Chapter 110
[142]
“Who the fuck is this?” Sho Minazuki asked Akimitsu Tsuda as he looked between him and the pale, long-haired man in front of him. “You were supposed to grab the old man!”
“Old man was dead when I got there.” Tsuda replied in his heavily accented voice. “So I grab his cellmate.”
“Dead? What, did he finally keel over from old age?”
“No.” The pale man answered. “I killed him.”
Sho turned to the man with a scowl. “What did you just say? Your skinny ass killed him?”
“I did.” The man confirmed. “I stabbed him with a shiv 17 times.”
“Pretty ballsy of you to admit to that. But I don’t think you realize what you just cost us. Madarame was an important piece in the boss’s plan, and you just killed him.” Sho turned to his large friend. “Tsuda, crush his head.”
As the Rhino cracked his knuckles, approaching the escapee in front of him, the man began to laugh uncontrollably. Stunned by this outburst, everyone present in the room stared at him questioningly.
Gesturing for Tsuda to hold off, Sho approached the strange man before slamming him against the wall. “Somethin funny asshole?”
“It’s just,” The man managed to get out between chuckles. “When people said that old cripple was the Vulture, I didn’t believe them! To think he died so easily! Hahaha!” He began laughing once again.
“And people say I’m crazy.” Sho muttered to himself before walking away. “Tsuda, do your thing. We’ll just make do with who we’ve got.”
“Hold on a minute!” The pale man spoke up, suddenly serious. “You’re putting together the Sinister Six again, aren’t you?”
Sho turned around, raising his eyebrow. “So? What if we are?”
“Well, unless my count is off, you’re down a member now, right?” A crooked smile grew on his face. “You need a Vulture? I’ll be your Vulture.”
“Let me get this straight,” Sho put his hand to his chin. “You killed the guy we were going to recruit, and now you expect us to reward you for that?”
“Law of the jungle baby. Only the most ruthless survive.”
Sho smirked before letting out a chuckle of his own. “Y’know what? I like your style. What’s your name?”
“Takaya Sakaki.” The man said, his smile unbroken.
“Well congratulations Takaya. You’re our new Vulture.” He turned to the other prisoner who the boss had specifically requested for the team. “Shirato, your gear is upstairs. Go up and get some rest, we’ve got a meeting at the asscrack of dawn so be ready.”
As the others walked off, Shinjiro Aragaki stayed put, giving Sho an inquisitive look.
“The fuck are you looking at?”
Shinjiro shrugged, scratching his beard, tiny particles of sand fell from it to the floor. “Never expected to see you take on a leadership role. Figured you were too batshit crazy to ever follow a plan.”
“Yeah well…” Sho turned his gaze to the floor. “Last time I tried my usual tactics, I got beat within an inch of my life. Made me realize brute strength wouldn’t cut it. If we’re gonna kill the spider, as much as I hate to admit it, we’re gonna have to work together.”
“Hmm.” Shinjiro continued to stare.
“And I swear to god, if any of you screw me on this, I don’t care if you’re made of sand! I will tear you limb from limb!”
Letting out a chuckle at that, the larger man walked off to his own room. “Noted.”
Several days later, across the city:
“Whew.” Ren wiped his brow (as best as he could while wearing a mask) as he looked up at the three criminals struggling against their bonds. Secured to the side of a building with a thick net of webbing. “That’s the sixth robbery tonight. We have to have at least made a dent in the number of escapees, right?”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Makoto responded through his earpiece, off in another part of the city. “Over 2,000 prisoners escaped from Ryker’s during the breakout. I’d say we have plenty of work ahead of us in the coming days.”
Ren sighed as he cracked his back, checking the time on his phone. 4am. This would be his third all-nighter in a row. Thank god school was still shut down after the Lizard incident, and with the massive spike in criminal activity in the past few days, it didn’t look like it would be opening up any time soon.
“Hey!” Ryuji called out as he ran toward Ren. “I caught the getaway driver like you said! His car isn’t going anywhere without wheels!”
