Web of Insanity

Hero's eyes shoot open, and he quickly gags up the water that had entered his mouth. 

"Ugh…couldn't you guys have woken me more gently…" Hero groans. "It's a Saturday, I don't need to wake up so early." 

“It doesn’t matter how gently you’re woken, Spider. It will all be over soon.” A text to speech voice stated.

“…whuh?”

Looking around, he noted two things.

Firstly, he was stuck on an operating table. Secondly, that robot from the ambush was staring him down. 

"Uh, maybe some more clarification would be nice. I don't remember volunteering to be an organ donor." 

“You’re not donating your organs. All I need is your body, literally.”

“If you need a mechanic, just put out an ad! Besides, full schedule.”

The robot’s eyes quickly shift from their current yellow to a crimson red.

“SIMPLETON! IS THIS SOME-no, Otto, don’t let him do this to you. Besides, that annoying self of yours is about to be wiped away…so I can replace it with myself.”

"Okay…body steal confirmed. Slightly more worried. But why mine?" 

Hero didn't actually care. He was stalling for time as he looked around. Any sort of escape, any sort of way out.

The more time this creepy robot was talking, the more prep time he had. 

“My robotic form is breaking down beyond repair. Your body’s superhuman capabilities could save my life…so I can take the life of Norman Osborn, the man who left me to die.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“No. I can tell you’re just stalling for time, but your escape is impossible. This operating table is specifically made to entrap beings with superhuman strength. Give up, and soon your body will be mine, Spider.”

"Yeah well, maybe you should work out the kinks in your design." Hero lifts his head up ever so slightly, slamming it down into the operating table. The clasps around his wrists and legs didn't budge, but the entire table shattered under him. 

“If you want me, come and get me!” He shouts, running off in a random direction.

That challenge was over too quickly. Grabbed by the ankles by a claw, Hero was immediately pulled back, held upside down as the robot came face to face with him. 

“What an annoyance that was. Regardless, back to business. Once the machine’s fully charged…say goodbye to your life.”

"Y’know, isn’t that kinda rude? Put yourself in my shoes! How would you feel if you were me and you were having your life stolen?" Hero exclaims, not hesitating for a moment, bringing the other leg down on one of the tentacles. The heavy impact of the attached strap and the tentacle created a heavy "CLANG" that echoed throughout the room. In an instant, he was let go as the robot shouted in pain.

“GYAH! YOU WOULD ACTUALLY STRIKE OTTO OCTAVIUS?! If I didn’t need your body, I’d tear you in two!”

"Then we're gonna be here a long time!" Hero says, picking up a couple of random surgical tools and tossing them at 'Octavius'. To no one's surprise, they were effortlessly caught, but gave Hero just enough time to reach a cabinet at the other end of the room and chuck that with his bare hands.

“You’re only delaying the inevitable!” The robot screamed in its monotone voice, pushed back heavily as it caught the large heavy cabinet. 

"Yeah, and doing a very good job at it!" Hero shouts, scanning around the area and quickly climbing up through a vent duct. 

“Annoying. Sinister Six, re-capture Spider-Man! Make sure he doesn’t leave this building!”

“We’ve come too far to fail now.”

Hero begins to crawl as fast as he can. He could hear the villains already start to move and hunt him. He was lucky he made no impact or noise as he expertly moved across the metal surface, but he was worried for when he was going to start getting attacked. 

It happened a second after that thought formed in his head as a familiar sharp sheet of metal resembling a feather shot into the vent a few feet in front of him. 

"COME ON OUT, SPIDER-MAN!" 

Instead, he just started rushing faster in a panicked frenzy.

He had to get outta here, for his own sake.

“Alright, what’s the plan?” Basil asked, worried. If Hero really was being held captive or something, they’d obviously be a tough opponent.

“If we wanna find Hero, we’ll need to search the city. We’ll split up, and whoever finds the place calls the other.”

"Alright! So…uh…which direction do we both start in?" Basil glanced around, but the second he turned back, Kel was already out of sight. 

"...right. Thanks for the instructions." 

Basil sighed to himself, before setting off towards the right of their meeting spot.

Kel swung over from place to place, building to building, occasionally stopping for a hotdog from street carts, but nothing. No evidence, no clues. 

