//------------------------------// // Chapter 17: The Rise Of Kid Arachnid // Story: Equestria Girls/Spider-man Book 1: Amazing // by Equestrian Defender //------------------------------// It had been a little over a week since Flash had begun training Miles. And in that time Miles had proven to be quite the fast learner. In just two days he'd managed to get the hang of using the Web Shooters to fire Web Shots and Web Lines. Once he got the hang of that they moved him to the actual Web-Swinging, starting off with some buildings in Brooklyn that were high enough he could swing off of, but low enough that if he did mess up he wouldn't skid along the ground. Or worse. He took to it like a fish to water, managing to not touch the ground once ("That one time I ran across the top of the cars does not count! I still didn't touch the street.") Eventually it came time to move to something... bigger. -Tuesday May 16th- "You sure I'm ready for this," Miles asked. He was currently in his homemade costume with his Web Shooters on, standing next to Spider-Man... ...while standing on one of the eagles of the Empire State Building. Spider-Man laughed and replied "Oh trust me, you'll get used to making jumps like these." Peering over the edge, Miles stated "I get that. But still-" "Miles," Spider-Man said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Relax, okay? Just remember what I taught you." "Keep the math flowing in my head, make sure I've got a decent amount of Web Fluid before I start swinging (which I do), double-tap to release otherwise the Web Line'll keep going until I hit the ground." "And above all else?" "Don't freak out." "Good. Follow those and you won't end up as street pizza." Spider-Man turned to the edge, before looking over his shoulder and adding "Try taking a running start. It helps a lot." And with that he jumped off, and Miles could see him fall down to the halfway point of the building before firing a Web-Line and swinging away. "How does he make it look so easy?" With a sigh he took a few steps back, before turning around to face the edge. " And with that he ran, and before he could even think about stopping he leaped over the head of the eagle right into the open air. Much like the first time he did this (albeit on a MUCH shorter building) the experience was both adrenaline-pumping fun and mind-numbingly terrifying. The wind rushed past him as he fell, the threat of the ground still far away but still close enough to remind him what should happen if he failed and Spider-Man couldn't catch him in time (which was unlikely but still...) "Alright Miles," he said as he fired a Web-Line and snagged the side of a nearby building. "You got this." He double-tapped the trigger, cutting the Web-Line while he grabbed hold of it with both hands. As he fell the line went taut, and he found himself swinging. The ground rushed up to meet him, Miles praying that he calculated it right. "You got this. You got this!" The ground was now close enough that a few more feet and he'd be touching it. "YOUGOTTHIS!YOUGOTTHIS!YOUGOTTHIS!" And he did. He swung back up into the air, his feet not even coming close to the pavement. Releasing the line, he fired another one and continued swinging, letting out a "WOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOO!!!!" of triumph! Swinging near him, Spider-Man asked "Was I right, or what?" "Yes you were," Miles replied. "I think I got the hang of this." He nodded. "Yep. Now you just need a suit." -Wednesday May 17th- Miles looked at the machine in front of him; a large tube big enough to fit a person inside with a large touchscreen on the one end. From where Miles was standing at he could see that the top half of the tube was able to open up to reveal whatever was inside of it.* "So, what exactly is this thing?" Twilight smirked. "Well, originally we thought it was just to repair Flash's suit whenever it got ripped or torn. Or if something happened to damage the tech inside of the suit. And it did. But then Karen showed us what this machine was really for." The screen lit up and Karen said "Only after Mister Stark put that patch in. Now this machine won't just repair suits, but can also build new suits. And any upgrades or new gadgets that Twilight makes can be included in future ones as long as they're saved in my memory." "That patch he put in also gave us a few new upgrades to try out," Flash noted, having slipped on his own costume. "Like this little guy." Then to Miles surprise the emblem on Spider-Man's chest suddenly peeled off and started flying, before unfolding out small metal legs, a camera, and a hovercraft unit on its abdomen. "I call it the Spidey-Drone." "Now that is cool," Miles admitted. Noticing it flying without Flash using a joystick or anything he asked "Uh, who's driving it?" "Right now, I am," Karen replied. "But if anyone back at the base wanted to they could take remote control of it with one of the controllers." There was a pause before she said "Like Thorax is now." All three of them turned to see Thorax looking at his computer, showing a first-person view from the drones camera as he controlled it with... "Is that a PS4 controller," Twilight asked in disbelief. Thorax nodded. "Yeah. Tony made the controls so easy a five year old could do it." Looking at the screen he said "Huh, this little guy also comes equipped with a spark blaster. If I wanted to I could taze you guys right now." Miles smirked, looking at something on his phone. "You mean like this," he asked before