//------------------------------//
// Issue #14: The Slayer 
// Story: Spider-Man: Web of Magic 
// by MetalJrock 
//------------------------------//

Peter and Ned glanced at each other, both having eager grins on their faces aa they looked at the building. "There it is, Ned. Dr. Connor's lab. Hey, I think Harry's gonna be there too." he nudged his friend's elbow, "At least the two of us aren't going at it alone. Wait, how am I able to come anyway?"

"Connors was actually interested in your mind or something, having heard of your 'Stark Internship' from Harry, he actually wanted to meet you in person." Ned explained, "I wonder what he'll show us."

Peter raised a hand as he opened the door into the small building, "We'll Probably get a glance at his experiments. Show and don't touch kind of things probably."

The two entered, immediately spotting Harry, another teen his age, an older man and a woman overlooking an electric eel. Osborn glanced over, spotting his friends, "Hey! Peter, Ned! Glad to see you two made it!" he greeted.

The man shared his grin, "Oh, I didn't think you two would be here so early." he extended a hand once the two walked closer. Peter looked down, noticing one of his sleeves rolled up, no other arm was seen, but Parker made no comment in fear of being insensitive, "I'm Dr. Curtis Connors. It's a pleasure to have you both here."

"I'm Dr. Martha Connors. You're actually on time." she smiled.

The other teen gave them a nod of acknowledgement, "Brock. Eddie Brock. Welcome to the lab."

"Thanks you guys. I'm more surprised that you allowed me to join with Ned." Peter commented nervously.

Curtis put his hand on his hip, "Trust me, this is technically his first day. I was just as curious about your potential once Mister Osborn brought it to my attention though, Mister Parker."

"Uh, thanks." Parker said. Eddie rolled his eyes.

"It was worth bringing up." Harry admitted, "I think you'd be a little interested in what goes on here."

"Oh yeah, Harry actually spoiled a couple of details to me over the phone." Ned responded.

Curt chuckled, "Ah, glad to see the two of you anticipating this." he gestured to one of the glass cases containing a lizard, "This is one of my current experiments. I'm trying to recreate the regenerative property of a lizard from when they shed."

"Why?" asked Peter.

Curt sadly looked down to the stubble that was once his arm, "...Oh. I'm sorry." apologized Peter.

"No no, don't worry. I understand not bringing mention to it. It's no bother to me." Curt dismissed, "But as of now everything's been untested."

Martha spoke up, "Basically we're afraid of any unintended side effects until we can perfect the process. So we're avoiding human usage until we know it's at least stable."

Eddie folded his arms, "Came up with nothing so far  but we know that it can at least be done. We just need something to finish it and allow it to be stable."

Peter glanced down at the lizard sitting there, "Hm... That is tough. I don't blame you for waiting it out."

"What about these eels?" Ned wondered, pointing at the water tank, noticing some electric sparks.

"Oh, careful." Martha warned, "Those eels have been exposed to an uncalculatable amount of electricity. As you know, they've been exposed to a massive amount of volts of electricity. At this point, they're more like living batteries."

"That's hardcore." Ned complimented, with a growing grin.

Eddie snickered, "It kind of is. Just stay clear of the tank unless you have protective gear. We also attempted the regeneration serum with an iguana, but the research proved fruitless too. We call these projects 'Cross-Species'. Basically the docs want to test the capabilities of animals to see if we can somehow use their unique natural abilities for good." he explained.

Curt nodded, "Basically. We only want to use these in the name of good. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, one of our other scientists, Dr. Warren isn't here, but he also partakes in this. So far, his results are the same as ours."

"Hey, doc." Eddie called out, "Should we show them the V-252? At least Ned should know what we have if he's working here."

Martha said, "Of course. Just to make sure you're aware. This information doesn't leave the building though."

"Secret's safe with us, Dr. Connors." Peter assured. "Not a word will spill outside."

