Spider-Man/Muppets Fanfic: The Spectacular

I love it i hope to read the next chapter.

Thanks for the comments.

Count, I believe Lilo's hair is actually black (her dress is a mixture of red and white). And if you do have any questions to ask me, you can just send me a PM at anytime.

I'll try to have another chapter up soon. School started back for me yesterday, so I'll pretty much be having my hands tied from now through the Fall season.

And if anybody is wondering about the status of "The Silver Crystal" story, I just want to mention that I haven't forgotten about it. I'm basically going to focus on working on one "MARVELOUS" story at a time, considering my return to school. Once I finish with "The Spectacular" (I'm pretty much in the middle of the story right now), I'll go on with "The Silver Crystal". And after that, I'll start on that Ghost Rider/Labyrinth/Storyteller crossover, which I'm planning on starting by Halloween (ironic, eh?).

cool!

Chapter Thirteen

It didn’t take very long for everyone at the Happiness Hotel to find out the current location of Nicky Holiday and the “Arla’s.” In fact, it was very surprising to discover that their exact location was within an abandoned art museum—the same one that the Muppets (with assistance from Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable on their first case) foiled an attempted theft at the hands of Nicky Holiday and his gang. For the Muppets to come back to the scene of the crime was a bit overwhelming, especially considering that their adversaries had done the same.

As expected, there was hardly anything to fortify the area. The pepperoni-hating security guard known as Henderson was in London, serving as guard for another museum, and the pack of trained German Shepherds that provided additional security were no longer there either. However, it made easier for the Muppets (as well as Holiday and his gang) to enter the premises, but also brought a great deal of tension over them, not knowing from where Holiday might strike.

The place was a total ruin, and it was almost like walking onto historical land for the Muppets (even though they were the ones who made it so historical). They had taken little precaution before coming there, believing that Nicky Holiday and his gang would be much easier to stop a second time than the first. All that they felt was needed to be done was occupy the thieves long enough for the police to arrive and arrest them again. The plan was simple and could easily be accomplished, even without the aid of Spider-Man. Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable, in the meantime, would be responding to a disturbance at a nearby bank that they assumed Shego and the Sandman would be.

Before entering what was left of the Mallory Gallery, Kermit turned to his feet and quietly addressed them. The frog seemed slightly nervous as he told them, “I just want to tell you guys that I’m real glad you didn’t hesitate to come this time. I truly believe that if we stopped these thieves once, we can do it again. They’re just the same old red-handed crooks.”

“I knew their hands were still red.” Beauregard remarked, and the others groaned at him, while Kermit tried his best to stay on topic.

“Listen, let’s all just be careful.” He said. “I’m sure they’ll have a few tricks up their sleeves this time, so stay alert. Are there any questions?” Beauregard raised his hand and Kermit reluctantly acknowledged his request. “Yes, Beau?”

Beau lowered his hand and then asked, “Will they have anything else up their sleeves besides tricks?”

Everyone groaned once again over the Muppet Theatre janitor’s stupidity over the matter at hand. Rather than bothering to answer his question, Kermit just turned towards the entrance of the Mallory Gallery and led his friends inside. As they slowly moved down a deserted hallway, each of them couldn’t help but to notice how pitch-black it was.

“I wonder if the lights still work.” Fozzie said, while approaching a nearby light switch that he spotted as he came in. Flipping the switch, a massive spark of electricity shot out from the light switch and across the room, nearly catching the startled Fozzie.

Kermit and the others jumped as well, hearing the electrical noise that the sparks made as they fired out. “Fozzie! Be careful!”

“Sorry.” Fozzie remarked, before following his friends further into the building. Neither of them noticed how the sparks that were continuing to shoot out from the light switch had quickly formed into the figure of Carla, who was grinning wickedly at the Muppets.

They passed by a broken pipe that had been leaking a great deal of water, creating a large puddle near it. As soon as they were away from it, something unusual bobbled through the surface of the puddle: the watery figure of a woman’s head, looking in the direction of the departing Muppets. The head had soon risen out of the puddle, and once its entire feminine figure had materialized, it quickly formed into the familiar appearance of Marla. It wasn’t long before Carla had joined her side, the two exchanging sinister glances before slowly pursuing the Muppets.

The group had arrived in the main display hall, where Lady Holiday’s Baseball Diamond was housed and the Muppets had successfully kept Nicky Holiday from stealing it. The room looked just as ravaged as the rest of the museum did. The display case that the diamond was once inside of had dust collected all over it, with parts of the glass cracked, and the walls of the room looked as if they were seconds away from crumbling to pieces, having both large and small holes in them that functioned as passageways for rats and spiders.

“This place makes the Happiness Hotel look like the Ritz!” Piggy exclaimed in disgust, as she glanced up at one of the stained glass windows in the room and realized that it was from there that she made her remarkable entrance on a motorcycle. “Does that ever bring back bad memories for me!”

“Everything here brings back bad memories.” Fozzie stated.

There was a loud crashing noise in the darkest corner of the room that startled the group. They then heard a very familiar voice from those shadows, but hardly make out the face or appearance of the man that was talking. “What do you puppets know about ‘bad memories’? Everything always comes easy for all of you, with your fancy Broadway shows, your movie offers, your part-time jobs…all of your success just comes to ya, as if you had golden spoons in your mouths!”

“Nicky!” Kermit called out to the stranger. “Why don’t you just come clean, okay? The cops will be coming soon. Let’s not try to repeat another crazy situation here like last time, alright?”

Holiday chuckled. “Now there’s a first! Neither of you Muppets wants to be involved in a crazy situation. Crazy is what you are! Crazy is what you’ve always been! And crazy is what you turned me into, after sentencing me to life at Riker’s Island!” His voice sounded deeper and more hoarse than it had ever before. It was so powerful that it literally shook the walls.

Piggy, remembering how close she and Holiday became an item (before he framed her of jewel theft), attempted to talk some sense into him. “Nicky… chéri…remember me? Miss Piggy? The one who lip-synced to in sweet melody?”

“How could I not forget such a ridiculous piece of pork?” Holiday remarked, and they all stood there silently for a moment, finding it pretty gutsy for Holiday to make such a comment towards the pig, knowing how furious she would get.

Not saying another word to Holiday, the seething Piggy turned to her friends and said in a very deep tone, “LET’S TEAR HIM APART!” She then roared with great fury, as she ran towards the shadows. But she was soon stopped by something very unnatural. A large set of electrical sparks flashed near the left of her, while a splash of water partially drenched her from the right. Blinking her left eye repeatedly and wiping the water out from the other, she gazed in front of her to see Marla and Carla standing before the shadowed area and blocking Piggy’s path. “Perfect! Two former models who’re ready to get their butts handed to them just like last time!”

“You know…ever since you puppets stepped in, all I’ve been hearing is the past repeating itself.” Holiday uttered. “Well, you know what…” Holiday then stepped out from the shadows and into the light of the moon that shined through holes in the stained glass windows, revealing his frighteningly new form. He was much taller than the last time the Muppets met him and much more muscular, all because of the blue and green “Scorpion Armor” that Rachel Bitterman loaned him, which also enhanced his bodily structure while wearing it. Attached to the armor was a cybernetic tail that moved whenever he operated mentally through a metallic helmet that he wore, which covered all sections of his head except for his eyes and mouth. The helmet looked as if it could’ve been a distant cousin of a lucha libre mask. Holiday couldn’t have sounded more sinister as he finished his statement, saying, “…it ends tonight!”

The eyes on all of the Muppets widened in shock and horror, as they gawked at Nicky’s new armor and the way Marla and Carla had transformed their bodies into either one huge wave of water or one big electrical spark. They soon found themselves running for their lives, trying to escape from the trap that Holiday and his gang had led them into. But with each attempt they made to head out of the room, they were met with the ferocity of Marla, Carla, or Holiday, who lashed out at them with a powerful wave of water, a deadly bolt of electricity, or a fierce swing from a cybernetic tail.

Holiday’s primary target was Kermit, who was the one that had literally made the final blow in foiling their jewel theft by hitting him over the head with the Baseball Diamond and knocking him out. Every time he swung his grotesque and menacing tail at him, the frog would narrowly escape it, leaving Holiday to shatter something else to pieces, like the display case at the center of the room. With each swing from Holiday’s tail and Kermit’s dodging from them, the room became more ravaged than it was when they had arrived. Hardly anyone noticed how the floor was beginning to crack under the mighty weight of Holiday’s scorpion armor, as well as the blows that he, Marla, and Carla were unleashing.

In the midst of the confrontation, Darla arrived at the scene on the roof of the building, standing near the skylight and looking down to see the fight taking place in the main display hall. She was dressed in her new “battle suit,” the yellow quilted costume (complete with a mask of the same design) and the pair of gauntlets. Holiday had instructed her to show up specifically on the rooftop and use her shockwave energy to annihilate their Muppet adversaries, once Marla, Carla, and Nicky himself positioned them at the center of the room.

As soon as Nicky spotted Darla near the skylight, he and the other girls proceeded to follow the plan. Standing at three sides of the group, they began advancing, forcing the Muppets to stand exactly where Holiday wanted them. Seeing how close they were to the center, Darla started to aim her gauntlets past the skylight and towards her mark. However, still getting used to their functions, she accidentally pulled the trigger earlier than expected, unleashing the shockwave before the Muppets were at the center.

The concentrated vibrational air blasts hit the room’s center and, because of its extreme instability, caused the entire floor to shatter to ashes. When Holiday, Marla, Carla, and the Muppets found themselves standing on nothing more than air, they all screamed in surprise as they fell into the basement area. But even that area was just as unstable as the main display hall, and the combatants crashed through its floor as well. They ended up falling right into the subway located beneath the complex.

CRASH!

They fell hard right into the floor of a tunnel, with several large bits of debris falling onto them. As soon as Holiday, Marla, and Carla had gotten to their feet and quickly shook off the pain, they looked around to see if the accident had still done away with their enemies. Impossible! They survived the fall! And proof of that came from the tracks that led into opposite directions of the tunnel they were in.

