As Spider-Man swung through the city, he heard the blare of alarms and the urgent chatter of police radios. Something was wrong. Apparently there had been a breakout at the Supermax Prison.
But before he had a chance to react, his Spider-Sense went off. A sudden gust of wind swept past him, followed by a loud screech. The Vulture swooped down, talons bared, aiming straight for him.
“Whoa, easy there, Birdbrain!” Spider-Man quipped, narrowly dodging the Vulture’s razor-sharp claws. “You know, you really need to work on your aim!”
But the Vulture was not going to give up so easily, diving at Spider-Man with a ferocity that took him by surprise. Spider-Man twisted and turned, using his agility to stay one step ahead, but the Vulture was determined to bring him down.
As Spider-Man evaded the Vulture’s attacks, he heard the heavy thud of Rhino’s footsteps approaching from behind. With a quick glance over his shoulder, Spider-Man saw the massive brute charging straight at him, horns lowered like a raging bull.
“Oh great, just what I needed. A Rhino on the loose!” Spider-Man quipped, leaping out of the way just in time to avoid being trampled. “Come on, big guy, can’t we talk this out over a nice cup of tea?”
But Rhino was in no mood for conversation. The Rhino charged at him again. With a quick web-swing, Spider-Man shot towards the nearest building, narrowly avoiding Rhino’s charge.
As if those two weren’t enough, a third fighter entered the fray. A sudden haze enveloped the rooftop. From within the haze, the fishbowl headed Mysterio appeared.
“Aw, what's the matter fishbowl head? Having FOMO?”
But Mysterio was having none of the jokes today. Mysterio split into a bunch of Mysterio clones, and all went after Spider-Man. His Spider-Sense went into Overdrive having to dodge attacks from Mysterio, Vulture, and Rhino. Danny tapped on his earpiece. “Spider-Man to Spider-Woman. I could use some help here!”
Spider-Woman was already on her way to the prison when she got Spider-Man's message. She tapped on her earpiece to respond. “On my—”. She was cut off by a ringing in her head. Her Spidey-Sense was going crazy, but she didn’t need it to know what was coming. She heard the sound of a screeching cackle behind her. She dove down to the ground narrowly avoiding the exploding pumpkin bomb, but the explosion pushed her even further down. She landed in a pile of sand. She stood up and looked down into the sand to see a face forming.
“Sorry, kid. They're forcing me.” Flint said with a saddened expression before tightening the sand around her ankles.
“It's okay. I'm going to save you.” She knew if it wasn't for Norman he wouldn't even be in this mess. She was going to help him and bring that man down if it was the last thing she did.
“How? You can't even save yourself.” A new voice said, approaching her. He was a large, muscular man, wearing a lion's pelt as a trophy.
“Let me guess. Hercules? No. The Lion King.” Spider-Woman quipped completely unamused with the man in front of her.
“Kraven. The Hunter.” Kraven said with a snarl. “I'd kill Hercules.”
“Big talk, Mr. Hunter. I'm assuming you're the one behind the breakout and controlling Flint?”
“Yes and no. If it were up to me, I'd be hunting you alone. But my benefactor insisted I get some help.”
“I bet I know who your benefactor is and he was right, but it still won't be enough. You messed with the wrong Spiders.” Spider-Woman aimed her arms towards the incoming Hobgoblin. She shot her webs to latch under his glider pulling herself out of Flint's sand. She pressed her earpiece again. “I've got some problems here myself, I'll try to bring them your way.”
Just as she said that Kraven threw a spear at Spider-Woman. If it wasn't for her supernatural senses and reflexes he would've hit her directly, but she moved her body out of the way allowing it to hit the Hobgoblin's glider sending them both hurtling through the city towards the prison.
“Great…” Danny mumbled. As he dodged attacks from three villains at once. His Spider-Sense was not letting up, and this was getting exhausting. As did his best to fight them off, he couldn’t help but notice the underlying tension between them. Vulture, Rhino, and Mysterio seemed to be at odds with each other, each vying for dominance and control over the situation. They may have had a common goal, but they did not work well together at all.
Noticing this, Spider-Man decided to use this to his advantage. As Rhino charged at him once again, Spider-Man swiftly dodged his attack and redirected him towards Mysterio. With a well-timed web shot, Spider-Man ensnared Rhino’s legs, causing him to stumble and crash into Mysterio, sending both villains sprawling to the ground.
