Back to Gatefold
Issue #4 by A. Crute
November 2016 |
"HUNTED"
The desert….
Scarlet Spider first roused to consciousness in what seemed like a white light. His eyes moved groggily flickering as light beamed directly into them making him wince in pain. He moved his hand to block the light.
He had woken up feeling like crap; dry roasted crap. He could feel his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth like Velcro. He coughed a dry dusty cough, thick mucus splattered the front of his mask. His body was burning up; he could feel the tightness of his skin as he moved. It was badly burned.
“OK, what’s going on,” he spoke out loud as he slowly rotated his body around pushing himself up. His head span and it felt for a moment like he was going to totally lose his usually immaculate balance. He managed to catch and steady himself. He moved from his back up to his knees. The sand burned his skin as it pressed against it as his weight shifted. His mind was groggy, his thoughts confused as he tried to piece together what was happening. It felt like he had been on a three-week bender.
He climbed to his feel with none of his usual grace and pizazz. The sharp rocks of the desert floor cut into his feet. He looked around taking in the scene.
“Ok, Ok. Desert as far as the eye can see, I’ve been unconscious out in the blazing sun for an unknown amount of time and….” Ben looked down “and I’m totally naked except for my mask.”
Earlier, the desert…
The Scarlet Spider bounced along behind the car which he had attached a web-line too. His foot bounced off the floor leaping forward with as much power as he could. His heels collided next dragging him along like a water skier for a split second before Willie Coyote physics stopped working and friction yanked on him hard.
He pulled on the line hard to haul himself forward before firing two more web-lines onto adjacent cars and hauling himself forward. He landed on the back of one of the cars he was in pursuit of. Gun fire exploded through the back window of the car causing him to spin sideways as he leapt clear. His educated fingers affixed themselves to the car on instinct.
The three cars were racing through the desert road side by side, one of the cars would commonly pull ahead or fall behind based on the surface of the terrain. Ben tried to correct his body position as he tossed himself sideways away from the gun fire, his spider-sense going wild in his mind.
He found himself pressed between the sides of two cars. He had one foot and one hand pressed onto each car. They moved together and then edged apart and he was kind of just stuck there for a minute. “This is another fine mess you’ve got yourself into Ben,” he scolded himself mentally. Dust and stones were being thrown up at his face.
He tilted his head up to try and predict what the car drivers were about to do so he could react. He looked up at the face of one of the white demon masked ninjas who had become a constant bane to his life in the last few weeks.
The car suddenly swerved sharply towards the second as the driver tried to crush him between their two vehicles. Ben managed to use the momentum to bounce himself upwards onto the roof of the car in the centre. He rotated his body around and landed the balls of his feet onto the hood of the car before crouching to look through the windshield.
“Pull over! This is the carpool lane!” he yelled at the demon ninja in the driving seat. Ben smashed his fist into the windscreen causing it to shatter cutting off all visibility. His spider-sense started to tingle again a split second before a series of bullets began hurtling through the windscreen towards him.
He launched himself onto the roof of the car before spinning onto the third car which had so far escaped the main part of his attention. He powered his legs out as hard as he could as he landed crushing the roof of the car inwards.
A ninja climbed out of the window of the car whilst one of his companions continued to drive. He sat in the window and swung his katana at Ben which caused him to leap to avoid it. The cars barrelled on without him meaning he rapidly dropped behind them. Another web-line fired and stuck to the car boot….or at least it would have if the ninja didn’t throw a shuriken straight through it the second it connected.
Ben fell face first into the dust and dirt of the ‘road’ and bounced once before he managed to gain some control. He shielded his head and twisted his body, his limbs realigned to steady himself and let him roll to a stop. He took only a second to catch his breath before kipping up to his feet.
“Ow, ow, ow….that hurt,” he grumbled before turning to face the cars again. Well turning to face where the cars should have been, instead however he saw nothing but desert. They had vanished from sight in the few seconds that he had been incapacitated. He stood for a few seconds staring into the distance and furroughing his brown beneath his mask before sighing.
“You win this one, suited masked ninja guys,” he groaned before deciding that he really needed to name them better. That was just one item on his list of things he needed to improve in his dealings with these guys. He had been unable to interrogate any of them, unable to get a tracer on any of them because they simply melted into the shadows leaving the tracer behind them. So he up to this point knew nothing about them other than they kept committing crimes and were currently embroiled in some kind of small gangland tussle with another street gang over territory.
He turned to look back at Las Vegas in the distance. The cars had been out of the city for about 20 minutes with him bouncing around on and behind them so he had a long way back to the city.
Ben started in a slow walk before transitioning into a slow jog and finally a flat out sprint. He didn’t run often and his muscles seemed unaccustomed to the method of locomotion, though he did cover distance effectively.
He launched into the air and landed on his hands before pushing off again into a spiralling twist. He bounded and leapt along the dirt track which the cars had made. It crossed his mind briefly how ‘right’ this all felt, his muscles and limbs seemed to sing as he moved. This was how he and Peter were really meant to move, this is what their bodies were built for jammed full of power and flexibility. It was only when he cut loose did he realise it. Walking and normal human movement to him was like someone moving with braces on their legs or a weighted suit or something, it felt restrictive. He could have moved like this for hours on end...if not for the heat.
He slowed to a gently bounce before bending at the knees and leaning forward to catch his breath. He could feel sweat pooling in his mask and some other places in his costume. He pulled on his tights to correct them uncomfortably.
