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seriousficOriginally, the dialogue in this chapter was all banter. I had to cut just about all of it so that Spider-Man and Doc Ock's conversation progressed the plot. It's not you, banter, it's me. I have to put plot first. I promise I'll write you into a crackfic soon. Friends?
Flash Thompson had made Peter’s life in high school a living hell. He’d bullied him, belittled him, and just generally tormented him for four years. Then one day a spider had bitten the webbing of his hand and everything had changed.
It’d been over two years since Peter had turned the tables on Flash, and since then he’d never given the jock any thought. Until he saw the “birthday present” that had once enthralled Mary-Jane driving down the street, his only option for chasing down Doc Ock.
Hopefully, Spider-Man would get a warmer welcome than puny Parker.
Spider-Man swooped down and landed in the passenger seat, making Flash do a double—make that triple—take.
“Spider-Man! I’m your biggest fan. You hit like a linebacker, move like a full receiver!”
”Great. Listen Flash, I need your help.”
”You got it.”
”You any good with this thing?”
Flash rubbed the leather of his steering wheel lovingly. “I'm the best.”
”Fantastic!” Spider-Man pointed at Ock’s vehicle. “Catch that… car!”
”Anything you say!” Flash stepped on the gas. “But how’d you know my name?”
”…read your mind with my spider powers.”
”Awesome!”
The BMW didn’t sputter or cough like Peter’s scooter did, it just sped up smoothly. Flash neatly maneuvered the car in-between traffic like a quarterback through the defensive line.
At last, Spider-Man climbed out onto the hood. “Keep up. Stay on top of him!”
Flash gave him a thumb’s up.
Spider-Man leapt onto the hood of Ock’s car.
”License and registration, please.”
Tentacles smashed through the windshield. Spider-Man narrowly dodged them, bending over backwards before handstanding to kick through the crumpled remains of the windshield. His foot slipped into the steering wheel and spun the Acura into a spin-out.
Octavius left driving to one tentacle and used the others to ascend over the car. He plowed into Spidey, sucker-punching him repeatedly. Just as Spider-Man was ready to fight back, a tentacle grabbed Spider-Man and slammed him against the unlocked trunk, causing it to pop open.
Peter grabbed a tire iron from the trunk and blocked a tentacle with it. “You killed Donald Menken! Why?”
“He outlived his usefulness to me. Imagine what I’ll do to someone who’s been a hindrance.” Octavius wrapped one tentacle around the car, and drove the other three into the ground. Spider-Man went flying as the car stopped. Octavius set the car down with tires still spinning, intent on running Spidey down.
The BMW had passed by during Octavius’s stunt. Spider-Man shot a webline onto its rear bumper and was pulled behind it the second before Octavius could run over him. The left front tire spun between his legs, inches from his crotch. Octavius put the pedal to the metal; Spider-Man pulled himself along the webline just as fast
Flash looked over at a pretty girl in the next car over.
”Wow, is that really Spider-Man?” the woman asked.
”Of course! Him and me hang out all the time.”
”Are you like his sidekick?”
”More his partner. I...”
Spider-Man climbed onto the BMW just as Octavius rammed it. The web-slinger jumped over onto the other car as a tentacle came down like a hammer on the BMW. He landed, looked down through the car roof.
“Ma’am.”
The woman looked up at him, a million questions for the mysterious vigilante running through her head. “Are you really strong?”
”Listen, babe, I hear he’s got radioactive blood!” Flash answered for him.
“Whoooa,” she said dreamily.
“Thanks. I could use the self-confidence.”
Ock's car pulled up along the other side of them. The interior of the car was now filled with Octavius's waving tentacles. Two smashed through the passenger-side door.
Spider-Man grabbed one in each hand and bashed them together. Geez, what happened to just flipping someone the bird? “What’d you want from Menken that was worth killing him?”
The girl took charge, cutting off Ock’s car. Spider-Man rolled onto the trunk and brandished the tire iron like a sword. Ock climbed through the windshield, letting his lower two tentacles drive, and put up his upper tentacles like ‘dukes’.
“Simple! I thought about what you said in our last encounter.”
”You were right. Killing Osborn would be too quick, too… artless. But to drag his name through the mud, to expose him as the villain he is! Yesss…”
Despite having his balance thrown off – the whole “on top of a moving vehicle” thing – Spider-Man continued to fight, barely fending off both tentacles. “What’s that got to do with Menken?”