“Watch where you’re going, you brute!” Mysterio exclaimed.
“Looks like you two could use a timeout together.” Spider-Man quipped.
Meanwhile, Vulture continued to swoop down from above, talons ready to strike. But Spider-Man anticipated his movements, using his agility and quick reflexes to stay one step ahead. With a series of acrobatic maneuvers, Spider-Man managed to lead Vulture straight into the path of Rhino and Mysterio, causing a chaotic collision.
Spider-Man chuckled to himself as we watched the villains fight and argue amongst themselves. He pressed on his earpiece. “These guys don’t get along. Let’s show them that teamwork makes the dream work, eh?” Then, Spider-Man noticed the Hobgoblin crash land right nearby. “You! You’re the one that killed Captain Stacy, and Liz Allan. Do you have any idea what kind of Hell you put people through with your Shenanigans?” Spider-Man didn’t wait for an answer, and proceeded to web him up.
The Hobgoblin used his brute strength to break free from the webs. “I didn't kill them. Osborn and Spider-Woman did, but I'll kill you and the other arachnid.” He threw a trio of pumpkin bombs at Spider-Man.
Before they could even come close another set of webs caught them in the air. Spider-Woman came out of hiding after recovering from the crash to catch the Hobgoblin off guard. A part of her wanted to throw these bombs right back at the creep to pay him back for what he's done, but the other part of her knew better and was a hero. “Finally, someone got it right. I just hate that it's you.” She launched the bombs into the air causing an explosion of fireworks.
This distracted her from an incoming collision from the Sandman with Kraven riding his sandy back. Her spider-sense wasn't registering him as a threat. It was because of his intentions and her perceiving him as an innocent victim in all of this. This was going to be a problem.
Spider-Woman crash landed near the arguing trio, but specifically Rhino.
“If it isn't the itsy bitsy Spider-Woman. The one who wouldn't let little Aleksei get away. But now BIG ALEKSEI WILL MAKE THE LITTLE SPIDER PAY!” Rhino tried to stomp on Spider-Woman, but she rolled her eyes and her mask reflected it before she shot a pair of webs into his eyes and shot another web at the Vulture's wings who proceeded to fly to get her off of him. They were so predictable.
The Vulture dragged Spider-Woman through Rhino's legs and the ground. Okay, maybe not that predictable. She expected him to fly up, not burn her on the cement. She shot another web at Rhino's back and attached the two webs together. The Vulture found himself unable to fly any further as he was tied to the immovable idiot. It wasn't going to last long so Spider-Woman took the opportunity to run up her web and knock the Vulture out of the sky unconscious.
“Now for you.” She said to the Rhino who just freed his eyes from her webs. They both turned to face each other. The tension in the air was pretty thick. The Rhino charged forward ready to crush the bug for good.
Spider-Woman stood there calmly, waiting for him. He was sorta like a bull, right? A huge bipedal idiotic bull. This should be easy. She waited for the right moment to leap into the air and land right back onto his back. She turned around and gripped his horn and aimed him towards Mysterio.
“No, you buffoon! The other way!” But the Rhino's horn crashed into Mysterio's fishbowl helmet narrowly avoiding impaling his face, but releasing Mysterio's gas out of his suit and into the area.
“Okay, I might've messed up here Spider-Man!” She really hated this magician and his gas. At least the Rhino was doused too. Before she started hallucinating she saw him cradled in the fetal position.
Spider-Woman's nightmare had her face to face with Tony Stark and the Avengers. “You'll never be good enough to join us. We can't have a teenage killer on our team. But your clone? Oh yeah. She's the one. So much better than you in every way. No wonder Liz loves her.”
Spider-Man was busy dealing with Hobgoblin, Kraven, and Sandman. Danny thought he should free Sandman first. If only there were a way to get that collar off of him.
As he ducked and weaved to avoid another explosive pumpkin bomb, Spider-Man scanned the area for any sign of weakness in the collar that bound Sandman. Spotting a small panel on the side of the collar, Spider-Man’s eyes narrowed with determination.
“Alright, time to get creative,” Spider-Man muttered to himself, his mind racing with ideas.