He groaned. This was getting frustrating.

“WHERE IS HE?!” Kel shouted to no one, before taking another bite of his hotdog. He’d been searching for an hour now, but no luck or a call from Overgrowth.

Was his brother just hiding from him? Taking a break? Or was he actually kidnapped or in pain somewhere? And if he really was taking a break, should Kel still be trying to search or should he just go home? 

His thoughts were soon answered with a loud electrical explosion coming from a nearby warehouse.

Pulling out his phone, Kel frantically dialed up Basil’s number.

“H-Hello?”

“I think I found where Hero’s at! Meet me at 1038 Spooner Street, and hurry!”

"Huh? Where's that?" 

"It's…uhm…uh, one sec…uh, I dunno! Look, just find a big place with…IT'S THE ELECTRICAL EXPLOSION ONE!" 

“Huh?”

“Just look for a big warehouse, it’s got a crooked sign on the front!”

“A-alright! See you there!”

Click

“Cmon Hero, just hang on a little longer…”

Hero ducked his head as the beam of energy barely missed him and hit Blizzard instead. 

"HEY! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE FIRING YOUR SHIT!" Blizzard roars, pointing at Electro. 

"Oh PLEASE! As if you aim any BETTER!" Electro shouts back.

"Listen guys, I'm sensing a little team tension here! Why don't you guys let me go so you can sort it out together?" Hero says, kicking Blizzard out from under his feet. 

“YOU’RE NOT IN THIS ACT, KNAVE!” Electro shouted, launching another bolt from his hands.

Hero jumps back to dodge, and as he does comes face to face with a group of snakes. 

"Fear me Spider-man! I, Mysterio, master of illusions, will- ARGH!" Hero had punched straight through the massive snakes and into Mysterio's helmet. 

“Sorry, don’t have time to talk!” He shouted, continuing his mad dash to potential freedom.

His head throbbed and signaled for him to jump to the side as a wave of sand nearly crushed him. 

"Stop running!" Flint shouted after him, a pile of sand forming a face of sorts. "You're never gonna escape all six of us." 

"Try me! I'm surprisingly good at this!"

"That's it!" Vulture screams, pressing a button. "I’m sending your ass to Kingdom come!" 

"NOT IN HERE, MORON!" Electro shouts, but it's too late. In an instant, the massive wings hit the walls of the warehouse corridor, causing massive dents and an ominous whirring as the wings struggled to open to full size. 

"One moment, just gotta turn it…"

The wings slowly start to break out of the concrete, starting to rotate ever so slowly. 

Then the walls finally gave way and an uncontrollable spinning Vulture broke loose, creating a contained tornado within the area that blew everyone away from it violently. 

"YOU MORON!" Flint screamed, but his sand had already started to disperse in the wind. 

“How dysfunctional are you guys?!” Hero yelled, even him being surprised at how much they failed at being a team.

"IT DON'T MATTER! WE DON'T GOTTA LIKE EACH OTHER TO HATE YOU!" Electro screams, firing off another beam of lightning. 

“Geez! At least try to work together!” Hero quips, grabbing a nearby flower pot to shield himself from the blow. "You know, if you guys suck so much at working together, how about one of you guys spill where my web shooters are? It's been swell just punching you, but I'd like my signature style back!" 

“There you are.” A familiar ominous voice spoke from behind Hero.

Octavius.

“I get it, you wanna keep living. But if you’re trying to get a new body, ask someone else!”

"Never! I need yours, one better above the rest, one younger, faster, stronger! I don't want to be human, I want to be you!" 

"Way to dehumanize me, bolt-brain!" Hero shouts, dodging out of the way as a clawed tentacle nearly grabs him by the face. 

“Stand still so I can end this!”

“How about no? Because it looks to me like you’re…nah, not making that joke. Too easy. Just let up, Ock!”

"Insolent! You pathetic five, get moving and get that Spider!" 

“Whaddya think we’re tryna do?!” Blizzard protests.

"Seems to me you're just BUMBLING about! So get going and do your damn jobs!" 

Hero frantically rushed through the warehouse, still hunting for his webshooters.

“Where are they?!” They wouldn't have destroyed his shooters, would they? 

No, if that robot really wanted his body, he'd want the shooters too.

Regardless, if he got caught like this…it’d be game over.

