Spider-Man : The Morales Trilogy

Chapter 28

Miles regained consciousness in a lab. At first, his mind raced faster than he could control, considering over a thousand scenarios, all of which involved Till saving him from the burning ship and delivering him back to Smythe but finally, after taking a series of deep breaths, he realized the lab was pleasantly familiar.

This was in Connors's house. He got up, groaning slightly staring at a blank monitor screen which reflected his face. His mask was off but he was still in the suit. Even though he knew it was crazy and highly unlikely, the reflection he saw in the monitor didn't look much like him. It looked like a completely different person.

He heard yelling coming from above him and focused to listen but he couldn't. He couldn't hear what they were saying. Had his super-hearing somehow been impaired by the explosion?

He got off the bed and headed upstairs to find Shockwave, unconscious on a couch and his first guess was that was exactly the reason behind the yelling and arguing.

"Miles, you shouldn't be on your feet just yet," Connors said with a worrisome look on his face.

"I feel okay. It should only take a couple of minutes for the pain to subside," Miles replied calmly. "What's going on?"

"You and Sam have gone bloody mental is what's going on!" Dil exclaimed. "The villain is finally unconscious at the bottom of the sea and Sam decides to save him and bring him in here."

"Into my home," Connors added, glaring at Sam who was unmistakably angry judging by his red face and clenched fists.

"I wouldn't leave anyone behind to die, whether or not they're on the good or bad side of things. We can get information from him when he wakes up," Sam argued. "He's our best shot at saving the city."

"He's also the best shot at bringing my house crumbling to the ground if he decides he'd rather be more evil than chatty," Connors said.

"This is an awkward situation," Michelle said and made a slurping sound as she drank orange juice from a cup. "Depending on perspective though."

"What?"

"You can either view it as having an intelligible source of information just within your grasp or you can view it as having a ticking time bomb in your house. To make it simpler, you can either see this as having the key to saving the city close to you or you can see it as having someone who could kill you or your family in very close proximity."

"That's not helping," Miles said.

"Like I said, it's all perspective," she said and shrugged as she drank from the cup again.

Miles sighed and stared at Shockwave. "We need him to wake up now."

"You could try giving him a jolt," Dil suggested, "and the rest of us will just be praying silently that the jolt kills him and leaves us with one less problem."

"Could it kill him?" Miles asked Connors who shrugged.

"He's a superhuman like you so all it should do is give him a good jumpstart but I sure hope it kills him," Connors muttered.

Miles walked towards Shockwave and placed one hand on his chest with the second on his head and took a deep breath and then gave him a sharp jolt.

Red electricity crackled around Shockwave and he gasped as he regained consciousness. "It's amazing how you can do that," Michelle said as she slurped again. "A spider with electric powers. I dig it."

"Shouldn't you be with Hay?" Dil asked.

"You go be with her," Michelle muttered. "She's your girlfriend, right?"

Miles winced upon hearing that but instead focused on Shockwave whose mind just seemed to be regaining focus. "Kid," he muttered and shook his head.

"Shockwave," Miles said and nodded his head. "If you try to kill anyone in this house, we'll detonate the explosive implant we placed inside your head."

"What?" he asked.

"Yeah, what?" Dil repeated.

Miles turned to glance at Dil and shot him a wink. "We're taking extra measures," Miles explained as he turned to face Shockwave again. "You've put me in a hospital before and nearly killed the rest of us. We can't exactly let you do that again."

"If I wanted to kill any of you, I'd do it before you could even think of detonating whatever bomb you have planted inside me," Shockwave muttered and climbed up onto his feet.

"You wanted to help me save the city," Miles said. "You mentioned it back on the ship."

"Doesn't exactly matter now," Shockwave said as his armor slowly formed around his body, leaving only his face revealed. "Till's already gotten back to the Grandmaster and told him I turned so I'm a dead man either way."

"Were your intentions heroic like to save the city or were they selfish like to save yourself?"

"I'd say both," Shockwave answered and grinned. "But mostly selfish. I don't care about the people in this city, they're all scum."

"What?" Dil said.

"I know you," Shockwave said and pointed at Dil. "I could have killed you back on the shuttle then but I figured you weren't worth the weight on my conscience. You're the billionaire kid. Casen."

"Yeah?"

"Well, people like your parents have been killing the city and helping destroy the world slowly before people like me came in to finish the job. If the Grandmaster's plan involves ridding the world of people like that then I'm fine with it."

Dil clenched his fists and stepped towards Shockwave menacingly but Sam barred his way, no doubt saving him from a painful death.

"My parents are ten times more human than you."

"Depends. I'm not the one who owns a company that creates a biological weapon and sells the treatment for it at jacked up prices," Shockwave said and stared intently at Dil with a crooked smile on his face. "Do you even know how your parents amassed their vast fortune?"

Dil didn't answer.

"That's what I thought," Shockwave went on and sighed. "Anyways, I think it's time for me to leave since none of you look like you really want me in here."

"Damn right," Michelle piped in and slurped again.

"The Hammer daughter," Shockwave said and chuckled.

"Name's actually Michelle Hammer and you don't need to tell me how my family's responsible for slightly destroying the world. I'm all up-to-date on that."

"You're a realistic one."

"You're not," Miles said to Shockwave. "If you don't help us stop Grandmaster then you'll die too and you seem to care an awful lot about saving your cowardly hair."

"That's a lot of smart talking coming from someone I could kill in less than a minute."

"You owe us one," Sam stated. "We saved you from drowning and dying painfully in the sea so from our perspective, you're indebted."

"I'm not the quid pro quod kind of person," Shockwave replied and shrugged.

"But you are the kind of person who doesn't want to die," Miles stated again. "And you're going to help us save the city and stop Grandmaster from killing everyone including you."

"Exactly. So how do we stop him?" Sam asked toughly.

"Well, the Grandmaster wants to war with the city and conquer it. So you gotta ask yourself, what do you need to win a war?" Shockwave asked as he sat down.

"An army," everyone else said simultaneously.

"And weapons. And trust me, Grandmaster's stocking on a shit ton of weapons."

"So what's our next move?" Sam asked.

"What do you think?" Connors said. "All you kidsare going back to school and this psycho is getting the heck outta my house."