tapping something on the screen. To Thorax's shock he lost control of the drone, which immediately turned around and fired a stream of electricity at him. The result was immediate as he started spasming like a cartoon character while his hair stood on end and started smoking. As he fell to the ground floundering like a fish, Flash looked at Miles and asked "Hacker App?" "Hacker App." As the Spidey-Drone folded back up and latched back onto Flash's suit, Miles added "Might wanna work on making this thing less hack-able. Last thing we want is someone else getting control of this, especially if they're one of the bad guys." "Duly noted," Twilight replied. "Working on a Mark II as we speak. Anyway, there's plenty of other options on the screen." Looking at the options Miles read aloud "Okay, we got the basics like Advanced Recon Mode with x-ray, thermal and enhanced audio/video capture. That's definitely one I want." He checked the box. "Let's see, Cloaking Field would be redundant with my powers. EMP?" "It means Electro-Magnetic Pulse," Karen stated. "I know that. What sci-fi nerd doesn't know what that is," Miles replied. "And considering how many tech-based supervillains that are out there, that might come in handy. It's not gonna fry anything we have, is it?" "Nope," Flash replied. "But it's a one-shot and then you need to replace it out of your suit with a new one. It's why I don't have one in mine." "Still, I'll give it a shot." After checking that box he said "I think I'll let you have the Spidey-Drone. Web-Shooter Add-Ons?" "Y-you'll d-d-definitely w-want those-e-e," Thorax said, shaking getting back up into his chair and having a momentary stutter from the electricity. "The Impact Webs and Electric Webs have come in handy. Just ask Flash." Miles looked to Flash, who nodded. So Miles checked the box. He then asked "You feeling okay, Thorax?" "You know I'm gonna get you back for this, right?" "I regret nothing," he replied as he looked over the screen again. "Okay, that's good." Seeing the next one he asked "Wingsuit function?" "I asked for that to replace the Emergency Parachute," Flash explained. "While the parachute did save my ass, it was also kinda slow and made me a big target for Vulture. Plus it's only good for one use. This is reusable and a lot faster." Miles chuckled. "Yeah. My Uncle Aaron showed me how to use one a long time ago when he took me skydiving. It was pretty fun." He checked that box and said "That's everything. Now do I need to put in my measurements or-?" "No need," Karen replied. "The suits are made out of auto-adjusting nanofiber-mesh weave. Once you put them on, just tap the emblem and it'll conform to your body like a second skin."** "Sweet. You already got my design in?" "Yes. Do you want to make any changes?" "Nope," Miles stated as he hit the prompt on the screen. As the machine began humming, Karen stated "I estimate that your suit should be finished in roughly three hours." "In the meantime," Flash said "let's all see where we're at on the Cinch situation." Thorax nodded, pulling up all the info they'd gathered on Cinch and spreading it among the two computers. "Okay, so thanks to that Spider-Tracer you put on her car back in April, we've figured out the majority of her daily routine." He pulled up a list, which read: -5:30 AM: Leave for Crystal Prep -6:00 AM: Arrive at Crystal Prep -4:30 PM: Leave Crystal Prep -5:00 PM: Arrive Back Home "Wait, that's it," Miles asked. "That's her daily routine." Flash nodded. "Yeah. Aside from the occasional stop at a grocery store on Saturday or Sunday, she rarely deviates from that schedule." "But what would she be doing at the school on the weekends? I get that she might have the occasional meeting, but I doubt the school board would want to talk to her on every single weekend. Hell, if what Twilight's told us is true, I doubt they'd want to speak to her more than once a month." "That's being too generous," Twilight replied. "Cinch spends most of her time locked up in her office. The only time she ever talks to the students is if she's telling them they're not meeting her standards. And aside from budget meetings the only teacher she has regular contact with is Cadance, and that's only because Cinch is either stopping her from punishing someone who's on one of the sports teams, or because Cadance is one of the teachers who helps with the Friendship Games. And if the things Cadance says about her are any indication, she's a terrible example of a human being." "Which is about as close to swearing as she can possibly get without actually swearing," Thorax stated mockingly, only to get beaned in the head with a 10mm wrench a la Twilight's throwing arm. "OW!" Glaring at Twilight as he rubbed his sore head and asked "Are you sure your name isn't Winry Rockbell?" "Do I have blond hair and do I design mechanical limbs?" "No," Thorax quietly replied, hiding behind his chair. Miles chuckled and said "I honestly can't imagine you as a blonde, Twi. Though I can imagine you making Auto-Mail." She rolled her eyes. "Sorry, but Flash is the one who wants to work on building mechanical prosthetic limbs in the future." "Back on topic, please." Everyone turned to Flash and he continued "This is Cinch's whole schedule, and like Thorax said she never really deviates from it. So, how the hell is she doing all her evil villain stuff while still keeping to this schedule?" "Toomes did say she wore some of, and I quote 'Knock-off Iron Man armor,' Thorax said, looking over the notes. "So, maybe