The Black Spider - 11. Chapter 11: Not A Training Montage

The Tunnel was the first of six scenarios that both Peter and Tony had created together. It took its name from a sub-basement passageway that connected two houses. Both of the houses were owned by a single street gang, who used the passageway as a means of transport between the two houses, as well as a storage area for the product they sold.

The objective of the scenario was to eliminate all the gang members and rescue any innocents within the houses. While it might’ve sounded easy, it was anything but. Each house was occupied by five gang members. It was always at random which house would have armed and unarmed members. Peter had come to find that things ran a lot smoother if he was lucky enough to get the house with the armed members first due to one of the scenarios stipulations. Once the fifth gang member was taken down, one of the remaining five members became “the messenger”.

The messenger was the only gang member capable of exiting either of the houses. The other gang members could only occupy the houses, or travel between them via the sub-basement. If too many of the other gang members were overpowered by the enemy, or if one of the gang members instructed the messenger to do so, the messenger could run out of the house for reinforcements. If the messenger made it out of the house, it ended the scenario with a failure.

The innocents, despite their name, were also a hazard. Although they were unarmed, they were loyal to the gang members, and had no reservation about screaming or otherwise alerting the gang members to the presence of an enemy.

The innocents could be rescued by putting a hand on their shoulder. That would cause them to vanish from the scenario and count as rescued. However, the gang members were smart. They would notice the absence of their innocents, and would search through the house for them. If they didn’t find the innocent(s), it triggered “alert mode”, where all gang members would aggressively begin to search for an intruder.

There was also one particular innocent that had a random chance to appear in the scenario. It was a child who had a fondness for tricking the adults in the basement by creeping in, shutting off the lights, and running. The distraction was a good way to safely escape the basement, but Peter had learned through impatience on his last run that this particular innocent had a catch. There was always at least one gang member present in the basement when the child pulled their prank. That gang member was programmed to find the child and punish them. If the child was rescued before they were punished, alert mode would be activated by the punishing gang member once they couldn’t find the child.

Peter had been in the middle of dealing with two gang members when the alert had gone off, summoning the other gang members over from the other house. He’d managed to put his two targets down, as well as the third who’d triggered the alert, before the other five gang members arrived. As soon as they arrived, they’d told the messenger to run. This had then led to Peter’s attempt at trying to shoot the messenger with his wrist blasters, but the messenger had escaped, resulting in a scenario failure.

This time around, Peter found the scenario easier than it’d ever been before. The camouflage on his augmented reality suit kept him out of sight in places like the basement of the house, where innocents were sometimes seated counting money, or packaging drugs for storage in the sub-basement. However, the camouflage was an option that had to be used smartly. Its effect only lasted for one minute. After that, the option entered a five minute recharge cycle, and would only become usable again after that cycle was over.

Peter had hoped that the child innocent would be present during the run, and was happy when that hope came to augmented life. He’d used the child’s distraction to escape the basement. Then, traveling along the ceiling, he’d followed the child and the punishing gang member to the child’s bedroom on the second floor of the house. Before the gang member was able to deliver the first punishing strike, Peter had intervened, rescuing the child, and then taking down the gang member.

After that, Peter had gone back to the first floor of the house and surprised the two gang members preparing drugs in the front room, as well as a third that was in the kitchen cooking food. They never got the chance to make a sound. The disabler slugs Peter shot over the lower part of their faces saw to that.

Afterward, Peter hadn’t engaged the three gang members in battle. Instead, he’d waited to see how long it would take for them to suffocate. Forty-five seconds was what he’d counted before the gang member’s life indicators, which appeared above their heads during combat, fell to zero.

The final gang member in the house was caught literally with his pants down in one of the rooms with one of the innocents. By the time either of them noticed Peter sneaking up behind them, it was already too late.

Peter then made a second pass through the basement, rescuing the remaining innocents that were there, before proceeding into the sub-basement and over to the second house.

Having been fortunate in choosing the house with the armed gang members first, Peter knew the remainder of his opposition was unarmed. This had allowed him to switch up his method of attack. To start, he’d used disabler slugs on the door leading into the sub-basement to jam it shut. Since he was camouflaged, this action only caused the one gang member and the two innocents in the basement to become curious. When the gang member went over to investigate the door, Peter maneuvered around him and over to where the innocents were. Then, he’d dropped his camouflage and rescued the two innocents. The gang member saw this, and alert mode was triggered.

