jedediah
27th July 2004, 07:00 PM
Okay, let's try this again.
Ranma 1/2 used without permission
Spider-Man used without permission
Both properties of Rumiko Takahashi and Marvel Comics,
respectively
=================================
Hikaru Gosunkugi: The Amazing Spiderman
Issue Twenty-Five
Rise of the Scorpion
================================
"What the hell is this place?" Keiichi Akamoto asked
nervously as the still unnamed man escorted him through the
antiseptic white corridor. Their footsteps echoed in the
close confines of the passageway, the chill air raising
goosebumps on his exposed arms. The other man remained
silent as he guided Keiichi toward a large metal door which
slid quietly open on their approach.
"Oh..." He couldn't identify any of the strange machines
that lined the tiled floor of what had to be a strange
laboratory. As they passed by banks of computers, test
tubes, and things Keiichi didn't want to know about, his
unease began to evolve into dread. Whatever he had just
signed on for, it looked like there was no way out.
"Ah," said a strangely accented voice from ahead, "do come
in, Mister Akamoto. I have been expecting you."
"So you're the one... who... oh... no..." As he rounded the
corner, all the bass disappeared from his voice at the sight
of the four metal tentacles and the man who weilded them.
"I suppose you could call me that," Doctor Octopus said as
he turned about. "Hmm... you are indeed a good specimen."
"SPECIMEN! THE HELL?!"
"Mister Akamoto..."
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS! NOBODY SAID SHIT ABOUT THIS!!! I'M
OUTTA HERE!"
"Not so fast!"
The length of metal wound around Keiichi's midsection like
a python, squeezing with an unbreakable grip as he howled in
pain and terror.
"I... ain't... no... damn... guinea pig! AAAAGH!"
"No, that would be an insult to guinea pigs everywhere,"
Doctor Octopus snapped. "I still need time to set up the
equipment, and you do need to sober up you worthless drunk.
Do not worry," he said as Keiichi lost consciousness, "when
this is over, you will get your shot at Spiderman..."
=========================================
Pao Leung nodded in satisfaction as he hung up the phone.
The subject had been acquired. It wouldn't be long now.
I know you will replace me if I don't act, he thought while
gazing westward above the massive expanse of Tokyo, toward
the coast of China. This is my last chance.
===========================================
I gotta be jumping at shadows, Hikaru thought as he
released the web. I mean, what're the odds? His right arm
shot out, anchoring another web to the corner of a nearby
building and altering his course with an easy swing. I might
even be wrong about this whole thing.
The more he thought, sailing above the streets, the less
convinced he became. This was all too weird to be a
coincidence. There was a chance that he was mistaken about
where he had seen a picture of Doctor Sanzaki the first
time. If so, then at least he had made sure. But, Miku
hardly ever missed any days...
Hikaru tried to shut out his whirling thoughts as he swung
through the air, yet they would not be silenced. If he was
right, then something very bad was about to happen very
soon. He prayed for all he was worth that this was just a
wild goose chase, but a small part of him sensed that it was
anything but. Miku Tachibana had a knack for attracting
trouble - Shigeru Katsuo and Spiderman himself were prime
examples of that - but...
"Okay, there it is," he said before landing on the ledge of
a towering apartment complex. Just across the busy
throroughfare, merely three stories higher than he was, lay
Miku's apartment.
If nothing else, he thought as he propelled himself to the
wall of the building in question, I got some good exercise
tonight.
Hikaru eased the balcony door along its track, alert for
any tingle from his spider sense. The lights had been left
on in the empty foyer, the only signs of life aside from the
soft lighting being a pizza box on the back of the sofa.
So far, so good, he thought as he stepped through the
narrow opening. He scanned the photos placed here and there,
searching for the one he had come here for. His hopes that
he had been all wrong were dashed when his eyes fell on the
framed photograph of a smiling Ryo Sanzaki standing before
some lab equipment that rested on a shelf on the far wall.
Hikaru stepped lightly across the carpet, eyes locked on the
picture. He had been right. Damn.
"Uh-oh," the spider sense began to softly tingle as the
uneven footfalls sounded from the kitchen...
Akemi Moroboshi stumbled into the living room, dangling a
half-empty bottle of Johnny Walker from her left hand. The
haze of booze failed to block the dreadful emptiness she
felt, had felt ever since that call two days ago. Why? she
asked once more as the bottle made its way to her lips and
the liquor burned its way down her throat. When is this
going to end?
"Damn you, Ryo!" she shouted at the photograph - the only
one - she still had of him. She shivered as she stared at
it, the realization slowly dawning on her that something was
wrong. Akemi looked toward the sliding glass door which led
to the patio, and noticed it ajar.
"Who's there!"
Hikaru remained adhered to the stone above the patio door,
cursing himself for leaving it open. He briefly debated
leaving then, just going on his merry way. But, what if she
had some information? He had to take the chance.
"It's me, Mrs. Moroboshi," Hikaru said as he flipped
himself down to the patio floor. He watched as Miku's aunt
studied him through alcohol-clouded eyes.
"You!"
"What happened to Miku?" Hikaru asked as he stepped back
into the apartment.
"What're you doin' here?" she slurred. "Whaddaya want?"
"Miku's been kidnapped, hasn't she?"
"You... you shtay away frm her!"
"Mrs. Moroboshi, what happened to Miku?! Was she kidnapped
with Doctor Ryo Sanzaki?"
"Wha... How d'you know 'bout that?"
I was right, Gosunkugi thought sourly. "Tell me what
happened."
Akemi didn't answer for a moment as she swayed drunkenly on
her feet. Tears began to fall from her glassy eyes as the
bottle of liquor clattered noisly to the floor. Hikaru had
no idea just how much he could likely get out of Miku's
sloshed aunt, but anything was better than nothing.
"Ryo... itsh all hish fault..."
"What..."
"He wash my... my husband," Akemi explained as she
staggered over to the couch. "I married him, but he wash
already married to his work."
"Genetics."
"Bingo. We got divorshed coupla yearsh ago. Never cared
about me... only hish damn reshearch."
"So, how does Miku fit into this. She's his neice, right?"
"Yep. Got a call coupla daysh ago... shomeone sayin'
that... they got 'em both... and I better not call the
copsh..."
"Who called you?"
"I don' know!"
Hikaru frowned as Akemi broke into wrenching sobs on the
couch. He wasn't going to get anything more out of her. Best
to let her sleep it off. He didn't give her any
reassurances, any promise of her neice's rescue, as he
walked out the balcony door. She likely wouldn't have heard
it anyway.
"I know you're behind this, Ock," Hikaru said as he leapt
into the air. "When I find you, we're gonna settle this.
Once and for all."
=================================================
Otto Octavius rechecked the experimental data yet again.
Still in order. Still nothing to indicate possible failure.
Granted, computer models were no substitute for real world
data, but what he was seeing proved encouraging.
"Main systems show green," Sanzaki said from his station at
the left of the recombinator. The cannon-shaped device
hummed with the power flowing through it, its barrel aimed
at an open front chamber which lay on the far side of the
laboratory. Inside the chamber stood Keiichi Akamoto. His
body was adorned with green-and-blue armor, its burnished
metal plates gleaming in the lights from the top of the
chamber Thick metal bands were wound tight across his body,
securing him fast to the chamber's rear wall while a clear
plastic bar was wedged between his teeth. Ryo did his best
not to look at the struggling, terrified man. "No
radioactive or nuclear particles detected."
"Then there is no fault in the mechanism," Otto replied.
"My dream is about to be given life..."
"We still don't know if this method will actually succeed,"
Ryo protested. "I feel we should perform more tests."
"We have no time for further experiments," Otto snapped.
"The computer models all show success."
Ryo looked back to his readouts.
"You seem troubled, Sanzaki. Don't tell me you're losing
your nerve. After all, the life of your own niece depends on
the success of this run."
"Otto, what happened to you?"
"What?"
"You weren't like this before. You were never this...
twisted...!"
"You watch your tongue!" Octavius roared as the tentacle
stopped a millimeter from Sanzaki's face. "All that happened
to me was the realization that I could only achieve my goals
through power! You don't undestand my genius, the brilliance
of my work! The only reason you are here is because your
tinkering with my research happened to open a door that I
had long struggled to open!" Otto retracted the tentacle,
ignoring Ryo's terrified stare. "I had realized that it was
impossible to splice animal characteristics into human DNA.
However, using the recombinator to introduce a mutagenic
agent into each cell's very mitochondria to produce the
desired results was a thing I had not even considered."
Ryo ignored the rest of Otto's long-winded explanation. He
knew full well what the insane monster intended to do.
Mitochondria - organelles in each cell - have a genetic
code different from that contained within the cell's
nucleus. The two share a symbiotic relationship in which the
mitochondria produce the energy - ATP - that the nucleus
needs to support the cell's functions.
Utilizing that ATP energy, the DNA of each nucleus could be
subtly altered to produce desired effects while not
adversely affecting the function of each cell. As such,
mutating the genetic code of mitochondria could - in theory
- induce widespread alterations to the subject's DNA to
grant new powers and abilites.
The recombinator - the culmination of recombinant genetics
research - could induce those changes on a total-body scale.
If the computer models were correct, then there would be no
limit to the potential development of humanity.
"Even so," Ryo said, "why that strange armor?"
"I was hoping you'd ask," Otto replied graciously. "Given
my analasys on Spiderman's abilities, I have concluded that,
while he has the proportionate abilities of that genus of
arachnid, he does not have the physical features of a
spider. At the very least," Octavius ammended, "he possesses
no extra limbs. As for how he makes his webs, I can only
speculate on that. Perhaps it is an effect of this process,
or perhaps he has devised an artificial means. In either
case, this armored suit is meant to grant Mister Akamoto the
properties this treatment will likely not give him."
"If this works," Ryo countered, "then the subject will gain
the proportionate strength of a scorpion."
"Yes," Otto said as if to a slow student, "but what about
its other attributes? This armor will grant the subject the
hard carapace of a scorpion, as well as aid in his climbing
abilities."
"And the tail?"
"Ah, that is the best part! Scorpion's tail is modeled
after the technology behind my own robotic arms. While it
does not extend as mine do, it can be controlled by his very
thoughts. Also, the tail grants him the scorpion's most
deadly power."
"Its sting..."
"Correct, Sanzaki. Not venom, however, but a high-energy
laser."
"NMMM! NNnnnNNMM!"
"It is time, Sanzaki."
"Yes." Ryo's hands froze over the controls of the
recombinator. Could he really do this? Could he really
subject another living thing, a man, to a process that would
- at best - be the death of him?