“Damn, I wish I had some water,” he twisted his face under his mask.
“You really need to learn some survival skills or something Ben,” he chided himself. He looked around at the desert again and knew that if he ever got really stuck out here he would be in trouble. He didn’t have the most basic of ideas (beyond his generally exceptional knowledge of biology and biochemistry) of how to survive in these sorts of extreme circumstances which given his lifestyle had a good chance of coming up more often.
He sighed and began to walk towards the city again.
“I wonder what Cindy is up to at the lab?,” he thought to keep himself busy mentally. He would find out soon enough as the two had a data that night….if he managed to walk back to the city by that point. The thought crossed his mind again that he might miss the date not knowing how long it would take him to walk to the city. He burst into a little jog again spurred on by the worry.
“Don’t screw this one up Ben,” he chided himself again. His life as The Scarlet Spider had already started to impact on his romantic life again. He was late for more dates than he was on time for and it was beginning to be a running comment on those dates. Cindy hadn’t yet shown that it annoyed her too much but the fact she mentioned it would indicate that was the case.
He shook his head to clear the thought, he would make sure he was on time. There was no other way around it. He really liked Cindy, she was funny, beautiful and smart...they spent as much time talking about her work in the lab as much as anything else. Who said romance was dead.
They talked about other things too though, they talked about classic movies, albums that they loved, their childhoods and past relationships. All of the usual stuff which comes up at the start of a new relationship.
Something which still made Ben uncomfortable was all of the lying. He knew it was something he should have gotten used to by now, he’d been lying about being a spider-powered superhero as long as he’d been alive…even before given the memories he had from his and Peter’s shared past.
It never did seem to get easier though. He was an honest and straight forward guy when you got to the heart of it. Ben and Peter both just wanted simple and uncomplicated lives and yet never managed to get that. There was always going to be lies, they both knew it was going to be the case, always lying about where they’ve been, what they’ve been doing or in Ben’s case lying about his family.
He told himself that the lies didn’t matter too much, they weren’t that big. He kept the broad strokes true, the stories about his childhood all happened but there was always that distance, that split second that he would hold himself back whilst he made sure he altered names, changed the location slightly always just giving himself a little distance from reality.
He had mentioned Peter being an ‘identical cousin’, their mothers were identical twins and they both took after their grandfather. She seemed sceptical about that one.
He didn’t want to mess this one up.
While Ben walked back to the city the ground behind him bubbled and frothed. The cars which had disappeared began to re-emerge from the ground pushed up by the sand which had opened and swallowed them whole.
When the cars fully emerged the demon figures stepped out letting the sand which had worked into the car flow out. A figure began to coalesce from the sand.
Flint Marko was dressed in an open light blue shirt and light brown pants. His clothes weren’t really clothes at all but an extension of his body made of sand.
“The master will be pleased with your work tonight,” said the lead demon ninja with a nod to their associate.
“Well I’m pleased for him,” said Marko with a sneer. “Did he tell you to drive out here if you had trouble with the Spider?”
The demons simply stared silently.
Marko sighed gently, his face creased in displeasure. “He knows he isn’t my only client. You’ve interfered with my other job.”
“You’re working for the master’s competition. Competition which is becoming more overt in their rivalries, this is not acceptable. He wishes to have words with you or soon there will be a reckoning,” the demon said in a matter of fact manner. It was not a threat but a mere statement of fact.
The sand of the desert floor tightened around him like a fist squeezing him tightly but not enough to seriously injure him. The other demons drew their weapons only to be similarly restrained. “I know you guys don’t think for yourselves, everything you say is just a parroting of what you’ve been told…you tell your boss that he threatens me again and he’ll see a reckoning.” He gave them one last strong squeeze before turning his whole body to sand and let his form collapse away. The grips which held them followed suit.
Later, Vegas…
Ben swung through the air on his web-line. The air whipping past him rapidly felt good on his skin, even if it was covered by his form hugging costume and the exertion added to his overheating a little.
He spun in the air as he left go of the web-line and fired another line which caught his weight and continued his seamless swing.
“Stop! Mugger!” screamed a voice from below. Ben directed his attention to the noise below him, he had become amazingly adept at finding the source of dismay in a busy situation. She was dressed in a blue dress covered in yellow flowers. She was closed to 250 pounds but she was moving like a much lighter woman after the long haired man who had clearly stolen something from her.
A lesser man or a lesser hero would have thought about just carrying on, he’d had a hell of a day already and his mouth currently felt like he’d licked the sidewalk. The thought never crossed Ben’s mind as he swept downwards.
He angled his swing, tilting his body ever so slightly at points of the motion to direct him on the optimum path he needed to reach his target
He swung skyward shooting upward before cutting his web-line and rolling forward in the air and bringing his boots down onto the back of the criminal sending him sprawling to the floor. Ben unleashed four blobs of impact webbing to the limbs of the criminal. “You are a bad man,” he lectured as he dropped to the floor in front of the criminal and wagged his finger and grabbed the purse.
The sirens on a police car whaled as it sped around the corner and came to a dead stop not far from Scarlet and the downed criminal. “Hi officers,” Ben waved as the police climbed from the vehicle. They levelled their guns at him quickly causing his spider sense to go wild. His body twitched involuntary as he prepared to react but he fought off the instinct and stood still.
“I didn’t steal this,” he pointed at the purse “this kind of stuff happened all the time back in the day. I’m not a criminal…well I suppose I’m a vigilante….but there is normally an understanding,” Ben rambled a little.
