The Amazing Spider-Mare: A Long Way From Home

by SuperPinkBrony12

The Fire Below

Crawling their way through the air duct, our heroes eventually reached their destination when the duct let out on the other side. What greeted them was a sight that could best be described as a maze: A mess of pipes, wires, valves and gauges as far as the eye could see. Some of the pipes were even leaking ever so slightly, causing steam to leak out of them from time to time.

"Well, this is it! Ground zero!" Spider Mare firmly declared as she and Black Cat took in their surroundings. "Whoever is behind all of this has to be somewhere. And I'll bet the rest of the generators are here too."

Black Cat looked all around. "So, what's the plan now?" He asked his wife.

As if in response to the question asked, a lone symbiote slithered out from the darkness up ahead. It soon disappeared, but the slime trail it left behind was still there and was still visible.

"Looks like we found our next clue," Spider Mare was quick to reply as she rushed in the direction she'd just seen the symbiote take. "Destroying the generators should flush out our impostor. At the very least, it'll put an end to any plans that involve the symbiotes."

So Black Cat tailed Spider Mare as the two superheroes traced the slime trail all the way back to its source. Imagine their surprise when they found not one, not two, but at least five massive symbiote generators all bunched together! It was almost like a little nesting ground!

The wall crawler shot off a stream of webbing, but her fiery fluid never made contact with the cocoons. It instead bounced off and hit the wall! She proceeded to rush forward, only to be pushed back before she got into physical contact range. "Some kind of barrier!" She groaned as she rose to her hooves. "Almost like a protective bubble."

"Let me try! My sonic vibrator shouldn't need to depend on contact!" Black Cat offered. And after seeing his wife cover her ears, he cranked a knob and his baton began to shake!

However, even the high-pitched vibrations didn't do anything. None of the cocoons reacted even the slightest to the loud noises.

When at last the vibrations died down, Black Cat let out a sigh as he apologized to his wife. "Sorry, hon. Looks like someone wanted to make sure this little 'nest' couldn't be disturbed no matter what."

"No! This can't be it!" Spider Mare bitterly complained as she pounded a hoof on the ground. "There's gotta be a way to win! Think! What haven't we tried yet?" Then, she shook and sneezed again.

The sneeze triggered a realization deep within Black Cat as he stood up and all but shouted! "That's it! You're a genius, darling!"

"What do you mean?" Spider Mare asked as she paused to wipe her nose.

Black Cat was quick to explain. "It's too cold, even all the way down here. We know the symbiotes have been blocking off heating to the rest of the building, and there must be a source for that blockage. If we find it and clear it up, the heat will be restored and this place will become like an oven. It'll be far too hot for the symbiotes to survive. They'll all be destroyed and we won't have to lift a hoof," He then smiled and dreamily sighed. "What would we do without your observations, dear?"

The web slinger slowly blinked back as it seemed to take a minute for her to realize what her partner and lover was saying. "What do you mea... oh, oh yeah!" She gave off a slightly nervous laugh. "Yeah, that was a good move on my part. I amaze myself sometimes."

Black Cat nodded. "Best if we split up and search this entire area. I'll keep in touch. And if I spot your double, I'll let you know."

Spider Mare nodded back. "Alright, good. Let's move out!" In the back of her mind she couldn't help but think. "I sure hope I get some recognition out of this, or at least a 'Thank you'," She then yawned. "Either way, I'll definitely need to catch up on my beauty sleep. Didn't know I'd be getting a month's worth of crime fighting squeezed into one day."

---

The two web slinging superheroes promptly split up to cover every inch of the surprisingly cool basement furnace. Finding their way about was anything but easy with the many similarly looking (and colored) pipes, valves and gauges that seemed to line every corner. At times it was almost impossible to tell what was what and what had been where.

As Spider Mare rounded one such bend, she thought for a brief moment she saw something that looked almost like her reflection. But when she stopped for a second look, the image had vanished as if it had never existed in the first place. Could that have been the impostor? Was he or she watching her? Judging her? And did that mean they knew about Black Cat?

Well, those were details for another time and place since the wall crawler needed to stay focused on just finding her way around. She didn't want to get lost, fearful that if she did she'd never find her way again.

