TerminusAshbell

“Hmm... Yeah, definitely not in Neo York anymore, this place is wild…!” Jon “Webster” mused to himself as he quickly slung line after glowing line of webbing between the walls of the city’s stone, steel, and mortar buildings. “All of these building styles went out of date ages ago! I’ve only ever seen them in games! So either this place is really into retro displays, or I’m in for some wild stuff.” Jon exclaimed, the digital SPIDER eyes on his mask snapping into a quizzical squint. “Could I be trapped in a game? Electro’s meddling maybe? But nah, she should be contained and getting treatment right now, and Minny isn’t into historical games like these…” As Jon continued his meditations on the nature of the world mid swing, the spider clad motorcyclist sped up as he swerved around a corner, catching sight of this, Jon hastily sped up with his swings, web supplies dwindling at an even higher rate. Swinging past two city blocks, he turned the corner and refocused his eyes on catching the spider rider… Only to discover a two ton ball of metal, glass, and plastic screaming through the air towards him Hastily whipping a line to the side of the nearby building with his free non-swinging hand, Webster yanked with superhuman force to throw himself against the building’s walls, narrowly avoiding being splattered like a bug. “Haka, Shui! Go grab that-” Webster shouted out the rapid command before pulling himself back in check. His friends aren’t here to help him now, he’s got to do this on his own. Pushing the melancholic thought into the back of his mind, Webster leapt off the building, diving in after the falling ball of automotive debris and took action. Grabbing a holo-web grenade from his virtual pocketspace, he chucked the device that promptly cracked open in midair, wrapping its brightly colored net around the ball of metal and plastic. Slinging out a compound line to the two steel supports of the skyscrapers on both sides he leaned forward to gain more speed as he thwipped a final web towards the now balled up debris. Tugging on the line with all his might, Webster linked the three web lines together, making a makeshift restraint for the car. As the car continues its trajectory downwards, the lines begin to pull taut and stretch, arresting the car’s momentum, stopping it from landing on the ground and crushing the pedestrians beneath. “Whew” Jon thought as he spun a final few lines to secure the now immobile car, hanging four stories above the ground. “Much harder doing it solo… But where did this hunk of junk come from?” The answer came to him almost immediately in the form of the screaming roars coming from a gargantuan man clad in rhinoceros themed garb, whose contribution to noise pollution is currently only matched by the air pollution he’s causing by throwing up more cars into the city airspace. Internal lenses behind the SPIDER mask auto zoomed in on the man, revealing his appearance in great clarity to Jon, obviously showing his status as a new costumed menace of some kind. Turning his glance towards the spider clad man on a motorcycle, and calculating for his own internal web supplies, Jon knew he could only either chase the man… or have just about enough webbing to approach the maddened mechanical mammal mimicking menace. With one last turn towards the now dubbed “Rhino-man” and the rider each, Jon sighed as he made up his mind. “I can’t involve some bystander in that... It’s gonna be one of those days huh.” Webster reached out for the web line still attached to the car, fully stretched. “Well, here goes nothing.” with one last big sigh, Webster cut the thread. The two lines binded to the skyscrapers, currently pulled tight and stretching under the pressure immediately contracted, releasing the great elastic force. The energy yanked the thread that Webster was holding, catapulting him upwards into the air, flying past a crowd of flocking pigeons. “Ah, crud! Birds!” Webster said with a little grin on his face even as the pigeon feathers still strewn across his facemask. Casting a line of holo-web to the building ahead, he launches himself with abandon towards the direction of the Rhino-man. “The SPIDER is swinging into action, baby!! Whoo!!”

