Post is up! Hope you all enjoy. I like it. Not exactly how I initially planned on getting there, but my plans have changed and shifted as the season's gone on. Gonna have another post up tomorrow or Sunday with a time jump.
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The first guy doesn't see me. I crash through the window of one of the hallways of the hospital, smashing into him and sending him tumbling violently over the reception desk behind him. Another one down the hall draws his gun on me, and I fire a webline to the rolling chair behind him. With a flick of my wrist, the chair flies through the air and slams into the back of his head, knocking him out cold.
The footfalls of more approaching cartel members echo through the halls, and I shoot myself up, squeezing into a ventilation shaft, closing it behind me to lie in wait. From below, I can see five other men come down the hallway and stop to survey the scene I created. Some of them shift uncomfortably. They're afraid. They don't want to be here.
Good. Let's use that.
I drop out of the vent behind the men. The one closest to me raises his hand above his shoulder, which I then web-up and yank hard, making him knock himself out.
"Stop hitting yourself!" I yell as I do the same thing to the guy standing next to him. "Stop hitting yourself!"
The remaining men pull hunting knives off their belts, ready for some close combat action. Well, they think they're ready, but they're not, "Gentlemen, do we really need to do this? I mean, the door is *right* there."
The one closest to me comes at me with a sloppy attempt to stab me. With my spider sense, it seems like it's coming at me in complete slow motion. I simply step out of the way, grab his wrist, and twist, breaking it and causing him to drop the weapon.
"See, I give you an out, and here you go, wasting my generous offer," I sigh as the other two try and come at me at the same time. A good decision, but it's not gonna work. Not tonight. The Black Tarantula has turned my city into a warzone. I'm in no way going to allow that to pass, and his goons are nothing but stepping stones to getting to him.
The first guy comes at me high, and I quickly attach a webline to his hand holding the weapon, jump to the ceiling, and attach it to him. His partner slices at the spot I was standing a mere second earlier. I drop down on top of him, driving my knee into his back, and slamming him into the tile floor.
The guy who's webbed to the ceiling tries to kick me with about as much strength as a drunk baby. I catch his leg, and look up at him sideways, "Seriously? That's just rude. I'm here dealing with your friend, and you try and kick me in the face. Did I try and kick you in the face?"
"You knocked out the rest of my men!" he yells in anger.
"Well they started it!" I shoot back, and web his foot to his unconscious friend. "Now, tell me where your boss is."
"I will never betray the Tarantula."
"Oh come on," I roll my eyes under the mask. "You can't be that fanatical."
"We believe in our leader," he spits back at me. "We are loyal to our family. To our cause."
"Oh please. Don't act all high and mighty," I fick him across the forehead. "You're drug pushers and human traffickers, not some noble cause."
Behind me, I can see one of the first guys I took on starting to come to.
"We are a glor-" a shot of webbing shuts the guy up as I walk to the one who just woke up.
"So," I say webbing him up so I don't have to worry about him trying to attack me like an idiot, "like I said, where's your boss? And if you can, be quick with it. I assume more of your friends are on their way, and I really don't have it in me to entertain more tonight."
"He's on the roof," the cartel member answers immediately. "I'm gonna be honest, I didn't sign up to take on no superhero. You want the Tarantula, you can have him."
I turn and look at the other guy, "See? Was that so hard?"
I quickly make my way to the hole I already made in the side of the building. Climbing up a few stories, I stand, becoming parallel with the ground far below, and fire a webline from each hand. I walk myself backwards, creating a great strain on the lines, before letting go and shooting myself up to the roof.
**********
Captain George Stacy watches in amazement as the Spider-Woman shoots up the side of the building like a bullet.
"Sir," one of the techs gets Stacy's attention, "Spider-Woman took out a big group of the Cartel members."
The team managed to hack into the hospital's security cameras. The fact that the goons hadn't shut them off sent up a red flag in Stacy's mind, but he is hoping it was a mere oversight. Criminals taking over a hospital are at the end of their rope. They're dangerous, sure, but they can also be sloppy. He really, really hopes that's the case with the Silk Cartel.
"How many?" the veteran cop asks as he begins to mull over the options rolling around in his head.
"Eight or so," the tech portends. "Leaving about-"
"Twenty-five or so," Stacy nods. "How do they look?"
"Still not making fortifications," the tech responds. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say a few were napping. These aren't the best of the best we're dealing with here, sir. They're still just mob goons."
