Edward felt like a diver. He kept his legs firmly together and his arms remained stretched. It reminded him of his childhood when he pretended to be a plane. And here I am, he thought, falling at 100 miles per hour. The air viciously grazed against his face and between his fingers which danced playfully.
‘I love this!’ he said as a rubbery web shot from his palm. ‘Love it!’
Edward had grown comfortable with his new art of air dancing and deliberately loosened his grip on the web. He kicked as it brought him down and then leapt, shooting another web.
‘Your father loved this too.’
‘I can see why,’ he said. ‘It feels good to do good.’
‘I thought you meant swinging.’
‘Both,’ he laughed.
His joyful attitude gently subsided when he saw several police cars chasing a black, armoured truck. Like an animal it was stubborn and refused to stop. It smashed a path through multiple cars. Edward couldn’t imagine how many people were already hurt. But he tried to count regardless.
‘Stupid,’ he spat, and quickly descended to the scene.
After one final swing he released his grip and twisted elegantly, landing on the trucks roof. He crawled to the front glass and punched a hole through it. Sitting in the car were three masked men, Edward could see two holding shotguns.
‘Hey guys what’s up,’ he said, wiggling his head through the hole. ‘What’s the shotgun for.’
‘It—It’s Spiderman,’ the driver said. ‘Shoot him.’
‘Spiderman!’ Where?’ The driver lowered his head as the two shot rounds in Toxin’s face.
‘Ram him,’ one said.
‘Ramen?’ Edward said confused. ‘Do you guys hear a ringing?’
The driver crashed into a car, hoping to throw Toxin back. Instead he fell forward, onto his back; his head was still stuck in the glass. The men shot at the glass until depleted of ammo and then began to desperately kick at it.
‘Again!’
The driver managed to crush Toxin under his wheels with a second attempt. Edward bent his legs and with a kick, he sent the truck shooting in the air. It returned and landed on its roof.
‘Ugh, that was unpleasant,’ he said, stumbling to his feet.
‘Freeze!’ an officer yelled before he could jump out his car.
‘It’s okay I’m one of the good guys.’
‘Put your hands above your head!’
‘Huh, I ain’t got time for this,’ he said, webbing the officer’s mouth.
Edward continued to patrol the streets; he restrained a thief, and quite possibly stopped a murder.
‘What’s this?’ he said, swinging into an alley way. His sense of smell quickly picked up the scent of death. It was a body concealed in the corner. Toxin dragged the body out of the shadows. Its stomach had been ripped open and emptied, and it was missing a head.
‘Spiderman.’
‘It can’t be.’
‘It’s his scent. He isn’t far. I can track him.’
‘Fine,’ Edward sneered.
The stench of death stood out like a beacon. Toxin trailed after it, keeping to the shadows as he did. He tracked the source to an abandoned building. It was without windows and Toxin easily crept through. It was terribly dark. He gave a light thud when he landed on the floor. He could barely see anything.
‘Where is he,’ he whispered.
‘Close.’
‘I’m scared. What he did…what if he does it to me—?’
A set of hands punched its way through the floorboard and latched onto Toxin’s ankles. It was still too dark to see if it was Spiderman.
‘Huh.’
The hands tugged and violently dragged Toxin through the floor. He screamed as he fell, he faintly caught a shadow moving. To his surprise, his fall was cushioned by something. He tried to move, but whatever cushioned his fall, also restrained his movement. He saw it was a large, multilayered web.
He tried to talk but his words fell silent. He couldn’t express his fear. Webbing surrounded him, it covered the walls. It dangled from the ceiling in ropes. It felt like some twisted jungle gym. He awed when he saw countless dead bodies stuck to the wall like a decoration.
‘What is this,’ he said lightly, finally able to speak.
‘My home,’ a gargled voice said, the giant web shook when it landed. The being crawled towards Toxin and sniffed at him, a black slime dripped from his mouth. ‘And you are trespassing.’
‘Spiderman?’
‘Yes,’ he said politely.
‘@!$% you!’ Toxin swung and freed himself from the web. His fist caught Spiderman in the face.
‘His flesh is different, unclean… dead.’
Hundreds of spikes protruded from Toxin’s back and began to cut at the web. He lifted his body and leapt at the necrotized Spiderman. The two traded blows, twisting and swinging. They would have been evenly matched, if not for Toxins superior strength. His hand shifted into claws and was able to cut Spiderman’s eye in a quick swipe. The creature let out a gargled roar and began to retreat through a hole in the floor.
‘I’ll kill you,’ Edward panted.
The hole was small but Edward was easily able to fit through it. This room bore no resemblance to the others. There was no webbing and it was surprising neat. In the corner, Spiderman fiddled on what looked like a supercomputer. To his right was a metallic, circular platform. It began to radiate.
‘C’mon c’mon c’mon,’ he said.
Edward leapt at Spiderman and was met with a swift kick that landed him directly onto the platform.
‘I bet you wish you had spider-sense,’ he said, repetitively shooting balls of web at Edwards’s feet.
‘Hey.’
The platform crackled with energy and in a flash of white light, Edward was gone.
‘What the—’
Edward jumped in confusion. He was outside. Only the city was in ruins, cars were tipped over and the sky was murky. It didn’t feel like home.
‘This doesn’t feel right.’
‘I know. What happened here?’
Edward was too afraid to swing through the city, especially when he could hear noises not far off, but he had to investigate. He stuck to the walls instead of swinging. The noise grew louder and Edward saw a crowd of superheroes. The Avengers, X-men and Fantastic Four. But they looked different. Much like Spiderman.
His body shook as he felt something touch him. It was light. When he turned he saw it was web, and the person on the other end was black and bulky.
‘Grandfather.’
‘Venom!?’
Venom pulled the web and swung it, slamming Edward against a building. The crowd almost turned in unison when they heard it.
‘My turn,’ Edward said, a web shot onto Venom which pulled him into the building. The crowd gathered around as wood and objects were heard breaking. A loud scream was heard. And the head of Venom bounced onto the pavement.
‘Easy.’
‘I don’t think so,’ the Human Torch said, answering for the crowd.
‘What the hell is going on?’
‘Hey Johnny, hurry up and cook him already,’ Grimm retorted.
‘With pleasure,’ Torch released a blast of fire so intense the symbiote leapt off Edward. He fell on his back, completely helpless. He did have a black belt in karate, but he knew it wouldn’t help here without Toxin.
‘Where’d your friend go kid?’ Torch smiled. He stretched his fiery hand to grab Edward. Even from a distance, he could feel the heat which was too much to endure. He curled up and screamed his last scream.
A green bolt of energy burned its way through the crowd, and divided them like a river. Heads shot up and turned.
‘What is he doing here?’ Susan Storm gestured to Reed.
‘Fear not child,’ the voice spoke. ‘For this is Doom’s battle.’
Edward opened his eyes and saw Victor Van Damme standing erect with his arm held out, it sizzled with heat. He couldn’t express how happy he was no matter how evil he thought Doom was. He crawled towards him, dragging his limp body across the floor.
‘Get him!’ Torch roared.
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