Spider-Man SI

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***

Following the new goal the Centre had set for me, I quickly came across a group of seven Jotuns fighting another spider-robot. Heh, funny. Lately, I've been able to figure out who's sending these machines to create havoc in the city. The only reason I haven't dealt with him so far is because I'm waiting for the right moment. I made a promise to someone once that I wouldn't touch this guy. It hasn't been a while, but things have changed. I expected to be released from my vow in the near future.

Frankly, the fact that the robots are siding with the city's defenders in this battle is a little disconcerting. Someone probably couldn't get over their conscience and shove it into a dark corner.

The spider robot this time was the biggest I've ever seen, and it was very seriously and thoroughly armed. Several large-calibre machine guns, and a whole lot of various rocket launchers mounted on it inspired respect. The robot managed to defeat two of the seven giants until one lucky throw of the ice baton broke something in its steel body. Losing mobility, he was quickly overtaken and instantly stomped into the pavement.

I deliberately delayed a bit to attack after the robot was destroyed. However it may be used against me in the future. So while my enemies were pissing each other I preferred not to interfere.

Jumping on the head of the nearest giant, I put all four blades into it for safety. Suddenly, from somewhere to the side of me, a white figure crashed into the alien standing next to me. A rather pretty female figure clad in a tight latex suit. Jotun staggered to the ground.

Wow! She's stronger than me?

As I jumped on the hammer of another enemy and threw a spider web into his eyes, I tried to catch a glimpse of the new superheroine. Her costume was white in colour, with a blue belt and cuffs on her chest, and long gloves of the same colour. Her long hair was dyed an extravagant dark pink colour. Or was it a wig? No, it was definitely his own dyed hair!

I couldn't see her face, as her back was turned to me. But how could anyone be ugly with a bum like that?

Ahem.

She was now busily beating the face of the giant she'd fallen over to smithereens (literally).

The three remaining aliens split up, two of the opponents moving towards me, one pulling his arm towards the girl. I had nothing against it. Hopefully the girl wouldn't take offence at being ignored.

I didn't want to screw up this time like I did with that black guy. Okay, I made sure that this girl was strong enough to jump high, but it's not a fact that the list of her abilities by default includes shock resistance. So, while the third giant only had time to grab the girl who wasn't expecting it, I blasted the heads of my opponents with two accurate shots. The spider's mechanical legs were capable of firing with their outermost claws. It's like a one- or rather four-shot crossbow. It's a pity that it only works at short or medium distances. As the distance increases, the accuracy and piercing power are sharply lost.

The jotun, who was clutching the shapely girl, decided not to worry too much and bite off the head of the annoying booger. The strongest blow that I was capable of, supplemented by the discharge of the stun gun smashed the monster's mouth open. Oh, my God! Now I'm not ashamed of myself! The five-metre tall giant was slammed into the nearest building. Sprinkled with broken glass and concrete crumbs, he slid quietly to the ground. A couple of seconds later, I gently lowered the dazed superheroine to the side of the road. In flight, the giant unclenched his fist and I was able to pick the girl up with a webbing.

- Second rookie today, huh? - I muttered quietly to myself.

The heroine was staring at me with eyes so wide open that it wasn't hard to guess that today was the first time she'd been out in public in that white suit.

- Fuck...' she squeaked, still unable to focus her eyes.

I squinted suspiciously. The voice sounded vaguely familiar. As I looked more closely at the girl, I could barely hold back an exclamation of recognition! Those freckles, though almost imperceptible, brown eyes, though now not hidden by the magnifying lenses of glasses, even that shy dash of a creepy smile! It was all familiar to me!

Jessica Campbell! Or rather now Jones!

She... she went to the same school as me! The almighty heels of the Hulk! If I wasn't a costumed superhero myself, I'd run to my class right now and tell everyone what a plain, grey girl Jess had become!

Once again, I was glad my face was hidden by the mask. I probably look like an idiot underneath it now.

Come to think of it, what do I even remember about this girl?

Jessica wasn't very popular at school. Just like me before I got bit by a spider. But unlike me, she wasn't even considered a nerd or a geek. I mean, she wasn't the brightest. She wasn't a stunning beauty or a great athlete. A solid average in everything, but without friends and her own company. The latter was probably the most damaging to her image. Man is a pack animal, and those outside the pack get pecked at in droves. If she had just one friend, she wouldn't be touched, I think.

She was also teased a lot because of her freckles, and she would snap back quite sharply. Because of that, the teachers didn't like her too much either. For some reason, they often heard her swear more often than those barbs that were let off to Jess by the school beauties.

Tragedy had struck recently in the girl's life. I don't know what really happened there, but the car on which she was travelling with her parents and younger brother got into an accident. She was the only one who survived. After lying in a coma for months, she was able to recover. Rumour had it that the accident was terrible, the car they were driving to Disneyland collided with another car, flipped several times and eventually exploded. What was even more amazing was that Jess was virtually unharmed. Well, apart from being in a coma.

