Chapter 8 : Dark Night

So I've heard a news about Sony possibly bringing back Amazing Spider-Man franchise with Garfield. And I think. they should do it. It may still be just a rumour but I think Sony should work together with Marvel to make different universes so that when needed they can bring them back.

Other than that, You know it's Christmas and New year days so I have a lot of work to do. Most probably won't be posting chapters for a few days.

Some might have some confusion Because I know I'm a shit writer . The Masked Talon is the main Villain ( The Boss Talon) he has two other Talon subordinates( Talon 2- Talon 3) . Talons are trained killing machines that Court of Owls has made and they have also 'Cannibals' which are different from Talons . They are mindless human that are simply acting on carnivorous instinct but can be controlled by Talons.

Now lastly the Masked men or ' Owls'. They are the boss of the Court of Owls. Who they are? you will know. maybe not. Talons are their trained assassin slaves . Hope this clears up the last chapter.

Now let's go back to story. This chapter starts where we left off last chapter.

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A horrifying scream rang out from the supposed 13th floor of Chrysler building but of course, nobody outside heard it.

Spider-Man's whole body was on fire. He could feel the immense pain of being burned Alive. He had got hurt many times in the past 2 years since he had been Spider-Man but this was the worst of it all. All the injuries he had received during his fight with the Talons and the cannibals were being cauterized and giving him even more pain. He couldn't handle it and screamed out loud again.

The people surrounding him , who were the ones who gave him this pain , The masked Court of Owls , were laughing, clapping and enjoying the song that was the screams of their enemy.

The only saving grace for Spider-man is that his suit had some level of fire resistance. But even that wouldn't help for long. All Peter could was ' Is this the end? '

He could feel his strength going out. The screams reducing . Yet all he could think was ' I left the house so rudely. I left Aunt May alone . Just like Uncle Ben . I didn't achieve anything. It hurts so much. I can't stand this anymore. '

Then his mind started feeling wozzy. He saw flashes of his Uncle Ben as he was lying down on the ground with a sad look in his eyes. The scene changed and then it was his aunt May lying down there. Alone . And then it all vanished.

Spider-Man tried to stand up but agin fell down. ' Let it End. Please. The Pain. The fight. '

And then he saw those visions again. His Aunt May , lying down alone. Her face . So scared ... Begging for someone to come. To Help Her. To save her from them . The Evil.

' I need to go back. Can't die here. She is in danger. I can't stop now. Have to get up! Have to continue! This isn't how it ends. '

And with these thoughts the spider themed Hero gained a newfound strength from within and started getting up.

' The ceiling hole. That's the place . I need to get out of here. And Nobody is stopping me or I'll show them just how unfriendly I can be. ' Spider-man thought as he ran towards the exit . Two cannibals tried to jump on him to stop him. But the mad hero punched them so hard one after the other that the first cannibals jaw dislocated completely and the others rib shattered so bad everyone could hear the crunching sound.

The Masked Owls started running away from the flaming figure coming towards them. But Spider-man ignored them and jumped out the hole into the 14th floor. and made a dash towards the glass wall . He decided to break the glass and run away into the night.

But suddenly, One of the two subordinate Talon whose face was not covered like the Guy who had defeated him , was standing in his way . Spider-Man in his raged state didn't stop at all. And with flames still covering his whole body rammed into the Talon with force of a bull and speared him through the glass wall. He jumped from the edge and started falling. The Talon though latched onto his body and took out a knife and started to continuously stab spider-Man in the back .

The glass broke apart and two figures jumped out, one covered in fire and the other latched onto to him. Spider-Man then realised that both of his web shooters were broken and he didn't have any place to stick himself to. And he was falling to the ground at high speed and he will have to take the full impact . At that moment the Talon stabbed him again. Spider-Man grunted and then punched the Talon in the face and made distance with him .

Then they both fell down into the fountain outside the Gate of the building with a heavy impact that sent water flying everywhere and broke the fountain's base.

Spider-Man felt himself blacking out then and there but still tried to compose his mind. He knew he needed to get out of here. The fire extinguished when he fell into the fountain. But the impact of fall so much that each of his bone felt like it was going to break .

