Marvel - The Beginning: The Amazing Spider-Man
VOL 2: THE SENSATIONAL SYMBIOTE SAGA
ARC: THE 'FANTASTIC' PROLOGUE
PART 2: Discovery
“What do you mean, ’alive’?!” growls Norman, narrowing his eyes.
Gulping down his fear, Mile Warren, lead Biochemist, repeats his statement. “T-the brief readouts from Ra-Reed Rich-cheh-cherds transmission…” stutters the Biochemist, “...was sa-seems to imply tha-the sa-sample had an-an acute senn-sentient prop-properties. The-their trying to contain it, its lah-lah-loose in the ship.” he explains.
Norman closes his eyes and mumbles a string of unhearable curses before rubbing his forehead with both hands. His mind weighing the benefits and drawbacks of this.
“It came on…” Miles starts but then looks around before whispering his next words, “...on our chah-channel.” he states, “We need to tell the Ta-team! This op-operation..”
Immediately Norman’s eyes snap open and lock onto the Miles Warren, “Listen here…” he says, shoving the scientist back with a swift push that makes his back hit the wall with a muffled ‘thonk’.
His open wide like round quarters, the Miles Warren feels his knees buckling as Norman’s angered eyes meet with his and seem to burry into the deepness of his very soul, then points his extended finger to their left, “...do you even comprehend what is happening today?”
Daring not to turn his head, Miles eyes slowly shift and observe the room of men at their computers.
“Discovery.” Norman answers, “Discovery in its purest form, has happened here today. Not in Russia. Not in some NASA run lab, but here, at Ozcorp….” Norman pauses, waiting for Miles eyes to meet back with his..
Turning his attention back to Norman, Miles sees Norman’s draw closer, his face inches from his so all he can see his Norman’s glaring eyes.
“...and Discovery doesn’t need cowards to scream fire at the first sign of a challenge.” Norman snarls, “We use intelligence to find a solution....” Norman reasons, “...Isn’t that right, my LEAD Biochemist?” he finishes.
Gulping, Miles Warren nods, “Uh-uh of course.” he sheepishly mutters.
Slowly a carnivorous like smirk curls the corner of Norman's mouth. Taking a step back, Norman composes himself, then pats Miles on the back hard enough for a ‘clap’ to be heard, “Atta boy.” he nods.
Emerging from the shadows in the rear of the room, Norman looks to the large screen at the end of the 'Control Room'.
The room was dimly lit, purposefully. All eyes should be on the wall screen, and they were. Peering over the five rows of supercomputers to the tallest man in the room staring at the screen. Norman lets out a beleaguered snort.
Decked in a fitted army green uniform and a military hat tucked under his arm, was a military man. Gray hair smoothed back so tightly not one hair was out of place. His green uniform immaculately clean and fitted. His shoes shined like glossy mirrors.
Norman smirks at an idea on how to irritate the man.
“Have we reestablished connection with our pilots Corporal?”
Hearing the word ‘Corporal’ sends a irritant like shiver up the Army Officer’s spine, much to Norman’s secret delight.Turning his head to peak over his shoulder with a distinct ‘side-eye’ of annoyance, the Army Officer. If his eyes could send daggers...
“That’s General Ross to you Osborn!” replies Thaddeus E. ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross, his brown eyes cutting Osborn a glare that would clear a swath path of slain bodies ending with Osborns. He hated Osborn. He had been patronizing him since he arrived, but it was mor than that. It was the whole operation. Private Sector mixing with the Military all because, of money - irked General Ross more than he cared to admit.
“And yes Civilian…” General Ross continues, addressing the question “...we’ve established an audio only feed. Seems like something cut their radio transmission but we’re waiting on…”
~I REPEAT WE ARE UNABLE TO DOCK WITH ORCHIS ONE STATION!~
The loud clear sound of Johnny Storm’s voice fills the room and draws everyone’s stunned faces to the wall screen.
Yet, as still as a stone statue in a hurricane, General Ross lifts up microphone to lips, “This is Thunderbolt to Fantastic Shuttle 1…” he announces, “...repeat previous…”
~ I SAID…~ shouts Johnny Storm, his voice crackling as if he was speaking into plastic.
The alarms, sirens, flashing red lights were loud enough to make Johnny scream even his thoughts to himself, but they trained for this. Somewhat. Regardless, he had to pull himself together.
Leaning over to the left, yelling into a speaker while holding his astronaut helmet in his hands, Johnny Storm repeats his statement, again for the fifth time, but louder.
“...WE ARE NOT MAKING THE ORCHIS ONE DOCK!” Johnny shouts over the comm, watching the view of the station disappear to a full view of Earth, “OUR FUSION ONE ENGINE IS DOWN, ENGINE TWO IS LOSING…”
“IS GONE TOO!” Ben Grimm shouts over to Johnny’s wide-eyed expression.
“YOU GOT THAT CONTROL?” Johnny shouts, but sees no response, “Can’t they hear us?!”
“Doesn’t Matter they’ll do what they always do.” Ben Grimm growls, straining himself to keep the levers stable with his bare hands, “Give you a solution two seconds too late.” he replies.