Octavius folded his arms mockingly across his chest. “I remembered him from my days at Oscorp. The goblin glider was his pet project. The upgrades your Hobgoblin uses could only be attributed to him.”
“You’re saying he knew who the Hobgoblin was?”
”Is.” Octavius’s tentacles bypassed Spider-Man to grab the girl by her throat. “I tire of this. Surrender or the next ride she’ll be taking will be in a hearse!”
”Boy, you sure do have a way with women!” Spider-Man quipped before he threw the tire iron.
It hit Octavius’s face like a brick, rolling him back into the car. Rubbing his bruised head, Octavius noticed the cruise control on his stolen car. Smiling darkly, he turned it on.
Spider-Man leapt toward the Acura. “Who’s the goblin!?”
All four tentacles busted through the windows of the Acura and attacked, air-juggling him higher and higher.
Far behind, Flash was still driving his BMW. The strain of Ock’s attack was taking its toll; the car was steaming and chugging like an old lawnmower. Flash saw Spider-Man arcing through the air like a rocket. Didn’t have a clue what to do.
Spider-Man saw him. The spider-sense ringing in his ears suddenly deadened. ”Flash! Hit the brakes!”
Flash did. Spider-Man landed comfortably in the backseat.
The sun was just starting to rise. The Brooklyn Bridge loomed ahead, the six thousand foot suspension bridge that linked Manhattan to Brooklyn. Its two towers stood with both feet buried in the East River, miles of suspension cables shining like prison bars in the early morning sunlight. Octavius roared through the toll booth.
The BMW was hot on its heels. Flash had to slow down. Traffic jam.
”Goddamn traffic,” Flash grumbled.
Spider-Man jumped out. “Try to stay with me. I don't want to lose him!”
Speeding along the bridge, Octavius saw no one. But high above, Spider-Man swung off the first tower. He leapt down onto an eighteen-wheeler. Octavius heard the impact and looked up.
”It can't be...”
He swerved his car and it traveled under the big truck. With a big smile, he sent one tentacle pistoning upwards, causing the truck to tilt sideways. Spider-Man rolled along the top, grabbing onto the edge. Octavius drove out from under the eighteen-wheeler, looking up at Spider-Man.
”Haven’t you given up yet?”
”You know what they say, keep on trucking!”
Three tentacles lashed at Spider-Man. He let go of the edge with his left hand and turned so that his back was to the truck. The first tentacle hit right where he had been a moment ago.
Spider-Man continued to ‘roll’ down the edge of the truck as more tentacles attacked. Finally, he let go, sticking to the side of the truck by his feet. There, he webbed two of the tentacles to the truck. He grabbed onto the third one and slid down it like a pole. Collision course with Octavius.
Doctor Octopus, thinking fast, tilted the tentacle sideways and began shaking it. Spider-Man was thrown off. He stuck onto the side of another eighteen-wheeler. Octavius grabbed the two semis’ undercarriages with his free tentacles and pulled the trucks together! Spider-Man kicked out with his legs, pushing the first big truck back.
His feet made indents in the trailer. ”Nothing like this ever happened to me when I was safety guard!”
With a chorus of groaning metal, the two trucks came together. Beneath the conjoined eighteen-wheelers, Octavius laughed blackly. “Yes! At last I'm free of you, insect! At last I'm...”
He pulled the trucks apart with his tentacles to see no flattened webhead, but instead a man-sized hole in the first truck where Spider-Man was holding them apart.
”What’s this?”
With an explosion of debris, Spider-Man smashed out of the first truck's cargo trailer and landed on top of the car.
He stuck his head down in front of the windshield. ”As I was saying…” Spider-Man reached through the windshield, grabbed Octavius's head, and smashed it against the steering wheel repeatedly. Honk! “Who! Is! The! Hob! Goblin!?”
Ock elbowed Spider-Man in the throat, then hit the seat recline button. The motion of shifting backwards was so swift that Spidey fell over the backseat and onto the trunk.
”At first Menken said it was Roderick Kingsley. An obvious ruse. A little pain gave me the truth.” Two tentacles snapped at Spidey, who dodged and weaved between them. He didn't notice the two webbed-tentacles breaking free. “Let me demonstrate.”
They grabbed Spider-Man from behind, by the shoulders, and held him up.
