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2 yrs ago
Current Some of y'all are either too old to act the way you act, or too young to be taken seriously. Hard to tell some days.
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"Have the treatments been working, Mr. Masters."


February 2013, Moscow Symphony Orchestra... the opening of Tchaikovsky's sixth symphony. A violent and explosive beginning... sixth floor, red door.

Tony Masters seamlessly floated down the narrow hallway and through the now open doorway in his memory palace as the music grew louder and louder. As he entered in, he felt a loss of control over his perception. He was back in his body once again, younger certainly. He was wearing a suit, the faint sound of the music floating in through the vent vent in the bathroom. Masters looked at his own reflection in the mirror as he screwed the silencer onto his pistol. A familiar voice came in over his earpiece.

"Turgenov has taken the bait, and is in motion to answer the call. You've got to move now. I would recommend putting that memory of yours to use... give him a classic Romanoff takedown."

Masters watched himself smile in his reflection as he paused, waiting for the footsteps outside the bathroom to grow louder. Masters waited until he could hear the frantic man softly speaking Russian stomp past the door before quickly stepping into the hallway. What he wasn't expecting was the blonde woman in a cocktail dress that was trailing his target. The woman had her hand in her purse as her eyes met Masters' for only a moment. In a match of pure instinct, the two agents aimed their sidearms at each other. Before the barrels of their respective guns could hover over the chest of their targets, the two lifted their off hand and swiftly disarmed each other. With their guns swapped, the two matched stance and speed as they aimed their weapons.

"Ah, American. CIA or SHIELD?"

"FSB or Red Room?"

The memory froze in place as Taskmaster felt questions swarm his mind. What was I even looking for? Red Room? That's Widow's past... or was it SHIELD? Who was SHIELD?

"Well, Mr. Masters? You seem lost in thought."

"It works... but the problem is knowing what I'm looking for. The music helps find a memory,
but once I'm there, I don't know where I'm supposed to go next."


"Then let's focus on something fresh. Your assistant said you were out of town this weekend.
We could try starting there? Start up your playlist from the last song you listened to?"


The music stopped, and a new song kicked in after a moment. Tony turned his head as he was back in the palace, and saw that the end of the hallway didn't appear to be the same sort of door that the rest of the rooms in the mansion were. It seemed to be a bay door opening downward, and Taskmaster began running towards it. The opening on the other side was silvery white, and Taskmaster realized it was the moon as he jumped out the back of the AC-130, closing his eyes as he made himself as narrow as possible as he dove head first towards the ground. He heard a feminine voice in his ear barking out his distance from the ground every few seconds. Tony realized as he fell into the darkness of the clouds below that he didn't even know why he was here anymore. Or who he was... who was he?

As he felt the air rush past him, he remembered an airport... maybe? Planes flying back and forth. Theatrics. Prop planes and jets. Golden and black parachutes. Was that him? No, couldn't be. He was on the ground. But he saw the moves through binoculars. The muscle memory... of course.

He was the Taskmaster.

Location: Berlin - Germany
Reflections #1.01: 99 Luftballons

Interaction(s): None
Previously: None


Right this moment, Tony Masters had a goal: land. His HUD highlighted a rooftop location, and Taskmaster readjusted himself accordingly to dive towards it. The voice in his ear kept repeating his height, but she dared not to scream for him to open his chute. She knew that he wasn't really listening. He was running on autopilot. At the last conceivable moment he pulled his parachute and immediately pulled his chute out into a tight aerial spin to lower his momentum, responding with two more in succession. The rooftop rapidly approached, and Taskmaster leveled out at the last second to pull just out above the designated spot. As soon as his boots touched the ground, Taskmaster pulled his black parachute in tight and removed the harness to stow the material out of eyesight from the street below. Within a moment, Taskmaster lifted a finger towards his ear. "Operative has touched down. Awaiting instructions."

"1 minute until shift change. Target is a terminal with encrypted data, exact location unknown."