"Mob goons that still have AK-47s in the biggest hospital in the city," the Captain shoots back. But he knows they need to go in. While the Spider-Woman is held up with Black Tarantula, he can go in, clear the Silk Cartel off the map, and maybe capture the vigilante as well. That was a risk he needed to take.
"Get the team ready. We're going in."
**********
My momentum lets up, and I make a soft, graceful landing on the edge of the roof.
"Oh man I totally did not think that would work as well as it did," I shake my head and say to myself, right before my spider sense explodes with a warning.
A piece of the HVAC system on the roof barely misses my head thanks to a well-timed dodge. Rolling underneath it, I snap a webline to it to make sure it doesn't fall on someone below. At the end of a roll, I look up to see the Black Tarantula standing across the rooftop for the first time. Donned in black with some white accents, he almost looks like he's trying to rip off my look. That bastard. I worked hard on this getup.
But his fashion sense isn't what draws my attention the most. No, it's his physique. And not in a "Oh look at the big strong man" kinda of way. No, more like in a "Holy crap how many steroids is that dude on" kind of way. His shirt strains under his unnatural-looking arms, almost as if he's Dr. Jekyll in mid-transformation.
"Ouch, buddy," I yell across to him. "You know I'm sure they have something for bee stings *inside* the hospital right."
"Be quiet," the Tarantula growls. "You have stood in my way for too long."
I stand, and shrug, "Dude, this is the first time we've ever met."
That ticks him off.
"No, but you have ruined my grand plan all the same!"
He rushes at me like a rabid rhinoceros, putting cracks in the roof concrete as he does. This is no normal guy, no matter what the intel says. Something's changed him, just they like they changed Flint Marko. Someone is making supervillains out of normal villains.
Not cool.
He's on me in the blink of an eye. Usually I'm used to being by far the fastest in a fight, but he's almost at my level. Almost. A series of flips keeps me away from his powerful blows, and instead he makes Swiss cheese of the roof we're standing on. Every time he misses, he seems to get angrier, which makes his arms even more monstrously large.
The Tarantula swings one of those wrecking balls my way, and this time I don't have the time to get out of the way. I opt to catch it, and whoa boy is that a mistake. It's like trying to catch a fallen redwood tree. The impact sends me back on my heels, which promptly dig into the concrete below me.
"Barry!?" I yell while straining against his strength. "Barry Bonds!? Is that where you went after retirement!? No way!"
With a growl, he swipes at me with another of his paws. I try to dodge it, but he manages to clip me in the hip. The powerful punch sends me hurtling through the air, before I crash into some duct work, crumpling it like a soda can. I think if this was a cartoon, stars or little, imaginary birdies would be doing the conga line around my head. This guy packs one serious punch.
"No quipping against the super strong cartel leader. Noted."
Before I can really regain my footing, he's hovering over me like a lion and a kill. Well, unlucky for him, I don't go so quietly. I do the one thing these guys never expect, and kick the Black Tarantula right square in the testicles. He lets out what, to me, sounds like the sound of an entire elephant deflating. While he's doubled over in pain, I press my advantage by delivering as strong of an uppercut as I can muster. It sends him stumbling back, and sends my hand into Pain Town.
"Holy crap, what is your jaw made out of?" I wince and shake the pain out of my extremity.
Suddenly, we're bathed in a bright, white light. I'd like to think it's the aliens coming to rescue me from this situation. Or maybe the rapture, if you're feeling Kirk Cameron-y. But no, it's just a police helicopter. It hovers a good thirty to forty feet above us, between the two taller buildings around the hospital.
Uh-oh. Spider sense is giving me one hell of a warning, and I dive behind an industrial AC unit on the roof just in time to dodge some gunfire from said police helicopter.
"Seriously!? That is so not cool!"
I peak around the AC unit, and see Black Tarantula rip another unit straight out of the roof. As he does, it looks like his muscles burst out of their casings, and his skin looks...green?
But that just distracts me, because I almost don't realize what the Tarantula is going to do.
"No!" I yell and fire a webline to one of the neighboring buildings as the cartel member tosses the unit at the chopper. I don't have time to crawl up the face of the skyscraper this time. I break out into a full out run up the side of a building. As I do, the AC unit outpaces me, and crunches into the side of the helicopter. The rotors, as they pass by it, splinter off and rain into the windows I'm running on, shattering them.
I kick off before I lose the surface I need, and land on the helicopter, now in full tailspin mode. Acting quickly, I just start firing weblines in every direction I possibly can. I don't think I've ever worked this quick with my webbing before. You know those sped up nature videos of spiders cocooning their prey? That's what it feels like I'm doing. In mere moments, there are dozens of lines running from the chopper to the buildings book ending it.
