Dark Heir Issue 7

Manhattan, New York January 2003

As I ride home on my motorcycle after a long day of classes, I get a notification through my helmet.

"Sir, Spider-Man is battling with Dr. Octopus a quarter mile from your location. "

"Thank Neo; set the autopilot on and guide me there."

As I pull into the alleyway, I watch as the battle is underway with Spider-Man in Dr. Octopus's metal tentacles

As I activate my suit and get ready to intervene

The roof starts crumbling, and a pile of stones starts falling on Captain George Stacy as he tackles the little boy out of the way.

"Captain Stacy!" calls out Spiderman from the roof as he swoops down and picks him up as he starts walking up the walls

"It was Spider-Man's Fault. He killed him, and now he's running away." The group called out

"Don't be idiots. He was battling Dr. Octopus on the roof, and his tentacles broke into the roof and caused the accident. Don't believe everything you read. Spiderman is not a menace; he's a hero." I say as I quickly follow Spiderman on the roof

"Hang on, Captain, I'll have you there in three seconds." Spider-Man pleaded as he rushed toward the closest doctor

"No, my boy… It's hopeless… I have to talk to you… and there's so little time." Captain George Stacy replied weakly,

"What is it? I'm listening." Spider-Man asks as he halts to a stop

"It's Gwen; after I'm gone, there's no one to look out for her anymore but you... Peter." Captain George Stacy responds weakly

"You called me Peter," Spider-Man says in disbelief

"I've known you were Spider-Man for a while, son. Be good to her..she loves you so much."

"She loves you too, George. She'll miss her father; don't give up yet." I stepped closer, breaking the tension

"Peter, move over. I can save him; let me," I tell him with my hands up

"How do I know I can trust you." He asks

"He's not the only one who knows your secret, Peter." I remove my mask

"You look familiar… you're from my biochemistry class, Dwayne Taylor."

I quickly recall the Night Rider to my location as I inject George Stacy with a serum before Peter pushed me away from him

"What did you do?" Peter asked angrily

"I injected him with an experimental injection I created that'll stop internal bleeding and force the body to go to medically induced coma; that'll give me enough time to take him back to Rookery and save his life," I responded to him

"Rookery, why not the hospital?" He asked confused

"My hideout has better equipment, Peter; he doesn't have much time, but you have to trust me."

"Fine, how do we get there." He asked as I pointed straight up

As the Night Rider reveals itself, Peter helps load George Stacy in the back carefully as we make back to the cave beneath Taylor Manor

Just as we arrived, we rushed Captain George Stacy toward my medbay. There, he's put in the regeneration cradle, waiting for the serum to wear off and the cradle to do its magic. I turn around and notice Peter slumped on the chair, looking over him

"He's going to be alright I promise, you won't lose someone else."

"How did you know." He asked, turned around, shocked

"I know what it means to lose someone important. You must remember the news of the scandal that hit the Taylor Foundation a couple of years ago."

"I remember… something about your uncle killing your parents.. I'm sorry for your loss."

"Yes, when my parents died when I was 8, I swore I'd get revenge, so I trained for years to get ready to take down my uncle and Tai, and when I did, I felt relief, but now I fight, so what happened to me doesn't happen to anyone else."

"I know the feeling; with Great Power comes Great Responsibility. Those were my uncle's last words. After he died, I started wearing a costume to do right by his memory, but I failed him and nearly George and Gwen." He cried out as he hung his head into his hands

"Good, so fail again." I grab on to his shoulder making him look up towards me.

"Life is shit Peter, all we can do is get up and keep fighting as long as we can do as much good as we can, but you have to get better."

"Stay with him here; he needs you when he gets up. You both have a lot to talk about. I'll go handle Dr. Ock," I responded to him

"Neo, do you have Dr. Ock's location?" I call out as I make my way to Night Rider

"Yes sir, he seems to be in underground base in Battery Park," Neo called out from the speakers

Later that night

As I make my way inside the secret lair, I find Dr. Octopus repairing his tentacles

"It's a shame all that hard work for nothing." I toss electric batarangs towards him

One of the tentacles blocks it before it shuts down

"What is happening… my tentacles, you shut them down… how?"

"You see, I'm something of a scientist as well, and coming up with an electric pulse that can shut the connection between you and the tentacles was a piece of cake."

As I went closer and started attacking him with my escrima sticks, I started dodging the other tentacles with the help of chi

[Spang Fwosh]

"It doesn't; my other arms will save me." Dr. Ock called out as I continued to dodge him

"I'm not Spider-Man, I'm not as quippy, and I think this has gone long enough."

For a big man he makes it up for his tentactles being so agile but not good enough to stop me, as I snuck in and knocked him out with a shock to his back.

[Spzzzzzzz]

I move towards him and tie him up. Afterward, I removed the power cell from the front of his belt and disconnected the tentacles. I hit him with an injection of nano nites that terminated his connection to his tentacles permanently.

As I drop him off at the nearest police station, tied up on a light post. I snuck into the recording of him fighting on the roof with Spider-Man and causing the accident, nearly killing George Stacy. There was evidence of him destroying the plane that held his tentacles as he escaped prison, leaving a calling card with the Nightwing logo at the scene.

I head back to the Rookery and find Peter and George Stacy talking in the Medbay.

"I see you feeling better, Captain."

"I don't know how I could ever repay you, thank you son."

"It was no problem Sir, If you ever need help, just call me on this." As I pass them both super up, Smartwatches "I got the idea from Star Trek; it works like a phone; you can send messages, calls, tell time, and weather health alerts, and if you press this button, it'll alert me to your location, and I'll be on my way. Now, let's get you two back home."