Eventually, the masked mare came to what looked like a dead end. There were no corners leading to either the right or the left. And straight ahead was an unmistakable wall, a wall that was probably not meant to be broken through.

Yet then, as Spider Mare drew close she saw something that was completely unmistakable given the circumstances. Several symbiotes seemed to be coalescing around a particular point, almost as if they were guarding it or protecting it. "Hey, you symbiote slime buckets!" She shouted to immediately catch and draw their attention! "Whatever it is you're doing, it ends here and now! I may not know everything about pipes and interior infrastructure, but I do know it's not a good thing if you're blocking something off."

The symbiotes just hissed in reply.

"Seriously, you guys need to consider speech therapy," Spider Mare all but rolled her eyes. "I can't understand a word you're saying. Whatever it is, though, I'll bet my webs it wasn't anything good." A few quick shots from her wrists used up the last of that single cartridge of magnesium ion she'd found in the printing press room. But it was all that was needed to melt the symbiotes, leaving only puddles of pink slime in their wake.

"Now, what do we have here?" The wall crawler thought to herself as she strolled closer to see what the symbiotes had been trying so hard to protect. It looked like it was a switch, and judging by the valves and the gauges surrounding it, it had something to do with the overall temperature throughout the entirety of the Daily Bugle.

Hoping for the best, the masked mare flipped the switch all the way into the upward position (whereas before it had been in the downward position).

Soon, there came a roar and it was possible to see on the gauge that the temperature was finally starting to rise. With a little luck, it would soon rise to a point where the symbiotes would not be able to survive.

---

But a more pressing problem presented itself at that precise point as Spider Mare's headset crackled. "Hey, Pinkie! You'd better get back here right away! I've spotted your double! Looks like he or she's trying to make a run for it!"

"Just keep 'em busy, I won't be long!" Spider Mare vowed as she started swinging away from the dead end.

Eventually, Spider Mare met back up with Black Cat close to where they had entered the furnace area. And sure enough, another Spider Mare that looked exactly like the web slinger was there.

The two Spider Mares locked eyes with each other, sizing each other up. "Hey!" They shouted at the same time, surprised that their voices sounded exactly the same! "Impostor!"

"That's a nice suit you got there, copycat!" The first Spider Mare taunted.

The other Spider Mare snickered. "I could say the same to you," And she turned to Black Cat. "Thanks for tipping me off about her. Now we can finally put an end to this little scheme."

"Come on, I'm the real one!" The first Spider Mare insisted!

"Don't listen to her, she's just trying to fool you!" The second Spider Mare fiercely replied! "Come on, you seriously don't recognize me? Me?!"

The first Spider Mare only shouted back. "Cheese, please! It's me, your wife!"

Black Cat then declared. "I've heard enough." Without saying anything further, he leapt into the air and tackled the Spider Mare who had only referred to him as Black Cat, not his civilian identity. "Only the real Spider-Mare knows who I really am!"

"So, whaddya have to say for yourself now, impostor?" Spider Mare said with a grin.

The impostor Spider Mare replied by kicking Black Cat, knocking him back into the real Spider Mare. Then the impostor got up and took off!

Spider Mare could only shake her head. "Why do they always run away? It never saves them," She then rounded a bend in time to see the cornered impostor create some kind of portal. The impostor walked right through it. "Oh no you don't! You're not escaping me again!" Spider Mare vowed and swung into the portal!

Black Cat hesitantly followed.

Author's Note:

This entire chapter is basically an abridged take on a level from the 2000 Spider-Man video game, a level that takes place within the Daily Bugle's furnace and ends with Spider-Man confronting his impostor.

For those of you who are long time fans and are familiar with that game, rest assured that I have plans in place for the impostor's true identity.

Comments

[Comickook]

Again, great action, dialogue, characterizations and future chapter set-up. The effort that went into trying to take out that last symbiote generator was well done and definitely loved the "Spot the Impostor" bit when Spider-Mare had her second encounter with said impostor, this time with Black Cat's help. The impostor got away again, but I doubt that's going to last long.

Onward to the other chapters up for now.