The Spectacular Spidey/Muppets Celebration

[The Count]

Well.. The part with Bear I liked as it helps connect the rewrites/altered version very seemlessly and works in your favor. The nitpicks, I'd have to read it all again with time to sit down and point 'em out. Which is why I suggest you read it to yourself or have someone else read it to see if those little things get caught. The most frequent one is "the both of them" or other usages when it should be just "both of them", though in one or two cases the former is correct.
Like I said, would have to read everything again, don't have the time fright now. But post more as I'm rully digging the story... And I know the big subway fight where the gang from SS shows up is coming up soon.

 

[muppetwriter]

This next revised chapter is one I think you'll get a kick out of, Count.

Chapter Eleven​

The piercing scream of a young woman echoed throughout the house of Victoria Thomas, who wasn’t there at the time. In the living room was a panicking Lori Thomas, wearing a short black tank top and tight, torn blue jeans and having her wrists tied together, while sitting in an old wooden chair. However, if one were to look at her closely, they would see that her wrists weren’t actually tied up. She was only pretending they were for a role-playing game that was being captured on video by a camera sitting nearby.

“Help!!!” Lori shouted. “Please someone save me!!” She barely could compose her giggling, especially once her brother came into the room, dressed in a green sweater, green pants, green gloves, green socks, and a green ski mask. He crouched a little as he tiptoed over to Lori, talking over her shoulders in a raspy, sinister voice.

“Save your screams, my dear! No one will come to save you!” Sean exclaimed. “Not as long as ‘The Green Goblin’ terrorizes the streets of Manhattan!” Lori couldn’t help but laugh a little at Sean’s impersonation of the man who was once the foe of Spider-Man, because it was so dead-on. The two would know how the actual Goblin would’ve sounded like, considering the fact that they had faced off against him two years prior to their time in San Francisco.

“Don’t be too sure, Goblin! Spidey will swoop in and kick your butt when you least suspect it!” That’s when Sean and Lori heard a tiny babbling noise, and their attention was directed towards the entranceway to the living room, where little Stanley had slowly walked his way in, wearing a cheap imitation of a Spider-Man costume (consisting of a red ski mask, a red sweater with a painted spider emblem on it, blue slacks, and red slippers) that his cousins had made for him. Lori and Sean chuckled over the adorable way he looked, but made sure to stay in character for their game. Sean tiptoed around Lori and faced Stanley, who had made it right into the living room all by himself.

“Spider-Man! You have foolishly chosen to turn down my offer! And for what? The love of a woman! Now you will meet your doom!” Sean ran over to the tiny Muppet child and picked him up, spinning around the room with him and even getting a good chuckle out of him as well. Nearby, Lori was smiling, clearly enjoying the game they were playing.

“Get him, Spidey! Kick his butt!!” She cheered, just as Sean stopped spinning and began to feel very dizzy.

“Spider-Man…you’ve defeated me…for the last time!” Sean collapsed onto the couch and let Stanley rest on his chest while he caught his breath. Though he really did feel defeated, he continued staying in character. “Enjoy your victory while it lasts. There will be others that’ll threaten the safety of your precious Mary-Jane Watson.”

After ending his performance, Sean closed his eyes and stuck his tongue out, pretending to be dead. Stanley saw the way his cousin looked. He was too young to understand the concept of death and seeing Sean act that way confused him. Curiously, he reached up at Sean’s face and tugged on his green ski mask to see what would happen, and when nothing did, he continued tugging. Meanwhile, Lori pretended to be freed from her “binds” and went over to Stanley, picking him up from Sean’s chest and holding him closer to her.

“My hero!” Lori then gave him a big kiss on the forehead, which tickled Stanley and made him flail around in Lori’s hands, as she collapsed to the floor and busted in laughter, with Stanley sitting on her bare stomach. Sean, who opened his eyes and put his tongue back into his mouth, laughed along with her. He took off his ski mask, got up from the couch, and went to the camera, turning it off.

“Now that was fun!” Sean said, walking over to his sister as she sat up and placed their cousin on her lap, tickling his nose. “It’s good to know that we can look back on tense moments like that in an entertaining way.” Although he enjoyed playing the game with his sister and cousin, Sean still felt very down about the evening when Spidey and the Goblin had their final battle, which was the same evening Norman Osborn died by his own terrorizing ways. It made him think of the phone conversation that he recently had with Peter Parker and wondered who would be there to protect New York City from criminals worst than the Green Goblin.

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Lori said, also remembering those moments, though she was unconscious during most of the time she was held captive by Goblin himself. “I really owe you and Spidey big time for saving my life, you know.”

“Hey, seeing you alive here and now, enjoying a perfect game of role-play with our cousin, is good enough for me.” Sean and Lori smiled at each other, while Stanley took off his ski mask and started chewing on it, covering it entirely with his own saliva. It was quiet in the room for a short moment, and then the cordless phone in the kitchen started to ring.

“I believe that’s for me. Excuse me.” Lori said, and she handed Stanley over to a puzzled Sean, right before she got to her feet and dashed into the kitchen, answering the phone. “Hello?” While Lori was listening to the voice on the other end, Sean sat down on the couch with Stanley on his lap, using a remote control to turn on the old black and white television set that his aunt had sitting near the window. The first image to come on the television screen was the Statue of Liberty, which seemed to be the center of attention for a live news story being covered by none other than the Muppet Newsman.

Sean wanted to focus on the news story, but he was too distracted hearing the sound of his sister laughing hysterically while on the phone. His curiosity ending up getting the best of him, and he set his cousin down next to him, before getting up from the couch and heading into the kitchen. As Sean listened in on his sister’s conversation, Stanley sat by himself on the couch, watching the news story and chewing on the ski mask at the same time.

“If you’ve been tuning in for the past seven hours, ladies and gentlemen, you would know that one of the boldest and most daring daredevils in Muppet entertainment, Gonzo the Great, is going to bungee jump off the torch of Lady Liberty.” The Muppet Newsman reported, while the camera was zooming in on Lady Liberty’s torch, where a small blue figure stood and waved to the camera.

“Funny chicken.” Stanley mumbled through the ski mask in his mouth, waving to the television screen. The small, innocent Muppet child seemed to have been only speaking to himself at the time, because his two cousins were too focused on the phone conversation, in which the name “Edward” was brought up quite a bit.

“We can’t tell you exactly why Gonzo is up there and attempting such a dangerous stunt, but we can tell you that there’s nothing to fear, because he is a professional.” That’s when the Electric Mayhem band had appeared on screen, looking up at Gonzo and instantly catching the attention of the Muppet Newsman. “Here are some people who have worked with Gonzo before in his illustrious career. Perhaps they can give us some insight on what the weirdo plans on accomplishing this morning.” The Muppet Newsman walked up to the band and began interviewing them, not long after Animal started growling at him and making him a little nervous. “Uh…excuse me. But can you tell our audience at home what is going on?”

“Hey, man. We’re findin’ this just as funky as you.” Dr. Teeth replied. “We’ve been lookin’ for that cat up there for the longest time.”

“Do you guys think we should, like, go up there and tell him to come home?” Janice asked, and the band thought it over for a second.

“Nah! Let’s see how this thing blows over, then we’ll tell him to come home.” Floyd said, and the band all agreed with that notion, just as they heard gasps and screams from the large crowd gathered nearby. The camera zoomed back in on the torch, just as Gonzo had leaped from it. He was connected to a large rubber band that stretched to absorb the energy of his fall. Gonzo laughed and screamed, flying upwards again as the cord snapped back.

“What a marvelous display of courage, ladies and gentlemen. I only wonder how in the world he plans on getting himself back down.” And just as soon as the Muppet Newsman asked that, large gray clouds billowed over them, turning the bright, sunny atmosphere into a dark, gloomy one. Everyone, including the Muppet Newsman, looked around in confusion at the unusual weather shift. “Um, ladies and gentlemen, I may be just a simple news correspondent, but I’m also a weatherman. And this strange rapid shift in the weather is not possible.” As the Newsman was talking, a huge, heavy fog rolled across the island that they were on, obscuring everything the camera had been catching that moment. When the fog suddenly disappeared and the gray clouds in the sky dissolved to let back in the bright, sunny skies, the bewildered crowd had soon noticed how Gonzo was missing from the Statue of Liberty, leaving only his rubbery cord behind.

“Yo! What happened to our blue buddy?!” Dr. Teeth exclaimed in shock, while the Muppet Newsman gazed at the cord for a moment and then turned back to the camera, showing how surprised he was by the sudden turn of events.

“Uh…we…um…” Before the Muppet Newsman could’ve even tried to explain himself, the words “Please Stand By” had quickly flashed on the screen, in front of a blue background. Stanley, watching the whole news coverage, didn’t understand what was going on and was too busy playing with his saliva-covered ski mask to even try. Meanwhile, the phone conversation that his cousins had been concentrating on had finished, and the two walked into the room, bickering as they usually did at times.

“I just want to know who this ‘Edward’ guy is.” Sean said, while Lori rolled her eyes, clearly annoyed with her brother’s nosiness.

“He’s just a friend I made during a vacation we took to San Juan, a few years back.” Lori remarked. “Now would you please mind your own business?”

“What does he do for a living?” Sean asked, and Lori grunted in frustration. “Is he a doctor? If he’s a doctor, then I’ll shut up.”

“If I said ‘yes’, then you’ll keep on asking me irritating questions, like what’s his field of study or something like that.”

“What is his field of study?”

“SEAN!!!!”

Hearing the way Lori had shouted got Stanley’s attention, and he looked up at them with a smile on his face, as they took their arguments upstairs. He jumped off the couch and followed them up there, not once noticing the photograph of Gonzo that appeared on the television screen with the word “Missing” in big, bold letters printed on it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Kermit needed to get his mind off of the things that had been troubling him about Mickey and Piggy. So he decided to take a visit over to Peter’s apartment to do so, with Robin there along with him, and he was surprised to have found Mickey there. Before any of them had the chance to talk their problems over, Peter got a message from Aunt May that was given to him by his landlord’s daughter. The message was about Peter’s last visit, and he knew that he had to get to his old house right away, so he took Kermit, Mickey, and Robin with him.

When the four arrived in Queens, Peter went to talk with his aunt, who was packaging things up after finding a small apartment somewhere in town (despite being given a few extra weeks on her foreclosure notice), and Robin went with him to make friends with a boy who was helping May named Henry Jackson. Meanwhile, Kermit and Mickey decided to have their talk, which the both of them admitted to needing to have.

“I heard that you and Piggy decided not to see each other for a while.” Mickey said. “You, uh, mind if I ask why?” Kermit hesitated, but knew that he couldn’t hide his thoughts and emotions from Mickey anymore.

“It was about you, Mickey.” The mouse looked at the frog in surprise, several questions going through his mind, and only one coming out through his mouth.

“What did I do to break you and Piggy up?”

“It wasn’t so much as what you did, Mickey. I just let my paranoia get the best of me and accused Piggy of falling in love with you, after you rescued her from Doc Ock.” At that point, Kermit expected the mouse to go into a tantrum and defending himself, saying that he’s crazy for thinking that, especially when he had a girlfriend of his own to consider. However, all Mickey had done was laugh, pleasing Kermit a little.

“That…Ha, ha! That has…Ho, ho! Kermit…buddy…you really made my week with that one!” Mickey placed one hand on Kermit’s shoulder and the other over his chest, trying to compose himself from his hysterical chuckling. Though Kermit was happy to see that his old F.A.S.A. buddy wasn’t letting the misunderstanding bother him, he wished that the mouse would control himself, seeing how everyone in the neighborhood was looking their way.