Taskmaster walked to the edge of the Berlin rooftop to eye the warehouse across the street. He readjusted his Armored gloves, his eyes scanning over the scene from behind a skeletal face mask. Thirteen guards manning the side lot, covering the only entrance or exit into the warehouse... no, safe house. Taskmaster tapped the side of his helmet, magnifying his vision to focus on the neck of one of the street Thugs. His HUD highlighted over the fringes of the tattoo peaking over the collar of the Thug's jacket, and then provided a secondary image showing the symbol the tattoo was based on: a dark circle with a multi-headed Serpent in the center. Taskmaster nodded in recognition as the term "Hydra" appeared over the image. Flashes of instant recognition fired in Taskmaster's synapses as his muscles worked on their own. He removed a compressed bow from his belt and pumped his arm to expand it to its full size. He produced an arrow from a small holster on his right calf and tapped the knock against a small grapple on his belt. After attaching one end to the wall next to the roof access door behind him, Taskmaster fired the line arrow down towards the opposite rooftop. "Line set. Why am I stealing from my former employers?"

"I don't know, TM. You created this contract."

Taskmaster didn't have time to ponder the revelation as a small clicking sound in his ear signified the minute had passed. He collapsed the bow with one hand as another produced a small metal handle that attached to the zip line. Within a moment the Mercenary was sailing through the air as his free hand grasped onto three bat-shaped shuriken between his knuckles. With a flick of the wrist, the projectiles aimed true to impact against the flood lights in the parking lot to plunge the area into darkness as the moon's light was obscured by heavy cloud cover.

The thugs lifted their guns at the sudden change in light, and the Taskmaster drank in their fear from the shadows of the rooftop. He pressed a small button on the side if his mask to switch to night vision. He tapped his left wrist guard to reveal a small wrist mounted bow, knocking two small arrows and letting them loose to strike two separate Thugs in the northwest corner. They wouldn't be able to reveal much as they were busy choking on steel and their own blood, but they did helplessly fire their automatic weapons into the air. The Thugs turned their attention away from Taskmaster's location in response, giving the Mercenary an opportunity to jump down into the shadows of the parking lot.

Taskmaster produced a knife from his belt and moved swiftly, his footsteps silent and mirroring the movements of his scared prey... a little trick from the League of Shadows. One quick slice along the jugular and two stabs in the chest to puncture the left and right lung. The first thug didn't have any breath or energy to scream for help by the time Taskmaster had moved on to his best friend only a few paces away. The rest of the guards didn't notice something was wrong until seven in total were down for the count. With half their number gone, the remaining guards in the center of the parking lot recoiled at the sight of their adversary and raised their weapons. Taskmaster pulled his shield over his shoulder into his arm to intercept the hail of gunfire, rushing forward. He charged into one of the guards to catapult him backwards into a secondary guard while pulling out his sword into his main hand. Bullets were caught by the shield as the Taskmaster cut through the guards still standing, tearing through blood and flesh like paper. Once they were dispatched, Taskmaster twisted in the air to launch his shield back towards the guards he had charged into, who were getting back to their feet. The disk bounced off one of their skulls into the head of the other, and the sickening crunch confirmed their deaths as the Taskmaster caught his returning shield. He slung it over his shoulder as he reached a finger up to his ear. "Perimeter secure. That's got to be a record."

"Not even close, Operative. Stay on target."

Taskmaster nodded as he slung the shield back into place on his back and flicked the blood off his sword before sheathing it. He knelt down next to one of the dead guards, his visor scanning his face as he pulled his hood back. Lights on the mask began to shift and create a holographic image of the deceased guard. Taskmaster rolled a finger over his left gauntlet as footage of his observation of the parking lot rewound. With a few quick taps, he isolated the voice of the guard speaking to his comrades. After a couple of taps, Taskmaster plucked the guard's rifle from his dead hands and stalked towards the entrance. He slammed the butt of the rifle into the metal door, and an slit opened as the inside guard peeked out.

"Hail Hydra." Taskmaster's voice modulated inside the helmet and shifted into a recreation of the guard's voice in German.

"Hail Hydra. What was with the shooting?"

"Franz got scared shitless by a bat. I need to piss, mind letting me in?"