SOMEWHERE, NEO YORK, 2059, EARTH-230599 "Beep.. beep.. beep.. beep.." The cold green lines of the EKG machine echoed itself across the room with a detached, mechanical precision. Wall to wall, a thin microfilm of transparent holo-shielding cover every surface. Tangle of wires connect themselves to the myriad of machines and screens in the room, all leading themselves to the central bed, like the tentacles of some digital kraken. Clickety.. clickety clack.. clickety. A set of nimble, thin and pale fingers tapped away at a force responsive "pseudo-hardlight" keyboard, a rare prototype not distributed outside of the scientists working with Alchemax. Covered in a simple shirt and shorts, the young boy looked at the walls with glazed eyes, head covered in a semi transparent black headset with a visor. The boy was sickly and pale, the kind of pale that makes you think of the deathbed, his pallor only contrasted with the dexterity of his digits and the rapid flashes of light from the free standing displays. The boy was Jonathan Parker. Boy genius. Wunderkind. Boy in a bubble. Born under a star of misfortune, his shining intellect was only matched on severity by his illness, a rare immune compromised condition even the technologies of the 2050s could not cure. He doused himself in the virtual world to live, and is a true child of the net. But more importantly to the Kingpin, the boy is a hostage. The son of Kent Parker, who once worked under him, but is now possibly the only person who can destroy the plans he had carefully laid. "Is the monitoring still remaining contrant on the boy?" Fisk asked his underling, the steel like tone every bit the Kingpin he was. "Yes sir. Constant monitoring of the live feed and all of his connection and virtual engagements, even the hidden ones, which were well encrypted, have been under control. No communications from Kent was detected in anyways," the subordinate in the fine suit replied. "Good. Smart as the boy may be, he is but a child. With him and the mother, after we lure Kent out of hiding and get my plans back on track, I may still not be robbed of a chief scientist yet. That prodigious intellect will replace his father well, and with an easier ease of control to boot." Kingpin replied with a steady drawl, the kind that belonged to a man with every confidence in his success. "Then, that matter besides, what about our little... joint venture with Alchemax? That is of no less a priority than this." "Sir, the first prototypes have been deployed live, and are functioning excellently... Notwithstanding their encounters with the SPIDERs, of course, b-but even then the performance metrics are-" "Blasted! Those irritating bugs can never stick their noses out of my business!" Fisk interrupted, rising into a sudden anger. "If I had my way I would have them drawn and quartered like the bugs they are, for daring to defy Wilson Fisk!" "C-certainly sir..! But the project is making major headway, and top secret research is still projecting a combat ready version 1 that can for certain take down the SPIDER!" the man almost whimpered out. "Hmm, see to it that it remains secret, and make for certain that your bold claims are true, or not even Alchemax can prevent me from having those researchers sleeping with the fishes." Fisk spoke with finality. The man scraped and bowed, before beating a hasty retreat out of the office, with Fisk pouring himself a full glass of brandy. ABOUT 20 METERS ABOVE SAID SOMEWHERE, NEO YORK, 2059, EARTH-230599 "Ahahahaha oh MAN, can you believe those techie clowns STILL haven't figured out that I've been feeding them looped recordings of myself and false net traffic data? Lmao, Kingpin needs a better IT Stalker Department. By the way, Haka, you owe me 20 bucks," the visored boy with the green jacket snickered. "Grr, damnit! I figured he'd have catched on by now after three bloody months! I'll pay you at home, I dont got a wallet in my Spider-Pants," the visored man decked in bright red armor replied. "Discussing this while we are on his building in real time is not the greatest move in my opinion," the visored woman garbed in a blue coat admonished. "Relaxxx, Shui. I got this all sorted. We could be sticking right outside his windows posing into the cameras for a selfie and he'd scarcely notice. For a criminal mastermind, you'd think he'd hire better tech," the yellow suited visored man replied with a cool, laidback cadence. "Are you guys all done with the bickering? I've done figuring out how we'd make the best entry into here. Stylish and smashing, preferably." The visored lady in the pink tunic said softly. "Yeah, 's bout time. Thanks Rose." nodded Jon "Webster" Parker. Green jacket fluttering in the air, with his digital lenses on the visor locked into a wide eyed grin, he leaps off the building with one big swing of a hard light web, his four followers in tow. "The SPIDERs are swinging right in baby!" *CRASH* The reinforced glass on the penthouse of Fisk Tower shattered with explosive aplomb as five super-strength backed pair of feet smashed right through it. The silence of the room was broken with an explosive entrance, leaving even the Kingpin frozen in momentary shock. "Oh gosh, sorry about that, did anyone get hurt???... Is what I would say if it wasn't only you in the room, Big K. Being as fat as you are, any glass cut