“Okay. Okay. It’s not that funny.” Mickey began to slow down, wiping away the tears that had welded up in his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Kerm. It’s just that the thought of me and Piggy…” He looked at Kermit, who was starting to form an angry look on his face, and immediately changed the subject. “So…uh, how do you plan to patch things up between you two?”

“That’s the big problem. I was so upset that night at the Planetarium that I wouldn’t be surprised if she chopped me back to Sesame Street.”

“Wow. Now this is starting to sound serious.”

“Tell me about it. Before I found you at Peter’s apartment, I actually believed the hard part was telling you that I’m sorry.”

“Well, I see no reason you should be apologizing to me. Everybody makes mistakes, Kermit…even me, and I’m Mickey Mouse! It’s just learning from those mistakes that make us stronger.” Hearing himself say that helped Mickey understand something very important. Just because he didn’t have his sorcerer hat didn’t mean that he was hopeless. He remembered the times when he put on the hat and robe and how much he did what he did for not just for the thrill of saving lives and making change, but for the love of his girlfriend, Minnie Mouse. “And I see now that it’s not the hat that gives me the power. The magic comes from within here.” As Mickey pointed to his chest, Kermit gave him a peculiar look.

“Uh, Mickey? Did you just change the subject?”

“Not at all, Kermit. In fact, I think I just found the solution to your problem.”

“You have?! Well, tell me! Tell me!”

“Just listen carefully…”

END OF CHAPTER ELEVEN​

More to come later.

 

[The Count]

Yep... Enjoyed that very much as you start to connect a few small pieces that'll lead into the next story. Seems like Kermit and Mickey are starting to patch things between them too, if only Robin could get his side of the story heard by someone...

Keep postin', it's coming out very well so far and we need more.

 

[muppetwriter]

Alissa posted some pictures on her MySpace that sort of gave me the idea for that RPG scene in the revised Chapter Eleven. She looks so much like Mary Jane in them.

Take a look.

Alissa's "Mary Jane" Pic

Alissa's Other "Mary Jane" Pic

I told her that this last one sort of reminds me of Jean Grey:
Alissa's "Jean Grey" Pic

 

[muppetwriter]

There were originally only twelve chapters in the story. But with all of the additional scenes put into this "extended version", it's understandable that there's now more than twelve of them. Enjoy the new Chapter Twelve.

Chapter Twelve​

When anyone at Bitterman Bank and Development was asked to see Rachel Bitterman and they would reply by saying she was busy at the moment, they would actually mean that she was in her office playing with her dolls around the scale models of her latest ideas. However, she was busy in a whole different way that day, as she was reading the issues of two different newspapers inside her fashionable office, The Daily Bugle and The Daily Chronicle. She was looking closely at the photos printed on the front page of both papers. The photo on the front page of The Bugle was of Spider-Man, Kim Possible, and Mickey Mouse standing together after stopping Doc Ock, right below a headline that read, “Web of Heroes Stop Mad Six-Armed Scientists!” The photo on the front page of The Chronicle was of Peter Parker, Kim Possible, and Mickey Mouse together after saving a child from a burning building, right below a headline that read, “Brave Citizens Pull Off Perilous Rescue!”

Rachel looked back and forth several times at the two headlines, each time coming up with the same deduction and finding a connection between the two incidents. She had contacted Mike Tarkanian, the man who she had been interacting with ever since he signed a contract with her business to help finance The Daily Chronicle, and demanded for him to come to her office as soon as possible. And while she waited there with Quentin Fitzwaller (who was dressed in a black and white business suit she provided for him), she continued glancing at the two headlines. Meanwhile, Quentin was admiring the scale model of her newest idea, a sixty-story glass skyscraper that she was calling “Bitterman Plaza.”

“You always did love to think big.” Quentin said, and once she realized that he was referring to her new skyscraper, a wicked grin crept across her face. “So is this being built right now?”

“You bet your bottom dollar it is.” Rachel remarked, and just thinking of dollars made her mouth water a little, especially when she thought of how many dollars she would get after so many of her clients paid off their foreclosures…that was, if they could paid them off. “I’m building Bitterman Plaza down in Midtown Manhattan, right across the street from the Muppet Theatre.” Hearing Rachel mentioned the group that he once referred to as “The Kismet Gang” brought a bit of frustration in Quentin, as he still blamed them for losing his security guard duties at Disney World. But finding out how badly Rachel was taunting them with her new skyscraper put him at ease.

“You really are the mistress of intimidation.” Quentin said, moving away from the scale model of Bitterman Plaza and towards Rachel. Old feelings were starting to come back to him, as it dawned upon him that the both of them had at least one thing in common: a deep hatred for Muppets. Rachel, seeing the way he was looking at her, got up from her desk and approached him, putting her arms around him.

“Do you like it when I’m such a bad girl?” Rachel asked in a sultry way, and Quentin chuckled, buying into her seduction.

“I never admitted it before, but I always have.” Quentin replied.

“Well, that’s good to know, ‘cause I’m far more bad than I was seven years ago.” Just when it seemed as if Rachel and Quentin were about to engage in some serious action in her office, there was a rapid knock on the door that interrupted their moment. Immediately after hearing it, Rachel pushed Quentin away from her, leaving him staring at her in surprise. She sat back down at her desk, while Quentin just angrily stood in the corner. “Come in.”

The large, black double doors to Rachel’s office opened and Mike Tarkanian stepped in, looking very bleak when he should’ve been very happy for getting such a great story in the paper. As he walked up to Rachel’s desk, he was about to sit down in one of the two leather chairs positioned in front of it, until he noticed Quentin standing in the corner and reacted in surprise.

“Nicky Holiday?!” He shouted, and Quentin looked at him puzzlingly, before exchanging awkward glances with Rachel. “You’re supposed to be in Riker’s!” Tarkanian then focused his gaze on Rachel. “Don’t tell me he signed a contract with you?” Rachel obviously didn’t have the time to answer ridiculous questions that were pointless to the main topic.

“Never mind about him. He’s irrelevant to what I really called you in here for.” Rachel said, and her comments only angered Quentin more, as he pretended to be invisible long enough for Rachel and Mike to get to business. She held up the recent issue of The Daily Chronicle, smiling at him as she did. “We’ve really got to give the photographer who took this picture a raise, because it’s the best one I’ve ever seen in my whole life.” Tarkanian slowly sat down in the chair located to the left of Rachel, falling deeper into depression as she talked about the article. “I mean, the way he captured it is so…” Rachel had stopped talking once she took notice of how down Tarkanian looked. “Why the long face, M.T.? You should be celebrating right now.”

“Why?” Tarkanian sadly asked. “Because we’re coming an inch away from finding out who Spider-Man really is?”

“YES!!!” Rachel happily exclaimed. “It’s plain as day on the front page of your paper and the one on The Bugle’s! All you have to do is draw a red mask on Peter Parker’s face, and we have enough proof to show the world who our so-called savior really is!” Mike was still feeling miserable, making Rachel only more upset. “Listen, Tarkanian…don’t turn chicken on me. We’ve come too far to just lose the biggest exposé the world has ever seen or read about.”

“I just don’t know, Bitterman.” Mike remarked. “What if we do something to really ruin this guy’s reputation? I mean, there must be a huge reason he hides his face behind that mask. Maybe it gives him enough confidence to go out there and do the great things that he does for this city.”

“Who cares why he hides his face? The people want to know where he is, who he is, and how come he decided to quit.” Rachel stated, and Tarkanian negatively shook his head.

“The people just want him back. They don’t care who he really is.” He boldly contradicted. “We won’t be doing any good but exposing him in the midst of all the crime that has been increasing all over the city.” Rachel could detect right away that the conversation was about to take a turn into a direction that she didn’t want it going in.

“Mike…think of what you’re saying. If we bail out of our chance of revealing Spider-Man’s true identity now, you’ll be losing the attention that you’ve been craving The Chronicle to have for years. And I cannot finance a losing competitor. There’s no point in it.” Tarkanian didn’t need her telling him the risks, because he knew them long before she did. He felt like he was at a crossroads between fortune and nobility. His interactions with Bear had taught him a ton about the latter, especially during their recent discussion, which the fire rescue was the primary topic.

“I’ve gotta admit that the idea really did excite me at first, Rachel. But, lately, I’ve just been asking myself if it’s really worth ruining the life of an ordinary kid who just felt like doing the right thing that evening.” His words were boring Rachel very much. She failed to see the point in what he was telling her and expected him to just come out and tell her what he decided on doing. “This kid…he’s a photographer for the rival newspaper…I don’t know whether or not he’s really the Spider-Man…but I do know that my photographer is just as noble as he is.”

“Oh, for cryin’ out loud, Tarkanian!” Rachel furiously yelled. “Your photographer is a bear!”

“A bear with a lot of heart and guts!”

“I’ve had the uncomfortable pleasure of meeting a bear with a lot of heart and guts, and he never did get the job done!” Tarkanian had no clue that the bear that Rachel was referring to was once an employee of his named Fozzie Bear. “My advice to you: ditch the walking, talking rug and get yourself a photographer who’s just as much interested in snatching a photo of Peter Parker wearing a Spidey costume as you should be!!” Mike was truly angered by her words, shooting up from the leather chair and glaring right at her.

“NO!!!!!” He slammed his fists on Rachel’s desk, making four pencils fly off of it and hit the floor. “I’m not going to fire a good photographer and one of the best reporters I’ve ever known, just so you get yourself filthy richer!” Rachel was a little taken aback by how forceful Tarkanian seemed in front of her. “If you want Spider-Man so bad, then get him yourself! I quit!!” And with that said, Mike Tarkanian stomped away from Rachel’s desk and stormed out of her office, leaving Rachel feeling extremely furious. Quentin just stared at her from the corner he had been standing in the whole time, no longer mad at her, but curious to know what her next plan of action was.

“I don’t need him or his crummy newspaper!” Rachel uttered, as she reached into her desk, pulled out the financial contract that Tarkanian had signed with her for The Daily Chronicle, and tore it to shreds. “I am going to get Spider-Man…but not by myself.” Quentin’s curiosity had increased, as he started to wonder what her fixation in him was all about.

“Why Spider-Man?” He asked. “What’s the big deal about him?” She looked over and glared at him in a vicious way that no one else had before.

“You really want to know?” Rachel asked, as she got up from her desk and walked up to Quentin, getting close to him in a way that seemed less attractive and more disturbing. “Tell me all you know about Peter Parker, and I’ll let you in on my biggest secret yet.” Quentin stared at her with a mixture of fear and wonder running through him.

“I only know what Jenny and her father have told me about him at their diner.” Rachel grinned, listening intently to her boyfriend.

“Yes…go on.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

It seemed as if the visit to Aunt May couldn’t have come at a better time, seeing as how both Mickey and Peter were given advice good enough to help them consider becoming heroes again and forming the partnership that they knew they were meant to share. So, the next day, Mickey decided to meet with Kim at Pete’s Diner, at the same time Kermit and Mary Jane had arranged to meet Piggy and Peter there as well. Only Kim and Peter had arrived at the diner, leaving Kermit to wonder if Piggy was still upset with him. As he continued waiting for her, he was surprised to see three familiar faces show up: Fozzie, Robin, and Kermit’s old producer friend, Ronnie Crawford, who Fozzie and Robin had run into and decided to have lunch with.

“Hey, Kermit.” Fozzie said, truly excited. “You’ll never guess who we just met.”

“Ronnie Crawford?” Kermit remarked, impressing Fozzie.

“How did you know?!?!” Fozzie exclaimed.