“Let’s split up!” Holiday ordered Marla and Carla. “Each of us take one way and as soon as you see something furry or fuzzy, take it down!” He then looked up through the two gigantic holes above them to see Darla still standing near the skylight. With a loud, roaring voice, he said, “Get down here as fast as you can!” Darla nodded in acknowledgment, and while she was making her way off the rooftop, Holiday and the other two “Arla’s” began searching for the Muppets, whether it was on foot, through electrical currents that ran through the light fixtures in the tunnel, or small streams that flowed through the corners of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sean and Lori Thomas didn’t need a police band like the one Peter Parker had to find out about the disturbance at the First American Savings Bank. They pretty much heard the alarm a few blocks away from the Happiness Hotel, which was what tipped them and their friends off about the possible burglary that Sandman and Shego were committing. They assumed what Holiday and his girls were doing at the abandoned Mallory Gallery had to be a decoy for the robbery.

The Thomas siblings had arrived with Kim and Ron in their Sloth vehicle at the bank barely minutes after the alarm had been called in. They arrived simultaneously with Eddie Brock in his (as always) late taxicab, as well as the reporters from Woodland Valley, who were tipped by Brock about the robbery and came in a separate taxi. Both them and Brock were hoping and praying that it would be Sandman, because Jameson had put a bounty out on pictures of “the new freak in town.”

It seemed to the reporters and the two young heroes that they had gotten there after the real action. Two cop cars lay on their backs, flipped over like a child’s toys. Steam rose from them, the cops all unconscious within—Sandman had tossed them the moment they’d arrived, not giving them even half a chance. The bank windows were shattered, and since there was almost no glass on the outside, it meant that Sandman had smashed them in. Obviously he wasn’t making any attempts at stealth these days. The unconscious bodies of several bank guards littered the street. The sight was enough to frighten Ojo, Treelo, and Tutter altogether.

“What a horrible sight!” Ojo exclaimed, while hugging Treelo and Tutter protectively.

Brock just grinned at the sight. “I’ll say! Looks like it was a heck of a show.”

Bear couldn’t help but to glance at the unconscious cops and bank guards and wonder of their health status. “I hope an ambulance gets here soon to help out those poor guys. They looked like they suffered quite a beating.”

“I hope it gets here after I’ve taken a few photos of them for the paper.” Brock uttered, and the others couldn’t believe how he actually took a few photographs of the unconscious cops and bank guards. “The first lesson of being a reporter for a big newspaper is taking advantage of the violence. Every smart reporter knows that violence always sells.”

Tutter looked very surprised. “It does?”

“No, it doesn’t!” Lori snapped, and Brock looked casually in her direction, as if expecting her to say just that. “Don’t listen to whatever this pompous idiot tells you kids, because the only thing that comes out of his mouth is pure B.S.”

“Says the woman who got fired from her job and had to beg for it back years later.” Brock snootily remarked.

Lori began advancing towards Brock, forcing Sean to hold her back. “Why you arrogant little…” She immediately stopped as soon as they all heard a hissing sound that guided their eyes toward a subway grating on the sidewalk. Sure enough, a large, steady stream of sand was heading right toward it and into it. Lori’s eyes widened in shock as she pointed and said, “It’s him!”

Brock immediately started snapping pictures. “Hey! Sandy! Look over here! Smile for the birdie!” he desperately shouted, knowing that pictures of a partly formed Sandman were going to nab a far higher dollar—more than that crappy fifty bucks from his first picture—than just a bunch of sand slipping through the grating. Sandman didn’t, unfortunately, seem predisposed to cooperate.

All of the sudden, someone dropped down into the scene and blocked the view that Brock was getting through his camera. As soon as he looked away from the viewfinder, he realized that Kim Possible’s biggest nemesis, Shego, was at the scene of the crime. “Here’s a better idea…I’ll smile, while I’m crippling every inch of your pathetic body.”

“I like that idea!” Lori exclaimed with a smile.

Shego’s gaze on Brock was soon forced away by Kim, who Shego then looked towards and rolled her eyes in disgust, sensing another round of butt-kicking long before it even took place. The two began swinging their fists and kicking their legs with great speed, while successfully dodging each attempted blow. Brock and the Woodland Valley reporters kept a safe distance as they caught all of the action on camera.

Halfway in the fight, Shego grabbed both of Kim’s arms and bent her upper body backwards. She placed her face up close against Kim’s and said to her with much strain, “Stay out of this, Kim! Marko needs this money for someone important to him! Someone whose life is on the line here!”

Kim wasn’t buying into it. “I missed the part where that’s my problem!” She then pushed Shego away from her.

Realizing that there was no convincing her greatest adversary, Shego attempted to strike Kim down with one fatal blow from her energy flaming fist. But before she could unleash it, something held her back. She gazed at her fist and noticed how a strand of webbing was connected to it. And before she could’ve made a single move, she was quickly hauled off her feet and swung through the air in a circular motion at rapid speed. After at least six complete swings, she was then thrown out of the loop and towards the windshield of a nearby car. Her body crashing against it violently, Shego was soon knocked unconscious from the wicked blow.

Kim and the others watched Shego lay motionless on the dented hood of the car, with several pieces of shattered glass all over her. They then saw a form that was both familiar and yet unfamiliar drop down near the grating just as the last of the sand filtered through. It took only a small moment for the group to realize that it was the city’s greatest hero…in new tights.

“Whoa! Spidey!” Ron exclaimed, and Spider-Man stopped, looking in their direction. “Lovin’ the new threads, dawg!”

Bear and his friends also expressed a bit of interest in Spider-Man’s new black suit. “I never realized you had such great taste in fashion, Mr. Spider-Man.”

Even the Thomas siblings found themselves more bewildered by Spider-Man’s new look than his unexpected arrival. They both wondered how in the world Peter could have changed from his red and blue costume to this totally new black one so quickly. It had to have been only a couple of hours after they visited his apartment. How could he have designed something so flawlessly impressive over such a small amount of time? Better yet…why did he make the change at all?

“Never mind about his new outfit!” Kim exclaimed, after taking a quick glance at Shego’s inert body on the shattered windshield of the car. She approached the black-suited Spider-Man with a furious look on her face. “Since when do we go around hurling bad guys into people’s property?”

Spidey just seemed to have expressed an uncaring attitude as he responded to Kim’s rant. “Hey, Kimmie…that’s how the superhero business works sometimes. To make an omelet, you have to crack a few shells. Ya get the sitch, don’t ya?”

Did he just call me ‘Kimmie’?, she thought, finding this new attitude of his harder to believe than his new costume. What was the point of it all? Was he trying to go for a new dark approach, thinking it will intimidate the bad guys? It’s not intimidating me!

“Hey, Spidey!” Brock shouted, focusing the camera on him. “Going formal these days? Hey, gimme some attitude!”

“How’s this?” replied the black-suited Spider-Man. He reached in Brock’s direction, and suddenly a web line shot out, snagging Brock’s camera. Brock let out an alarmed shriek of protest as Spider-Man sent the camera flying from Brock’s hand and slung it against the side of a building. The camera exploded into metal and glass fragments on impact. Brock was paralyzed with shock as Spider-Man said cavalierly, “New suit…new attitude! See ya, chump!”

Finally recapturing the ability to speak, Brock squealed, “What the h*ll?” At which point Spider-Man paid him as much mind as Sandman had. He yanked up the grating and dropped down to the subway below, allowing the grating to slam shut behind him.

As much as it pleased Sean and Lori to see Brock screwed out of a chance to capture the bank carnage on camera, they were more troubled over the fact that their friend, Peter Parker, had undergone a surprising transformation. Whether it was the fact of finding out who Ben Parker’s real killer was or something he had been looking to do for quite a while, something had come over Peter and it wasn’t good at all.

“This grating leads into the subway tunnels.” Lori indicated. “I know a secret way into them.” She and Sean then approached Kim, asking her if they could borrow the Sloth long enough to track down Spidey. When she had given them her permission (only because she was more concerned about the status of Shego), the siblings quickly hopped into the vehicle and drove away from the scene.

Meanwhile, brimming with indignation, Brock had never felt more helpless. But in short order, he decided there was no need for him to feel that way at all. Spider-Man had screwed him over? Fine, the least he could do was return the favor. Pulling out a small digital camera from his breast pocket, Brock thought, You wanna dance, Mr. Spider-Man-in-Black? Fine. Then we’re gonna dance. And he started taking pictures of the robbery scene with an eye toward what would most suit his purposes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Muppets had never anticipated on Holiday and his henchmen becoming just as more super-powered than Marko was. Beauregard, Fozzie, Lew Zealand, and Rizzo tried desperately to avoid Darla, as she chased them down one of the dark, damp tunnels and unleashed powerful, concentrated, vibrating air blasts from her gauntlets.

“LOOK OUT!” Fozzie screamed, and they all dodged out of the way, just in time for the blasts to come in contact with a section of the wall, which crumbled to pieces on impact. Fozzie, Beauregard, Rizzo, and Lew went down another tunnel, but they didn’t expect to cross paths with Gonzo, Camilla, Scooter, and the Electric Mayhem, who were all being chased by a massive tidal wave that Marla transformed herself into.

“GANG WAY!” Gonzo shouted, just as they were all caught by the wave and were splashed against a wall. Had the wall not given way on impact, throwing everyone into another section of the underground subway, Marla could’ve drowned them with her tidal wave attack.

The section of the subway that they found themselves in was located forty feet beneath a set of subway tracks. As the horrendous sound of the train rolling against the tracks roared overhead, the group of terrified Muppets got to their feet, while puddles of water moved all around them and came together to form the slender body of Marla. Animal wiped the water out of his eyes and noticed how she was coming in for another attack, with her fluid fists increased to a massive size.

“BAD WOMAN! BAD WOMAN!” Animal yelled, just before he leaped high into the air and soared towards Marla’s upper body. When he was just a couple of feet away from him, Marla punched him with one of her giant fists, knocking him into a set of wooden poles that supported the subway tracks.

