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MARVEL 2000 PRESENTS... "DANGEROUS ALLIES"
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| "I'm sorry Mister Reilly, but we can't release that information," the flight agent said. "It's confidential information. It's our policy." Ben Reilly leaned against the counter and bit his bottom lip. He'd been dealing up and down with the airline for over half an hour, getting various agents that all told him the same thing. It was hopeless. "Look, I'm not searching for the full manifest," he said. "I need to confirm one name within the past two weeks. That's all. One passenger. Please-" He checked her namebadge. "-Arlene. One name. You're the last airline I need to check." "Okay," Marjorie whispered. "His name?" "Kaine. Don't know if he used a first or last name, but his name's just Kaine." "Like Prince or Madonna?" "Yes," Ben chuckled. "Just like that." She nodded and began typing. She clicked her mouse several times, then typed again. Ben leaned a little further forward, trying to see the screen. The young woman smiled and flipped a strand of blonde hair out of her face. "How about Peter Kaine?" she asked. Ben almost bit into his lip. That son of a bitch. It was almost like he wanted Ben to find him. "That's him." Ben hung on the side of one of the large buildings lining Flower Street, near mid-downtown. He held his hand to his masked mouth and listened. His senses weren't enhanced in the conventional sense, but he wasn't listening with his ears. He was listening for an almost... tickle at the base of his skull. Anything really, to give him a hint. A hint of what was going on right then in LA. A hint of why Kaine decided now was the time. "Why now?" Ben whispered. "Why not Baltimore? When I was on TV?" He'd been back in the public eye for nearly a year. What was he waiting for all that time? He looked up and glanced towards the horizon. The sun was just beginning to sink into the ocean. Ben smiled. The colors were dazzling, in spite of the smog. "Ben, you idiot," he muttered with a grin. "It's because of the smog..." He let his voice trail off as he continued to watch the horizon. It really was beautiful. "So..." a familiar female voice said. "You still haven't told me why this Kaine is so important that you waste an entire day hunting him." Ben smiled at Julia Carpenter's voice. They'd hardly seen each other the past two weeks, but she was always on the other end of the line. "Kaine is me," Ben replied after a few long moments. "In some twisted way at least." He sighed and thought of when he'd first returned to New York several years ago. "You're probably aware that I'm the clone of Spider-Man. I wasn't the only one. Kaine was the clone that followed me, but the process went horribly wrong with him. He had some of the spider-powers that we had, but he developed a burning touch and... his mind was gone. "He has an incredibly twisted sense of justice," he continued. "He's dangerous Julia. I need to make sure he doesn't hurt anyone. I feel responsible for him." "Like an older brother?" she asked. "Like a failed parole officer," Ben said. His spider-sense suddenly began buzzing. "I need to go Julia. I'll report in soon." He jumped
away and threw out his arm, firing a webline with a *thwip*. The webline
caught and Ben yanked himself towards it, gaining momentum until he fired
another. He grinned as he began swinging between the buildings. This was
something he'd really missed in LA. This freedom. For a moment he'd even
forgotten his spider-sense had gone off. The sound of shattering glass
brought "Let's see what's behind door number 1," he said, dropping to the street. "Mister Sims," the intercom squwaked. "Your final appointment of the day is here." Ezekiel looked up from the last of his paperwork and checked his watch. It was almost eight PM. Late hours for the Chief Executive. He reached out and pressed the intercom key. "Let them in," he said. "And Margie?" "Yes sir?" "Take thirty bucks from the petty cash," he said, "go home and buy some good take-out for you and your husband on the way. There was no reason for you to be here this late tonight." "Thanks Mister Sims. Thank you so much." Ezekiel smiled, stood up, and straightened his suit jacket. He wasn't angry by the time of the meeting by any means. The prospective clients had traveled a long way to meet with him, and he hoped they were comfortable along the way. He leaned forward onto his desk on his fists and closed his eyes. This meeting had the potential to raise a firestorm unlike any other Ezekiel had ever faced. He already had his PR firm working on a positive spin on the meeting, in case it went south in he business world. He'd never dreamed that he would be doing what he was about to. There was a rapping on his glass office door. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. Now or never. "Come in," he said. Through the door walked Shinobi Shaw- Genosha's minister of finance. Geoffrey Wilder stood next to his compatriots of the Pride. He knew Dale and Stacey were uncomfortable. That was natural- the Yorkes had seen the future, they were uncomfortable about many things as a result. Alice Hayes had been telepathically listening to the man sitting in the dark the whole time, but she kept informing Wilder that there was a large amount of interference preventing her probes. Wilder would have to take a chance that he wouldn't try anything. The man had insisted on only four members of the Pride meet with him once they'd arrived at the designated location, and he had kept to the shadows the entire time. Wilder could see why. He definitely had the upper hand here. "This is an intriguing deal," he continued. "A win-win situation it seems." "It is," the man replied, leaning further into the shadows. "We both want the spider gone. While Spider-Man is tied up in New York in his little gang war, I can make a move on his 'brother' here." "While we no longer want his interference in our affairs," Stacey said. "Exactly!" he said. "And I know others that will want the same." He laughed and steepled his fingers. "All I'm asking from the Pride is two things. One, fund us and help us get our footing. Two, leave a chunk of Los Angeles to us once it's complete." "Now why would we want that?" Dale growled. "Because," the man said, "you don't want a war with the Sinister Six." "We'll want one of ours in the group," Wilder said. "One of our agents." "Naturally," he consented. "I wouldn't have it any other way." He leaned forward, revealing his familiar green mask, now covering his entire face. The two yellow lightning bolts were more streamlined and fused to the mask. Sparks of electricity randomly sparked across his costume. "Now," Electro said, "about who I want..." A ball of impact webbing threw the female sentry at the jewelry store against the wall and covered her in sticky good. Ben lowered himself upside-down in front of her. She was weakly struggling against the webbing, and he noticed her eyes were almost completely glazed over. "Odd," he muttered, setting himself down quietly. He lowered his body close to the ground and crept through the broken glass in the front door. He could see several other women going through cases of jewels, grabbing selected items. He guessed they were going for stuff with real gems, but as to how they knew that, he was clueless. "So ladies," he said, standing up, "did all of your husbands forget an important anniversary? Or is this a general man-bashing party?" "Ooooh, I'm scared," said a male voice from the back room. "Are you going to one-liner me into defeat?" A hooded figure walked out of the door, a bag tightly held in his left fist. "I don't know," he replied, "the cheesy hood might do that job for me." The hooded man laughed, and slid the hood off his head with his free hand. Ben raised an eyebrow at the sight that greeted him. A baboon-like face began cackling at the Scarlet Spider. The Mandrill handed one of the women his bag and ran his long, furry fingers through her hair. "I was hoping to run into you," he said. "The new golden guardian of Los Angeles." "Scarlet guardian," Ben replied. "Right," Mandrill said sarcasticly. "Girls, please." The women collectively dropped their bags and rushed Ben. The Scarlet Spider jumped into the air and dodged the first of the brainwashed women. He flipped over the first, a brunette with blonde streaks, turned and dodged a length of lead pipe swung at his head. Ben caught it and threw it to the ground, then dodged a crow-bar another weld. He thought about what he knew about his opponent. The Mandrill had the mutant ability to control human females through a pheromone secreted by his skin. If he could somehow stop the pheromone secretion, the women would back off and return to their normal selves, but he'd have to prevent them from killing him first. The women were unwilling pawns of the Mandrill, and he needed to do his best to not harm any of them. He dodged a 5-iron and baseball bat in the grips of two different women, and jumped into the air to avoid another woman with a putter. A short, blonde woman grabbed his ankle as he jumped, but he fired a webline straight up and pulled hard, wrenching himself from her grip. He let go and dropped to the ground, spraying a thick net of webbing as he did. The webbing snared all but one of the women, a tall red-head holding a fire extinguisher. "Man I'm glad he has good taste in women," Ben muttered. "Makes this so much easier." The red-head swung the heavy red extinguisher at his side, but Ben caught it and easily threw it aside. She started to swing at him, but suddenly stopped and began looking around, dazed. "Oh crap," Ben muttered, realizing what this meant. The women were coming out of their trances, and that meant the Mandrill had made his getaway. He jumped over the dazed red-head and sprinted into the back room. The door into a back alleyway was still open. He ran into the alley and began looking around. His spider sense suddenly flared. A heavy bag hit him across the jaw, knocking him to the ground. He rolled onto his back and dodged as the monkey-like mutant swung another bag of loot at his head. He jumped back to his feet and ducked as the Mandrill swung at him again. "You're not taking me back again!" he cried. "I've been in the Vault enough. I'm not going back!" "Now