“Uh…m-maybe it’s because he’s in the room with us, Fozzie.” Robin said, and when Fozzie realized that Ronnie was standing right near them, he jumped in surprise.

“Oh!” Fozzie said, while Ronnie approached Kermit at the table he was sitting at, shaking his hand.

“Hey, Kermit.” Ronnie said. “How’ve you been holding up?”

“Uh…just fine, Ronnie. Just fine.” Kermit replied, and Fozzie, Ronnie, and Robin noticed the discouraged look on his face, as he kept looking towards the window.

“What’s wrong, Uncle Kermit?” Robin asked. “Aren’t you glad to see Mr. Crawford?”

“Oh, I’m thrilled to see him again, Robin.” Kermit remarked. “It’s just that…”

“Of course! The foreclosure!” Fozzie interjected, and Kermit wanted to tell him that wasn’t it, but Ronnie’s interjection kept him from doing so.

“Foreclosure?” He said. “What are you guys going to lose?”

“The Happiness Hotel.” Robin told Ronnie, who was really disappointed to hear that.

“Wow. That’s tough.”

“Tell us about it.” Fozzie said.

“When is the deadline to pay it off?” Ronnie asked.

“December 25th, 2006.” Kermit replied, and Ronnie was surprised over the due date.

“Christmastime?! Well, that doesn’t make any sense.”

“It does, if your name is Rachel Bitterman.” Kermit remarked, and Fozzie and Robin still cringed at the sound of that name, ever since she tried to foreclose the Muppet Theatre on the Christmas of 2002. But that time they heard it, a chill went down both of their spines.

“Uncle Kermit,” Robin said, “Don’t tell us that greedy lady is threatening to foreclose the Happiness Hotel this time!”

“I’ve done the research, Robin…and I’m afraid it’s true.” Kermit said. “If we don’t pay Miss Bitterman off by Christmas of next year, then she’ll take away the Hotel and replace it with some scandalous nightclub.”

“Scandalous nightclub?!” Ronnie exclaimed.

“Long story.” Kermit uttered, and Ronnie shook the thought out of his head, long enough to ask some more important questions.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll have the money ready by then, seeing as how you’ve got your performances at the Muppet Theatre and your broadcasts at the KMUP station to help raise it all.” Ronnie assumed, and when he saw how Fozzie, Kermit, and Robin lowered their heads in despair, he had finally reached the peak of disbelief and sorrow. “Oh, come on! They’re your last hope!”

“They were until the Hulk wrecked the station.” Fozzie said.

“And few people started coming to the Theatre.” Kermit added. “But if we had something just as good as Manhattan Melodies was years ago, then more people would start being interested again and we would earn enough to pay Miss Bitterman.” What Kermit just said gave Ronnie a terrific idea that he was certain would help the Muppets save their hotel. As he began to share it with them, Jenny looked in their direction, obviously pleased to see Ronnie come back to the diner again, and then looked towards Peter and Mary Jane, who were having the talk that they desired to have for quite a while. It also pleased her to see Mary Jane willing to work things out with Peter, she being the one who contacted Peter and suggested for them to meet at the diner of all places.

“Jenny!” Pete shouted, and she immediately turned to her father, who reminded her of her waiting duties by pointing to the tables.

“Oh, right. Sorry.” She said, glad that Pete reminded her, seeing the opportunity of eavesdropping a little on Peter and Mary Jane’s conversation. She walked over to their table, just as they began.

“You know how our minds play tricks on us? Well, mine’s sure did a number on me, especially after the show that night.” Mary Jane said, and she stopped once Jenny approached their table. “Hi, Jenny.” The pleasant way in which Mary Jane addressed her had surprised the young waitress a little, just as it had Peter. It seemed to them both that Mary Jane was finally beginning to accept Jenny’s company and not jump to any conclusions so quickly.

“H-Hi, Mary Jane.” Jenny responded, trying to focus on her job. “What will you two have this afternoon?” Mary Jane looked at Peter for a moment, and when she gave Jenny her order, she smiled at her brightly. “I think pizza sounds nice.” Jenny smiled back at Mary Jane, as she wrote the order down.

“One pizza…coming right up.” Jenny said, and as she walked away from the table, she realized that she was so excited that Mary Jane was talking to her that she completely forgot to ask what kind of pizza they wanted. “I’ll just surprise ‘em,” she thought, while heading to the back of the counter.

“Jenny’s a really good friend.” Peter told Mary Jane, who nodded her head in agreement, feeling disappointment in herself for thinking differently.

“I should’ve known better than to question your friendship like I did. I was jealous, and I just thought you were trying to get past me. I thought you were trying to have something with Jenny that you could’ve had with me.” Peter just smiled at Mary Jane, seeing how much she wanted things to go back to the way they were by the expressions on her face.

“It’s not too late, you know.” She just looked back at him, warmed by his friendly face yet troubled over his inner thoughts.

“Some part of me heard what you had to say that night…that you were different…but I didn’t want to listen. I was afraid to trust you. But I’ve been thinking about it…”

“Listen,” Peter interrupted, “There’s more that I have to say.” He was quiet for a moment, before he brought himself to just say what needed to be said. “I might’ve rushed into things. I thought…”

“Wait a minute. What’re you saying?” Peter was quiet again; it was very hard for him to talk to her, while under so much stress.

“I…I’m saying…I thought I could be there for you, Mary Jane. But I can’t. My mind was playing tricks, too.” She could see the distress in his eyes. It confused her why he just couldn’t come out with his feelings and tell her what he wanted. Tired of all the struggling, she just asked him the big question right away.

“Do you love me…or not?” Peter stared in her eyes, silent for a long time, thinking carefully of an answer before saying it.

“I…” He slowly looked down, as he uttered the last word, “…don’t.” Mary Jane looked down as well, disappointed and on the verge of tears.

“You don’t.” She looked up again and held back the tears, long enough to be able to make an important request. “Kiss me.” Peter looked up again himself, staring at her in confusion and surprise. “I need to know something. Just one kiss.” She reached forward and touched his hand, obviously serious about her proposal. Whether Peter wanted to or not, he was going to kiss her, because she was leaning in before he had.

But just as the two were about to kiss, a familiar sensation came over Peter that wasn’t from the moment he and Mary Jane were sharing. He suddenly dived forward and grabbed Mary Jane, pushing her out of the way just in time for a black vehicle to crash through the window of Pete’s Diner and force everyone from Mickey to Kermit to duck for cover. Pete, Pepe, Rizzo, and several other rats ducked into the kitchen, while the flying car crashed into the front counter.

“What is going on here?!” Pete yelled, from inside the kitchen, while several of the customers got to their feet and dusted themselves off, each wondering what had happened. But their questions were soon answered, as they all began to feel massive tremors that were all too familiar to Peter, Kim, Mickey, Kermit, Fozzie, and Robin.

“Oh, no.” Fozzie uttered. “Not again!” They couldn’t see what the cause of the tremors was, but did see several citizens outside the diner, running for their lives.

“What’s happening?” Ronnie asked, just as two mechanical tentacles appeared, stomping their way towards Pete’s Diner and carrying the infamous Doc Ock. At the same time he had come inside the diner, Drakken’s hovercraft landed behind him, with none other than Dr. Drakken and Shego behind the wheel.

“Well, well, well!” Drakken said, looking left and right at Pete’s Diner. “I was expecting someplace more exquisite…like McDonald’s!” Drakken laughed at his own heartless joke, while Ock grinned at the people before him, including Peter and Kermit.

“Hello, my friends.” He said, and as his eyes went towards Mary Jane, Peter stepped in front of her for protection.

“What do you want?” He asked Ock, just before he lashed a tentacle out at Parker, grabbing him by the throat and pulling him closer to Ock. When Mickey and Kim attempted to go after him, Shego stopped them. She leaped out of the hovercraft and landed right inside the diner, snatching Kermit and positioning her glowing right hand over his face.

“Take one more step, and I’ll show you why it’s not easy bein’ green or mean!” Shego threatened, and Mickey & Kim kept themselves where they were, as Ock attempted to get some cooperation out of Peter.

“I want you to find your friend, Spider-Man.” He told him. “Tell him to meet me at the Westside Tower at three o’clock.”

“But I don’t know where he is.” Peter said, and Ock looked towards Shego, who still had her hand near Kermit.

“What about you, Frog?” Shego asked. “You know where the web-head is?”

“Uh, no.” Kermit told Shego. “But…listen…why do we have to fight? I mean, this green-on-green violence needs to stop somewhere!” Shego just rolled her eyes, just as Drakken looked towards Kim and Mickey and attempted to get some answers out of Spider-Man’s “amazing friends.”

“Well, I’m sure Kim Possible and the mouse would know where he is.” He said, and the two kept quiet, just glaring at Drakken and making him incredibly upset. “No?! Then we’re takin’ the frog!!!” Kermit screamed in terror, as Shego flipped back inside the hovercraft, with the frog in her grasps.

“Uncle Kermit!!” Robin cried.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Frog.” Drakken said. “We’ll make sure not to boar you for too long, because we know how much attention we hog all the time.” Kermit tried to make sense out of what Drakken was telling him but couldn’t, because it all sounded so strange.

“Ah, man! Dr. D, if you’re gonna start using puns, I’m gonna gag!” Shego snapped.

“Well, what else do you want me to do, Shego? Come out and tell him that we’ve kidnapped his pig friend?” Drakken asked, and Shego slapped her forehead, disgusted over the way Drakken just gave up the secret information. Octavius was becoming irritated by Drakken’s stupidity very quickly.

“Get that frog out of here, before you give away something else!!” Ock ordered, and Drakken, never the one to take orders, flew his hovercraft away from the scene, while Ock brought his focus back on Peter. “Find Spider-Man…” He looked towards Mary Jane, who suddenly found herself surrounded by his other three tentacles, “…Or I’ll peel the flesh off her bones.”

“If you lay one finger on her…” Peter said, but Ock was quick to intervene in the middle of his threat.

“You’ll do what?” He asked and didn’t give Peter the chance to reply, as he threw him across the room and made him crash against a wall, landing back on the floor with several bits of debris covering his body. Kim, Mickey, Fozzie, Robin, and Ronnie watched helplessly, as Doc Ock grabbed Mary Jane and fled the scene with her.

“This is not good at all!” Fozzie exclaimed.

“Ya think?” Kim said in a sarcastic tone, just as Ronnie started running through the hole that Ock made in the front part of the diner.

“I’ve gotta go get some help.” He said, while Fozzie ran through the hole as well, following after Ronnie.

“Wait. I’m coming with you.” As soon as Fozzie and Ronnie had left, Robin turned to Kim and Mickey, with an extremely worried look on his face.

“What’re we going to do?! Without Spider-Man, Uncle Kermit, Miss Piggy, and Mary Jane are all doomed!” Before Kim or Mickey could’ve had the chance to calm Robin down, they heard a muffled grunting noise come from within the pile of debris that Peter was lying under and then saw him break out from it in a very superhuman way. It confused Robin to see how mightily Peter busted out from the debris pile, just as much as it had to see how fast he ran away from it and moved outside the wrecked diner and onto the sidewalk. “Whoa! How did Peter do that?!” All Kim and Mickey had done was looked down at Robin and smile.

“The only thing you need to know, Robin, is that your uncle is going to be just fine.” Kim said, and she gave a gentle pat on the tiny frog’s head, just before she and Mickey went to Peter, who had noticed something odd about his eyesight.