"Do it quick, before the officers get back."

Taskmaster nodded, and the door opened. He slipped inside and quickly bashed the hard end of the rifle into the guard's temple as the disguise faded and Taskmaster stood in front of five guards lounging about at the security checkpoint. Everyone stood still for a moment as Taskmaster's eyes darted around around room. Five vs one was hardly fair for the five when the one had the training of the Punisher... and had his hands on a loaded gun. As the Hydra guards reached for their weapons, Taskmaster swung the rifle in an arc while pressing down on the trigger. Blood sprayed against the back wall as the guards all fell limp. Taskmaster tossed the weapon aside as he tapped a small button on his gauntlet. "What is my objective here..."

Almost as if in response, text scrolled along the side of his HUD. <Objective: Copy SHIELD intercept files to ghost drive from terminal on sublevel 3. Delete all evidence.>

Taskmaster nodded, unholstering the sidearm from his side as he pushed deeper into the facility.

"Whatever you say... me."
I have something I want to work on App wise but I'm going to sit on it as I don't have the time. How does everything think this is going? I know the pace has slowed but I think we're at quite a healthy place right now.


Yeah, I've been slower to post than I would like. But dedication and interest doesn't seem to have slowed much. I have posts in the works that will drop this week once I'm back home.

Whipped something up.


Location: Lower East Side, Manhattan - New York City
Something Sinister #1.03: Can't I catch a break?

Interaction(s): None


Peter grunted as he rolled over the side of the rooftop towards an alley, plummeting towards the ground after being thrown some fifty yards by Doc Ock. Instinctively, Pete raised both his arms and fired off two weblines to catch himself between the two buildings on his right and left. His muscles strained to catch him, already beginning to burn from exhaustion. He barely had a second to catch his breath when he felt a familiar tingling sensation running up his spine behind him. Learning from his mistake, he released his left line to swing right, spinning around to face the street entrance of the alley. Vulture had tucked his wings and was attempting to tackle Spider-Man in mid-air, but Pete still had some speed and energy left in him. He lifted his left wrist to fire a quick spray of webbing into Vulture's face, blinding his adversary temporarily. Adrian Toomes cried out in surprise and extended his wings, which began scrapping along the sides of the narrow alley. Pete smiled as he released his current webline upon impacting against the wall, and kicked off to tackle the Vulture. "Come on, Adrian, I've done that to you so many times. How do you still keep falling for it?"

Spider-Man latched on to his adversary, alternating hands to fire off webbing against the nearby walls and attaching them to his adversary. Vulture desperately tried to spin around in the alley, but his wings didn't afford him much maneuverability in such a confined space. Spider-Man's eyes scanned over Vulture's flight suit, his HUD highlighting the wiring and helping the engineer to make sense of the technology he was seeing. Peter eyed a few wires, and shrugged as he pried back some of the armor plating and pulled on a couple of wires. Suddenly, the jetpack on Vulture's back fired its thrusters and the two accelerated upwards... only to suddenly slow and strain against the web trap Spider-Man had lain. As the threads began to tear, Spider-Man reached back in towards the exposed wiring with both hands as he looped one leg around Adrian's arm to keep steady. He sighed and pushed the copper ends of the wires back towards their connectors, praying he had enough of an understanding of the system. To his luck, Vulture's thrusters were cut and the two were suddenly shot back towards the ground. Spider-Man rolled over Vulture's body and kicked off his adversary to try and land on the adjacent rooftop.

Of course, Peter was too focused on his maneuver to trust in his instincts. He felt a tingle running up his arm that he assumed was just a jolt of electricity. Now he knew it was a warning as a long mechanical arm had wrapped around his torso as he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. Spider-Man watched as another tentacle had extended down into the alleyway to catch the Vulture before he impacted against the ground, lifting the villain up and setting him on the rooftop. Doctor Otto Octavius smiled at his arch nemesis in his clutches, powerless against his enhanced prosthetics. "Your old tricks won't work on me, Spider-Man. I've been waiting for this."

