The Princess and the Spider-Man

Chapter 37

Both Spider-Man and Mera were still searching the area for more clues to Otto's plan. They did find another table belonging to another villain. Mera instantly caught sight of the green jet pack and armor.

"Peter, is this the guy that snatched you at the Raft?" Mera asked, remembering the guy with wings. 'What was his name again?' she thought to herself.

"Yep." Spider-Man answered. "Old man Vulture. I've tangled with him more than anyone else here." He then noticed a bed and a wheelchair next to the table, and some tubes for injections that hospitals have. He also noticed some X-rays on the table of what appeared to be of a torso. "What's Vulture doing with all of these?" he asked.

"Let's see." Mera said, spotting the recorder and playing the message.

"Adrian, what bitter irony that your miraculous wings would have wrought such horrors on your body. Thankfully, you're now working for me. When our work is settled, the treatment I've developed will cure you. You won't shuffle off this mortal coil just yet, my friend." Otto announced.

"Horrors? What horrors? And what does he want to be cured of?" Mera asked.

"It's not craziness, that's for sure." Spider-Man said, taking another look at the images, before it finally clicked in his head. "Oh my god."  he said, putting a hand to his head.

"What? What is it?" Mera said, taking his hand again in concern.

"I know what's going on now. The power source for Vulture's wings gave him spinal cancer. And Otto's making a treatment to save him." Spider-Man said.

"Spinal cancer?" Mera asked.

"Cancer is a disease, or I should say a wide variety of diseases where abnormal things in your body multiply uncontrollably and damage parts of your body. There are so many forms, and there is no real cure for it. It take the lives of many lives every year." Spider-Man explained.

Mera gasped at the explanation. "So there's no treatment for it either?" she asked,

"There are treatments, but sometimes they don't always work." Spider-Man said.

Mera then looked back at the screens. "How unfortunate." he commented.

"Yep." Spider-Man said, walking to the next table. "Electro. Total live wire this one." he commented as he saw all the electrical cords and Electro's vest on the table.

"He's the one who made you fall, didn't he?" Mera asked, with a little anger as she observed the vest.

"Yep. He's the one." Spider-Man said, locating the recorder and playing it.

"Max, when you first told me your dream I thought you were insane. Pure energy, ha ha ha. But as I dug deeper into the problem, I found a way that could help us both. I promise, when we are done, you will be pure energy.......or so close to it as to make the difference irrelevant."  Otto said.

"Elector wants to be pure energy. And Otto actually modified his vest to get a little closer to that goal." Spider-Man  observed as he gazed at the vest.

"Well that's just splendid." Mera said. She then noticed one last table over on the other end of the room and walked to it. All she saw was just a map of what appeared to be New York City. But it was blank. "Hey Peter, I've found a map here." she called to Spider-Man.

He came and took a look. "Hm, looks blank." Spider-Man said. He then noticed a UV light just above the map and got an idea. "Maybe it's not so blank after all." he added.

"Huh?" Mera asked, looking at him confused. "It looks pretty blank to me Peter." she said.

"Really? Well how about now?" Spider-Man said, turning on the switch and smirking at Mera without even looking at the map. Mera just glanced back and forth at Peter and the map with an amused look on her face.