There were rumours that an army vehicle was to blame for the accident, but I don't know if that's actually true. There was hardly any mention of it on the news.

Social services put her in a home for troubled children. But she didn't stay there long, just a couple of weeks later she was adopted by the Joneses. Funnily enough, their house wasn't far from our school, so Jess came back to live with us. It wasn't long before Gwen and I graduated early.

I remember trying to talk to her and comfort her in her grief. Maybe I was too tactless or something. But she didn't like me feeling sorry for her. We haven't spoken since.

And now I see her looking better and with her hair redone! This is probably the coolest surprise I've had all day!

- Hey!' I called out to her, but got no meaningful response.

I snapped my fingers in front of her nose - nothing. I gently touched her shoulder, still nothing. I grasped it with both hands and gave it a gentle shake. There! At last the gaze began to focus. Funny, just a minute ago she was so thoughtfully kneading the jotun's face, you'd never know she was capable of falling into a stupor.

- Spider-Man...' she whispered.

- A fan? - I asked, barely containing my laughter. - Sorry, I don't have time for autographs, I've got a city to save!

- Y-yeah, that's right.

That's the fighting spirit!

Traditionally handing the girl a second clip-on earpiece, I gave her the usual briefing, this time I insisted even more strongly that she should find a team with the help of the Centre. Anyway, the black-skinned Luke Cage, if that was what he was, looked more impressive against her background. Not in the sense that he was pumped up and muscular. He seemed a little older, and it reflected well in his actions.

Even now, she'd stuck the earpiece in her ear without a second thought, without even thinking about what the consequences might be. Neither Luke nor Logan put their clips on right away.

Shaking his head mentally, he left Jessica to herself and flew on. Before doing so, he remembered to securely fix the unconscious Jotun. I didn't know if one of their species would be enough for the experiments, so I decided to keep this one alive, too.

I managed to finish off a dozen more giants before the Centre notified me that another alien had appeared out of nowhere near where the portal had opened. According to the girl, it was not an ice giant, but rather a metal one.

Until now, the portal was still active, or rather, it was working, but with interference. A trio of small, three-metre tall Jotuns were doing something about it, most of all their actions looked like some kind of sorcery. At intervals, they stabilised the portal, and it spewed out another batch of scumbags. Captain America and Iron Man, having just arrived in the city, were sent to thwart the enemy mages. But they were guarded by a fair number of ordinary giants and a trio of elite warriors.

The metal man who had just appeared attacked the Jotuns. Stark was glad of the reinforcements, and relaxed and took a beating from the newcomer. Apparently, he was attacking everyone he met, regardless of side.

At first I thought it was the local analogue of Kolos, a mutant with Russian roots, and in almost all versions a member of the X-Men. But as far as I remembered, he couldn't shoot red energy beams out of his eyes.

I was advised to move into that area, to reinforce our defence.

Jumping on the roof of the nearest high-rise, I started teleporting to the right direction without sparing the reactor. Teleportation is a cool thing, just a few seconds and I'd crossed half of a not-so-small city!

Instead of rushing headlong into the fray, I took a few minutes to observe. The picture that was going on in this part of my favourite city didn't really appeal to me. The small neighbourhood was quickly turning into a wasteland filled with concrete and glass crumbles, all that was left of the buildings that used to rise here.

The metal guy, who didn't look much like a robot in terms of plasticity of movements, was slaughtering Jotuns left and right, using crushing blows of his hands and rare red beams from his eyes, or rather from the slit at their level. He was somewhat shorter than the vast majority of the ice giants, so he didn't look as imposing against them, but as we know, steel is stronger than ice.

Tony Stark flew at some distance from the general huddle and used repulsor shots to finish off the wounded giants. Steve Rogers, with his famous shield on his back, was busy evacuating ordinary civilians who had survived the inferno. Only once in a while he sent the vibranium shield flying with one hand, thus interrupting the life of a jotun who had fallen off the pile.

I joined Steve, contacted Tony, and asked him to do the same. It seemed to me that at the moment, it was the best solution. The Iron Giant was successfully fighting the Icemen alone. New enemy forces that appeared through the portal were immediately engaged in battle with him, rather than heading into the city. According to the Centre, the superhero teams are almost done with the Jotuns that have scattered around the area. So we can expect reinforcements soon.

Unexpectedly, I found out that my spider sense and rudiments of empathy are pretty good at finding human survivors in the rubble of buildings. With the excellent coordination provided by the Centre, I was quickly delivering the wounded directly to the ambulance crews.

