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MARVEL 2000 PRESENTS... COMMUTING
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Ben Reilly
screamed. It sounded about the same as the normal "afraid for my
life" type of scream. The kind blue-haired eighty year-olds make
when they have a cat run across the road before them when driving. That
kind of scream.
It wasn't the most normal circumstance though. Ben was holding onto the cockpit of a two story large vehicle, dubbed the Big Wheel. The Big Wheel was rocketing through Los Angeles at an already illegal speed, and was actually getting faster. "Slow this thing down or I'm going to give you more than a warning!" he exclaimed. "You're exceeding the inner-city speed limit!" The vehicle rounded a corner and slammed into a building, taking a chunk of concrete from its face. Ben turned and fired his webshooters, praying for accuracy with the wild shot. Two thick nets formed beneath the falling rubble, catching all of the heavy chunks of concrete. Pebbles rained on the onlookers below, but they were otherwise safe. "Close call there, hero," a voice said in his ear. Ben jumped slightly and shook his head. "Dammit Julia," he muttered. "You scared the shit out of me." "Well, you'll have to pay the dry-cleaning costs on that costume then." "Hardee-har," he muttered. "Where is this guy headed?" "I'm not sure," she replied. "His driving is wild. Your guess is as good as mine." "Great," he muttered. He rapped on the cockpit window again and waved at the pilot, who promptly flipped him the bird. Ben shook his head, jumped into the air and fired a webline at the nearest building. He promptly split away from the Big Wheel, heading the opposite direction. "What are you doing, Ben?" Julia said in her headset. "Running away?" "Hardly," he replied. "Just setting him up!" He rounded a corner, continuing to fire weblines as he went. He back flipped and landed on the street a few blocks from where he jumped away directly in the middle of an intersection. The giant vehicle rounded the corner and headed straight for him. Ben grinned and crossed his arms. "And this," he muttered, "is why I love being a superhero." He fired twin streams of webbing to either side of him and quickly laced the street with the sticky fluid. Once he'd built up a thick mass of the fluid and quickly wove a web, stretching from either side of the street and across the mass he'd left on the street. The Wheel tried to stop as the pilot saw the net formed in front of him, but he was too massive to stop quickly enough. The Big Wheel slammed into the net, pushed partway into the intersection and stopped. Ben grinned and jumped into the air. He flipped over the net, and landed atop the vehicle. A large mechanical arm swung at Ben from its side, but he easily jumped away and fired a mass of impact webbing, which exploded across the arm and stuck it to the wheel's edge. Another arm waved towards him, but Ben jumped towards it and grabbed its fingers. He tore them apart, and then landed on the street again. He fired more webbing at the base of the wheel, ensuring it was held in place, and jumped to the cockpit. He gripped the edge of the hatch with his finger tips and tore the cockpit open. "Hello there," Ben said, reaching for the pilot. The man simply grinned and waved. He quickly disintegrated in a reddish field of light. Ben grimaced and backhanded the side of the cockpit, tearing a chunk of metal away. "All things considered," Julia said through the radio, "that went well." Ben and Julia sat around a conference table on the Thirteenth Floor of the SimsCorp building as Ezekiel paced around them. One of the SimsCorp techs, a man by the name of Johansen, sat by a computer with schematics of the Big Wheel on the screen. A plasma screen displayed the contents of the computer monitor. "The tech matches," Johansen said. "It has all the same fingerprints as the last time." "Wilder's fingerprints," Ezekiel said. "Last time?" Ben asked. "Wilder?" "About a month before Ezekiel contacted you," Julia said. "I had to deal with a flying saucer as Spider-Woman. I brought it down but my powers gave out. The tech was all Earth-made." "And Geoffrey Wilder is a prominent business man here in LA," Ezekiel said. "He's also the west coast equivalent of Wilson Fisk, best we can tell. There's something more to him though." "And what's that?" Ben asked. "I'm not sure," Ezekiel replied. "But it has something to do with something called the Pride. We just don't know what the Pride is." "A pride is a pack of lions," he offered, "could that...? "Possibly," Ezekiel muttered. He leaned forward onto the table for a few moments, biting his lip. "Karl, how did Ben's suit hold up?" "Very well," Johansen said. "Everything went smoothly." "Great," Ezekiel said. He glanced over at Ben. "Karl will be handling your tech needs now. Those of us in this room are the only ones that know your double identity in SimsCorp. And it will stay that way." He made two very deliberate glances at Julia and Johansen. "Already done, boss-man," Julia joked. "Yes, sir," Karl muttered. "Good," Ezekiel nodded to Ben. "You've had an interesting day. Go home, get some sleep and we'll get you back in biochem tomorrow. Deal?" "I'm not going to argue," he laughed. "It's late anyways. I'll see y'all in the morning?" He looked at them each, but his gaze lingered on Julia for a moment. "Definitely," she said with a smile. Victor Stein backhanded Johnathon across the face. The pilot had fouled their plans up horribly. Now, the Big Wheel was in Sims' hands and he knew where that would lead. "Did you even think?!" Victor exclaimed. "Did it occur to you that I had reason for briefing you on the vehicle's self destruct?" He backhanded him again. "I should shoot you, but it's difficult to find good henchmen. Especially among daredevil morons like you!" "I-I'm sorry, sir," Johnathon said through swollen lips. "That's not good enough," Victor said. He phone began to ring. He didn't even have to look at it to know who it was. "Geoffrey, I have him here right now," he said stepping away from Johnathon. "Good," Wilder replied. "Have you...?" "I've disciplined him," he said with a nod. "Now I'm going to give him his penance." He picked up a small metal band from his workbench and rubbed his thumb across the circuits on the inside. "And the Big Wheel?" "We're too late," Victor replied, turning back to Johnathon. He looked up at Victor fearfully. He smiled and pressed the band to his forehead. It wrapped around his head and dug in. Johnathon screamed as a couple small spots of blood began to trickle from beneath the band. "But my little tough will more than make up for that mistake." "Red and gold?" Ben muttered. He held out his arms and looked at his new costume. It was a dark red, with a gold spider symbol across his chest. He thought it honestly looked pretty good, but the colors weren't the best. "You didn't tell me it'd be red and gold." He and Julia were in one of the few opaque rooms on the Thirteenth Floor, preparing for his public unveiling. The suit had taken a little bit of time to put on, but overall, Ben liked it, except for the colors. "Scarlet
and gold," Julia corrected as she straightened the front of his top.