she uses that to fly to her HQ." "But when would she be able to do that," Twilight asked. "She rarely leaves her office and the few times someone goes or is sent in there, she's there. Not only that, but you got CCTV footage on both her apartment and the school. We never see her flying out of it. And I seriously doubt she can be in two places at once." Miles was looking over some of the notes and narrowed his eyes at something. "Hey, you guys said she replaced Gargan and the other two with robots that looked and acted just like them, right?" Flash nodded. "Yeah. The prison guards were totally fooled, because they acted just like those goons down to a 'T'." His eyes widened as realization came over him. "And now it makes sense." "Cinch swapped herself with a robot duplicate so she can keep working on her machine while still seeming to be an ordinary high school principal." Whistling, Miles said "Credit where credit's due, she's definitely thought these things through." "It would probably explain why she hasn't been to the doctor's office since March," Thorax stated while looking over Cinch's medical records. "Either that or she's got an immune system blessed by the Gods themselves." "Maybe she's actually a vampire," Twilight muttered, only to see all three boys look at her. "What? Her skin's paler than the moon, she keeps the blinds down in her office and rarely goes out in the sun. The only thing we're unsure of is if she drinks blood. And no Thorax, being able to suck the life out of the students does not count." "Damn it! I was hoping to make a joke out of that." "Joking aside, we don't know for sure if that's the case. Much like everything else, we need more evidence." Flash nodded. "Thorax, have the towers scan Cinch, her apartment, and Crystal Prep. Look for odd energy emissions, unusual power usage, anything that might clue us in on anything suspicious." "I can understand that for wanting to find if Cinch swaps out with her robot self at the school. But the other stuff..." His eyes widened. "You don't really think Cinch would have her HQ under CPA, do you?" "It would be the last place the cops would think to look," Miles admitted. "They tend to go for the bad guy's place of residence or any places they frequently go to. Nobody thinks any villain or criminal would work on some machine underneath a school filled with a bunch of kids or teens. Especially if it has a possibility to explode." "Even if it isn't the HQ it could possibly be where she stashes the armor, since I doubt she's going to be flying her armor out of her apartment on the East Side," Flash replied. Looking at Twilight he asked "Did you get a lead on the guy who helped make Scorpion's armor?" She nodded happily. "Yep. Karen?" A few pictures appeared on the screen, and Karen explained "We started out with roughly 100 scientists who have worked or talked about similar work to this device. We narrowed down the list by experience, quality of work, weeded out the obvious ones who have passed away, and were left with one man." A picture of a portly man with short brown hair and brown eyes wearing glasses appeared on the screen. "Meet Doctor Otto Octavius." Flash looked over the info on the screen. "Multiple PhDs in Engineering, Neuroscience, Chemistry, et cetera. Wrote multiple research papers on neuroprosthetics." His eyes narrowed at the next few lines. "Former employee at OsCorp, left the company to start his own called Octavius Industries. Not doing so well due to some very stiff competition from his former company." Looking over a few more of the files he said "He's definitely smart enough to build something like this. Any connections to Cinch?" "Just one." She motioned to Thorax to proceed. Which he did, pulling up some files as Twilight continued "According to her records Cinch was studying Energy and Engineering with a minor in Teaching at ESU, roughly the same time that Octavius was studying there too." "Okay. Bit of a loose lead," Flash replied. "Admittedly. At first. But then Karen dug deeper. And she found something in OsCorp's files. Apparently, Octavius was lab partners and eventually business partners with a man named Norman Osborn. These two would eventually found the company that we all know and... well, not quite love but..." "We get it. He helped found OsCorp," Thorax finished. "So, they're old business partners and helped found Oscorp before Octavius decided to go solo. What does that have to do with Cinch?" "Well it has to do with Octavius and Norman. Apparently they had disagreements for where to take the business; Octavius wanted to focus on Robotics and Machinery while Norman wanted to go with Genetic Engineering. Eventually Octavius took a settlement and left the company to make his own, with Osborn taking the company to new heights while Octavius is stuck trying to compete with him." Thorax whistled. "And judging by a lot of what I'm seeing, OsCorp ain't holding back in trying to run this guy underground. And here I thought the whole Konami vs Hideo Kojima debacle was nasty."