“That was for trying to hit on me, you…animal!” Marla angrily said.

The other Muppets attempted to escape, while Marla’s attention was distracted on Animal, but they stopped when they noticed Kermit nearby, dodging the attempted blows from Nicky Holiday’s cybernetic scorpion tail. The frog couldn’t have been more afraid of the sharp, metal hook that was connected to the tail, which Nicky used fiercely to shred him to pieces.

“Nicky, please! Don’t do this!” Kermit pleaded, as the hook came in contact with one of the poles, severing it instantly. Nicky’s mouth was drooling and his head was sweating through his metallic helmet, using it to mentally control his cybernetic tail.

“Ten years I spent at Riker’s, Frog! TEN YEARS!” Nicky swung again, that time near Kermit’s feet, missing him by an inch and creating fiery sparks as the metal hook scrapped against the concrete. “No way am I gonna back away from this opportunity!” Nicky was about to come at him again, until something large, swift, and black swung his way and kicked him from behind, sending him flying fifteen feet across the air and crashing into several poles before landing roughly against another set of tracks. “What the…” When Nicky looked up to see what hit him, he noticed the black-suited Spider-Man, clinging to a wall and glaring at him. “I’m gonna get you for that, wall-crawler!”

“Leave the muppet alone, Holiday! Your fight is with me!” Spidey viciously said.

“NO!” Holiday snapped. “I’ve spent too many years in prison to lose them now! Killing them means everything to me!”

“JUST AS THE MAN YOU SHOT IN COLD BLOOD DID TO ME!” Spider-Man screamed wildly, as he fired two web strands that connected to the chest plate of Holiday’s armor and pulled his body off the wall with superhuman strength, sending him flying towards Nicky at incredible speed and kicking him off the tracks. Nicky’s screams echoed throughout the underground subway, as he fell back towards the very bottom. But they were soon drained out by the vicious screams of Spider-Man, as he fell with Holiday and grabbed him roughly, throwing his body towards Marla. As soon as his body hit hers, she splashed away, leaving Nicky to fall into a puddle of her watery remains.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man was caught by surprise from a hard blow that knocked him off the tracks. As his black-shrouded body soared through the air, he snatched a pole and briefly swung around it, holding onto it as he looked to see who it was that attacked him from behind. When he realized it was Flint Marko, who had one hand formed into a large, rock-solid fist, his anger began to increase.

“You’re next on my hit list, Marko!” Spider-Man declared.

“I don’t think so, web-head!” A feminine voice exclaimed from down below, and Spider-Man looked down to see Carla, using her electrical abilities to singe the pole that Spidey was on to ash. Before the electrical charge could’ve reached him and the section of the pole he was holding onto, Spider-Man leaped from it and started falling towards Carla, attempting to pounce on her. But she countered his attack with one electrical punch to his torso, which sent him flying through the air and landing on the highest set of tracks.

Both Marko and Carla expanded their bodies to great lengths, in order to reach the set of tracks that Spider-Man was on. Once they were near him, Spidey didn’t hold back. He unleashed a powerful punch that connected to Carla’s face, sending out a massive amount of electrical sparks from the side of her head on impact. With Carla knocked down, Spidey then focused on Marko, who tried pulverizing the web-slinger with the rock hard, hammer-shaped fists that he morphed his hands into.

After a few swings from Marko and a few dodges executed by Spider-Man, Spidey then fired a web into the air and swung out of harm’s way. For a moment, he disappeared from Marko’s sights, but within a split second, he appeared again, swinging in towards Marko and knocking him into a passing train. Clouds of dust came out from Marko’s body, just as he smacked against the side of the moving train. He fell to the ground for a moment and was then picked up again by Spider-Man, who rammed his head against the moving train, causing several grains of sand to fly in all directions from it. Marko screamed in a mixture of anger and pain as that happened.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had taken Sean and Lori only a few moments to reach the “secret passageway” into the subway area. Once they had arrived there, they could hear the sounds of struggle echoing from the corner of the tunnel that they were heading down in. Curiosity quickly taking over agitation, the two siblings continued down their path, and as soon as they rounded the corner into the other tunnel, they ran straight into the Happiness Hotel residents.

Extremely surprised to see them there, safe and unharmed, Sean said, “How did you all get down here? Were you able to find Holiday and his girls?” He could see how shaken up they were as he asked that question, which they each stammered in response to. Even though he and Lori knew that they appeared to be all right, they couldn’t help but to sense that something was wrong.

“Are you guys okay?” Lori asked. “What’s wrong?”

Before the Muppets could’ve responded to their questions, they all heard a loud crashing noise. Running further down the tunnel, the group came across another subway tunnel, where both Holiday and Darla had been thrown right against a brick wall by Spider-Man. Their bodies were only partially buried into it, and as soon as they were able to dig themselves out, they were approached by Carla, who was beginning to lose control of certain parts of her unstable body—her left arm was missing and having sparks shooting out from its stump, part of her face had been shattered with nothing more than a bright light flashing from the gaping wound, and there were holes made in certain parts of her legs, making it difficult for her to walk.

Sean and Lori stared at the shape Carla was in with utter disbelief, while their sights on the scorpion-armored Nicky Holiday and masked, quilted Darla were just as more shocking. It was surprising enough to witness a change over Spider-Man with his new black suit and new aggressive attitude, but the change over Nicky and his girls was just downright horrifying. If this was their way of taking their revenge out on the Muppets, they were more homicidal than they were leading people to believe.

However, the panicky and fearful tone in Holiday’s voice told that there was a least some sense of sanity in him as he said, “Let’s get outta here! Forget the Muppets…there’ll be another time for them! I just want to save whatever inch is left of my butt!”

“What about Marla?” Carla asked weakly. “She’s still around here somewhere.”

“Oh, c’mon! She’s made out of water! She’s the only one of us who actually has a chance of surviving whatever Spidey throws at her!” Holiday remarked. “She can catch up with us later by hitching a ride on the Hudson River. Let’s just get out of here now!”

The Muppets and the Thomas siblings watched from a safe distance as Holiday used his cybernetic tail to bust completely through the wall that he and Darla were once buried into and escaped through the other side of it, which led into the city’s sewer system. While being forced to hold their noses from the putrid smell that seeped out from the hole that was made, the Thomas siblings and the Muppets watched as the black-suited Spider-Man had suddenly came into view.

Spidey attempted to pursue Holiday, Carla, and Darla into the sewers, but was suddenly encased in sand by none other than Flint Marko. He piled on, more and more, until Spider-Man was completely buried. Time was on Sandman’s side, and all he had to do now was wait.

“Oh, no.” Sean uttered, watching the frightening display helplessly with his sister and friends.

Sandman felt Spider-Man struggling beneath him. Every time it seemed that the wall-crawler was going to fight his way to the surface, Sandman pressed him down once more. For one brief moment, Spider-Man managed to get his head above the surface, and he gasped in lungfuls of air. But Sandman quickly hauled him back under again, and this time he made sure not to ease up until he felt Spider-Man’s struggling, after long moments, cease.

That’s that, he thought.

Spider-Man’s hand punched up and out. It startled Marko—Spider-Man should have been down for good, but it didn’t concern him. So he had a few seconds’ fight left in him. So what? Sandman still had him cold.

A web line flew out of Spider-Man’s hand, heading straight up. Sandman’s first impulse was not to care—it was obviously the desperate move of a desperate man. But then he remembered how casually he’d assumed that Spider-Man’s previous moves were harmless, and he’d wound up nearly losing his entire head.

So Sandman looked up…

…just in time to see that the webbing had snagged a water pipe directly overhead, and then Spider-Man yanked as hard as he could. The water pipe tore loose from its moorings with a tremendous gush of water. But it was no ordinary water that had gushed out…it was Marla in her fluid form again. She had anticipated on drowning her wall-crawling adversary inside the tunnel. But she never expected Marko to be in the way as she did it.

“NOOOOOOOO!” She gurgled, as she poured down upon them, flooding both the tunnel that they were inside of and the one that the Happiness Hotel residents were.

While solid objects like Spidey and the H.H. residents remained drenched from the flood, something bizarre occurred between the sandy Marko and the watery Marla. The two had merged into one huge muddy form that bobbled through the surface of the water. Parts of the muddy creature still had some of Marko and Marla’s physical characteristics, such as Marko’s left leg, Marla’s torso, Marko’s right arm, the right side of Marla’s head, and the left side of Marko’s. Such a freakish merge left the two feeling completely out of control, screaming inhumanly with agony and stumbling while trying to make an attempt to walk.

From inside the other tunnel, which was becoming drained within seconds, the Thomas siblings and the Muppets got a good glance at the “mud monster” that Flint Marko and Marla had suddenly become. They all watched the suffering creature in a mixture of horror and interest, as it began to dissolve. The bags of cash were right nearby, and it reached for them with the right arm that Marko seemed to have been in control of. But his rapidly melting hand didn’t permit it, liquefying along with whatever was left of him and Marla. He grabbed one of the handles and tore a bag open…and then felt himself swirling down the drain in the middle of the tracks.

Consciousness slid away from Marko and Marla as they both slithered down the drain. One thing that Marla found more bizarre than briefly becoming the “mud monster” along with Marko was hearing his thoughts before dissipating. She could clearly hear him thinking: Penny, I’m sorry…I’m so sorry…d**n that Spider-Man…let me live so she can live…and he can die…

With that thought echoing through both of their heads, they were gone.

The Happiness Hotel residents could not believe what they had just witnessed. It was like something out of a bad horror movie…literally. They were all still shaken up by all that they had just been through, from the vicious attack by people that they had first underestimated (because of events that happened years ago) to nearly drowning in an unexpected flood. And after all that, the black-suited Spider-Man was nowhere to be seen. Though Sean and Lori could’ve both sworn that they heard a voice echoing from further down the tunnel that viciously said, “Good riddance!”

Was that Peter’s voice?, Sean thought. If so, what has gotten into him?

END OF CHAPTER THIRTEEN

That is so awesome!

Yeah! Me too! Awesome!