A crowd had started to gather around the fountain and they could see two black figures that had fallen into it. Then suddenly one of the two figures stood up and made an inhuman leap over their head and started running away from the scene.

As this all was happening down on the ground , A dark figure of the Talon was watching it all from the broken wall of the 14th floor . As soon as the police siren became audible signalling the arrival of NYPD . He too , vanished from the place where he stood a second ago.

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George Stacy arrived at the Chrysler building as soon as possible. He had been connected to Spider-man earlier and the last reply he received was Spider-man encountering the Court of Owls sometime after that the connection was lost . And soon he recieved the news about an accident at Chrysler . He immediately armed up his squad and reached the building quickly.

What they found was a body of possible member of Court of Owl . When they checked the body status they found out that he hadn't moved ever since he hit the ground Which hinted that he died immediately on hitting the ground, especially since most bones in his body looked broken.

But the post-mortem report suggested an entirely new idea. It said that the body's condition was such that it shouldn't even be human . Most internal organs and decomposed . And the brain was a mess of tissues. It could argued that the fall caused all the damage. But the doctors again told the police that this body must have died days ago. It was a unique case.He was almost half decomposed from inside but on the outside he looked as healthy as horse if only not for all the Surgery marks that were all over his body.

Stacy had many questions. What had happened there ? Where was Spider-man ? What happened to him ? But he had no one to answer his questions. Then another big thing happened. Explosions occured all over New York . More than 15 explosion in various buildings. Or more specifically in the hidden 13th floor of all the hidden buildings they had found out. Chrysler too. Nothing was left of the supposed Nest of Owls.

The police station was in a disarray . So many things had happened tonight . The press was writing article after article about how the police failed yet again.The Police captain slammed his hand on his table after reading one such article. ' Damnit. How is it our fault that rich superhuman organisations are trying to destroy the city every minute. We are trying our best.' He couldn't believe how much this situation had gotten out of hand.

Stacy had no doubt that this wasn't the end of the Court of Owls game. They were still here definitely somewhere here in the city. To prove they don't fear anything. Typical trait of Bad guys like them. But then it also raised a thought that if they were still here what were they going to do next? And who would stop them ? He had no idea where Spider-Man was at the moment. Gordon was trying to find his traces since last night's events . The most they knew was that he ran away somewhere in the Central park and hasn't been seen since and it has been almost 24 hours. Stacy could only hope that He was still alive .

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The hero in question , The Spider-man or Peter Parker was currently in a hidden basement that was once the hideout of a villain named Boomerang , whom he had met at the start of his hero career. The base was located under one of the tunnels of Grand Central .

He was sitting on a chair looking at the screen in front. Boomerang's base was a good resting place hidden from the world. And since the villain in question was resting his ass in Rikers Island so he didn't have much of a say in it.

Peter's whole upper body was covered in bandages with only one eye and hairs visible. After escaping from the building . He had hidden himself in the shadows and with his mind spinning he didn't know where to go. Obviously no place related to Peter Parker was an option since Talons could still be after him. That left him with some random rooftop or hiding in Central park or here.

He somehow dragged his beaten and battered body to this place in the night by hiding himself in darkness and had immediately passed out . He woke up a few hours later in the noon and had somehow bandaged himself . Peter first of all, after waking up immediately contacted Aunt May and as he'd thought , She was worried . He was somehow able to convince her that he was not in any danger. And then he had learned of what all had happened during the time he was out.

He was currently changing his bandages while looking at the news that was being broadcasted on every television channel. A Series of more than a dozen blasts had occured last night. Each building aligning with the ones he had checked yesterday.

'The Owls are obviously trying to hide their tracks . But still this was a very stupid way to do it if they wanted to do it. It's almost as if they some ulterior motive like — Ah , yes they want to assert their dominance. '

Like Stacy , Peter too knew that last night was not the end . In fact , the Owls have only now started to come out of their shadow in which they had always hidden themselves in. But unlike the Police captain the hero knew what was their next plan. He had seen it in the last hideout.