”Must you demonstrate everything?” Spider-Man asked, kicking his feet wildly. “It makes you look like a lousy communicator. Use your words, Ock.”
A third tentacle stopped inches from his face. It fanned out the buzzsaw and moved towards the nap of Spider-Man's throat...
”Words aren’t enough to express my sheer hatred for you!”
***
Flash's BMW coughed and wheezed as it tried to keep up. Flash whispered to it in a low voice, “C'mon, baby. Just one more time for Old Papa Flash...”
He jammed on the gas. Success! It took off like a nitro-infused cork and rammed the Acura. Shocked, Octavius let Spider-Man go. The webhead landed upside-down in the BMW as it gave up the ghost. Octavius frowned after him.
”Good riddance, you loathsome little...”
He tried to let up on the gas pedal. Nothing. He looked down. Spider-Man had webbed it to the floor! Octavius looked up to see one of the trucks that he’d damaged had pulled over. He was going way too fast to avoid it.
”Oh dear.”
Krrrrraaaashhhh!! His Acura hit, bounced off, and flew through the air before landing. It was downright NASCAR.
***
Spider-Man extracted himself from the stalled BMW. ”Hey, you going to be okay?”
”I lost my virginity in this car...” Flash said, lovingly petting the leather of his broken ride.
”Way too much information there, kiddo. Catch ya on the flipside.” He ran after Octavius, having a private giggle-fit over calling Flash 'kiddo'. Then he stopped and ran back. “Just out of curiosity, to whom?”
”Oh? Some blond chick…”
”Say no more.” He shot out a webline and swung away.
“Hey, call me sometime! If you want another team-up! I could be like that chauffeur dude in The Shadow!” Flash’s face returned to his devastated car. “No way the insurance company is going to believe this.”
He sunk his head into the driving wheel. The car horn honked for a drawn-out moment, then it too sputtered out.
The girl pulled up next to him. “Need a lift?”
No time for mourning now. Flash sat up and perked up, big shit-eating grin on his face. “Who’s offering?”
“Felicia Hardy.” She watched Spider-Man go after Ock, intrigued. “Woman of notoriety.”
Flash Thompson had made Peter’s life in high school a living hell. He’d bullied him, belittled him, and just generally tormented him for four years. Then one day a spider had bitten the webbing of his hand and everything had changed.
It’d been over two years since Peter had turned the tables on Flash, and since then he’d never given the jock any thought. Until he saw the “birthday present” that had once enthralled Mary-Jane driving down the street, his only option for chasing down Doc Ock.
Hopefully, Spider-Man would get a warmer welcome than puny Parker.
Spider-Man swooped down and landed in the passenger seat, making Flash do a double—make that triple—take.
“Spider-Man! I’m your biggest fan. You hit like a linebacker, move like a full receiver!”
”Great. Listen Flash, I need your help.”
”You got it.”
”You any good with this thing?”
Flash rubbed the leather of his steering wheel lovingly. “I'm the best.”
”Fantastic!” Spider-Man pointed at Ock’s vehicle. “Catch that… car!”
”Anything you say!” Flash stepped on the gas. “But how’d you know my name?”
”…read your mind with my spider powers.”
”Awesome!”
The BMW didn’t sputter or cough like Peter’s scooter did, it just sped up smoothly. Flash neatly maneuvered the car in-between traffic like a quarterback through the defensive line.
At last, Spider-Man climbed out onto the hood. “Keep up. Stay on top of him!”
Flash gave him a thumb’s up.
Spider-Man leapt onto the hood of Ock’s car.
”License and registration, please.”
Tentacles smashed through the windshield. Spider-Man narrowly dodged them, bending over backwards before handstanding to kick through the crumpled remains of the windshield. His foot slipped into the steering wheel and spun the Acura into a spin-out.
Octavius left driving to one tentacle and used the others to ascend over the car. He plowed into Spidey, sucker-punching him repeatedly. Just as Spider-Man was ready to fight back, a tentacle grabbed Spider-Man and slammed him against the unlocked trunk, causing it to pop open.
Peter grabbed a tire iron from the trunk and blocked a tentacle with it. “You killed Donald Menken! Why?”
“He outlived his usefulness to me. Imagine what I’ll do to someone who’s been a hindrance.” Octavius wrapped one tentacle around the car, and drove the other three into the ground. Spider-Man went flying as the car stopped. Octavius set the car down with tires still spinning, intent on running Spidey down.
