulled Harry into my arms and looked around. One, two, three, four, five. Where was Electro?
"Bruce — where are you?" I called out.
"Above you." I looked up. Bruce's armor descended, badly damaged, Electro held unconscious in one metal fist. "SHIELD is inbound with containment units. I called ahead."
"Good. Hand Electro off here and take Harry Osborn to the nearest hospital — he's lost blood and may have a concussion."
"Understood." Bruce had the armor release Electro onto the pavement, then carefully took Harry from my arms and ascended toward the nearest hospital. Norman watched in silence until they were out of sight.
I left him standing there, shell-shocked, and got to work.
I collected the Six. I tore off Vulture's wing harness and stripped Shocker of his gauntlets. I used my stingers and cut through each of Otto's arms at the joints — no chance of reattachment. I cracked the Rhino armor open and hauled the pilot out: same man as last time, same clothes. Some people never learn.
I bound them all together. Sandman was already immobilized. For Electro I layered him in webbing until he was a sealed cocoon, then placed a liquid nitrogen capsule directly under his chin — insured: if he woke up and twitched, it would go off against his face. Harsh? Absolutely. But I was not watching him walk away again.
Then I turned to the people.
The firefighters and police had already begun their work, securing the scene and pulling the injured clear. Those pinned by the Rhino hadn't survived. Those who had seen it coming had run. That was all I could say about it.
I noticed them slowly — the civilians emerging from wherever they had sheltered. They came out carefully, blinking in the light, and then they saw me.
They stared. They pointed. They whispered.
And then the phones came out.
"Spidey!"
"We love you!"
"He's back!"
They cheered. They praised. I couldn't help it — I felt something I had almost forgotten. Pride.
I knew it then. No matter how many times I fall, no matter how many times I'm broken, I always have to get back up. I have to be able to fight — not for my own sake, but for theirs.
No child should lose a parent because I wasn't there.
No parent should have to bury their child because I gave up.
I have a reason to fight again. I always did — it was just buried under everything else. I need to help people, because honestly, that's just who I am. Maybe that's why I ended up in Peter's body in the first place.
Damn it. I'm going to be a superhero again.
I think I owe MJ fifty bucks.