would only get us a lifetime supply of lard~," Jon quipped with a cocky ease. "Oh man, good one, Webster. Noting that down for later." Shui noted from the ceiling as Haka gave Jon a quick fist bump. The man of the hour, Wilson Fisk, stared distastefully into the floating shard of glass in his fresh glass of brandy, and seemed to ruminate for a single second before... "I'm going to shove these shards in your ceaselessly flapping mouths. All five of your insufferable lot." He snarled as he crushed the glass in his hand to a pulped mess of glass pieces. Pressing a small button on the table, he took off his jacket with a slow poise. The colossal bulk of the Kingpin shot forth explosively, gigantic fist reaching out to slam Rose into the wall! His feet slams on the ground with a deep thump, cracking the floor tiles as the human mass charge forward. With a narrowly timed jump, Rose elegantly hopped onto Kingpin's shoulder as he smashes the wooden linings of the wall open into a shower of splinters and dust. Leaping off with a dexterous bound and a swift heel stomp kick, she snips in with a quick retort. "It's like you've never read a report on us~! Superhuman speed, strength, reflexes remember? Or is it that poor old Kingpin can't afford a Bugle subscription?" "By the time I'm done with you, all I'll see of you lot in the Bugle is the obituary column!" Kingpin snarled back as the doors to the room burst open. "Men, take out the pests in my room!" Henchmen after henchmen poured into the room with batons and blades and started charging towards the SPIDERs. Two luminous lines of web rocketed forth from Webster's gauntlet as it zips onto the shoulders of a larger thug, launching Webster forward into a sharp dive kick straight to his face. The thug flew backwards and knocked two more behind him over. With a hasty swing of his baton, a henchman tried to bat at Jon's head from behind, but before he could even reach midway, Haka bounded forth with animalistic speed and knocked the baton clean out of his arm with one hit, before punching the man flying into the air with the other. Shui strung line after line of web between wall to wall, tripping the henchmen between one and another, before tying them down with big shots of web netting. In the middle of her swift movements, she grabbed a stray web flying in the air and swing Angus forth with tremendous power. The yellow-garbed SPIDER flew through the air right at Kingpin's shin, knocking the gargantuan man off balance and causing his swing at Rose to miss, before she immediately followed up with a swift side kick to his face, almost toppling him over. "You know that both of us can play the numbers game right?" Jon cracked wise with a grin clearly visible on his techno-masked display eyes. "Well, five versus like, two to three dozen." He continued as he swiftly drove a small concussive shock blast at a particularly lanky thug. "But considering how we are..." Haka continued, "Stronger." Shui followed, "Smarter" Rose chimed in, "Faster" Angus finished with a grin, "And from the looks of it, some two hundred kilos lighter," "I think it's just about a fair fight, isn't it?" Jon concluded with a playful tone. Kingpin screamed with primal, explosive fury, shaking the room with his anger. "I'M GOING TO PULVERISE YOUR CORPSES!!! YOU WILL RUE THE DAY YOU MESSED WITH THE KINGP-" he was promptly disrupted by a green-booted kick to the face. "Careful, big guy, that size and anger management issues doesn't bode well for the heart." Jon countered, big round swirly glasses displaying on his visor. "Luckily, Doctor Webster M.D is in the house. First treatment? Free of charge." Several moments later, after some further destruction of the room, courtesy of Kingpin chiefly, the henchmen finds themselves all webbed up into packs against the walls and floors, while a battered and bruised Kingpin dangles loosely from the ceiling, hovering in front of his desk. His face, marred with a few bruises, scuffs and the lone bootprint, scrunched up in indignation as he hovered before the standing SPIDER squadron. "You know, we really thought you'd be something nastier than this. What with the last rich guy who fought us being a giant green goober, and then followed by someone who was living lightning and all that," Jon started with a sly drawl. "But no, you're just some big mob dude with a bad tendency to hire template bad guy NPCs as goons. Bit disappointing tbh." Kingpin spat forth with great distaste towards Jon, who dodged with a nonchalant ease and a half hearted shrug, turning himself to Shui. Nudging up her visor as if it was a pair of glasses, she immediately started with questionings. "What have you been up to lately, Mister Fisk? First a trip to some middle of nowhere island off the Pacific, and then