The BMW had passed by during Octavius’s stunt. Spider-Man shot a webline onto its rear bumper and was pulled behind it the second before Octavius could run over him. The left front tire spun between his legs, inches from his crotch. Octavius put the pedal to the metal; Spider-Man pulled himself along the webline just as fast
Flash looked over at a pretty girl in the next car over.
”Wow, is that really Spider-Man?” the woman asked.
”Of course! Him and me hang out all the time.”
”Are you like his sidekick?”
”More his partner. I...”
Spider-Man climbed onto the BMW just as Octavius rammed it. The web-slinger jumped over onto the other car as a tentacle came down like a hammer on the BMW. He landed, looked down through the car roof.
“Ma’am.”
The woman looked up at him, a million questions for the mysterious vigilante running through her head. “Are you really strong?”
”Listen, babe, I hear he’s got radioactive blood!” Flash answered for him.
“Whoooa,” she said dreamily.
“Thanks. I could use the self-confidence.”
Ock's car pulled up along the other side of them. The interior of the car was now filled with Octavius's waving tentacles. Two smashed through the passenger-side door.
Spider-Man grabbed one in each hand and bashed them together. Geez, what happened to just flipping someone the bird? “What’d you want from Menken that was worth killing him?”
The girl took charge, cutting off Ock’s car. Spider-Man rolled onto the trunk and brandished the tire iron like a sword. Ock climbed through the windshield, letting his lower two tentacles drive, and put up his upper tentacles like ‘dukes’.
“Simple! I thought about what you said in our last encounter.”
”You were right. Killing Osborn would be too quick, too… artless. But to drag his name through the mud, to expose him as the villain he is! Yesss…”
Despite having his balance thrown off – the whole “on top of a moving vehicle” thing – Spider-Man continued to fight, barely fending off both tentacles. “What’s that got to do with Menken?”
Octavius folded his arms mockingly across his chest. “I remembered him from my days at Oscorp. The goblin glider was his pet project. The upgrades your Hobgoblin uses could only be attributed to him.”
“You’re saying he knew who the Hobgoblin was?”
”Is.” Octavius’s tentacles bypassed Spider-Man to grab the girl by her throat. “I tire of this. Surrender or the next ride she’ll be taking will be in a hearse!”
”Boy, you sure do have a way with women!” Spider-Man quipped before he threw the tire iron.
It hit Octavius’s face like a brick, rolling him back into the car. Rubbing his bruised head, Octavius noticed the cruise control on his stolen car. Smiling darkly, he turned it on.
Spider-Man leapt toward the Acura. “Who’s the goblin!?”
All four tentacles busted through the windows of the Acura and attacked, air-juggling him higher and higher.
Far behind, Flash was still driving his BMW. The strain of Ock’s attack was taking its toll; the car was steaming and chugging like an old lawnmower. Flash saw Spider-Man arcing through the air like a rocket. Didn’t have a clue what to do.
Spider-Man saw him. The spider-sense ringing in his ears suddenly deadened. ”Flash! Hit the brakes!”
Flash did. Spider-Man landed comfortably in the backseat.
The sun was just starting to rise. The Brooklyn Bridge loomed ahead, the six thousand foot suspension bridge that linked Manhattan to Brooklyn. Its two towers stood with both feet buried in the East River, miles of suspension cables shining like prison bars in the early morning sunlight. Octavius roared through the toll booth.
The BMW was hot on its heels. Flash had to slow down. Traffic jam.
”Goddamn traffic,” Flash grumbled.
Spider-Man jumped out. “Try to stay with me. I don't want to lose him!”
Speeding along the bridge, Octavius saw no one. But high above, Spider-Man swung off the first tower. He leapt down onto an eighteen-wheeler. Octavius heard the impact and looked up.
”It can't be...”
He swerved his car and it traveled under the big truck. With a big smile, he sent one tentacle pistoning upwards, causing the truck to tilt sideways. Spider-Man rolled along the top, grabbing onto the edge. Octavius drove out from under the eighteen-wheeler, looking up at Spider-Man.
”Haven’t you given up yet?”
”You know what they say, keep on trucking!”
Three tentacles lashed at Spider-Man. He let go of the edge with his left hand and turned so that his back was to the truck. The first tentacle hit right where he had been a moment ago.