“C’mon baby, c’maaan…” Ben chides, struggling to use all his strength to pull the ‘bull-horn’ like steering apparatus back towards him to tip the nose of the ship upwards.
Ben cuts Johnny a quick look, “Good news, still got Engine Three and Four, kinda...Whatever cut the fuel lines, ain’t make it there yet so I can still guide us in but I can’t guarantee we’ll make New York.”
Firming his face at the statement, Johnny fits on his helmet and hits two switches, “No that’ ain’t good enough for me. I got a date tomorrow. Activating secondary steer, acknowledge.”
“Acknowledged.” Ben replies.
As soon as the white and silver handles emerge and unfold, Johnny grabs hold and starts pulling back, “CONTROL…” he shouts to the speaker, “...we’re coming in hot. Track our vector and...”
“AND SAY A PRAYER FOR REED!” Benn interjects..
Johnny clenches his jaw, focusing his gaze the window as the orange haze of heat tints the window as they descend towards Earth. Switching the speaker, Johnny leans in, “We’re entering the atmosphere you two, do you have it?! You need to strap in!”
“ALMOST!” Reed Richards shouts in reply. Floating through the zero gravity in his black bodysuit through the narrow tunnel hole. As if swimming in the air behind him, Sue follows behind Reed in her blue body suit. Her blond hair pulled back, Sue grips tightly a blowtorch and wrenches in her grasp.
“Okay, walk me through this one more time. And try to sound less like horror movie.” Sue says.
Reed, floating ahead, pulls himself along the walls towards the engine room and turns to Sue with a skeptical expression, “Man hit rock. Rock bled. Better?” he says sarcastically.
Pulling herself along through the Zero G, Sue arches her eyebrow at the statement, “That else Tarzan?”
Grabbing hold of cushioned wall before entering the dark corridor, Reed lets out an exasperated sigh, “Same thing I said before. ‘It’, the organism, what we thought was Promethium X, condensed itself and placed itself into the vacuum tube. It was alive Sue. An I’m theorizing it must have sensed the asteroid was not stable and entered the tube as a better option. It has intelligence.”
Sue shakes her head, “Okay, so if, an I mean if…” she cautiously agrees, “...that’s what happened. We should section off this part of the shuttle and sent it back to where it belongs.”
“Its too late for that.” Reed counters, “One we’re already in descent the ship will rip apart, two, Norman is paying us an obscene amount of money that will fund our research in the Baxter Loft for years…” Reed says, “...and plus, which is more important, its eating through the fusion drive…”
“And if it eats through the drives then we’re out of power…” Sue interjects, “...which means flight stability which means flight maneuverability, which means we die horribly in the sky.”
Reed arches his eyebrow and tilts his head side to side, “More like crash into an oblivion after descent, but yes. Terminal death. Though dying on impact verse strain of crash is hard to tell.”
Sue rolls her big blue eyes, “I see why Johnny gets frustrated.”
“I heard all the good men are frustrating.” Reed smirks.
Sue pats him on the face, “Aww dear, please stop talking to Stark dear, he’s alone.” she smirks floating past him to the dark corridor.
Reed opens his mouth to reply but deduces it's better to remain silent. However, Reed’s attention is immediately drawn to Sue’s scream.
“REEED!”
Feeling as if electricity shot up his spine from her shrill, Reed lifts his eyes and immediately sees Sue, holding out her hand to him as she’s pulled into a black mass!!!
Reed eyes scan everything to process. Knowledge floods to the forefront of his mind. The door entry to the hallway leading to the engine room, wasn’t darkly lit. It was black, black with an ooze filling part of the Engine Room. The engine room was 30 feet long, which mean it was filled to the rounded brim entryway with this black ink like substance that is pulling Sue in.
Her blue eyes open wide with terror as black threads of lightning skimmer across her torso, arms, her face, her legs, pulling her deeper into whatever the ooze was. Her feet sank and disappeared. Her knees. Waist. Struggling to emerge Sue holds out her hand with the wrench but it is swiftly pulled in with exception to her left hand holding...the blow torch.
Reed narrows his eyes.
“REEEEDD!” Sue screams in open mouth horror that’s soon muffled by black ooze filling her mouth.
“HOLD ON SUE!” Reed shouts, pushing himself forward through the zero gravity..
Sure of his already formed theory, Reed dives forward and focuses on her hand, gripping the small blow torch. Grabs hold of the wall on his left to slow himself, Reed stops short of Sue and instead of grabbing her reaching hand, pulls the torch out Sue’s grip. Pushing away from her and rolling back in the Zero G gravity, Reed simultaneously kicks a small hydrogen cooling pipe loose from the ceiling with his foot. As he comes right side up, Reed aims the torch forward.
Seeing Sue’s body halfway sunken into the black ooze and the white fog spraying outwards down in front of her, Reed narrows his eyes, “LET’ER GOO!!!” he shouts, igniting the torch.
Immediately a fiery pale blue flame erupts like dragon’s breath with searing heat!
However, a high pitch unnatural scream echoes off all walls around him so loudly Reed grinds his teeth from the earache. It was unnatural. Relenting from the blowtorch, Reed cuts off the flame and immediately the fire snuffs out with transparent smoke filling the hallway corridors.