Chapter Fourteen

Ben Tennyson felt as if he’d just gone ten rounds with a cement mixer. He could barely remember a time when he returned to his human form and was not consciously aware that he had. According to his grandfather, he was picked up off the car that he had crashed into after being struck by the rock-hard fist of the Sandman and knocked away from the armored vehicle just as soon as he had returned to normal, and he was afterwards brought back into the “Rust Bucket” with only minor injuries. He had a large bruise on his chest that had to be bandaged up immediately. Ever so often did he touch that area, wincing in pain and wondering how long he would have to go on wearing the bandage.

While he, Gwen, and Max were walking down the empty sidewalk of a New York street, Ben was the slowest one moving, lagging behind a few times. He knew in his mind that he was okay, but his mind had trouble convincing his body of that. All he wanted to do was find the man made out of sand again and introduce him to his old friend “Diamondhead.” But, in the meantime, he was preoccupied with helping his grandfather and cousin find the C.O.V.N.E.T. agents that they had been pursuing for hours now.

“How you holdin’ up, Ben?” Max asked.

Ben winced again as he rubbed his chest. “It feels like Ishiyama is sitting on my chest and won’t get up.” Even the obvious reference to his favorite video game franchise, “Sumo Slammer,” didn’t make him feel any better. “Otherwise, I think I’m doing okay.”

Max nodded in acknowledgment of Ben’s answer and returned his focus on Gwen, who was using the “magical aura” within her to locate the C.O.V.N.E.T. agents, raising her right hand high in the air, which glowed in a bluish hue. “Have you picked up a scent yet, Gwen?”

“Grandpa, I’m a magician…not a bloodhound.” Gwen remarked. “I’m not sure if they’re near or not.” She felt a little disappointed in herself for not being such a huge help to her grandfather. If Butch and Clyde hadn’t taken advantage of their hospitality like they did and helped Agent Singer in making a brutal escape, then she wouldn’t be there in an empty neighborhood street, in the middle of an impossible search.

Max looked up towards the dawning sky and took notice of the dark clouds that had started gathering ominously, suggesting an imminent weather change. The day went from pleasant to stormy in minutes, and rain was pouring down. He didn’t want to put his grandkids through so much misery (Ben was still in bad shape and Gwen was starting to become very exhausted). But it was of the most importance that he found Singer and his cronies. They were up to something possibly dangerous, and it might’ve depended on the sanctity of the world to find and stop them.

Within seconds, Gwen’s drenched, glowing right arm began to change from blue to orange. She gazed upon it in shock and exclaimed, “Hey! I’ve found something!” And as if her arm had a mind of its own, Gwen was yanked away into a nearby alleyway, which Max and Ben quickly followed her into. As soon as they arrived there, they were surprised to have found their C.O.V.N.E.T. agents caught in what appeared to have been a large, webbed net that was suspended ten feet in the air.

Max grinned at the sight. “Well, well, well…I was hoping to have captured you punks myself. But it looks like someone might’ve beaten me to it.”

Ed obviously appreciated Max’s amusement of the horrible predicament they had found themselves in less than he had of the confrontation that he and his agents had with the person responsible for placing them in that net. Meanwhile, Gwen was glaring heavily at Butch and Clyde, who sitting on top of Ryan and Rentro.

“I can’t believe you two!” She angrily yelled. “How could you betray us like that after all we’ve done for you? We thought you guys were our friends!”

Butch and Clyde looked down shamefully, neither of the two wanting to stare into the disappointed eyes of Gwen Tennyson. Clyde then said, “We’re sorry. It won’t happen again.”

“Of course it won’t happen again, Clyde!” Butch exclaimed in frustration. “Once you go bad, you can never go back.”

“I believe it’s ‘Once you go black, you can never go back’.” Ryan said.

“Hey, speaking of black, has anyone noticed how the words in this story changed color all of the sudden?” Clyde asked, and no one could give him a direct answer, mostly because they had no clue what he was talking about.

Ben walked up next to Gwen and glared at Butch, Clyde, and Rentro along with her. “Told ya you can never trust a Muppet.”

Rentro quickly took offensive to Ben’s statement. “Now hold on right there, young fella. Just because the three of us gone and done something incredibly stupid doesn’t mean you can blame it on the rest of us.”

“Don’t bother trying to convince these civilians, Rentro.” Ed stated. “If they choose not to believe that what we do is for the good of all life on this Earth, then let them.” He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small glass cylinder tube that had a strong metal cap. Inside the tube appeared to have been black ooze. “Besides, we’ve already come close to finding our target.”

Max gawked at the tube in Ed’s left hand, seeing the black ooze that was moving around in it (without Ed giving the tube itself the slightest move). He had seen his share of strange things come down on Earth from the outer reaches of space, but nothing was as bizarre as what Singer had captured in that tube. “What is it that you’re after, Singer?”

Ed chuckled (now it was his turn to be amused over Max’s pathetic attempt to get answers from him). “Like I’m going to share my mystery with you, Tennyson.”

“Yeah!” Ryan exclaimed. “You tell him, sir!” He then gave Ed a hard pat on the back with the only free arm that he had. Unfortunately, in the process, he caused Ed to lose his grip on the tube, dropping it out of his hand, leaving it to fall out of the net and hit the concrete below, where it began to roll away from them.

“RYAN!” Ed bellowed.

“Oops. Sorry, sir.” He sheepishly uttered.

With his curiosity peaking, Max started to chase after the tube. But he stopped as soon as it had rolled against two large, round, bulbous feet. Then a large, pudgy, purple-skinned hand reached down and picked up the tube, which seemed very tiny compared to the hand. It was then brought up to the huge, four-eyed, and mostly bald head of Jumba Jookiba, who was joined by Lilo, Stitch, Pleakley, and Nani.

Ben cringed a little at the sight of the poorly disguised Jumba and Pleakley. “Oh, man. That’s got to be the lamest disguises I’ve ever seen.”

Max just smiled at the two. “Jumba Jookiba. It’s been a long time. When did they let you out?”

“When Experiment 626 had escaped to Earth.” Jumba replied. “So much has changed since our last encounter, Tennyson Maxwell.”

“How many times do I have to tell ya? Last name last, first name first.” Max remarked, before focusing on Pleakley and making an odd look. “Agent Pleakley…are you uncover right now?”

Pleakley sheepishly chuckled. “Of course not. I’m…uh…just blending in with the Earthly environment, while I’m…uh…investigating the disturbances of…illegal aliens.”

“Uh…okay.” Max said, before turning to Gwen and Ben and introducing them. “These are my grandchildren, Ben and Gwen. Ben, Gwen, this is the infamous mad scientist that the Plumbers had once taken down before Vilgax, Jumba Jookiba, and the representative of the Galactic Federation, Agent Pleakley.”

After Max made the introductions, Lilo and Stitch approached Ben and Gwen. Ben couldn’t stop staring at Stitch, while Lilo was talking to them. “Hi, my name’s Lilo. And this is Stitch, formerly ‘Experiment 626’…he’s an alien.”

“No kidding.” Ben said, and Stitch grinned at him awkwardly, a trail of saliva streaming from the left side of his mouth.

Lilo then looked back towards her sister. “And that’s Nani, my sister. She can be a pain in the butt at times.”

“Hey!” Nani exclaimed.

Gwen chuckled. “I can relate. My cousin, Ben, can also be a real pain at times.”

“HEY!” Ben exclaimed.

“It’s okay, Ben.” Lilo said. “It’s all part of being ohana. Right, Jumba?”

Hearing what Lilo said and trying to comprehend it with the knowledge he had of Jumba, Max couldn’t help but to feel a little perplexed. “Ohana? Since when has an evil genius like you gained a family, Jumba?”

“Like I said, a lot has changed.” Jumba replied. “But it will have to be a story told at other time.” He looked to the tube in his hand with a great sense of urgency. “We must begin study on this dangerous weapon immediately and find a way to stop it before it does any greater harm.”

“That stuff’s a weapon?” Max asked, while glaring in the direction of the netted C.O.V.N.E.T. agents. “What does it do?”

“I shall let you know as soon as we’ve done further study on it.” Jumba replied. “Do you have necessary scientific equipment that I can use to do so?”

Max grinned as he said, “Sure. I’ve got tons of it in the ‘Rust Bucket’. You can do whatever study you feel is necessary there.”

“Then we must get to your ‘Rusty Bucket’ quickly.” Jumba remarked, and he, Pleakley, Lilo, Stitch, Nani, and the Tennysons were about to leave the area, until the very agitated Ed Singer addressed them.

“Tennyson!” He shouted. “You can’t just leave us here! We rightfully found that specimen, and we deserve the right to take it with us for study!”

Max looked back in his direction again, glaring at him more than he had already been. “The only right you deserve, Singer, is the right to remain silent. I’m not going to have you put this planet through another dangerous situation like you had with Vilgax. I’m leaving you there in that net, where you can’t do anymore harm.”

Seeing Max and the others immediately making their way out of the alleyway, Ed abruptly then said, “You’ll need me on this one, Tennyson! You might not believe me when I say this, but I know how this thing works. I’ve seen how it moves, what it can do, and when it’ll strike next.” He watched Max and the others as they instantly stopped in their tracks and turned back to them, and he smiled confidently as he knew that he had them right where he wanted. “Heck, I even know where you can find the source.”

“The source?” Max curiously said.

“And I’ll give ya a hint…he’s the one who placed us in this crude net of his.” Ed added, and they all knew right off whom he was referring to.

“What the heck would Spider-Man be doing with some black goo?” Ben inquired. “He shoots white webs, not black ones.”

“Well, he’s covered in black now.” Ryan contradicted.

Lilo nudged her elbow against Nani’s leg, and she looked down at her to see the sly grin on her face. “Told ya.”

“A black-suited Spider-Man?” Gwen uttered, while pondering over the concept. “No way! Everybody knows black is the most morbid color in the world.”

Pleakley sighed in relief and gently placed a hand on Gwen’s shoulder. “Finally! Someone who understands me!”

“It might sound unbelievable,” Ryan said, “But it’s true.”