May the kami forgive me, he thought as he initiated the
process.
==================================================
Hikaru woke late that Sunday, unrested despite the ten
hours of sleep he had managed to get. He kept seeing Miku
and her uncle, prisoners of an insane scientist. What was he
doing to them? Why did he take them? What the blue hell was
going on?!
Whatever it is, he thought as he put on some coffee, it
involves me. It's about my powers.
"Damn it." Hikaru was sick of not knowing what was
happening around him. Sick of feeling like a blind man in a
demented maze. When was it going to end?
Deep breath, hold, breathe out.
He had some answers, but far more questions. That was the
problem. What was the solution?
Think, Gos, THINK! Why kidnap Miku and her uncle at the
same time? As bait? If so, why no challenges for Spiderman
to save them?
Okay, he thought as the coffee began to drip into the pot.
Not as bait. Insurance?
Hikaru took a seat at the counter next to the coffee
machine, pen and paper in hand. On the sheet he wrote three
names; Doctor Octopus, Ryo Sanzaki, and Miku Tachibana.
Three names, three people involved. What did they all have
in common?
Ock and Sanzaki are both geneticists, he thought, writing
the word on the right margin and connecting it to the first
two names. Both were partners.
Miku Tachibana is Sanzaki's neice... another line was
drawn, from Miku's and Sanzaki's names to the word "niece".
Hikaru studied the crude chart for a moment. What was he...
Insurance. That had to be it. Ock kidnapped Sanzaki for his
continued research on their pet project, and dragged Miku
along to make sure the professor didn't try anything heroic.
"So, now I know why," Hikaru muttered, ignoring the fresh
java that rested in the pot. "Something involving
recombinant genetics. What Ock said might have given me my
powers."
So, where were they? A lab, obviously, but where in the
city? What places had equipment sophisticated enough for
that kind of work? Sanzaki's last address was the campus of
Tokyo University...
"No, couldn't be it," he muttered. "Ock's the most wanted
guy in Japan right now - me coming a close second - so he'd
have to be somewhere isolated."
How many research labs were there in the greater Tokyo area
that specialized in genetics? Or...
A private lab. One not on any public listing. Which meant
that whomever was backing Ock was someone with serious
money. And connections. And resources.
And who would have things like that? Hikaru asked himself.
Any kind of huge corporation with ties to the Chinese
Triads.. Just like at the Yamaguchi Complex. Are the same
people behind the Black Widow behind Ock's research?
"I have a feeling I won't find what I need on the net,"
Hikaru said as he switched off the coffee pot and dumped the
contents into the sink. "But I have a good idea of where I
can."
================================================
What did they do to me?! Keiichi Akamoto thought as he
hoisted the barbell for the thousandth time. He had never
felt so strong, so powerful! A six hundred kilogram set of
weights, and he was lifting it like a sack of groceries! The
barbell came down again, this time in the shape of a
pretzel.
Whatever they had done, Keiichi was beginning to like it.
He spun to the left as the cardboard targets popped up from
slots in the concrete floor. With a savage grin at the
newfound energy that sang in his veins, he swung his long
tail out like a baseball bat.
"I'm doing this so easily!" he hooted as the mockups were
shredded. He didn't bother to think how that weird machine
could have given him such fantastic powers. All that
mattered was that Keiichi Akamoto was on his way to the top!
"Impressive," Otto gasped as the analasys of Scorpion's
abilites appeared on the screen. "Muscle performance has
been increased nearly nine hundred percent! Balance and
agility are also greatly enhanced! I did it!"
"This is indeed wonderful," Pao Leung said from his right.
"Look at him. I have never seen anyone fight with such
ferocity. Is this another effect of the treatment?"
"This man was a ruffian before," Otto replied. "A bully.
Doubtless such tendencies were always within him. He just
now has the power to fully realize them."
"The tail, I take it, is based on your own tentacles?"
"Very perceptive, Mister Leung," Octavius said with a broad
smile. "I see you recognize quality work!"
"It's why I sought you out in the first place," Leung
replied with a smile of his own. It was the truth, at any
rate.
"Now that we know the process works, I can perform it
easily myself."
"There is no more need for Sanzaki or his niece, then."
"No, there is one more thing I want him for."
"Oh?"
"I want him to see what this technology has birthed. It's
only fitting, is it not?"
"HAH! Agreed, Doctor."
===========================================
Miku could only watch as her uncle lay curled into a ball
upon the concrete floor. He didn't move, didn't speak, just
lay there as if he had been violated in some awful way.
Her attempts to talk to him had been fruitless. He merely
drew deeper into himself, running away from something. What
had they done to him? Were they about to do it to her?
Miku did the only thing she could think of. She scooted
over to his head, gently laying it in her lap. She stroked
his graying hair, grayer now than she had ever remembered
it, and said nothing. It wasn't much, but it was all she
could do and by God she would do it.
What's happening? she silently asked. What did they make
you do?
===========================================
Hikaru felt strangely vulnerable as he neared the elevator
in the lobby of the structure in which the Tokyo Sun Times
was headquartered. He would have to be careful as he made
his way to their records room on the tenth floor - just
below their main business offices - to search for the
information he needed. There wasn't any guarantee he would
find it in the first place.
He knew why he was nervous. The doors closed before him -
thankfully he was the only occupant in the elevator car -
and he pressed the button for the tenth floor. He was trying
to sneak into a place he didn't belong, and without his
guise as Spiderman. It was for the best, he kept telling
himself. There were some places where Spiderman was best
unseen. He had his cover story in place should he be
discovered - he was looking up old articles on sewage
treatment for a school project and his internet connection
was shot - but what if someone saw what files he was looking
at?
The row of lights atop the door reached the number seven
and kept rising.
Had he taken the publisher's initial offer for a position
as part-time staff photographer, he would have a far easier
time. Employees of Tokyo Sun Times went in and out of the
records room as they wished. Hikaru had refused on the
grounds that the Furinkan High administration (there was a
thought. They had to get high to deal with half of the weird
crap that happened on campus) would expel him for having a
part-time job after school. Being a freelancer had enabled
him to dodge that particular bullet. Would they allow him
into the records room?
Eighth floor. Couldn't this damn thing go any faster? The
doors finally opened onto the tenth floor, and Hikaru
stepped out. It was showtime.
"Hi, Riki," he said to the petite woman at the front desk.
She looked up at him, black hair tied back in a long tail
and a bore expression on her face as her jaw moved up and
down. The woman did love her chewing gum, he remembered.
"What?"
Cheerful as ever, Hikaru thought. "Hey, I was wondering
if..."
"Sorry, not interested."
"Um... I don't think you understand. I need to get into the
records room. My internet connection is shot, and I need to
look up some..."
"Then visit the library," Riki replied in her usual flat
tone. "Only full-time employees are allowed into the records
room."
"Ah. Right. But, do you think you could make just a teeny
little exception? For me?"
"No exceptions," she drawled. "Now stop wasting my time and
find your information somewhere else. Our archives are not
for public viewing. If you need information, any local
library has back issues on their servers."
"Oh. Well, then, it's been a real pleasure," he replied,
not meaning a single word.
================================================== =============
"So, Mister Akamoto, how are you feeling?"
"Is that a trick question? I feel friggin' GREAT!" Keiichi
roared as Doctor Octopus entered the training room.
"Whatever you did, I love it!"
"I am glad you approve," Doc Ock replied with a wide smile.
"Now, we must discuss why I granted you such power."
"You said something about going up against Spiderman.
Mister, I'm all for it."
"So far," Ock said as he stepped over the remains of a
barbell, "we are getting off to a fantastic start. It is
your mission to find and crush Spiderman. But, there is one
problem."
"Yeah?"
"He is rather difficult to trace, and we are running on a
very tight schedule. Therefore..."
"I gotta draw him out, right?"
"Hmm. Perhaps you are more intelligent than I gave you
credit for." Keiichi bristled at the condescending tone in
the man's voice, but did not reply. That weirdo would find
out just how smart Keiichi Akamoto really was. "A series of
crimes..."
"Hey, wait a sec," Keiichi said. The idea came to him in a
flash of inspiration. Yeah, it was perfect!
"What?!"
"I got a way to bring Spidey out in a hurry." And if not,
he would still get some payback.
"Oh?" Doctor Octopus said, clearly amused which annoyed
Keiichi to no end. "Please, enlighten me."
Keiichi did, and Doc Ock's snide grin shifted to one of
genuine pleasure.
"I must say, that is a delicious idea. It would indeed
bring him very quickly. As well as every police officer in
the city."
"Nothin' I can't handle."
"I will get back to you. For now, rest. You have a big day
coming up." As Ock walked out of the room, Keiichi smiled. A
big day wasn't the least of it...
================================================== ==============
"He wants to WHAT?!" Pao Leung shouted into the phone.
"I take it you disapprove?" Octavius' voice replied.
"Hmmm...." Scorpion's existence would become public
knowledge by this time tomorrow regardless. But, something
like what Octavius was suggesting...
What did the Americans say? In for a penny, in for a pound?
Did it really matter what Scorpion did, so long as the
results were achieved?
"Very well. Tell Scorpion he is to proceed."
"I will indeed."
Pao Leung hung up the phone. Everything to gain and
everything to lose. What some men wouldn't do for power...
It was far too late in the game to worry about that now.
================================================== ============
Hikaru walked through the gates of Furinkan High, riding an
anxiety high that showed no signs of stopping. Three days
since Miku had been kidnapped with her uncle, and no leads
whatsoever. No indication of what Doc Ock was up to with
them. The uncertainty was driving him nuts. He even found
himself wishing that whatever the not-so-good doctor was
planning, he'd get the hell on with it.
He stopped when the unconscious form of Kuno landed
squarely at his feet. Everything was routine, then. All
except him. Gosunkugi looked around at the students milling
in the courtyard before the first bell of the day rang. They
chatted in their little groups, many huddled in thick coats
against the cold. Sor far as they were concerned, nothing
was out of the ordinary. Even the students murdered at the
hands of Lorelei seemed a distant - though terrifying -
memory to the others.
After school today, he would set out again. At least - to
the best of his knowledge - Miku and Ryu were alive. Ock
still needed them for something. What was it?
9:42 AM
No one paid attention to the pale blue panel truck that
eased down the narrow street. Just another delivery vehicle,
carrying who-knew-what to who-knew-where. The driver of the
truck didn't even know what he was carrying, only where to
take it. For the money he was getting to drive the truck,
what the hell did he care what was in it?