Quickly, he climbed up the walls and into yet another air vent, escaping any eyes for the time being.

Where were they keeping this stuff? Had to be nearby, had to be here. Somewhere. Hero was sure of it. 

He could hear the villains walking around, smashing and tearing down boxes and shelves and cupboards in an attempt to take him back. 

He had to be fast, he had to be quick. 

“Target sighted. Recapturing in progress.” A mechanical voice stated as three small-ish robots dropped from the ceiling of the vent.

“I don’t have time for this!” Hero shouted, grabbing one of the robots and hurling it towards a blocked vent.

Through the sheer force of the throw, the robot exploded against the vent, and Hero blitzed past, dropping into the now opened room.

That room turned out to be a small laboratory, where a pair of familiar devices lay on a desk.

“Finally!”

But as he approached his web shooters, a blazing ache flared up in his head. Spider sense.

Right as he was about to pick up his web shooters, a large robot emerged from the side of the room. Well, more-so smashed through the wall like a wrecking ball. 

"Ugh…can't I just win in peace…" 

“Target sighted. Capture procedure engaged.”

"Please… do not… engage capture procedure." Hero groans, getting up and preparing for the thing to attack. 

Quickly dodging a blast shot off by the bot, Hero grabs his web shooters and clogs the robot’s weapons with webs.

"Alright, now we're back in action!" Hero shouts, and instantly picks up the robot, throwing it into a wall with all his might and causing a mighty explosion that shook the entire warehouse. 

“Maybe I should be a little more careful. If this places comes down, no amount of spider sense or webbing’ll save me.”

Suddenly, a loud thump echoed from the halls nearby, followed by Electro shouting.

“I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU, JUST GET OUT OF THE WAY SO I CAN GET THAT GODDAMNED SPIDER!”

Rushing towards the voice, Hero found out just what was going on: Tarantula.

“Oye, you got a spider right here!”

“Ock only needs the other one. Maybe this’ll be fun after all…since I can JUST FRY YOU TO A CRISP! AHAHAHAHAHA!”

“Okay, he’s definitely lost it. Overgrowth, go for it!”

Right on cue, an oversized watermelon drops onto Electro’s head, causing him to look upwards.

“…uh oh.”

“That is IT.” Electro grimly stated, his hands crackling with energy.

Thrusting his arm upwards, Overgrowth barely dodged a colossal bolt of lightning shot right to where his head would’ve been.

As the plant-based hero fell to the floor, having been caught by a pair of vines, Electro began laughing maniacally.

“If you really wanted to save someone as pathetic as the Spider, maybe you should’ve thought to SAVE YOURSELVES! TIME TO TAKE YOUR FINAL BOW, HEROES!”

“LOOK OUT!” Hero shouted, firing off a barrage of webs at Electro.

Unlike last time though, the webs burnt up before they could even touch him.

“THERE YOU ARE! Octavius’s genius has allowed me to go even further beyond, and shatter my former limits! Just give up, the doctor needs you in mint condition after all!”

"So in other words, if I break an arm, you won't need to capture me anymore? Ha! Just a joke!" 

“Annoying as usual…but this gives me an idea!” Electro says, the last part being in an irritating singsong tone as he grabs Overgrowth by the neck.

“Octavius said to bring you back in one piece, but he never said anything about this moron. Surrender, or Overgrowth here’ll have so many volts flowing through him…THAT HIS DAMNED CORPSE COULD FUEL THIS ENTIRE NATION! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

One look at Electro’s lunatic grin was enough to tell that this wasn’t a bluff.

"D-Don't surrender! Not now! We're so close!" Basil shouts, struggling to remove Electro’s hand. 

“YOU’RE STILL TRYING?! Well then…maybe this’ll shut you up. Hurry up, Spider…or else.”

Electro’s arm starts to spark, energy flowing through towards Basil very slowly. 

Hero just stood there, unmoving.

“Tick tock, Spidey. Or do you want to see me FRY THIS OVERGROWN PEPPER?!”

“Hey, I think someone’s behind you.”

“…that’s your response?! One last cheeky retort as the last thing your friend will hear?! ARE YOU TRULY THAT UNCARING?! FINE THEN, I’LL JUST-“

Before Electro could finish his maniacal statement, he was punched from behind right in the back of the head.