Spider-Man was pushed down and backwards into the wall of the building on the opposite side of the alley, the brick bending and bowing to the great force demonstrated. Two of Ock's arms moved of their own volition towards the Vulture, and exposed soldering irons to quickly patch up Adrian's flight suit. Spider-Man got his legs beneath him and quickly pushed off from the wall with great force to try and knock Ock off balance, but found instead that Ock's other tentacle arm came in at the last second to grasp Spider-Man's right leg by digging into his calf and yanking him down. The two arms worked in tandem to pull the hero away from the wall and stretch out his leg, with Peter screaming in pain at the sudden strain on his muscles. Leaning into his instincts and summoning all of the strength he had, Peter reached up and pried back the appendage wrapped around his chest. Doc Ock kept a bemused smirk on his face as his eye twitched in acknowledgement of the pain his limb was being caused. With his chest free, Spider-Man fired a webline down towards an old metal trash can lid in the alley below and yanked it up to his hands as he began dangling from Doc Ock's tentacle. Spider-Man slammed the trash can lid into the arm in between two of the expandable segments that formed the mechanical arms. As a result of cognitive feedback, the claws at the end of the arm retracted and Spider-Man began falling once again. He reached out and fired out a quick webline to pull him to the opposite wall from his adversaries, clinging on with his feet and one arm as he looked back at them. His breathing had become shallow as he felt the sting of blood pooling from the wounds in his chest and leg. "Come on, Doc... I'm gonna have to sew this back together."

The Vulture stood back up to his full height and extended his mechanical wings out, the independent shards of metal resembling feathers reflecting in the daylight. "Why don't we give this another go, Otto? Squash this bug once and for all?"

Doc Ock smirked for a moment, before tilting his head and lifting one of his human fingers towards his ear. He looked away from the others for a moment as he focused in on what he was hearing over the comms, and shook his head in frustration. "It's not part of the plan, Toomes. Take him to see our mutual friend."

Peter's spine tingled and he attempted to launch himself from the rooftop, but Ock's reaction speed with the tentacles was faster than the hero remembered. As Spider-Man had begun twirling through the air, the mechanical limbs grasped his wrists and held him aloft as Toomes charged forward, mechanical talons on his feet latching onto Spider-Man to keep his arms in place as Vulture took off Southwest towards Greenwich. Peter struggled in his uncomfortable captivity as he looked up at the Vulture. "Taking orders from Otto now? I thought you didn't work for anyone, Adrian."

Spider-Man felt the talons dig in a little deeper in response as the Vulture soared briefly over the New York Skyline, before ultimately diving down towards the city streets. "I'm not taking orders from nobody, Spider-Man. But we can talk this over more once you've been eaten."

Peter opened his mouth to speak, but found no words as he desperately tried to process Adrian's words. That is, until his train of thought was interrupted by the sign of absolute chaos below. Standing in the center of Empire State University's Main Quad was a hulking being made of writhing red fibers known as a symbiote. Or, more accurately in this case, a very specific symbiote by the name of Carnage. Peter's jaw screwed shut as he watched Carnage's arm transform into a spear and extend through the police barricade, impaling a police officer and pulling him closer. Carnage's jaw unhinged and grew in size as his tongue slithered out to carress the officer's face.

Spider-Man felt the talons begin to loosen as Toomes hovered above the scene below, and Peter took the opportunity to flex and push out from his grapple. He rolled into a dive straight down with his arms at his sides to begin closing the distance, before spinning in the air to deliver a powerful kick towards Carnage's head. Of course, Carnage simply turned his head to face the Spider-Man and closed his jaw. The symbiote tossed the officer across the lawn with a quick flick, and a dozen small tentacles shot out from Carnage's chest to wrap themselves around the hero as he got close. The tentacles pulled Spider-Man away in unison as his foot got within a few inches, and flicked the hero with tremendous force backwards into a granite sign that bore the name of the University. Spider-Man's body shattered the hard stone and sent searing pain up his back. Spider-Man rolled along the pavement of the main sidewalk for a few feet before coming to a stop on his face. Peter turned his gaze back towards Carnage, his mask wet with blood around his lips and his muscles aching in pain that begged for surrender. But Peter Parker got his hands underneath him and pushed himself back up onto his feet slowly. His breathing was labored after spending the better part of the last half-hour fighting the Vulture and Doc Ock across the Midtown skyline. "You're working with people again, Cletus? Didn't work out last time, did it?"