Before the other four gang members could arrive, Peter wrapped the gang member up in tether lines to incapacitate his body, and situated him so that he was hanging upside down from the ceiling with his mouth covered.

Once all of the other gang members had filed into the basement, Peter used disabler slugs on the door leading back into the house to jam it shut. Then, he’d systematically taken out each gang member one by one, until there was only one survivor left. The member who’d become the messenger.

Peter had taken a few minutes to taunt the messenger, as he tried to escape through doors he couldn’t open, before eliminating him. Peter then removed his makeshift lock from the door leading into the house and went on to rescue the remaining innocents, who’d gone into hiding, to win the scenario.

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“I think I’m in love with these weapons, Mister Stark,” Peter said to Tony as J.A.R.V.I.S. went about returning the warehouse to normal.

There’d been enough time to run another smaller scenario after the successful clear of The Tunnel. Peter had not only completed that scenario with a win, but had set a new record for time completion.

“Oh really now? Even after all that mouth you gave me earlier?” Tony remarked.

“I still think you’re still a copycat. But, at least when you copy something you make it better.”

Tony, seeing that he was never going to convince Peter that he had not gotten the idea for the weapons from Oscorp, relented. He nodded.

“Damn straight.”

“What do you call these weapons?”

Tony got ready to answer, then realized,

“Other than a file name, I never did come up with an official name for ‘em. It looks like you get the honor of giving them a name.”

“Nah. You came up with ‘em. You should name ‘em.”

“I’ll tell you what; you hit the shower, so I can get you home on time. Think up some names. I’ll do the same. We’ll toss ‘em around on the ride home.”

“Yeah.” Peter nodded. “We can do that.”

“All right. To the shower with you then.” Tony sent him on his way.

Two showers, as well as two restrooms, were items Tony had installed inside the warehouse. One of the other features of the S.K.I.N technology was that it absorbed and dissolved the sweat of its wearer as part of its internal climate control. It did not absorb order, however. It was only able to regulate it. This meant that the user would have a strong body odor upon taking off the suit after vigorous activity. And a strong body odor was something unwise to send a young man home with after a very physically non-vigorous internship. It would definitely raise questions from a certain Aunt.

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      * 

Web-shooters.

That was the name Peter and Tony settled on from what turned out to be a short list of names for the weapons. Web-spinners had come in at a close second place, followed by web-launchers, spin-launchers, and skeet-shooters. The last name had been one of Peter’s. Tony had gotten a good chuckle out of it, but had voted the name down.

With time still left after the name selection, Peter used it as he normally did, and got started on his homework assignments. He liked to do this because if there were any assignments that were overly complicated, he could take advantage of Tony being right there with him and ask questions. If there were no assignments requiring questions, he would do them from the shortest to the longest.

Instead of taking Peter all the way home, Tony would drop him off at the transit station, where the city buses picked up. Once there, Peter would catch and ride the city bus for the rest of the ten minute trip home. May had offered to be Peter’s ride home directly from Stark Enterprises, but he had convinced her that it wasn’t cool being picked up from work in the same way it wasn’t cool getting picked up/dropped off at school by a parental figure.

Once Peter made it home, every hour up until bedtime was occupied. Seven to eight o’clock was dinner time. Eight to ten was supposed to be homework time, but Peter often devoted an hour of that time to Tre and Zeyna, whose bed time was at nine. This meant that nine to ten o’clock was usually when homework time actually took place.

Ten o’clock was usually lights out, unless homework hadn’t been completed. Then, Peter was allowed to work until midnight. This eve, he’d been able to get all of his homework done by nine thirty, which left thirty minutes of free time. He’d texted Glen to let him know he was available, and the two had jumped into a quick gaming session before the lights had to be out.

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

Norman Osborn’s first trip to Los Angeles, California for the official opening of the Oscorp Los Angeles facility had been postponed due to “unforeseen” circumstances. It’d been discovered that one of the genetically altered spiders had managed to escape its cell. That’d caused the entire Los Angeles facility to be covertly shut down for a week in order to search for the missing arachnid. But the fine-toothed combing of the facility had turned up nothing.

As a result, Norman had ordered the destruction of the remaining genetically altered spiders, and set his genetics team to work on a new second strain; one that was infertile, more docile, and only had a five minute window for which they could exist without the enzyme.