“Hands in the air!” screamed the lead officer. He was Hispanic, had dark brown eyes and a small neatly trimmed goatee.
“Seriously ring the Avengers…or Spider-Man, they can vouch for me. I’m a good guy. I’ve been doing good in the city for weeks, there’s a gang war brewing and everything.”
“I’m sure that’s not all you’ve been doing,” said Officer Vin Gonzales as he moved towards Scarlet Spider never lowering his weapon as he reached for his cuffs.
“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Ben as he raised his arms in the universal ‘I mean no trouble’ gesture.
“What I’m talking about is a number of dead bodies turning up around the city covered in spider-webs. The fact that you’re here in the city at just the same time means you’re a person of interest.”
Ben’s trouble-sense was tingling. This wasn’t his radioactive spider based power which warned him of danger but rather his finely tuned sense of ‘oh shit’ which would go off when he just knew something was up and it was going to end badly.
“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about and it has no links to me but if people are turning up dead I’ll help anyway I can,” he was going to keep going and try and put himself on the same side of this situation as the police but was cut off by Vin.
“If you’re wanting to help as much as you claim and you’re as much of a ‘good guy’ as you say so you’ll come with us to the station quietly to answer some questions,” Vin said, he raised his eyebrows but kept his gaze and his gun steady. “Don’t make me take you in,” he added to complete his threat.
Ben sighed and nodded “Let’s go.”
Interrogation room….
Ben twiddled his fingers together spinning them round and round each other. He hummed absent mindedly almost as a way to deal with his tension at the moment. His mind was racing thinking about all of the things which were going on.
Firstly, the gang war. It had been constantly roaming around the back of his mind. Admittedly he hadn’t gotten as involved with it yet as he wished to. The gangs had been basically keeping themselves to themselves and having minor skirmishes, no one yet had been dragged into the cross-fire. That couldn’t last long though.
Secondly, the main source of his problems currently was he had been arrested for some sort of spider-based murder spree which is going on. That was news which had blind-sided him to say the least and also something he would try and follow up on once he convinced the police that he had nothing to do with the whole situation, which was his next big feat.
Thirdly, his responsibilities at work and his responsibilities as Scarlet Spider were clashing together. Oddly enough this job as an acrobat was probably one of the ones with the most responsibility he had ever had. People were relying on him daily to practice and put on a show, if he let them down it effected a large number of people.
Finally, Cindy. Cindy would no doubt be ringing him right now. He was late for their date…again. What he had gathered from Cindy so far other than the fact she was beautiful, intelligent and funny was that you probably didn’t want to stand her up. She had a temper and he bet should could hold a grudge. That was going to be a problem.
A more pressing problem however currently presented itself as the detective who had arrested him entered the room. “Get down,” he barked with a point as he turned his eyes to the ceiling where Ben was currently sitting twiddling his thumbs.
He barely glanced at Ben as he detached from the ceiling and turned mid-air to land on his feet. He lowered himself into the chair on one side of the table as the detective sat on the other and hit the record button on the tape recorder.
“This is Detective Vin Gonzales interviewing the person alias ‘Scarlet Spider’, interview commencing at 9.15pm,” he said with a nod towards his watch. He drummed his fingers on the table. “You want to start us off?”
“I don’t know anything about these spider-murders you mentioned when you arrested me,” Ben held up his hands “I want to help the police anyway I can either here or in an official capacity as a superhero.”
“I think you should let the police handle this,” Vin said not hiding his contempt. Ben had ran into this type of cop before, the one who doesn’t want help from the costumed fraternity of which he was a member. They oddly never seem to mind when there is a super-villain tearing up the city.
“If this is some super-powered killer you might need my help whether you want it or not,” Ben shrugged but kept holding his hands up to indicate that he wasn’t forcing this on them. He made sure not to promise to stay out of the situation because he wasn’t sure that he would stay out of it.
Vin sighed. “I’ve been told to level with you and so against my better judgement I will. We’ve had three Avengers on the phone vouching for you as soon as it hit the internet that we had brought you in for questioning and both the chief and the mayor have made it clear you’re not under arrest and you are free to go whenever you want.”
Ben opened his mouth and was about to speak when Vin opened the folder that he had entered with and threw down a series of photos which he splayed across the table. They were of a number of people, their faces desiccated. They were covered in webs, some had live spiders on the webs, on their faces and crawling through their orifices.
“Dating their deaths have been hard because of the work of the bugs who will no doubt not have be following the usual timeline of infection and growth but where were you on the evenings of the 27th, 15th and 3rd when these people were last seen”
Ben rubbed his forehead and temple. “Uh. It wouldn’t be so useful really. I spent some of those nights swinging around the city probably. On the 15th I know I caught a mugger and handed him over to a uniformed officer but the rest of the night I don’t have an albi because I was alone….one of the other nights I do have an airtight alibi but you can’t know it without finding out who I am under the mask.” He pointed to his face.
“Convenient,” said Vin with a roll of his eyes.
“You’d be surprised how inconvenient a secret identity is most of the time,” Ben shrugged. “Do you know what type of spiders they are?”
“You recognise them?” Vin studied the file in front of him flicking through the pages.
“No, I just thought they might provide a clue” Ben shook his head “you might find it funny but given the whole motif I don’t know a lot about spiders. They kind of creep me out...bad experiences.”
“I don’t find that funny at all,” Vin said.
“Tough crowd,” said Ben with a nervous exhale of laughter.