Suddenly Reed hears the hiss of hydraulic hinges.
~REED WHAT’S GOING ON IN THERE?!~ Johnny shouts over the PA system.
Turning around Reed sees a thick metal door seal behind him and another door in front seal the engine room shut.
~FIRE ALARMS ALREADY TRIPPED AND SEALED YOU IN! Are you okay?~”
Ignoring Johnny’s voice over the PA system, Reed remains quiet. Peering through the smoke he sees Sue, fully released from the black ooze, but as soon as he moves, Sue holds up her trembling hand. Reed’s brow furrows his brow in protest but then see’s Sue’s open palm, turn to a finger, pointing up as she cough
Immediately Reed eyes snap up to the cushioned off-white charred ceiling, and he sees it.
"My word..." Reed mutters in pure shock.
The black ooze congeals before his very eyes. What was once a liquid, now resembled that of a a ten legged demon spider with a long thick tail sticking upside down.
White smoke rising off black body, the creature shivered. Reed could imagine it was in pain and, even though there were no discernible eyes, he couldn’t shake the feeling it was looking right at him.
“It shrank itself.” Reed mumbles, half surprised, “The heat. I theorized it had an aversion to anything flammable but it seems more like a weakness.
Sue clears her throat and wipes the smoke mark from her face, “ Never so happy you were right in my life.”
Reed observes the creature. Its slick and shiny form as black as space itself. No visible eyes. No oriphous of any kind. That is until Reed slowly notices a slit form along its front.
“Reed…” Sue says in a rising tone.
“I know…” Reed says, holding out a hand to her, “...I seem to have angered it.”
“First Johnny, then Doom....” Sue sighs, “...now aliens. We’re working on your bedside manner.” she says.
“Noted.” Reed replies, feeling the ship vibrating as it enters the outer layers of Earth’s atmosphere, which meant the gravity would turn off any minute now yet. Regardless, it mattered little with the creature now opening its slit and exposing rows of black sharpened black teeth.
“Reeeed…” Sue says in a fluttered gasps, watching the creature chittering and flexing its ten needle sharp teeth and bright green saliva tongue.
Slowly Reed backs away, “Sue get the deadhead landing gear. Landing harnesses on your left..”
Despite the obvious fact that strapping herself for landing with a wild space creature was sucide, Sue remains quiet, determined to believe that her Brilliant Reed had a plan. Quickly Sue, seeing the creatureis distracted with Reed, hastily floats through the air but feels the intensifying gravity, “Reed the…”
“Quiet Sue…” Reed interrupts slowly backing away, watching the creature carefully inch towards him, “...it understands.” he says as the creature unleashes a loud shriek at him.
Reed smirks, “Oh quite a bit, don’t you?”
The creature’s high pitch blood curdling, sends a cold chill up Sue’s spine. Pulling down the drop seat bench out the wall and a cluster of harnesses, Sue finishes unhooking the metal anchors and looks to Reed, still staring at the creature. Sweat pouring down his face, Reed remain perfectly still. watching the creature stalk towards him like a lion, “That’s right, come closer, a lil closer…” he says, calling it over with his finger.
Sue’s eyes open wide, “Reed what are you doing?!” she asks, strapping herself in.
Seeing the black spider-like creature stop moving, it rears back, ready to pounce. Reed lets out nervous steady breath, “Really hoping Norman built this place to my specifications.” he says.
‘rrrreEEEEEEEEEEE!’ shrieks the creature, throwing itself straight at Reed.
“REEED!” Sue shouts.
Resigning himself to not knowing fully the odds of Norman’s dependability on having built this ship to his specifications, Reed reaches into the cushioned wall on his left and feels a cool metal lever that the pulls. Ducking his head behind his arm, Reed waits for the agonizing pain of sharp teeth sinking into his flesh...but it doesn’t come.
Hearing scratches and ‘thonks’, Reed peeks from behind his raised arm and sees the creature trapped between two massive translucent walls, trapped in the corridor.
“Oh thank Goodness.” Reed sighs, still floating. Looking over to Sue, strapped into a seat against the wall with harnesses criss-crossed over her chest. Her eyes opened wide, Reed points at it with his thumb, “I asked Norman to install a Fiberglass Containment for chemicals but…”
Suddenly, Reed drops to the shuttle floor with a ‘bang’ before being thrown clear across the room to the metal, “REED!” Sue calls out, watching him roll to his side unconscious.
Holding onto her harness, Sue looks over at the Fiberglass wall as the creature bangs its, possibly ‘head’ against the wall repeatedly, trying to escape.
Noticing a red radio receiver, Sue unhooks it and brings it closer to her mouth, “Johnny, Ben! We found the creature but…what?!” WE’RE LANDING ON THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE!?” she shouts.
At that moment, a loud crack startles Sue. Immediately her blue eyes dart straight the fiberglass containment wall, now splintering with cracks as the black ooze creature rears back, and slams its head into the fiberglass, cracking it!
Bringing the receiver closer to her mouth, Sue clicks on the transmission, “Guys, if you can hear me, land this bucket fast!”
To be continued…
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