"And it looks good on you. Too bad you can't go without the mask."
Ben smiled.
"Don't
want my enemies tracing me back to you," he said with a wink. Julia
smiled and brushed imaginary lint from his top.
"Flirtation
will get you no where," she said. She looked into his eyes. "Seriously
Ben," she continued. "Are you ready for this?"
"As
ready as I'll ever be," he said. It's time to show the world the
Scarlet Spider."
"Again,"
Julia joked.
"Yeah,"
Ben echoed. "Again."
Needles. Pain. Bright lights. Surgical masks. High pitched squeal. More pain. Deep breath. More needles. Ben sat upright in bed. He was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. He took two deep breaths and closed his eyes again. It was the same nightmare. Over and over again, the same thing. He turned and put his feet on the floor, then leaned forward and rested his elbows onto his knees. "Damn," he muttered. It had been like this ever since he came back. It was an unpredictable nightmare, that would come and go at will. It seemed when he'd forget about it, it would roar back to haunt him. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head. "How did it happen?" he muttered. "Why am I back? Maybe that's a little too meta for tonight..." His phone began vibrating on the nightstand just then. He looked up and grabbed the phone. Julia's number. He flipped it open and held it to his ear. "Hey," he said. "I wake you?" she asked. "No," he replied. "You can't sleep either?" "Not a wink," she replied. "You up for some ice cream?" Ben glanced at the clock. "It's two AM," he said. "I think that's the perfect time for some Coldstone." "Sweet cream with Oreo and peanut butter cup?" "You're reading my mind." "You sure Rachel will be okay?" Ben asked and licked his spoon clean. "I mean, it is the middle of the night." "Closer to early morning, but yeah, I'm sure." Julia took a bite of ice cream and let it melt on her tounge for a moment before chewing. "I've pulled late nights as Spider-Woman in the past. She'll be perfectly okay." Ben nodded and took another bite. He'd opted for a watermelon sorbet mixed with berries instead. He did the same as Julia had moments ago, letting the dessert melt and cover his tounge. "Wow," he muttered, "good stuff." "No kidding," Julia echoed. The two ate in silence as they sat at a picnic table outside the small ice cream parlor. Ben finally broke the silence. "So do you ever... miss it?" "The powers? The danger? The hero game in general?" "Yeah," he said. "All of it." "There's days," she replied. "If I'd been outswide this afternoon, instead of on that monitor, I would have been wanting to be in the costume so bad." "It probably helped that you looked pretty sexy in it," he laughed. "The black and white looked better on you." "Thank you, Ben." She took another bite and sat quietly for another moment. "I miss having the feeling of security when it comes to Rachel. I used to always know that she'd be safe as long as I was there. Now, I don't have that guarantee." Ben looked at her. He bit his lip, summoning the words he was thinking. "Yes, you do," he said. "I'll be there whenever you need me. I promise." "Thanks Ben." Julia reached out and took his hand. "I really need it." He squeezed. "It's no problem," he said. "What do you mean Mister Stark is unavailable?" Ezekiel growled. "Is he off being Iron Man again?" Ezekiel paused and took two deep breaths. "I'm sorry, Pepper. That was out of line. Tell him I called, please? Thanks." Ezekiel sat back in his desk chair and sighed. It was a long day ahead of him. He felt his cell phone begin to vibrate in his pocket. Frowning, he reached into the inner jacket pocket and pulled the phone out. He glanced at the caller ID, an unfamiliar number, then pressed send to answer the call. "This is Ezekiel," he said. "It's Geoffrey," the caller said. "Can we talk?" "Certainly, what about?" "I'd prefer it over lunch," he replied. "And bring Ben with you." "What?!" Ezekiel exclaimed. The line was dead though. Wilder was gone. He set his phone down and hung his head for a moment. "Dammit," he muttered, as he pressed his intercom button on the phone. "Mallory, please call Ben Reilly and Julia Carpenter up here. Tell them it's urgent." Harold Johnson ran the wand over the man's chest, then stepped away. The terminal was busy that day, and he felt terrible hold the man from his flight, but he had to check him out. He waved him forward with a smile. "Sorry about that, sir," he said. "It's strange that the metal detector will short out like that." "It's no problem," he said. "Seems like I always have bad luck with electronics." He stuffed his wallet into his left back pocket, and a set of keys into the right front pocket of his jeans. "So is this a business trip?" Harold asked. "Pleasure," the man said. "I'm going to go visit an old friend that's just moved to LA." "Oh really?" Harold replied. "Good for you. Sorry about the delay. I hope you have a nice flight Mister..." The man looked up and smiled. "Kaine. You too-" He glanced at his name badge. "-Harold." The man called Kaine continued down the length of the terminal, a grin spreading across his face. In Web of Scarlet Spider #4: Ben and Ezekiel have lunch with the Pride! Will Ben order the chicken or steak? Wait- that would be boring, wouldn't it? Just wait until you see what Victor Stein has in store then! Plus, Kaine's in LA. When will the two Spider-clones meet? |
