//------------------------------//
// To Slay a Spider 
// Story: Spiders and Magic: Dimensional Crisis 
// by MetalJrock 
//------------------------------//

Spike roared loudly, forcing Johnny and Luna to cover their ears from the loud noise. Johnny spoke up, his hands still covering his ears, "Did you have to do that so loud?!"

The dragon chuckled, "Sorry... It's just cool."

Luna sighed, stretching a hand and drawing more magic to destroy the robots flying toward her, "We can worry about what's 'cool' later, Spike. Thou must aid us in battle."

"Jeez. You hang out with Thor, lady?" Johnny mumbled, rearing both of his fists back to deliver a fireball large enough to detonate a smaller Spider-Slayer robot with wings, and it exploded within his vicinity, but luckily he managed to absorb the heat of the blast.

The Moon Princess shot out an energy beam from her hands, seeing three robots come in her direction. Each of them were spider shaped and almost as large as Spike. She managed to drive holes through them, slowing them down slightly. Luna smirked as she created a small forcefield, blocking any projectiles and lasers aimed at her, deflecting them with ease.

"Mayhaps." Luna teased.

Johnny swirled around, swiftly dodging lasers shot out by yet another spider-robot. "These things are neverending!" he shouted, planting his feet atop the metal being and driving a fist into it, burning its circuits and shutting it down.

Spike swiped his tail around in middair, catching a few Spider-Slayers and robots, launching them across the sky until he saw some explosions on the side of a building. "I have no clue. But for some reason, they're spider-themed."

"One of Peter's enemies, I assume." the Moon Princess realized. 

The Human Torch spun around, a trail of flames behind his flight path. He replied, "There's a lot of enemies. Venom, Goblin, Kraven, Doctor Octopus, and his self-esteem... But I don't know anyone with an army of spider-robots."

Suddenly, as another robot neared Human Torch, Ant-Man leaped out of nowhere, growing as he dug his fist into the red glowing eye of the metallic creature, destroying it and allowing it to shut down upon messing with the system wiring. "Woah! Scott, Jesus, man... You and Batman are masters of vanishing and appearing..." Johnny huffed in surprise, clenching his chest.

Without saying anything, Ant-Man shrunk down, latching onto another robot once he grew back and having flown on a small swarm of flies he summoned. The hero placed a hand on the top, allowing himself to be still to explain, "These are robots sent by the Spider-Slayer! They were mainly meant for Peter to fight! We can take these things down with ease if we use our full power! They weren't prgrammed to deal with heroes like us." he shrunk back down, diving into the robot, using his knowledge, or random messing of wires to shut down the robot from inside this time, feeling destroying it from the outside would prove useless.

Ant-Man jumped out, grabbing the back of a fly near him, gaining traction to fly away. "You got that, guys?" he asked, having gotten back to normal size to jump a Spider-Slayer in middair.

"You bet, Lang!" Johnny saluted.

Spike roared, slashing his claws through the Spider-Slayers, turning them into dust after having using his fire breath to disintergrate them immediately. "Wow. He was right. These things go down kinda easy, like Sloan's goons."

"We always end up with the goons." Luna sighed, drawing out some more magic to grab the mutated creatures, throwing them into the robots, allowing Human Torch to blow them all up on impact.

Ant-Man came back using his abilities to hijack a robot with some quick rewiring and shooting some of them down. "Aw yeah! Now this is happening!"

"Only you would get excited by that." Johnny said. "Then again, it was awesome. But not as much as I am."

Luna chuckled at the hero's ego, like a certain pegasus she knew, "At least we can start taking them all on."

Spike clenched his claws, "If only we knew where they were coming from... Until then, I guess we're taking each and every single one of these things down."

And the battle raged on. With Ant-Man's new hacked robot, the numbers grew smaller on that front.





In the Hall of Justice, Black Cat held down a Spider-Slayer on the floor with an elbow, allowing Batman detonate some explosive gel once the thief jumped out of the way. "You do not hold back." Felicia teased, seeing the creature turn to ash.

Batman scowled, "As gruesome as it is, it's necessary to ensure that no one gets hurt. I'm not sure what these Spider-Slayers are capable of, but they were made to deal with Spider-Man. Not us. That gives us a small advantage."

"Oh, of course, I had to be a Spider-Man!" Ben groaned, backflipping off a wall, driving his feet into the skull of the mutated monster, knocking it on its back. "So, I'm probably gonna have the hardest time fighting these things."