returning and celebrating by "disappearing" a whole bunch of your scientist and researcher?" She pushed with a calm but interrogative tone. "Not as subtle as you would usually do it. Maybe it's got to do with your little buddy buddy maneuvers with Alchemax?" "You look like the smart one of the lot, if we are being generous. What makes you think I'm going to answer your little questions, huh?" Kingpin scoffed with disdain, an act that perhaps would be more convincing if he wasn't slowly rotating around on the spot while dangling. "Oh, I was expecting you to ask that, actually," Rose followed with a titter. "See these visors? They're good to see things with, great to record things with, but they're best to stream things with! And where else would the ever popular SPIDERs stream to but the virtual world?" Kingpin visibly tensed up, his face a seeming mix of tension and regret from not anticipating this development. "That's right big fella, you're live right now. So quit the sour face yea? Great, big smile for the camera now. I'd recommend making it nice and bright, you don't want the papers to publish a grim mugshot eh? Maybe they'd even use our stream footage!" Angus followed with a joyful, jabbing tirade. "You wouldn't dare-" "Yeah we would, why wouldn't we?" Haka interjected before Kingpin can complete the sentence. "What are you gonna do about it? Threaten to bore us all to death? Flop yourself on us? Funny jokes for a man hung like a hock of fatty, fatty ham." "Oh that's a good one, Haka. You got me beat there." Jon continued, smooth as water. "We'll have you locked up for a long time, 'Kingpin'. Then maybe we can dig up enough to redress all these poor folks that's suffered under you. All that richness can do a lot, and I'm not just talking about your calorie count, lol." Kingpin mulls in silence. Cold raging fury subsumes his eyes. But unexpectedly, his face would distort from the twisted grimace into a sly, wide grin. "Good. GOOD!!" he boomed. "If you want me to mess you insects up so badly, I'll gladly handle you!" *TWANG* Simultaneously, all the five spider-people can feel it. A whining note on the back of the mind, sharper than shattered glass. Their spider-sense was screaming at them. "Oh, so now you have the good sense to back off." Kingpin chuckled darkly. As the five SPIDERs brace for incoming danger, Kingpin followed in a drawling tone. "You know what's the best way to get rid of unwanted flies like you?" "You call in a bigger spider." Kingpin slammed his feet back against the desk, toppling over a jar onto a little red button. Immediately, the ceiling's panels folded down with a slam, and from the shadows, a black and white figure dropped down in a speedy ambush. A sinister silence, and aura of menace, palpable and pulsing radiates across the room. As the SPIDERs pulled back from the spot where the ambusher fell, the being in question simply stood up in a slow, dramatic silence. Taut, whip like musculature stretches tightly across a tall but lithe frame, covered in a smooth and shiny material with strange, sickening touches of textures most alien. Tactical gear straps in white were laid out across the chest, resembling a stylized mockery of the spider icon. A flat, smooth face shell display showcasing large white eyes, seemingly burning at their edges with a jagged, glitchy texture. V.E.N.O.M stood up fully, the dark mirror staring straight into the eyes of Webster. "Another one of these second hand store clones. I already beat you once, I can do it again." Webster scoffed, playing off the unsettling sensation. "Looks a little snazzier than last time though Kingpin, glad to see you gave them a fresher paintjob." "Ohohoho, you'll be surprised, Spider boy. The ones you've seen before are naught but primitive prototypes. Before you is the real deal, ready version." Kingpin chuckled darkly, even as he still is attacked to the ceiling panels. "You will find our VENOM packs quite a punch. Playtime is over kid." "Sic 'em!'" As Kingpin snarled, the world once again burst into a sea of motion. With one smooth movement, a dark hard-light blade slashes through where Webster was with a violent burst of momentum, the jagged edge seemingly leaving a void of black momentarily ripped in the air. Webster barely leans back out of the way of the voidsent slash, before a swift roll to the side dodges the second arm blade swinging down on him. Webster snapped back with a stomping kick from his lowered position, but was swiftly caught by a black clawed palm. The black hand twists and starts a wide swinging motion to fling Webster towards the wall, but was met midway by Shui, holding a solid light half-staff, blocking the blow right at VENOM's elbow. As she attempted to lean into the blow, a swift foot hooked on hers from below