Chapter 3:
Releasing a rebel or spring a psycho

Spider-Man and the knights ran down the hallways trying to find out where the howl came from. ‘I knew I should have put a tracer on Jameson when I had the chance.’ Parker thought as he climbed on the wall heading left. After going down on of the corridors Lady Vermin simply stopped running and stayed there, and when the others got to the end of the passage they noticed that they were short one.

“Wait. Where is Lady Vermin?” Lord Tyger questioned to the others. The bear and the spider tried looking down the halls that they have not been through yet, thinking that she outran them and was already following the noise, but when they did not see her they all looked down the corridor that they came from, and there she was by herself: starring at a wall.

‘That’s where I played decoy for ol` Bromley.’ Spider-Man thought as he saw where she stood. ’So, how she feels does have to deal with the building collapsing on me.’ He added and then walked over to her, and as soon as he placed his hand on her shoulder he felt her shiver. “It’s time to go, Lady Vermin.” He said to her while thumbing to the other two animals.

“Oh…of course, Spider-Man.” She answered him and headed over to her fellow knights with sort of a trance look in her eyes.

‘That’s weird she usually would call me: flatterer or my love, but never Spider-Man. Now I know it’s about me.’ He thought before following after the three. It did not take the four to get to the source of the howl since as soon as they rounded another corner they saw it: a arctic wolf in John’s clothes.

“Spider-Man, my friend, how about helping us out.” Goblin said as he armed a bomb, but it was knocked out of his hand before he could activate it. “Why did you do that?” He demanded to their friend, but got his answer when the hero in question and his backup appeared in between the rebels and their transformed leader.

“Look the knights and I can take on Fido, you guys go find Karen.” The web-slinger instructed to them, and despite having lenses over his eyes the others could feel a death glare coming out of them. The bandaged warrior nodded, grabbed his bomb friend and goblin before running off with X-51 right behind them.

“How should we go about this, Spider-Man?” The striped warrior asked the fellow rebel while drawing his sword, he may have his blaster, but he always preferred his sword. Mama bear pulled out her blaster, and the white faced one did the same. Parker knew out of experience what it was like to be human trying to fend off a beast’s mind thanks to his time as Man-Spider, so he put his hands on the rat and tigers weapons.
“Not like that, but hand to hand, and using our wits.” He said to them seriously, and then looked at the fellow meta-human which caused him to shoot off his mouth again. “Hey, wolfie, how about we throw the ol` Frisbee around?” The arachnid questioned while walking up to him, but his answer was a claw strike thankfully his spider sense saved him from loosing an eye. “Or maybe you’d prefer some obedience training.” He said and dodged and downward thrust of his claws.

“Yes. And I am the teacher.” Lady Ursula said to the canine and tried a straight punch with her right claw, but he stepped back from it, grabbed her long blonde hair, and threw the grizzly at the big cat: knocking both of them down.

“That could’ve gone better.” Peter said, and was amazed that a lone wolf had the power to throw someone like Lady Ursula. He looked at the two down warriors, and then back at John, who was now charging at them, so he tried a left shoulder thrust, but he grabbed the web-heads chest, and threw the spider behind him. ‘Okay that might’ve worked out better than I hoped.’ Peter thought as he got back on his feet.

“My turn.” Tyger said after getting off of the bear. Normally he would let all knights at a go before himself, but Lady Vermin has not been the same ever since seeing the hero buried by their ‘fellow’ knight. He charged at the dog creature, and with his reflexes and strength he was able to stay on par until Jameson swept the feet. With the head knight on his butt, and sworn not to use gun or sword, he was defenseless.

“NO!” The arachnid shouted from behind and fired loads of impact webbing balls at the back of the wolf which bundled his friend up. ‘The last time I did this ol` Jameson turned back pretty quick, but I don’t think It’ll work this time.’ He thought as he, and the others watched him struggle.

“How long will that keep him, my love?” The rat woman said as she saw the fellow white furred creature struggle. A very tiny part of her mind, a part that had yet to be filled with worry for him, wondered how he would feel using impact webbing on her.

‘Never thought I’d be grateful to her hear say, ‘my love’. She actually had me worried for a while.’ He thought since he could never stomach a girl, any girl, being worried or scared such as his wife or Felicia Hardy when he first wore the suit. “I designed my webbing to hold for an hour or so, but against a wolf’s claws I’d have to say.” He started to say to them, but was interrupted by a snarl and breaking webbing.

“Not long.” Tyger said as he watched Jameson get free from the webbing. “We have to fall back. There’s not much we can do in this passage.” He instructed to the others, and that’s what they did. Went on defense while retreating, but as they were doing that the others have just arrived at Karen’s room where Karen O`Malley was just lying on the bed.