9:54 AM
From the time the seeker drone had arrived, it had hovered
over the building. One of the last of its kind - though it
neither knew nor cared about that - it sat in wait while
sending images back to its home base.
10:00 AM
The driver stopped, having reached his destination. He
waited exactly two minutes while the noises of the rear
doors opening and closing reached his ears. He glanced at
the rearview...
"Wh... WHAT?!"
He gunned the engine, leaving whatever that thing was in
his wake. He chose not to think about what he had dropped
off in front of a local high school.
========================================
Hikaru found it difficult to pay attention to the lecture,
a dangerous thing in Miss Hinako's class, but the invisible
weight of...
What the...?
Gosunkugi stiffened in his seat, the spider sense screaming
in his brain. What the hell was going on?!
"Gosunkugi!" Hinako shouted. Every eye in the room was on
him, though he didn't care. "What is so interesting outside
that window that my lesson..."
He hadn't even realized his head had turned in that
direction. The tingling grew stronger by the second, almost
like when that demon...
"Gosunkugi! What is the meaning of this?!"
"Oh... no..." This was it. He remembered his thoughts on
the way to class. His wish had likely just been granted.
"That's it! Happo-Go-En..."
The explosion shredded the air, cutting off the rest of
Hinako's battle cry. For a moment no one moved, stunned into
immobility until the screams sounded from outside the hall.
The next explosion hammered everyones ears, shattering the
window panes and shaking the floors.
Doc Ock, what have you done? Gosunkugi thought just before
he became caught in the throng of panicked students. Bodies
jostled and fought in the suddenly packed third floor hall,
screams of terrorized mayhem assaulting his ears while
failing to drown out the boom of another explosion that sent
ceiling tiles crumbling into dust and shorted out the main
lights.
Gotta change, Hikaru thought as he narrowly dodged an elbow
from a frightened boy who shoved past him, but I can't get
free of this crowd! He forced down the panic that tried to
seize his mind. There was no way he could get clear, not
without using his powers and showing everyone who Spiderman
was...
That's why he's attacking the school! The thought brought
him up short. He knows...
The massive crowd of wailing people at his back shoved into
him with violent force, toppling him beneath their stamping
feet. Gosunkugi lay there, barely feeling each shoe that
landed on his body. He forced himself back up, moving with
the crowd. The air began to reek of fear-fueled sweat, the
sounds of screams and more frequent explosions threatening
to rupture his eardrums.
I gotta stop this! Hikaru thought. NOW! He began to shove
ahead, angling toward a nearby window. If he could time this
right...
The spider sense blared just before the wall next to him
vanished in a flash of green light, sending him down for the
count.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Keiichi Akamoto revelled in the sight of it. Furinkan High,
once his domain, was burning like a giant funeral pyre.
Gaping holes in the masonry spewed flame and smoke into the
morning sky, the screams of the little pukes within its
walls providing a more than suitable soundtrack to his
triumph.
How many have I killed? he asked himself.
"NOT NEARLY ENOUGH!" Keiichi roared as he readied another
laser barrage. He knew he should have felt horrified at such
an act of evil, yet in truth he felt almost aroused. The
power he now held was incredible! Who cared what the law
said? He had the power, he determined right and wrong. Here,
now, killing innocent people seemed oh so RIGHT!
------------------------------------------------------------------
He was horrified at the sight of it, but Ryo still could
not tear his gaze away from the image on the main monitor.
"Take a good, long look," Otto said from his right. "I feel
you deserve to see what this technology has accomplished."
Ryo Sanzaki felt that he deserved nothing more than death.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Gosunkugi opened his eyes, coughing from the smoke he had
inhaled. His eyes stung, his body throbbed all over from
the force of the explosion. He felt the blood trickling down
his face, and then...
"No..."
He shut his eyes to the sight, the mangled parts that had
once belonged to healthy, happy students. He shoved down the
horror, the sickening sensation in his stomach that soured
the pop-tarts he'd had for breakfast. He ignored the stench
of burnt flesh and blood. He didn't think about the fluids
he slipped on as he righted himself and stepped away from
the carnage.
The rage. That's what he allowed to fill him. That's what
he focused on as he ripped open the front of his uniform to
reveal the form-fitting costume beneath. There was a man out
there who had decided to kill these people, to end their
lives in his pursuit of Spiderman. Behind this attack, there
was a man who cared nothing for innocent lives so long as he
got what he wanted.
Doctor Octopus was going to pay. With his life!
The uniform came away, landing on a small pile of burning
debris outside the science lab. The gloves came on, and
Gosunkugi opened his eyes once more before donning the mask.
The spider sense pointed toward the front-left corner of the
building and, like a spring, he launched himself out of a
shattered window.
The web anchored itself to the left corner, and Hikaru
Gosunkugi found his enemy. The green armor coated him from
head to toe, his massive frame filling it to nearly
overflowing. From the protrusion on his back was a long,
whip-like tail that swung back and forth as the bastard
laughed.
Hikaru angled his swing downward just as the tip of the
monster's artificial tail began to glow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keiichi readied a burst at the knot of students which had
shoved its way through the doors like so much cattle. Some
turned and saw him, freezing in place in realizaion of their
impending doom. Among them was that snotty bitch, Akane
Tendo with her cross-dressing boy-toy Ranma Saotome at her
side. He aimed the tail in less than a second, their eyes
widening in horror. All the martial arts mumbo-jumbo
bullshit in the world wouldn't...
"WHOOOOOF!" The impact nearly shoved his kidney out the
other side of his body. Keiichi's feet left the earth, his
body snapping a tree in half before embedding itself into
the concrete outer wall of Furinkan High.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!!" he heard Spiderman howl as a
black-gloved fist slammed home in his face. "MURDERER!"
Another blow, to the solar plexus, that hurt even through
the armor plating. Jeez, how strong WAS this freak?
"I don't think we've been introduced!" Keiichi shouted as
the tail wrapped tight about Spiderman's chest. With merely
a thought, he hoisted the costumed man upward. "The name
used to be Keiichi Akamoto!
"You?" The name lanced the haze of hatred that had clouded
Hikaru's mind. Keiichi Akamoto? The same one who had beaten
him up on that fateful day when he was bitten by that
spider? For a second, the enormous pressure wrapped around
Hikaru's torso was forgotten.
"I'd love to chat," Keiichi said. His eyes blazed behind
the green-and-blue metal of the mask, lips twisted in a
leer. "But I got things to do. LIKE THIS!"
The world blurred as Gosunkugi felt himself swung about
like a tetherball. The centrifugal motion ended when the
tail released him into the air like a rocket. He heard glass
break barely a second before the plaster wall crumbled at
his back and he crumpled to the floor in a shuddering heap.
"A baseball..." Hikaru managed as he rose to his feet. "He
threw me like a..."
The sentence was cut short, Hikaru springing off to the
left just before a shaft of green energy sizzled the air he
once occupied and setting the wall behind ablaze.
"Second floor..." Hikaru muttered as the realization hit.
"Sophomore Chemistry is taught here!" Gosunkugi lunged
toward the stairwell at the end of the ruined hall seconds
before the chemicals in the science lab went up. He felt the
blast more than he heard it, the wall shuddering violently
as his fingers clung to it and the shockwave nearly knocking
him free.
"I gotta get him outta here," Hikaru said as he leapt down
to the first floor. The lobby area was a total wreck, the
floor covered in shattered glass and concrete. "Gotta get
him away from the students!" And before the cops arrived.
Things would get REAL ugly then.
"Come on!" he heard a man's voice shout. "COME ON!"
Hikaru turned to see the Freshman Math teacher, a thin man
with light colored hair, attempting to move a chunk of
masonry from the leg of a fallen student. The kid was alive,
but wouldn't be for long from the smoke filling the lobby.
"Hey!" the teacher whirled about, his eyes widening at the
sight of Spiderman in Furinkan, as Hikaru ran over. "I'll
handle this!"
"Wha... what are YOU doing here?!"
"THIS!" Hikaru shouted as he grasped the concrete slab and
slung it aside. "Listen! Get him outta here! NOW!" Gosunkugi
waited long enough for the teacher to hoist the boy in a
fireman's carry before bolting for the front exit. Akamoto
was still there, and he had to be removed!
Hikaru emerged into the daylight just as Scorpion hoisted
Ukyo Kuonji in the air with his tail.
"Move again, asshat, and this one dies!"
I've got his back, Hikaru thought. The tail was coiled
tight around the brown-haired chef, her skin pale from the
agony. She was a tough one, but how much could she take?
Hikaru aimed not to find out.
"You fucking COWARD!" he heard Ranma roar. "Put her down
and fight like a man!"
"I've always wanted to shut that mouth of yours," Akamoto
snarled as Hikaru plucked a chunk of concrete - at least as
thick as his chest, from the grass.
Keiichi could feel the righteous heat burn in his veins. At
last, AT LAST, he would be vindicated! He would...
Stars swam in his vision from the murderous impact to the
back of his head. His arms flailed, his legs rubbery from
the sudden blow. He tried to right himself, to regain
control of his tail before a second shot to the head landed.
"AWRIIIIGHT!" Gosunkugi hooted as the tail unwound from
Ukyo and the remains of the slab slammed home on Akamoto's
head again. The chef collapsed, gasping desperately for air.
Not much time. If was going to move, it would have to be
NOW!
"SAOTOME!" he shouted. The sirens were close now. VERY
close. "Take care of her! Leave this one to me!"
"Got it!" Ranma shouted as he and Akane darted over to the
nearly asphyxiated Ukyo.
No telling how long he's gonna be out of it, Hikaru
thought. Maybe I could just...
"You.. son of a ... bitch!"
"Nope, he still needs some softening up," Gosunkugi
muttered before grasping Akamoto's artificial tail and
leaping skyward. Have to get in the air, where I have the
advantage! And take out this damn tail ASAP!
Far below, he saw the approaching motorcade of police
vehicles, behind which followed several ambulances and fire
engines. They could handle the wounded and... he hated the
thought... dead of the student body. Keiichi Akamoto was
his! Hikaru swung higher as he readied to try to rip the
tail from this scorpion. If Akamoto's new armor couldn't
take a fall from thirty stories up, then...
"That's far enough, you shit!"
"Wha... YIPE!" Hikaru shouted as Keiichi flipped about. The
boot landed squarely in Hikaru's back, loosening his grip on
the tail and on the line of webbing. Keiichi slipped from
his grasp as Hikaru regained his hold on the web, spinning
in space to land on a lower rooftop.
DAMN! he thought. He's still got that tail! Hikaru rounded
about, coming down on the same roof. He eyed his opponent
warily, ready for any attack and desperately seeking any
weakness.