“Why is everything so blurry?” He asked, and when Kim and Mickey noticed that he was still wearing his glasses, they both grabbed each side of them and removed them from Peter’s face. Once the glasses were removed, everything appeared clearly to Peter. He took the glasses from Kim and Mickey, staring at them for a long while, before he dropped them to the concrete and clenched his fist. “Let’s go save our friends…together.” As he watched Peter, Mickey, and Kim run off to the rescue, Robin pulled out the sorcerer hat, alarmed over his forgetting to mention it to Mickey. However, the small frog began to calm down, as he started to gain faith in the mouse.

END OF CHAPTER TWELVE​

More action coming your way momentarily.

 

[The Count]

Oooh yeah... Suspenseful and full of drama, that'll be good for the next installment.

Tips.
1 Chilled their "spins"? Shouldn't that be "spines" instead?
2 Greedy woman wants to "foreclosure" the hotel? When using the word "foreclosure" in verboid form, don't forget to conjugate, it'd be writen as "greedy woman wants to foreclose our hotel".
3 Jenny looked from their direction? Shouldn't it be "looked in their direction" instead?
4 Costumers at Pete's Diner or Luncheonette... Shouldn't that be "customers" instead?
Hope this helps... And I'm looking forward to how this all works out for the heroes involved.

 

[muppetwriter]

Only some minor changes have been made for my version of the train fight sequence.

Chapter Thirteen​

Retrieving his Spider-Man costume from the J. Jonah Jameson’s office at the Daily Bugle, which didn’t really put a smile on the grumpy publisher’s face (yet he was glad that it meant Spider-Man was back), Peter joined Kim (who got in her adventure gear) and Mickey (who looked very different without his sorcerer hat, as he wore his red robe) as they all flew, swung, and flipped their way to the Westside Tower in Downtown Manhattan, where Doc Ock had been waiting on a ledge at the highest point of the building. Once he saw Spider-Man, Mickey, and Kim coming his way, Ock climbed to the pole at the top, which Kermit the Frog had been tied to, passing by a large clock that read the exact time he wanted to meet the heroes, three o’clock. The first to reach the tower was Spider-Man, who landed right above Kermit on the pole.

“Let Kermit and Watson go, Ock!” Spidey demanded. “This is just between you and me!” Kermit looked left and right between the two, a little frightened but used to the thrill of being involved in a dangerous situation.

“Oh, I’ll let ‘em go…after we have a little talk. Come on down.” Ock said, just before Spider-Man jumped down towards him and engaged in another wild battle with him. While Ock and Spidey were fighting, a grappling hook was fired and connected to a section of the rooftop that Kermit was near. Before the frog knew it, Kim Possible had appeared, climbing up to the roof and approaching Kermit.

“Don’t worry, Kerm. We’ll get you back to your nephew in no time.” Kim promised, and as she tried to untie Kermit from the pole, she noticed that the ropes were in fact thick, steel cables. “I see Drakken has gained an advantage working with Octavius.”

“Listen, Kim,” Kermit said, “Don’t worry about me. Try to go and find Piggy. They’ve got her! She could be in danger!”

“I told your nephew that you’d be just fine, and if you know me, I always keep my word.” Kim said.

“Yeah, well, here’s a couple of words for ya: LOOK OUT!!” Kermit yelled, and Kim ducked, just in time to avoid the glowing fist of Shego that swung out and hit the bottom part of the pole, barely missing Kermit. The metal on that section of the pole began to melt, as Kim and Shego engaged in their own battle, close to the one between Spidey and Ock. There wasn’t much room on the rooftop to fight, and often the four combatants switched, leaving Kim fighting Octavius (again!) and Shego fighting Spider-Man (again!).

Kim and Shego found it difficult to battle against the two men, but were able to learn from their previous battles and gain the upper hand. Shego was able to pull off some swift moves that knocked Spidey over the edge. The wall-crawler dropped a few feet, before he quickly grabbed a hold of one of the hands on the big clock, which Shego fired a heavy blast at and forced him to let go. Both Spidey and the clock hand fell down the side of the building, as Spidey fired two web-balls at Shego, one hitting her in the stomach and the other in the face, sending her reeling back.

In the grapple between Kim and Ock, Kim was gaining the upper hand for a brief moment, until one of Ock’s tentacles grabbed her by the ankle and swung her off the roof, making her fall towards the ground, several feet below. The teen heroine was able to fire another grappling hook that she meant to connect to the roof again, but instead came in contact with one of Ock’s mechanical arms. Becoming increasingly alarmed, Kim braced herself as Ock swung the tentacle around and around, making Kim soar around all sides of the building.

“Too bad Ron isn’t here to ‘enjoy’ this!!!” Kim screamed while Spidey, sensing her danger, fired a web strand that connected to the big clock and another that connected to the falling clock hand. With all of his might, he pulled the clock hand back up and hurled it at Ock, making it crash near him and taking off a huge chunk of the roof. Ock fell back, at the same time the grappling hook dislodged from his tentacle, leaving Kim to be thrown upwards and soar fifteen feet above the rooftop. When she fell back down to it, she immediately snatched the pole and swung around it. Unfortunately, at the time she had done that, the bottom half of the pole was halfway melted, and Kim’s weight tilted it to the point where she had made it horizontal and slanting over the edge of the roof. “OK! Now I really miss Ron!!”

Shego, seeing the danger that Kim and Kermit suddenly found themselves in, gave a wicked smile as she swung her left growing fist down on the bottom half of the pole, finishing off her handiwork. Kim, Kermit, and the pole all began to fall away from the roof, while Spidey made a quick decision to take Ock and Shego along with them. He fired web strands at the two and connected them to their bodies, pulling them off the rooftop as he began to fall down the side of the building again. The screams of Spider-Man, Doc Ock, Shego, Kim, and Kermit echoed throughout the Manhattan skyline, as they fell towards some train tracks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

“Down below the street, Can you dig the steady beat? It’s the subway!”

“Subway!” sang the train passengers, which consisted of residents from Sesame Street.

“Moving right along, Hear the rhythm loud and strong, it’s the subway!”

“Subway!”

“‘Cause there isn’t any room in this town.”

“They put all the trains down under the ground.”

“Buy a token now for a ride that’s super-wow on the…” Before the lyric could’ve been finished, loud thuds interrupted the singing, followed by huge dents that were forming in the ceiling above the passengers.

“What the…?!” Gordon exclaimed, just as a long, metal object pierced through the ceiling and right in front of Big Bird, who jumped in surprise afterwards. None of them realized that Spider-Man, Doc Ock, Shego, and Kim had just landed on top of the train, along with Kermit, who was still tied to the pole, only he was upside-down, with the metal object sticking out from the train car like a toothpick in a hors d’oeuvres.

The battle just seemed to have gotten more difficult for the heroes and their adversaries, as they fought while moving at a remarkably fast speed. Spider-Man fired two web strands at Ock, who immediately blocked them with his tentacles, which crossed over one another in front of him. When he moved the tentacles away, Spidey found himself yanked towards Ock, but was able to flip and kick him before he made a move. Shego flipped over the two and engaged in another round of acrobatic fighting with Kim. Everyone displayed excellent moves, but soon had to stop and duck, as a bridge came their way. Once it had passed, the four resumed fighting.

While the battles on the top of the train were taking place, Dr. Drakken had appeared at the rear on his hovercraft, seeing Kim and Spider-Man and prepared to help Doc Ock and Shego take them down, with powerful laser guns that were built into his hovering transporter. Just when he was about to fire the trigger, something made the craft spin again, much like it had during the first battle. Once Drakken got it back under control, someone swooped down and landed in the craft with him, and the mad doctor was surprised to see how it was Mickey Mouse, without his sorcerer hat.

“I don’t know how you’re able to still do what you do, without that stupid hat of yours, and neither do I care!” Drakken shouted, pulling out a deadly laser gun from behind his back. “But I’m gonna make sure you never star in another movie or television show again!” Drakken fired his gun, just as Mickey soared across the air again, barely missing the laser that hit the back of the hovercraft, where the motor was located. “Argh! Drat!” The mad doctor immediately turned to the controls and tried desperately to maintain operation over his craft, while the fighting on the train got rougher and rougher by the millisecond.

Doc Ock’s tentacles lashed at the feet of Spidey and Kim, snatching them by the ankles and hurling them into the air. Spidey and Kim flew towards an overhead bridge, and while Spidey soared through it, Kim soared over it, both eventually falling back towards Shego and Ock on the train. Kim and Spidey tackled the two villains off the top of the train and onto the sides of it, which only made the fight much more challenging. The Sesame Street passengers inside the train watched in surprise, as on one side, Ock and Spidey fought in standing positions (Spidey’s sticking capabilities kept him up, while two of Ock’s tentacles clung to the train and kept him up as he battled Spidey with the other two), and on the other, Kim and Shego just kicked at one another while hanging onto the edge of the train.

In one bold move, Doc Ock lashed out at Spidey’s torso with one tentacle, wrapping it around that particular area and lifting Spidey away from the side of the train. Spidey knew what was coming and braced himself, as he was hurled through one of the train’s mechanical doors, breaking them down as the Sesame Street passengers watched in shock. He was also thrown through one of the windows as well, coming in between Kim and Shego during their fight. The interference gave Shego the opportunity to duck beneath the moving train, while Kim watched Spidey get dragged back into the train car. Before Ock could’ve brought Spidey out for more punishment, Spidey grabbed hold of the end of Kermit’s pole that had pierced through the ceiling and held on tight, as the claws on the tentacle slipped down his torso, tearing away sections of his costume in the process, and let go of him.

Kim hauled herself back to the top of the train, going to help free Kermit from the pole, while Spider-Man swung from the end of it and to another pole that was built inside the train car, using that one to swing himself around and hurl his body through another window, returning back to the side of the train that he and Ock were fighting on. He fired web strands that connected to two of Ock’s tentacles, and the two engaged in a tug-of-war battle that resulted in Doc Ock fleeing, just as an oncoming train on another track appeared. Spidey immediately ducked, bringing his body to a horizontal position and hugging the window behind him, as he was sandwiched between two moving trains. Once the second train passed by, Spidey brought himself back onto the top of the train, where Kim was able to free Kermit from the pole and Mickey had landed to regroup with the team.

“Where did they go?!” Mickey exclaimed, and they cautiously looked all around for Shego and Drakken from the top of the train. When Spider-Man glanced over the edge, he spotted one of the robotic claws peeking out from beneath the moving train and immediately followed after it. However, once he reached over a window, he looked through it to see Octavius looking through the one across from it. Suddenly, Ock punched a tentacle through his window, slithered it past Gina and Telly Monster, and busted it through Spidey’s window, punching him in the face and knocking him away from the train in the process. As soon as Kim, Mickey, and Kermit heard the crash, they looked over the edge and saw Spider-Man falling towards the street.

“SPIDEY!!!!” They cried, as Spider-Man tumbled across the street, forcing several vehicles to swerve past him. One of them just happened to have been the Electric Mayhem bus, driven by Dr. Teeth as he and the other members of the band were coming back from Liberty Island. As soon as they all noticed Spider-Man’s body on the road, they immediately went into a frenzy.

“Yo, man! WATCH OUT!!!!” The E.M. band shouted in unison, just as Dr. Teeth turned the wheel really hard, swerving past Spider-Man and barely missing his body. “Like, that was close. We almost squashed that bug, man.”

Quickly, Spidey connected one web strand to the rear of the train and another to the underbelly of Drakken’s malfunctioning hovercraft. Skidding across the concrete from the speed of both the train and the hovercraft, Spidey built enough speed to hurl himself back up in the air. He still had his web connected to Drakken’s hovercraft, surprising the mad doctor as his weight lowered the craft some, once he started swinging his way back to the train. As he swung and jumped his way back, Doc Ock and Shego reappeared on the top of the train, leaving Kim to engage in another round with Shego. Kim had commenced in repeatedly slamming Shego’s body onto the roof of the train. Though Kim was succeeding in hurting Shego, she was only making her a thousand times more upset.