Over the past few days, Ryuji had been receiving a crash course on superheroing from Ren and Makoto. With all of the criminals on the loose, they needed all the help they could and thankfully Ryuji was more than willing to get out in the field. Also thankfully, Ryuji’s new symbiote was quite versatile, giving him a suit of his own that resembled Ren’s but slightly bulkier and with a black and white color scheme. The symbiote still retained the powers it had when Akechi used it, only now much more tame thanks to its wielder.
“Nice job Ryuji.”
“Oh, about my name,” Ryuji responded. “How does ‘Agent Venom’ sound?”
“Cool, but...you’re sure you want to keep the ‘Venom’ name? Don’t you think it has some, y’know, negative connotations?”
“Yeah but, I dunno, it feels...right I guess.” Ryuji shrugged. “Like, I can redeem the name. Does that make sense?”
“I get it. Just be wary, we don’t want people thinking you’re the same guy who attacked Shido. Even if we are trying to catch him.”
“Hey guys?” Makoto’s voice came over their earpieces again. “I ran into some trouble in Okinawa. Could use a little backup!” As she spoke an explosion could be heard in the background.
“Makoto? Makoto!?” He turned to Ryuji. “We gotta get to Okinawa!” The blond nodded silently and the two took off, swinging across the city.
They arrived in Okinawa a few minutes later, immediately spotting the danger in the form of an orange-hooded figure flying around on a glider, tossing explosives down onto the street below. Nearby, another figure dressed in white, Makoto, swung around the buildings. From the look of things, she was trying to catch the flying man before he could do more damage.
“Holy shit dude! Is that the Goblin? He’s alive!?” Ryuji exclaimed in surprise.
“No, that isn’t him.” Ren shook his head. “I saw the Goblin in the Shibuya attack, this isn’t him. Probably just a copycat. But that doesn’t matter right now, he’s blowing up a whole city block and that means we’ve gotta stop him.”
“Right. Superhero stuff.” Ryuji nodded before leaping from the rooftop. “Woohoo! First supervillain!”
“Look out!” Ren called just before an explosion rocked the area next to Ryuji. The blonde was instantly knocked to the ground. Part of his suit peeled away in fear of the intense heat of the explosion, leaving part of his face and one of his arms exposed. “Are you okay?” Ren asked as he landed nearby.
“Damn,” The blond said, holding the side of his head. “That shit really caught me off guard. How do you guys dodge those all the time?” As he stood up, the missing sections of his suit regenerated, repairing the damage from the explosion.
“Spider-sense.” Ren shrugged. “Tells us about danger ahead of time. Guess you don’t have anything like that.”
“Yeah, now ya tell me.” Ryuji rolled his eyes beneath his mask. “Whatever, let’s just go get-” He was interrupted as a familiar figure landed on the ground next to them, carrying the captured villain by his hood.
“Thanks for the ‘backup’ guys!” Makoto said sarcastically as she dragged the villain toward them before tossing him to the ground. “Mitsuo Kubo, aka Hobgoblin, 23 years old, single, shut-in, and a complete Green Goblin fanboy.” The two boys stared at her with wide-eyes. “What? I read his file.”
“Damn dude!” Ryuji put his hand on Ren’s shoulder. “She makes you look like an amateur! And she’s only been at this for like, two weeks!”
“Ugh.” Mitsuo grumbled. “I seriously got caught by the girl spider!? So lame! Can I at least tell the police that Spider-Man got me?” The three vigilantes looked down at him and shook their heads.
A moment later, a spotlight shined on the trio. Surprised, they looked up to see men rappelling down from a helicopter as they were quickly surrounded on all sides by squad cars.
“It’s alright officers!” Ryuji shouted over the whirring of the helicopter. “We got the guy! Crisis averted!”
Much to their surprise, the men who surrounded them weren’t dressed as police. Instead, they wore the Shido Sciences security body armor. They quickly surrounded the trio, training their rifles on them.
“Uh, wow.” Ryuji mumbled nervously. “Lotta guys for one criminal.”
“Put your hands up! All of you are under arrest!”