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| Issue #8 August 2005 |
"Slayers" Written by Groble |
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The sounds of steel cables and the whine of metal against metal rang out through the street and mixed with the far of blaring of car horns and the screams of the crowd. A large metal leg punched down through the tarmac road knocking bystanders from their feet and setting off car alarms. The 4 spider-slayers marched slowly towards spider-man.
"Oh My god do something spider-man."
"It's like that nerdy sci-fi show trek wars."
"Everybody just stay calm okay and get to cover or something it's going to be alright," yelled Spider-man over the noise of the gathered crowd.
"Hey spider-man get you're giant spider robot." Called a small child standing on the roof of a car whose alarm was now still ringing.
"Yeah spidey get out that Spider-mech you used to fight Godzilla." Added his friend.
"I'm sorry what? Spider-mech? Godzilla? Look kids I don't own a spider-mech and I'm pretty sure Godzilla doesn't exist."
"Yeah, sure he does! You fought him when you went to Japan, I saw it on TV."
He turned round and turned to face the two small children. "Look kids don't believe everything you see on TV, I've never been to Japan." His spider sense kicked in warning him of something coming in fast leaving him just enough time to leap from the sidewalk to a near by lamppost before the nearest robots scorpion like tail came crashing down on the spot where he just was. ".and Godzilla these things ain't!"
The robots were all around him now and the childish argument had distracted him long enough for the spider-slayers to encircle not only him but also the dozen helpless people now huddled in the shop doorway beneath him. He couldn't worry about those people and fight mechanical nightmares at the same time. He deftly ducked another attack from the scorpion like tail as it smashed through the top of the lamppost while he landed safely on the pavement.
From his crouched position on the floor he fired two weblines at the falling lamppost catching it in midair and with a simple pull on the webbing sending it hurtling away from the crowd and right back at the nearest slayer. The lamppost collided with its mechanical body creating a deafening clang but causing no actually damage. He turned his attention back to the innocents gathered in the shop doorway.
"Get out of the way!" he yelled as he sent two small balls of impact webbing hurtling through the large glass panes that made up the shop front. "Now all of you get inside so I can do my job."
"Good luck spidey!" came a young voice from the crowd but it was quickly cut off by the scolding tone of a parent "You shouldn't be cheering on that bully, he nearly killed that poor man."
The woman's words cut deep but it was just another wound that he would tend to later, right now he had something a little more important to do. His head buzzed once more as yet more danger headed his way, but this time it wasn't the swinging mechanical tail of the robots but instead a thick gout of deep read flame that scorched the air and chased him in a vicious arc as he cart wheeled out of it's deadly path. He dived behind a nearby car as flames licked over the top, melting the glass and burning the metal. The street was now deserted apart from him, 4 giant robots and a handful of deserted cars. the group of people could still be seen inside the shop window. One of the women inside seemed to by trying to yell something, she flapped her arms wildly and tried to mouth the same word over and over again.
"Windowlene?"
"Vaseline?"
The words clicked in his head "Gasoline!" But it was too late, the fuel in the cars engine had already ignited and spider-man was thrown backwards by the force of the explosion, the heat burned his eyes and singed his costume, whole parts of material caught fire as he rolled violently across the road amidst a hail of flaming car parts. He came to a stop in a pile next to a lorry and began to attempt to pull himself up from the debris when the cars engine block came smashing down from the air crushing his left leg and pinning him to the ground. He painfully tried to lift the engine off his leg but it was no good, he pulled the mask of his face and slumped backwards against the lorry as the deadly killing robots circled in even closer.
Meanwhile..
Across town Alistair smith raced through the rush hour traffic, he more than most people knew how deadly the spider slayers could be, having created many of the mechanical monsters himself in his quest for vengeance against spider-man and at one point even turning himself into cyborg in order to crush spider-man. But since then many things had changed; turning himself into the ultimate spider-slayer had resulted in him regaining his ability to walk, since then his hatred of the wall crawler had dissipated and he was able to continue on with his life, a life which now hung in the balance. With his past behind him Alistair was able fall in love and start a family, who he now believed to be in danger. The news reports had started to flood in almost as soon as the latest spider-slayers had appeared on the streets and it looked to Alistair as if they were headed towards the school where his wife not only worked but her son, his stepson also attended.
He needed to get there fast and save them, which was why at this very minute he was speeding recklessly through the thick traffic driving up onto the sidewalk and sending newsstands flying as he tried desperately to call his wife.
"Pick up, pick up!" he yelled narrowly missing a pedestrian and he shot past the crossroads.
"Hello!" came his wife's voice from the other end.
"Susan you have.." Suddenly a giant mechanical leg smashed down into the road in front of him, he tried desperately to turn to avoid it, but as the car skidded road, he lost control and it's momentum forced the car to flip over, spinning through the air before crashing straight into the large metal appendage. The wires and cable creaked as the car crashed into the ground it's passenger desperately clawing to get out, as the enormous creation took another looming step across the road, casting it's dark shadow across the wreckage beneath it, before crashing down into the asphalt below, sending chunks of it flying up as it continued it's deadly journey down the street towards the school of Susan and William Smythe.