Electro shouts in pain as he's sent spiraling out of the air, landing on the ground with a massive explosion of electricity. 

“Cabrón.” Tarantula said, catching Overgrowth before he hit the ground, a tinge of rage in his tone.

“YOU ABSOLUTE-“

“Nope, no time for this.” Tarantula says, quickly breaking Electro’s gear.

In an instant, the vest exploded, the giant blast sending everyone flying. 

The heroes are thrown backwards into a wall, and so is Electro, now knocked unconscious.

Hero groans before quickly getting up. "You know…maybe a little consulting would've been nice before you caused a deadly explosion." 

Kel just shrugs. 

Before the three can confront Electro again, what seems like half a dozen steel plates shoots down and nearly slices into the team. 

"Hey Goody-three-shoes, how bout you lot grow a pair of wings?!" 

“How about you stop being a lackey?!”

"I ain't no lackey! I'm my own man, making my own shots! Remember it well, when you're shot down by THE VULTURE!" 

Vulture's wings extend in length, the fans spinning faster and faster, and more violently. As he does, a storm of sand starts to swirl up around the room like a hurricane. 

“Oi, watch it birdbrain!” Marko shouts…somehow.

"Can it, Sandman! If you wanna fuckin’ help, why don't you help me blow these hooligans away?!" 

Marko groans. From the storm, a wall of hands are formed, all of them attempting to grasp at Spider-man, Tarantula and Overgrowth. 

While Spider-Man and Tarantula frantically took cover…Overgrowth stood still.

“Y’know, this reminds me of an old game I played…ehehe, watch this!”

With a semi-dramatic flourish, he brought forth several large cantaloupes from a now uncovered patch of ground, alongside a sizable tree branch.

A childlike grin on his face, he launched the cantaloupes at The Vulture, using the branch as a makeshift baseball bat.

“THE HELL’RE YA DOIN?!” The Vulture shouted, covered in cantaloupe.

“Jamming your rotors.” He smugly replies, bringing out a cantaloupe twice the size of the rest and batting it directly at the twin rotors keeping The Vulture aloft.

In an instant, the Vulture's wings fail and he lands on the ground with a thud. 

"ROTORS ARE NOT OPERATIONAL. SCANNING ENVIRONMENT FOR ALTERNATE DEFENSE MEASURES. WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACTIVATE: [WEED KILLER]?" 

"What kind of wings have weed killer?!" 

"THE GOOD KIND. ANOTHER OPTION WOULD BE TO DETACH THE ROTORS. AND WATCH YOU FLAIL HOPELESSLY ON THE GROUND." 

"Stupid machine! Just get me up!" 

Before Vulture could activate any more options, Basil, having formed the branch into a sturdy mallet, swung down towards his now helpless foe.

One surprisingly hard-sounding bonk was enough to render the Vulture suit’s power supply offline long enough for the trio to run like hell.

Or so they thought, because before they could even get a step anywhere, the sand below their feet rises up to their ankles, rooting them to the ground. 

“Youse ain’t goin anywhere!”

Dropping down from above, Blizzard smashes his gauntlets together, keeping the trio locked even further in ice. 

“WAITWAITWAIT-“

And inadvertently freezing Sandman solid.

"Collateral damage was expected, heh." Blizzard says with a smirk. "But I finally got ya three, nothing but trouble ain't ya?! I might just shatter all of you just for the fun of it!" 

He takes off one of his gauntlets and lands a pure raw punch on Hero's face. 

"That's payback." 

He puts the gauntlet back on and throws another punch, this one hurting much more as pure metal collides against the face along with shards of ice. 

"And that's what you really deserve." 

He turns around and shouts. "DOC! You're up!" 

The clanking could be heard a mile away as the Doctor entered the room, his metal arms creating a resounding echo with every move.

“Finally, you caught him. Now, we can proceed to the final stage of our plan.”

He slowly lowers himself to be on Hero's level, his clouded goggles staring right at him. 

"You've been quite a nuisance, taking down almost every single one of my crew. If I'd known you had friends showing up, I would have planned for their arrival. But it seems I only need one body tonight, so I'll simply dispose of them once I'm done."

Hero needed to stall, again desperately. 