“Enough of this crap!!!” Shego yelled, and when Kim attempted to slam her body once again against the train’s rooftop, she clutched onto it and used a great amount of force to stop Kim’s blows, holding herself against her grasp. The intensity of the force made Shego’s hands glow and melt the section of the rooftop that she was grabbing onto. Inside the train, Miles and Maria grabbed Rosita and Zoe, pulling them away just in time for the hot, liquidized section of the rooftop to ooze down to a section of the floor, burning a hole through it as well. Shego elbowed Kim in the stomach, breaking the hold she had on her, and the two fought fiercely, while Doc Ock found a way to stall Spider-Man.

Using his fierce tentacles, Ock reached into the train car and pulled out two victims to use for his plan: Bert and Ernie. He hurled Ernie into the air in one direction and if Spidey hadn’t caught him as soon as he did, he would’ve fallen onto the tracks. Spidey then hurled Ernie himself, but made a quick, gigantic web as a safety net for him to land on. Once Ock had hurled Bert afterwards, Spidey did the same thing, saving him from falling onto the street below. His quick actions angered Ock, forcing him to take even more drastic measures. Mickey and Kermit ducked out of the way, as Ock crawled his way past them and positioned himself at the head of the train, where he punched through the cockpit window, knocking down the train operator. As soon as Spider-Man had landed behind him, Octavius grinned at the wall-crawler, while using that one tentacle inside the cockpit to grip onto a lever on the controls and push it forward, speeding up the train.

Nearby, the fight between Kim and Shego came to an abrupt stop, as both them and Kermit and Mickey collapsed and held on for their lives, while the train had increased greatly in speed. The Sesame Street passengers collapsed and held on as well, as they felt the impact of train growing speed. Octavius ripped the accelerate lever from the controls and tossed it to Spider-Man, who was barely able to catch more less maintain his balance on top of the train.

“You have a train to catch.” Doc Ock said, and he saluted to Spider-Man, just before he leaped off the train and grasped onto the side of a building that was passing by. Meanwhile, Drakken was able to regain control of his hovercraft and catch up with the train, positioning it right near the panicked Shego.

“What was that lunatic thinking, improvising like that?!?!” Shego yelled, anger mixed with fright.

“Never mind, Shego. Hop on!” Drakken ordered, and Shego looked at him in surprise.

“Are you crazier than usual?!” Shego remarked. “If I let go, I’ll fly away faster than Superman!”

“Ugh! Whatever happened to your sense of bravery, Shego?”

“I think I left it somewhere past Main Street.” Drakken pressed a button on the controls that brought out a mechanical arm that reached out and grabbed Shego, bringing her back into the hovercraft. While the two made their escape, Mickey used his magic to help maintain the balance of both Kim and Kermit, as well as his own, sticking them all to the top of train like Spider-Man and not have to worry about flying away. They each stood up and walked over to Spidey, who heard the train operator screaming for help inside the cockpit. He leaned over and stuck his head past the shattered window to inspect the damage.

“I CAN’T STOP IT!!! THE BRAKES ARE GONE!!!” The operator yelled, just as sparks blew out from the damaged controls, some hitting Spider-Man in the face and blackening the eyes on his mask. Immediately, Spider-Man unmasked himself, revealing the face of Peter Parker right before the very eyes of Kermit the Frog. When Kermit noticed the true identity of Spider-Man, he wanted to take a moment to comprehend it all, but was kept from doing by the sudden danger they found themselves in. But only Peter knew how serious the situation was about to get, as his spider sense detected a train stopper far ahead, which they were soon about to hit.

“We’ve gotta stop this train!!” Peter yelled, just before he climbed to the front, while Kim, Mickey, and Kermit climbed inside and calmed down the Sesame Street passengers, as they traveled to the cockpit, where some of the S.S. passengers were, including Big Bird, who was surprised to see Spider-Man unmasked.

“Spider-Man?” He said. “Where did your face go?”

“Never mind about that, Big Bird.” Gordon said. “We have to stop this train!”

“Let me worry about it! Tell everybody to hang on!” Peter ordered, and he looked down at the tracks, thinking of some way to stop the train. He jumped off the front and clutched onto the bumper, as he attempted to stop the whole thing with his right foot, which broke through several boards before he finally began to feel some numbness in his leg. Peter jumped back to the front of the train, clutching onto his numbed leg, while the train continued speeding down the tracks.

“Any more bright ideas?!” Oscar the Grouch asked in a sarcastic tone, and Peter just looked back a glare at him.

“I’ve got a few…yeah.” Peter said, before he turned back to the tracks and thought up another plan of action. Looking at the buildings that they were passing through on both sides of the tracks, he suddenly fired two web strands at two buildings, holding them tight in order to slow down the train. A strong force pushed him roughly against the front of the train as he held on. Unfortunately, the sections of the buildings broke away, leaving Peter nearly falling into the tracks. Luckily, his amazing agility kept him horizontally balanced long enough to push himself back up against the front of the train. Seeing the way he moved that moment, Kermit still couldn’t believe that it was Peter Parker who was displaying all of the feats that he once thought only Spider-Man could display. The frog found it all more impressive than ever.

Peter knew that he needed a lot more force to slow down the train. So he fired several webs and connected them to several buildings, holding onto them all, as the train was coming near the end of the track. The force was so strong that Peter screamed over the strain it was putting on his body, while the front of the train began to bend from it all. Kim, Mickey, Kermit, and all of the Sesame Street passengers watched tensely, as all of the windows on the train broke away from the remarkable force. Even Peter’s costume began to shred, as he continued screaming in pain.

“We’re slowing down.” Bob had noticed, as each of the web strands connected to the buildings started to snap apart, making some of the Sesame Street passengers worry a little. But everyone began to worry even more, when they noticed how they were coming right up to the end of the track.

“HANG ON!!!” Kim shouted, just as the front of the train crashed through the train stopper, while the train itself began to slow down completely. Some of the passengers screamed, as they felt the impact of the crash and the train lurching slightly. When everything had come to a full stop, everyone in the front car was careful not to making any rough movements that would move it any further over the edge. Kim, Mickey, and Kermit looked around, amazed to see how Peter was able to stop the train in time.

“Wow.” Kermit uttered, as he looked over at Peter, who fainted from the exhaustion of what he had just done. He let go of his web strands, which were supporting him for a moment, and was about to fall from the front of the slanted car, until Gordon, Alan, and Luis reached up and grabbed a hold of him.

“Easy now, fellas.” Luis said, and with the help of the other Sesame Street passengers, as well as Kim, Mickey, and Kermit, they were able to bring Peter back into the train car, settling his unconscious body in the middle of it. They all stared at the unmasked hero, surprised to see how young he actually was.

“I never figured he might’ve been just a kid.” Miles commented.

“Yeah,” Gabi said, “He’s not that much older than me.” While the Sesame Street passengers started wondering who was the young man that was the city’s hero, Kermit—who knew exactly who Spider-Man really was—moved closer to Peter and looked up and down at him, along with Kim and Mickey, who just wondered if Peter was alright.

“All this time…and it never even crossed my mind.” Kermit said, as Mickey placed a hand on the frog’s shoulder, sharing his enthusiasm on the revelation. “It’s so…amazing.” As everyone continued staring at him, Peter’s eyes slowly began to open, regaining his consciousness. Just as soon as he noticed everyone gawking at him, his hand immediately went to his face, as he realized that his mask had been removed. He sat up and looked at everyone, including Kermit the Frog. “It’s alright. You saved us.” Kermit smiled at Peter, while the group parted to let Elmo and Zoey pass through and approach Peter.

“Elmo and Zoey found something.” Elmo said, right before Zoey pulled out Peter’s blackened mask and handed it to him.

“We won’t tell anybody.” Zoey promised, and Peter looked around at all of the Sesame Street passengers who nodded in acknowledgement. As his eyes went from one Sesame Street resident to another, Peter smiled, grateful of the wonderful characters whose lives he had saved that day, with help from Mickey and Kim, who were grateful as well.

“It sure is good to have you back, Spider-Man.” Bob said, as Peter placed his mask back over his head and slowly got to his feet, with a little help from Gina, Maria, and Grover. Unfortunately, the serene moment was soon interrupted by a loud crash from behind the group, as Doc Ock busted his way inside the train car.

“He’s mine!!!” Octavius shouted, and before he could go near Spidey, Telly Monster stepped in his way, swallowing hard as he faced Ock.

“You want to get to Spider-Man…you got to go through me!” Telly said, just as Miles stepped in as well.

“And me.” He said, while Gabi stepped in also.

“And me.” She said, and more and more of the Sesame Street residents stepped in, blocking Ock’s path from Spider-Man. Kim and Mickey were the last ones to step in, standing in front of Telly and glaring at Ock.

“You’re outnumbered, Doc.” Kim said, and Octavius just smiled over the “foolish” bravery of the people.

“Very well.” He said, and then he used two of his tentacles to roughly push those that blocked his path aside, including Mickey and Kim, who crashed through the window and fell onto the tracks outside, getting knocked out in the process. The path had been cleared between Spider-Man and Doc Ock. Spider-Man turned to Gina, Maria, and Grover, who were the ones that were helping him stand on his feet, and motioned for them to let him handle the situation alone. Weakened, the wall-crawler slowly staggered towards Doc Ock, who immediately attacked with one tentacle. One punch was all that it took to knock Spider-Man out and allow Ock to take him away from the scene, leaving his unconscious comrades behind.

END OF CHAPTER THIRTEEN​

More to come soon.

 

[muppetwriter]

The ending to this final revised chapter contains a scene never-before-read by anyone until now. It's a very shockingly weird revelation, but it will make a marvelous plot device for the third crossover story. Enjoy!

Chapter Fourteen​

When nighttime arrived, Kim and Mickey regained their senses, barely able to avoid being taken to the nearest hospital by paramedics. Kim had sustained more injures than Mickey. She took blows from people that were more powerful than she imagined. But the two heroes had to ignore their pain long enough to find out where Ock had taken Spider-Man. Kermit revealed to the two about the deal Harry Osborn made with their adversaries, which Drakken had accidentally mentioned in front of the frog, during the time of his capture.

While Kermit and Mickey were confused over the reasons for the deal, Kim knew exactly what was going on and demanded that she, Mickey, and Kermit went to Harry’s penthouse right away. By the time they got there, Doc Ock had already left, taking with him the tritium that Harry promised to give for Spider-Man to his secreted hideout. They spotted Harry standing near the tied-up body of Spider-Man that rested on a couch, holding up a sharp dagger high above his head, much to their shock and surprise.

“Harry! Don’t!” Kim yelled, and Harry turned his head, seeing Kim with Kermit and Mickey and becoming incredibly upset with her.

“You stay away, Possible!” He ordered. “I asked you to do one simple thing, and you blew it big time by bailing out on me! Well, now it’s my turn!” He turned back to the barely conscious Spider-Man, glaring at him. “It’s my turn to do something that you obviously never had the guts to do.”

“Harry, he didn’t kill your father!” Kim exclaimed, and Harry looked back at her, wanting to believe what she said, but finding it hard to believe anything from her. Paranoia began to come over him, as he thought about the reason Kim would tell him that.