With a swift movement, he fired a thin strand of webbing at the panel, aiming to cover it and prevent any further activation of the collar’s mechanism.
As the webbing coated the panel, Spider-Man watched closely for any signs of change. To his relief, the collar seemed to deactivate, its lights flickering before finally going dark. Sandman let out a sigh of relief as the collar loosened its grip, and fell off.
“Thanks kid, I owe you one!”
“Anytime, Sandman. Let’s finish this,” Spider-Man replied.
Without wasting a moment, Spider-Man sprang into action, swinging towards Hobgoblin with agility and determination. Dodging the incoming barrage of pumpkin bombs.
“Hey, pumpkin head! You’ve been causing quite the fireworks display. Mind if I join in?”
Hobgoblin cackled, tossing another explosive pumpkin bomb. “You think you can stop me, Spider-Fool? I’ve got enough tricks up my sleeve to keep you busy all night!”
Spider-Man somersaulted out of the way, landing a solid kick to Hobgoblin’s side. “I’ve dealt with scarier clowns at birthday parties! Time to wrap this up!” Spider-Man, with a flick of his wrist, managed to disarm Hobgoblin by webbing up his pumpkin bombs before they could explode. With a swift series of punches and kicks, he incapacitated the madman, leaving him webbed up and dangling from the rooftop.
Meanwhile, Sandman confronted Kraven, his sandy form towering over the Hunter. “You can’t control me anymore Kraven!”
Kraven smirked, twirling his spear. “I fear nothing, Sandman. Least of all a pile of sand. Let’s see if you can back up those words with action!”
As Kraven lunged in for another strike, Sandman shifted his sandy form to engulf Kraven’s legs, trapping him in a makeshift sand prison.
Caught off guard, Kraven struggled to break free, but Sandman’s sandy grip held strong, Sandman compressed the sand around Kraven, immobilizing him.
But in between all of the chaos Mysterio had one more trick up his sleeve. He doused Spider-Woman with his hallucinogenic gas. He really hated that… So Danny swung by his sister’s side. “Ok, you saved me from this, so now it’s my turn. WAKE UP! Whatever you’re seeing, it’s not real. They can’t hurt you.”
Spider-Woman knew what she was seeing wasn't real. She closed her eyes to try and quiet out all the voices shouting her insecurities. She wasn't a killer, not anymore. She just proved that. She heard Danny's voice throughout all the noise and opened her eyes to see him. “Thanks, Spider-Man.”
Mysterio was trying to get away while everyone was distracted. “Not so fast.” Spider-Woman said, shooting a web at his back and pulling him back towards them. She webbed him to the floor completely once he fell near them. She wasn't going to give him a chance to try anything else with them or the police once they arrived.
She then walked over to the still hallucinating Rhino and knocked him unconscious with a punch to the face to relieve him of his nightmare. “They already have to lug him. Didn't want them having to deal with webs, too.”
She turned to Sandman, “Thanks, Sandy. I'm sorry you're dealing with all of this. You should go, you don't deserve to be locked up.”
“No problem, kid. But just call me Flint. And I don't know. As much as I wanna see my little girl… I'm no good to her on the run. I'll stay here and make sure they don't give the cops trouble. Maybe I'll get off for good behavior and helping the Spider-Kids.”
“Hey, we're not kids.” Spider-Woman replied with a smile.
“Hey, I'm a dad. Everyone's a kid to me.” Flint said with a smile of his own.
“You're a good man, Flint. Your daughter's really lucky to have you. Good luck with everything.” Spider-Woman turned to Danny just in case he had anything to say before they left.
Danny smiled beneath the mask. “Yeah, what she said. You’re a stand-up guy, Flint. Take care of yourself, alright? And if you ever need a hand, you know where to find us.” He gave a thumbs up.
Spider-Woman heard the sirens in the background. Looks like the police were finally about to arrive. “Sounds like that's our cue. See you around, Flint.” She thwipped over to a nearby lamppost and grabbed Liz's old camera. She had started using this since New Year's to pick up where Liz left off. She mostly sent photos to the Bugle, but occasionally she sent some to MJ through an encrypted server as Spider-Woman. This was one of those nights. She knew Jameson would've blamed this whole thing on them, but with these photos even Flint would look like a hero. He and his daughter needed that. She downloaded the pictures to her phone and sent them as she swung through the city.