A fire bursts out from the motor that drives the rotor, and I empty as much webbing as I can into it, hoping it will snuff the flames out. Luckily, it does that while also stopping the motor in its tracks, ensuring it won't spark up again.
Crawling over to the window, I knock and say to the cops, who all look okay, "Next time let the superheroes take care of the supervillains. Oh and guns are bad. Kay bye!"
I hop down to the roof, which is now just a dozen or so feet from the hospital's roof.
Unfortunately, Black Tarantula is waiting for me. He comes from behind the helipad, full of ferocity. This time, he doesn't come at me like a mindless animal. This time he shows the martial arts training that's made him famous for killing his enemies with his bare hands. It takes my spider sense working overtime and my super speed just to keep him from cleaning my clock with punches and kicks. As his anger and frustration grows, I can see his exposed skin changing even more. While I can't get a good look, it almost seems like he's growing scales.
"You will not defeat me!" he snarls. As he does his mask begins to rip, revealing what looks like sharp teeth in his mouth, "I am the Black Tarantula! I was chosen by the ancestors! I am to be the king of all crime! All I need to do is defeat you, and the Kingpin will fall before me!"
The Tarantula feigns a punch to my right side, but when I move to block it he kicks me square in the chest, sending me tumbling back towards the edge of the roof. Needing a breather, I go to web his foot to the roof in order to give myself so separation. Instead, my webshooter protests with a puff of air, almost as if it's sticking its tongue out at me.
"Of course. Good old Spider-Woman luck."
Suddenly, he kicks me again, in the abdomen, sending me into the air, before he spikes me down with a karate chop to my back. I roll away as I slam into the ground, but suddenly find myself on the edge of the roof. Nowhere else to go, and now I'm hurt. I can feel those blows getting to me. I can heal quick, sure, but I don't have the time now.
"And now, Spider-Woman," he says as he picks me up and holds me over his head, "it is time for you to die."
They say your life flashes before your eyes when you're about to die. That may be true when death comes suddenly as a surprise. But as I'm held over the head of the Black Tarantula, about to be tossed to my doom, my life crawls before me. A million thoughts roll through my mind. What have I done to Peter and my father? What happens to dad after they peel my mask off down below and they find my face beneath it? How are my friends going to remember me knowing I both lied to them and failed them?
My worried mind is roused from its thoughts by six booming shots. I crane my neck around to find my father, Captain George Stacy, pointing a smoking service revolver my way. He's one of the few that's still allowed to carry the high caliber magnum thanks to a special order from the commissioner.
I then look down, and see the exit wounds of six bullets to the Tarantulas heart. He wobbles slightly, groaning some sort of threat to me I suppose. I feel his grip loosen, and the two of us tumble off the edge of the building. I manage to grab the ledge, saving myself from certain doom. I can't get the Tarantula's wrist in time, however. I watch his lifeless form tumble head over foot towards the street below, and turn away before it hits the ground.
Pulling myself up to the roof, I find myself face-to-face with Dad, who's pointing his gun at me, "I reloaded. Put your hands behind your head. You're under arrest."
Crap. This is it. This is exactly what I was afraid of the moment dad got the superhero task force job. One day, this was going to happen. He's too good of a cop to not catch me. I just always hoped this was going to be somewhere down the line, after I had made sure the city was safe. Not now.
But there's only one possible way out of this.
Here goes nothing.
"I don't think so," I respond, shaking my head. "You won't shoot me."
"I shot him," he motions to the ledge behind me. "How do you know I won't shoot you?"
"Because I think deep down you know I can help the city. Plus..." Making sure I move in very slow movements and that my hood is up so only Dad can see inside, I take up my mask just enough to show him, and stare my father in the eyes, "I know you won't shoot your own daughter."
The look of shock I see as I pull the mask back down breaks my heart. The betrayal is obvious. The confusion is overwhelmed by it like a tidal wave. The gun drops to his side, and he begins to stammer.
"I'm sorry, Dad. I should have told you. I should have told you a long time ago. But this is who I am now. I'm not going to stop. I can't stop. If I do, guys like Black Tarantula are going to win. And when you have great power, you have great responsibility. Uncle Ben always used to tell us that. I wish I would have listened to him earlier. Also, I'm sorry that I have to make this look good."
I toss the final web grenade in my arsenal at my father and detonate it, casing him in webbing for the second time this summer as I make my escape.