*** "Yeah, no doubt about that. At least OsCorp doesn't make pachinko machines,***" Miles replied. The pieces were starting to fall together. "So, assuming that back in college Cinch and Octavius were friends-" Twilight burst out laughing, finding it hard to breath for a few minutes, before wiping a tear from her eye. "Sorry, that was just funny." Flash rolled his eyes. "Okay, let me rephrase that. Assuming she and Octavius were something resembling friends, she needs help with her tech and hears about Octavius getting blacklisted by OsCorp. Seeing as how she was paying Vulture and Tinkerer roughly a quarter to half a million dollars for their tech thefts, it's safe to assume she's got money to burn. So she hires him." "Which I'm still wondering where she's getting that money from," Thorax stated. "Miles and I have been checking her financial records. She's not a millionaire, she never had a relative die who was a millionaire, and her bank account is right where it should be for someone in her position. Nowhere near enough money in there to pay Vulture and Tinkerer. Where the hell is she getting those millions?" "And I seriously doubt she's paying them in Monopoly money," Miles added. "Dude, I was joking when I said that." "Guys, focus on how she's paying these guys later. Let's focus on Otto Octavius for now." Thorax nodded and said "Okay. Well according to this Octavius hasn't been seen at his workplace for the past two weeks. And if the Doctor Connors/Lizard situation taught us anything, that's usually a sign that something's up." "Or at least something to be suspicious about," Flash replied. Checking his phone, he said "Oh crap, I'm gonna be late." "Late for what," Twilight asked. "Well, Tony's in town and he needed to talk to me about something at Avengers Tower," he replied, pulling on his mask and walking into the elevator. "And the talk was scheduled for ten minutes from now." "You think you're gonna make it there in time," Miles asked. Before the elevator door closed he said "I'm gonna try." Once he was gone Thorax said "He'll make it. He'll probably five or ten minutes late, but he'll make it." "In the meantime, do you guys think Octavius might've left something at the workshop that can link us to Cinch or whatever she's working on," Miles asked. "Possibly," Twilight admitted. "But his workplace is locked via I.D. Card." "Any other security systems?" "Eh, alarms on the windows from what I can see," Thorax replied. "Why?" "You're not planning on investigating by yourself, are you," Twilight asked. "It's not like I'm gonna be fighting a supervillain. I'm just going to sneak into some laboratory and do some detective work. I'll be fine." Twilight sighed, knowing that there was probably no way she was gonna be able to talk him out of it. "Just ask Flash first, okay?" Stuffing the mask into his pocket, Flash in his civilian clothes held the phone up to his ear. "Honestly I don't think it's a bad idea. Just wait until your suit's finished first, alright?" "Yes sir." "And if anything goes south, let me know immediately. I'll try and get to you ASAP." "Can do," Miles replied. He hung up and walked through the door of Avengers Tower, seeing Happy waiting for him at the front desk. "You're late." "Sorry, working a case and helping my apprentice," he replied, following Happy to the elevator. "I've heard," Happy asked, keying in the security code for the upper levels. "Are his powers legit or tech based?" "Legit, man. We tested his DNA and sent the results to Ton-" Seeing the disapproving look Happy's face he quickly changed it to "Mister Stark. His powers are indeed genetic." As the elevator Dinged! Flash walked out and said "Thank you, Happy." "Don't thank me yet. I'm coming in too." As they walked in they saw Tony Stark standing at the bar pouring himself a drink while looking at a holographic screen. Said screen was showing Spider-Man's fights against the last few villains that Cinch made, as well as the Lizard. Seeing Flash walk in he said "You've been busy." Flash nodded. "Yeah. Bishop's not making it easy for me." "The little tidbits you sent me told me that much," he replied, taking a sip of his drink. Seeing Happy he said "Feel free to get a drink, Happy. You look like you need it." "Appreciate it, Mister Stark," Happy replied, proceeding to pour himself a glass of whiskey. "Is that the reason you're here," Flash asked Tony nodded. "Well, sort of. I do have some information on Cinch that I think you'll find interesting." Closing the screens he added "But I also wanted to see how you were doing. Plus, I heard you were taking on your own apprentice and was curious about his story." "Well I already told you and Happy that his powers are eerily similar to mine, minus the fact that he has Adaptive Camouflage and possibly some other powers I don't have." Flash frowned. "Which, kinda makes me wonder what the hell Oscorp was planning on doing with those Cross-Species Spiders." "Considering Oscorp's focus on military tech and Osborn's own skeletons in his closet, probably nothing good," Tony replied. "But hopefully nothing illegal or malicious." "Amen. Anyway, Miles is actually gonna be on his first mission in the field once his suit's finished. We've got a lead on someone who we think's been helping Cinch create those new supervillains. You ever heard of a scientist named Otto Octavius?" Happy, who had been taking a drink of his whiskey, immediately did a spit-take. Once he apologized he looked at Flash and asked "Otto Octavius? That asshole?" Looking between him and Tony (who's face pretty much said he agreed with Happy's statement) Flash asked "I take it you guys have some history with the guy?" "Not so much history. Honestly I've never even talked to the guy outside of asking him if he knew where the bathroom was. It's more like he's an arrogant jerkass and we really don't like him," Tony replied. "Arrogant jerkass is putting it nicely," Happy said cleaning up his spit-take. "Tony got invited to