Twilight pushed her hands forward, both of them glowing a lavender aura as she held down to Spider-Slayers, giving Sunset a moment to create a blast powerful enough to blast them apart, "Don't count on that. We outnumber them all in power." Sunset said, drawing her hands as she released another spell that vaporized five more Spider-Slayers with ease.

Sunset then drove an elbow into the chest of another mutated creature moving behind her, stunning it and giving Twilight time to shoot it through the wall. The former unicorn sighed, "Seems we're going to pay for all of this at some point."

"Yeah, I'm not looking forward to it." Scarlet Spider muttered, digging his feet into a frozen creature thanks to Iceman, who nodded in satisfaction at the combo, "Looking back..." he continued, flipping away from a monster swipe thanks to his Spider-Sense, "How are these things even able to... Be?" he joked, using a right hook to hit the creature in its metallic fangs before kneeing its chest.

Iceman grunted, "Not sure. And I really don't care."

"That's what I thought." Ben replied, kicking a monster with a right hook, ducking underneath a claw swipe before Twilight held it down with her magic. "Thanks for the assist, Twi." he saluted, shooting some strands of webbing to the side, trapping some monsters on a wall, allowing Sunset to  trap them in a forcefield and launch them out the broken window, where she saw Spike swipe at them for a second.

Batman rolled to the side, dodging a Spider-Slayer lunge after him. The Dark Knight, "Twilight. Sunset. Contain as many as you can in a forcefield. If we can draw them out in larger numbers, we can spare the energy to help Peter."

"But what if we overexert ourselves again?" Twilight asked, "That's a risk I'm not willing to take right now."

"You won't. This time there's more of us and these artificial Spider-Slayers are weak. We can weaken them so that we can destroy them all at once. It's grim, I know. But I don't think these things are even alive or are even mutated people. These may be artifical beings, since I xannot detect any other life signs on my Detective Vision." Batman assured to the others as best he could.

"Let's hope you're right on that, Batman." Sunset quietly gulped.

Twilight nodded, as did Sunset, and the two focused their magic, trying to contain the creatures as best they could. Scarlet Spider pushed some aside with a web-swing kick, knocking them down like bowling bowls, "Strike!" he quipped.

"You should've waited for me to freeze them!" Iceman whined, "It would've been a cool game of bowling."

"I'm shaming you for that pun!" Scarlet Spider yelled, puncing another slayer, following up with a roundhouse kick. "Let me just say that it was ice to do battle with you."

Black Cat rolled her eyes, flipping over a Spider-Slayer and throwing them over her as she grabbed their shoulders. "Will you two knock it off? There's only so many bad puns I can take."

"Then you should keep your cool." Sunset chimed in. She saw Twilight give her a mean glare, but she laughed it off.

"All of you..." the sorceress whined, "Makes me wonder if Peter's a bad influence."

"Debatable." Batman added, throwing a batarang at a Spider-Slayer's leg, tripping it instantly. 'This is as bad as that phase Mr. Freeze ent through.'

"What's that supposed to mean?" Twilight growled.

"Not now, Bats." Bobby groaned.

Batman used his batclaw to grab a Spider-Slayer, while it staggered, he raised his fists and then slammed them on its head, making it drop instantly. "Fine." he grumbled.

"Spidey and Bats have... issues. Even though they're working together now, it's only to save the world." Bobby whispered to Ben. "It would be an entirely different situation if that wasn't the case,"

"Got it." the clone whispered back.

With all of the Spider-Slayers contained in one area, Twilight and Sunset threw them all together into a single forcefield. Batman then pressed a button, activating the explosive gel underneath that spot, turning the creatures into ash. Scarlet Spider sighed in relief, "Thank God. The less the better... Who named these things anyway? Spider-Slayers? Very original..."

"Don't question it." Twilight said.

Black Cat revealed her claws, "Just go with it, Scarlet. I've faced these things before. Some scientist got insane. You do the math."

"Sounds like Sloan." quipped Sunset.

Batman turned to the others, "Enough talking. The numbers are dwindling. It is all clear from here. We should find Peter and the others."





Spider-Man 2099 used an Accelerated Decoy to distract Scorpion as he charged. Miguel ran toward the armored arachnid, who looked around in confusion after the hologram disappeared. The future Spider punched Scorpion, who did not react to the attack. In response, Gargan lashed out his tail, knocking the Spider off of him. 

