Here's my intro! If anyone's interested in writing with me, don't hesitate
to ask! ^_^
Shifting lights, gaudy billboards, smoke from a hundred cars, and cool
evening air.
Just another night high above Manhattan.
It felt great being back after five months of self-imposed inactivity.
I fired a line across the street, watched as it stuck to a jutting
flagpole. A tug to ensure it's stability, then I held on and swung feet
first. The evening air whipped past me, cooling my face and billowing out
the slightly tattered web cape around my shoulders.
This nifty new suit of Dr. Reed Richards certainly felt great, like it was
cloth and not some clunky metallic outfit. And that was saying something,
considering how it was made of eight million nanotech spiderbots. I liked
the new look. MJ loved it too. Still red and blue like my old costume, but
that's where a lot of the similarity ended.
I landed noiselessly on the side of a minor office building. Almost as fast
as a normal man runs, I scurried up the wall like the arachnid I resembled.
A bite from a radioactive spider could certainly do wonders.
A middle aged executive-looking guy with a balding head looked up from his
office desk, yawning and stretching his limbs out. Our eyes met as I
crawled right over his window. His eyes turned about as wide as Broadway
and he rubbed them first, then blinked as his jaw finally dropped. I was
well up the roof by the time he called security, telling them he thought
he'd seen Spider-Man.
They'd laugh and say he'd seen a ghost.
As far as the general public was concerned, Spider-Man was dead. Crushed to
death from the rubble of a burning building, though his body was never
recovered. Just his mask. Since then, I'd never even provided JJ Jameson
with any more Spider-Man pictures.
I felt like hijacking a stunt plane and skywriting "SPIDER-MAN IS BACK!"
across the night. SHIELD would probably shoot me down before I got my name
finished.
JJ's astronaut son Colonel John Jameson was in trouble. Stranded on that
newly discovered world NASA had named Counter-Earth, he'd sent an emergency
message, telling us all he was in danger and potentially so was our planet.
Worse, Venom and Carnage had smuggled themselves with him, making things a
lot more complicated.
In a month, things would be all right. And they'd know their friendly
neighborhood Spider-Man was still alive and kicking and swinging down their
walls.
On the roof I ran forward and dove right off, like an Olympic swimmer
hoping to impress the judges and grab that trophy. The web fired from my
wrist latched onto another building and I swung. At the apex of my swing, I
let go, flipped once in the air, shot to my right and let it take me into a
wide lazy arc around a posh hotel.
MAN...I don't remember moving that fast or flying that high since that time
I'd gotten that alien costume.
Seeing the world below me, cars and people alike, made me feel more free
than I'd ever been. Made me feel great to be alive.
I couldn't help myself. "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH...!!!"
Around me, the world was whitening slowly and beginning to hurt my eyes.
I'd heard of transcendental out of body experiences, but this was ridiculous.
And as if somebody had fast forwarded the video tape, my world exploded in
light.
".......HUH?!"
When my vision cleared, I blinked, more than a bit confused. One minute
I'd been web-swinging over Manhattan's rooftops and enjoying myself, now
here I was in a totally different place. It occured to me the web line I'd
fired was suddenly gone and I wasn't swinging anymore.
Falling.
What a rush.
The ground yawned closer and closer as I hurtled towards it, like a
kamikaze pilot hoping to glorify the Emperor. If I didn't do something
quick, I'd be so much red and blue goo down below.
My bewildered brain kicked into gear, and I gripped the web cape's corners,
spread them out behind me. The air flowing upwards filled it, and slowly
but surely, turned my fall into a float. Thirty feet up, I was floating
down like a balloon having run out of air.
I landed with a thud and looked around.
Where the heck was I? Sure beat me.
"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto.", I told myself.
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