this science conference over in Switzerland. Scientists were unveiling their ideas for what they hoped would be the latest in medical technology. Everything from bionic arms to cancer-killing nanobots. Otto happened to be there too." "Was this before or after he got booted out of OsCorp?" "Shortly after," Tony replied. "Anyhow Octavius did a live demo of a prototype prosthesis he designed; a harness with a set of four very versatile metallic arms attached to a backpack, with a neural-link directly into his brain." "Which I'm guessing was probably a prototype of the one I took off the suit Gargan was wearing." "More than likely. Anyway, he arrogantly proclaimed that his harness would be the future, able to 'unlock the full potential of the human mind' and 'not let it be hindered by the limits of the body' and a whole bunch of crap like that." Tony snorted. "And people think I have a big ego." Flash wisely didn't comment. "Let me guess; something went horribly wrong?" "His fancy backpack started sparking and his arms started going crazy. Caused a lot of damage and scared a lot of people," Happy interjected. "Then it lit up like the Fourth of July and the guy ended up getting covered in fire suppressing foam. The guy acted like such a big shot, and ended up getting humiliated on the front pages of newspapers all over Europe. Didn't he get some humiliating nickname out of it?" Tony nodded. "Yeah. Doctor Octopus." He sipped his drink and continued "Nobody really took him seriously after that. Especially after Osborn started doing his best to blacklist him. Nowadays I heard he's barely staying afloat by getting grant money from the city." "He'd probably have better luck if he actually followed safety protocols." Seeing their surprised looks he explained "Thorax pulled up some of his records. Dude's had like ten fires in his lab in the past month alone. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence now, does it?" Tony was about to reply, only to be cut off by Flash's phone ringing. "It's Twilight. Excuse me for a moment." Stepping into the nearby hallway, he answered his phone. "What's up?" "Are you watching the news right now?" "No. Why?" "Put it on now. Trust me." Flash did so (quickly giving Tony and Happy a finger to tell them to be quiet,) and flipped on the TV. They were immediately treated to a live newscast of someone in a black Spider-Man costume with red webs ("That's Miles.") fighting against- "Is THAT a giant robot," Happy asked incredulously. It was. The robot's primary body was a large sphere big enough for a person to stand inside, with four large metal tentacles that each ended in four part pincers. On the front of it was a purple lens that followed Miles around, leading Flash to guess it was the robot's eyes. A panel opened up on top of it, revealing a large minigun which began to unleash a rapid stream of bullets at Miles, who quickly and nimbly dodged while making sure to keep its fire focused away from the people on the street. Finding his voice, Flash asked "Twilight. Why is Miles currently engaged in a death match with a giant robot?" There was a nervous chuckle on the other end, before Twilight replied "Well, it's kind of a funny story. You see..." Thirty Minutes Earlier... Karen had managed to get the suit done a little early, and Miles was all too eager to put it on. The suit in its base form was lose and would appear to be a bit big for him. But once he got it on he tapped the emblem on his chest, and sure enough the suit shrunk and clung to his form like a second skin, but was loose enough that he could still move freely. The Web Shooters were in their usual place on his wrists, with several spare cartridges of Web Fluid in the suit's belt. Once he got the mask on the HUD lit up, and he quickly ran a diagnostics check. "Okay, everything in my suit is good to go." Looking at Thorax and Twilight he said "You guys got the address for Octavius's workplace, right?" "Already got it sent to your HUD. I'm working on getting security camera footage, but from what I'm seeing from the outside there's nobody there," Thorax replied. "Be careful out there, Miles," Twilight stressed. Rolling his eyes behind his mask, Miles' responded with "Relax, Twilight. I'm just sneaking into some guys lab to look for intel. It's not like I'm storming the Big Bad's heavily fortified castle full of soldiers by myself to save the fair princess." "Only to find out that the princess is in another castle,****" Thorax added, with a smile. Twilight snorted and muttered "And the girls at school think I'm a nerd. Still, just try not to get into too much trouble." "I'll be fine, Twi." Stepping into the elevator, he said "Well, here we go." A few minutes later he was out on the surface and swinging towards the building Octavius was set up at, an old warehouse on the docks of the Financial District. Landing on a lamppost outside of it, he looked around and noticed a few cameras on the wall, several of which were watching the doors and windows. Fortunately, he wasn't using either of those. "Thorax, any cameras on the roof?" "Nope," was his immediate reply over the earpiece. "Roof is clear. And according to the building schematic, there's an air vent that will lead you right into the building." "I'm starting to notice that about a lot of these buildings." A quick Web-Zip and he was on the roof, finding the vent and lifting up the cover so he could slip inside. Carefully crawling down to the bottom and coming out of the ceiling. He carefully opened