"Son of a glitch!" Miguel muttered, holding his sore side.

Scorpion laughed, "Another Spider? You'll go down just as easy."

"New Scorpion... Old Habits." Spider-Man 2099 mumbled in anger.

Wolverine jammed his claws into Scorpion's back, stabbing into the armor. "Did ya forget he wasn't alone, bub?" he asked Gargan in a confident tone.

"Damn it." sighed Scorpion, using his claws to stab Wolverine, making him remove his claws and sent him a small distance away. "Your claws won't do much to my armor. You should know that by now, Wolverine." he boasted.

Bullets began to bounce off his green armor, making him swipe his claws to deflect them as well. "C'mon, Deadpool! Don't you ever learn?" he asked.

Deadpool laughed, his guns aimed in front of him, "No! But I can make as many mistakes as I want! Have you never heard of me, Scorpion?" he joked.

'Healing factor baby!'

'We are idiots. But the healing factor gives us permission.'

The Merc with a Mouth pulled out his katanas, slicing vertically in Scorpion's direction. "It slices, it dices, it chicken fried rices!" he shouted, moving his arms in various directions in trying to break apart Gargan's armor, to no avail. "C'mon, armor! Break! Break darn you!" he growled, moving his blades downward, which Scorpion countered with an upward strike, hitting Deadpool's jaw, a snapping sound heard as his claws collided with the mercenary's head.

Deadpool moved his head back in place, seeing Wolverine and Spider-Man 2099 move in toward Gargan, "Ya sound like you faced a Scorpion before, bub. Care to explain?" asked Logan cracking hud knuckles as he walked ahead.

"Yeah. In the future, there's another Scorpion who suffered the same thing. Except he mutated and it wasn't just a suit." Spider-Man 2099 explained.

Scorpion raised his claws, "There's a Scorpion in the future? I'm so humbled!"

"Well too bad, cause I'll humiliate ya some more." Wolverine growled, jumping up and punching Scorpion in the jaw. Scorpion grunted, feeling the attack on his only exposed area. "Alright, future bug. Do yer thing, I guess."

Spider-Man 2099 nodded, "Got it, Wolverine! Tell Wade to get off his lazy ass."

"Hey! I'm trying!"

"One Spider-Man will have to do." roared Scorpion.

"I'm not dying, Scorpion! Past or present it's all the same!" Migurl shouted, lunging after Gargan, his claws out. He slashed Scorpion's armor, creating scratches but not dents. "This attack of yours is over. Why are you working with Spider-Slayer?"

"Gotta agree with the bug, why?" Logan repeated.

Scorpion raised a claw, stabbing Wolverine in the chest. Logan pushed himself off, kicking Scorpion's chest. "I just want to fight Spider-Man one last time! Then I'm coming after Jameson for trapping me in this suit!"

Deadpool sighed, reloading his guns, "Yeah, yeah. Supervillain cliche motive. I just wanna shut you up! And I just have the idea as to how I'm gonna do that."

He bent down, grabbing a nearby man-hole cover. With a grunt, he lifted the lid and tossed it, hitting Scorpion n the jaw hard. In a fit of rage, he yelled, "You son of a bitch! I'll kill you for that!"

Deadpool chuckled, jumping down the cover. Using his power, Scorpion broke apart some of the street to enter, following Deadpool. Wolverine and Spider-Man 2099 sighed, jumping down with him, "Deadpool has an idea?" Miguel wondered, landing on the ground next to Logan, who placed a hand on a knee.

Wolverine smirked, "Gotta admit. That's a first."

Down in the sewers, Scorpion looked around n the darkness, wondering where the mercenary was. "Where the hell are you? Do you think an idiot like yourself can stop me?"

Gunshots were heard, surprising Scorpion, smoke was seen, making him cough. "What the--?" he was cut off by Wade kicking him in the chest, somehow knocking the wind out of him.

"H-How?"

Deadpool tossed his guns over his head and he grabbed it, "A little something I learned on television. I may sound and act like a dumbass sometimes, but that means you should be more afraid of what I'm capable of. Even my allies figured it out."

"What are you-- ack!"

Spider-Man 2099 kicked Scorpion in the back, revealing himself in the smoke. "Even I have to admit, he had a smart plan. That's why you shouldn't doubt us. That suit of armor is heated, making you vulnerable to steam, you're getting slow now."

"No..." panted Scorpion, "I'm powerful now... I can't be beaten by a knockoff Spider-Man and that annoying assassin..."