why not?" Ben asked and back-handed the bag out of his hand. "I
hear a Super-Adaptoid just redecorated,*
and the cafeteria plan is a lot better." Mandrill swung at him with
his left arm, but Ben caught his fist with his right hand and punched
him in the face. Mandrill collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Ben grinned
beneath his mask. * [Check out the Vault for that story (the Adaptoid, not the oatmeal!)- T] Ezekiel shook Shinobi's hand as he walked to man to the door. "It's been a pleasure, Mister Sims," he said with a smile. "The same," Ezekiel replied. He meant that sincerely. It was a surprise how pleasant Shinobi was, but he was a high-ranking official in a developing country. He almost needed to be. "We've been told that your communications systems are the best," Shaw said, "and what you've shown me tonight supports that. I look forward to working with your team in installing it in Hammer Bay. We are indebted to you." He smiled at Ezekiel, a hint of his father in his face. "We're glad we can help," he said. "I'll keep in touch with you until we send our team in." "When should we expect them?" Shaw asked. "About three weeks," Ezekiel declared. "It'll take about that long to build your system here, and then we'll be sending the installation team." "Excellent," Shaw said. "Until then Mister Sims." Shinobi pulled open the door, strode into the hall and down the corridor to the elevator. Ezekiel heaved a sigh of relief and turned back to his desk. His phone began ringing. He frowned, walked over to his desk and picked up the receiver. It was nearly ten in the evening. "Hello? Yes, this is he. Well hello Agent Greaves..." Ben watched as the police hefted the unconscious Mandrill into the air-tight wagon. The department was well-versed enough to know not to send any female officers, even if the mutant was unconscious. "Mister, uh, Spider," a Detective Torres said, "we appreciate your help. Exactly what did you see when you arrived?" "All of these ladies were looting the cases," Ben replied, turning away from the Mandrill and indicating the group of women standing around an ambulance. "I made a joke, and Monkey-Boy came out of the back room. He sicced the girls on me, and after I webbed them- sorry about that by the way- I went after the Mandrill, we fought a little, and I knocked him out cold." "We found quite a bit of the stolen jewels on him, so it'll be an easy conviction," Torres said. "Ben, it's Ezekiel." Ben winced in surprise at the sudden activation of the earpiece. "We need to talk." "Hang on," he looked down and muttered. He looked back up at Detective Torres. "Do you need anything else from me Detective?" "Not at the moment, but hang around in case we do." Ben nodded and walked away. He reached the edge of the building, looked up and jumped up. He climbed about fifteen feet above the crime scene, turned and rested his back to the building. "Okay, I'm good," he said, "what's up?" "I have a special assignment for you," Ezekiel said. "I need you to go to Genosha." "Now?" Ben replied. "No, I'm sending a team in three weeks to install a telecom system," Ezekiel replied. "The National Security Agency caught wind of it, how I don't know, but they want to install a backdoor in the system to allow them listen in on the Genoshans." "To spy on them?" Ben asked. "What do you want me to do?" "I want you to go in there and protect our people. Let the government men do whatever the hell they want, but I want to ensure the SimsCorp techs get back in one piece. Can you do that for me?" "Yeah," Ben replied. "I can." A meaty hand picked up the ringing cellular phone and pressed the green "send" key. He held it up to his ear. "Hello?" "It's me." "About damn time. Knew you weren't dead." "Kinda was. For a little while." "So what's the plan?" "Los Angeles. Six weeks. I'll trust you to gather five others." "Five?" "Don't count on me just yet. I've got some stuff to deal with first." "Got it. Good to hear your voice again, Max." "You too Flint. Now stop playing hero and get to work!" The Sandman smiled and disconnected the call... In Web of Scarlet Spider Annual 2007: The year starts with a bang in Scarlet Spider as Ben heads for Genosha! In Web of Scarlet Spider #6: The Avengers are wondering about the welfare of their former member Living Lightning, and send She-Hulk and Machine Man to check up on him. Too bad Miguel and Ben are tied up when they arrive!
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