“How am I supposed to trust this information that you’re giving us?” Max asked in suspicion.

Ed rolled his eyes in disgust as he squirmed around in the net, causing it to turn slightly. “Take one long look at this net, old man! How in God’s name could we trap ourselves in such a thing with actual spider webbing?”

Max did take one long glance at the web-net, and while he had done so, he pictured the black-suited Spider-Man in his head and wondered how Spidey got himself caught up in such an extraterrestrial phenomenon that Ed might’ve been responsible for bringing to Earth. He had no other choice. He had no idea what this thing was, and only Ed Singer seemed to have been the one who did more than Jumba even. If the black ooze posed a greater threat to the planet than Vilgax ever had, then it might’ve been a reasonable idea to get all the help he could on stopping it, whether it came from Jumba and his “ohana” or C.O.V.N.E.T. themselves.

“Alright, Singer. I’ll cut you loose.” Max agreed. “But if you even once think of double-crossing me, my family, or my friends, then I’ll personally see to it that you cease to exist.”

Though Ed wasn’t the slightest bit intimidated by Max’s words, Clyde seemed to have been a little. “Wow. Can you really do that?”

“Hey…you’re talking to an expert Plumber, my foamy friend.” Ben told Clyde. “He’ll ‘flush’ ya away like a lump of…”

“BEN!” Max exclaimed.

“If we’re done with the ridiculous ‘toilet humor’, would anyone mind cutting us from this net?” Ed demanded, right before Stitch leaped from the concrete and jump onto the net, climbing to the very top of it. The C.O.V.ies watched him as he began biting through the knot connected there. “Good. Now just try and set us down nice and…” Before Ed could finish, Stitch had successfully bitten through the knot, causing the net to snap away from the single web strand it was connected to and fall to the ground. Both the net and the C.O.V.N.E.T. agents landed with a tremendous thud. Ed then weakly said, “Thank you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day seemed like the Promised Land to everyone at the Happiness Hotel, after the fierce altercation that they had survived from in the previous evening. Everyone there was still in complete awe of seeing how much Nicky Holiday and his gang had improved themselves since they first went up against them. Much had changed…and it was no longer about trying to make it big…this was personal. Holiday would go to great lengths to see that they were destroyed, whether it involved teaming up with Flint Marko or turning himself into a superhuman fighter.

All of the drama that had been running through the Happiness Hotel was taking a toll on Sean. He wasn’t used to everyone there feeling so frightened, helpless, and unenergetic. It was enough to have him feeling almost the same way. So he decided that it would be best to clear his mind of all that stress by visiting his old friend, Curt Connors. He had been due to see him for days now to discuss about his “marvelous discovery,” but had been sidetracked because of current events.

That afternoon, he drove to the university in Beauregard’s taxicab (there were often times on the way there that people would stand at the sidewalk and raise their hands in the air, calling out to him as if he were an actual taxi driver on duty). Upon arriving at the parking lot of the science building, Sean parked the taxicab right next to an odd-looking Volkswagen that had images of frogs with mindless looks on their faces printed on the back and front of it. As he stepped out of the taxi afterwards, he couldn’t help but to gawk at it strangely, wondering who would drive such a controversial vehicle.

With those thoughts quickly leaving his mind, Sean proceeded into the building and made his way into Connors’s office/laboratory. On his way in, he noticed a chart on the wall of different types of lizards, and an anatomical model for a lizard nearby. He considered that rather curious, since Connors wasn’t a herpetologist. So what was the sudden interest in lizards?

Before Sean could take any more time to figure just that out, he realized that Connors’s office/laboratory had been ransacked. His desk had been turned over, drawers were pulled out and lying all over the floor with their contents nearby, and shelves had been titled over. Either Connors had run into a flaw in a recent experiment or someone had broken into his office. But Sean quickly discovered that it was the latter, as he suddenly spotted the perpetrator digging through folders kept in Connors’s filing cabinet.

The perpetrator had turned his head slightly, giving Sean a hint of his identity, and it turned out to be none other than Professor Max Krassman. Just like with all of the other adversaries that the Muppets had encountered in their past, Sean had heard his share of unpleasant stories about Krassman. The one that stood out the most to him was how he once attempted to have Kermit’s brain reduced to guacamole (which was successfully foiled due to the timely intervention by Miss Piggy). But what was he up to at that moment? And why did it involve Curt Connors?

With Krassman’s back turned to him, Sean figured on sneaking up to the mad scientist and taking him down. He couldn’t have been too hard to stop. Heck, if Miss Piggy could do it, then he certainly could, too. He was all alone in that room, which was a ridiculous mistake on his part, because anyone could just walk in and easily foil the plans of such a weakling scientist who was only armed with his sinister, demented genius. Or at least so Sean had thought…

As he was only a few feet away from the unsuspecting Krassman, Sean spotted something horrifying on the floor, right beside Connors’s workbench. Just there, in a pool of his own blood, laid the lifeless body of Curt Connors himself. It nearly had Sean screaming in terror to see his old friend killed in such an unlawful way. Hatred quickly began to overcome the horror, and Sean was tempted to murder Krassman in revenge for what he did to Curt. But he composed himself once he spotted the revolver in Krassman’s left hand (which he evidently used to kill Connors) and slowly backed away. The only way he could’ve taken his revenge out on Krassman was to get to the campus police and alert them of the mad professor’s presence in the building.

Turning around to face the door leading out of the office, Sean thought for a moment what reason Krassman would have to kill Connors. He must’ve come across quite a scientific breakthrough to attract such evil attention and had to suffer because of it. And Sean wasn’t going to allow Krassman to get away with whatever it was. The brave Daily Bugle reporter came very close to escaping, until…

“Nighty night, pal!” Nicky Holiday said, after jumping in front of Sean and blocking his path long enough to attack him with a syringe filled with a greenish liquid substance. As soon as the substance was injected through Sean’s neck and into his system, he felt himself becoming extremely weak. He fell before Holiday and landed on the floor with a loud thud. The last thing he saw before blackening out was the chest plate of Nicky’s horrifying scorpion armor.

Hearing the sound of the thud Sean’s motionless body made as it came in contact with the floor, Krassman turned and aimlessly fired his gun. The bullet came in contact with Holiday’s chest plate, ricocheting off it and hitting a nearby beaker. Holiday just took the gunfire as an accident, grinning wickedly at the alarmed mad scientist. “A little jumpy, aren’t ya, Krass?”

Krassman’s eyes were filled with amazement as he stared at Holiday in the scorpion armor. “Mr. Christmas?”

“Holiday!”

“You’re vearing de armor dat I made for Fraulein Bitterman!” Krassman exclaimed. “How do you feel in it?”

Loud clanging noises were made as Holiday stomped his way towards the intimidated Krassman, his cybernetic tail swinging through the air. “Well, I was feeling like I was on Cloud Nine, before Spider-Man showed up in the middle of my payback on those Muppets, wearing some black suit and feelin’ all pumped-up than ever before.”

“A black-suited Spider-Man?” Krassman remarked. “Impossible! Everyone knows black is de most…”

“Yeah, yeah…we all got the running gag, Krassman!” Holiday angrily snapped. “Bitterman told me that you could help Carla, Darla, and me get upgraded enough to get back at the web-head for taking out Shego and wiping out Marla. Once he’s taken care of, the Muppets will be a piece of cake. And afterwards…we’ll be back on Cloud Nine.”

“I believe I have just de solution ta your vorries, Holiday.” Krassman said. “But first off…how da heck did ya know I vas here?”

Holiday rolled his eyes, which were starting to turn from the usual chocolate brown to a frighteningly dark shade of green. “Oh, please. Your little ‘mind-control mobile’ out there sticks out like a sore thumb.” He then motioned towards the unconscious Sean Thomas. “That, and the fact that I’ve been tailing this guy through Sesame Street. Little did I know he’d be heading in the same place where you currently are.”

“Vhat did you do ta knock him out so fast?”

Holiday showed him the weapon in the palm of his hand: the emptied syringe. “I gave him just what the doctor ordered.” Krassman took the syringe from Holiday’s hand and gazed at the label taped on the side of it. His eyes widened in surprise upon seeing the words “Formula 66” on the label.

“You nincompoop!” Krassman screamed, surprising Holiday a little. “Dis vas exactly vhat I came here ta look for!” Holiday just gave him a perplexed look, signifying that he had no clue what he was talking about. Krassman sighed before explaining himself. “Curt Connors had been studying de secrets of reptilian limb regeneration and developed an experimental serum taken from reptilian DNA. He attempted ta use it on himself before I interfered and shot him in cold blood (no pun intended).”

“So why were you so interested in it?” Holiday inquired. “What? Are you plannin’ on going to war and coming back afterwards or somethin’?”

“No! No! NO!” Krassman yelled. “De serum comes vith extra, extra attributes, such as a regenerative healing factor. Dis serum could help Fraulein Bitterman develop an unstoppable army ta her control…and you used it all up on some stranger! Are you demented or somethin’?”

Holiday glared at the empty syringe and then at the unconscious Sean, feeling a bit peeved at himself for ruining such a marvelous master plan and, not to mention, doing a tremendous favor to someone who was on the side of the Muppets. “Great! Now what do we do?”

“Ve find de written formula ta Connors’s serum. As long as ve have dem, dere’s a chance I can make a reasonable copy to it.”

“And what about our ‘test subject’?” Holiday pointed to Sean again as he had asked that question.

Krassman looked down at the young, unconscious reporter for a long while before looking back up to Holiday and sinisterly saying, “Turn him into paste before de formula kicks into his system any further.”

Holiday grinned. It was the best command he had been given all day. While Krassman directed his attention to the huge mess that he made out of Connors’s office, Holiday commenced in his order to kill Sean Thomas. Operating it through his helmet, Holiday vertically positioned his cybernetic tail, with the hook hovering at ten feet in the air. And just as he brought it down towards Sean’s inert body, something suddenly stopped him by kicking him square in the chest with enough force to send him reeling back into Connors’s workbench.