A stabbing sound was heard, Scorpion looked down and saw Wolverine, both of his hands jammed into the armor, "Well, too bad. Believe it, bub. We got yer ass beat."

Scorpion tried to attack Logan with a claw swipe, but it proved too slow, allowing Wolverine an opening to attack with Miguel, who created a web-line and tied it around his claws and tail, trapping him long enough for the X-Man to deliver an uppercut into another steam pipe, breaking it as he landed.

"Booyah!" shouted Deadpool, posing with his katanas.

Gargan gasped, "Damn it! I can do it!" he panted, barely managing to stand up.

"Nah!" quipped O'Hara, driving his feet into Scorpion's armoed torso, making him land on his back. Wolverine punched his jaw and Deadpool ended it with a stab to the shoulder, ensuring that he was put down while he was tired.

A white light covered the area as the smoke, blinding the three heroes. When they opened their eyes, they saw Scorpion was gone, only leaving Deadpool's katana. "Aw man... For once I do something and it's gone to waste."

Logan shook his head, "If it makes ya feel any better. It actually worked."

Miguel nodded, "Yeah, but Loki managed to get him away. That shocking trickster. He's as annoying as the records."

"I'd say even moreso." Logan chuckled.

"Isn't our timeline just grand?" Deadpool wondered.

With a heavy sigh, Miguel replied, "Just peachy..."

"Told ya." Wade joked.

Changing the subject, Wolverine pointed up, "How about we help the kid with the Spider-Slayer?"





Spider-Man backflipped away from Smythe, who used his pincer to try to pinch him, but the wallcrawler countered with a kick as he moved, deflecting the appendage. "After all this time, you haven't changed have you Smythe?"

"No, Spider-Man," Smythe hissed, "I've awaited the day you would return and have created the perfect army and even upgraded my armor for such an occasion."

Spider-Man took a punch from Smythe before countering with an elbow to his chest, then finishing up with a right hook. In anger, Spider-Slayer responded with a sweep kick, where he tripped Spidey. Peter flipped up, performing a drill kick in the process.

"If this is about what happened to your dad, I didn't mean for it to happen! He brought that on himself with that experiment!" Peter shouted, grabbing Smythe's shoulders and flipping him over with ease. Smythe landed on a wall, and in a second he pushed himself off, ready to tackle Spider-Man.

"I don't care for what you say! My father died fighting you, and I'll finish our battle now!" Smythe shouted in disgust, nearly grabbing Peter, before the webslinger shot a web-ball at him, dazing him for less than a millisecond. The Spider-Slayer yanked the gossamer off his face as something else collided with it.

"You got a little something there, Smythe! Let me get that for you!" Peter shouted, decking him in the face. In response, Smythe smacked him with one of his back pincers, launching Peter through a wall as a result, 'Did anyone get the number of that thing?' his mind asked, and he shook the cobwebs out of his head.

Smythe smirked, "I can finally finish what my father started."

"Get in line, Smythe. There's a whole list of villains who want me dead. So you're just gonna have to wait like the rest of them." Spider-Man responded, shooting lines of webbing at both sides of him, using himself as a slingshot, fist first toward Smythe. The Spider-Slayer predicted the attack and used his pincers to stab Spider-Man's arm, making him scream in pain.

"You... Son of a..." Peter gasped, holding the bleeding wound. Pushing the pain aside, he moved his arm anyway, landing a right hook on Smythe's chin, one of the only spots not exposed to armor. In a split-second he grabbed ahold of the armored fangs and proceeded to pull on them, using this tactic as a distraction.

Smythe managed to focus long enough to trap Spider-Man in a small bind of webbing shot from his forearm. Peter tried to shake himself out of the webbing, but only ended up getting punched in the stomach before he could free himself. He gasped for air as he knelt down. "Look at you... So weak, Spider-Man." he raised an arm, revealing the spikes on the side of it. "It's a shame I have to end this."

Without hesitation, Spider-Man ducked his head and moved his legs fast enough to roll back and catch Smythe's arm with them, doing his best to hold him up. "A word of advice, Smythe..." he grunted, rolling with Smythe still caught. The Spider-Slayer stumbled and fell on his head, "Never skip leg day." he joked, managing to free himself from the webbing with a tug of both of his arms.

Spider-Slayer grunted, standing back up. "I can do this all day, Spider-Man."

"Yeah?" replied Peter, "So can I. I have a family, a wife, an aunt and a daughter to get back to. So, I'm not going down until you do."