"Excellent, follow us." Curt said. The others did so. After a few moments they reached a metal door, reading 'SW-08'. "This vault contains the subject. As of now we're keeping it in here for security reasons." he said, opening the door with a retinal scan. "We cannot have this so easily accessed."

It was a small room, one they chose not to enter. Inside a glass case was a black goo. Peter pointed to the goo, "Is... That the V-252?" he wondered aloud.

"Yep. Given to us from NASA for research purposes. For obvious reasons, the public can't know about it until we know for certain what it is." Eddie explained.

Then, the goo began to move, sticking to the glass, surprising Peter and Ned.

Ned said, "This is like something out of a horror movie."

Scratching his head, Harry said, "...Yeah, it has those weird behaviors. We still don't know if it's truly alive of what."

While hearing the conversation, Peter felt something off. His Spider-Sense tingling. "Close the vault!" he ordered.

"Huh--"

SLAM!

Peter watched as something burst through the wall, smoke and dust covering the enlarged figure for only a few moments. The others stood behind him, frightened. "What the hell?" Eddie whispered. "What is that thing?"

Towering over them was a green and purple robot, at least twice their height. It raised its arm cannon and shot something. Peter was about to dive, but the projectile landed on Curt's missing arm before he could make it, "Grah!" he shouted, Martha noticing it was some strange dart. He yanked it off almost immediately.

Peter scowled, his Spider-Sense still tingling. "Stay in the vault. I'm gonna divert this thing's attention until someone arrives!" he ordered, lightly pushing the others inside.

"Oh no you don't." Eddie corrected, "That's a pretty freaking stupid move you're planning. I'm keeping an eye on you at least." he turned around inside, "The Connors practically my family, the least I can do is protect them. Keep Curt safe and make sure he's alright." Ned and Harry nodded, seeing Martha reach for the door. "He's injured."

"Just... Be careful. Get help as soon as possible." Martha warned, closing the vault at last.

Peter gulped, "I know just who to call."

Brock nodded, "You better have a plan, kid."

"I do. You just have to trust me." warned Parker. "Hey, giant robot thing! Follow me!" he shouted, however the arm of the robot slammed him in the stomach, launching him directly through the wall, covering the immediate area in smoke.

"Kid!" Eddie shouted. "Alright, I don't know what you are, but you're seriously pissing me off. Who sent you?"

Nothing was said from the robot, instead it aimed its arm cannon down upon Brock. He was ready to make a run for it. However, something shot from the ceiling and wrapped around the robot's appendage, "Alright, cool it there, Kool-Aid Man." quipped Spider-Man, "There's no need to shoot the innocent bystander."

Spidey jumped down and slammed his arms as well, forcing the metal being to move its arm away, "Get anyone else out of here! Right away! I'll hold this tin can off!"

"But what about Parker?" Brock wondered.

"His little... incident got my attention. I'll make sure he's safe. Just get anyone else out of here now!" Spider-Man ordered. Brock nodded, and opened the door, his palm accepted in another form of scanning. "It's alright, everyone!"

"Spider-Man?!" Curt grunted through gritted teeth.

"Just leave!"

The others did as they were told and ran off, Ned saying, "Kick his ass, Spidey!"

Peter chuckled, blocking the robot's turrets with his impact webbing, "With pleasure." he kicked the robot and backflipped, dodging some more turret blasts, them ripping right through the webbing. "Okay okay... I need a plan. Something that can tear apart this metal monstrosity as fast as possible." he told himself, leaning on a wall while trying to dodge the meral being. He watched as the robot dashed forward in his direction. Spider-Man zipped away, the robot creating another hole near the one he made.

"Wait a minute... Stark said I got some upgrades. Might as well test out some of my new tech." Spider-Man remembered, extending both of his arms, "Electric Webbing!" he shouted, two lines shooting out of his wrists directly into the armored shoulders of the robot. Volts were sent through, however, the robot remained unfazed. "...Breadcrumbs." he muttered in disappointment. He backflipped, dodging more bullets, his body leaning in different directions in order to avoid them.