As his cybernetic tail swung across the workbench and spilled all its contents onto the floor, Holiday got a good look at what it was that prevented him from killing Thomas. He was surprised to see Jenny in front of him, wearing her provocative catsuit. Other than the outfit itself, something else seemed very different about the girl. In addition to the catsuit, she wore a black mask around her eyes (which had turned from brown to a greenish hue) and her hair was snowy white. She was also much muscular, her biceps showing through the sleeves of her latex sleeves and her bare abdominal muscles showing through the plunging v-neck of the suit.

Holiday wanted to be furious over her interference, but he quickly found himself impressed over how attractive she looked compared to the day she visited Harry’s penthouse with the Muppets. Trying not to seem interested in her, he said, “Sweetheart, I have no idea who you think you are, but you just put yourself into a world of hurt.”

He then proceeded to swing his tail around, hoping to catch her with its hook and instantly shred her to pieces. However, she amazingly dodged out of the way in time, jumping high into the air and executing a marvelous somersault over Nicky’s head. She landed on the cleared workbench, her weight bending it slightly, and glared into Holiday’s eyes as she kicked him square in the face. He fell back again, landing hard on the floor.

Close nearby, Krassman had witnessed Jenny’s surprise entrance and caught himself once again marveled over the fact that another of his experimental suits was being worn by someone. Except this time, someone outside the pack he had formed with Rachel Bitterman and Nicky Holiday wore it. That could’ve only meant that she posed as a great threat to their plans, which he couldn’t afford at that time, especially when he just found Connors’s written documents.

“Holiday!” Krassman shouted. “Throw some of de suit’s toxic acid at her!”

While listening to the professor, Nicky was dodging from several attempted swings by Jenny, whose face registered an almost hypnotized look as she fought fiercely. “How exactly do I do that? I’m still gettin’ used to the functions of this thing!”

“De helmet!” Krassman indicated. “Think of acid and it’ll unleash some for ya…I hope.”

Nicky had done exactly what the professor had instructed him to do and thought of acid through his metallic helmet, which had pretty much merged with his brain functions from the moment he put it on. In an instant, a panel had opened up at the tip of the hook and a small amount of acid had been fired from it. The acid flew in Jenny’s direction, but she ducked as it got near her. It landed in a puddle of chemicals made by the contents spilled from the workbench and immediately created an explosion that lit everything in the office on fire.

Seeing how out of control things were becoming, Krassman decided it was time to make an escape. He dashed towards a stunned Nicky Holiday and began urging him to get to his feet. “Let’s go! Ve’ve got vhat ve vanted!” Holiday got to his feet and ran through the emergency exit. Once outside, Krassman and Holiday piled into the mad scientist’s car and drove away from the burning building.

Back inside, a trail of fire made its way towards Sean’s body and soon came in contact with the right sleeve of his brown leather jacket. The fire began to burn through the leather of his jacket and cotton texture of the blue, long-sleeved shirt he wore underneath, making contact with his flesh. Sean immediately snapped out of his unconscious state as soon as he felt the intense burning sensation that overcame his right forearm. Quickly putting out the fire with the other sleeve of his jacket, Sean looked around through blurred vision at the inferno that came over the room.

It wasn’t long before the black figure that was Jenny came into his view and helped him up to his feet. She carried him past the emergency exit and far out into the street. After she had gently set him down at a nearby sidewalk, she immediately fled the scene, just in time for the campus police, the fire department, and an ambulance to arrive.

Moments later, Sean’s vision had refocused, and he was treated of his third-degree burns by the paramedics. While they were doing so, he watched the firefighters take out the chemical fire that had practically destroyed the entire science building and thought about the unfortunate fate of Curt Connors, one of his greatest friends. The police had asked Sean about him, and he didn’t hesitate to let them in on his encounter with Krassman, as well as Nicky Holiday. Thankful of his information, the police commenced in contacting Captains Stacy and Larkin and alerting them of the escaped convict’s whereabouts and possible accomplices.

Just as soon as the paramedics finished treating Sean’s wound, he was approached by Lori and Edward, who he had called through his cell phone as soon as he was healthy enough to do so. They both seemed very worried at the time of their arrival—Lori most of all did, as she saw how battered her brother looked, covered in soot and his right forearm bandaged.

“Oh, God!” She exclaimed. “Are you okay?”

Sean barely made eye contact with her. “Yeah, I’m fine.” His voice sounded very low—possibly due to the large quantities of smoke in his system, which he was still trying to cough out. “I can’t believe Curt’s dead. I should’ve come to see him sooner. Maybe he would’ve…”

“Don’t put all that guilt on yourself, Sean.” Lori said. “You couldn’t have known that was going to happen. H*ll, we’ve been off our game a little, ever since this whole mystery with Bitterman, Holiday, and Marko began.”

Somehow the word “game” didn’t seem to set very well with Sean. The death of Curt Connors was something that could’ve easily been prevented, if he had agreed to meet with him the moment he called the Happiness Hotel. He can’t just restart this “game” that his sister believed they were in and try again. Connors was killed…he was dead…and there was nothing he could do about that, other than try his best to search for the people responsible for it.

“This isn’t some freakin’ game, Alissa!” Sean furiously snapped, and the tone in his voice was enough to scare Lori (who was surprised he even addressed her by her first name) and Edward, as well as halt the activity of the police, the fire department, and the paramedics as they all gazed in his direction. “A great friend of mine is dead! Oh, but I guess that shouldn’t bother you, since you still have your own close friend by your side, alive and kicking! Why worry about my friends, when you have your own!”

Lori had taken great offense to Sean’s remarks, but she reminded herself that he only said them out of grief for the deceased Curt Connors. “Don’t you dare tell me that Curt Connors meant nothing to me, Sean Thomas…because he did.”

“Yeah, right.” Sean sarcastically uttered.

“He did!” Lori retorted. “In case you’ve forgotten, we both took every Biology class he’d ever taught at the university in San Francisco. And even though I got my butt kicked by those darn tests of his, he’s always been cool with me, just like he always had with you—his greatest pupil.” Sean could actually see tears come down from her eyes as she spoke to him, which meant that she really was disturbed over Connors’ death. “So don’t jump on me about not knowing how it feels to lose a good friend, because I know exactly how you feel right now.”

Sean didn’t say any more, because he knew that they were already creating a scene in front of all the police officers, paramedics, and firefighters. Instead, Edward had spoken up. “Sean, please try to look at this in a more positive perspective.” Perhaps, it was best if he hadn’t spoken so soon. “Connors’s death has gotten us closer to the mystery surrounding Rachel Bitterman and Nicky Holiday. We know now that Krassman is involved in their plans and could possibly be responsible for transforming Holiday himself and his girls into the super-powered beings that they are.”

Lori knew that Edward was making a strong point, but he might’ve been making it too soon into Sean’s misery. She looked over at her brother, who didn’t seem to be seething as much as she had expected him to. He looked like he understood Edward just like she had. “You know, Ed…you’re right. I should be looking at this in a more positive perspective. It’s just unfortunate though that you can’t see something else.”

“What?” Edward asked.

And just as soon as he asked that, something hard smacked him right against the jaw, taking him by complete surprise. He immediately fell backwards and landed hard on the concrete, his sunglasses flying away from his eyes and landing right next to him. Lori, shocked by her brother’s sudden display of violence, immediately went to Edward’s side, while Sean walked right past them, heading into Beauregard’s taxicab and driving away from the campus.

“Now that was some punch!” Edward exclaimed.

“Yeah, but you wanna know the weirdest part?” Lori inquired.

“What?”

“He hit you with the arm that was just severely burnt.”

END OF CHAPTER FOURTEEN

it is awesome!

Haha! Sorry I had to give it to ya, Count. In reality, I could never punch another human being that hard nor ever bring myself to do it. Unless I'm fueled with some sort of superhuman aggression.

I'll try to have some more up soon.

Yeah, I caught it this morning. That new alien looked sick (but in a good way). Hope to see more of him during the next season of the show. He had eyes all over his body and none on his head (two huge nostrils were in their place), so Ben nicknamed him "Eyeguy" (marvelous name).

i love this story!

Argus, eh? Interesting. Didn't know they were following mythical beings in Greek history as inspirations for the alien heroes in the series. Pretty cool.

Chapter Fifteen

Rachel Bitterman’s most prized possession, her Verizon cell phone, smashed against the wall of the lit fireplace in the great room, its shattered contents falling into the fire and turning to ash in seconds. On the other line was Professor Krassman, returning back to the testing facility to do further research on their “newest weapon,” and he informed Rachel of all that had happened during the raid in Connors’s office. What stuck out more in Krassman’s story than the murder of Curt Connors, the interference of Sean Thomas (who he believed might’ve been a student at the university), and Nicky Holiday’s arrival was the fact that a mysterious girl had come there wearing the same suit that she was supposed to have gotten days ago for her master plan of getting revenge on both Peter Parker and the Muppets, but instead got a Muppet-sized golden tuxedo.

She knew instantly how that “mysterious girl” was. The golden tuxedo…the girl in a provocative catsuit just happened to be at the university when Connors was murdered…it all made sense! The reason her suit didn’t get to her was because of the daughter of the same diner owner who she had been threatening with foreclosure for some time now! It was Jenny!

It must be a plot…some plot they’re forming to get back at me, Rachel thoughts were plagued by paranoia. She should’ve realized days ago that her suit had been stolen on purpose. And now, because of her carelessness, it was in the hands of a typical diner waitress. The most powerful weapon designed by the craziest scientist in the world was being kept in a grungy, pest-infected diner. It was enough to make her vomit.

But it wasn’t the time to get sick…it wasn’t the time to feel sorry for past mistakes…it was time to take an alternate route. That route involved using the last line of defense that she could’ve used when all else failed: the Goblin Chamber, the machine that transformed both Harry and Norman into their sinister alter egos. Perhaps it was her time to get a taste of that delicious medicine. After all…she was an Osborn, wasn’t she?

She couldn’t wait for Krassman to finish with his tests on Connors’s serum. That could take weeks…years! She was too inflicted with rage to wait that long. It needed to be done now!