the grate, carefully lowering it down with a Web-Line to the ground. After that he lowered himself down on a Web-Line into the building, having to use the Night Vision function on his lenses to see in the dark room. Octavius's workshop wasn't completely cluttered, but it wasn't entirely neat. Power cables were strewn haphazardly around the floor space, several machines had panels torn off and wires exposed, against the far wall there were a few banks of servers, with a tangle of wires connecting them to a few computers on the table. There were scorch marks on several parts of the walls, floor, and ceiling, obvious evidence of the ten fires that had occurred from Octavius's rather lax security protocols. "Jeez, this place looks like a fire hazard waiting to happen," he muttered, keeping his voice down in case Octavius had audio sensors somewhere. "Already happened ten times," Twilight replied. "Looks like the power's still on," Thorax stated. "I'd start with the computer in his office. Plug into it and I'll work my magic." Finding the office he tried the door, only to find it wouldn't open. Looking near the handle he noticed an electronic lock. "Wow. He definitely doesn't want people in his office." "No kidding," Thorax replied. "Problem is I can't hack it from here. It's not hooked up to the internet or anything." "Lucky for us, I brought my phone," Miles said, fishing it out of his suit's belt. Activating the Hacker App, he lined the camera up with the E-Lock. "Let's see what we got." "You never did tell us how that App of yours worked," Twilight said, now interested. "Well it's pretty simple," Miles replied, following the onscreen prompts. "The app scans devices like cameras, drones, even other people's phones. Once it does that it looks for a wireless signal like Wi-Fi or Blu-Tooth, and it tricks the security into thinking that my app is the key to unlock it. Once that's taken care of, I can basically make the device do whatever I want. Set off car alarms, make camera drones not see me, disable security cameras, all sorts of things." "Like shooting me with a drone's Spark Blaster," Thorax grumbled. "I'm not apologizing." Activating the final prompt, the lock flashed a green light and the door unlocked. "And we're in." In contrast to the workshop area the office actually looked somewhat presentable. Loose paper was stacked nice and orderly, the desk was free of clutter and mess, even the floor looked like it had just been vacuumed. Plugging the AUX cord from his web shooter into the computer, the computer lit up and read ACCESS DENIED. In his earpiece he heard Thorax reply "Wanna bet?" And sure enough, five seconds later it changed to ACCESS GRANTED. "Wow," Miles remarked. "You're good." "Thanks." He then heard a sigh and Thorax continued "But it's a dead end. Looks like Otto figured if this deal with Cinch went south the cops would probably go for his computer. The whole thing's clean save for some blueprints." "Well, those might come in handy so you might wanna keep those." Once he unplugged from the computer, he looked around the room. He couldn't shake the feeling that something felt... off. He then saw a white board on wheels against the one wall, and noticed that a paper hanging from the bottom was fluttering in the wind. The problem was, there weren't any windows open. Carefully moving the whiteboard out of the way, he saw an open door that led into another room. "I don't think this was on the building schematic." "Well if he's hiding it behind a whiteboard then obviously there must be something in there he doesn't want people to see," Twilight stated. "Which means I'm checking it out," he replied as he walked into the room. The room was mostly bare, save for a cork-board on the back wall. The board was covered almost completely with pictures and news articles featuring Norman Osborn, along with hastily scrawled words in marker such as "LIAR!" and "THIEF!" and "HE WILL PAY!" "Octavius definitely has a raging hate-boner for Osborn," Miles muttered. "Clearly," Thorax replied. "I'm starting to think whatever Bishop was paying him is going into some revenge scheme against Osborn." "Yeah, no kidding." Looking over the board Miles said "I'm seeing a hand-drawn schematic of OsCorp HQ, with circles on access points, exterior defenses, all sorts of other stuff. You guys are recording this, right?" "Ever since you got into the building," Twilight replied. "Hey, that piece of paper in the bottom left corner looks fresh." Pulling it off the cork-board, Miles noted "It's a flyer for the Oscorp Charity Gala. How much you wanna bet that this is where he's gonna go after Osborn?" A voice that wasn't Thorax or Twilight replied "Brilliant deduction, Holmes." Miles whirled around, seeing no one behind him. But then he noticed the computer screen in the office had lit up, as well as a little red light on the little webcam mounted on top of it. "Oh, boy." Changing to a whisper as he walked towards it he said "Guys. I think Otto's got digital eyes on me." There was the sound of rapid keystrokes and Thorax whispered back "Keep him talking and I might be able to trace this guy." Miles didn't reply, instead looking right at the webcam and asked "Doctor Otto Octavius, I presume?" "You presume correct... I'm sorry, I don't think we've met. And I know for a fact you aren't Spider-Man." "It's Kid Arachnid," he replied, having come up with the name a few days ago. "And I see you've been busy. Trying to build your business, vowing revenge against