"Now that we're alone," Keiichi said, "I think it's time we
had a little chat."
"You can chat with my fist, you monster!"
"Tut, tut, little spider," Akamoto admonished. "As you've
probably figured, I was sent here to kill you. My backers
have a real hard-on for seeing you dead."
"So why attack that school?" What the hell was this all
about?
"That was my idea," Keiichi replied as they circled about
each other. "Y'see, I used to be a pretty big guy around
there. Until you came along and webbed me to the front of
the school!"
"Is that it?" Hikaru said, both relieved and horrified at
the same time. "You killed those innocent people over a
grudge?!"
"Pretty much," Keiichi said offhandedly. "I hate you for
that, and my people hate you for other reasons. They said
they could make me strong enough to take you out. Sounded
like a sweet deal to me."
"Your people. Doctor Octopus is one of them, isn't he?"
"Got it in one. Truth be told, he was kinda against this
whole thing at first, but he warmed up to it."
I KNEW he was behind this! "Where is he?!"
"I'm here to kill you, not give you a tour!" Keiichi
shouted. "He and that other doc gave me all this power, and
I'm gonna take you to hell with it!"
"Other doc... Sanzaki!"
"Think that was his name, yeah."
Hikaru went numb at those words, just as the sound of
rotors came overhead. He had been right. Ock had kidnapped
his former assistant, along with his niece. And this was the
result. Gosunkugi's path became clear. To rescue Miku and
her uncle, he had to go through Keiichi Akamoto.
"Take it you know him, huh? Well, it don't matter. You
ain't gonna see him again!"
"Yes, I will," Hikaru said. "When I take you down..."
"Speaking of taking down..." Hikaru jerked as Keiichi's
tail lanced upward, its tip glowing. He hadn't even noticed
it charging! Involuntarily, his eyes followed the trajectory
to a lone news chopper hovering about. The burst of energy
streaked toward the prone helicopter. The pilot dodged
before the beam could sever the tail, but not before it
could cut into the fiberglass and metal of the outer
structure. "I hate busybodies," Keiichi said just as Hikaru
swung into the air.
-----------------------------------------
Kentaro Segawa had been a helicopter pilot for most of his
adult life. Out of high school, he had joined the Japan Air
Self Defence Force as a young lad and had made his skills
known at the tender age of nineteen. Helicopters had always
been his passion. He had flown the Kasatkas from the Russian
military with deadly accuracy, as well as the much-acclaimed
American Cobras and Apaches when he and his squadron had
trained against them in the Death Valley training facility.
If it was a rotary bird, Kentaro prided himself on being
able to fly it.
The private sector offered little in the way of employment
for experienced chopper pilots the way it did old jet
pilots, but he had found a good deal with the Japan News
Network as a pilot for their birds.
On seeing the Spiderman face down that weird Scorpion
fellow below, he suddenly wished he were flying in an Apache
again. The rockets and rotary gun would come in very useful
against...
"LOOK OUT!" he roared as he horsed the cyclic to the left.
He had barely registered the tip of that tail following his
craft - a civillian chopper modified with all sorts of
recording equipment - until the first warning flash.
Kentaro had all kinds of experience against projectile
weapons. He'd dodged more than enough, but energy weapons
were entirely new. He hoped he'd jinked fast enough...
The sound of metal tearing in tandem with numerous damage
alarms told him that, this time, he hadn't been fast enough.
He glanced at the gagues, and their news was grim. Barring a
miracle, he and everyone aboard the helicopter would soon
suffer a fiery death on the street so far below...
------------------------------------
"NO!" Hikaru shouted as he leapt into the open air.
Keiichi's laser blast had damaged that chopper badly. The
people inside it... the people still on the ground...
I gotta stop it! Gosunkugi shouted at himself as he swung
up toward the burning hulk of the helicopter. Those people..
DAMNIT!
"HERE GOES!" he screamed as the wind beat at him with
merciless fury. Every detail of the burning helicopter came
into crystal focus, every second extended to a year, each
leap of flame, billow of smoke blooming in bullet time. He
had one chance, one astronomically slim chance, to do the
impossible.
The chopper plummeted closer to him as Hikaru released the
web and sailed up to meet it. Both hands shot out, firing a
thick glob of webbing at the flaming wound in the
helicopter's tail. Twenty stories to go!
Fire's out, he thought as his feet made contact with the
side of the machine. He moved without pause, literally
running up the side of the falling vehicle to bound up to
the rear just behind the lazily turning blades. If the
engines hadn't failed... no, don't bother with it!
Fifteen!
"Just hope your webs are strong enough this time!" Each web
screamed outward, thick as steel cables, to smack onto the
sides of the nearby skyscrapers to the left and the right.
Already, the slack in them was vanishing, not mucht time,
move damn you, Spidey, move!
Seven!
Two loops, then three, around the tail of the chopper, well
under the point of Scorpion's impact.
The webs snapped taut.
And did not break.
"I... did it..."
Hikaru permitted himself to look down the last ten feet to
the pavement, and at last the screams and shouts reached his
ears.
"He caught it!"
"Holy God!"
"Get away!"
"Didja see that..."
"Scorpion..." he hissed. "I'll never forgive you for this!"
"Forgive?" Hikaru whirled about as Scorpion landed, the
impact crumpling the front end of a Honda Civic into mangled
metal. "First off," he said as he rose, "I don't give a damn
about being forgiven. Second, you won't be around long
enough to do it!"
The spider sense wailed, yet Hikaru did not move as
Keiichi's tail whipped about and the lance of energy burned
into his chest.
Had... to take that one... people... in...
"GYAAAH!" The glass shattered at his back as he flew
through to land hard against the wall. Hikaru's vision swam
with each breath, images wavering from one form of blur to
another and his chest howling with burning agony. At least
this apartment was empty.
Gotta get up... Gotta... keep... "FIGHTING!"
"Look at you."
Gosunkugi glared up at his armored nemesis, standing in the
ruins of the wall. Just a little longer...
"You've had it, Spiderman."
Keep talking, asshole...
"You're a wreck! Washed up! Finished! And here I was,
thinking this would be the fight of my life! What fight,
this is a joke!"
Got my target, Hikaru thought, got my plan. Crazy, but all
I have.
"If you're not gonna give me any real competition, then
I'll just waste you now and be done with SHMFRRR!"
"Who said I was done yet!" Hikaru roared as the streams of
spider silk struck firm over Keiichi's face. Gotta move
fast, he thought, before that maniac rips off the webs!
Keiichi's hands nearly made it to the mass of webbing which
cut off his sight and his air when Hikaru's next two strands
slapped against his legs and with a mighty heave yanked him
onto his back. Hikaru lunged, and everything went wrong all
at once.
Keiichi/Scorpion ripped the webs from his face.
He grinned a sick, twisted grin.
Gosunkugi felt his foe's feet slam into his stomach,
forcing the breath from him and sending him outward into
space.
He fought to right himself, to stop his fall, but the
injuries he had suffered took their toll on him and he hit
the pavement.
Keiichi Akamoto laughed in triumph, long gales of evil
mirth that echoed off the sides of Tokyo's immense
skyscrapers. Spiderman was down amid a complex networks of
cracks in the concrete so far below. Broken. Defeated.
"Huh?" Keiichi did a double take as Spiderman rose
unsteadily to his feet once more. How could that bastard
still be alive?
Well, he'd soon fix that!
Keiichi launched a blast of energy at Spiderman and was
amazed when his costumed enemy back-flipped clear, at least
enough to avoid being incinerated.
Well, Spidey, he thought, you still have a little fight
left in you. Not bad... Keiichi spied the abandoned truck
that rested a few meters from the entrance to the office
building that was behing Spiderman. If he could time this
right...
"Just as I thought," he said when the next lance of energy
cratered the sidewalk a millisecond before Spiderman could
dodge. "You're too hurt to completely dodge my power."
Keiichi opened fire again, forcing Spiderman into the
building before opening fire on his second target...
A fuel truck that had thought to pass through the city on
its way to another stop.
The first blast hit just short of the elongated tanker,
shoving it toward the main entrance. Before it could land,
Keiichi launched another at the ruptured tanker. The spilled
petroleum caught flame instantly, exploding outward in a
massive ball of flame that - along with the momentum of the
truck - demolished the entire first, second, and third
floors of the office building in one go. Keiichi watched as
the flames grew higher and hotter, consuming all they
touched with a rapacious hunger.
Another explosion, the final one, caused the masonry to
slide downward - hold its new shape for a moment - then
crumble completely.
"Hey, Spiderman!" Keiichi shouted to the burning ruin
below. "Ya like apples? Well, you're dead! How do ya like
THEM fuckin' apples?!"
"Excellent work, Scorpion!" Doctor Octopus' voice shouted
into his ear. "Now, return home. There is much data to..."
"Aw, piss off."
"WHAT?!"
"You heard me. Oh, and as for your little insurance
policy..." Keiichi merely grunted as he stabbed the fingers
of his left hand through the armor plating and into his ear.
"...talk about having a bug in your ear." Coated with blood
and wax, his hand emerged holding a small thorn-shaped
device. He studied it for a moment before crushing it
completely. Did they honestly think he wouldn't notice it,
or figure out what it was for?
"I got plans for this place, and they don't involve you!"
Epilogue
"WHAT THE HEMMORAGING FUCK JUST HAPPENED?!" Pao Leung
roared into the laboratory. "How did he managed to remove
that bomb?!"
"I do not know, but I intend to find out..."
"FUCK THAT! We have a walking superweapon loose on the
streets of Tokyo! How do we reign him in?!"
"However we do it," Ryo Sanzaki spoke up, "we better do it
fast."
"Shut up, you little..."
"Otto, Leung, LISTEN!" Both men fell silent, glaring at
him. Ryo swallowed past the lump in his throat before
finishing. "We haven't seen the worst of it." He hated
having to cooperate even further with these madmen, but what
choice did he have?
"Why aren't you dead yet..."
"SHUT UP!" Leung screamed. "Sanzaki, explain!"
"I've checked the data from Scorpion's fight, and my
findings indicate..."
"BAH! You rank amateur!" Otto shouted as he stomped over to
the console Sanzaki occupied. "What... could..." Otto looked
at the data and the blood drained from his face. "This...
cannot be..."
"I've checked it four times," Ryo replied, not adding that
it had helped take his mind off the carnage he was partly
responsible for.
"What is it? Answer me, damn you!"
"This means," Ryo explained, "that we have fifteen days to
find a way to get rid of Scorpion."