“Bug expert over the university has never seen them before. Brand new species. Maybe some genetic modification thing going on,” Vin said as he flicked to that interview.
“So it could be that there is no villain at all but an escaped strain of some experimental killer spider?”
“Maybe….as far as I’m concerned you’re not in the clear,” he narrowed his eyes at the Scarlet Spider.
“Is this literally because of the big spider on my chest or is there some deep-seated grudge you have which will rear its head at some point?” Ben asked. He had been through this before.
“Nope all about the job, all about the evidence. Spider on your chest, this started happening just after your first appearance in the city, you wear a mask so I know you can’t be trusted…they’re covered in webs, you fire webs. It just doesn’t sit right.”
“You ever heard that correlation doesn’t imply causation?”
“You ever heard that there’s no smoke without fire?” Vin bounced back.
“And I’m done,” Ben sighed rather annoyed “I’m happy to help anyway I can. You however don’t want my help. I don’t know anything so all we’re doing is wasting both of our time when either of us could be out there looking for this killer and…we’ll you’re essentially just very rude.” He shrugged and stood up. “Incidentally this webbing is a chemical formula which only lasts for about half-an hour by design.”
“So you say, how do we know you haven’t got some other formula up your sleeve?”
“And we’re definitely done.” Scarlet said as he walked towards the door. “I’ll let you know if I turn something up.”
“Don’t get involved bug-boy,” Vin yelled over his shoulder as Ben exited the room. Vin grinned to himself slightly and then slid his notebook out from his pocket. He flicked to a page entitled ‘Scarlet Spider’ which he had a short list of facts and information. Under it he wrote ‘Scientist?- Check local labs and Universities’.
A short time later…
Ben cursed under his breath as he swung over the city diving from web-line to web-line to traverse the distance. He was calling Cindy’s cell-phone again but just got the voicemail message again “Cindy it’s me. If you’re there, please pick up. I promise you I can explain.”
He hung up again and span in the air before firing another web-line to catch his weight and continue the arc of his swing towards Cindy’s apartment. He had several missed texts from her which moved from wondering through annoyed to concerned and then to just white hot anger. He had managed to stand her up again.
Being the Scarlet Spider was not doing his dating life any good.
His spider-sense suddenly started to blare in his mind. There was something off to his left and so he dodged right instinctually. He broke his web-line and began to plummet earthwards. Despite his spider-sense causing a mostly instinctual response there was still a decision-making process going on in his behaviour. He had to decide whether to duck or weave, leap left or leap back. This was a risky manoeuvre, it put the maximum amount of distance between him and the attacker but as he fell he was not in control for a split second or two which left him open to attack.
His spider-sense tingled again. He twisted in the air trying to manoeuvre out of the way but the rotation didn’t carry him far enough. A blade slashed across his thigh just causing a trickle of blood to spurt out. He fired a web-line which snapped taught quickly and dragged him diagonally out of harm’s way for a second.
He connected with the wall and quickly pivoted to get eyes on his attacker. Whoever they were moving quickly sprinting along the ledge on the side of one of the buildings. They were throwing blades again with every stride. Ben dodged sideways as they struck the wall next to him.
He fired several blobs of impact webbing at the figure and watched as even without their own spider-sense they leapt and twirled in the air. He could then see that he was dealing with a teenage girl, she was dressed in a black leather body suit which was lined with fur. Her blonde hair was cropped closely to her head.
The second she landed she continued her barrage of blades.
Ben moved instinctually again dodging them whilst he tried to line up another shot or another attack strategy. He was sure to move to a safe position away from where the blades were going to hit. He realised a flaw in his plan after four blades hit the wall in an arc about six inches from his left and right sides...they weren’t just blades.
The noxious cloud of green smoke enveloped him instantly filling his lungs before he could react. His spider-sense was screaming loudly in his head telling him to run, telling him to fight but there was no fighting this green cloud.
Ben launched himself up the wall. His muscles were like steel launching him upwards, trying to get away from this attack. He was nearly at the top when his steely muscles gave way and became first Jell-o like muscles before finally becoming practically liquid as all strengths from them was lost.
He made one last massive leap for the top of the building and managed to catch the very edge. He clung with just his fingertips. It looked to his eyes like the wall warped before him and twisted as it moved away from his fingers.
His head lolled back and that weight seemed to be the tipping point as his body fell backwards through the air, as he fell the world around him went black.
The desert….
Scarlet Spider first roused to consciousness in what seemed like a white light. His eyes moved groggily flickering as light beamed directly into them making him wince in pain. He moved his hand to block the light.
He had woken up feeling like crap, dry roasted crap. He could feel his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth like Velcro. He coughed a dry dusty cough, thick mucus splattered the front of his mask. His body was burning up; he could feel the tightness of his skin as he moved. It was badly burned.
“OK what’s going on,” he spoke out loud as he slowly rotated his body around pushing himself up. His head span and it felt for a moment like he was going to totally lose his usually immaculate balance. He managed to catch and steady himself. He moved from his back up to his knees. The sand burned his skin as it pressed against it as his weight shifted. His mind was groggy, his thoughts confused as he tried to piece together what was happening. It felt like he had been on a three-week bender.
He climbed to his feel with none of his usual grace and pizazz. The sharp rocks of the desert floor cut into his feet. He looked around taking in the scene.
“Ok, Ok. Desert as far as the eye can see, I’ve been unconscious out in the blazing sun for an unknown amount of time and….” Ben looked down “and I’m totally naked except for my mask.”
