Chapter 18

Walking up to the door, I grasp the handle, and then I twist it in the opposite direction that it is meant to turn. Once that is done, I shove the handle further into the doorway, and then just for good measure, I give the wall on the side of the door a good kick, messing with the door mechanism inside. The last action had made a bit of noise, and I could already hear mumbling on the other side of the door, questioning the noise, so I got on with the next step.

I signal for Felicia to move over to the back of the room, which she complies with, and then I pick up the closest shelf and chuck it down in front of the door. It makes a lot of noise, but I don't care at this point. I start to pick up the other shelves and chuck them there as well, barricading the door and keeping the thugs from getting in, and they are trying. They are outside, trying to get in to find out what is making all of the noise.

With the door adequately barricaded and the thugs cut off from their guns, we can finally go and knock the living daylights out of them by going through the other entrance, the non-conventional entrance. I walk over to the back wall and motion for Felicia to back up a bit, and when she does, I leap up and stick my hands to the ceiling. Then, with them firmly attached, I kick out and smash the window. Not caring about the noise, I can hear them start to barge the door, trying to get in.

I quickly smash all the little pieces of glass left in the frame and then signal for Felicia to follow me and then slither out of the window. I land on the ground outside and then run around to the front of the warehouse, side-stepping the two unconscious guys still laid out on the floor. I go up to the door and clasp the handle, waiting for Felicia.

She turns the corner a second later and walks up to stand behind me. I give her a nod, and then I turn back towards the door and twist the handle. I pull the door towards me, opening it.

There are two guys in front of me, looking at me, stunned. one of them in front is reaching for the door, which I had just opened. Our eyes meet, and we don't say anything. the only noise is coming from the bunch of guys behind them trying to get into the barricaded room. I can see them, and if they were to just turn to the left, they would see us too.

"Hey, there. Did anybody order a pizza? Because, guess what?" The thugs look at me stunned, completely caught on the back foot, and they clearly don't know what to do either, as they just stand there like idiots. The thugs behind them looked towards me when they heard me. I did speak quite loudly. Oh well, the time for sneakiness is over. We were planning on having an all-out fistfight anyway.

"It's PIZZA TIME!" I SHout as I rush forward and throw a right hook forward, which catches the foremost thug on the cheek and throws him back into the thug behind him, and they both get blasted away. They tumble for a while before sprawling out on the floor at the feet of the other thugs inside, who look down at the two sprawled out on the floor before looking back up at me. They back away from the gun room and ready themselves. It is obvious that I am stronger than the average man, knowing not to take me lightly.

I straighten my leather jacket before stepping into the warehouse and then holding the door open, allowing Felicia to come in after me. Then I close the door, completely sealing off the only exit out of the warehouse. And then it is kind of like a Mexican stand-off, with Felicia and me by the door looking at the unarmed thugs and them standing by the barricaded gun room waiting for us to do something or demand something.

The two thugs on the floor are brought out of their daze, and they sit up. I know I sent them quite a way, but I, of course, held my punches back a little. I did decide to stop limiting myself and cowering away like Peter does, but I still don't want to kill anyone. After all, a super-powered murderer will definitely get hunted down by some superhero. Better to stay under the radar of those guys.

"What are you guys waiting for? Get those fuckers!" One of the guys I knocked back shouted as they got to their feet, helping his other compatriot up. Hearing the signal, all the thugs roar and then charge towards us, their war cry bolstering their spirits, not that it will help them. Before I can make my move, Felecia rushes past me and towards the mob of thugs, eager to let off some steam and kick some worthless crap bags.

I watch as she leaps into their midst and begins to send out a flurry of powerful kicks and lash out with a bunch of strikes with her claw-tipped fingers, not cutting deep enough to be lethal but deep enough to hurt, though she does get dangerously close to some vital parts. Her hair whips around wildly as she twists and turns, but I manage to glimpse a look at her face, upon which sits a ferocious grin. Clearly, she is enjoying her stress release, feeling all her worries float away as she breaks bones.

"What are you waiting for? Get in here and have some fun!" Felicia shouts amid all the chaos, wishing for me to join the brawl, and this reminds the thugs of my presence, them having forgotten about it while being brutalised by Felicia. The thugs on the edge of the massacre clearly think it better to pay attention to me than her, and they back away in order to face me, thinking that I am the easier target. Well, while I don't want to cause life-threatening injuries, I can still be pretty ruthless just as long as no one dies.

Four thugs break away from the moshpit and run towards me. I run forwards to meet them and show them that I am not the easiest target here. I leap upwards, my knee raised, which smashes into the face of the closest thug right into the septum of his nose. I can feel the bone and cartilage inside his nose practically disintegrate as my knee drives forward into his face, which will surely be disfigured in the future. Yet, strangely, I don't feel the least bit bad about giving him, at the very least, a deviated septum.

Not dwelling on that in the least bit, without missing a beat, I transition into my next move and sweep out with a kick that catches the two thugs on my right in the stomach and blasts them away to whence they came. They move like bowling balls and crash into the gaggle of crooks behind them, giving me a strike as more than ten are knocked down. Felicia had to quickly put her hands on the shoulders of one thug and, using him as a platform, spring up into the air to avoid my two makeshift bowling balls that knocked down their comrades.