"Or," Otto added, visibly shaken, "he may become
invincible..."
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Ranma 1/2 used without permission
Spider-Man used without permission
Both properties of Rumiko Takahashi and Marvel Comics,
respectively
=================================
Hikaru Gosunkugi: The Amazing Spiderman
Issue Twenty-Five
Rise of the Scorpion
================================
"What the hell is this place?" Keiichi Akamoto asked
nervously as the still unnamed man escorted him through the
antiseptic white corridor. Their footsteps echoed in the
close confines of the passageway, the chill air raising
goosebumps on his exposed arms. The other man remained
silent as he guided Keiichi toward a large metal door which
slid quietly open on their approach.
"Oh..." He couldn't identify any of the strange machines
that lined the tiled floor of what had to be a strange
laboratory. As they passed by banks of computers, test
tubes, and things Keiichi didn't want to know about, his
unease began to evolve into dread. Whatever he had just
signed on for, it looked like there was no way out.
"Ah," said a strangely accented voice from ahead, "do come
in, Mister Akamoto. I have been expecting you."
"So you're the one... who... oh... no..." As he rounded the
corner, all the bass disappeared from his voice at the sight
of the four metal tentacles and the man who weilded them.
"I suppose you could call me that," Doctor Octopus said as
he turned about. "Hmm... you are indeed a good specimen."
"SPECIMEN! THE HELL?!"
"Mister Akamoto..."
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS! NOBODY SAID SHIT ABOUT THIS!!! I'M
OUTTA HERE!"
"Not so fast!"
The length of metal wound around Keiichi's midsection like
a python, squeezing with an unbreakable grip as he howled in
pain and terror.
"I... ain't... no... damn... guinea pig! AAAAGH!"
"No, that would be an insult to guinea pigs everywhere,"
Doctor Octopus snapped. "I still need time to set up the
equipment, and you do need to sober up you worthless drunk.
Do not worry," he said as Keiichi lost consciousness, "when
this is over, you will get your shot at Spiderman..."
=========================================
Pao Leung nodded in satisfaction as he hung up the phone.
The subject had been acquired. It wouldn't be long now.
I know you will replace me if I don't act, he thought while
gazing westward above the massive expanse of Tokyo, toward
the coast of China. This is my last chance.
===========================================
I gotta be jumping at shadows, Hikaru thought as he
released the web. I mean, what're the odds? His right arm
shot out, anchoring another web to the corner of a nearby
building and altering his course with an easy swing. I might
even be wrong about this whole thing.
The more he thought, sailing above the streets, the less
convinced he became. This was all too weird to be a
coincidence. There was a chance that he was mistaken about
where he had seen a picture of Doctor Sanzaki the first
time. If so, then at least he had made sure. But, Miku
hardly ever missed any days...
Hikaru tried to shut out his whirling thoughts as he swung
through the air, yet they would not be silenced. If he was
right, then something very bad was about to happen very
soon. He prayed for all he was worth that this was just a
wild goose chase, but a small part of him sensed that it was
anything but. Miku Tachibana had a knack for attracting
trouble - Shigeru Katsuo and Spiderman himself were prime
examples of that - but...
"Okay, there it is," he said before landing on the ledge of
a towering apartment complex. Just across the busy
throroughfare, merely three stories higher than he was, lay
Miku's apartment.
If nothing else, he thought as he propelled himself to the
wall of the building in question, I got some good exercise
tonight.
Hikaru eased the balcony door along its track, alert for
any tingle from his spider sense. The lights had been left
on in the empty foyer, the only signs of life aside from the
soft lighting being a pizza box on the back of the sofa.
So far, so good, he thought as he stepped through the
narrow opening. He scanned the photos placed here and there,
searching for the one he had come here for. His hopes that
he had been all wrong were dashed when his eyes fell on the
framed photograph of a smiling Ryo Sanzaki standing before
some lab equipment that rested on a shelf on the far wall.
Hikaru stepped lightly across the carpet, eyes locked on the
picture. He had been right. Damn.
"Uh-oh," the spider sense began to softly tingle as the
uneven footfalls sounded from the kitchen...
Akemi Moroboshi stumbled into the living room, dangling a
half-empty bottle of Johnny Walker from her left hand. The
haze of booze failed to block the dreadful emptiness she
felt, had felt ever since that call two days ago. Why? she
asked once more as the bottle made its way to her lips and
the liquor burned its way down her throat. When is this
going to end?
"Damn you, Ryo!" she shouted at the photograph - the only
one - she still had of him. She shivered as she stared at
it, the realization slowly dawning on her that something was
wrong. Akemi looked toward the sliding glass door which led
to the patio, and noticed it ajar.
"Who's there!"
Hikaru remained adhered to the stone above the patio door,
cursing himself for leaving it open. He briefly debated
leaving then, just going on his merry way. But, what if she
had some information? He had to take the chance.
"It's me, Mrs. Moroboshi," Hikaru said as he flipped
himself down to the patio floor. He watched as Miku's aunt
studied him through alcohol-clouded eyes.
"You!"
"What happened to Miku?" Hikaru asked as he stepped back
into the apartment.
"What're you doin' here?" she slurred. "Whaddaya want?"
"Miku's been kidnapped, hasn't she?"
"You... you shtay away frm her!"
"Mrs. Moroboshi, what happened to Miku?! Was she kidnapped
with Doctor Ryo Sanzaki?"
"Wha... How d'you know 'bout that?"
I was right, Gosunkugi thought sourly. "Tell me what
happened."
Akemi didn't answer for a moment as she swayed drunkenly on
her feet. Tears began to fall from her glassy eyes as the
bottle of liquor clattered noisly to the floor. Hikaru had
no idea just how much he could likely get out of Miku's
sloshed aunt, but anything was better than nothing.
"Ryo... itsh all hish fault..."
"What..."
"He wash my... my husband," Akemi explained as she
staggered over to the couch. "I married him, but he wash
already married to his work."
"Genetics."
"Bingo. We got divorshed coupla yearsh ago. Never cared
about me... only hish damn reshearch."
"So, how does Miku fit into this. She's his neice, right?"
"Yep. Got a call coupla daysh ago... shomeone sayin'
that... they got 'em both... and I better not call the
copsh..."
"Who called you?"
"I don' know!"
Hikaru frowned as Akemi broke into wrenching sobs on the
couch. He wasn't going to get anything more out of her. Best
to let her sleep it off. He didn't give her any
reassurances, any promise of her neice's rescue, as he
walked out the balcony door. She likely wouldn't have heard
it anyway.
"I know you're behind this, Ock," Hikaru said as he leapt
into the air. "When I find you, we're gonna settle this.
Once and for all."
=================================================
Otto Octavius rechecked the experimental data yet again.
Still in order. Still nothing to indicate possible failure.
Granted, computer models were no substitute for real world
data, but what he was seeing proved encouraging.
"Main systems show green," Sanzaki said from his station at
the left of the recombinator. The cannon-shaped device
hummed with the power flowing through it, its barrel aimed
at an open front chamber which lay on the far side of the
laboratory. Inside the chamber stood Keiichi Akamoto. His
body was adorned with green-and-blue armor, its burnished
metal plates gleaming in the lights from the top of the
chamber Thick metal bands were wound tight across his body,
securing him fast to the chamber's rear wall while a clear
plastic bar was wedged between his teeth. Ryo did his best
not to look at the struggling, terrified man. "No
radioactive or nuclear particles detected."
"Then there is no fault in the mechanism," Otto replied.
"My dream is about to be given life..."
"We still don't know if this method will actually succeed,"
Ryo protested. "I feel we should perform more tests."
"We have no time for further experiments," Otto snapped.
"The computer models all show success."
Ryo looked back to his readouts.
"You seem troubled, Sanzaki. Don't tell me you're losing
your nerve. After all, the life of your own niece depends on
the success of this run."
"Otto, what happened to you?"
"What?"
"You weren't like this before. You were never this...
twisted...!"
"You watch your tongue!" Octavius roared as the tentacle
stopped a millimeter from Sanzaki's face. "All that happened
to me was the realization that I could only achieve my goals
through power! You don't undestand my genius, the brilliance
of my work! The only reason you are here is because your
tinkering with my research happened to open a door that I
had long struggled to open!" Otto retracted the tentacle,
ignoring Ryo's terrified stare. "I had realized that it was
impossible to splice animal characteristics into human DNA.
However, using the recombinator to introduce a mutagenic
agent into each cell's very mitochondria to produce the
desired results was a thing I had not even considered."
Ryo ignored the rest of Otto's long-winded explanation. He
knew full well what the insane monster intended to do.
Mitochondria - organelles in each cell - have a genetic
code different from that contained within the cell's
nucleus. The two share a symbiotic relationship in which the
mitochondria produce the energy - ATP - that the nucleus
needs to support the cell's functions.
Utilizing that ATP energy, the DNA of each nucleus could be
subtly altered to produce desired effects while not
adversely affecting the function of each cell. As such,
mutating the genetic code of mitochondria could - in theory
- induce widespread alterations to the subject's DNA to
grant new powers and abilites.
The recombinator - the culmination of recombinant genetics
research - could induce those changes on a total-body scale.
If the computer models were correct, then there would be no
limit to the potential development of humanity.
"Even so," Ryo said, "why that strange armor?"
"I was hoping you'd ask," Otto replied graciously. "Given
my analasys on Spiderman's abilities, I have concluded that,
while he has the proportionate abilities of that genus of
arachnid, he does not have the physical features of a
spider. At the very least," Octavius ammended, "he possesses
no extra limbs. As for how he makes his webs, I can only
speculate on that. Perhaps it is an effect of this process,
or perhaps he has devised an artificial means. In either
case, this armored suit is meant to grant Mister Akamoto the
properties this treatment will likely not give him."
"If this works," Ryo countered, "then the subject will gain
the proportionate strength of a scorpion."
"Yes," Otto said as if to a slow student, "but what about
its other attributes? This armor will grant the subject the
hard carapace of a scorpion, as well as aid in his climbing
abilities."
"And the tail?"
"Ah, that is the best part! Scorpion's tail is modeled
after the technology behind my own robotic arms. While it
does not extend as mine do, it can be controlled by his very
thoughts. Also, the tail grants him the scorpion's most
deadly power."
"Its sting..."
"Correct, Sanzaki. Not venom, however, but a high-energy
laser."
"NMMM! NNnnnNNMM!"
"It is time, Sanzaki."
"Yes." Ryo's hands froze over the controls of the
recombinator. Could he really do this? Could he really
subject another living thing, a man, to a process that would
- at best - be the death of him?