Rachel was about to head over to the portrait of Norman Osborn and used the secret compartment to open the entrance to the secret lair. But she was quickly interrupted by the sound of her nephew’s voice, as he called out to her. “Aunt Rachel! Aunt Rachel, come here!” There was such urgency in his voice that she couldn’t help but to believe that he might’ve been in trouble. Not that she was concerned as a loving aunt. Harry was too valuable for her to lose, if she failed in stopping their adversaries. Yes, he was suffering from amnesia and had no clue about his Goblin origins…but what if he remembered? She couldn’t risk that divine chance on even the slightest accident, like stumping a toe or choking on some water.

No! She needed to see what was up right away. And she quickly found herself moving with marvelous haste out of the great room and into the hallway, finding Harry standing there with a ridiculous grin on his face. He wasn’t hurt or injured by some stupid accident. He was fine…and Rachel felt like a complete idiot for stopping her plans over nothing. Well, she might as well hear what the urgency was all about. “What is it?”

“You remember that girl I told you who came to see me the night I was recovering from the hospital?” Harry asked, and Rachel only slightly had a clue what he was talking about. “The one who acted in the show that’s being performed right now on Broadway.”

That’s when it struck her like a bolt of lightning. “Mary Jane Watson?”

Harry nodded. “That’s the one.”

“Call her back.” Rachel hastily said. “Tell her that you have other plans.”

“What?”

“You heard me! Now get it done!”

Harry just stared at her in utter disbelief. She only met this woman recently and found out that she was the aunt that he and his father never knew. And she was already barking orders at him…taking control of his life…just like his father always had. He wasn’t going to let such a history repeated itself with such a demanding woman. “No, Aunt Rachel.” She glared at him in surprise, not expecting him to actually talk back. “This girl has always been a friend of mine, and she sounded like she needed someone to talk to over the phone.”

“Then talk to her over the phone!” Rachel snapped. “Just don’t bring her here into the penthouse!”

Harry’s suspicions quickly began to take over. “Why are you so wary of her? You don’t even know her!”

Rachel nearly chuckled, but she composed her long enough to act sincere towards Harry in order to convince him that Watson was bad news. She let out a fake saddened sigh and then said, “Your poor memory can’t recall this, but mine’s certainly can.” The tone in her voice gave off a mock kindness that Harry was unable to detect, while her face was showing off false pity. “Harry…that girl doesn’t care about you. She loves Peter Parker…not you.”

“I know that, Aunt Rachel. My memory isn’t that bad.”

She knew that she was losing him quick, as he looked as if he was going to walk off to get ready for Mary Jane’s visit. So, with much hastiness in her voice, she hurriedly said, “She loves him because she knows his secret!”

Harry was still walking away from her, moving quickly down the hall. “Oh, yeah? What secret would that be? That he was a member of the chess club?” Harry chuckled. “Sorry to disappoint you, Aunt Rachel. But everybody knows that one.”

“That he’s really Spider-Man!”

Harry’s pace was starting to slow down a little, but he was still walking away from Rachel. “I’m not buying it, Aunt Rachel.”

“And he killed your father!”

At that point, Harry stopped dead in his tracks. He turned and faced his aunt again, with a look on his face that was registering a mixture of horror and perplexity. “You…You’re…You’re joking…right?” Rachel said nothing and didn’t make one single gesture. “Don’t lie to me, Aunt Rachel! I understand you’re trying to be overprotective of me…but don’t lie!” She remained where she was, near the doorway to the great room, as if she wanted to show him something. He began to advance towards her, which made her quiver a bit, believing that he was going to try and kill her. It might’ve been her paranoia again making her believe that, but with the Goblin formula still running through Harry’s system, it was a strong possibility.

“Harry…” Rachel quietly uttered.

“DON’T LIE TO ME!”

Not consciously aware of what exactly he was doing, Harry lunged at Rachel, grabbing her by the collar and slamming her against the doorframe. For some time now, she had been worried about Harry’s life. But at that moment, she was cautious of her own. “Harry, listen to me!”

“I’m done listening!” Harry screamed. “Just because my father is dead doesn’t mean you can run my life just like he did!”

“I’m just trying to show you the facts!” She retorted, and then looked and pointed into the great room. Harry didn’t want to buy into her lies. He wasn’t even certain if she really was his aunt. She might’ve been someone who was just trying to steal the family’s fortune and possibly willing to commit an act of murder against him in order to get it.

Harry knew that calling the police seemed like the wisest choice. But something in him forced his gaze on Rachel to move away from her and focus on the object that she was pointing at inside the great room. Harry found himself glancing toward the chaise lounge in the corner of the room.

Norman Osborn was lying on it.

Harry gasped, letting go of Rachel, who was extremely grateful that her plan had worked. Whatever Harry was seeing was snapping some sense into him. In her eyes, nothing was there.

In Harry’s eyes, his father was there on the chaise, and he was clearly dead, a vicious wound evident on his chest through the huge red splotch discoloring his shirt. And Spider-Man was there, laying him out, nearly arranging the corpse…

Harry staggered back, holding his head. He slammed shut his eyes, and when he dared to open them again, the chaise was vacant. Terrified that some other vision would reoccupy it, he turned away and found himself staring at the large mirror hanging on the wall.

Something was drawing him to it. Something that was there but not there, something that he felt he should know, but didn’t.

“You’ve taken your eye off the ball.”

The voice, soft and disturbing, was spoken from just behind his ear. His first thought was that it might’ve been Rachel, toying with him again…making him believe things that he didn’t want to believe. He wasn’t sure how she was doing it, but she did it well enough to make it all seem so real. And yet it was frighteningly real…especially the fact that the voice spoken behind his ear wasn’t that of Rachel’s…it was his father’s voice.

A disoriented Harry stumbled forward toward the mirror. Unable to stop himself, he fell against it, putting his hands against the glass at the last second.

A circuit connected…a dizzying array of images flashed through Harry’s mind. He cried out, remembering, not wanting to, needing the information, fearing it, and there was Spider-Man lying bound and helpless, his unmasked face gazing up plaintively at Harry. And it was Peter’s face, and his father’s body, and Harry standing in a large capsule, wallowing in green gas, and in combat with Peter, hurtling through dizzying heights, trying to kill him, and being slammed backward off his Sky Stick, and Peter looking down at him with all manner of mock sympathy. And Harry heard his own voice asking, “My dad. He died, didn’t he?” and Peter just nodding sympathetically…he knew…he knew…he had done it, he—

Rachel watched with interest as Harry sank to his knees, sobbing…except the sobs were intermingled with choked laughter. And once again his father’s voice came to him: “Where’ve you been?” With tremendous effort, Harry raised his head and saw Norman Osborn, likewise on his knees, staring back at him from the mirror.

“Remember me?” his father purred.

“Yes, Father,” Harry said with the voice of the d**ned. “I remember everything.”

From Rachel’s perspective, Harry was pretty much talking to himself while gazing at his own reflection in the mirror with a mesmerized look on his face. But she knew that Norman Osborn must’ve been contacting him through the deep recesses of his subconscious. If it took such unstableness to get him to remember the plans they made before he became an amnesiac, then so be it.

“Listen to your aunt, Harry.” Norman told him. “She knows what she’s talking about. She can help you avenge my death…kill Peter Parker…and everyone else who was in on it all.”

As if he was under a great trance, Harry nodded in approval to his father’s wishes. He then turned his gaze away from the mirror and towards the phone in his hand, which he had been carrying ever since Mary Jane called the penthouse. And then, without hesitation, he pressed the “redial” button and placed the receiving end near his right ear. He heard it ring a few times, and then Mary Jane’s voice came over the phone.

“Harry? Is there something wrong?”

“I’m sorry, Mary Jane.” He said in a monotone voice. “Something’s come up. I can’t see you tonight.”

He could hear Mary Jane sighing deeply over the phone. It made him feel slightly upset to hear her so disgruntled, because he had been looking forward to seeing her again, without Peter by her side. But he knew that she still loved him, and he couldn’t have her unless he was out of the picture. Though with his aunt and his father at his side, that would soon be easily rectified.

“I understand, Harry.” Mary Jane brought herself to say. “I’m sorry we couldn’t…I mean…I don’t know what I mean. I’m just sorry.”

“No, M.J.” Harry uttered. “I’m sorry.”

And with that being his last words for the conversation, Harry hung up the phone. He then looked towards Rachel, who had a huge wicked smile on her face. Now was the time to continue their original plan…only this time they would have more people to back them up…and this time she would bring herself in on the action. All she needed to get herself prepared was one moment in the secret lair…and she got exactly that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

While Jenny was getting herself prepared for the dinner that she and Ronnie were planning to have at one of the most exquisite restaurants in Manhattan, she could hardly believe the news that came over the television, which she had it set on Channel Six, about the death of her biology teacher, Curt Connors. As she watched April O’Neil give the full report on television, she couldn’t help but to think about the peculiar dream that she had earlier that day, in which she was actually at the scene of the crime. She could recall doing a number of marvelous things in her dream, such as fighting a tall, mechanical scorpion-like monster and pulling Sean Thomas out of the burning science building.

It all had seemed remarkably real to her. She wondered just how exhausted she must’ve been the previous evening to have such a surreal dream. But she must’ve been extremely exhausted to fall asleep in the catsuit that she tried on in the middle of the engagement party that she, her family, and her friends last night.

However, the weirdest part of the experience was how strangely similar it was to what Jenny was watching on the news that moment. How could she have dreamt of something that happened only seconds after she woke up? It didn’t make much sense. And Jenny, for a moment, jokingly believed that she might’ve become a psychic. Though she knew in her conscience that she shouldn’t have taken the situation so lightheartedly. Her greatest teacher had been killed and that was something that would be sticking with her for days to come.

“Jenny!” Her father called from the kitchen. “Your dashing prince awaits!”