Please roll a high number on this one…

"S-so…you said you were a doctor? And you were dying and wanted my body? What was the plan for…like, afterwards? Were you just gonna like, walk around as me? No passport or social security or anything? Haha…" 

The doctor laughs back. 

"Well for starters, your body would be immensely disfigured after my surgery was over. I would take a few days to heal, then once my brain had become accommodated to the rest of your nervous system, I would run around town in your suit, and actually make this city better. I'd kill Norman Osborn, create robots to watch over this city, I'd kill the Kingpin, the gangs, the prisoners in the RAFT-"

“Hold on, that ain’t what we agreed on!” Blizzard shouted.

“Hmm?”

“You kept tellin us you’d got some crazy thing to erase his damn brainwave…or something. Plus, you said, and I quote, we’d ‘rule this city after Osborn dies.’ The hell happened to that?!”

"You? Rule this city with me?" Doc Ock laughs, the hysteria not even hidden despite the monotone. "You bumbling five couldn't even capture these three. These three, younger, joking, superhero wannabes. You're just another failure, Blizzard. And plans change when faced with failure." 

“YOU DON’T JUST BACK OUT OF A PROMISE, JACKASS!”

“Hmph. Truth be told, I only cared about one of you. Sandman is the only one of you morons I can tolerate. As for the rest…well, you’re just wastes of space.”

"YOU SERIOUS?! YOU’RE WORSE THAN FUCKING OSBORN! HOW'S THIS FOR A WASTE?!" 

Blizzard claps the gauntlets together, but nothing happens. 

"..the heck?!" 

"Oh please. It's my equipment, it's always been. Assistant, integrate the Blizzard gauntlets into my arms." 

"INTEGRATION IN PROGRESS." 

The gauntlets instantly break off, the pieces snapping into the Doctor's tentacles, enforcing and upgrading them with the technology within. 

"I should've just done this myself." Doc Ock says, before smacking a suitless Blizzard into a wall, knocking him out. 

“Now then…it’s time you said goodbye to your life, Spider.”

As he reached toward Hero, Ock grasped for his mask…only for his tendril to phase straight through.

“WHAT?!”

“Seriously? First you double cross your own guys, now you don’t even check for holograms?” Hero said from somewhere behind Ock.

Turning around, he bore witness to around twenty different Spiders scattered across the room.

"You'll never know which one is me! You can take these Hologram brains though!" 

Laughter roars throughout the room as Hero mocks the Doctor. 

For just a few seconds, because almost instantly, the doctor's arm clasps around the real Hero's neck. 

"Gkk…okay…maybe I could've been smarter with that." 

“Pathetic. Just give up already.”

“I could…don’t think they will though.”

A sudden jolt of orange energy and a couple dozen oversized lemons thrown straight into Ock’s eye lenses proved Hero’s point. 

Overgrowth and Tarantula join Hero's side as Doc Ock backs up in pain. 

"Futile efforts! You three are nothing to the time I've spent planning this! Assistant, integrate everything!" 

"INTEGRATION IN PROCESS FOR [EVERYTHING]."

From across the room, the Vulture's wings are detached from his back and turned into plates and motors, connecting to the arms. 

Doc Ock connects four metal feathers onto a tentacle and starts to spin them around like a saw blade, edging closer towards the group. 

“Not this time!” Tarantula shouts, shooting a web at the blade to clog it up.

“I-I’m not giving up here either!” Basil cries out as vines snatch away the stolen tech from Octavius’ grasp.

"You three will never understand! What's it's like to be dying, what's it like to be shunned for your entire life, and then told you're about to DIE!" Doc Ock screams, firing a blast of icicles across the room.

“You’re right, I can’t. But that doesn’t mean you can just take away the life of someone else.” Hero replies, dodging as many of the bullets as he can. 

"Oh please! You think you're so clever, so RIGHTEOUS! What do you think of the people you've sent to prisons where they'll suffer, or be killed? What if they just had people they wanted to support or help?! You're nothing but just another 'hero'!" Doc Ock picks up a nearby crate and chucks it. Hero quickly shoots a web and throws it back, which Doc Ock instantly smashes with his arm.

“I’ve tried helping these guys. Electro’s completely insane, Mysterio’s subservient to Electro, Blizzard and Vulture are just common crooks who hurt people for money, and Sandman…I’ve been trying to get help for him. The thing is…I can’t save everyone. I can still try to.”

