Spider-Man : The Morales Trilogy

Chapter 32

Sam and Miles touched the ground gently around a huge hole which seemed to be the source of the red beam of energy that was turning the skies red. “Okay, this is it.”
“What do we do?” Sam asked.
Miles stretched his hands to touch the beam of energy and before Sam could yell and stop him, some kind of protective force barrier blasted him backwards.
“Are you out of your mind?!” Sam yelled as he rushed to help Miles up onto his feet. “In no world, in any timeline or parallel universe, is it a safe idea to touch a red beam of energy that might level an entire city.”
“I wanted to see if I could interrupt the flow of energy and stop whatever the hell that is rupturing the sky.”
“With your hands?”
“With a suit of vibranium.”
“Something like this has to be controlled from somewhere,” Sam stated and looked into the deep hole which simply went about 80 feet deep into darkness.
“It is,” said a deep voice that was familiar to both Miles and Sam. And they swirled around as Shockwave stepped out from behind a pile of rubble in casual clothing and gauntlets on his hands. “Was wondering how long it would take for you two to get here. Where’s the blond idiot?”
“I think he means Dil,” Sam said and smirked slightly. “And that’s the first time I agree with a villain.”
“Ex-villain,” Shockwave corrected and sighed, a gentle breeze blowing his hair backwards. “I made mistakes along the way but I’m willing to help you two if it helps put the Grandmaster seven feet under.”
“We’re not killing him,” Miles said quickly.
“Then he’ll kill you.”
“No, he won’t.”
“This red beam rupturing the sky is only a fraction of the cosmic power he has within him. Do you really want to give him the chance of releasing his full strength on two untrained teenagers like you?”
“I know a lot about cosmic power,” Sam stated and crossed his arms, his eyes glowing blue as if to show what he meant by cosmic power.
“Very well. Have fun handling the Grandmaster, Till, Smythe and their cronies and monstrous creations.”
“What about you?”
“I’ve always had a soft spot for real estate in Washington,” Shockwave said and grinned. “I’d like to pursue that before New York City is destroyed.”
“It won’t be destroyed.”
“Not unless you kill the Grandmaster. He’s too dangerous for him to be left alive to attack the city another day even if you stopped him this time.”
“We’re not murderers!” Miles yelled. “We’ll do this another way which doesn’t involve taking the life of a man.”
“Sentiments only get you so far in war, kid,” Shockwave stated and turned around and started walking away.
“Where are you going?” Miles asked.
“To find the Grandmaster before you. And I’ll kill him without pests like you getting in the way.”
“Too bad,” Sam said and blasted Shockwave off his feet, locking him in midair stasis. “We’re already in the way.”
“You’ll do this our way or no way at all.”
“No way,” Shockwave growled and clapped his hands together, emitting a massive shockwave that knocked both Miles and Sam off the ground and into the air and they hit the ground hard, slightly dazed.
“That’s slightly new,” Miles groaned and held the side of his chest in pain as he slowly got up onto his feet. “Vibranium isn’t as effective as it’s supposed to be.”
“Oh, it’s effective alright. But I also got some new upgrades,” Shockwave stated and let out another blast but Sam flew into the path and got hit instead, being knocked backwards.
“That’s it,” Miles said and fired webs at Shockwave’s gauntlets and tugged but they achieved the exact opposite of what Miles had been aiming for. Rather than coming off, they tightened and let out another uncontrolled blast that knocked Miles backwards.
“Okay, I’ll have to change my plan,” Miles groaned. “Since that was literally nothing.”
Sam yelled and flew from behind Miles and towards Shockwave, blazingly quick and threw in a series of punches and sent Shockwave flying backwards into a collapsed building.
Sam flew back to Miles and helped him up onto his feet. “Okay, that’s not the Shockwave we’re used to.”
“We need to get those gauntlets off him.”
“Shockwave isn’t the threat here, Miles,” Sam asserted and pointed at the red beam of energy that was slowly opening a huge hole in the sky.
“What’s it doing?”
“The kind of energy it’s giving off. It’s strong enough to bring down tremendous pressure on New York City.”
“And that destroys the city,” Miles realized slowly and gulped. “Okay, so what do we do?”
“I don’t know but we have to find the source of that energy.”
“Where’s the source?”
“I don’t know but there’s certainly a huge, mysterious hole in the ground which also happens to be where the energy is coming from. Check it out?”
“How about the repelling force bubble?”
“How about the suit of vibranium?” Sam said and grinned as he grabbed Miles and shot towards the red beam of energy and hit the bubble with such force that he penetrated it and then shot downwards into the dark, endless abyss.
“This feels weird,” Miles groaned weakly and his HUD fluttered for a while before stabilizing again and Miles began to feel warped and flattened all at the same time.
“Sam, what’s going on?!” Miles asked, his voice sounding heavily distorted with a strange echo to it.
“Not sure,” Sam replied and he groaned and he occasionally lost the blue aura around him as he slowly slid out of consciousness.
“We need to get out of the abyss,” Miles realized. “It’s draining us of our energy. That’s what this is. It drains natural energy and strengthens the red beam ripping the sky apart.”
“Can’t go upwards again,” Sam groaned and then finally lost his consciousness and they both started falling through the endless abyss.
Miles managed to see what looked like a source of light before he lost his consciousness to and the universe warped around him.

Miles groaned as he came to on a painfully cold surface. A blue light next to him signified that Sam was regaining consciousness too. “Where are we?” Sam queried as he looked around in the darkness.
“I don’t know, genius. You flew us in here so I should be asking you,” Miles said and he pushed himself up onto his feet and saw what looked like some sort of massive generator which happened to be the source of the red beam tearing the sky apart.
“We destroy this, we save the city,” Miles murmured.
“Should have led with that,” Sam said as he roared in anger and charged at the generator but he stopped halfway there and looked at his hands as the blue energy flickered out of existence.
“What’s going on?”
“My powers,” Sam began and tried to summon energy again but there was only a blue flicker. “My powers don’t work anymore.”