As expected, that provoked an attack. Spider-Man ducked and pivoted as Carnage's spear arm launched forward. This bought Spider-Man enough time to reach up towards his earpiece, tapping the communicator twice to patch him in to the local SHIELD broadcast. "This is Avenger 004 calling for immediate backup. Carnage on site... not sure how long I can hold him." Peter rolled out of the way as Carnage's extended appendage swung violently in his direction upon missing his first attack. When this too failed, the villain shrieked in frustration.

"Spider-Man, your situation has been deemed a class 2 priority. Stand-by."

Peter's shoulders slumped slightly in momentary defeat. One of the most dangerous and cannibalistic villains Spider-Man ever faced was wreaking havoc in the heart of New York City, and it still wasn't deemed important enough for immediate support. Carnage bound towards his adversary as Spider-Man fired a webline at Carnage to pull himself closer. Just as Carnage's hands reached out to grasp Peter, the hero slid along the pavement underneath the monster and sprung up on the other side. Spider-Man jumped horizontally to deliver a swift dropkick into Carnage's back, but it seemed to do little more than to cause the creature to stumble. The symbiote turned its head back to face the Spider, and Pete gave a small sigh as he backflipped into a more advantageous position on top of what remained of the granite sign. "Come on, Cletus. What do you have to gain from working with the rest of the Raft's petting zoo?"

Cletus didn't seem to be in a talkative mood, as his response was to launch both arms into the granite sign below Peter and pull himself towards the hero with great speed. Spider-Man jumped high into the air to try and dodge the charge, but Carnage seemed to read the play. A couple tentacles bolted out towards the Spider's foot and caught him in mid-air, cutting his momentum and forcing the hero to take the charge from the massive beast. Carnage pinned Spider-Man to the ground with his left hand, while the right hand's fingers sharpened into spindly claws. With a flash of speed, the symbiote dug the claws into Peter's abdomen. Spider-Man gasped for breath at the sudden piercing pain, reaching a free arm out to try and punch Carnage's arm to let him go. This only angered the symbiote, which responded in kind by twisting and pulling out the clawed hand. Carnage's slithering tongue coiled around the clawed hand to lick up the dripping blood as Peter felt his vision begin to blur. The last thing Peter saw as he desperately tried to cling on to consciousness was Carnage's unhinging jaw drawing near.

That, and a brief flash of movement out of the corner of his eye on the rooftop of ESU's Administrative Building.




Location: The Gamma Dome - Las Vegas, Nevada
Gamma World Tie-In #1.02: Under the Dome

Interaction(s): Hulk @Sep, She-Hulk @Kyoka


Peter finished zipping up the front of his radiation suit and patched up the velcro to keep it secure. The suit was bulky and uncomfortable, which was a far cry from the usual suits he sported. But he took it in stride nonetheless. Banner knew what we was talking about when it came to Gamma radiation, and turning into a large green monster whenever he was inconvenienced would definitely harm his whole "Friendly-Neighborhood" brand. So Spider-Man wore the inflexible radiation suit nonetheless, slapping his webshooters and a retractable adhesive sleeve over his gloves. While not ideal, they would work in a pinch to keep him mobile.

He had never really known Jennifer or Bruce well. Banner, while a member of the Avengers, seemed to prefer being left to his own devices. Besides, Peter always seemed to busy for social visits to his fellow Avengers. He never really saw anyone unless he was working. Speaking of which, he was reminded once again what he was here to do as the scientists skittered out of the ship upon landing. They were busy setting up their equipment, ready to do their jobs. And as they were, Peter realized he was drastically underqualified for something like this. Gamma monsters were a specialty for the Hulk and Banner, and She-Hulk seemed to be able to handle her own. Something told Peter that a few flips and webs weren't going to be able to solve this problem. But it was definitely worth a shot.

Entering the dome was strange. Passing through the green wall had some resistance to it, almost as if passing through a semi-permeable barrier. Probably because that is exactly what this was in a literal sense, if not the scientific. But a more emotional weight fell on him at the realization the very air outside of his suit was dangerous. A small display appeared at the very edge of the HUD for his costume's lens, feeding readings of the radiation levels inside and outside of his radiation suit. His gaze turned towards Banner, who seemed to be beginning his transformation. He gave a quick look to Jennifer, knowing from history he would have a better time reasoning with Walters than the big guy. "We should probably get an idea of what we're working with in here, so it might help if I can get a higher vantage point and scope out visually. Try to find us the quickest path to where we're going. Thoughts?"

C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T P R O P O S A L
T A S K M A S T E R


T O N Y M A S T E R S M E R C E N A R Y E A R T H T H E O R G
C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T:


"So... who do you want to fight today?"

My aim with running Taskmaster in this run is to emphasize his nature as a tragic villain, keeping in line with the Taskmaster comic runs around a decade ago. The 2010 Taskmaster limited run was a beautifully horrific examination of the character that is ripe for exploration in a more collaborative space. I think the mythology around Taskmaster's past from this run would be toned down slightly, but keeps some of the most important elements. Tony Masters was a prodigy due to his photographic reflexes, an ability to copy the movement and patterns of anyone he watches. This gift got him personally recruited into SHIELD, where Masters' gifts were fostered and used by everyone's favorite eye-patch wearer. His career in SHIELD started in the 2000s, and his tactics and methods became increasingly ruthless over time. For reasons kept close to the chest by Fury, Masters was declared an enemy of the organization six years ago. And six years ago, the Taskmaster was born.

Taskmaster has climbed his way to the top of the most wanted list by both law enforcement and several crime syndicates. With the backing of "The Org," Taskmaster is able to stay one step ahead of his adversaries. That being said... a good number of henchmen for some of the most wealthy crime organizations around the world have employed Taskmaster at one point or another to train them in fighting a number of heroes and vigilantes. After all, who better to teach you how to defeat a hero than someone who knows, implicitly, how all of them fight.

P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ):



Taskmaster is a character I'm hoping to write as entirely fluid in the types of stories that he is involved in. He has personal goals and motives for trying to hunt down Nick Fury, but is also beholden to a criminal organization that assigns him contracts that could bring him in opposition to (or to support) any number of heroes and villains in Sensation and Wonder. In between stints squaring off with any number of heroes and vigilantes, Tony Masters has more than enough on his plate. He has personal grudges against a number of crime families and gangs who double crossed him, and is trying to find a way to combat his memory loss. Every fight takes a little bit more out of the Taskmaster... he just has to find a cure before there's nothing left to save.

C H A R A C T E R N O T E S:



Example Heroic Fighting Styles memorized from video footage or direct confrontation (in no particular order):

Captain America
Spider-Man
Daredevil
Batman and the Batfamily
Black Widow
Hawkeye
The Punisher








P O S T C A T A L O G:

A list linking to your IC posts as they're created. This can be used for a reference guide to your character or to summarize completed arcs and stories.

May or may not have a little RoamingTM drop coming soon...
Location: Wall Street - New York City
Something Sinister #1.02: Are all my foes animals?

Interaction(s): None


<Ur late.>

<Trains late. 15 min out>


Pete sighed as he quickly typed out his response with his left hand while running at a slight incline along the sixteenth story windows of a building on his right. Fifteen minutes seemed like more than enough time to quickly deal with whatever rogue decided to rip up Wall Street and then swing over to a nice little cafe in Soho that MJ had picked out. Maybe pick up some flowers from Mrs. Li on the way to help smooth things over. That couldn't hurt, at the very least. After all, Mrs. Li did insist on paying Spider-Man back. Pete slipped the phone back into a small pocket on his waist and zipped it up, whipping around the corner of the building with a webline to get a clear line of sight down Nassau to the Stock Exchange. His lenses narrowed as he made out a familiar gray figure hulking over the nearby cop cars.