Spider-Man continued to ‘roll’ down the edge of the truck as more tentacles attacked. Finally, he let go, sticking to the side of the truck by his feet. There, he webbed two of the tentacles to the truck. He grabbed onto the third one and slid down it like a pole. Collision course with Octavius.
Doctor Octopus, thinking fast, tilted the tentacle sideways and began shaking it. Spider-Man was thrown off. He stuck onto the side of another eighteen-wheeler. Octavius grabbed the two semis’ undercarriages with his free tentacles and pulled the trucks together! Spider-Man kicked out with his legs, pushing the first big truck back.
His feet made indents in the trailer. ”Nothing like this ever happened to me when I was safety guard!”
With a chorus of groaning metal, the two trucks came together. Beneath the conjoined eighteen-wheelers, Octavius laughed blackly. “Yes! At last I'm free of you, insect! At last I'm...”
He pulled the trucks apart with his tentacles to see no flattened webhead, but instead a man-sized hole in the first truck where Spider-Man was holding them apart.
”What’s this?”
With an explosion of debris, Spider-Man smashed out of the first truck's cargo trailer and landed on top of the car.
He stuck his head down in front of the windshield. ”As I was saying…” Spider-Man reached through the windshield, grabbed Octavius's head, and smashed it against the steering wheel repeatedly. Honk! “Who! Is! The! Hob! Goblin!?”
Ock elbowed Spider-Man in the throat, then hit the seat recline button. The motion of shifting backwards was so swift that Spidey fell over the backseat and onto the trunk.
”At first Menken said it was Roderick Kingsley. An obvious ruse. A little pain gave me the truth.” Two tentacles snapped at Spidey, who dodged and weaved between them. He didn't notice the two webbed-tentacles breaking free. “Let me demonstrate.”
They grabbed Spider-Man from behind, by the shoulders, and held him up.
”Must you demonstrate everything?” Spider-Man asked, kicking his feet wildly. “It makes you look like a lousy communicator. Use your words, Ock.”
A third tentacle stopped inches from his face. It fanned out the buzzsaw and moved towards the nap of Spider-Man's throat...
”Words aren’t enough to express my sheer hatred for you!”
***
Flash's BMW coughed and wheezed as it tried to keep up. Flash whispered to it in a low voice, “C'mon, baby. Just one more time for Old Papa Flash...”
He jammed on the gas. Success! It took off like a nitro-infused cork and rammed the Acura. Shocked, Octavius let Spider-Man go. The webhead landed upside-down in the BMW as it gave up the ghost. Octavius frowned after him.
”Good riddance, you loathsome little...”
He tried to let up on the gas pedal. Nothing. He looked down. Spider-Man had webbed it to the floor! Octavius looked up to see one of the trucks that he’d damaged had pulled over. He was going way too fast to avoid it.
”Oh dear.”
Krrrrraaaashhhh!! His Acura hit, bounced off, and flew through the air before landing. It was downright NASCAR.
***
Spider-Man extracted himself from the stalled BMW. ”Hey, you going to be okay?”
”I lost my virginity in this car...” Flash said, lovingly petting the leather of his broken ride.
”Way too much information there, kiddo. Catch ya on the flipside.” He ran after Octavius, having a private giggle-fit over calling Flash 'kiddo'. Then he stopped and ran back. “Just out of curiosity, to whom?”
”Oh? Some blond chick…”
”Say no more.” He shot out a webline and swung away.
“Hey, call me sometime! If you want another team-up! I could be like that chauffeur dude in The Shadow!” Flash’s face returned to his devastated car. “No way the insurance company is going to believe this.”
He sunk his head into the driving wheel. The car horn honked for a drawn-out moment, then it too sputtered out.
The girl pulled up next to him. “Need a lift?”
No time for mourning now. Flash sat up and perked up, big shit-eating grin on his face. “Who’s offering?”
“Felicia Hardy.” She watched Spider-Man go after Ock, intrigued. “Woman of notoriety.”
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The_Lurker
Date: 2009-09-04 09:22 am (UTC)Now JJJ can be seen around his office wearing a tin foiled hat muttering " I knew it! Damn that thought-stealing space bug."
no subject
Date: 2009-09-07 01:22 am (UTC)(BTW, is this posted on FFN or DeviantArt? I would like to fave it.)
I love the part when Spidey runs back and questions Flash about who he did in the car. That was utter teenage moment. XD Love.