‘I can’t be true. It just can’t.’ The red haired rebel thought as she laid on the bed thinking of the information she got from the High Evolutionary’s main computer: of him doing something to her when she was barely an infant. After doing that she returned to the room noticing, but not caring for, the yellow chunks falling from the sky, and went to bed.

“What are you doin` darlin`? We should be leaving.” She shook her head when she heard the voice of the resistance’s Scotsman. She sat up from her bed and saw that: Bromley, Git, X-51, and a man that she had only seen on the web standing in the doorway. “We better get going, I don’t know how long Spider-Man, and the knights, can hold off whatever happened to John.” He said to her while barley whispering the knights part, and the mere mention of the other Earthly creature brought her to her feet.

“What do you mean, Bromley? What has happened to John?” She asked the bomb totting blonde even though she had a feeling that she knew what it was.

“We don’t know, love. After we get past an electro defense he fell to the back, and the next thing we know he turns into a wolf and goes bonkers on us.” He explains to her, and that was precisely what she was fearing.

‘Not this again. Spider-Man and I barely survived the last time Jameson lost it.’ She thought, and since they knew of that secret then the core members of the resistance needed to know of what she discovered. “Guys, I have something to tell you…” She began, but was interrupted by a defining roar. The five looked down and saw the top of the web-slinger’s head coming at them, but luckily he skidded to a stop on his back.

“Oh, hey Karen.” He said in a daze before standing up. That was when they saw the wolf except he was dragging the other three by: Lady Vermin’s tail, Lord Tyger’s leg, and Lady Ursula’s hair: all of them pretty much out cold. He let go of them, and turned his sights to Spider-Man.

“Why is Jameson looking at the web-head like that?” Goblin questioned as they all saw the wolf just stand there. That was when he recalled a discussion with another transformed canine: Fox Xanatos.

‘According to Fox: when she was in her creature formed her subconscious got the better of her making Elisa appear as her human self, and if that’s true and since I’m pretty close to Karen right now then fangs probably pictures me as him.’ He thought and saw him charging. ’Called that.’ He added and regretfully aimed his projectiles at the man that he said he would send back to their Earth with him.

‘Here goes everything.’ O`Malley thought before rushing over in front of the hero. The males behind her thought that they saw her eyes turn a slight purple shade. “Stop.” She said aloud, and after some resisting the Colonel stopped right in front of her.
‘Looks like a Hulk and Betty moment, but I bet there’s something more to it.’ Parker thought as he watched the scene before him. Karen then tapped the forehead of the beast with her right index finger.
“Awaken John Jameson, and speak to us.” She said with her finger still on his forehead. After saying that she disconnected her finger from his head, and her eyes turned back to her normal light green. She and the others watched as the wolf closed his eyes and gave his head a shake before opening them, but when he did they were all surprised to see his human blue eyes in place of beast red.

“Uh, guys, I’m…” He started to say until he looked down at his hands, and saw that they were still clawed. “I’m still in my wolf form, and…I can control it.” He said in pure awe, and then looked to his partner to ask. “Karen, how did y--” He was cut off when he heard some groaning from behind him.

“That was most embarrassing.” Lady Ursula said as she got to her feet. The other two got up as well, and then turned to the fellow rebels ready to fend off the wolf, but they saw that he had mellowed.

“Sorry about the rough house, guys. I just couldn’t help myself.” John said to them. Normally he wouldn’t be this polite to beastials, but he was for two reasons: 1) He was one himself, or at least half. 2) It was not them who turned him into the beast, but the ram and the High Evolutionary.

“It is alright, Colonel.” Lord Tyger said back to him while dusting off his armor. Surprisingly his, Lady Vermin, and Lady Ursula’s armor had been damaged during their fight with him, but he could care less. “Come, we should leave this place, and stop the synoptic before it’s too late.” The tiger added to them.

“Can’t leave just yet.” Spider said to them which caught them all off guard. “You see before you tossed me for the umpteenth time John-John I tossed the sonic device to the ceiling and webbed it.” He explained before jumping up and tearing it off the ceiling.

“Hold on there web-slinger. You called me wolfie at one time, but isn’t there a hero by that nickname back home.” The wolf questioned as his friend dropped from the ceiling to the floor.

“No I call him wolvie = W-O-L-V-I-E, and I call you wolfie = W-O-L-F-I-E. See, different.” He said as he walked over to the others.

“One letter big difference.” John said with plenty of sarcasm to his off world ally.

“Yep, one problem in a word usually throws the whole thing off. Just like how your old man kept forgetting the dash between Spider and Man.” He said back to him.