“Excuse the pun, Miss Possible,” Harry said, moving away from Spider-Man and coming towards Kim, Mickey, and Kermit, “But I believe that you’ve been caught in his web of lies.” Kim looked into Harry’s eyes, seeing the craving for murder in them. He was no longer in his right mind, due to the heavy amounts of alcohol that his body consumed. Osborn was beyond reasoning with, so Kim didn’t even try.

“If that’s what you want to believe…then so be it.” She said, and Harry grew just as angry at her as he had at Spider-Man. Before Kim, Mickey, and Kermit knew it, Harry had suddenly pulled out his gun at aimed it directly at them, though he didn’t fire it at them. Instead, he just held the gun on them with one hand, while he held the dagger in the other, moving towards Spider-Man.

“I’m going to kill Spider-Man, Kim.” Harry uttered. “And if you want to stop me, then go ahead and kill me as well.” He tossed the gun over to Kim, who caught it instantly and just stared at it in shock. Never had Kim killed another human being nor did she want to at that moment in time. Unsure of what to do, she watched tensely with Kermit and Mickey, as Harry looked down at Spider-Man again, his hatred growing. “First…let’s see who’s behind the mask, so I can look into your eyes as you die!”

“HARRY!!!” Kim shouted, just as Harry reached forward, grabbed Spider-Man’s mask, and removed it to reveal the face of Peter Parker. Shock had immediately replaced hatred, as Harry stood horrified, seeing the mask in his hand and the face of his only friend in the world at the same time. He dropped the knife and then took one last look at the mask, before he dropped it as well, reeling back onto a nearby table and pushing away all of the contents on it.

“No…it c-can’t…Pete?” Harry stammered, and at the time his mask was removed, Peter regained full consciousness, though he wished he had a lot earlier. While Peter sat up and broke away the binds that Ock had placed on him, Harry looked from his direction and towards Kim’s, still looking horrified. “How long did you know about this?” She could see the hate still forming in his eyes and didn’t bother to answer.

“Harry, listen to me.” Peter said, and Harry looked back towards him. “You have to tell us where they’re keeping Piggy and Mary Jane. They’ve got them both.”

“N-No…” Harry remarked, while several thoughts and emotions ran through him, “All they wanted was the tritium.” Peter looked towards Kim, Mickey, and Kermit, who appeared more horrified than Harry did.

“They’re making the machine again.” Kim said.

“Harry, when that happens, we’ll all die!” Peter exclaimed. “Now where are Miss Piggy and Mary Jane?!” Harry just stared at Peter, with only one thought going through his mind.

“Peter…you killed my father?” Harry murmured, and realizing how much sadness and disappointment was in his heart, Kermit approached him and tried to talk some sense into him for the sake of his love’s life.

“Harry, I know what’s going through your head at this minute,” Kermit said, “But you must realize that there are bigger things happening here than you and Peter.” Kermit placed a hand on Harry’s shoulder, making him look away from Peter and towards the frog. “Harry, I beg you. I’ve already lost Piggy once. And I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get her back…even if it means putting my life on the line.” Mickey looked at the emotion on Kermit’s face, noticing how determined the frog was. “Please. Tell us where they are.” Harry looked at Kermit for a long while, before he finally nodded and gave them the info they needed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

In the abandoned waterfront warehouse, Mary Jane and Miss Piggy were chained to a large pipe and kept watch by Shego and Drakken, who forced them to witness the power of Octavius’s fusion experiment, as he retraced his steps and placed a larger ball of tritium at the center of the containment field. As soon as he reactivated the machine, the entire room began to light up, much to the dismay of Kermit the Frog, who snuck his way in with Kim, Mickey, and Spider-Man (who were hiding in the rafters). While Ock was focusing on his activated machine, he was alerted of the presence of his enemies by one of his tentacles and smiled wickedly, pretending as if he didn’t notice.

“Psst! Piggy!” Kermit whispered, and Piggy turned to see Kermit’s upper body floating in a small puddle of water, obviously surprised and happy to see him there.

“Kermie!” She said loudly, and when Shego and Drakken turned to her, they noticed she was looking in another direction. Following her gaze, all they had seen was the puddle, which Kermit had ducked deeper into and hid his whole body.

“Keep dreaming, hog!” Drakken told Piggy, both him and Shego figuring that Piggy was starting to become delusional. Drakken’s comment made Piggy upset, and she was about to retort, until Shego positioned her glowing left fist in front of her face and kept the pig silent. As soon as Drakken and Shego turned back to Ock and his machine, Kermit bobbled through the surface again and hopped out of the puddle, approaching Piggy from behind.

“Don’t say a word, Piggy. Everything’s going to be alright.” Kermit quietly promised, and his brave rescue attempt seemed to have impressed Piggy, just as Mickey’s had. The frog noticed the impressed look on her face and knew that Mickey’s plan was working, even though things turned out differently than they imagined. “Mickey, Kim, and Spider-Man are here with me, so as soon as you get free…” Before Kermit could finish, a large piece of metal suddenly hit the pipe that Piggy and Mary Jane were chained to, forcing Kermit to hop away from the spot and land at the center of the room. Ock, Shego, and Drakken turned away from the machine and focused solely on Kermit.

“It was foolish for you to come here alone, Mr. Frog!” Ock exclaimed, as he crawled towards Kermit. “Now you’ll know the price for playing the hero.” By the time Ock was only a few feet away from Kermit, Spider-Man fell from the rafters and landed in front of him. Ock was more angered by Harry’s failure to eliminate Spidey than he was at Spidey’s sudden appearance.

“Shut the machine down, Ock.” Spidey demanded. “You’re gonna kill a lot more people this time.”

“Well, that’s a risk we’re willing to take.” Ock said, while Kim and Mickey looked past him from the rafters and spotted huge plugs connected to a massive outlet for the machine.

“Well, I’m not!!” Kim yelled, just before she dived from the rafters and fell towards the plugs, only to be grabbed by Ock’s tentacles and thrown back to the rafters, crashing through hard wooden boards. Kim soared high over the warehouse and started falling towards the river, until she fired another grappling hook that connected to the warehouse’s rooftop. She swung her way back down to it, crashing through a window and falling at rapid speed towards Shego.

“Aw, crap.” Shego uttered, just as Kim fell on top of her, both crashing through the wooden floor and splashing into the water beneath. While Shego and Kim engaged in another round, Spidey and Ock face off again as well, while Drakken looked around and noticed that one other hero was missing.

“Where’s…” Before Drakken could finish, a bright flash of light blinded him, long enough for Mickey to come swooping from behind and tackle Drakken into a steel pole that he slammed head first against, knocking himself out. After taking down Drakken, Mickey turned and faced Octavius’s machine, just as the mini-sun in it grew again, unleashing fiery loops that struck at sections of the warehouse and destroyed it. The machine became highly magnetic again, luring several metal objects toward the sun and eliminating them all. Even the chains around Piggy and Mary Jane were attracted, making their bodies float in a horizontal position.

“KERMIT!!!” Piggy cried, and Kermit and Mickey watched in horror as the pipe began to bend violently, sliding Mary Jane and Piggy closer to the machine. Mickey attempted to use his magic to save the two girls, until a piece of metal flew past him and struck his head, knocking the mouse out.

“Oh, no!” Kermit exclaimed, as he watched Mickey fall to the floor. Seeing Ock and Spidey beating each other down to the point where they were beneath the wooden floor (joining Shego and Kim) and then seeing the shackled feet of Mary Jane and Piggy come closer to the fiery loops from the sun, Kermit felt helpless in the situation. “What do I do?”

Suddenly, something a lot more bright and fiery than the mini-sun itself crashed through the roof of the warehouse and flew towards the mini-sun, pushing the flares back into the mini-sun and away from Mary Jane and Piggy with its hands. Kermit squint his eyes, trying to get a better look at the glowing subject. All he was able to make out was the figure of redheaded woman wearing a yellow suit and red gloves and boots. He wasn’t sure where she had come from, but was glad that she did come.

“Uncle Kermit!!!” A familiar voice cried, and Kermit turned behind him to see his nephew, Robin, standing in the entranceway far across the room.

“Robin?!?!” Kermit yelled in surprise, just before Robin tossed something to him and fled the scene afterwards. Kermit caught the object and noticed how it was Mickey’s sorcerer hat. He wanted to know where Robin got the hat, though he did not have the time to chase after his nephew and asked questions. The frog just placed the hat on his own head and immediately felt the magic course through his body and soul, gaining instant knowledge of how to use it all.

Using his newfound power, Kermit moved Mary Jane and Piggy off of the pipe and away from the machine, settling them down to the floor at a safe distance. Piggy saw the way Kermit looked in the hat and was more impressed than ever. Before Kermit had the chance to tell Mary Jane and Piggy to get away, someone’s body had crashed through the floorboards near them and landed right at their feet. Looking down, they realized that it was an unconscious Shego, battered and bruised from her fight with Kim, who afterwards climbed out through the hole that Shego made. Possible didn’t come out of the fight without a scratch either. Her clothes were torn, her left eye was bruised, and she even had her right arm busted. But she didn’t care about those things, because all that mattered to her was that Shego had been defeated.

“Lookin’ good.” Kim told Kermit, noticing the sorcerer hat on his head just before they all turned to the machine and spotted the glowing woman who was still containing the flares of the mini-sun. “Who’s that?”

“Never mind.” Kermit said. “We’ve got to get out of here, before things get worse!” And after saying that, Kermit used the magic of the hat to make the unconscious bodies of Mickey Mouse, Dr. Drakken, and Shego hover in the air, as he fleeted the warehouse with Piggy and the wounded Kim. However, Mary Jane had stayed behind, obviously worried about Spider-Man, who had suddenly busted through the floor and landed near her.

“RUN!!!” He yelled to her, just as a tentacle reached out from the hole and grabbed him, holding him up in the air, as Doc Ock crawled back into the room. He hurled Spidey against the wall, making him fall and crash into some crates below in the process. Mary Jane watched Doc Ock as he picked Spider-Man up by the ankle and dangle his body in front of him. She knew that she couldn’t just stand there a let him be killed. Looking around for something to use as a weapon, all Mary Jane found was a long, wooden board that she immediately picked up and slowly crept behind Doc Ock with. But before she had the chance to attack, Octavius knew she was coming and pushed her away with one tentacle, before extracting a long, sharp metal spike from another, pointing it at the dangling Spider-Man.

“Let’s see you scurry out of this!!” Ock shouted, and at the same time he attempted to stab Spider-Man with the spike, Spidey webbed the massive cable connected to the machine and lifted it in front of him. Ock had accidentally stabbed at the cable and sent a strong course of electricity surging through his body and mechanical arms, forcing him to let go of Spidey. With Ock distracted, Spider-Man jumped to the machine’s plugs and tried to rip them from the outlet, only to actually sever them and cause an electrical explosion. The force of the explosion sent both Ock and Spidey falling back, several feet away from the machine. When Spidey got to his feet, he noticed how the cables had been severed, leaving him no other alternative of stopping the uncontrollable machine.

Spidey watched chunks of the building’s structure break away and fly directly into the sun. However, there was something peculiar that he noticed about the sun that made his eyes dart to right above it, where the glowing woman was still containing the sun flares. Seeing how impervious the woman was to heat and magnetism of the machine, Spidey realized that her inference was keeping the sun from increasing in size and forcing the range of the magnetic field to only go as far as the boundaries of the warehouse.

“Hey, you!” Spidey addressed her. “Can you keep up what you’re doing long enough for me to figure out how to stop this thing?” The glowing woman looked at Spidey and nodded. “As long as she keeps it up, New York will be momentarily safe,” he thought. Spidey then turned and spotted Doc Ock lying in a shallow pool of water, with his mechanical arms slumping behind his back and floating in the water. He was barely conscious, as Spidey approached and spoke to him in his normal tone of voice. “Doctor Octavius.” The wall-crawler removed his mask and revealed his true face to Octavius. “My name’s Peter Parker.” Octavius heard the name before from his colleague, Dr. Curt Connors, and was surprised to see that a college student was actually New York’s greatest hero…and his enemy.