The photo of their next target. It was in the file that he had found before Talon showed up. Their next target —The Mayor. Peter looked back up at the screen as the news anchor continued—

# " The Mayor has requested the citizens to not panic but remain alert. The newly appointed Mayor of NYC has also given her condolence to the victims of last night Attack. "

# " One notable thing is that despite the grim situation of the city . Mayor Morse has decided to still keep going with the plan to introduce the New Initiative program on the same date instead of postponing the event. Despite many arguments it has been decided that The Conference is still going to happen this Sunday, July 20th. "

The Court wants to stop the Initiative. That's why their first target is do that. They also want to assert their dominance. What better way to do that Than killing the Mayor herself. Killing two birds with one stone. Today is Friday so they only have two days to complete the task.

' This time I will be ready for them.' Peter thought as he stood up and checked his body's condition. God only knew how he didn't die from excessive blood loss. His whole body was riddled with cuts or bite wounds or burn marks. Maybe it was because the wounds were cauterized by fire or maybe due to his amazing healing factor. Maybe due to both. When he had woken up his wounds were still fresh and hurt like hell. They weren't bleeding much . But blisters had formed where he had been burned. Bite wounds he got from those carnivorous pet dogs was the worst.

Now though , Most wounds had closed up it was still red but they were healing rapidly.Most burns had disappeared already. The only few big wounds were the bite mark on his shoulder, The stab wound on his left wrist And the burn mark on his left eye. But that too was showing signs of healing and he was greatly thankful for that. Otherwise He didn't know how he would explain the burn to Aunt May.

He picked up his suit or what was left of it. It had been torn in many places. Peter decided that he first had to change his costume and then he will immediately go to Morse's penthouse .

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Peter was able to get his other suit and new web shooters from home without alarming Aunt May . And now he was going to the Penthouse of Mayor Morse. The young hero was very vigilant about his surroundings. He reached his destination and started checking inside through the windows for the Mayor.

He found her still in her office looking over some documents. At first , Spider-Man thought of alerting her about the potential threat to her life. But stopped himself when he saw 4 armed men at the door of her office. room. It seemed Morse knew about the situation well enough to prepare some safety measures . Spidey decided that he should hide his presence instead of making himself known. So when the Owls show up he would have the element of surprise.

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It was almost 10 in the night . Still no signs of the Talons . Spider-Man was observing everything around him very carefully. He was ready for any moment for his spider-sense to go off . Morse was still in her office having a talk with one of associate on call .

There had been news of 2 more mysterious kidnapping and another body was found in Bronx in similar half eaten state. But Spider-man knew he he shouldn't move. He knew this was his best shot. His only lead about the Court's actions. Morse was at the top of their target list. His instincts told him that it was the right choice. And his instincts were rarely wrong.

Spider-Man knew round 2 was coming. And he had prepared himself for this fight. He put on his metal web shooters that looked more like arm guards , covering his whole forearm. He also brought his newly made web bombs that he recently made. This time he was definitely going to hunt down the Owls. But till now there was no sign of them.

[ Beware the court of owls, ]

Jacqueline ended her call and got up probably to go to bed. Spider-Man kept watching her go.

[ That watches all the time, ]

Suddenly his Spider-Sense went off and he turned his body sideways immediately and dodged a bullet that was fired from somewhere.

[ Gazing from a shadow perch ]

Spider-Man turned around to look in the direction where the bullet had come from. There he saw, at the top of a high-rise building , A Talon standing there with a sniper rifle .

[ Behind Granite and Lime. ]

Then his Spider-Sense tingled again. But this time he was a second too late to react and as soon as he tried to move someone grabbed the back of his head and banged it into the window form which he was observing the office.

[ They watch you at your hearth, ]

He was thrown inside the Penthouse. And the armed bodyguards of Mayor immediately turned their guns at him but at that moment lot's of cannibals broke through all the windows of the Penthouse and entered like raging monsters.

[ They watch you in your Bed. ]

Jacqueline screamed after seeing the cannibals. And immediately ran inside her bedroom and locked the door.

[ Speak not a whispered word of them, ]

The Cannibals ran behind her and started attacking the door trying to break in . The bodyguards started firing at the monsters without hesitation.While some Cannibals turned towards the bodyguards and attacked them too.

[Or they will send The Talon for your head]

Spider-Man shook his head to get over the harsh attack and looked back at the window where he was thrown. There The Masked Talon stood. " We meet again. Spider-Man."

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END