To Be Continued….
Scarlet Spider first roused to consciousness in what seemed like a white light. His eyes moved groggily flickering as light beamed directly into them making him wince in pain. He moved his hand to block the light.
He had woken up feeling like crap; dry roasted crap. He could feel his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth like Velcro. He coughed a dry dusty cough, thick mucus splattered the front of his mask. His body was burning up; he could feel the tightness of his skin as he moved. It was badly burned.
“OK, what’s going on,” he spoke out loud as he slowly rotated his body around pushing himself up. His head span and it felt for a moment like he was going to totally lose his usually immaculate balance. He managed to catch and steady himself. He moved from his back up to his knees. The sand burned his skin as it pressed against it as his weight shifted. His mind was groggy, his thoughts confused as he tried to piece together what was happening. It felt like he had been on a three-week bender.
He climbed to his feel with none of his usual grace and pizazz. The sharp rocks of the desert floor cut into his feet. He looked around taking in the scene.
“Ok, Ok. Desert as far as the eye can see, I’ve been unconscious out in the blazing sun for an unknown amount of time and….” Ben looked down “and I’m totally naked except for my mask.”
Earlier, the desert…
The Scarlet Spider bounced along behind the car which he had attached a web-line too. His foot bounced off the floor leaping forward with as much power as he could. His heels collided next dragging him along like a water skier for a split second before Willie Coyote physics stopped working and friction yanked on him hard.
He pulled on the line hard to haul himself forward before firing two more web-lines onto adjacent cars and hauling himself forward. He landed on the back of one of the cars he was in pursuit of. Gun fire exploded through the back window of the car causing him to spin sideways as he leapt clear. His educated fingers affixed themselves to the car on instinct.
The three cars were racing through the desert road side by side, one of the cars would commonly pull ahead or fall behind based on the surface of the terrain. Ben tried to correct his body position as he tossed himself sideways away from the gun fire, his spider-sense going wild in his mind.
He found himself pressed between the sides of two cars. He had one foot and one hand pressed onto each car. They moved together and then edged apart and he was kind of just stuck there for a minute. “This is another fine mess you’ve got yourself into Ben,” he scolded himself mentally. Dust and stones were being thrown up at his face.
He tilted his head up to try and predict what the car drivers were about to do so he could react. He looked up at the face of one of the white demon masked ninjas who had become a constant bane to his life in the last few weeks.
The car suddenly swerved sharply towards the second as the driver tried to crush him between their two vehicles. Ben managed to use the momentum to bounce himself upwards onto the roof of the car in the centre. He rotated his body around and landed the balls of his feet onto the hood of the car before crouching to look through the windshield.
“Pull over! This is the carpool lane!” he yelled at the demon ninja in the driving seat. Ben smashed his fist into the windscreen causing it to shatter cutting off all visibility. His spider-sense started to tingle again a split second before a series of bullets began hurtling through the windscreen towards him.
He launched himself onto the roof of the car before spinning onto the third car which had so far escaped the main part of his attention. He powered his legs out as hard as he could as he landed crushing the roof of the car inwards.
A ninja climbed out of the window of the car whilst one of his companions continued to drive. He sat in the window and swung his katana at Ben which caused him to leap to avoid it. The cars barrelled on without him meaning he rapidly dropped behind them. Another web-line fired and stuck to the car boot….or at least it would have if the ninja didn’t throw a shuriken straight through it the second it connected.
Ben fell face first into the dust and dirt of the ‘road’ and bounced once before he managed to gain some control. He shielded his head and twisted his body, his limbs realigned to steady himself and let him roll to a stop. He took only a second to catch his breath before kipping up to his feet.
“Ow, ow, ow….that hurt,” he grumbled before turning to face the cars again. Well turning to face where the cars should have been, instead however he saw nothing but desert. They had vanished from sight in the few seconds that he had been incapacitated. He stood for a few seconds staring into the distance and furroughing his brown beneath his mask before sighing.
“You win this one, suited masked ninja guys,” he groaned before deciding that he really needed to name them better. That was just one item on his list of things he needed to improve in his dealings with these guys. He had been unable to interrogate any of them, unable to get a tracer on any of them because they simply melted into the shadows leaving the tracer behind them. So he up to this point knew nothing about them other than they kept committing crimes and were currently embroiled in some kind of small gangland tussle with another street gang over territory.
He turned to look back at Las Vegas in the distance. The cars had been out of the city for about 20 minutes with him bouncing around on and behind them so he had a long way back to the city.
Ben started in a slow walk before transitioning into a slow jog and finally a flat out sprint. He didn’t run often and his muscles seemed unaccustomed to the method of locomotion, though he did cover distance effectively.
He launched into the air and landed on his hands before pushing off again into a spiralling twist. He bounded and leapt along the dirt track which the cars had made. It crossed his mind briefly how ‘right’ this all felt, his muscles and limbs seemed to sing as he moved. This was how he and Peter were really meant to move, this is what their bodies were built for jammed full of power and flexibility. It was only when he cut loose did he realise it. Walking and normal human movement to him was like someone moving with braces on their legs or a weighted suit or something, it felt restrictive. He could have moved like this for hours on end...if not for the heat.
He slowed to a gently bounce before bending at the knees and leaning forward to catch his breath. He could feel sweat pooling in his mask and some other places in his costume. He pulled on his tights to correct them uncomfortably.
“Damn, I wish I had some water,” he twisted his face under his mask.