Oscorp..." Glaring at the camera he added "Working with a certain Abacus Cinch." "I'm not sure who you're talking about." "Maybe I should try her other name. Bishop?" There was a pause before Octavius replied "Boy, if I were you I'd stop while you were ahead. Crossing that woman could very well be the last thing you ever do." "A little more time, Kid Arachnid," Thorax stated. "Keep him talking." "Well, I'm not you," Miles replied. "And Spider-Man and I aren't gonna stop looking. Not until you and Bishop are behind bars." Octavius scoffed on the other end. "You have no idea who you're dealing with. You're- Huh?" He laughed and said "Very clever. Keeping me talking while you try to trace this call. It almost worked. Almost." With that the call went dead, and Kid Arachnid heard a cacophony of curses from Thorax. "Guessing you didn't finish the trace?" Thorax sighed. "No, I didn't. This bozo's a slippery bastard, I'll give him that." "Good news is we at least know that Octavius is planning on making a move on Osborn during the Oscorp Charity Gala," Miles stated. "So there's-" At that moment, his Spider-Sense went off like crazy. He immediately Web-Zipped out of the way... ...just as something large and metal smashed through the concrete floor where he had been standing earlier. Turning around to face it, Kid Arachnid saw a metal tentacle ending in four pronged claws rising out of the concrete. It then promptly anchored itself to the floor, before more of the concrete was ripped up as the rest of the robot appeared, fixing it's singular purple optic lens on him. His reaction to this was a simple, deadpanned "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me." Present Time... "...and that's what happened," Twilight finished. "Tell Miles I'm on my way." Flash sighed as he hung up, before removing his civilian clothes to reveal his suit, pulling the mask out of his coat pocket and slipping it on. Aloud he asked "Is it wrong that part of me kinda figured something like this was gonna happen?" "Hey, we're superheroes kid," Tony replied. "We're pretty much magnets for stuff like this." "True," Flash replied as he walked out onto the balcony, balancing on the railing. "I'll be back for the intel, and my clothes, once I'm done helping Miles with that bot. See ya!" As he swung away, Tony sighed. Happy noticed this and asked "Missing the glory days?" "I have no idea what you're talking about." Happy rolled his eyes, clearly not believing him. Normally Miles Morales, or Kid Arachnid in this case, really liked robots. You know, when they weren't murder machines like the real-life Ultron, the fictional Terminator... ...or the third cousin twice removed of the squid-bots from the Matrix, like this thing. Sadly, this was the case with the Octo-Bot ("You really need to stop coming up with names for these things, Thorax.") that was currently spewing bullets at him from its minigun like there was no tomorrow. "Guys, please tell me one of those blueprints we downloaded was of this thing." "We're looking as fast as we can, Miles," Twilight replied. "In the meantime, see if you can disable that gun before it shoots someone." "Easier said than done, Twi." He wasn't kidding. The Octo-Bot's reaction time was impressive, having surprisingly quick reflexes belying its large size and rather... cumbersome body type. Whenever he tried to get close to punch it, one of its forward arms would whip around and slap him away. One almost grabbed him in its claws, but he managed to dodge in time. And then it pulled out the minigun and started trying to shoot him, leading to this current situation. "Okay Kid, think," he muttered to himself. "It's gotta have a weak-spot." At that moment Karen asked "Might I recommend you try firing an Electric Web into its ENORMOUS FRICKING EYE?!" Kid Arachnid nearly face-palmed and said "Thank you, Karen." He quickly took her advice and fired an Electric Web at the purple eye. It struck home and as the electricity surged through its body, Kid Arachnid took advantage of it's new stunned state to Web-Zip onto the robot's top and grab a hold of the minigun. With a minor application of his super strength he tore the minigun free (thankful that the power surge had made it stop firing) and tossed it away. Looking down Kid Arachnid noticed the inner workings of the machine, as well as a big enough space that he could probably slip into. Sadly that moment cost him as the Octo-Bot managed to recover from the fading power surge and grabbed him in its claws. It lifted him up in the air by his chest, and the claw began compressing. Kid struggled, trying desperately to find some sort of weak-point in the arm or claw that would get it to let him go. Preferably before said claw broke his ribs. Fortunately for him salvation came in the form of two shots of Electric Webs hitting the arm and sending another power surge through it, which in turn made the claw release him. Landing on the ground he looked up, seeing Spider-Man swinging down and landing next to him. "So, interesting first day on the job?" He rolled his eyes behind his mask. "You could say that. Anyway, I have an idea on how to- DUCK!" Fortunately, both of their Spider-Senses went off and warned them of the oncoming danger. Unfortunately, Spider-Man was just the slightest bit slower in getting down. So he was grabbed by the tentacle, and then slammed into the ground. Hard. Seeing this happen Kid Arachnid tried to help, but was promptly slapped aside by the robot's other tentacle and knocked into a