She doesn't much care about my interruption to her fun as she simply moves in the air to drive her knee down and knee drops one of them still standing thugs on the shoulder, causing a screeching scream as the man's shoulder is definitely dislocated. Seeing that she is getting back to work, I quickly move to join her and punch the guy still near me that is still standing and send him to his ass.

With that done, I move to join the moshpit and- SPIDER SENSE- I jump upwards, getting out of the immediate danger that was threatening me from behind, but nothing was behind me-

*SMASH!!"

"I LEAVE TO GET SOME FOOD, AND SOME LITTLE PISSANTS THINK THEY CAN ATTACK US!! DIEEEE!!" A man over two meters tall barges through the entrance, like the Kool-Aid man since he destroys the warehouse door, and he runs in at full pelt, not slowing down for anything. he must have seen the two knocked-out dudes outside. He has his arms crossed in front of him and runs like he is a battering ram. Thankfully I jumped just in time as his head just barely moved under my feet as he charged forward straight to the bunched-up thugs.

He doesn't stop his run, though. he continues his run and knocks down a few of his men as well as tramples on some of the ones I had put down just earlier before he stops in the middle of the group. Felicia had the same thought as me. She had enough time that she didn't need spider sense to avoid the man, and she once again sprung up into the air of a hapless thug that was run down a second afterwards.

All of this happened a second after the giant of a man broke through the door, and I was still high up in the air, having used too much strength in my jump. Felicia, in comparison, used the least effort required and only rose a bit into the air, and once the giant had stopped his charge, she came back to earth, and coincidently she was right above the man.

Using this opportunity, she goes to strike the man, using gravity once more to her advantage. She pulls her right knee in and readies her heel to drive into the back of the man's head, but unfortunately, some of the men on the floor that weren't trampled see her and gasp, which alerts the mountain of bricks who looks up to see the foot poised to drill into his head.

Felicia lets loose, and her foot shoots down to impale the forehead of the giant below her, except she is stopped in her track by the colossal hand of the man below her. His hand grasps her calf, and then he spins her and- oh shit.

"Ugh," I grunt as Felcias's back collides with my stomach. I quickly bring my hands up to hold onto her as we tumble through the air. I right myself just in time to land in a crouch, Felicia held in a bridal carry. Note to self, mobility in the air is poor without my web-shooters. I have to find a way to fix that in the future. Felicia quickly pushes me away and stands on her own two feet, probably reminded of the last time I carried her like this and dropped her on her ass.

"So, you wouldn't happen to have a name, would you? It's just, most people with power usually do, and you have some super strength, right?" I ask as I rise out of my crouch, preparing to face my first super-powered foe in this life. Meanwhile, the thugs are all collecting themselves and readying up though they don't make a move, deferring to the strong man.

"Yeah, that's right. I am Man Mountain Marko, I'm super fuckin' strong, and I am gonna squash your head like a watermelon." He growls, slowly walking towards me, cracking his knuckles and readying himself.

"Oh, wow. You must have an epic origin story with a name like that, right? How did you get your powers? Were you buried alive under a mountain and had to claw your way out, unlocking your super strength to do so? Come on, how did you get so strong?" I ask, I really can't help my quipping, remnants of my time as Spider-Man, but I don't care. I like it. Felicia is standing to my side, waiting for the signal to start the battle, letting me take the lead, probably because this guy is super strong.

"Steroids." He answered my question with something that confused me for a moment, and I questioned if I had heard him correctly.

"Oh, okay. I was not expecting that, but whatever. To each their own, I suppose." I suppose in a universe like Marvel, even people taking steroids can get super strong. I guess in this universe, steroids are much more potent, or the steroids unlocked something in Man Mountain Marko.

"Enough talk. I am the Man Mountain Marko, and I will smash you into the ground. SO GET READY TO FUCKIN' DIE!!!" Man Mountain Marko yells as he transitions from his walk into a run and barrels right towards me, screaming that he is going to murder me.

I ready myself and get myself into a fighting stance, anticipating Marko's arrival, I can feel my heart start to beat faster, pulsating in my ears, and I can feel the blood rush through my body like a shot of pure adrenaline. I don't hate the feeling, in fact, I quite like it, and I find myself smiling in anticipation of my first super-powered fight.

Man Mountain Marko finally reaches me and comes in with a straight punch. I duck out of the way and reply with my own straight that wallops him in the chin. I prepare myself for an all-out fistfight, with both of us just smacking the shit out of each other and-

Oh, Marko just collapsed to the ground, out like a light. I quickly bend down to check on him and make sure he isn't dead, but he is just unconscious. I guess he didn't actually have proper super strength, and he was just really strong from the steroids. I am glad I held back a bit, or I would have blown his head clean off.

Rising back up, I look out towards all the thugs, that look shocked that I just put their big guy down.

I guess it's time to clean out the riff-raff.