Soon, the rest of the heroes joined our rescue mission. To be honest, I was somewhat relieved to see for myself that Gwen and Felicia were okay. It's a pity we couldn't exchange even a few words. The situation was unfolding quite dynamically, so that when another batch of Jotuns appeared from the portal, I realised that it was time to intervene. Too big giants began to come through the door from the other world.

- It's time for a massive attack,' I said, having contacted all the heroes present here.

- We'll go wall to wall, won't we? - Wolverine snorted. - And why are you bossing everyone around all of a sudden?

- Do you want to take that role?

- I'm not exactly a leader,' the man admitted honestly. - I'm sorry, kid, but I think Cap would be the best person to take that role out of all of us.

- This town is Spider's domain,' Steve interjected. - He knows best what to do, and I've never led such a motley crew before. And he has some experience.

- Whatever you say, mate,' Logan shrugged, seeming to calm down.

- This is really my town, and my only wish now is to get this over with as quickly as possible. First it would be a good idea to disable the damn portal. A remote attack would be the best way to do that, if you ask me. I'm asking anyone who has the ability to do so to report back with the time needed to prepare.

- Do we have to hit it as hard as we can? - Stark clarified. - Then I need a minute and a half for the reactor to ramp up.

- Ready now, - answered Cyclops, it seems that all the X-men were able to connect to the Centre through their communication devices.

- I need about ten minutes to disperse the clouds, - Thunderstorm replied.

- Ready to fire,' Falcon Eye said briefly.

- Brother, my grenade launcher is loaded, and my finger is trembling on the trigger! - a shout of joy made one of my acquaintances shiver nervously. - Let's add a little red to this suspiciously blue party!

- It'll take a couple of minutes to get into position,' Silk said, and Gwen seemed to be armed with a sniper rifle for old times' sake.

- Good, then we'll set up for Thunderstorm. Ten-minute warning, everyone. Aim for the little buggers that keep the portal open. If we take them out, there's a good chance the arch will collapse. After the remote attack can go 'wall to wall', just remember that do not get under the attacks of the iron giant, with him deal with last.

A couple of colourful Jotuns came out of the portal: a big naked man, one of whose hands looked more like a huge piece of ice than a hand, it was impossible to distinguish the fingers on it, and a one-eyed woman in a horned ice helmet and a shield. The two of them piled on top of each other and forced the iron one into a defensive position.

Thus the rank and file Jotuns began to scatter around the city again, roaring merrily. So those of the heroes that were not preparing to strike, were forced to stand in a sparse ring around the site of the main battle, and catch such tricksters. The robot spider came in handy in this case, as well as 'Richard I' - my personal armoured suit created on a couple of Stark. I thought that in this situation it would be better to have one extra fighter on the field, so I didn't put it on personally, it was remotely controlled by Cee. Since this was basically our improvisation, I asked her to just get into position and shoot any approaching ice giants, but to stay out of the thick of it.

Something gave me a headache.

The sky over New York was gradually filling with menacing dark clouds. The storm was over in seven minutes, which was immediately reported. After checking the readiness of everyone else, I gave the command:

- Fire!

Somewhere an arrow with a cunning tip flashed, an armour-piercing rifle fired, a finger in a red glove pressed a grenade launcher, a powerful red laser shot flashed, two similar suits emitted two powerful bluish beams of energy from the main calibres on their chests. But all of this was lost amidst the lightning that toppled from the sky! A delayed thunderclap filled the ears of everyone present, and several dozen Jotuns and their mages turned to ash.

- All right,' I said, 'Let's finish off the rest before they wake up.

Our motley crowd went on the attack. The ordinary Jotuns were eliminated quite quickly. But the two 'bosses' were a bit of a challenge. In addition to the fact that they were first-class fighters themselves, we had to act very carefully. The Iron Giant continued to attack anyone who came too close to him. And then some military men came to the city. The guys didn't want to obey the Shield, so they were more of a hindrance than a help.

I was just trying to pull the horned helmet off the giantess' head when the journalists decided to stick their long noses into the matter. A helicopter with the Daily Bugle emblem flew unacceptably low over the battlefield. Suicidal bastards! It wasn't enough for them to have a newspaper, they have recently launched their own news website, for which they have started shooting video reports. When did they buy a helicopter? And more importantly, where did they find such reckless workers?

Steel didn't give a damn about the business expansion of one grumpy, mustachioed man. The freak raised his head, the slit where his eyes were glowed red, and spewed out an aimed shot. Stark managed to smash the windscreen and pull the pilot out. The operator, who had fallen out a second earlier, was picked up by Cee. Pieces of the broken helicopter flew to the ground, and if the cockpit crashed onto the battle-scarred robot spider, its tail nearly buried a small group of those underhanded military men underneath.