“Isn’t this a sweet moment.” A voice said with sarcasm from behind the ten. When they turned around they saw that it was Sir Ram pointing his blaster at them. “This is a sweet moment for me as well: able to destroy six rebels, two former knights, and an annoying insect.” He said to them while waving his gun at the selected ones. “However if you agree to be with me as my pet, I may spare you my Lady Vermin.” He added, but he used one word that DID NOT agree with Peter one bit.

‘Pet.’ The web-slinger thought with anger, and then handed the sonic device to the wolf. “Leave. This one’s mine.” He said darkly, and Jameson knew that if Spider-Man spoke in that tone: run.

“You heard the man - let’s go, let’s go.” He said and grabbed Karen’s wrist with his free claw and ran off with the others right behind. Peter turned to the only animal there.

‘He seriously DID NOT just say the word ‘pet’?’ He questioned himself as he recalled the time the Ringmaster and Arcade hypnotized Tigra, Calypso, and several others into being acts at Murder World. He also knew how it ended since he was the one that almost ended them.

“I will deeply enjoy to kick your butt. With you out of the way then Lady Vermin will pay attention to me. Then I’ll ‘convince’ to obey anything I say.” He said to the arachnid in triumph which was a bad move. Before he knew it he received an elbow to the stomach, a fist to his ribs, and a full power uppercut.

“The problem is that you have to be breathing to ‘convince’ anyone to do anything.” He said and plowed three more punches and two kicks before adding, “If she chose me over you then she has good taste, but if you were the only other choice then you must have limited her friends, and that is another bad call.” He said before punching him right at the nose.

“I did that for her own good. She is only mine!!!” He shouted and tried blasting but was quickly gummed up by web balls in the barrels. He tried three more times with guns in both hands, but those were handled by his blue projectiles or webbing. On the next couple of tries we webbed them to him and crushed them with his bare hands.

“Anything else?” He asked with his anger barely being quenched yet. With no other weapons available he charged at him. Normally, he would have dodged it and add: !Ol’e!, but not this time. This time he stood his ground, grabbed him by the horns and tossed him to the left which twisted his ankle. The mad scientist glared up at the cape clad human determined to be rid of him.

“I am above you. You pitiful human.” He shouted out of anger to the one who came from beyond the stars.
But not above this.” He said to him and then began wailing on him. Parker went from top to bottom: breaking, not rip, off his horns. He took those and shoved them in his shoulders, and then walked behind him and stomped in his elbows which he did the same to his knees. He then spent a good forty or so minutes pounding his chest: hearing his ribs break and organs cry out.

“You won’t win. The creator will destroy anyone that interfering in his grand design.” The ram said back to him with surprisingly no blood coming out of his mouth. This only upset the hero even more, and then he got an idea.

“Knowing you, mutton man, you probably did a thorough look into what I can do including my sonics, right?” He questioned, but only got a spit as his answer. “Then you should know that I can change the frequency.” He added before placing his hands on his ears.

“What are you doing? Get your hands off me, you filthy human.” He shouted while shaking his useless limbs.

“Don’t mess with my friends.” He said in a dark tone before activating his sonics. He changed the frequency that only goats and rams in the immediate area could hear it, and he was going to make sure of something. From within the eyes of Spider-Man Peter was able to see the eardrums of the goat creature, and he stayed like that until they burst. Now that his arms, legs, and ears were useless he dragged his body to a random door.

“The creator will destroy you and ALL your kind.” He shouted despite the fact that he could no longer hear, he still talked. By luck the first door that he opened was a broom closet which he threw him in, and broke the handle after closing the door. Just in case H.E. set him free he marked the door.

“Time to get out of here, and get to Naoko and Shane, even IF they hate me.” He said and ran the whole way around to where he entered with the three and himself came in. He crawled through the hole that Ursula and himself made, totally oblivious to the human shaped hole that X-51 made right beside it, until he stood up.

“Come on, web-slinger, let’s go.” Jameson said to him after honking the horn. He saw that Lord Tyger, Jameson, and Karin were in the front.

“Why are you?” He asked them since this was interesting.

“I said for us to go, but I did not say that we were going to leave without you.” The wolf answered back to him.

“Jameson…thanks.” Parker said back. Normally, he would have used one of his lines, but he used up most of his energy on Ram, so he climbed the roof, opened the back doors, and went in with the others. Bromley then gave the wall closest to the drivers seat a traditional tap which meant go on ahead.

‘Let’s hope, Naoko is all right.” Jameson said and they flew off to the small little clinic.

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Spider-Man, and the others, are owned by Marvel and Stan Lee.