“Parker?” Ock uttered. “The brilliant but lazy student of Connors?”

“Look at what’s happening.” Peter told him, and Octavius looked around, seeing how pieces of the structure around them were being sucked into the sun. “We have to stop it.”

“I can’t destroy it.” Octavius said, as his arms began to slither again, one of them reaching out and grabbing Peter by the neck. “I won’t destroy it!!” Peter knew the time had come to talk some sense into the doctor and had to do so quickly, before the life had been squeezed out of him.

“Don’t do this, Dr. Octavius.” Peter said, hoarsely. “You know better than anyone else that intelligence is a gift to be used for the good of mankind.” Octavius heard what Peter said and nodded in agreement, reminded of his own beliefs.

“A privilege.” Octavius remarked, and Peter indicated his mechanical arms.

“These things have turned you into something you’re not.” Octavius looked to his tentacles, as they slithered next to him. “Don’t listen to them.” He knew that Peter was right about what he was saying and felt ashamed for not just failing to control his subconscious, but failing to achieve his goal.

“It was my dream.” When Octavius said that, Peter was reminded by what his aunt had told him earlier in the day, when he, Mickey, Kermit, and Robin visited his old home, and he figured it might’ve been good advice to share with Octavius as well.

“Sometimes…to do what’s right, we have to be steady…and give up the thing we want the most…even our dreams.” Peter seemed to have accomplished his task, as Octavius thought about his advice and nodded his head again.

“You’re right.” Octavius then turned to his arms. “He’s right.” He then began a desperate attempt to regain control over the arms. “L-Listen…Listen to me now.” The arms began to put up some resistance to Octavius’s command, so the doctor decided to be more aggressive. “Listen to me…NOW!!!!” Suddenly, the tentacle that grasped Peter’s neck had immediately let go of him, as Octavius had gained full control over his mechanical arms.

“Now…tell me how to stop the machine!” Peter exclaimed.

“It can’t be stopped, now that it’s self-sustaining. Unless…” Octavius stopped and thought hard of an idea. “The river! Drown it!” Peter was about to go and do so, until Octavius snatched his arm with one tentacle and held him back. “No…I’ll do it.” Peter knew exactly why the doctor would risk himself to handle such a task, so he just stood and watch Octavius lift himself up out of the water and crawl towards the machine. He took one last look at Peter, before he crawled closer to the machine and headed under it.

While Octavius was taking care of the machine, Peter turned around and noticed Mary Jane standing nearby, with tears streaming down her eyes. Seeing Peter’s face and the shredded Spider-Man costume of his, she finally had all of the answers to the questions that she had spent two years asking to herself and Peter. Though she somehow knew all that time, it still shocked and yet pleased her at the same time to see that Peter Parker was really Spider-Man. And the respect that she had once lost for him had immediately returned.

“Mary Jane, I…” Peter said, just before he noticed how the metal wall behind her was coming apart and falling towards her. “NO!!!!!” Mary Jane looked up and noticed the collapsing wall, screaming as Peter rushed over to her and stopped the wall from falling any further, struggling as he held it up in front of Mary Jane. “This is really heavy.”

Meanwhile, Octavius had positioned himself beneath his fusion machine, while the glowing woman remained at the top, growing exhausted as she contained the sun flares. Once Octavius clutched the claws from all four of his mechanical arms against the support beams, he used all of his might to pull and tear away at them. He was successfully able to tear down two, lowering the machine closer to the water and forcing sections of the building to arch along with it. Peter was still keeping the wall from falling over himself and Mary Jane, with the magnetic field making it hard for him to do so.

“M.J., in case we don’t make it out of this…”

“You do love me?”

“Yes.”

“Even when you said you didn’t?” Peter nodded with a strained look on his face, pleasing Mary Jane. He looked up for a moment, seeing how the ceiling on the other half of the warehouse was getting lower and lower by the minute. The glowing woman realized how sandwiched she was becoming between the lowered ceiling and the sun, and she allowed a sun flare to push her away, making her crash through the ceiling and fly away into the night sky.

“I will not die a monster.” Octavius murmured, and he screamed, as he yanked the other two arms that were still clinging to the last two support beams and tore them apart, successfully plunging the fusion device, as well as himself, into the water. Though he was able to snuff out the device permanently, Otto Octavius was killed from drowning in the process, yet he went out the exact way he wanted to…a hero.

With the fusion device out of sight, the metal wall that Peter was holding onto wasn’t attracted to a magnetic field any longer, allowing Peter to use all of his might to toss the wall away. He then took Mary Jane into his arms and swung away with her, as the rest of the crumbling warehouse sunk into the river. On a nearby pier, Kermit, Kim, and Piggy watched with Robin and Fozzie, who were able to find their friends by using the sorcerer hat, as Spider-Man and Mary Jane swing to safety on a crane.

It wasn’t long before Ronnie, Rizzo, Jenny, and John Jameson arrived with the paramedics (who gave Mickey and Kim some medical attention) and the police (who arrested Shego and Drakken, just as they regained consciousness). The Muppets, Ronnie, and Jenny joined John Jameson on his way to meet Mary Jane, who was slowly being lowered back to ground level by a web strand from Peter. After having a serious conversation with him about never being able to be together because of enemies, Mary Jane was very distressed, hoping their relationship could’ve rekindled somehow. She stared up at Peter, as he stood high above on the crane, while her fiancée approached and greeted her with kisses and hugs. Though it was only John who did most of the hugging and kissing, whereas Mary Jane had her focus on where Peter stood.

When Jenny, Ronnie, and the Muppets followed her gaze and spotted Spider-Man on the crane, just as he put back on his mask and swung off, they were truly in awe from his appearance. A smile crept across the face of Kermit, who knew that his life was becoming a lot more marvelous, with the discoveries of Spider-Man’s true identity and the power of Mickey’s sorcerer hat, along with Ronnie’s brilliant idea to help them get the money for the foreclosure, being only the start. And with Piggy back in it, he was certain that things would get better for the Muppets.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Harry Osborn had reached whole different levels of hatred, frustration, confusion, and despair, as he sat all alone in his penthouse, holding the dagger that he intended on using to kill the person responsible for his father’s death, which turned out to be his only friend in the world, much to his horror. He wasn’t certain what to do anymore after discovering such a startling truth. And even trying to figure it out made his head hurt more than it had already been. Soon he began hearing the sound of wicked, frightful cackling in the distance, and he looked all around the room, wondering where it was coming from.

“Who’s that? Who’s there?” When there was no reply, Harry only got more flustered, while the cackling continued echoing through his ears. He covered them, hoping to block out the noise, but he just kept hearing it. “STOP IT!!!!”

“Harry!” Someone said, and Harry looked in the direction that the voice had come from, seeing a strangely calm Rachel Bitterman standing in the doorway. She was definitely the last person that Harry wanted to see after all he had been through that evening. Harry raised the dagger in his hands and pointed it directly at Rachel in a threatening manner.

“You stay away from me! You hear me? STAY AWAY!!!!!” Harry yelled with tears in his eyes. Rachel, seeing the agony that Harry was going through, held her hands up in protest and slowly walked towards him.

“Harry, it’s okay. There’s no need to be scared.” She calmly told him. “I know what’s going through your mind right now.”

“No, no, no! You don’t have a clue what’s going through my head right now! OK? I just found out something that’s going to have me urging to rip my insides out for a very long time!” He kept the dagger pointed at her, as she was only a few feet away from him. “And I really think it’s best that you leave this minute, before I do something that I will regret!” Rachel just smiled at Harry, as she stood very close to him, with the sharp end of the dagger only an inch from her chest.

“You won’t kill me, Harry.” She said, still in a very calm manner. “And you want to know why? Because you’re weak…you always were a weak little boy…Norman knew it…and I’ve always known it.”

“Leave…NOW!!!!!” Harry screamed, tightening his grip on the dagger. But Rachel didn’t move an inch; she just kept glaring into Harry’s watery eyes.

“It’s time to start becoming a man, Harry. The only way you’ll truly be one is if you become as strong as your father was.”

“And you’re going to teach me how to become strong? You’re going to teach me how to be a real Osborn?”

“That’s right.” Harry’s anger seemed to have subsided long enough for him to start laughing hysterically at Rachel, just like he had before. But the anger seemed to have shifted to Rachel, as she had finally grown tired of Harry’s failure to take her seriously. While he was distracted under his own hysteria, she quickly snatched the dagger from his hands, gripped the back of his neck with one hand, and pointed the dagger at his throat with the other. Harry immediately stopped laughing and gazed at her with a terrified look on his face. “‘No matter how weak they are, show ‘em no mercy.’ You remember that, Harry? Because I will not show you any mercy, if you intend on being this weak.” Harry was silent for a long moment. Cold sweat rolled down his face, and he was swallowing very hard.

“What do you want from me?” Harry asked, and Rachel had a sadistic smile on her face.

“Let me help you make Peter Parker pay for killing your father.” Harry stared at her in surprise. “Yes, I know who he really is, Harry. It wasn’t that hard to figure out.” Rachel let go of him and moved the dagger away from him, once she realized that she had him exactly where she wanted. “Spider-Man killed someone very important to both of us, and now it’s time for him to pay.”

“Who are you?” He asked, while staring at a woman who he once believed was no more than an obsessed lunatic. Rachel looked down at the dagger in her hands, not looking into Harry’s eyes as she answered his question with a question of her own.

“You know the real reason you couldn’t kill me, Harry?” She asked, and when Harry didn’t respond, she answered for him. “Because deep inside…in between your soul and the soul of your deceased father…you could feel that I was the last living relative that you and your father worked so hard to find all these years.” After saying that, she looked up at Harry, who gazed upon her with disorientated eyes as he slowly began to realize who Rachel Bitterman really was. “Only a real Osborn can teach you how to become one yourself…nephew.”

“Aunt…Rachel?!?!” Harry felt as if he was on the verge of passing out with all of the startling revelations he uncovered that evening. But he was able to compose himself in time to see how his aunt had taken the dagger in her hands and threw it towards a mirror inside the room.

When the mirror had shattered to pieces, Harry noticed how there was a secret room beyond it. He looked towards Rachel, still finding it hard to believe that she was the long-lost relative that his father told him about when he was only ten years old, and he then slowly walked into the secret room of his penthouse, which was covered entirely with cobwebs. It was very dark in the room, and Harry could barely make out a few things. But one thing appeared clearly to Harry as he bumped right into it, and that was the frightening green mask that his father once wore while masquerading as the dreaded Green Goblin.

“What?!” Harry yelled, just as all of the lights in the secret room came on, illuminating everything inside of it. The room was compiled with all of the things his father had used to terrify the people of New York City, from his pumpkin bombs to his glider. Rachel had stepped inside, and seeing the horror and confusion on Harry’s face brought a sinister smile to hers. “My father was the Green Goblin?!?!”

“Yes, he was, Harry.” Rachel said, turning to one section of the room that contained selves of long, circular glass canisters, only two filled with the same formula that transformed Norman Osborn into a crazed, superhuman being. “And it’s our duty, as the last two living members of the Osborn family, to carry on the legacy.” She walked up to him, handing him the canister as she placed an arm around him. They gazed upon all that they had to work with to avenge the death of their brother and father, Norman Osborn.