Silk standing closest to them with her webbing managed to pull three of them out, but the last soldier was hidden from her and the girl just couldn't get a hold of him. That's when it happened. Her suit went through a small ripple and spat out two long tentacles. One slammed into the tail end of the helicopter, unable to stop her, but slowing her down for a couple of moments. The other arched up and grabbed the soldier still firing and probably not noticing the approaching cunt and pulled him out.

- What the fuck...' I whispered quietly as I watched.

Jotunsha didn't apply the opportunity, and easily shook the dazed me off her head. In the next instant, her huge shield slammed into my body, sending me into a long ballistic flight path. But even after smashing through the window of some office building, driving a dozen metres across the floor, sweeping away desks, printers and coffee machines, crashing into the opposite wall, breaking through the soft plasterboard, I kept replaying in my head what had just happened. My first impulse was to drop everything and urgently remove from his girlfriend inexplicably from where the symbiotic monster came from! But sluggishly fidgeting in the hole I had made, I realised I should sort it all out first.

If you think about it, it's obvious why she's kept our contact to a minimum lately. So I wouldn't notice. And I'm so bloody immersed in my own affairs I didn't even suspect a thing! But Gwen kept in touch with Felicia and, more importantly, Connors. If the symbiote had brainwashed her, she would have started behaving differently, which meant the two of them would have noticed a dramatic change in her character. If they don't sound the alarm, then either they're as 'attentive' as I am, or they're... aware of what's happened to her and have it under control.

- 'Or hope they're in control,' a grim thought slipped through my mind.

Shaking my head, I promised myself to take care of the problem today. Right after we'd finally strangled the alien invaders. When I got out of the hole in the drywall, I wanted to rush to the battlefield, but I could only waddle slowly. Galactus' gluttony! I've been turned into a bruise! Your friendly neighbour, the Giant Chop! Lifting his mask, he spat a blood clot from the window. I think the blue-skinned goat broke a couple of ribs. I took out my rucksack and injected myself with a strong painkiller. My regeneration is good, but it can't heal bones instantly. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow I'll be fine, and today I'll treat myself to a weak drug. That feels better. Let's go!

Driven by the thirst for revenge, I was a little disappointed to find that the jotun who had offended me had already been defeated by someone else. My rage was not gone, and so I did not restrain myself and pounced on the last giant with a club hand.

But I didn't have time to stretch my fists properly when thunder rumbled in the sky somewhere far away. The storm? Has it recovered? She looked pretty exhausted after that attack. Looking at the dark-skinned girl, I barely forced myself to take my gaze away from her circles and look into her eyes. No it didn't seem to be glowing white. Again, but this time closer thunder rumbled and a figure in a red cloak and carrying a lightning hammer glittered from the sky. He slammed into the giant, shattering his arm and smashing the hammer into his forehead. I barely had time to jump off the falling jotun.

- Destroyer, why do you attack the common people of Earth? - said the brutal, bearded man, turning to the iron giant and raising his hammer in his direction, 'Answer me!

But instead of answering, the giant called Destroyer fired a laser shot from his eyes. The bearded man used his hammer as a shield to deflect the shot. Frowning, the man didn't speak anymore, he soared into the air and in a few blows crushed the iron man like a tin can.

- Who the hell is this pepper? - phlegmatically asked Wolverine, who was next to him, lighting a cigar.

- I don't know, mate, but I like his cape! It's so... so... red! - said Deadpool cheerfully, waving his half-empty grenade loadout. There was an arrow sticking out of his chest.

Covering my eyes, I radioed everyone and warned them:

- 'Steady, gentlemen. Take your fingers off the triggers, retract your claws and the like. This bearded man must be one of the good guys.

It wouldn't be good if we wiped the thunder god's face. When I opened my eyes, I saw the bearded one step away from me.

- I am Thor, son of Odin, and on my behalf I apologise to you, glorious warrior of Earth, as well as to your squad, for the actions of the Destroyer.

I didn't realise how he knew I was in charge. Only when I looked round to find all the defenders of New York gathered behind me. Oh, so that's it.

- I'm Spiderman, I accept your apology, especially since you handled that iron--

- I think it would be clearer to you humans if I called him a magical robot,' Thor said, interpreting my hesitation correctly.

- Forgive me for asking, but what is your connection to this robot, and why did you apologise to us for its actions?

- It's a long and convoluted story that I haven't quite figured out myself. In a nutshell, the Destroyer belonged to my father, but I think my brother took control of it. I would love to stay and help repair the damage done by the robot, but I need to return to Asgard immediately to clear up the situation.

- I hope to see you again, son of Odin, and that you will tell your story over a good beer.

- We'll have a nice party! - said the bearded man, 'And now I must go.

The god of thunder and lightning swung his hammer and soared into the air.

It's always like this. They quarrel with each other in the other world, make a mess in our world and leave quietly. What a bunch of gods!