May the kami forgive me, he thought as he initiated the
process.
==================================================
Hikaru woke late that Sunday, unrested despite the ten
hours of sleep he had managed to get. He kept seeing Miku
and her uncle, prisoners of an insane scientist. What was he
doing to them? Why did he take them? What the blue hell was
going on?!
Whatever it is, he thought as he put on some coffee, it
involves me. It's about my powers.
"Damn it." Hikaru was sick of not knowing what was
happening around him. Sick of feeling like a blind man in a
demented maze. When was it going to end?
Deep breath, hold, breathe out.
He had some answers, but far more questions. That was the
problem. What was the solution?
Think, Gos, THINK! Why kidnap Miku and her uncle at the
same time? As bait? If so, why no challenges for Spiderman
to save them?
Okay, he thought as the coffee began to drip into the pot.
Not as bait. Insurance?
Hikaru took a seat at the counter next to the coffee
machine, pen and paper in hand. On the sheet he wrote three
names; Doctor Octopus, Ryo Sanzaki, and Miku Tachibana.
Three names, three people involved. What did they all have
in common?
Ock and Sanzaki are both geneticists, he thought, writing
the word on the right margin and connecting it to the first
two names. Both were partners.
Miku Tachibana is Sanzaki's neice... another line was
drawn, from Miku's and Sanzaki's names to the word "niece".
Hikaru studied the crude chart for a moment. What was he...
Insurance. That had to be it. Ock kidnapped Sanzaki for his
continued research on their pet project, and dragged Miku
along to make sure the professor didn't try anything heroic.
"So, now I know why," Hikaru muttered, ignoring the fresh
java that rested in the pot. "Something involving
recombinant genetics. What Ock said might have given me my
powers."
So, where were they? A lab, obviously, but where in the
city? What places had equipment sophisticated enough for
that kind of work? Sanzaki's last address was the campus of
Tokyo University...
"No, couldn't be it," he muttered. "Ock's the most wanted
guy in Japan right now - me coming a close second - so he'd
have to be somewhere isolated."
How many research labs were there in the greater Tokyo area
that specialized in genetics? Or...
A private lab. One not on any public listing. Which meant
that whomever was backing Ock was someone with serious
money. And connections. And resources.
And who would have things like that? Hikaru asked himself.
Any kind of huge corporation with ties to the Chinese
Triads.. Just like at the Yamaguchi Complex. Are the same
people behind the Black Widow behind Ock's research?
"I have a feeling I won't find what I need on the net,"
Hikaru said as he switched off the coffee pot and dumped the
contents into the sink. "But I have a good idea of where I
can."
================================================
What did they do to me?! Keiichi Akamoto thought as he
hoisted the barbell for the thousandth time. He had never
felt so strong, so powerful! A six hundred kilogram set of
weights, and he was lifting it like a sack of groceries! The
barbell came down again, this time in the shape of a
pretzel.
Whatever they had done, Keiichi was beginning to like it.
He spun to the left as the cardboard targets popped up from
slots in the concrete floor. With a savage grin at the
newfound energy that sang in his veins, he swung his long
tail out like a baseball bat.
"I'm doing this so easily!" he hooted as the mockups were
shredded. He didn't bother to think how that weird machine
could have given him such fantastic powers. All that
mattered was that Keiichi Akamoto was on his way to the top!
"Impressive," Otto gasped as the analasys of Scorpion's
abilites appeared on the screen. "Muscle performance has
been increased nearly nine hundred percent! Balance and
agility are also greatly enhanced! I did it!"
"This is indeed wonderful," Pao Leung said from his right.
"Look at him. I have never seen anyone fight with such
ferocity. Is this another effect of the treatment?"
"This man was a ruffian before," Otto replied. "A bully.
Doubtless such tendencies were always within him. He just
now has the power to fully realize them."
"The tail, I take it, is based on your own tentacles?"
"Very perceptive, Mister Leung," Octavius said with a broad
smile. "I see you recognize quality work!"
"It's why I sought you out in the first place," Leung
replied with a smile of his own. It was the truth, at any
rate.
"Now that we know the process works, I can perform it
easily myself."
"There is no more need for Sanzaki or his niece, then."
"No, there is one more thing I want him for."
"Oh?"
"I want him to see what this technology has birthed. It's
only fitting, is it not?"
"HAH! Agreed, Doctor."
===========================================
Miku could only watch as her uncle lay curled into a ball
upon the concrete floor. He didn't move, didn't speak, just
lay there as if he had been violated in some awful way.
Her attempts to talk to him had been fruitless. He merely
drew deeper into himself, running away from something. What
had they done to him? Were they about to do it to her?
Miku did the only thing she could think of. She scooted
over to his head, gently laying it in her lap. She stroked
his graying hair, grayer now than she had ever remembered
it, and said nothing. It wasn't much, but it was all she
could do and by God she would do it.
What's happening? she silently asked. What did they make
you do?
===========================================
Hikaru felt strangely vulnerable as he neared the elevator
in the lobby of the structure in which the Tokyo Sun Times
was headquartered. He would have to be careful as he made
his way to their records room on the tenth floor - just
below their main business offices - to search for the
information he needed. There wasn't any guarantee he would
find it in the first place.
He knew why he was nervous. The doors closed before him -
thankfully he was the only occupant in the elevator car -
and he pressed the button for the tenth floor. He was trying
to sneak into a place he didn't belong, and without his
guise as Spiderman. It was for the best, he kept telling
himself. There were some places where Spiderman was best
unseen. He had his cover story in place should he be
discovered - he was looking up old articles on sewage
treatment for a school project and his internet connection
was shot - but what if someone saw what files he was looking
at?
The row of lights atop the door reached the number seven
and kept rising.
Had he taken the publisher's initial offer for a position
as part-time staff photographer, he would have a far easier
time. Employees of Tokyo Sun Times went in and out of the
records room as they wished. Hikaru had refused on the
grounds that the Furinkan High administration (there was a
thought. They had to get high to deal with half of the weird
crap that happened on campus) would expel him for having a
part-time job after school. Being a freelancer had enabled
him to dodge that particular bullet. Would they allow him
into the records room?
Eighth floor. Couldn't this damn thing go any faster? The
doors finally opened onto the tenth floor, and Hikaru
stepped out. It was showtime.
"Hi, Riki," he said to the petite woman at the front desk.
She looked up at him, black hair tied back in a long tail
and a bore expression on her face as her jaw moved up and
down. The woman did love her chewing gum, he remembered.
"What?"
Cheerful as ever, Hikaru thought. "Hey, I was wondering
if..."
"Sorry, not interested."
"Um... I don't think you understand. I need to get into the
records room. My internet connection is shot, and I need to
look up some..."
"Then visit the library," Riki replied in her usual flat
tone. "Only full-time employees are allowed into the records
room."
"Ah. Right. But, do you think you could make just a teeny
little exception? For me?"
"No exceptions," she drawled. "Now stop wasting my time and
find your information somewhere else. Our archives are not
for public viewing. If you need information, any local
library has back issues on their servers."
"Oh. Well, then, it's been a real pleasure," he replied,
not meaning a single word.
================================================== =============
"So, Mister Akamoto, how are you feeling?"
"Is that a trick question? I feel friggin' GREAT!" Keiichi
roared as Doctor Octopus entered the training room.
"Whatever you did, I love it!"
"I am glad you approve," Doc Ock replied with a wide smile.
"Now, we must discuss why I granted you such power."
"You said something about going up against Spiderman.
Mister, I'm all for it."
"So far," Ock said as he stepped over the remains of a
barbell, "we are getting off to a fantastic start. It is
your mission to find and crush Spiderman. But, there is one
problem."
"Yeah?"
"He is rather difficult to trace, and we are running on a
very tight schedule. Therefore..."
"I gotta draw him out, right?"
"Hmm. Perhaps you are more intelligent than I gave you
credit for." Keiichi bristled at the condescending tone in
the man's voice, but did not reply. That weirdo would find
out just how smart Keiichi Akamoto really was. "A series of
crimes..."
"Hey, wait a sec," Keiichi said. The idea came to him in a
flash of inspiration. Yeah, it was perfect!
"What?!"
"I got a way to bring Spidey out in a hurry." And if not,
he would still get some payback.
"Oh?" Doctor Octopus said, clearly amused which annoyed
Keiichi to no end. "Please, enlighten me."
Keiichi did, and Doc Ock's snide grin shifted to one of
genuine pleasure.
"I must say, that is a delicious idea. It would indeed
bring him very quickly. As well as every police officer in
the city."
"Nothin' I can't handle."
"I will get back to you. For now, rest. You have a big day
coming up." As Ock walked out of the room, Keiichi smiled. A
big day wasn't the least of it...
================================================== ==============
"He wants to WHAT?!" Pao Leung shouted into the phone.
"I take it you disapprove?" Octavius' voice replied.
"Hmmm...." Scorpion's existence would become public
knowledge by this time tomorrow regardless. But, something
like what Octavius was suggesting...
What did the Americans say? In for a penny, in for a pound?
Did it really matter what Scorpion did, so long as the
results were achieved?
"Very well. Tell Scorpion he is to proceed."
"I will indeed."
Pao Leung hung up the phone. Everything to gain and
everything to lose. What some men wouldn't do for power...
It was far too late in the game to worry about that now.
================================================== ============
Hikaru walked through the gates of Furinkan High, riding an
anxiety high that showed no signs of stopping. Three days
since Miku had been kidnapped with her uncle, and no leads
whatsoever. No indication of what Doc Ock was up to with
them. The uncertainty was driving him nuts. He even found
himself wishing that whatever the not-so-good doctor was
planning, he'd get the hell on with it.
He stopped when the unconscious form of Kuno landed
squarely at his feet. Everything was routine, then. All
except him. Gosunkugi looked around at the students milling
in the courtyard before the first bell of the day rang. They
chatted in their little groups, many huddled in thick coats
against the cold. Sor far as they were concerned, nothing
was out of the ordinary. Even the students murdered at the
hands of Lorelei seemed a distant - though terrifying -
memory to the others.
After school today, he would set out again. At least - to
the best of his knowledge - Miku and Ryu were alive. Ock
still needed them for something. What was it?
9:42 AM
No one paid attention to the pale blue panel truck that
eased down the narrow street. Just another delivery vehicle,
carrying who-knew-what to who-knew-where. The driver of the
truck didn't even know what he was carrying, only where to
take it. For the money he was getting to drive the truck,
what the hell did he care what was in it?
9:54 AM
From the time the seeker drone had arrived, it had hovered
over the building. One of the last of its kind - though it
neither knew nor cared about that - it sat in wait while
sending images back to its home base.