But this time, everything is going to change.
Everything.
<Snipped quote by HenryJonesJr>
I give this comment a 7.5 out of 10.
You're showing your bias! It deserved at least a 7.6.
All gaming reviews that give scores are trash because opinions can be boiled down to numbers. #HardStance
I'm hoping to have posts up tomorrow and Thursday, which will then have me ready for the MME
<Snipped quote by HenryJonesJr>
Eesh, tough crowd.
I wanted to like it, but it just was not fun enough to put 100+ hours in
Here's my NPC list:
I think that should be all of it.
I should also have a post up tomorrow
I think that should be all of it.
I should also have a post up tomorrow
I keep meaning to play the Witcher games -- picked up the first two on a Steam sale a while back -- but I don't have 100+ hours to commit to three supposedly giant RPGs. Plus, I've been told the gameplay (or at least the combat) for the first one really sucks, so that doesn't have me in any hurry to try it.
I dunno how well Cavill can play the ladies' man Geralt, though, what with his fear of getting accused of sexual harassment.
I only ever played the third one, and the gameplay sucks there.
New post up. Will do the NPC thing sometime this weekend, as well as hopefully another post.
The city is an absolute mess as I swing over it. There's so many cop cars illuminating the streets, you'd think the entire city was having an America-themed rave. I can hear gunshots echo through the air as I make my way into Manhattan, and I can tell the Silk Cartel is pushing its way towards the upper echelon of the Maggia power structure. Well, the remaining upper echelon after the Punisher got to them.
The Maggia is the old money of the New York crime community. They are the first to ever set up shop in the city. They were here before the Kingpin, and they probably figure they'll be here after him too. While most gangs are usually centered on the fringes of cities, the Maggia have been here long enough to have roots in Manhattan. They're the sophisticated criminal. They're the ones that think they're better than everyone else. Good for them, but now their hubris has brought a gang war into the heart of New York City.
From below me, I see a strike team of Silk Cartel soliders blow a hole in the side of a bank, which I can only assume means Maggia money is being head there. I don't really want to waste my time stopping the guys robbing a bank when I'm sure worse things are going down around town. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea what the plan is for the cartel, and the only way I'm gonna figure that out is by getting some quality one-on-one time with some of their goons.
Here goes nothing.
I let go of a webline at the bottom of my arc, rocketing myself towards the gash in the side of the building. When I'm within range, I swing myself through the opening, slamming my feet into one of the bank robbers as I do. The other four are caught off guard, and I incapacitate three of them before they can react. The fourth has his weapon yanked out of his hands by webbing before I suspend him from the roof with more of it.
"Well, you're the lucky one that doesn't get knocked out!" I tilt my head and pull my hood down. "Which is like, super bad for you, FYI. So you should thank me."
"You're the reason we're even out here tonight," the man growls at me. "Your involvement in the Tranantula's affairs has gone on too long."
"All this for little ol' me?" I respond, adopting the exaggerated accent of a Southern Belle. "You flatter me."
"You laugh now," the man laughs, venom seeping through his words. "But tonight, the tarantula will kill the spider, just as we, his followers, will destroy his enemies in the Maggia."
So they're on a shock-and-awe style attack tonight. They want to take out all their enemies in one swift and brutal night. Meaning the Black Tarantula himself is out there somewhere tonight, probably waiting for me.
Fun.
Looking around sarcastically, I say, "You, you guys are doing some real destruction here. I'm sure the Maggia's gonna be scared of some property damage."
"You are overconfident, Spider."
"Yea, and you're hanging from my web. So maybe a little overconfidence is warranted."
My spider sense sounds off a warning in my head, and I barely make it out of the way of a big, sand block aimed right at the back of my head. I watch, in almost slow motion as it connects with the Silk Cartel member, sending him bouncing like a ragdoll on the end of a bungee cord.
Looking up, I find myself face-to-face with Flint Marko, the Sandman, "Marko? Come on man. I already helped your bosses out tonight here. Do we really need to do this? Go home and I can kick your butt some other night."
"I ain't working for the Maggia no more," he snarls. "I'm just here to get the cash they owe me."
"Ugh, why do you guys always have to be so difficult?" I ask, ducking yet another attempted blow from him. "Can't the bad guys just take a night off once in a while?"
"Sorry, Spider-Dork," he responds, throwing yet another sloppy punch with a wreckingball-sized fist at me, "not when I still need to kill you."