She rolled her eyes at the way he referred to Ronnie, as she cut off the television set in her room and strolled out in her lovely blue gown, which Ronnie had graciously purchased for her weeks ago. Even as she made her way into the kitchen area, Pete and the patient Ronnie were astounded at the way she looked in it. Ronnie’s eyes nearly rolled to the back of his head, and his glasses had almost fogged up, as he gazed upon his date for the evening.

“Wow, Jen.” He said, while fiddling nervously with the bouquet of roses that he held in his hand. “You look…marvelous.”

Jenny blushed over the comment that he had given her. She was grateful to be wearing such a divine, appeasing outfit like that gown rather than the provocative garbage that she tried on last night. “Thank you, Ronnie.” She quickly took notice of the spotless tuxedo that he was currently wearing. “You don’t look so bad yourself.” She immediately cringed after she said that. It didn’t quite sound as delightful as the comment he made. But at least he was grateful for it.

“Thanks.” He remarked.

“The boy cleans up for himself very well. Just like a real gentleman should.” Pete stated, right before he glanced at his wristwatch. “You two better get a move on, if you want to catch a table. These fancy restaurants…is nothing like my diner. Over here, ya gotta catch one before it escapes.”

Jenny somewhat wished her father would make a point to what he said, so he wouldn’t continue rambling on like always did. She and Ronnie felt like they were standing there for hours waiting on him to get to the point. But when that seemed impossible, Jenny had just done what she always did best in these situations and interrupt him with a kiss on the cheek. “We gotta go, Pop. But thanks for the words of wisdom.” She tried not to laugh as she said that, while she and Ronnie were heading out of the kitchen.

“You two have fun.” Pete said, as he followed them into the waiting area. He could see the limousine that Ronnie arrived in parked at the front of the diner and was just as impressed seeing it there as he was the moment Ronnie arrived. “I take care of everything here by myself tonight. No rats, no frogs, no pigs, not even any penguins. Give everybody night off to enjoy themselves. Slow business night anyways.”

Jenny looked back and smiled at her father. “You’re one in a million, Pop.”

“Of course he is.” Ronnie said. “That’s why he’s gonna be the best man for our wedding. Right, Pete?”

“Got that right.” Pete remarked, and he heartily laughed, waving goodbye to his daughter and future son-in-law as they exited the diner. He watched them get into the limousine happily, with thoughts of a grand future for his daughter running through his mind. Pete could not have been more happy for her. He had always hoped from the moment that he came to America that his one and only daughter would have a better life than he did in Greece. It pleased him very much to know that dream would soon be coming true, as soon as she and Ronnie say “I do” to each other.

Once the soon-to-be newlyweds had departed from the diner, Pete clapped his hands together and rubbed them with satisfaction. He couldn’t remember the last time he had the place all to himself. With no employees and no customers so close to closing time, now seemed like the perfect time for him to step into the kitchen and fix one of the finest Greek meals that he had been hoping to make for the longest time for himself, Keftes. Just the name of the cuisine made his mouth water, and he couldn’t wait to step into the kitchen to get to work on it.

However, before Pete could make his way into the kitchen, the familiar sound of the bell dangling above the entrance to the diner rang, much to his displeasure. Stopping halfway near the kitchen entrance, Pete turned and faced his customer with a look of disappointment registering on his face. “May I help you on this joyous evening?” The tone in his voice was nothing but sarcastic. But his disappointment was soon replaced with surprise, as he realized that his customer was Quentin Fitzwaller. “Quincy?” He gazed at the horrible state the former security guard was in.

Quentin looked like a total bum. He had been wearing the same business suit given to him by Rachel Bitterman for days now, developing a rather foul bodily odor to it and a several stains that had turned its color from black and white to brown and yellow. His hair was out of place, his eyes were bloodshot, and a five o’clock shadow had formed on his face. The tie of his suit was unbound, part of his shirt was hanging out from his pants, and he was even missing one shoe.

Only a few moments before he arrived at Pete’s Diner, he bought himself what seemed like his fifteenth bottle of scotch from the nearest liquor store, indulging himself to it as he stepped inside. After one swig and a loud, horrendous burp, he said with a grungy voice, “Gimme your money, old man.”

Pete could barely hear what his said, because his voice sounded so groggy to him. “What?”

What Quentin did next had completely horrified him. He suddenly pulled a revolver out from his back pocket and aimed it directly at Pete. “I said gimme the freakin’ money or I’ll blow your freakin’ head off, old man!”

Pete’s hands instinctively went up as soon as he saw the revolver pointed at him. He had been held up numerous times in the city of Manhattan, and he has luckily survived each encounter he had with a common robber. So he was pretty much used to being held up before Quentin surprisingly made his move there and then. Fitzwaller had always been Pete’s favorite customer and a very good friend to Jenny and the Muppets. To see him committing such an act at that moment was appalling. If Jenny and the Muppets were there to see what he was doing, it would break all of their hearts deeply.

“Quincy, what is this?” Pete remarked. “This is not you. Someone has put you up to this, haven’t they?”

Someone had, indeed…and her name was Rachel Bitterman. Ever since she entered his life, things hadn’t been quite the same for him. He had felt like he was living a double life: part of him was a law-abiding human being and the other was a law-breaking one (helping Rachel do the most horrible things that have contradicted his career as a security guard). And the moment she decided to break up with him, his whole world came crashing down. Desperation had quickly begun to take over. Even though she had done lawless things, he loved that woman to death. She was so beautiful and yet so dangerous. But no other woman would want such a geek like him.

If this is what it takes to win her back, so be it, he thought as he kept aiming that revolver at Pete.

“I’m sorry, Pete.” He muttered. “This is the only way.”

Pete shook his head negatively. “No, Quincy. No! There is always choices in life. Is what keeps things in order.” Even Pete had known himself how much he rambled on about things and yet had no point to them, but it was crucial at this moment that he did…his life depended on it. “Quincy, whoever’s put you up to this does not know the type of man you are. Only you know who you are and can decide where your path in life lays…no one else. You’re a good person. Jenny has always known it…I have always known it…the Muppets have know it since they met you in Disney World.”

Hearing what the diner owner was telling him, Quentin closed his eyes for a moment and thought about how he looked holding that revolver at an innocent human being. It terrified him. He wasn’t a violent man. Even while he served as a security guard, he had never performed any violent actions to apprehend criminals, like pull a gun on them or beat them to the ground. He was raised on living clean and finding a peaceful way of abiding the law.

The revolver in Quentin’s hands lowered, and the tension that had come over Pete had gone away. It wasn’t long before it and the bottle of scotch fell to the floor with a loud clang and crash. He then slumped down in the chair nearest to him and put his head in his hands. “I’m sorry, Rachel. I’m so sorry.”

“Rachel?” Pete uttered in realization. “She put you up to this.” He walked over to him, stepping into the puddle of alcohol that had formed around the table that Quentin was sitting at and placing a hand on his shoulder. “That woman will realize one day that she can’t threaten anyone into giving her what she wants. Like Jenny and me, for example. For years now, she has threatened us with foreclosure on this diner. But it’ll all end soon, because we have friends who’re helping us get through our dilemma. Friends who respect the type of person you have been for years.” His words were soothing for Quentin to hear, and he quickly forgot what he had just done. Realizing that he had just saved two lives that evening, Pete’s joyful attitude had returned. “C’mon. Let me make you a fine Greek meal that I’ve been waiting…”

CRASH!

The front display window shattered under the weight of a heavy, round, metallic object that had smashed through it all of the sudden. Pete and Quentin looked in the direction of where it had crashed, seeing a mechanical device that resembled a pumpkin roll across the floor, making a loud, rapid beeping sound. On this metal pumpkin was the word “Payback” written in big, bold, black letters.

Seeing that pumpkin brought a horrified look on Quentin’s face, as he realized what exactly it was. He immediately jumped from the table, knocking his chair over in the process, and ran to Pete, who just stood where he was mesmerized by the irritating noise and the frightening appearance that the pumpkin gave off. And before Quentin even had the chance to push himself and Pete into the kitchen area…

BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!

The waiting area, the kitchen, and every other section of the diner were instantly engulfed in flames…and Quentin and Pete along with them. The bomb had unleashed a powerful shockwave that made every wall and ceiling crumble to pieces. The entire structure of the diner collapsed within moments, until nothing more was left of it than a massive pile of fiery ash.

People that were within blocks from the diner when it exploded had quickly piled out of their homes to see the horrifying remains of it. Most of them had gone there at least once in a while in their past, while some had passed through there every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And for them all to see what had become of it was terrifying. But it was not as terrifying as the wicked cackling from a dark, ominous figure that was rocketing high in the sky, which none of the bystanders had noticed. If it were not for the sounds of the approaching ambulances and fire trucks, they would have certainly heard it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mary Jane stumbled into her apartment later that night. Shell-shocked, listless, at her wit’s end as to which way to turn, she noticed that her answering machine was blinking. She reached over and pushed the button.

“Hi, M.J. It’s Peter,” came his voice. Tears started to roll down her face. She had never been so happy to hear it before. “Listen, I just want to talk to you about us. I know I’ve—”

The message suddenly stopped. Huh? Peering more closely at the answering machine…

The phone line was no longer jacked into the wall. It must have come out during Peter’s call, cutting off the message. But why would that be?

The only possible answer: someone had broken into her apartment to pull the jack out…and might well still be there. She turned to leave and let out an alarmed shriek.

The Goblin was standing right behind her.

At least it looked like the Goblin, although his costume and mask were different…the top of his head, hair and everything, was exposed and…

Harry? But how…?

He clapped a hand over her mouth. Her eyes widened in horror, and he spoke in a low, soothing voice that was terrifying just because it sounded so friendly. “Since you love him,” he told her with an easy familiarity that almost made her ill, “I think you should call him back…and do just as I say…or Peter Parker will die.”

END OF CHAPTER FIFTEEN

yeah me too!

Thanks.

In case anyone hasn't been keeping up with the "five main deaths" (it was originally four, but I recently changed it to five) so far in the story, here's the list....

1) Curt Connors
2) Pete
3) Quentin Fitzwaller
4) ?
5) ?

I'll have more up as soon as I can.