building. As he got back to his feet he saw the robot still holding Spider-Man down, its back turned to him. Deciding to play it safe he activated his Adaptive Camouflage and web-zipped onto the top of the robot, intent on enacting his plan to bring the robot down. But he stopped when he heard a SHINK! sound, and saw a three foot long metal spike slide out of the claw on its free tentacle, no doubt intent on impaling the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. "Oh, NO YOU DON'T!" Without even thinking, Kid Arachnid grabbed onto the tentacle while keeping his feet stuck to the robot's body, the spike stopping in midair less than a foot away from Spider-Man's forehead. He struggled against the robot's strength, just barely managing to keep the arm from driving the spike down and turning Spider-Man's head into a kebab. As his emotions started to rise, he didn't notice his camouflage disappearing as he growled "I am not... going to let some stupid robot... KILL MY FRIEND!!!!" And to the surprise of everyone watching, Kid Arachnid's body suddenly began to light up with a red glow, with multiple red sparks arcing off of his body like red lightning. The same red lightning surge through the robot, only this seemed to make it surge and act wildly far worse than the Electric Web shots ever had. From his position, Spider-Man asked "Guys, did Miles drink too much Nitro-Cola again?" "His cells are discharging some sort of bio-electricity," Twilight exclaimed. "It's not hurting him, but it's definitely hurting the robot." He was about to reply when Kid Arachnid suddenly tore the robot's tentacle off from where he grabbed it (effectively snapping it in half) before swinging around to the front of the robot and stabbing it right in its robotic eye in a beautiful shower of sparks and grinding machinery. "Wow. I never felt a stranger mixture of pride, and mortal terror." "Amen dude," Thorax replied. "Is it weird that I feel bad for the robot?" Landing next to him, no longer with his red glow, Kid Arachnid helped him up and asked "You alright?" He nodded. "Yeah. What about you?" "A little tired," he replied. "Like I just came off of a sugar rush. But on the plus side, the robot's down an arm and is now blind." Seeing the Octo-Bot thrash around blindly, Spider-Man stated "Then let's finish the job." "Yeah. I got a plan," Kid Arachnid said, switching his one Web Shooter to Impact Webs. "Go for the feet and give me a clear shot at its top." Noticing the hole in the top, he nodded. "Make it count." They both zipped to the bot, Spider-Man gluing one of the Octo-Bot's arms to the street while Kid Arachnid nailed another. The Octo-Bot attempted to tear the webbing off, but Spider-Man webbed it and the half an arm with three well placed Impact Webs. As it struggled to free itself, Kid Arachnid zipped to the top and slipped in through the hole- -right into the robot's inner workings. "Karen, how do I use the EMP?" "Just tap your emblem," she replied "and watch the magic happen." He did so, and his suit briefly glowed blue before unleashing a wave of blue electromagnetic energy. As it traveled throughout the robot, everything shut down like somebody had hit the robot's off switch. On the outside Spider-Man saw a blue glow from within the robot, before it simply fell over and didn't get back up. Web-zipping onto it, he looked down into the hole and saw Kid Arachnid tearing out a lot of the wires and components, even stomping on some of them. "A bit overkill, don't you think," he asked. "Just wanna make sure," Kid replied, tearing out another bundle of wires.. "Just in case this thing has a backup system or something that's EMP proof." "Well, I think you're good. So you can come out now." He promptly did so, crawling out of the hole and eventually standing on top of the robot. "Whew. Glad that's over." And then he noticed the people on the street, all of whom were looking at the two of them and pulling out their phones and taking pictures or video. "Bet you most of them are focused on you," Spider-Man joked. "Yeah. But they'll probably just call me Black Spider-Man or Mini-Spider," he grumbled. To his surprise, Spider-Man pulled out two Post-It notes and a marker. "Let's fix that." "There's two of them?" The question came from Officer Jefferson Davis, who was overseeing Damage Control as they started loading up the giant robot that had been reportedly taken down by, if eyewitness accounts were to be believed, Spider-Man and someone wearing a black and red Spider-Man costume. "Hey Officer," one of the Damage Control workers said. "I think you might want these." He then handed him two Post-It notes. The first one read: Courtesy, your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. The second one, written in a red marker, read: And his partner, the equally Friendly Neighborhood Kid Arachnid. Jefferson couldn't help but laugh at that. "Something funny, Jeff?" Turning around he saw Shining Armor, surveying some of the damage courtesy of the robot. "Just this," Jefferson replied, handing him the notes, smirking as he saw the Lieutenant's eyes widen. "Yeah, that was what I was thinking." Shining sighed, a small smile on his face. "Honestly I didn't think this month could have anymore surprises for me. First I find out I'm going to be a father, now I find out there's another Spider-Man. Next thing you know I suppose my sister's principal is going to be some sort of supervillain." He didn't know it yet, but he was going to regret saying that by the end of May.