Spider-Man : The Morales Trilogy

Chapter 4

Miles jumped at Dil, sending both of them to the floor as the robot fired. The beam hit the shelf that contained vials of chemicals and some jars containing insects, spilling its contents onto the floor.

Miles groaned and looked at the robot which started advancing on them.

"Two highschoolers. And they think they can interfere with my plans!" the robot roared making its mechanical voice a bit distorted.

"Mr. Hammer, why are you doing this?" Miles asked.

"Isn't it clear already? I want my revenge. On Smythe. On Oscorp. On everyone else who helped ruin my life."

Miles wanted to stall the robot then he felt something ticklish moving down his spine and realized that some of the insects had climbed onto him and Dil. Dil screamed and started thrashing around and accidentally kicked a counter causing the contents to crash onto the floor.

Whatever was on the counter must have been flammable because a fire started. Miles got up and brushed the insects off of him, more casually than Dil.

"It's just insects," he muttered and shot a look at Dil.

"God, we're gonna die."

The robot started backing away from the fire slowly. Evidently, Smythe hadn't designed his robots to be fireproof.

"What do we do?" Dil asked as he got up onto his feet, now satisfied that there wasn't any insect on him again.

"Wait." At that moment, the sprinklers went off. Putting out the fire and although, it was meant to provide a momentary distraction, it did much more. As soon as the water touched the robots, its blue blight fluttered then the robot powered down as sparks came from its head.

"Water," Miles murmured.

"What's it now."

"The ro- -," Miles began but he yelled as he felt a sharp pain at the back of his neck. His hand shot to the spot and he grabbed something. He looked at his hands to see a black and red, dangerous-looking spider there. It was dead now, though.

"It's just insects," Dil mocked.

Miles glared at Dil and threw the spider onto the floor. "It's just a spider, not the end of the world. Now, let's go. The core should be right beneath us now."

Miles and Dil headed to the stairwell and continued heading down till they were in the core room which was massive. But Miles didn't wait to admire the room, he didn't want to be exposed to radiation or whatever else he could be exposed to in this room. He found the control panel and rushed towards it and to his surprise, there was an EMP button on it. Modell must have planned for this. Probably as an emergency option if his own blue and red guide armors were hacked. Before Miles could push the button, they heard laughter and applause.

"Very impressive. You buffoons here really are geniuses. But I would very much appreciate it if you stepped away from the panel now. I'm claiming the core."

Miles and Dil turned around to see Alistair Smythe standing there with a crooked grin on his face, a gun aimed at the two of them.

"Smythe?"

"Right, you are, kid. Now, get out of the way. I need to modify the core really quickly."

"This was all you. It was never Justin Hammer!"

"Of course not. Hammer's dead. If my memory isn't failing, I remember being the one who killed him," Smythe said and chuckled. "Of course, I was hoping I'd obtain his company then Brother Julius came and took it all away."

"The explosion at Oscorp. That was you?"

"Oscorp is dying. It has been dying for years now. The heir is busy focusing on entertainment rather than science. No one cares about Osborn Entertainment.

"So I set off an explosive in Oscorp, I didn't plan for people to get caught in the explosion though. But I managed to escape with the things I needed though, undetected. My public image being tarnished was simply a small sacrifice."

"You're acquiring technology. You're part of the criminals," Dil said.

"Criminal is such an insultive term, child. I'm a businessman. All this technology I'm building and acquiring will make me very rich when I sell it."

"You won't get away with this."

"I already have," Smythe said and laughed. "To the rest of Horizon, I'm running around with Modell trying to stop the problem. They're unaware that it's simply a robot clone up there. I'll do what I want here and be gone before anyone knows."

"We know."

"You two are under the impression that I'm going to let you walk away alive," Smythe said. "Step away from the panel."

"No."

"Miles, what are you doing?" Dil asked. "He said step away, I think we should have stepped away decades ago."

"I'm standing my ground. Thugs like Smythe can't be allowed to get away with their crimes," Miles said. "If you want to kill me, pull the damn trigger. But you're going to prison either way."

"What makes you so certain?"

"Great thing about MAX phones is their distress signal feature. It sends out an amplified signal on every frequency possible so it goes round. Max Modell has an interceptor. I just sent one out and you didn't even notice. In a couple of seconds, Max Modell and his guards which are suits of armor better designed than yours will be here. And you'll go to prison, bitch."

"Very smart," Smythe said, his lips trembling. "I'll still kill you though.''

"No, you won't," Max Modell said, dressed in a blue and red suit of armor as he landed behind Smythe.

"Max, I can explain. These kids orchestrated the entire thing," Smythe said as he turned around to face Max Modell. Max Modell knocked him out instantly with a blow to the face.

"Hit the button."

"It'll deactivate your suit."

"Doesn't matter, I'm not really here. It's remote controlled."

Miles nodded and turned around then hit the EMP button. The core made a sound and then released a blast of energy that spread throughout Horizon High, deactivating anything electrical.

Miles took a deep breath and looked at Dil. "We did it."

"Does that mean we're- - -," Dil began but his voice became strangely distorted to Miles and Miles's vision became blurry. He staggered and then collapsed to the ground. Dil rushed towards him then everything went black.