Aleksei Sytsevich, known by most as the infamous Rhino, chuckled as the police let loose a wave of bullets from behind their patrol cars at the supervillain. Despite doing this dance for nearly a decade now, the cops still hadn't quite grasped the idea Rhino's skin was now bulletproof. Ignoring the gunfire, Alecksei turned his back to the police barricading The intersection of Wall and Broad to approach an iconic statue of a girl and a bull. Rhino wrapped his hands around the metal bull's legs and ripped it from its base, turning his body and throwing the statue with a lateral swing. The statue flew through the air with tremendous speed towards one of the police cruisers, and the cops were tripping over themselves trying to dive out of the projectile's path.

Luckily for them, they didn't need to dive out of the way. For a certain spider-themed hero landed a couple yards in front of the police cruiser, and braced his arms to catch the statue. Spider-Man's feet began digging into the cracking asphalt as he was slid a few feet from the impact, his body straining slightly before setting the bull statue to the side. Pete took a moment to catch his breath as he patted the bull's back, before turning his gaze back towards the Rhino. "This your cousin, Alecksei? I can see the family resemblance."

Rhino shook his head and grunted as he took a few steps towards his adversary. "You have come again to jest, Pauk? How predictable." Rhino began to hasten his steps, lowering his head to initiate a charge towards the Spider-Man.

Spider-Man rushed forward to greet Rhino, jumping up into the air at the last second well above even Alecksei's reach. As the brute charged underneath, Peter lifted his wrists to fire several webs towards Rhino's horn. As soon as the Spider landed, he yanked back on the webs with all his might to pull Alecksei's head back and slow down his charge. "Predictable is a pretty big word for ya, Alecksei. You break out of prison to finally finish the eighth grade?"

The Rhino turned around as he slowed down, ripping the webbing off the horn protruding from his forehead and giving it a pull in return. Pete tried to quickly disconnect the webs, but was uncharacteristically slow on the draw. He was pulled forward a few yards, only to be grabbed by the throat mid-air. Spider-Man was choke-slammed into the pavement, asphalt cratering underneath as the Rhino leaned in close. "We have spent the last year preparing for this, Pauk."

Rhino began to lift Spider-Man up, but Peter responded by quickly flicking his wrist upwards to fire a tangle of webbing over Alecksei's eyes. The villain grunted and let Spider-Man go, desperately trying to remove the webbing before it got into his eyes. Pete did a backwards handspring once freed to give him some distance, before rushing forward and firing a webline past Rhino to launch a flying kick into the supervillain's face. The foot impacted against Alecksei's jaw, jostling his head a little as the Spider flew past Rhino. "We? You working with someone now, or do I need to take you to the Asylum once I'm done with you?"

Rhino roared in response, turning around to charge Spider-Man again. The latter of these two, however, anticipated this. It was a dance they had danced a dozen times by now. Spider-Man rushed towards Rhino and slid along the asphalt under the big guy, turning to deliver a glancing blow to the side of Rhino's knee with a quick punch. Peter bounced back up to his feet while shaking his sore hand, and the big guy collapsed as his leg gave out. Spider-Man followed up by firing a few blasts from his webshooters at Rhino's downed leg, just enough to force Alecksei to struggle against the restraints for a few moments to try and get to his feet. Pete turned away from Rhino and quickly rushed towards the nearest building, jumping up to run perpendicular up the wall for a few moments. Just before reaching the roof he pushed off the wall, pirouetting in midair over Alecksei. Spider-Man began to extend his arms out, intending to fire off two weblines to pull himself towards his adversary for a powerful kick.

As Peter was setting up his brutal attack, he felt a tingling sensation crawl up his spine. He was confused and turned his gaze to his right out of pure instinct, only to see a familiar set of green-tipped wings rocketing towards him. He had no time to react before Vibranium slammed into his ribcage and knocked him flailing through the air. Peter clutched his side just as a large metal claw wrapped around his torso and dug into his flesh through his suit. The Vulture took off with great speed further into Manhattan while Peter struggled against the claws digging into him. Adrian Toomes looked down through his advanced flight helmet towards his prey. "Why don't we go for a little ride, just like old times."