10:00 AM
The driver stopped, having reached his destination. He
waited exactly two minutes while the noises of the rear
doors opening and closing reached his ears. He glanced at
the rearview...
"Wh... WHAT?!"
He gunned the engine, leaving whatever that thing was in
his wake. He chose not to think about what he had dropped
off in front of a local high school.
========================================
Hikaru found it difficult to pay attention to the lecture,
a dangerous thing in Miss Hinako's class, but the invisible
weight of...
What the...?
Gosunkugi stiffened in his seat, the spider sense screaming
in his brain. What the hell was going on?!
"Gosunkugi!" Hinako shouted. Every eye in the room was on
him, though he didn't care. "What is so interesting outside
that window that my lesson..."
He hadn't even realized his head had turned in that
direction. The tingling grew stronger by the second, almost
like when that demon...
"Gosunkugi! What is the meaning of this?!"
"Oh... no..." This was it. He remembered his thoughts on
the way to class. His wish had likely just been granted.
"That's it! Happo-Go-En..."
The explosion shredded the air, cutting off the rest of
Hinako's battle cry. For a moment no one moved, stunned into
immobility until the screams sounded from outside the hall.
The next explosion hammered everyones ears, shattering the
window panes and shaking the floors.
Doc Ock, what have you done? Gosunkugi thought just before
he became caught in the throng of panicked students. Bodies
jostled and fought in the suddenly packed third floor hall,
screams of terrorized mayhem assaulting his ears while
failing to drown out the boom of another explosion that sent
ceiling tiles crumbling into dust and shorted out the main
lights.
Gotta change, Hikaru thought as he narrowly dodged an elbow
from a frightened boy who shoved past him, but I can't get
free of this crowd! He forced down the panic that tried to
seize his mind. There was no way he could get clear, not
without using his powers and showing everyone who Spiderman
was...
That's why he's attacking the school! The thought brought
him up short. He knows...
The massive crowd of wailing people at his back shoved into
him with violent force, toppling him beneath their stamping
feet. Gosunkugi lay there, barely feeling each shoe that
landed on his body. He forced himself back up, moving with
the crowd. The air began to reek of fear-fueled sweat, the
sounds of screams and more frequent explosions threatening
to rupture his eardrums.
I gotta stop this! Hikaru thought. NOW! He began to shove
ahead, angling toward a nearby window. If he could time this
right...
The spider sense blared just before the wall next to him
vanished in a flash of green light, sending him down for the
count.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Keiichi Akamoto revelled in the sight of it. Furinkan High,
once his domain, was burning like a giant funeral pyre.
Gaping holes in the masonry spewed flame and smoke into the
morning sky, the screams of the little pukes within its
walls providing a more than suitable soundtrack to his
triumph.
How many have I killed? he asked himself.
"NOT NEARLY ENOUGH!" Keiichi roared as he readied another
laser barrage. He knew he should have felt horrified at such
an act of evil, yet in truth he felt almost aroused. The
power he now held was incredible! Who cared what the law
said? He had the power, he determined right and wrong. Here,
now, killing innocent people seemed oh so RIGHT!
------------------------------------------------------------------
He was horrified at the sight of it, but Ryo still could
not tear his gaze away from the image on the main monitor.
"Take a good, long look," Otto said from his right. "I feel
you deserve to see what this technology has accomplished."
Ryo Sanzaki felt that he deserved nothing more than death.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Gosunkugi opened his eyes, coughing from the smoke he had
inhaled. His eyes stung, his body throbbed all over from
the force of the explosion. He felt the blood trickling down
his face, and then...
"No..."
He shut his eyes to the sight, the mangled parts that had
once belonged to healthy, happy students. He shoved down the
horror, the sickening sensation in his stomach that soured
the pop-tarts he'd had for breakfast. He ignored the stench
of burnt flesh and blood. He didn't think about the fluids
he slipped on as he righted himself and stepped away from
the carnage.
The rage. That's what he allowed to fill him. That's what
he focused on as he ripped open the front of his uniform to
reveal the form-fitting costume beneath. There was a man out
there who had decided to kill these people, to end their
lives in his pursuit of Spiderman. Behind this attack, there
was a man who cared nothing for innocent lives so long as he
got what he wanted.
Doctor Octopus was going to pay. With his life!
The uniform came away, landing on a small pile of burning
debris outside the science lab. The gloves came on, and
Gosunkugi opened his eyes once more before donning the mask.
The spider sense pointed toward the front-left corner of the
building and, like a spring, he launched himself out of a
shattered window.
The web anchored itself to the left corner, and Hikaru
Gosunkugi found his enemy. The green armor coated him from
head to toe, his massive frame filling it to nearly
overflowing. From the protrusion on his back was a long,
whip-like tail that swung back and forth as the bastard
laughed.
Hikaru angled his swing downward just as the tip of the
monster's artificial tail began to glow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keiichi readied a burst at the knot of students which had
shoved its way through the doors like so much cattle. Some
turned and saw him, freezing in place in realizaion of their
impending doom. Among them was that snotty bitch, Akane
Tendo with her cross-dressing boy-toy Ranma Saotome at her
side. He aimed the tail in less than a second, their eyes
widening in horror. All the martial arts mumbo-jumbo
bullshit in the world wouldn't...
"WHOOOOOF!" The impact nearly shoved his kidney out the
other side of his body. Keiichi's feet left the earth, his
body snapping a tree in half before embedding itself into
the concrete outer wall of Furinkan High.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!!" he heard Spiderman howl as a
black-gloved fist slammed home in his face. "MURDERER!"
Another blow, to the solar plexus, that hurt even through
the armor plating. Jeez, how strong WAS this freak?
"I don't think we've been introduced!" Keiichi shouted as
the tail wrapped tight about Spiderman's chest. With merely
a thought, he hoisted the costumed man upward. "The name
used to be Keiichi Akamoto!
"You?" The name lanced the haze of hatred that had clouded
Hikaru's mind. Keiichi Akamoto? The same one who had beaten
him up on that fateful day when he was bitten by that
spider? For a second, the enormous pressure wrapped around
Hikaru's torso was forgotten.
"I'd love to chat," Keiichi said. His eyes blazed behind
the green-and-blue metal of the mask, lips twisted in a
leer. "But I got things to do. LIKE THIS!"
The world blurred as Gosunkugi felt himself swung about
like a tetherball. The centrifugal motion ended when the
tail released him into the air like a rocket. He heard glass
break barely a second before the plaster wall crumbled at
his back and he crumpled to the floor in a shuddering heap.
"A baseball..." Hikaru managed as he rose to his feet. "He
threw me like a..."
The sentence was cut short, Hikaru springing off to the
left just before a shaft of green energy sizzled the air he
once occupied and setting the wall behind ablaze.
"Second floor..." Hikaru muttered as the realization hit.
"Sophomore Chemistry is taught here!" Gosunkugi lunged
toward the stairwell at the end of the ruined hall seconds
before the chemicals in the science lab went up. He felt the
blast more than he heard it, the wall shuddering violently
as his fingers clung to it and the shockwave nearly knocking
him free.
"I gotta get him outta here," Hikaru said as he leapt down
to the first floor. The lobby area was a total wreck, the
floor covered in shattered glass and concrete. "Gotta get
him away from the students!" And before the cops arrived.
Things would get REAL ugly then.
"Come on!" he heard a man's voice shout. "COME ON!"
Hikaru turned to see the Freshman Math teacher, a thin man
with light colored hair, attempting to move a chunk of
masonry from the leg of a fallen student. The kid was alive,
but wouldn't be for long from the smoke filling the lobby.
"Hey!" the teacher whirled about, his eyes widening at the
sight of Spiderman in Furinkan, as Hikaru ran over. "I'll
handle this!"
"Wha... what are YOU doing here?!"
"THIS!" Hikaru shouted as he grasped the concrete slab and
slung it aside. "Listen! Get him outta here! NOW!" Gosunkugi
waited long enough for the teacher to hoist the boy in a
fireman's carry before bolting for the front exit. Akamoto
was still there, and he had to be removed!
Hikaru emerged into the daylight just as Scorpion hoisted
Ukyo Kuonji in the air with his tail.
"Move again, asshat, and this one dies!"
I've got his back, Hikaru thought. The tail was coiled
tight around the brown-haired chef, her skin pale from the
agony. She was a tough one, but how much could she take?
Hikaru aimed not to find out.
"You fucking COWARD!" he heard Ranma roar. "Put her down
and fight like a man!"
"I've always wanted to shut that mouth of yours," Akamoto
snarled as Hikaru plucked a chunk of concrete - at least as
thick as his chest, from the grass.
Keiichi could feel the righteous heat burn in his veins. At
last, AT LAST, he would be vindicated! He would...
Stars swam in his vision from the murderous impact to the
back of his head. His arms flailed, his legs rubbery from
the sudden blow. He tried to right himself, to regain
control of his tail before a second shot to the head landed.
"AWRIIIIGHT!" Gosunkugi hooted as the tail unwound from
Ukyo and the remains of the slab slammed home on Akamoto's
head again. The chef collapsed, gasping desperately for air.
Not much time. If was going to move, it would have to be
NOW!
"SAOTOME!" he shouted. The sirens were close now. VERY
close. "Take care of her! Leave this one to me!"
"Got it!" Ranma shouted as he and Akane darted over to the
nearly asphyxiated Ukyo.
No telling how long he's gonna be out of it, Hikaru
thought. Maybe I could just...
"You.. son of a ... bitch!"
"Nope, he still needs some softening up," Gosunkugi
muttered before grasping Akamoto's artificial tail and
leaping skyward. Have to get in the air, where I have the
advantage! And take out this damn tail ASAP!
Far below, he saw the approaching motorcade of police
vehicles, behind which followed several ambulances and fire
engines. They could handle the wounded and... he hated the
thought... dead of the student body. Keiichi Akamoto was
his! Hikaru swung higher as he readied to try to rip the
tail from this scorpion. If Akamoto's new armor couldn't
take a fall from thirty stories up, then...
"That's far enough, you shit!"
"Wha... YIPE!" Hikaru shouted as Keiichi flipped about. The
boot landed squarely in Hikaru's back, loosening his grip on
the tail and on the line of webbing. Keiichi slipped from
his grasp as Hikaru regained his hold on the web, spinning
in space to land on a lower rooftop.
DAMN! he thought. He's still got that tail! Hikaru rounded
about, coming down on the same roof. He eyed his opponent
warily, ready for any attack and desperately seeking any
weakness.