Much to Norman’s satisfaction, the genetics team was able to deliver the new spider strain after only two months of work. This quick turnaround had allowed him to focus his full attention on a second situation that’d also come to light.

Something was happening to his employees in Los Angeles.

It’d been traced back to just slightly over a year previous, when two of his employees were involved in a murder/suicide that’d also taken the life of an LAPD officer. Norman had been aware of this happening, but hadn’t thought much about it at the time. People had stresses and issues. Those who were weak in the mind sometimes chose an insane way of putting an end to them.

In the maelstrom that was the completion and launch of the Oscorp Los Angeles facility, Norman was never made aware that more of his employees had been involved in murder/suicide cases. It was information that was only revealed to him as he planned his second trip, which was to coincide with the arrival of the second strain of spiders to the Los Angeles facility.

The information had sent Norman on a round of damage control to make sure that law enforcement and the media didn’t connect the dots and discover that the deceased were Oscorp employees. He’d also made a mandatory-to-continue-employment request to select groups of Oscorp employees. They were to submit to an in house doctor’s examination.

Norman had initiated this protocol because he’d discovered that the employees involved in the murder/suicides were part of a project so secret it hadn’t even been announced to his own company yet. He was concerned that his dead employees might’ve suffered side-effects as a result of the project, causing them to commit the acts they had.

Given the work the select group of employees did, mandatory doctor examinations were not unusual to them. Norman never had to tell them his reasons for initiation. This endeavor had taken another two months to arrive at its conclusion. Norman was pleased to hear that all employees were clear of any side effects as a result of the project. However, it sent his mind into darker territory, which was only fueled by his security team. If the employees weren’t suffering from any side effects, and were in otherwise good health, it meant that something else was responsible.

Or someone.

Norman knew he had enemies. If any of them had somehow found out about the project, then all hands were needed on deck to find out who they were, and bring an immediate end to their actions.

Now, six months past the original date, Norman was finally ready to visit his Los Angeles facility. That was what he was thinking about as he stood in the office of his New York facility taking in the sight of the city before him through a spacious window that sat to the east of his desk.

A knock sounded at Norman’s office door, calling his attention back home.

“Come in.” Norman invited, as he began to walk toward his desk.

The left door of the large double doors that served as the gateway into the office came open. In stepped a boy of age sixteen.

“Oh!” Norman sighed and slapped his palm lightly against his forehead. “Forgive me, son, I forgot you were out there.”

Harry Osborn shrugged casually.

“Don’t worry, Dad. I’m used to it,” he replied. “Are you ready? We still have that dinner reservation…unless you’ve cancelled that too.”

Norman was very well used to the bitter mix just beneath the sweetness of his son’s voice. He was sure, though, that some of that bitterness was about to go away.

“No,” Norman informed, smiling warmly, “it’s the only one I haven’t cancelled, in fact. Have a seat while I shut my system down and get my things.”

So used to hearing the opposite answer ninety-nine percent of the time, Harry couldn’t help the surprised smile that changed his slightly darkened face. Shutting the door behind him, he walked across the office to his father’s desk and took a seat in the chair.

Norman gathered up the documents and folders he planned to take home with him and slid them into his briefcase. He turned to his computer to shut it down, and spied Harry lounging in the chair in the process.

“Don’t slouch. Sit up straight,” he said kindly.

Harry readjusted in the chair, as Norman went about shutting off his computer.

“What’re you thinking about having for dinner tonight?” he asked Harry.

“I don’t know. I’ve got three choices in mind, but it depends on which wines they’re serving tonight. How about you?”

Norman had taken a rule from the English and allowed Harry to drink at the age of sixteen. It’d only taken Harry one nasty hangover to learn his limits and his lesson to treat the privilege with responsibility.

“I’ve been thinking about steak all week – ”

Norman was cut off as a knock sounded on his office door.

“Come in,” Norman invited, wondering who it could be.

The door opened.

Norman was surprised to see the head of his security team, Edric Dobbs step into the office.

“Evening, Mister Osborn. I’m glad I caught you before you left,” Edric greeted, shutting the door behind him and starting towards Norman’s desk.

“Why is that?” Norman asked, shutting his briefcase and locking it.

“I think it’s best that we discuss that privately.”

“Can it wait for a few hours? I’m having dinner with Harry tonight.”

