Spider-Man : The Morales Trilogy

Chapter 21

Miles gasped as he regained consciousness again. That must have been the twelfth time he'd died in the simulations and he was bleeding from his nose and mouth now.

"You're durable," Smythe said. "Two days of dying and you're still in one piece, mentally and physically."

"Please."

"I'll stop soon. Once your heart stops beating," Smythe said and entered a new series of numbers onto his tablet. "You can't be allowed to live and foil our plans."

"If I don't die, your face is going to make it onto the list of things I'll foil."

"I like it when you piss me off even more with your empty threats. You're alone, Morales. No friends. At least, no friends powerful enough to get you out of these straps."

"Smythe, you were respected. You threw all of that away. Why?!"

"I wanted more than just respect!" Smythe yelled. "I wanted power. Wealth. I wanted everything! But instead, Max Modell got that from the projects WE worked on together."

"And this is your great plan for revenge? The death of a city?"

"It's," Smythe began but a thud from outside the room they were in interrupted him. "I wonder what's going on out there now. It's probably your stubborn friend."

"Who?"

"Sam Alexander? He's been very uncooperative these past two days. I've given his face a new look, I thought that would make him more cooperative. Turns out the teenagers of this generation are tougher than they look."

"That particular teenager's going to be a tough shell to crack," Miles said and grinned, even with his face bloodied. "You made a grave mistake bringing him here."

There was a vibration that spread throughout the room and a hole was blasted through the wall. Sam stood there, in the midst of the debris, glowing a brilliant shade of blue.

"So he had powers?" Smythe asked and grinned. "That explained why he had more guts than the other coward."

"You're the real coward," Miles said.

Sam shot forward in a blur, charging at Smythe and punched him backwards with so much force that there was a small shockwave from the force.

"Did you kill him?"

"No. He enhanced himself too. He's stronger."

"It took you two days to decide to break me out?"

"We didn't even know he had you here until today and first, I had to try and find Connors. I found him but he's taken a beating."

"Get everyone out, it's impossible to break free of these straps. Smythe said something about needing Xandarian metal to cut through these and that doesn't exist on Earth."

"He had a point," Sam said and walked towards Miles. "You might want to suck your belly in a little and brace yourself. It might hurt."

Sam clenched his fists and threw a punch at one of the straps which was right above Miles's stomach and extended to his chest. It cracked and shattered after a second punch.

He did the same to the other straps and Miles fell to the ground once all the straps were gone. "Where are the others?"

"Outside. I got them out with Connors and came back for you. We need to hurry up and get the hell out of here."

Miles nodded and Sam helped Miles up onto his feet. "Let's go."

"Why would Smythe want you?"

"Well, I got powers from a spider bite and he's interested in that.

"You're damn right he is," Sam said and he turned around to face Miles, a dastardly grin on his face that only meant one thing and one thing only.

He was still in the simulation.

"You thought your escape would be so swift and quick?" Smythe asked through the face of Sam.

"Let me go."

"I won't. I need to keep you here until all the pieces are in place. Then I have to kill you. You're too much a danger to our plan to be left to move around freely."

"I'm still going to get out anyways."

"Good luck," Sam said and there was a brilliant blue light as Miles screamed and knew he'd just been incinerated by Sam in the simulation.

Thirteenth death. One more fail and he'd be dead for real because he definitely couldn't take it anymore.