“You really need to learn some survival skills or something Ben,” he chided himself. He looked around at the desert again and knew that if he ever got really stuck out here he would be in trouble. He didn’t have the most basic of ideas (beyond his generally exceptional knowledge of biology and biochemistry) of how to survive in these sorts of extreme circumstances which given his lifestyle had a good chance of coming up more often.
He sighed and began to walk towards the city again.
“I wonder what Cindy is up to at the lab?,” he thought to keep himself busy mentally. He would find out soon enough as the two had a data that night….if he managed to walk back to the city by that point. The thought crossed his mind again that he might miss the date not knowing how long it would take him to walk to the city. He burst into a little jog again spurred on by the worry.
“Don’t screw this one up Ben,” he chided himself again. His life as The Scarlet Spider had already started to impact on his romantic life again. He was late for more dates than he was on time for and it was beginning to be a running comment on those dates. Cindy hadn’t yet shown that it annoyed her too much but the fact she mentioned it would indicate that was the case.
He shook his head to clear the thought, he would make sure he was on time. There was no other way around it. He really liked Cindy, she was funny, beautiful and smart...they spent as much time talking about her work in the lab as much as anything else. Who said romance was dead.
They talked about other things too though, they talked about classic movies, albums that they loved, their childhoods and past relationships. All of the usual stuff which comes up at the start of a new relationship.
Something which still made Ben uncomfortable was all of the lying. He knew it was something he should have gotten used to by now, he’d been lying about being a spider-powered superhero as long as he’d been alive…even before given the memories he had from his and Peter’s shared past.
It never did seem to get easier though. He was an honest and straight forward guy when you got to the heart of it. Ben and Peter both just wanted simple and uncomplicated lives and yet never managed to get that. There was always going to be lies, they both knew it was going to be the case, always lying about where they’ve been, what they’ve been doing or in Ben’s case lying about his family.
He told himself that the lies didn’t matter too much, they weren’t that big. He kept the broad strokes true, the stories about his childhood all happened but there was always that distance, that split second that he would hold himself back whilst he made sure he altered names, changed the location slightly always just giving himself a little distance from reality.
He had mentioned Peter being an ‘identical cousin’, their mothers were identical twins and they both took after their grandfather. She seemed sceptical about that one.
He didn’t want to mess this one up.
While Ben walked back to the city the ground behind him bubbled and frothed. The cars which had disappeared began to re-emerge from the ground pushed up by the sand which had opened and swallowed them whole.
When the cars fully emerged the demon figures stepped out letting the sand which had worked into the car flow out. A figure began to coalesce from the sand.
Flint Marko was dressed in an open light blue shirt and light brown pants. His clothes weren’t really clothes at all but an extension of his body made of sand.
“The master will be pleased with your work tonight,” said the lead demon ninja with a nod to their associate.
“Well I’m pleased for him,” said Marko with a sneer. “Did he tell you to drive out here if you had trouble with the Spider?”
The demons simply stared silently.
Marko sighed gently, his face creased in displeasure. “He knows he isn’t my only client. You’ve interfered with my other job.”
“You’re working for the master’s competition. Competition which is becoming more overt in their rivalries, this is not acceptable. He wishes to have words with you or soon there will be a reckoning,” the demon said in a matter of fact manner. It was not a threat but a mere statement of fact.
The sand of the desert floor tightened around him like a fist squeezing him tightly but not enough to seriously injure him. The other demons drew their weapons only to be similarly restrained. “I know you guys don’t think for yourselves, everything you say is just a parroting of what you’ve been told…you tell your boss that he threatens me again and he’ll see a reckoning.” He gave them one last strong squeeze before turning his whole body to sand and let his form collapse away. The grips which held them followed suit.
Later, Vegas…
Ben swung through the air on his web-line. The air whipping past him rapidly felt good on his skin, even if it was covered by his form hugging costume and the exertion added to his overheating a little.
He spun in the air as he left go of the web-line and fired another line which caught his weight and continued his seamless swing.
“Stop! Mugger!” screamed a voice from below. Ben directed his attention to the noise below him, he had become amazingly adept at finding the source of dismay in a busy situation. She was dressed in a blue dress covered in yellow flowers. She was closed to 250 pounds but she was moving like a much lighter woman after the long haired man who had clearly stolen something from her.
A lesser man or a lesser hero would have thought about just carrying on, he’d had a hell of a day already and his mouth currently felt like he’d licked the sidewalk. The thought never crossed Ben’s mind as he swept downwards.
He angled his swing, tilting his body ever so slightly at points of the motion to direct him on the optimum path he needed to reach his target
He swung skyward shooting upward before cutting his web-line and rolling forward in the air and bringing his boots down onto the back of the criminal sending him sprawling to the floor. Ben unleashed four blobs of impact webbing to the limbs of the criminal. “You are a bad man,” he lectured as he dropped to the floor in front of the criminal and wagged his finger and grabbed the purse.
The sirens on a police car whaled as it sped around the corner and came to a dead stop not far from Scarlet and the downed criminal. “Hi officers,” Ben waved as the police climbed from the vehicle. They levelled their guns at him quickly causing his spider sense to go wild. His body twitched involuntary as he prepared to react but he fought off the instinct and stood still.
“I didn’t steal this,” he pointed at the purse “this kind of stuff happened all the time back in the day. I’m not a criminal…well I suppose I’m a vigilante….but there is normally an understanding,” Ben rambled a little.