"You have a daughter now?" Smythe chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

The Spider-Slayer continued, "Nothing. It's just... I feel the need for payback. You let my father die, it's only fair I let your daughter experience that pain. Heck, maybe I'll pay her a visit once I'm through with you as well as that aunt of yours. Make them suffer a bit."

"You're bluffing."

Smythe laughed, "Try me. It'll be nice revenge for what you've done to me. It's only fair for you, I say."

Spider-Man clenched his fists, with what Smythe said getting into his head. He jumped up, leaving Smythe to track his movements, then he took a foot to the mouth, teeth flying out as he met the ground. He gasped as he saw Spider-Man grab him by the throat, making him choke as he was held up. He struggled in Spider-Man's grip and for one moment he was afraid.

"What--ack--are y-you doing?" asked Alistair.

"If there's one thing I hate more than anything..." Spider-Man tightened his grip on Smythe's throat, "It's my family being threatened... Especially my daughter and aunt!" he threw Spider-Slayer like a ragdoll, leaving him to scramble around on the floor.

Peter scowled under his mask, rage filling his emotions and deciding his every action, "I-I'll actually kill them!" he warned. Spider-Man silently responded with another punch to the face, shattering his eye pieces in the process.

"No you won't..." Peter whispered in a dark tone.

He pushed down Smythe once again, kicked him a few times and then lifted him up once again. "You won't hurt anyone ever again, not Jameson, not my family and not me..." he reared his fist back, but he saw the fear in Alistair's eyes, making him doubt himself and what he was about to do.

'No... I swore to an oath... I won't kill in cold blood. Not now, not ever. Like with Jackal, I won't stoop down to their level.' thought Spider-Man, his anger dying down. But he punched Smythe one last time before covering the slayer in webbing.

Peter panted, holding his slightly sore arm, seeing that he could still move it without a problem, and the bleeding stopped. He turned around, seeing Logan, Wade and Miguel climb out of the manhole.

"Oh yeah! Nothing like sewer smell." Deadpool sniffed his armpit, "Or maybe that's just me."

"You had something going and you lost it with that." Spider-Man 2099 muttered.

Wolverine crossed his arms, "I take it things were fine on yer end, kid?"

Peter nodded, "Y-Yeah... Got a little shaken up, but he's down for--" he turned around, seeing Smythe was not in the same spot as he left him a minute ago. "Ah crap."

"Shaken up? Did he piss you off? Last time I saw you mad was when the Jackal revealed his plan." Miguel admitted.

"Jackal? What kinda nutcase is that?" Wolverine wondered.

"You don't wanna know." Peter said with a handwave. "Anyway... We should check back on the Hall of Justice."

"I'll get the transition--" Deadpool started to say before getting cut off.

The ground began to shake, leaving the heroes, and any citizens across the city to stumble around. Peter's Spider-Sense rang in his head right before water began to explode from every manhole in the city. The wallcrawler pushed the three aside as the manhole underneath them started to rumble. "What the shock is happening now?"

"Oh no... No no!" Spider-Man shouted, looking up.

The water began to form around a general area, largest than the tallest skyscraper. A laugh echo as the heroes watched a being materialize from the liquid. Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099 clenched their fists as they found out who it was. Wolverine and Deadpool grunted, figuring it out as well.

Hydro-Man revealed himself in his giant liquid form. "How do you like me now, Spider-Man?! Loki gave me quite the upgrade and Luthor gave me a little help!"

Wondering what he was talking about, Spider-Man looked down, seeing a man with blonde hair wearing orange scale armor and a trident in his hand control the waves around him, with a small army marching behind him once some of the waves cleared. He stood in the streets, as though he was waiting for battle. All of them had glowing red eyes. "He got Aquaman?!" he shouted, startled at the realization. "So that's where he went..."



"Who the shock is Aquaman?!" Miguel asked.

"The King of Atlantis in this world." Wolverine revealed. "Can control water, sea creatures. And it seems he and an army are under Luthor's control."

"I'll get the shark-repellent!" Deadpool yelled.

"Sure thing, Wade." Peter joked.

"Can I make a poop joke about Hydro-Man?" Deadpool chimed in.

Ignoring that comment, Spider-Man was the first to jump up, seeing Hydro-Man's morph a giant hand while his water form began to chase him with water drops falling around them.



"Bring it on, Spider-Man!"

"Oh, I will!"