with its jagged armor and yanked, toppling her backwards. Shui leans back on the fall and used her half staff as a pivot, swinging a wide kick towards VENOM's face but was swiftly interrupted as the beast snaps itself forward below the kick and stabbed up from below with a wicked light blade. "Thwip!" the sound of the spun yellow light web cuts through the air. Sticking straight to the arms of VENOM, a quick yank diverts the blade away from Shui's body, before a second web pulls the black beast entirely away from her. VENOM flies through the air before his momentum was arrested by a red-clad fist. One, two, three. The bone-cracking sound of the punches resonate through the room as Haka launches his fists straight towards VENOM, its head flying back after each collision. As he lets the final gigantic swing fly however, a loud smack rings out as the punch is stopped dead, caught by a clawed palm. VENOM turns around slowly, face showing no more than cracks on the display mask, being woven together by a strange glitchy looking mesh. Haka grunts, pushing and pulling the fist away with all his effort, but it was to little avail, as the black arm seems to swell disproportionately, exerting greater and greater force as it starts to bend the red-clad spider's wrist downwards, trying to snap them in twain. The monstrous fake SPIDER's torso also started swelling up as more force is exerted, spiky protrusions beginning to form on its skin. But as it starts to lean over with a vicious sadism, the tension in the room was broken with a deep yell from Kingpin... as he flies straight towards VENOM. The blackened form could scarcely move out of the way before it was barreled over by the huge mass of flesh, knocking it loose from Haka as it and Kingpin flew towards the last undamaged bookshelf with a loud crunch. "Pick on someone your own damn size monster." Rose said with visible strain, having just pulled back a giant web slingshot launching Kingpin towards VENOM. "Nice one, Rose. We all owe you one," Webster said with a grin. "Now let's see to locking down this monst-" Jon never got to finish his sentence as an explosive, guttural roar rang out from VENOM as the now 8-foot tall monster rushes straight at him with a giant lunge, chucking Kingpin aside in one swift motion. The creature's straps and gear seems close to bursting off its body, now covered in savage, hooked spikes extending outwards. The sharp arm blade cleaves cleanly again through the air, now shaped like a giant misshapen battle-axe, delivering a promise of vicious rending. Webster slipped his head under the blade in the nick of time, two web lines launching him straight to the feet of VENOM. "Team Plan 3, David and Goliath! Let's go!" Yelled out Webster as the SPIDER instantly nodded in response. The toppled VENOM was instantly hit with a barrage of web lines, stringing him up in the air. With one swift handspring Webster launches at VENOM from behind, the kick launching him further up. A rapid follow up from Angus pushes VENOM further up the air as a heavy uppercut collided with his chin. Shui swung in on a line with a flying kick to the creature's side, throwing it towards the wall where Rose await with a vicious side kick. As the creature spins out of control in the air, Haka flew up with a swift rotation like a red tornado, right before he delivered a savage axe kick right to VENOM's torso, slamming the creature hard to the ground with an impact that resonated throughout the room. The SPIDERs immediately launched an extra barrage of webbing to attempt to restrain the felled beast to the floor, and one by one, each limb and extremity was webbed shut to the hard flooring. The five collectively landed down around VENOM, near enough to take action, but far enough to evade in the event the thing wasn't down and out yet. "Shui, gimme a run over on this thing as soon as possible. This was way stronger than the last one of these. We need to figure out how to battle it better next time, especially if there's going to be more of them." Webster said with uncharacteristic seriousness. Shui nodded a curt nod in response as a hard-light scanner sensor begin to manifest in her hands. The virtual realization ability really was tailor-made for her. "Haka, Angus, prepare for combat response if needed." Webster continued. "And lastly, Rose, help me handle wrapping up Kingpin." "Oh, I think it may be a little late for that now, insect runt." Kingpin's voice snarled across the room. The man, though battered and bruised, glares defiantly towards the SPIDERs, in one hand a strange rock covered all over in lines and runic patterns, and in the other, a strange mechanical device that seems to thrum with a prismatic energy. "If I cannot beat you now, I will simply send you far far away! I will