I manage to backflip over the punch, unfortunately my opponent can literally change shape at any moment he wants. The large fist becomes a tendril which wraps itself around me leg and slams me into the wall of lockboxes on the wall of the vault, sending a shower of bills and wills flying into the air. The sandy tentacle snatches the money out of the air and incorporates it into the Sandman's body.
"Ew, Marko," I groggily taunt, "don't you know money is the dirtiest thing in the world? You're putting it inside yourself? Gross."
"You know, you should talk less," Marko snarls. "Maybe you'd be prettier then."
He rears up, forming both his hands together into a big sledge hammer, hoping to bring it down on me in a killing blow. Instead, the strike finds open air and the hard floor of the vault as I roll out of the way under it, closing the gap between Flint and I.
"You know, Marko, the crime I can tolerate," I say as I take one of the two remaining web grenades I have and push it into his chest. "But the casual misogeny is not appreciated."
I kick off his chest, driving the grenade deeper into his sandy body, and as I fly through the air I detonate the web grenade. The device goes off, splattering out of Marko's chest. If he was a normal person, what I'm looking at would be disgusting. Weblines covered in the silica particles that make up Flint Marko have exploded out of his torso in all directions like some sort of terrible sci fi death.
I don't know if it hurt him, but he is definitely in distress, "What the hell did you do to me!?"
"Web grenade. Friend of mine cooked them up for me," I smile and toss the other one up and down in my hand.
"No!" he pulls back, attemptting to get out of the snair. Some of him manages to escape, but most of the sand is trapped in the webbing. He manages to pull away, but he looks like a deflated balloon by the time he does. "This ain't over, webhead!"
With that, he dissolves into a heap, and blows away.
"Okay," I have to admit, "that exit was pretty cool."
My phone rings in my ear, and I answer, "Hello?"
"Gwen, are you out there?" Peter's voice asks.
"Yea," I respond. "Good news, the web grenades do wonders against Marko."
"That's great, but you're gonna want to get to Manhattan General," he changes the subject. "The Black Tarantula has taken the hospital hostage."
**********
The footfalls of the Black Tarantula echo off the walls of the hospital as he walks the halls. His men have already made sure the doctors and patients were barricaded in their rooms. If need be, he would allow a doctor to take care of their patients. He is not a monster. He is merely a man on a mission. He knows the Spider-Woman will foolishly fall into the trap he's set. She will be overconfident. She will come in thinking he is merely a man. And as long as she does come, he will have no reason to hurt these people.
Taking out the vial Octavius had given him, he places it in the injector, and forces the liquid into his bloodstream.
Instantly, he feels the strength flowing through him. The power high is something he will never tire of.
The only thing that will make him feel better is leaving the Spider-Woman dead at his feet.
A pity it's a high he'll only feel once.
She has inserted herself into his plans for the last time. He had conquered his home continent. Tonight he would conquer New York on his way to North America, on his way to the world. The Silk Cartel would control the crime world in every corner of the globe. Kings, Presidents, and Prime Ministers would fear to say his name.
**********
"Any word on how many men they have in there?" Captain George Stacy asks of the lead officer on the scene outside the hospital as he steps out of his car.
"We think almost three dozen, sir," the officer responds in a snap.
"Three dozen? Christ," Stacy rubs the back of his neck. "They mean business. As if tonight could get any crazier. Any demands?"
"Just one, sir. Guy called a few minutes ago. Only wants one thing. Says if he gets it, no one gets hurt."
"And what's that?"
"Spider-Woman, sir."
**********
"Peter," I say as I overlook the scene at the hospital. The entire place is surrounded by more cops than I thought lived in the city. They've set up a perimeter, a pretty standard formation. They're waiting to go in. Probably waiting for me to go in first. Smart. They know what's in there, and they probably know the Tarantula is waiting for me. Why go in and get someone hurt when all he wants is for me to go in there and face him. "I"m about to head into the building."
"I hacked into the police scanners. The ones they don't want people to hear," he responds, and I can hear keystrokes in the background. "I think there's about thirty or so Cartel members in there. Not including the Tarantula. He's made contact with the police. Says all he wants is you."
"Yea, that's been a running theme tonight," I sigh. "Says he's not gonna hurt anyone as long as I cooperate, right?"
"Hasn't said that much, to be honest. Just that he wants you."
"Well, he's in luck."
"Gwen...just...be careful, okay?" I can hear his understandable worry. "Tarantula is...different. He's a regular human, but he is the definition of infamous."
"Don't worry, Pete. I'll be fine. More than I can say about him though."
I swing towards the hospital, and towards the showdown with the Tarantula.
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