"Now that we're alone," Keiichi said, "I think it's time we
had a little chat."
"You can chat with my fist, you monster!"
"Tut, tut, little spider," Akamoto admonished. "As you've
probably figured, I was sent here to kill you. My backers
have a real hard-on for seeing you dead."
"So why attack that school?" What the hell was this all
about?
"That was my idea," Keiichi replied as they circled about
each other. "Y'see, I used to be a pretty big guy around
there. Until you came along and webbed me to the front of
the school!"
"Is that it?" Hikaru said, both relieved and horrified at
the same time. "You killed those innocent people over a
grudge?!"
"Pretty much," Keiichi said offhandedly. "I hate you for
that, and my people hate you for other reasons. They said
they could make me strong enough to take you out. Sounded
like a sweet deal to me."
"Your people. Doctor Octopus is one of them, isn't he?"
"Got it in one. Truth be told, he was kinda against this
whole thing at first, but he warmed up to it."
I KNEW he was behind this! "Where is he?!"
"I'm here to kill you, not give you a tour!" Keiichi
shouted. "He and that other doc gave me all this power, and
I'm gonna take you to hell with it!"
"Other doc... Sanzaki!"
"Think that was his name, yeah."
Hikaru went numb at those words, just as the sound of
rotors came overhead. He had been right. Ock had kidnapped
his former assistant, along with his niece. And this was the
result. Gosunkugi's path became clear. To rescue Miku and
her uncle, he had to go through Keiichi Akamoto.
"Take it you know him, huh? Well, it don't matter. You
ain't gonna see him again!"
"Yes, I will," Hikaru said. "When I take you down..."
"Speaking of taking down..." Hikaru jerked as Keiichi's
tail lanced upward, its tip glowing. He hadn't even noticed
it charging! Involuntarily, his eyes followed the trajectory
to a lone news chopper hovering about. The burst of energy
streaked toward the prone helicopter. The pilot dodged
before the beam could sever the tail, but not before it
could cut into the fiberglass and metal of the outer
structure. "I hate busybodies," Keiichi said just as Hikaru
swung into the air.
-----------------------------------------
Kentaro Segawa had been a helicopter pilot for most of his
adult life. Out of high school, he had joined the Japan Air
Self Defence Force as a young lad and had made his skills
known at the tender age of nineteen. Helicopters had always
been his passion. He had flown the Kasatkas from the Russian
military with deadly accuracy, as well as the much-acclaimed
American Cobras and Apaches when he and his squadron had
trained against them in the Death Valley training facility.
If it was a rotary bird, Kentaro prided himself on being
able to fly it.
The private sector offered little in the way of employment
for experienced chopper pilots the way it did old jet
pilots, but he had found a good deal with the Japan News
Network as a pilot for their birds.
On seeing the Spiderman face down that weird Scorpion
fellow below, he suddenly wished he were flying in an Apache
again. The rockets and rotary gun would come in very useful
against...
"LOOK OUT!" he roared as he horsed the cyclic to the left.
He had barely registered the tip of that tail following his
craft - a civillian chopper modified with all sorts of
recording equipment - until the first warning flash.
Kentaro had all kinds of experience against projectile
weapons. He'd dodged more than enough, but energy weapons
were entirely new. He hoped he'd jinked fast enough...
The sound of metal tearing in tandem with numerous damage
alarms told him that, this time, he hadn't been fast enough.
He glanced at the gagues, and their news was grim. Barring a
miracle, he and everyone aboard the helicopter would soon
suffer a fiery death on the street so far below...
------------------------------------
"NO!" Hikaru shouted as he leapt into the open air.
Keiichi's laser blast had damaged that chopper badly. The
people inside it... the people still on the ground...
I gotta stop it! Gosunkugi shouted at himself as he swung
up toward the burning hulk of the helicopter. Those people..
DAMNIT!
"HERE GOES!" he screamed as the wind beat at him with
merciless fury. Every detail of the burning helicopter came
into crystal focus, every second extended to a year, each
leap of flame, billow of smoke blooming in bullet time. He
had one chance, one astronomically slim chance, to do the
impossible.
The chopper plummeted closer to him as Hikaru released the
web and sailed up to meet it. Both hands shot out, firing a
thick glob of webbing at the flaming wound in the
helicopter's tail. Twenty stories to go!
Fire's out, he thought as his feet made contact with the
side of the machine. He moved without pause, literally
running up the side of the falling vehicle to bound up to
the rear just behind the lazily turning blades. If the
engines hadn't failed... no, don't bother with it!
Fifteen!
"Just hope your webs are strong enough this time!" Each web
screamed outward, thick as steel cables, to smack onto the
sides of the nearby skyscrapers to the left and the right.
Already, the slack in them was vanishing, not mucht time,
move damn you, Spidey, move!
Seven!
Two loops, then three, around the tail of the chopper, well
under the point of Scorpion's impact.
The webs snapped taut.
And did not break.
"I... did it..."
Hikaru permitted himself to look down the last ten feet to
the pavement, and at last the screams and shouts reached his
ears.
"He caught it!"
"Holy God!"
"Get away!"
"Didja see that..."
"Scorpion..." he hissed. "I'll never forgive you for this!"
"Forgive?" Hikaru whirled about as Scorpion landed, the
impact crumpling the front end of a Honda Civic into mangled
metal. "First off," he said as he rose, "I don't give a damn
about being forgiven. Second, you won't be around long
enough to do it!"
The spider sense wailed, yet Hikaru did not move as
Keiichi's tail whipped about and the lance of energy burned
into his chest.
Had... to take that one... people... in...
"GYAAAH!" The glass shattered at his back as he flew
through to land hard against the wall. Hikaru's vision swam
with each breath, images wavering from one form of blur to
another and his chest howling with burning agony. At least
this apartment was empty.
Gotta get up... Gotta... keep... "FIGHTING!"
"Look at you."
Gosunkugi glared up at his armored nemesis, standing in the
ruins of the wall. Just a little longer...
"You've had it, Spiderman."
Keep talking, asshole...
"You're a wreck! Washed up! Finished! And here I was,
thinking this would be the fight of my life! What fight,
this is a joke!"
Got my target, Hikaru thought, got my plan. Crazy, but all
I have.
"If you're not gonna give me any real competition, then
I'll just waste you now and be done with SHMFRRR!"
"Who said I was done yet!" Hikaru roared as the streams of
spider silk struck firm over Keiichi's face. Gotta move
fast, he thought, before that maniac rips off the webs!
Keiichi's hands nearly made it to the mass of webbing which
cut off his sight and his air when Hikaru's next two strands
slapped against his legs and with a mighty heave yanked him
onto his back. Hikaru lunged, and everything went wrong all
at once.
Keiichi/Scorpion ripped the webs from his face.
He grinned a sick, twisted grin.
Gosunkugi felt his foe's feet slam into his stomach,
forcing the breath from him and sending him outward into
space.
He fought to right himself, to stop his fall, but the
injuries he had suffered took their toll on him and he hit
the pavement.
Keiichi Akamoto laughed in triumph, long gales of evil
mirth that echoed off the sides of Tokyo's immense
skyscrapers. Spiderman was down amid a complex networks of
cracks in the concrete so far below. Broken. Defeated.
"Huh?" Keiichi did a double take as Spiderman rose
unsteadily to his feet once more. How could that bastard
still be alive?
Well, he'd soon fix that!
Keiichi launched a blast of energy at Spiderman and was
amazed when his costumed enemy back-flipped clear, at least
enough to avoid being incinerated.
Well, Spidey, he thought, you still have a little fight
left in you. Not bad... Keiichi spied the abandoned truck
that rested a few meters from the entrance to the office
building that was behing Spiderman. If he could time this
right...
"Just as I thought," he said when the next lance of energy
cratered the sidewalk a millisecond before Spiderman could
dodge. "You're too hurt to completely dodge my power."
Keiichi opened fire again, forcing Spiderman into the
building before opening fire on his second target...
A fuel truck that had thought to pass through the city on
its way to another stop.
The first blast hit just short of the elongated tanker,
shoving it toward the main entrance. Before it could land,
Keiichi launched another at the ruptured tanker. The spilled
petroleum caught flame instantly, exploding outward in a
massive ball of flame that - along with the momentum of the
truck - demolished the entire first, second, and third
floors of the office building in one go. Keiichi watched as
the flames grew higher and hotter, consuming all they
touched with a rapacious hunger.
Another explosion, the final one, caused the masonry to
slide downward - hold its new shape for a moment - then
crumble completely.
"Hey, Spiderman!" Keiichi shouted to the burning ruin
below. "Ya like apples? Well, you're dead! How do ya like
THEM fuckin' apples?!"
"Excellent work, Scorpion!" Doctor Octopus' voice shouted
into his ear. "Now, return home. There is much data to..."
"Aw, piss off."
"WHAT?!"
"You heard me. Oh, and as for your little insurance
policy..." Keiichi merely grunted as he stabbed the fingers
of his left hand through the armor plating and into his ear.
"...talk about having a bug in your ear." Coated with blood
and wax, his hand emerged holding a small thorn-shaped
device. He studied it for a moment before crushing it
completely. Did they honestly think he wouldn't notice it,
or figure out what it was for?
"I got plans for this place, and they don't involve you!"
Epilogue
"WHAT THE HEMMORAGING FUCK JUST HAPPENED?!" Pao Leung
roared into the laboratory. "How did he managed to remove
that bomb?!"
"I do not know, but I intend to find out..."
"FUCK THAT! We have a walking superweapon loose on the
streets of Tokyo! How do we reign him in?!"
"However we do it," Ryo Sanzaki spoke up, "we better do it
fast."
"Shut up, you little..."
"Otto, Leung, LISTEN!" Both men fell silent, glaring at
him. Ryo swallowed past the lump in his throat before
finishing. "We haven't seen the worst of it." He hated
having to cooperate even further with these madmen, but what
choice did he have?
"Why aren't you dead yet..."
"SHUT UP!" Leung screamed. "Sanzaki, explain!"
"I've checked the data from Scorpion's fight, and my
findings indicate..."
"BAH! You rank amateur!" Otto shouted as he stomped over to
the console Sanzaki occupied. "What... could..." Otto looked
at the data and the blood drained from his face. "This...
cannot be..."
"I've checked it four times," Ryo replied, not adding that
it had helped take his mind off the carnage he was partly
responsible for.
"What is it? Answer me, damn you!"
"This means," Ryo explained, "that we have fifteen days to
find a way to get rid of Scorpion."
"Or," Otto added, visibly shaken, "he may become
invincible..."
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