Peter let his head fall back to look towards where Vulture was flying, and saw a familiar set of four mechanical tentacles pulling a man up the side of the Empire State Building. Spider-Man wiggled his fingers between the vibranium talons and his suit to get the leverage to pull himself free, firing a quick webline to pull himself towards a nearby rooftop. Peter tucked and rolled into a classic three-point landing as he looked up towards his two adversaries as they circled the nearby landmark. "Great... Rhino's working with the rest of the animals..." Peter quickly unzipped his pocket to quickly shoot off a text.

<Make that 30>
Location: The Daily Bugle Offices - New York City
Gamma World Tie-In #1.01: Two Jobs

Interaction(s): None


"What are you expecting, Parker? These shots look almost identical to ones you've already given me years ago. It'd be cheaper just to run one of the photos I've already paid you for and get an intern to just fix the colors in photoshop." Jameson ripped the usb from his desktop and whipped it with force back at Peter, who instinctively reached up to catch it before it struck him in the nose. The grizzled editor removed the cigar from his lips to puff out a large cloud of smoke, turning his gaze to the intern working on a small laptop on the couch in the corner of the office. "Robbie, search the August 2018 catalog and pull the one I want. And make sure to correct the black parts of the suit to blue... I don't need those Reddit trolls slamming us for using an outdated photo."

Robbie raised a timid hand as his voice shook. "Um... sir... which one from August..." Without so much as a word of response, Jameson whistled and snapped his fingers before pointing to the door. The intern got the hint and quickly shuffled out of the office. Peter stared in disbelief at the usb in his hand.

"There's got to be something in here that you can use, sir." Peter felt his pocket buzz as his phone got a notification.

"Parker, I've been buying photos off of you for... what... 5 years?"

"10." His phone buzzed again.

"10? I thought there was another guy before you."

"No, that was Brock. He was after I-" A third buzz.

Jameson slammed his palm on the table before pointing at Peter, shutting up the freelancer immediately. "That's not the point. The point is, I expect more from you. You come back here with something that'll knock my socks off. Now get out of my office before I replace you with a drone sporting a dollar store haircut. And answer your damn phone, it's distracting."

Peter grit his teeth as he slipped out of the office, pulling out his phone to see a large SHIELD logo lighting up his screen. His eyebrows raised and his jaw slacked as he tapped the logo, and a map of his immediate surroundings was pulled up. A building three blocks away was pinned, and Peter tapped a small green checkmark in the bottom right corner. He knew he had 5 minutes to get over there... but he could easily make it in 3. He quickly waltzed into the stairwell, barely waiting for the door to slam behind him as he tossed his bag into a corner and pulled his t-shirt over his head to reveal his skin-tight suit underneath his clothes. It only took him a few moments to remove his street clothes and secure his mask and gloves. He zipped up to the top of the stairwell and peeked his head out of the roof access door, making sure no one was taking a smoke break. Seeing that he was clear, Spider-Man buckled his backpack around his abdomen and fired two weblines against the building next door. He pulled back swiftly to launch himself forward into an aerial roll, effortlessly handspringing off the edge of the adjacent rooftop at an angle to soar over the streets below.

Peter swung with ease to the designated rooftop, stretching his arms back and swinging them forward to clap as he waited a few moments for the quinjet to arrive. After less than a minute, Peter felt his muscles tense as the aircraft had suddenly dropped its cloaking device and hovered above Spider-Man. He quickly jumped up into the open hatch near the rear of the aircraft, instinctively making his way towards a jump seat along the wall before putting on a headset and strapping himself in. "You're early, Kelso. Miss me that much?"

The SHIELD pilot shook her head, flipping a couple switches as she prepared the aircraft for takeoff. "Director Rogers wants you to report to Dr. Banner at Gamma Base. He will debrief you on arrival."

Peter leaned back in his seat, yawning as the weight of another night with little rest was finally hitting him. "Let me know when we're there, Kelso. I need a beauty nap."

"Sleep tight, webhead."
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