END OF CHAPTER FOURTEEN​

Stay tuned. The conclusion to this "extended version" of "The Amazing...Sequel!" is coming up soon.

 

[muppetwriter]

Here it is. The epilogue to the "extended version" of the second Spidey/Muppets crossover tale.

Epilogue​

A few weeks after the disaster at the warehouse, Mickey Mouse and Kim Possible were still recuperating in the St. Mullen Hospital, sharing a room with Ron Stoppable, who was spending his last day there. Kermit the Frog, who was on his way to join Jenny and his Muppet friends at the wedding of Mary Jane Watson and John Jameson, decided to stop and visit the heroes who saved his life and who he helped save Miss Piggy and all of New York.

“Hi-ho,” said Kermit, as he walked in, stopping in between the beds of Mickey (who had his head and ears bandaged and wearing a cast on his left leg) and Kim (who had a cast over her busted arm, resting it on a sling, and small bandages over parts of her beautiful face). “How are you guys doing?”

“Well, the cheesecake here stinks, there’s nothing good on television, and there’s barely any air conditioning in here.” Ron complained.

“But, other than all that, we’re hanging in there.” Kim said, with a smile, while Mickey noticed the tuxedo that Kermit was wearing during his visit, knowing that he was on his way to the wedding.

“I hope you plan on wearing that to your own wedding.” Mickey commented, and Kermit would’ve seemed agitated over the thought of marriage, especially around Miss Piggy. However, after the recent events, he was actually looking forward to the day when he and the pig would finally get hitched…for real.

“Even though our plan didn’t turn out the way we wanted to, Mickey, I want to thank you for helping me get Piggy back into my life.” Kermit said, smiling at the mouse. “You were right when you said that she would gain a whole new respect and love for me, if I had shown myself to be more caring and heroic towards her.”

“Yeah, but just know that’s it not just the way you appear towards Piggy that makes her fall so madly in love with you.” Mickey said. “Piggy is attracted to the magic that rests within you and comes out only when you two sense the romantic chemistry that makes you such a compatible couple.” Kermit nodded, understanding exactly what he was saying and admitting all of it to be one hundred percent true.

“Amen to that.” Kim uttered, looking towards Ron and thinking of the connection that they had been sharing for some time.

“Well…speaking of chemistry…” Kermit reached into his tuxedo coat and pulled up a rolled-up issue of The Daily Bugle and handed it to Mickey. The mouse unrolled the newspaper and looked at the front headline, which read, “Web of Heroes Prevent New York Disaster.” Kim and Ron also read what the headline said and couldn’t have been prouder than Mickey was that moment. “Goofy and Donald helped me convince Jameson that the Bugle could use at least one good article about Spider-Man, especially now that he has two other great heroes helping him.”

“Don’t you mean three?” Mickey asked, and Kermit looked at him oddly for a moment, until he remembered what he did with Mickey’s sorcerer hat at the warehouse.

“Mickey, last night’s rescue might’ve helped me get Piggy back,” Kermit said, “But I wouldn’t want to go through anything like that again.”

“We understand what you mean, Kermit.” Mickey remarked. “Though there’s gonna come a time when the ‘Web of Heroes’ might not be there to save the day, and only one other hero will have to step up and take responsibility.”

“But there are plenty of others out there…I’m just not like them.” After saying that, Kermit began to head towards the door. Just before he left the room, he pulled out Mickey’s sorcerer hat from out of his pocket and tossed it to the mouse. Mickey caught the hat and looked down at it, smiling as he thought of the possible future that laid ahead for Kermit the Frog.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Inside The Daily Chronicle building, Bear stepped out of the elevator and came to the floor that was usually filled with the sight of frantic reporters running back and forth between desks and the sounds phones ringing off their hooks, fingers typing rapidly on keyboards, and journalists discussing all types of stories to put into the paper. Unfortunately, none of that was there the day Bear had come in for work. He arrived to see nothing more than a vast, empty room. It puzzled and shocked him to see not one person or desk on that floor, as there usually had been on the days he reported in for duty.

“Hello?!?!” Bear yelled, his voice echoing throughout the hollow walls.

“Kid?!” A voice had emerged from within the emptied office of Mike Tarkanian, who stepped out to see Bear standing in the middle of the empty workspace. “Hey. I tried to call you a couple of weeks ago.”

“My phone wasn’t working.” Bear said, as he slowly walked up to his boss, looking around suspiciously. “What happened? Was there some kind of robbery?”

“No…it wasn’t anything like that.” Tarkanian said with a chuckle, even though he wasn’t in a very happy mood that day. “We…uh…encountered a bit of a financial problem. We’ve been shut down, kid.” Bear’s eyes widened and his mouth gaped open in surprise over that news.

“You mean…The Daily Chronicle’s gone out of business?” Bear asked, and Tarkanian sadly nodded in reply. “Oh, no. And I’ve only been working here for a few days!” Tarkanian felt very bad for Bear, not just because he was out of a job, but also because it had to happen under unnecessary circumstances that he couldn’t bring himself to share with him. “All of those poor people who worked so hard to put all of those great stories in the paper. I wonder how they’ll be able to move on with their lives.”

“Oh, they’ll be alright, kid. Half of them had part-time jobs anyway. Guess they’re full-time now. And others felt that they needed to spend more time with their families.” Tarkanian said. “But what about you? You came all this way to be a hard-working photographer for a worn-out, old newspaper, and now it’s all crashing down on you, because of some ridiculous crisis.” Bear just waved off that notion with a smile.

“I still have The Woodland Valley Gazette, sir.” He remarked. “I only came here to further improve my skills in journalism, remember?” Mike nodded with a smile, recalling Bear saying that to them on the first day they met.

“Well, don’t give up, kid.” He said, giving Bear a gentle pat on the back. “You’re one of the best employees I’ve ever had on this staff. If there’s one good thing that came out of The Chronicle’s cancellation, it’s you. You’ve really opened people’s eyes around here with that story you put in. Never before had we seen such a marvelous, meaningful story done by such unique character. You’re really are one marvelous muppet, kid.” Bear truly felt honored by Mike’s kind words, which brought a big smile to his face.

“Thanks, sir.” Bear said, and he leaned over and gave his former boss a gentle hug. Tears fell from Tarkanian’s eyes. He really felt like a changed man after he met Bear. Before all he had ever cared about was money and attention, which were the reasons he signed a contract with Rachel Bitterman. But after that contract was broken and the newspaper went out of business, the thing he cared about the most was doing the right thing.

“You take care, kid.” He told Bear, as they stopped their embrace. “I better see you back in this city, doing something great for any newspaper. I don’t care if it’s The Daily Bugle. Just keep your hope and dreams alive.” Bear nodded in affirmation to the last order Tarkanian would give him.

“I will, Mr. Tarkanian. I will.”

~~~~~~~~~~~​

In San Francisco, where it was still morning, Sean awoke to news on television of the newly formed “Web of Heroes” saving New York City from the last monstrous plan orchestrated by the deceased Otto Octavius. Though Sean was disappointed to hear how such a brilliant scientist was killed by the same madness that he was driven to, he was pleased to find out that his friend, Peter Parker, had decided to return to his duty of protecting New York City as Spider-Man. The news was marvelous enough to put the notion of going back to the city in his head, as his sister came downstairs to greet him that morning, with their cousin resting on her shoulder. Sean wanted very much for Stanley to see New York one day and get the opportunity to meet both Spider-Man and the man behind the mask, without giving away his true identity of course. But he knew it would take quite a bit of convincing towards his Aunt Victoria in order for it to happen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~​

At the chapel that Mary Jane and John were getting married in, several people had attended the event, from residents of Sesame Street to ones of the Happiness Hotel, including other characters like Goofy and Donald Duck. J. Jonah Jameson and his wife were obviously there to witness the beginning of their son’s new life, as well as Pete and Jenny, who were there for Mary Jane.

Once the organ player began performing “Here Comes the Bride,” everyone stood up and turned towards the doorway, waiting for Mary Jane to arrive. John Jameson couldn’t have been more excited, as he stood on the altar and waited patiently for his soon-to-be new bride. However, it was taking her a very long time to show up, which made a few people scratch their heads in confusion.

“Where is she?” Donald asked.

“Maybe she got a flat.” Fozzie assumed, and the people around him looked at him strangely. “Hey, that excuse works all of the time at weddings.” Jenny and Kermit looked to each other, both assuming that Mary Jane might’ve gotten cold feet but for different reasons. Though no matter how different these reasons were, they all led up to one person: Peter Parker.

Suddenly, a bridesmaid in a black dress appeared through the doorway and ran up to the altar, handing an envelope to John. The astronaut looked at the bridesmaid peculiarly, before he looked down at the envelope and opened it up, pulling out the folded note inside. After unfolding the note and reading what the message from Mary Jane had said, John dropped the note with a sad expression on his face. Seeing the way he looked, Jenny and Kermit could have only determined one thing: Mary Jane had decided not to marry John and left the ceremony to be with Peter.

“I never thought I’d see the day when the groom cries at his own wedding.” Kermit said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Peter Parker sat alone near the window of his apartment, looking out it and thinking of how “happy” Mary Jane was going to be with John Jameson, after they were married. And while he was looking out the window, he began to feel as if someone was watching him. Turning around and looking towards the door, he was surprised to have seen Mary Jane herself standing there, still wearing her wedding dress. Peter stood up from the chair and approached Mary Jane, finding it not so hard to believe that she wasn’t taking his advice to keep her distance from someone who was bound to have a lot of enemies while serving his duty as the city’s hero.

“Had to do what I had to do.” Mary Jane told Peter, with a smile. “I can’t survive without you. I know you think we can’t be together, but can’t you respect me enough to make my own decision. I know there’ll be risks…but I want to face them with you. It’s wrong that we should only be half alive…half of ourselves. I love you.” Peter just smiled, as he listened to every word she said. “So…here I am…standing in your doorway, like I’ve always been.” She reached up and touched his face. The warmth of her hand was a comforting feeling for him. He remembered when she had last touched his face, in the Hunt Cemetery, near his uncle’s grave. “Isn’t it about time someone saved your life, once in a while?” Peter just looked into her lovely hazel-colored eyes, with his smile still remaining on his face. “Well, say something.”

“Thank you, Mary Jane Watson.” Peter remarked, right before he shared a passionate kiss with her. Unfortunately, the kiss didn’t last very long, as the both of them turned towards the window and heard the sound of police sirens wailing in the distance. Peter looked to Mary Jane, who just smiled at him and said…

“Go get ‘em, tiger.”

Peter stared at her for a while, thinking about how great life was going to be for him, with Mary Jane sharing it with him. He then went to the window and jumped out onto the fire escape outside, switching from his regular clothes to his Spider-Man costume. The Amazing Spider-Man swung between several New York skyscrapers, following the sounds of the police sirens, while being accompanied by two rescue choppers. Down on the streets below, Fozzie drove his Studebaker down the road, with Piggy and Kermit in the backseat, just as they all spotted Spidey swinging high above. Kermit looked up at the web-slinger, thinking about whom he really was and wondering if he would ever really need his assistance. But until then, Spider-Man had the help he needed and would always be who he was no matter what.

THE MARVELOUS MUPPETS​

Well, there you have it. The "extended/alternated version" to the story that comes before the one that you all will be reading a week from now. However, the celebration isn't done yet. We still have a lot more to come, so stay tuned.

 

[The Count]

Mmm... So much to review, so little time. Just know that it was all greatness, even if there were a few little spots that need cleaning. Maybe you could call in Jonathan Ohm to take care of those? Eh, keep it comin', we're ready for whatever's next!