“Hands in the air!” screamed the lead officer. He was Hispanic, had dark brown eyes and a small neatly trimmed goatee.
“Seriously ring the Avengers…or Spider-Man, they can vouch for me. I’m a good guy. I’ve been doing good in the city for weeks, there’s a gang war brewing and everything.”
“I’m sure that’s not all you’ve been doing,” said Officer Vin Gonzales as he moved towards Scarlet Spider never lowering his weapon as he reached for his cuffs.
“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Ben as he raised his arms in the universal ‘I mean no trouble’ gesture.
“What I’m talking about is a number of dead bodies turning up around the city covered in spider-webs. The fact that you’re here in the city at just the same time means you’re a person of interest.”
Ben’s trouble-sense was tingling. This wasn’t his radioactive spider based power which warned him of danger but rather his finely tuned sense of ‘oh shit’ which would go off when he just knew something was up and it was going to end badly.
“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about and it has no links to me but if people are turning up dead I’ll help anyway I can,” he was going to keep going and try and put himself on the same side of this situation as the police but was cut off by Vin.
“If you’re wanting to help as much as you claim and you’re as much of a ‘good guy’ as you say so you’ll come with us to the station quietly to answer some questions,” Vin said, he raised his eyebrows but kept his gaze and his gun steady. “Don’t make me take you in,” he added to complete his threat.
Ben sighed and nodded “Let’s go.”
Interrogation room….
Ben twiddled his fingers together spinning them round and round each other. He hummed absent mindedly almost as a way to deal with his tension at the moment. His mind was racing thinking about all of the things which were going on.
Firstly, the gang war. It had been constantly roaming around the back of his mind. Admittedly he hadn’t gotten as involved with it yet as he wished to. The gangs had been basically keeping themselves to themselves and having minor skirmishes, no one yet had been dragged into the cross-fire. That couldn’t last long though.
Secondly, the main source of his problems currently was he had been arrested for some sort of spider-based murder spree which is going on. That was news which had blind-sided him to say the least and also something he would try and follow up on once he convinced the police that he had nothing to do with the whole situation, which was his next big feat.
Thirdly, his responsibilities at work and his responsibilities as Scarlet Spider were clashing together. Oddly enough this job as an acrobat was probably one of the ones with the most responsibility he had ever had. People were relying on him daily to practice and put on a show, if he let them down it effected a large number of people.
Finally, Cindy. Cindy would no doubt be ringing him right now. He was late for their date…again. What he had gathered from Cindy so far other than the fact she was beautiful, intelligent and funny was that you probably didn’t want to stand her up. She had a temper and he bet should could hold a grudge. That was going to be a problem.
A more pressing problem however currently presented itself as the detective who had arrested him entered the room. “Get down,” he barked with a point as he turned his eyes to the ceiling where Ben was currently sitting twiddling his thumbs.
He barely glanced at Ben as he detached from the ceiling and turned mid-air to land on his feet. He lowered himself into the chair on one side of the table as the detective sat on the other and hit the record button on the tape recorder.
“This is Detective Vin Gonzales interviewing the person alias ‘Scarlet Spider’, interview commencing at 9.15pm,” he said with a nod towards his watch. He drummed his fingers on the table. “You want to start us off?”
“I don’t know anything about these spider-murders you mentioned when you arrested me,” Ben held up his hands “I want to help the police anyway I can either here or in an official capacity as a superhero.”
“I think you should let the police handle this,” Vin said not hiding his contempt. Ben had ran into this type of cop before, the one who doesn’t want help from the costumed fraternity of which he was a member. They oddly never seem to mind when there is a super-villain tearing up the city.
“If this is some super-powered killer you might need my help whether you want it or not,” Ben shrugged but kept holding his hands up to indicate that he wasn’t forcing this on them. He made sure not to promise to stay out of the situation because he wasn’t sure that he would stay out of it.
Vin sighed. “I’ve been told to level with you and so against my better judgement I will. We’ve had three Avengers on the phone vouching for you as soon as it hit the internet that we had brought you in for questioning and both the chief and the mayor have made it clear you’re not under arrest and you are free to go whenever you want.”
Ben opened his mouth and was about to speak when Vin opened the folder that he had entered with and threw down a series of photos which he splayed across the table. They were of a number of people, their faces desiccated. They were covered in webs, some had live spiders on the webs, on their faces and crawling through their orifices.
“Dating their deaths have been hard because of the work of the bugs who will no doubt not have be following the usual timeline of infection and growth but where were you on the evenings of the 27th, 15th and 3rd when these people were last seen”
Ben rubbed his forehead and temple. “Uh. It wouldn’t be so useful really. I spent some of those nights swinging around the city probably. On the 15th I know I caught a mugger and handed him over to a uniformed officer but the rest of the night I don’t have an albi because I was alone….one of the other nights I do have an airtight alibi but you can’t know it without finding out who I am under the mask.” He pointed to his face.
“Convenient,” said Vin with a roll of his eyes.
“You’d be surprised how inconvenient a secret identity is most of the time,” Ben shrugged. “Do you know what type of spiders they are?”
“You recognise them?” Vin studied the file in front of him flicking through the pages.
“No, I just thought they might provide a clue” Ben shook his head “you might find it funny but given the whole motif I don’t know a lot about spiders. They kind of creep me out...bad experiences.”
“I don’t find that funny at all,” Vin said.
“Tough crowd,” said Ben with a nervous exhale of laughter.