Due to the tallness of the chairs that sat in front of the desk, Edric didn’t even see that Harry was sitting there until he arrived at the desk himself. Although he didn’t want to come between a father and son dinner, he also didn’t want to lose his job.

“No, sir it can’t. I think we’re going to have to postpone your visit to Los Angeles again.”

Those were words Norman didn’t want to hear coming out of Edric’s mouth. His eyes fixed on the man. The stoic expression he saw on Edric’s face was one he knew and one he never liked to see. Something had happened. Something bad.

Norman’s eyes moved over to Harry, only to find his son’s eyes staring at him in dim expectation. It was an expression Norman also knew and also never liked to see each time it made an appearance.

But the responsibility of running a company didn’t clock out at the end of the day. No. That was a twenty-four hour, seven day a week job. And when business had to be handled, it had to be handled.

“Son, can you please excuse us,” Norman requested.

Harry looked over at Edric, who turned his head to look at Norman just in time to avoid the boy’s gaze. Harry then looked back at his father and nodded.

“Yeah. Sure,” he responded dryly, as he stood up from the chair to leave.

“Don’t get comfortable. As soon as this is taken care of, we’re leaving,” Norman said.

“That’s what you always say, Dad. Then four hours and some pre-ordered take out that we’ll have to heat up after we get home later, we’ll eat.” Harry thought to himself, as he nodded and waved in response to his father’s words.

Edric waited until Harry had taken his leave, and the door was shut, before he spoke.

“Another incident has happened in Los Angeles.”

Norman stared at Edric in momentary disbelief.

“You’re kidding me,” he said.

Edric shook his head.

“I wish I was.”

Norman looked at his watch.

“But it’s only a little after six o’clock over there.”

“I know. Whoever it is must’ve wanted you to know before you went to bed tonight.”

“What happened?”

“Family of four. Mother, father, son, daughter. According to reports, the daughter took out the entire family, then herself.”

“How old was she?”

“Twelve. Brother was in his teens. Parents in their late forties. She shot them all.”

“And let me guess, the family has no prior history of violence?”

“Just like the others.”

Norman closed his eyes and sighed deeply in an attempt to hold back his rising anger. He hated not knowing what was happening to his employees. He hated not knowing who was responsible. And most of all, he hated being powerless to stop it.

“You know what to do. I want to know everything. Every breath that family took and every step they made,” Norman instructed.

“Understood. May I also make a suggestion?”

Norman nodded, his eyes still closed.

“You may,” he invited.

“I think it would be best if you postponed your trip until next Friday. It’s clear that whoever did this wanted to send you a message. They know you’re coming.”

Norman’s eyes snapped open and fixed once again on Edric.

“Then let them come at me, because I will not postpone this trip again. That is the final word when it comes to that.” A sliver of Norman’s anger lashed out to attack verbally.

Edric wanted to argue…but, he knew better.

“Understood sir.” He nodded instead.

Norman saw the fluctuation on Edric’s face. It was there for just a moment, then gone with his words of his compliance. It was a fluctuation Norman didn’t see often from Edric, but knew what it was.

“You know, I’ve trusted you with the security of myself and my family for years now, Edric, and you’ve never let me down. But we will not let this…problem continue to hold us at bay. We’ve dealt with it from here for long enough. It’s time for us to move in, get some answers, and find these bastards. I’m tired of the games.”

Edric nodded and let out a short sigh of his own.

“I took the liberty of drawing up a new security plan just in case you said that. We’ll go over it at the house later, once you and Harry are back from dinner,” he said.

Hearing that was like a ray of sunshine breaking through the dark clouds for Norman. He could go over the new plans right then and there with Edric. Or, he could take care of that later, and make one very disgruntled sixteen-year-old less disgruntled. It was a distraction, yes. A distraction from a problem that needed to be solved with the utmost of urgency. But that was exactly what Norman felt he needed right now, even if just for a few hours. That would give him time to calm down and approach the situation with a clearer mind.

Norman nodded at Edric.

“That’s sounds fine to me,” he said.

Edric nodded his acknowledgement, but didn’t speak. He waited while Norman gathered his coat and briefcase, and then joined Norman as he walked toward the office exit.

“The look on Harry’s face is going to be priceless when you actually walk out of here in under ten minutes,” Edric remarked.

Norman chuckled and nodded.

“Take a picture of it for me, will you? I like to cherish the rare moments.”

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *