Amazing Comics: Spider-Man
Chapter 40: Clashing Forces
Previous Chapter Next Chapter"A date?" Peter asked, rubbing his sore shoulder as he threw the envelope down onto his bed "How the hell am I supposed to find a date?" The fight with Max had made the evening news that previous day and people were congratulating Spider-Man on a job well done. Peter had bought his new camera after the fight had gone down and tested it out in a few different areas in the city while trying to locate Max again.
But now came the problem of finding someone to take to the party, a female who was interested in him, in just under a week. He began to run through the list of girls that didn't completely hate his guts and he said them out loud.
"Twilight..." he began, stopping after the first name "Oh this isn't going to be fun" As he was alone in the house he was wandering around in a pair of boxer shorts and nothing else, stopping in front of the mirror to check his injuries. He had several electric burn marks on his chest, wrists and ankles from where Max had grabbed him and his muscles ached from the shock treatment. He opened his wardrobe and took his costume out from where he had hidden it and examined the damage including several burns marks on the same places he'd been hurt.
"I have to fix this... but I can't afford to buy the stuff I need" Peter sighed. He threw the costume back into the wardrobe and walked over to his computer.
"I need to get back out there and get a few pictures for Jameson" he decided, a second passing before a thought occurred to him "And I forgot to ask Jameson to stop the whole smear campaign thing... and I need to ask him to keep my name of the photos I sell him, don't want to give anyone any hints about how I got them... and I need food" Deciding the last was more important he stood up and left his room, walking downstairs into the kitchen to see Black Widow standing with a mug of coffee in her hand, Peter's coffee mug. Peter froze in place and stared at the taller woman, eyeing her closely while she seemed unfazed by his presence.
"I know we're work colleagues and everything but I think you skipped a few steps in the whole 'hey buddy can I come over?' routine" Peter said quickly "You're supposed to ask first, wait for me to answer and wait outside before you come in" Widow took another sip from the mug, taking her time, before setting it down and speaking.
"Fury wants to talk to you" she stated.
"Is he here too?" Peter asked, looking around the room "He's not helping himself to some on demand TV by any chance is he?"
"He's at the Triskellion, waiting for you to suit up and see him" Widow answered.
"He doesn't call much does he?" Peter asked, folding his arms "Then again he doesn't do much either"
"He's done more for this country than you ever will" Widow said coldly.
"I'm not sure about that, I once won twenty dollars in third grade for my science project, I put that in the bank and I'm pretty sure it delayed the recession by a good few years" Peter said. Widow stared at him for a long second before looking down at the mug on the kitchen top.
"You like to talk, don't you?" she asked.
"Only when people listen" Peter shrugged.
"And if I told you I didn't want to listen?" Widow asked in response.
"Then I just start shouting" Peter grinned. Widow shook her head, pouring out the rest of the coffee into the sink and washing the cup out.
"Drying board" Peter said as she went to leave the cup in the sink.
"Don't tell me what to do" Widow sighed.
"Don't mess up and I wouldn't have to" Peter retorted "So why does Fury want to talk to me?"
"Its about the little scrape you had with that new super-villain in Times Square" Widow said "He wants a full brief on it"
"I get to brief Fury?" Peter asked with faux glee "Christmas has come early for sure"
"Yes, enjoy your juvenile behaviour" Widow said, rolling her eyes "I'll keep the mood serious for us both"
"See, I knew you were good for something" Peter said, giving her a slow clap "You make me so proud"
"Don't make me list all of my achievements to you kid, we'll be here a while" Widow said, placing the cup on the drying board and turning around again.
"Yeah but I bet one of those isn't saving your country from a recession is it?" Peter asked.
"You never did that" Widow growled.
"You can't prove I didn't" Peter said smugly "So for all intents and purposes, I'm a world hero"
"We're still in an economic crisis remember kid?" Widow asked.
"Even the great must fall eventually" Peter sighed, placing a hand on his chest and looking up at the ceiling with a fake teary expression. Widow looked at him for a moment before turning around and placing her hands to her face.
"Just get some clothes on, get your costume in a bag or something and hurry up before I shoot you in the face" Widow growled.
"Oh, I was having fun here" Peter sighed before nodding his head "Give me five minutes"
"You've got two" Widow said quickly.
"Geez, hard-ass" Peter growled as he headed up the stairs.
"He mentioned something about working for the Big Man" Peter said, having changed into his damaged costume but neglecting to put on the mask "And he looked like he'd been fucked up by the same stuff that other guy had at Oscorp"
"So... from what you're saying we can assume that Osborn and the Big Man are working together?" Fury asked, linking his fingers as he sat back in his chair "This could be very good or very bad for us"
"How so?" Peter asked, resting his head on his hand.
"The Big Man controls a lot of New York, almost all of it, and that includes the media and some of the police force" Fury explained "I get the feeling that the Big Man might cover up Mr Osborn as long as it suits his interests"
"Which are?" Peter asked.
"That's just the problem, we don't have any idea what the Big Man is really after" Fury shrugged "Some people have said that he's just a crime boss while others have said that he's a former Middle Eastern dictator looking to take America down from the inside"
"That's... that's quite a leap there Fury" Peter said, drumming his fingers on the table "And you're telling me that S.H.I.E.L.D can't use there hyper-advanced resources to dig up any dirt on the Big Man?"
"Kid, our satellites are able to track thousands of people's movements, read faces and recognize them with access to almost every form of identification on the planet ranging from passports to driver's licenses but you can't track the face of a master criminal if you don't have any idea what he looks like, sure we could put spies into play but we've seen how good that worked out for the police force" Fury explained, standing up and picking a tablet up from the table "At the end of the day, when our tech has no edge over the opponent and the only method we have left has already been tried and has failed several times there's nothing more we can really do"
"So you're saying you can't help?" Peter asked.
"Can't and won't" Fury nodded, reading through something on the tablet.
"Wait, what do you mean won't?" Peter asked in surprise "Your job is to help people"
"From threats that extend outside of normal humans limits, including aliens and inter-dimensional beings" Fury said.
"But you saved Princess Cadance, you sent the Avengers after her, with me along for the ride" peter growled, standing up and placing his hands on the desk.
"From an electric freak with a mental deficiency" Fury countered, raising his voice above Peter's "As I said, we deal with threats beyond normal human capabilities and that guy was about as far from normal as you can get"
"That's bullshit Fury, I thought you were supposed to be one of the good guys!?" Peter yelled.
"S.H.I.E.L.D are neither good nor bad Peter, we simply get the job done without all the faux political nonsense" Fury shrugged "Now sit down or I will be forced to detain you"
"Oh yeah?" Peter growled "And who exactly is gonna do that?"
And his question was answered sooner than he thought.
"Hold your tongue mortal or you shall be bound to that chair by your own organs" a powerful voice said from behind him. Peter froze in place as a cold metal weapon was placed against the back of his head "So swears Thor, Son of Odin"
"Thor, glad you could make it" Fury said with a nod "I was just telling Peter here about or rules and regulations, don't worry, he's gonna behave now, aren't you Peter?" Peter sat down with a disgruntled expression, crossing his arms and looking at Thor as he walked past.
"With all due respect Commander Fury, I somewhat agree with the child jester-"
"Hey!" Peter snapped.
"And I feel that we are somewhat responsible for the safety of this city" Thor said. Fury looked at the taller man for a second before placing his hand down on the desk.
"I respect your opinion Thor, and if you want to help out Peter then you can go right ahead, but just be aware that whatever you do will not be supported, endorsed or recognized by S.H.I.E.L.D in any manner"
"To be honest Fury, your support doesn't really count for much since the rest of the world doesn't know S.H.I.E.L.D doesn't exist, having a shadow force backing you is kinda like having... well, literally, your shadow backing you" Fury seemed willing to respond but an image flashed onto the desk of a S.H.I.E.L.D agent with a worried expression.
"Sir!" she said "Princess Luna has entered the Triskellion and is on her way up to the command centre!"
"She's not supposed to be here lieutenant" Fury sighed.
"I know sir but no one is able to stop her, she seems to want to talk to you" she explained.
"Alright, let her through" Fury sighed, ending the transmission before looking up at Peter "Get your mask on kid, we've got company" Fury turned to look at Thor with a joking smile on his face.
"And Thor, you stand there and look handsome" he grinned.
"As always Commander" Thor chuckled, striking a pose and pouting his lips.
"I'm so glad he developed a better sense of humour when he got here" Fury said, shaking his head with a grin. Peter pulled his mask onto his face several seconds before Luna pushed through the doors with several armed guards behind her.
"Fury!" she yelled angrily.
"Princess Luna" Fury said "Can I get you anything, a coffee maybe?"
"You can get me a damn situation report!" she barked, walking up to the table, seemingly ignorant to Spider-Man's presence for the moment "Where the hell were you and your team yesterday?"
"If I remember correctly we were at a water polo game with the X-Men" Fury said, his response getting a furious glare from Luna.
"That freak could've destroyed half the city!" she growled "And you and your Avengers were nobody to be seen, care to tell me why?!"
"Because we had our newest junior Avenger taking care of it" Fury said, gesturing to Spider-Man "I think he did a fine job if I'm brutally honest" Luna seemed to notice Spider-Man for the first time and an even more hate-filled look appeared on her face.
"What are you doing here?" she snarled.
"I came to inquire about a part-time job sweeping the floors and cleaning the computer monitors, these superhero suits aren't cheap you know" Spider-Man said "What about you? Because if you try to steal my job from me I'm afraid we're not going to be friends" Luna reached over to Spider-Man and grabbed hold of him by the throat, beginning to choke him as she lifted him up.
"Don't you dare try to be funny with me boy" she hissed "I'm not in the mood for your juvenile wise-cracks"
"Come on Princess... lighten up a bit" Spider-Man said in a strained voice "Jokes are good for everyone... they do say laughter is the best medicine"
"Luna, put him down" Fury said "He's too fragile for you to play with" Luna ignored Fury, instead tightening her grip around his throat, her teeth showing in a vicious snarl.
"You remind me too much of that red-clad fool Daredevil" she glowered "I hated him equally"
"Hey, I think I have much better fashion sense than Daredevil" Spider-Man coughed, beginning to lose feeling in his fingers.
"Luna!" Fury snapped. Luna looked back at him before sighing, easily throwing Spider-Man out of her grip and having him land heavily on his feet, rubbing his throat as he attempted to get his breath back.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Spider-Man asked.
"I don't like vigilantes like you" she growled.
"I don't like peanut butter but that doesn't mean I go around smashing jars of the stuff in stores" Spider-Man said, standing up and glaring at Luna "You need to learn to control yourself more, you'll get more friends that way" Luna stared hatefully at Spider-Man for a long second before turning around at staring at Fury.
"And he's the one that's supposed to be in the Avengers?" she asked "He's more useless than Hawkeye!"
"Hey!" a gruff voice said from the doorway "I'm standing right here you know?" Fury turned to see a man in his thirties wearing a pair of jeans and a thick black sweater with grey eyes and light brown hair combed over to the right side of his head.
"Ah, Clint" Fury said "I was hoping you'd show up soon, has Bruce had a chance to talk to you yet?"
"No, I just got back from Siberia about an hour ago" Clint said with a shake of his head "What does he need?"
"Don't know, but he said that it was important" Fury shrugged "Go find him and then come back here"
"Boss, the Triskellion is like fifty floors, it'll take ages to find him" Clint sighed.
"Then get started or it'll take even longer" Fury said, gesturing for Clint to get going.
"Fine, whatever" Clint said, holding up his hands and leaving the room, muttering quietly. There was silence for a second before Luna spoke up.
"So what are you doing to try and find this new electric freak?" Luna asked.
"As of now, nothing" Fury shrugged "He's not our problem"
"I thought you said that it was your job to handle things that normal humans can't?" Peter asked.
"Ah, I mustn't have been clear enough, I meant situations and subjects that threaten national security, heads and leaders of government or S.H.I.E.L.D itself" Fury said "So if its just a regular super-powered menace we'll leave it to the local precinct, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men or any freelance superheroes like Spidey over there"
"So you're willing to risk millions of lives and billions of dollars in damages just because you're too lazy to do something about it yourself?" Luna asked in a disgusted tone.
"If that's how you see it then yes, that's exactly how we work" Fury nodded "Now if you'll excuse us, I've gotta find good ole Steve to get him to train Spidey for a few hours"
"You mean you're training him to be a better fighter?" Luna asked "What if he goes rogue?"
"Then we terminate him" Fury said "Simple as that"
"Thanks for making me feel safe guys" Spider-Man sighed, crossing his arms as he sat back down into his chair "Really appreciate it"
"Did we say you could talk?" Luna asked angrily.
"Seriously woman, what the fuck is your problem!?" Spider-Man asked, his patience with Luna having worn out "Did I do something to offend you or do you just like to be a cunt this time of day?"
Apparently Luna was sick of Spider-Man too.
Luna launched forward, slamming her boot into the chair, kicking it out from underneath Spider-Man just before he leaped high into the air, sticking to the ceiling and firing a web-line at Luna. She caught the web-line and yanked it towards her, attempting to tear Spider-Man from the ceiling only to have his adhesive abilities keep him on the roof. Thor moved to intervene only to have Fury place a hand on his shoulder, causing him to stop.
"Let them sort this out on their own" Fury said.
"But Commander-"
"That's an order Thor" Fury said sternly, causing Thor to stand down.
"You're gonna have to try harder than that!" Spider-man yelled at Luna. She gritted her teeth and pulled harder, causing certain parts of the ceiling to break off, bringing Spider-Man down with it.
"Oh fuck" he grunted. Luna swung a punch for him as he fell towards her but as her arm was extended fully he placed both of his palms on her knuckles, bending over her arm feet first and slamming his shoes into her face. Luna was knocked back by the attack but she didn't falter, grabbing hold of his legs as he attempted to jump off, pulling him down and closer to her.
"Get over here!" Luna yelled. Spider-Man landed on his hands, his arms bending under his back to catch himself but this was countered as Luna drove her knee forward, slamming it into his crotch. Spider-man roared in agony, his arms giving out and his head slamming into the ground only for Luna to lean forward and slam her fist into his jaw, landing two hits before he was able to place his feet on her stomach and push himself away.
"Holy hell... I think I just lost the ability to have kids" Spider-Man panted, rolling over backwards and getting to his feet, gingerly holding his genital area "And the ability to have kids"
"Is that it?" Luna growled "You done already?"
"Like hell Princess" he snarled, firing two more web-lines at her arms and yanking them downwards, trying to upset her balance and move in for a kick to the face. Instead what happened was that Luna was able to use her superior arm strength to yank him over to her again, wrapping the webs around her arms and as soon as he was close enough she slammed her forehead into his nose.
"Fwuck!" Spider-Man yelled, trying to leap back only to have Luna twist around, using the web-lines to flip him over her back and send him crashing into the floor "Ahhh..." As he lay on his back, his body pulsating with pain his Spider-Sense went off, warning him of the incoming boot to his face. He waited for a split second, waiting for Luna to lift her leg before he lunged forward, pulling Luna with him. Once back on his feet he threw her forward, slamming her into a wall while using the momentum to propel himself forward, catching Luna's head before she fell back, and slamming it into the wall twice before punching her as hard as he could, creating an enormous crack in the wall.
"Oooh, ouch" Fury cringed "That had to hurt" Luna growled angrily from her position in the wall, slamming her elbow into Spider-Man's ribs, making him flinch and release his hold on her head which allowed he to whirl around and punch him in the nose again. He gritted his teeth, ignoring the pain as he swung a right hook for Luna's cheek only to have her catch the bend of his elbow with her forearm and slam her other fist straight into his jaw.
"Get-" she growled, slamming her elbow into his collarbone.
"The-" a knee to the side of his thigh, causing his leg to go dead.
"Fuck-" another head butt to the nose
"Off-" a fist to the stomach causing him to hunch over.
"Me!" she yelled, cocking back her leg for a powerful kick. Spider-Man, enraged and in pain, seemed to unlock a second mode to his Spider-Sense, seeing the muscle movements and veins in Luna's leg and somehow knowing which muscle was going to be moved and where it was going to go. He was able to see the large sweeping kick coming before it did, leaning to the side as the high kick sailed past his shoulder.
"Not-" he grunted, grabbing her leg and forcing it straight up, pushing her into the wall
"A-" slamming his knee into her thigh, making her drop slightly from the muscle damage
"Chance!" he roared, slamming his fist into Luna's face and knocking her back into the wall. Luna's eyes flickered for a brief second before they erupted into a bright blue light.
"Oh no" Fury said "This is gonna go well for the kid" She forced her leg down with a reverberated yell, overpowering Spider-Man's single arm, throwing a punch that caught him in the jaw, whipping his head to the side and topping it off with a powerful tackle, placing both feet on the wall and driving them both to the ground. Spider-Man's head hit the ground, stars flashing in his vision as his new Spider-Sense mode cut out, leaving the original mode to warn him about Luna's attacks. She threw a wild punch for his face, Spider-Man jutting his head out to the side to dodge the punch, hearing Luna's knuckles crack the floor.
"Sir?" Thor asked worriedly.
"Give em a few more swings and then we'll stop them" Fury sighed "And I was enjoying this too" Luna pressed her forearm to Spider-Man throat and punched him once again in the face, her irises a deep, glowing blue with the whites of her eyes having become jet black, something in her mutated genetics bringing out a power that Spider-Man never knew she had. The punch caused another eruption of pain but it was quickly blocked out by the numb feeling that came about as Luna began to relentlessly hammer Spider-Man in the face with powerful punches, cracks appearing around his head as it was beat further and further down.
"Thor!" Fury snapped "Go!"
"Forgive me Princess!" Thor said, whirling Mjolnir around briefly before throwing it at Luna, the hammer slamming into her side and knocking her off Spider-Man. Luna landed on her side and rolled briefly, landing on her feet but dropping to one knee soon after. She remained still for a moment, panting from exhaustion before she raised a hand to her lip, wiping red blood from her lip and staring at it in shock. Her right cheek was red and stinging, her hair was frayed and falling down over her face and her blue lipstick had smudged during the encounter.
"So?" Fury asked "Feel better yet?" Luna stood up and straightened her jacket.
"Sort out the electric problem" she snarled "But send someone better than him" With that she stormed out of the room, leaving a very surprised group of on-lookers cowering in fear as she walked past. Fury walked up to Spider-Man who had pulled his mask up to his nose and was spitting blood onto the floor.
"I really, really hate her" he said as he looked up at Fury.
"I know kid, she feels the same" Fury chuckled, offering his hand for Spider-Man to take "Now get your ass down to the med-bay, see if we can save that pretty face of yours, after all, it is your only asset"
"Go fuck yourself Fury" Spider-Man growled, much to the amusement of Fury who helped the beaten teenager back up to his feet. Next Chapter: Miss Wonderful Personality Estimated time remaining: 9 Hours, 37 Minutes