Spider-Man : The Morales Trilogy

Chapter 33

“Why the hell wouldn’t your powers work in here?” Miles asked. “I can still feel my strength and natural spider powers.”
“How about your electric powers?” Sam asked.
“What?”
“Try shooting some of your red electricity at the generator!” Sam ordered and Miles obliged and turned to face the generator. He felt the energy crackling through his veins, waiting to be let loose and then he fired. But there was only a spark.
“What the actual fuck,” he muttered and tried again but nothing even happened this time. No spark, no electricity. Nothing.
“My powers and your electric powers are naturally based around energy and this abyss must be somehow draining us of that energy. The longer we’re in here, the more it’s draining us.”
“If it keeps draining us, it’s only a matter of time till I lose my other powers,” Miles realized.
“Forget about your powers. If this abyss keeps draining us, it’s only a matter of time until we die.”
“Die?”
“Life is energy. Energy is life. Once it’s drained us of all the other energy we have, the abyss will slowly start depleting our lives.”
“We need to get out of here,” Miles asserted and looked upwards at the tiny circle of light that was their escape out of here. If he crawled along the walls, he’d lose his powers before he got out and would most definitely lose his life from the fall if he didn’t have his powers.
“Any ideas?”
“Let’s look around,” Miles said and looked around the darkness. “My sense tells me this place is hella huge. It’s like a maze.”
“An abyss leading into a maze. I swear I read this in a Percy Jackson novel.”
“Let’s just keep moving,”
Sam sighed and pulled his mask off, throwing it onto the floor and the clanging sound echoed throughout the abyssal maze. “What was that for?” Miles queried.
“Was getting hot,” Sam answered and wiped sweat off his forehead with his hands.
Miles looked at him in worry because it was damn cold in here. If Sam was already burning up then the abyss was already feeding on his life force meaning they had to find an exit as soon as possible.
“Keep talking,” Miles advised. “Stay awake.”
“Aww, you’re worried about me.”
“I need a vehicle to fly me out of this abyss,” Miles joked and Sam snorted.
“I’ll give you a heads-up when I’m about to die, trust me.”
It was hard navigating the abyss especially since there wasn’t any light in here but Miles could sense air flowing freely from different places. If he turned at the right time, it would probably lead outside.
“I always wanted to return to Xandar before my death,” Sam admitted, sounding weak a couple of minutes later. “Maybe fulfil my duties and become a Centurion.”
“And once all this is over, you’ll return to Xandar. You’re not dying here.”
“Don’t make promises, man,” Sam murmured and groaned. “Even I know a dead man when I see one. There’s other people with powers out there, maybe you’ll be a sidekick to one of them next.”
“You think I’m your sidekick.”
“Nah, I was joking. But you’re my friend.”
I smiled under my mask and instinctively took a turn, hoping it would be the right one but this one just went on and on as well.
“You two made it far,” said an eerie voice from the shadows. “But it’s only a matter of time before my abyss empties you of your energy and your life. And that will replenish me.”
“Grandloser?” Sam queried.
“I am the Grandmaster. The end of an era and the beginning of the future.”
“Why are you doing this?!”
“New York fell a long time ago. None of you chose to accept it but now, I’m willing to rebuild it into the great empire that it should have been.”
Miles felt the darkness twist around them and he saw two red eye glow in the midst of the darkness. He reacted immediately and threw a punch but the darkness dispersed and wrapped around him instead.
“Miles,” a familiar voice murmured and Miles swung around to see his dad standing there, frowning at him.
“Dad?”
“What are you doing?”
“I have to stop the Grandmaster and save New York. I let you down, I can’t do the same to a city.”
“You’re not a hero, Miles,” his father said, a point blank expression on his face. “If you save the city, you think you get a medal? You don’t. The cops will hunt you no matter the good you do for the city. That’s how New York treats heroes.”
“I don’t care. I have to do this.”
“You don’t have to do anything. You can just be free and be yourself instead of risking your life. Do you know what your death will do to your mother?”
“I have to do this.”
“Miles, you’re not worthy of the suit you’re wearing. You’re not Spider-Man so stop fooling yourself, it’s quite pitiful. You can’t save this city, trust me. And you need to stop pretending to be a hero. You’re not. You’re nothing.”
“What?” Miles asked and looked around. This felt wrong. This couldn’t be his dad.
“You heard me right, son. Stay in school, you can’t save this city. You couldn’t save me and you wanna save over a million people? Dressed like a wannabe Spider-Man?”
“You’re the Grandmaster,” Miles muttered and sighed. “So you have telepathic abilities too, that’s something.”
“Oh, you’re smart, I’ll give you that,” Miles’s father said and clapped before vanishing. Miles gasped and took a deep breath and found himself back in the abyss beside Sam.
“You okay?” Sam asked. “You just collapsed to the ground.”
“We need to get out of here.”
“I have an idea,” Sam groaned and pushed himself up onto his feet. “But we need to head back to the generator.”
“What? You’d die.”
“Maybe. But if I can absorb the energy from it, I’ll save my life as well as stop the red beam from destroying the city. We need to give this a shot.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“More dangerous than blindly moving around an evil abyss that’s already affecting your mind?” Sam asked.
“Fine, let’s head back.”
“You two aren’t heading anywhere,” said Till and something heavy landed on the ground, not too far away from Miles.
“Richard Till.”
“Please. Call me Menace,” he growled.