Peter crouched back onto the floor, "Alright, you overgrown can opener. You got a mastermind? Vulture? Green Goblin? Shocker? Marko and O'Hirn? Gargan? I'm running out of names here!" he quipped, jumping and performing a spinning kick. The robot didn't respond and instead gripped its hand around Spider-Man's waist, in an attempt to crush him. Peter struggled, "I didn't think you were so friendly..." he growled, trying to push himself off.

The head of the robot glared at Spider-Man, "Hmph... I really need to figure this out..." he said. Without thinking, he kicked the arm of the robot and aimed an arm up at the visor, "Taste Impact Webbing, you overgrown bucket of bolts!" he shouted, the hardened gossamer breaking right through the optics of the robot, distracting it long ehough for Spider-Man to break free from its grip. "Woo... Okay, that grip wore me out..." he admitted while rubbing his sides. "I need to find a way to shut it down... I need some kind of supercomputer."

Suddenly, his lenses began to glow, "What the heck?!" he shouted, able to scan the robot, "Is this... Is this one my upgrades? Awesome!" he raised his head and looked at the head, detecting a weak spot, "The head... Of course, why didn't I expect that? Oh wait, because I never fought robots before. Really wish I was around to deal with Ultron by now." he sighed, jumping up, zipping forward with his webbing, it curling around the metal being's hinges on its neck.

Peter stood behind it, "Okay, lenses are telling me that the circuits are inside." his palms gripped the sides of the robot's head, "This is gonna be gruesome for robot's standards, but I'll permit Samurai Jack level violence!" he shouted, yanking the head off the robot immediately, punching the circuits and yanking them out of their sockets. Some beeps were heard, clanging was echoed, and the robot fell down, with Spider-Man standing over its broken body. "Aw yeah! Spider-Man one, giant robot zero!"

'Thank you, upgrades by Mister Stark.' thought the wall-crawler in relief, stepping off the giant robot body, "Now I just gotta figure out how to clean this mess up."





"Guys!" shouted Peter, running to the group back in his civilian clothing. Ned sighed in relief, knowing the truth, the others did as well just because he was safe. "Are you okay?"

Except for Eddie, who pointed an accusing finger at Peter, "Where the hell were you at?"

"Spider-Man got me out of the rubble and told me to wait while he made sure you were all safe." Peter explained. Eddie put his hands on his hips and remained silent, "Sorry about making you guys wait... I went to clean myself off at least and pick some debris up. How's his wound?" he wondered.

Martha shook her head, "It doesn't look lethal. It looks like he was poked by a dart. I may have to run a few blood tests just to double check to say for certain." she explained.

Harry tapped his chin, "Now the question is, who sent that thing and why?" he wondered.

"A conspiracy!" Ned said, "I'm in."

"It's not the Illuminati." Peter dismissed right away.

"Aw man." Ned sighed in disappointment.

Eddie said, "I don't know. But whoever did is gonna get justive served. In the meantime we should clean up." he tapped his chin, "Something seems off though."





Unknown...

Tombstone overlooked the static on the monitor now that their robot was destroyed by Spider-Man. "A disappointment, Smythe." he said.

Spencer Smythe stood up from his chair, "The Prototype Spider-Slayer wasn't meant to destroy Spider-Man. No, it was merely a decoy to bring in the first test subject in our Cross-Species experiment." he elaborated, stroking his beard.

Lincoln nodded, "Ah yes, the transmutation stone. You said it consisted of an unknown energy?"

"Correct, Tombstone. One could even argue that it's magic in nature. But as of now it's nothing we can prove. I have weaponized it as an energy core, projecting it into a serum that I can inject. The results could vary though based on my tests." Smythe explained, "And we shall see what Dr. Connors becomes before we enact it upon our newest subjects." he added simply.

Tombstone replied, "I see. But be lucky Mister Osborn wasn't here, he would not approve of making his son an indirect target. Just be lucky that your plan didn't prove futile..."

"Now we await..."