THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN THE WORLD

Part III

By Tobias Christopher

Drew Michaels woke up in a hospital bed with every inch of his body feeling sore.

“How long have I been out?” Drew asked as he managed to stand up, knocking a vase of flowers over. He quickly moved and caught it before it shattered on the ground. “Whoa. Did I just move that fast?”

Drew stood up and walked to a mirror, undoing his gown and letting it fall to the floor as he saw the scar on his chest, legs, and arms where they’d put the implants. One was implanted in his temple. 

“What did they do to me?”

“Are you sure about this, Mr. Osborn?” the scientist asked as they watched Drew wake up. “What if he goes rogue again?”

“Then we kill him?” Osborn said. “I’ve poured too much money into Rhett Carson to let him get away. Reinstall the implants and this time we’ll make sure he can’t break free of my control.”

Rhett Carson stood in the old Hobgoblin lair, which had been abandoned, but the gear remained for Rhett to use since he struck a deal for his survival.

“Kill ‘em all,” he was told. “Osborn, Spider-Man, that annoying paperboy that throws my papers onto the roof, all of ‘em. Clean house for me, boy, and you get to keep your wicked life.”

“Kill ‘em all,” Rhett stated. As he bandaged his body where he’d cut out the implants with a pocket knife, he knew what he had to do.

Peter Parker stood in the backyard with the Night Monky taunting him. Peter stood there in just his Human Torch boxers.

“What? They’re comfy and they keep me warm!” Peter shouted as he tried to cover himself without much luck.

“Doesn’t look like there’s much to keep warm down there,” Night Monkey teased. “Anyway, give me the punk and I won’t embarrass you anymore today. I just want to kill the boy.”

“You’re not killing anyone,” Peter said. “Costume or not, I can–”

RIP

A grappling wire later and Night Monkey was holding Peter’s boxers in his hands. 

“Think I’ll keep these if they’re as warm as you say they are,” Night Monkey said. He jumped toward Peter as he started avoiding the punches, hoping he’d get his full powers back soon. He backflipped to avoid more punches as Night Monkey averted his gaze. “Please don’t flip. I don’t want to stare at… that.”

“Hold that thought,” Peter said as he punched Night Monkey. “You know I haven’t washed those in a few days right? Those are my lucky drawers.”

Inside, May was pouring tea for Rick, who was nervous about talking to Peter.

“I’m sure Peter will be home any minute,” May said as she looked out the window to see a nake Peter fighting a costumed man.

“You have a lovely home,” Rick said. He took a sip and saw a picture of Ben Parker on the wall. “That man looks familiar. I’ve seen him before.”

“That’s my darling husband, Ben,” May said. “He’s no longer with us, unfortunately.”

“I’m sorry for your loss, ma’am,” Rick said as he went back to his tea. “Where have I seen that man before?”

A screaming came from the backyard as Rick jumped up. Peter had jumped and kicked Night Monkey, giving him a good look at Peter’s goods.“He found me! I gotta go!”

“Sit down, you’re safe here,” May promised. “Spider-Man will protect you, and just in case–”

May went to the closet and opened it, pulling out a sawed-off shotgun that fired high-powered BBs. “They’ll deal with Aunt Bea.”

Flash sat alone in his apartment, trying to keep his mind off of his lonely life as a knock came at the door. He was unable to find love, he had no family, and his best friend was always busy. Ever since he lost AJ and Drew, he was more lonely than ever. He opened it at Mary Jane pushed Stan into her arms. The baby was crying but seemed to calm down as soon as he looked up at Flash.

“What. Did. You. DO!?” Mary Jane asked. “He hasn’t stopped crying since I tried to put him down for a nap.

“I just spent a little time with the kid,” Flash told her. “He probably just ate up the attention I was giving him. Weren’t you, big guy?”

Stan instantly stopped crying as Flash cradled him. “He probably senses all the stress going on in Peter’s…other life. The kid just wants some love.”

“We love him plenty,” Mary Jane informed him.

“I know that, but he just senses all the stress going on,” Flash said as held the Cannonball doll. “Oh, look who I got?”

Stan started giggling as Flash played with the doll in front of him. “Let me get him to sleep and you can take him home.”

“Or, his new male nanny can take him home to put him down,” Mary Jane told him.

“His what now?” Flash asked.

“I’ll destroy you for this!” Night Monkey shouted as he finally got to his feet after punching Peter away before he got too close. “You. Will. DIE!”

“You know, most people in New York charge for something like that,” Peter told him as grabbed his boxers. “That’s what happens when you threaten a man when he’s got it all on display.”

“Now your corpse will be on display,” Night Monkey said as a frying pan hit him in the back of the head.