“Bug expert over the university has never seen them before. Brand new species. Maybe some genetic modification thing going on,” Vin said as he flicked to that interview.
“So it could be that there is no villain at all but an escaped strain of some experimental killer spider?”
“Maybe….as far as I’m concerned you’re not in the clear,” he narrowed his eyes at the Scarlet Spider.
“Is this literally because of the big spider on my chest or is there some deep-seated grudge you have which will rear its head at some point?” Ben asked. He had been through this before.
“Nope all about the job, all about the evidence. Spider on your chest, this started happening just after your first appearance in the city, you wear a mask so I know you can’t be trusted…they’re covered in webs, you fire webs. It just doesn’t sit right.”
“You ever heard that correlation doesn’t imply causation?”
“You ever heard that there’s no smoke without fire?” Vin bounced back.
“And I’m done,” Ben sighed rather annoyed “I’m happy to help anyway I can. You however don’t want my help. I don’t know anything so all we’re doing is wasting both of our time when either of us could be out there looking for this killer and…we’ll you’re essentially just very rude.” He shrugged and stood up. “Incidentally this webbing is a chemical formula which only lasts for about half-an hour by design.”
“So you say, how do we know you haven’t got some other formula up your sleeve?”
“And we’re definitely done.” Scarlet said as he walked towards the door. “I’ll let you know if I turn something up.”
“Don’t get involved bug-boy,” Vin yelled over his shoulder as Ben exited the room. Vin grinned to himself slightly and then slid his notebook out from his pocket. He flicked to a page entitled ‘Scarlet Spider’ which he had a short list of facts and information. Under it he wrote ‘Scientist?- Check local labs and Universities’.
A short time later…
Ben cursed under his breath as he swung over the city diving from web-line to web-line to traverse the distance. He was calling Cindy’s cell-phone again but just got the voicemail message again “Cindy it’s me. If you’re there, please pick up. I promise you I can explain.”
He hung up again and span in the air before firing another web-line to catch his weight and continue the arc of his swing towards Cindy’s apartment. He had several missed texts from her which moved from wondering through annoyed to concerned and then to just white hot anger. He had managed to stand her up again.
Being the Scarlet Spider was not doing his dating life any good.
His spider-sense suddenly started to blare in his mind. There was something off to his left and so he dodged right instinctually. He broke his web-line and began to plummet earthwards. Despite his spider-sense causing a mostly instinctual response there was still a decision-making process going on in his behaviour. He had to decide whether to duck or weave, leap left or leap back. This was a risky manoeuvre, it put the maximum amount of distance between him and the attacker but as he fell he was not in control for a split second or two which left him open to attack.
His spider-sense tingled again. He twisted in the air trying to manoeuvre out of the way but the rotation didn’t carry him far enough. A blade slashed across his thigh just causing a trickle of blood to spurt out. He fired a web-line which snapped taught quickly and dragged him diagonally out of harm’s way for a second.
He connected with the wall and quickly pivoted to get eyes on his attacker. Whoever they were moving quickly sprinting along the ledge on the side of one of the buildings. They were throwing blades again with every stride. Ben dodged sideways as they struck the wall next to him.
He fired several blobs of impact webbing at the figure and watched as even without their own spider-sense they leapt and twirled in the air. He could then see that he was dealing with a teenage girl, she was dressed in a black leather body suit which was lined with fur. Her blonde hair was cropped closely to her head.
The second she landed she continued her barrage of blades.
Ben moved instinctually again dodging them whilst he tried to line up another shot or another attack strategy. He was sure to move to a safe position away from where the blades were going to hit. He realised a flaw in his plan after four blades hit the wall in an arc about six inches from his left and right sides...they weren’t just blades.
The noxious cloud of green smoke enveloped him instantly filling his lungs before he could react. His spider-sense was screaming loudly in his head telling him to run, telling him to fight but there was no fighting this green cloud.
Ben launched himself up the wall. His muscles were like steel launching him upwards, trying to get away from this attack. He was nearly at the top when his steely muscles gave way and became first Jell-o like muscles before finally becoming practically liquid as all strengths from them was lost.
He made one last massive leap for the top of the building and managed to catch the very edge. He clung with just his fingertips. It looked to his eyes like the wall warped before him and twisted as it moved away from his fingers.
His head lolled back and that weight seemed to be the tipping point as his body fell backwards through the air, as he fell the world around him went black.
The desert….
Scarlet Spider first roused to consciousness in what seemed like a white light. His eyes moved groggily flickering as light beamed directly into them making him wince in pain. He moved his hand to block the light.
He had woken up feeling like crap, dry roasted crap. He could feel his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth like Velcro. He coughed a dry dusty cough, thick mucus splattered the front of his mask. His body was burning up; he could feel the tightness of his skin as he moved. It was badly burned.
“OK what’s going on,” he spoke out loud as he slowly rotated his body around pushing himself up. His head span and it felt for a moment like he was going to totally lose his usually immaculate balance. He managed to catch and steady himself. He moved from his back up to his knees. The sand burned his skin as it pressed against it as his weight shifted. His mind was groggy, his thoughts confused as he tried to piece together what was happening. It felt like he had been on a three-week bender.
He climbed to his feel with none of his usual grace and pizazz. The sharp rocks of the desert floor cut into his feet. He looked around taking in the scene.
“Ok, Ok. Desert as far as the eye can see, I’ve been unconscious out in the blazing sun for an unknown amount of time and….” Ben looked down “and I’m totally naked except for my mask.”
To Be Continued….