Spider-man still lay trapped under the burnt out wreckage of the cars engine, he tried to pull it free but only managed to shift the weight of the wreck into an even worse position. He braced himself against the lorry and forced himself to try one last time. The adrenaline surged through his body, he knotted muscles tightened and locked against the weight pinning him to the ground, with a painful creak it began to slowly lift of the ground, but the effort was too much and it soon came crashing back down, he had nothing left and the blood pumping in his ear blocked out the deafening sound on the robotic leg preparing to come down and crush what little life he had left in him. He closed his as the shadow of the leg came over him and braced himself for the last few seconds of his life to come to a gruesome end.
"What a way to go Spidey! Mary Jane is mad enough at you already and now you're not even going to leave enough for her to bury!"
He winced as the iron limb came crashing down mere feet from where he lay and opened his eyes to see the detached appendage lying prone on the ground, and looked up to see a bolt of blue energy slicing through the central part of it's mechanical body causing it to erupt into thick black smoke and crackling green flames that leapt up to the sky as the wreckage came crashing down to the pavement.
Spider-man looked up to see the source of the blue energy and there silhouetted against the sun was the unmistakable shape of Iron-man, his thrusters burning as he came down to land next to him, and tossed the engine block aside as if it were made of nothing more than paper.
" You Looked like you needed some help" came the mechanical voice from inside the helmet as he reached down to offer spider-man a hand up.
"Oh that? Nah I totally had that under control. That there was lulling him into a false sense of security."
"Sure it was, now enough chit-chat, those things are loose all over the city, we have to find out who's behind this and take them down."
"I got two words for you tin-man "Alistair Smythe"
Meanwhile on the other side of New York the twisted lung of metal that was once the car of Alistair Smythe creaked and groaned, as the windscreen gave way to the force of the trapped drivers blows. Blood streamed down his face, his eyes stung from the sweat, his entire head buzzed with the deafening sound of his own heart and his left arm hung limply to his side but none of this concerned him now as he turned his head to look down the street towards the school which currently held his family and the lumbering beasts that stalked towards it in their unending stride. Gripping the crumpled sides of the car he slowly pulled himself free, shuddering with pain as his right leg slipped free from its position between the buckled door and the dash. He twisted his body round, resting his back of the floor and looking up past the now flaming engine to the sky above, that had rapidly grown darker as an eerie shadow fell once more over the wreck. The buzzing in his ears cleared but it brought little relief as the deafening sound was replaced with the monstrous creak and snap of articulated leg heading down towards him. As the last seconds of his life ticked painfully away, Alistair closed his eyes and screamed preparing for the inevitable bond crunching collision.
Suddenly his head was yanked backwards and his body slipped free of the car and he felt the sensation of wind rushing past his face, and the sound of the inevitable collision some distance behind him. He opened his eyes to see himself soaring through the sky, hurtling towards a building before being jerked in the opposite direction. He looked down to his waist where and all too familiar arm held him tightly. His mind reeled as the ground below him shifted and changed and he looked up into the face of his one time nemesis turned saviour spider-man. The ride came to an all too abrupt stop on a nearby rooftop and the second spider-man released his grip Smythe fell to the floor, is body to broken and weary to hold him up any longer.
"Alistair Smythe? Of all the people I expected to be pulling out of that car you were the last. Now tell me what the hell you're playing at?"
Spider-man walked towards the prone figure lying on the rooftop.
"Smythe?" the back of Spider-mans hand bit through the air, connecting viciously with the side of Smythe's face, causing the world to come instantly back into sharp focus, the sound of the traffic below, the wind whistling round the buildings, the shrill high pitched squeal which ended abruptly when he realised it was coming from his mouth.
"Finally he shuts up"
"S-s-s-spider." struggled Smythe, breathing heavily under his cracked ribs.
"Nearly there. You get this one and I give you a cookie."
"Spider-man you saved me."
"Yeah saved you from yourself by the looks of it. I thought you had reformed, family, kids the whole shebang and now I see you running round with your robot pals again. What gives Smythe? You still reeling from the end of Buffy? Trying to get pocket protectors on the catwalk?"
"My family...They're in that school."
"You're sending them after your family?" Yelled spider-man as he lifted the injured man up by his neck "This is a new kind of crazy for you"
"It's not me, it's not." he choked in reply " I don't know what's going on, help my family please, save them." tears streamed down his face as the situation became all too much for him and he finally lapsed out of consciousness.
"Friend of yours?" came the electronic voice of Iron-man as he lowered to the roof.
"Something like that, this here is Alistair Smythe, but it looks like I was wrong about who's behind this, he nearly died trying to get to that school with his family in, if this is his doing then he's been taking acting classes."
"So who is behind it all?"
"Your guess is as good as mine, the slayers were his M.O. either way we need to get him some medical attention."
"No need. I put a call into the emergency services while we were speaking, they'll pick him up soon, right now we have a school to save and from the looks of the robots gathering down there, we're going to need some back up."
***To Be Continued***
That's right folks the next issue is the all action, all excitement finale to the return of The Spider-Slayers arc, that I like to call (but for legal reasons can't) The Marvel U versus the Spider-Slayers , or as close as it can get. Either way you don't want to miss out just in case I reveal whom it is pulling the strings. or should I say webs. So see you next time only on Altered Visions.