“Peter Parker, cover your shame!” May ordered. “The neighbors could be watching. What will they think about this? This isn’t a free show for the world to see. This isn’t your Hulu or Disney+!”

May turned back around with her frying pan. “As for you–”

The Night Monkey was already gone.

“He’ll be back,” Peter said as he hopped around as pulled his pants up. “I need to talk to Rick.”

“He’s inside, hiding in the cabinet,” May said. “What happened to that young man? He nearly made a mess on the kitchen floor out of fear”

“That’s what we’re going to find out,” Peter said as he picked up the suitcase. “Thanks for the save, Aunt May.”

“Someone has to protect Spider-Man,” May told him.

“Need to think about how to kill Spider-Man and his allies,” Rhett said as he saw Tommy Byrnes walk out of the convenience store after having scored a pack of smokes. “I know him. He was making out with that kid that was impaled by The Lizard that night. The kid in that black Spider-Man costume that got murdered. Let me put 2 and 2 together here… I think I’ll start with him, he might lead me to bigger fish.”

“I lost Meyers, but I can get him back!” Night Monkey told Osborn. “If his aunt hadn’t pulled that menacing weapon, I’d have had him.”

“We all know about the frying pan,” Osborn said as the other employees snickered. “You’ll get another chance, but you have failed this mission. So you’ll be benched while your replacements are trained.”

“Replacements?” Night Monkey asked as he pulled his mask off. “I don’t need replacements! I can do this!”

“You have failed this mission,” Osborn said. “You were asked to bring me Rick Myer’s head and instead you got a lovely view of Peter Parker’s testicles. That should be punishment enough for now. Do not push it, boy. Now, let’s meet your team that’ll replace you.”

“I’ll prove I’m good enough,” Kevin said as they walked into the lab where the team was assembled with one still in a hyperbaric chamber.

“Is this one safe?” Osborn asked.

“Yes,” the chief surgeon told him. “We have to double the implants, but he’ll be under your control.”

“Good,” Osborn told them before looking at Kevin. “Your first mission will be to bring back the final member of your squad, Rhett Carson.”

Norman walked past the team, starting with the young man in an armored green and black costume. “This is your first member, Jordan Harrison, The Wolf-Spider.

“Let’s do this!” Jordan shouted, wanting to be a hero and save the day to make up for the incident where he was driven insane with spider-powers.

“In due time,” Osborn said as he patted the boy on the back. “Next is Drew Michaels, the Huntsman Spider.”

Drew stepped forward in a blue and red armored costume, doing a backflip.

“Let’s save the day,” Drew told them, holding a mask in his hand.

“Next is the spot reserved for Mr. Carson who will join you soon,” Osborn said. “Of course, we all know your leader, Kevin Byrnes, The Night Monkey, he will lead your squad.”

“Who’s that?” Drew asked as he looked at the chamber. “Yes, of course. This is your final member, barring Rhett’s arrival. This is Billy Connors, The Venom Spider.”

The chamber opened as the others stepped back in fear at seeing Billy’s scarred face with an orange and black costume.

“You,” Drew realized as he recognized the boy. “You’re AJ.’s boyfriend. You’re awake?”

“And AJ’s dead, I know,” Billy said as an electric shock coursed through his body to keep him from getting too angry.

“Young Billy has a few anger issues we need to work through,” Osborn told them. “Kevin, give them their assignments, but you won’t be joining them. You’ll suit up and leave in fifteen minutes.”

As Osborn left, Drew thought about it. “Wait a minute, Kevin Byrnes? That name is familiar. You’re Tommy’s big brother, he told me about you when I told him about AJ’s past.”

“Who’s Tommy?” Kevin asked. He started to get flashes of a familiar face that he feels he knew. He quickly shook it off. “I don’t remember anything before joining the squad.”

“Yeah, but–”

“We have a mission,” Kevin said bitterly as he brushed past. “As Mr. Osborn said, we leave in 15.”

At Flash’s apartment, he was reeling from the announcement Mary Jane had just dropped on him.

“Nanny? As in Au Pair? As in male babysitter?” Flash asked as he held Stan in his arms. “I mean, I like hanging with the kid and all, but–”

“You don’t have to quit the school, it’ll be a night job for when Peter goes out on patrol and I need to get some sleep,” MJ told him. “This could be a chance for me to audition for a few roles that are filming in town. And you’d be helping us out by keeping Stan calm.”

“I– I don’t–” Flash nervously said as the baby grabbed his pinky and played with it, laughing. There’s no way he could resist a kid this cute.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” Flash said as he smiled at the baby. “I’ll be the kid’s au pair, which does sound infinitely cooler than a male nanny. Not to many mention a lot manlier.”

Peter sighed as he sat at the dinner table with Rick as May made dinner to make what she thought was a woefully underfed duo.