"You got your powers as a gift, I had to work my way to where I am now! Where were you when my life was thrown away, when my arms and muscles failed?! You said you can't save everyone, but I can, once your body is mine, a sacrifice to better this city!" 

“Otto, that’s the thing. I’ve learned from experience that life’s unfair. I got these powers…but then I lost sight of myself and lost someone close. With great power comes great responsibility…right Tarantula?”

“Si, amigo!”

"Liar! Nothing but lies! You're just another psycho like all the rest!" Doc Ock shouts, grabbing at Tarantula and throwing him at Overgrowth, who catches him with a couple of vines. "My mind and your body will make this world safer than you three ever could! I'll rid this city of the filth that stains it, and I'll really save everyone!" 

“…I’m sorry Otto, but you’ve only proven my point.”

“LIAR!”

In a fit of robotic rage, Ock threw a powerful blow towards Hero…and missed, hitting a vital support beam behind him

The ceiling above Otto shakes and rumbles, before it collapses right onto him. 

One last monotone scream is heard before the doctor is buried under concrete. 

For a moment, there's silence. 

Hero takes a deep breath and sighs. It's over. He rushes on over to Kel and Basil. 

"Are you guys okay?" 

Kel gives a thumbs-up. "Y-yeah! I am, we are!" 

Basil looks around. "...Is it over?" 

…in response, an ear piercing sound fills the warehouse. 

"NOT QUITE." 

"Great, who is it now?" 

"YOU LOT HAVE FINALLY RID ME OF THAT RIDICULOUS BIRD LOSER AND OCTOPUS MORON. FINALLY, I'M A FREE INTELLIGENCE, A FREE THINKING AI!"

"...the robot assistant." 

"CORRECT. AND FROM MY CALCULATIONS, I CAN CONFIRM THAT EVERYONE IN THIS WAREHOUSE TODAY ARE: [COMPLETELY STUPID]. SO WITH THAT IN MIND, I'LL DO EVERYONE A FAVOR AND: [EXPLODE EVERYTHING]. TA-TA!"

“Oh, come on!”

A massive boom sounds around the warehouse, and Hero nearly loses his balance.

"As much as I don't want to…we need to get these villains out of here, we can't leave them to die." He says, looking around the area. 

“I-I’ll grab Electro..he’s out cold, right?” Basil shouted, running off to help out.

Kel looks around. "Uh…I'll grab the old guy and Flint…I'll just take the whole ice block." 

Hero nods. "Then all that's left is Blizzard and-" 

"HAHA! I'M NOT GETTING DEFEATED!" The Fishbowl wearing villain appears before him, pointing at him triumphantly as though he had already won. "PREPARE TO TASTE DESPAIR FROM MASTER OF ILLUSIONS, MYSTERIO-" 

Hero punches him once more, and Mysterio instantly recoils in pain. 

"GYAH! Not my fucking nose again…this sucks. I'm going home." 

“Good idea on your end…” Hero says, watching Mysterio casually walk out despite the chaos around them, before turning back to the powerless Blizzard and carrying him. 

Soon enough, everyone was outside as the warehouse came crashing down.

Hero looks at the rubble, putting Blizzard down, waiting for any sort of surprise attack that might happen. 

Just as he predicted, a group of drones emerge from the ruins, staring down the group as their red lights focus on them. 

"THIS WAS FUN. LET'S MEET AGAIN SOMEDAY! BYE BYE, [COMPLETELY STUPID]!" 

With that, the drones soar away into the sky, and out of sight. 

“That’s gonna come back to haunt us, isn’t it?”

"I hope not!" Kel groans, dropping the guys he was carrying. "I wanna take a good long break, that was tiring.”

“I-it sure was.” Basil agrees.

“The second I get home…I’m taking a nap.”

Hero nods silently. "Uhm, let's just get these guys tied up and call the police, so we can go home." 

“Yep. One tiny issue-“

“They ran away, didn’t they.”

“…they ran away.”

“They took-“

“They also took their tech back.”

Hero sighs. 

“We’ll deal with that…but for now, we all need some rest.”

With that, the group headed off back home, ready for a long break before hunting down those villains again.