Chapter 62
[86]
“So yeah. Last night was basically a bust.” Ren explained to his friends as the group sat in a booth at a bustling Big Bang Burger.
The group consisted of Ryuji, Ann, Mona, Makoto, and Yusuke. Unfortunately, due to Futaba’s grounding, she couldn’t leave the house or contact her friends.
“Damn dude.” Ryuji said.
“And the police don’t have any leads?” Ann asked.
“We’re still waiting to hear back on an analysis of the mannequins. Maybe if we find out who made them, we can find out who Mysterio is.” Ren added.
“You sure they ain’t actually magic?” Ryuji questioned.
Everyone in the group turned to him with a look that said ‘Really?’
“Look, all I’m saying is Ren got his powers from a spider bite! Is it really so crazy to believe that magic’s real too? After all the shit we’ve seen?”
“Everything that we’ve seen is the result of science Ryuji, as unbelievable as they are. We know Mysterio isn’t magic, why would he need to hack billboards and use robots if he were?” Ren asked rhetorically.
“So then if Mysterio actually uses tech himself, why does he claim to hate it? What’s all of this for?” Makoto wondered.
“Maybe he’s trying to get rid of the competition?” Morgana suggested. “He could want a monopoly on the industry.”
“That only raises the question of who this could be.” Ann pointed out. “Staging a terrorist attack isn’t exactly the best way to promote your start-up.”
“Well, I think that one attack isn’t enough to draw conclusions. As much as we want to avoid a second attack, we need more data if we’re going to establish a pattern.” Makoto stated.
“Damn. This sucks! We didn’t have to do this shit with the past villains.” Ryuji rested his head against the table.
“What are you complaining about Ryuji? I’m the one that’s gotta fight him!” Ren said.
The group continued to talk about what was going on in their lives. Meanwhile, over in Akihabara, the various tech dispensers were selling out of the latest game consoles. Shops were flooded with customers trying to get their hands on one of the limited supply of consoles.
Unbeknownst to the people below, above them, the sky had suddenly become overcast with dark green clouds. Suddenly thunder boomed so loudly, it shook the streets below like an earthquake. As the people looked up into the sky, they watched as the largest of the clouds morphed in shape. A large humanoid figure rose from inside the cloud, only being visible from the waist up, it seemed as though the rest of him dissolved into the cloud.
“People of Tokyo!” Mysterio’s voice boomed along with more thunder. “Look at yourselves! Clawing your way through one another like animals! All in a desperate attempt to purchase the latest in technology to keep you feeble and enslaved! It seems you all have ignored my teachings and returned to your pathetic ways! You have all disappointed me, for that, you shall be punished! Maybe then you will be more open to my teachings!”
As he said that, the enlarged figure of Mysterio held a hand above him and a purple lightning bolt sparked to life right before he hurled it at the streets below. The bolt hit the street, singeing the concrete and setting off all the nearby car alarms. The people in Akihabara began to flee in terror as bolt after bolt struck the ground, nearly burning them alive.
“Holy shit! What do we do!?” The police nearby watched helplessly before trying to evacuate the citizens.
“I dunno! S’not like there’s protocol for fighting a goddamn lighting cloud!” Another officer replied.
“Does anyone see Spider-Man!?” A young rookie asked panickedly. “Where the hell is Spider-Man!?”
“Order number 13! Order number 13!” The employee at Big Bang Burger called out. “Who ordered the Big Bang Challenge?”
“Finally! ‘Bout time we got our food.” Ryuji said as he and Ren retrieved the food trays for the rest of the group.
“Ugh, feels like we’ve been waiting hours to eat!” Ann said as she grabbed her chicken wrap.
“Um, could you possibly spare some fries Ann?” Yusuke said, looking at his miniscule kid’s meal.
“Don’t even think about touching Lady Ann’s food!” Morgana cried as he got between the two.
“Ren, do you really think it’s healthy to eat those things? I feel like I gained 5 pounds just looking at it.” Makoto said as she picked her salad off the tray.
“Makoto, I need like 10,000 calories a day just to function. I can’t really afford to get them through quinoa and branzino.” Ren said as he grabbed his Cosmo Tower Burger. “God, I’m starving.”
Just as he was bringing it to his mouth, Ren’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He set the burger down to check the text, considering who was here, there was really only one person who could really be texting him right now. And she only texted when there was work to be done.
“Akihabara. Mysterio. Now.”
“Well,” Ren said as he stood up. “Duty calls.” As he was about to walk away from the table, he turned around and pointed to his burger. “Could someone get a to-go bag for that?” With that, he grabbed his bag and ran out of the restaurant.
The rest of the group was left wondering what had just happened. Makoto quickly fished her laptop out of her bag and set it on the table. She was sure that whatever had just come up, it was Spider-Man related. A quick web search led to live news footage depicting a giant Mysterio throwing lightning like Zeus onto the streets below.
“Holy shit!” Ann said, pushing past Ryuji to get a better look at the feed. “R-err...Spider-Man’s got this, right?” While she didn’t believe in magic, it was undeniable that Mysterio had power. And what kind of a friend would she be if she didn’t worry about her friend’s safety. Yes, that’s why she was so nervous, Ren was a friend. A really, really ho-good friend.
“Damn. If that ain’t magic, I don’t know what is.” Ryuji said as he craned his neck to see.
While everyone else was busy watching the video, they were unable to notice Yusuke subtly sliding Ren’s burger towards himself.
High above the streets, Ren was already in full costume swinging towards Akihabara. Even from here, he could see his ginormous fishbowl head through the clouds.
At this point, Ren had already seen behind the curtain. Those mannequins from the other night were mechanical, not magical, and if they were fake, everything else was fake. But in all honesty, Ren had no scientific explanation for what was happening right now, but that wouldn’t stop him from stopping Mysterio here and now.
He was in Akihabara now, directly beneath the cloud. The streets beneath him had been cleared of all bystanders, but by the looks of it, Mysterio wasn’t interested in them. Instead, the man of mystery was raining lightning onto the buildings and cars, setting fires where the bolts landed. Clearly, he had a vendetta against technology, which had to make this guy a huge hypocrite.
Ren fired a webline into the cloud, hoping to hit something, maybe he could tear this whole illusion apart. However, he had no luck, as the web passed through the cloud like well, a cloud. Before he could try again, his spider-sense went off, and he managed to avoid the lightning strike just as it struck the roof he was standing on.
Ren could feel the hair standing on the back of his neck. Even if this was fake, the danger was certainly real.
“Okay, so I can’t damage the cloud. I’ll just punch him in his big dumb dome.” Ren said to himself.
He hopped down to the street below, finding two street lamps, an idea popped into his head. He shot out several weblines to each and slowly walked backwards. When the tension was high enough, and the metal posts began to creak, he jumped, letting the weblines slingshot him up into the air.
Ren flew straight towards Mysterio, his fist raised with blue lightning charged in it. As he got in close, he was surprised when the giant figure turned towards him, acknowledging that he was there for the first time since Ren had arrived.
“Not so fast Spider-Man.” Mysterio raised both of his hands straight at Ren and fired two giant beams of green energy into his chest.
Ren was sent flying back, accidentally triggering his webshooter in the process. He flew straight into a building across the street, cracking the wall before sliding down. Mysterio laughed at his opponent’s defeat before his image flickered.
“What!?” The large figure cried out in surprise, dropping his typical bravado for a moment.
As Ren lay on the street, his gaze rose up from the ground, tracing the webline from his left hand, he saw that sitting at the end of the line, was a drone.
“Gotcha.”