“Lasagna will be ready shortly,” May told them. “Rick, you look skinny.”

“So, Rick,” Peter said as he looked across the table. “Why is that Night Monkey trying to kill you?”

“Because of this,” Rick said as he lifted his briefcase to the table. “In this, there is a secret that will change your entire life. You see, it all started when my father died working for Norman Osborn–”

“Of course,” Peter and May said in unison.

“I had nowhere to go, so he offered me a deal,” Rick said. “I’d come work for him and he’d pay for my schooling. I spent years working on DNA and genetic research for him. The biggest thing was working with Spider-Man’s DNA.”

“It was you, you were behind those phony flu shots that mutated the kids at the high school,” Peter said as Rick held his head in shame.

“I didn’t have anything to do with what he did, I was just trying to unlock the DNA code,” Rick said. “I just wanted to make the world a better place, I swear. Before that, he replaced me on the subject with some blonde woman and de-moted me to his experiments in Connecticut.”

“Connecticut?” Peter asked.

“Yeah, you remember where that show ‘Who’s the Boss’ was filmed/? Same house. I got to sleep in Danny Pintauro’s old room,’ Rick said.

“Nice,” Peter told him. “I’m getting off track here,” Peter told him. “Why Connecticut?”

“Did Danny Pintauro ever find a nice girl to settle down with?” May asked as she continued cooking.

“We need to talk about that one later, but why Connecticut?” Peter asked.

“Osborn was hiding something there,” Rick said. “Something he never wanted you to discover because he was still working on experimenting on the subject. I was sent there to perform the experiments myself, but the subject was too difficult to stay still and I wasn’t willing to go to extreme methods to contain them.”

“What was the subject?” Peter asked.

“Okay, but first you need to calm down,” Rick said. “Because what I’m going to tell you is extremely difficult to explain.”

As Rick talked, a red dot appeared on his shirt. Peter’s spider-senses started going off, indicating they were back in full force. With less than seconds to spare, Peter jumped to the ceiling and shot two webs: One at Rick and one at May, attaching them and pulling them out of the line of fire as guns started firing.

Peter got them to the closet and closed it behind them. 

“Stay there and don’t come out until I say!” Peter rolled under the table and grabbed his backpack with his costume. “Sorry, boys, no nude shows today.”

This house looks familiar,” the Huntsman Spider said.

“All houses look the same to me,” Wolf-Spider said as he held his laser rifle.

“Let’s just get what we came for and go,” Venom-Spider told them. “I have a father to hunt down when we’re done.”

“Wonder why they didn’t want Night Monkey leading us on this?” Huntsman asked.

“Who cares? We can handle a simple retrieval,” Wolf told him. “They said he’s experimenting on kids and is looking for more victims. We gotta take him out before he gets away.”

“Let’s just do this already,” Venom said as a web snatched their weapons away.

“Children shouldn’t play with weapons,” Spider-Man said as he sat in a tree. “Very naughty, kids.”

“Shit, it’s Spider-Man,” Wolf said.

“Maybe he’s here to–” Venom said as Spider-Man started delivering a no holds barred ass beating.

Tommy found himself in the park, just wanting to take a relaxing smoke. He sat down and pulled a cigarette as Rhett appeared.

“Hey, stud, can I borrow a cig and a light?” Rhett asked. He’d never smoked but had to strike up a conversation. Anything to get close to his target.  Plus this guy wasn’t completely unattractive. It had been a very long time since he dated. If fact since just before he fell into this Hobgoblin business.

“Uh, okay,” Tommy said as he held out the pack. Before Rhett could grab one, The Night Monkey shot a tranq in Tommy’s neck, knocking him out immediately.

“Sorry to interrupt your Grindr date, but Norman Osborn has business with you,” Night Monkey said as he grabbed Rhett around the neck and injected him with a powerful tranquilizer. As he fell over unconscious, he looked over at the unconscious Tommy and his memories started flooding back. “Little brother?”

Back at May’s house, Spider-Man was fighting the Spider-Pack in the street.

“What is this, amateur night?” Spider-Man asked as he threw Wolf over his back. “Thank God I’m wearing pants this time.”

As Venom-Spider was on the ground, he felt a beeping from one of his implants.

“This is the test to see if we can keep his darker side under control,” Osborn said as he had Billy activated to get his symbiote motivated.

Venom felt the back of his neck as he started growling in pain.

“That noise sounds familiar,” Spider-Man said as Venom started to stand up. “Uh-oh.”

A black symbiote covered Venom, causing him to double in size but shaped like The Lizard.

“WE. ARE. VENOM!”

“I. Am. Fucked.” Spider-Man said as he took a step back.

To Be Continued…