never have to see any of you disgusting bugs again!" Kingpin's voice raise to a head as he puts the strange relic and the device together. A multicolored blast of energy rips through the room, making the lights flicker in and out. The room begin to seemingly glitch and distort, prismatic fractals in aberrant colors of reality that look similar yet foreign race across the room like cracks in a panel of glass. The pulse of power knocked all the beings in the room back, freeing VENOM and toppling the SPIDERs. But just as the SPIDERs prepared for a two ended fight, the screeching siren ringing out across the building seemed to lock VENOM down in place, the synthetic looking black trying to rip away from the body of the host, a non-descript looking shaved man. Keeping a note of the strange separation for later, Webster again turns his eyes towards the strange device that seems to be ripping reality around it asunder. The pulsing and fractals begin to get more and more intense, as the broken stained glass of the world seem to cycle through every color of the kaleidoscope. Lines and bubbles of void black spew out from the gap being torn in the dimensions, a twisted, dangerous beauty that rendered him unable to pull his eyes away. His spider sense was screaming, more than it ever had done before, so much so that he could only snap out of the trance via a shattering scream. And then another, and then another, and then another, and then another. A cacophonous quintet of screams rip through the air, drawing Webster's attention away from the device. All of his friends and fellow SPIDERs were screaming, fading in and out of reality. Their bodies seemingly glitching and tearing away at the edges. It looked like how they would return to the Virtual World, but with a sinister, forceful twist. Each part of them disappearing seems to be torn from existence, forcefully sequestered away. The screams of pain only further reinforce the nature of the vanishment. From the corner of his eye, VENOM also seems to fly free from his host body, screaming in a glitched, feedback-like haze of pain. "Oh no." Webster exclaimed. "Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no. I gotta fix this. I gotta fix this. Think, Jon. THINK, YOU IDIOT. YOUR FRIENDS ARE DYING!!!" his voice screeched through his mind, even as he powerlessly tried to pull his comrades towards him with webs. The lines simply phased through them like they were not even there. The dissonant, booming sound of the device comes to a zenith. He can feel it in the air, something ripping wide open, pulling him in. With one last desperate web shooting forwards, trying to cling on to anything, Jon felt it made contact with something. But it was useless, as whatever it was gave way and swung free. The dimensions behind him ripped fully asunder, and with an explosive boom, Webster was slung into the Spider-verse. The portal vanished, leaving only an unconscious Kingpin and a barely clothed, shaved man. SOMEWHERE, METRO CITY, UNKNOWN TIME, UNKNOWN UNIVERSE Jon felt like he had just been dragged by a rampaging bull across a rainforest on a tightwire, slamming his head on every last root and tree. An apt metaphor for unplanned multiversal travel, as he would later assess. Opening his groggy eyes through partially cracked goggles, Jon opened his eyes to a strange new environment. Everything looked... so old. Like a time capsule lost to time and re-opened before his own eyes. A metropolitan city that looked like it was built and belonged much earlier in the late 20th century, the kind he'd only ever seen in history text books from a time before the Virtual World... The Virtual World! Jon immediately tried to pull on his connection to the world online, only to find a strange static disconnecting him from a vital part of his existence. Panicked, he immediately checked his wrist mounted computers to find them still functional, and temporarily capable of creating a pocket virtual space. Enough yet for some webbing and small trinkets if he needs it, but it won't last long. He needs to find some way to fix this. But perhaps before that, it would be wise to figure out where... and maybe when he was. This isn't his home turf after all, and he would do well to respect that. This city with its ancient architecture and its... TV headed people and its... Spider-suited person riding a motorcycle? That can't be... or could it? Even as he ruminates on the strangeness of it all, Jon let a web line loose as he swung towards the strange happening, trying to find out what's going on. As focused as he was in the confusion of this new world, he remained unaware of the black form slinking around in the back of his shadows and the glitchy white eyes manifesting on its alien texture. VENOM had come along with him.