Spider Man: Duty And Loss - Chapter 80

If Doom said he wasn’t going to take pleasure in killing the bug before him, he would be lying. He was using a full charge to power his next energy blast, there would be little left of the arachnid after he was hit by it, and the sight would bring him delight.

After that he could deal with Reed and the incompetents. He was a busy man, he couldn’t continue to waste time of such trivialities. Doom’s thoughts wondered just slightly as he thought back to the alien subject that he had seen take all his acquired vibranium. ‘Does it connect to a separate space or pocket dimension to contain the new mass?’ Doom couldn’t wait to experiment with his new subject.

But as he thought this and sent a cruel smirk at Spider-Man before him, the power behind his blast dimmed and cut. The energy that built up blinked out of existence and the suit locked up. The internal HUD that showed him the operations of his systems froze as a digital Spider-Man started dancing in front of his face.

The once smile that graced his lips instantly turned to a scowl of fury as he tried to move. Even though he shouted out a curse in latverian, his mouth piece had been retracted and no sound could escape. Though there was a digital version of spider man dancing in front of his eyes, he could just make out the real spider man strolling up to him.

He could hear everything that was happening outside as his mind began to work on ways to override whatever was happening to his systems. “Guess I lose our little game.” Spider-Man gave a small chuckle at his own joke. Drawing parallels to the opening of the hanger doors, Doom quickly concluded that someone had hacked his suits systems, which should not have been possible.

He was Victor Von Doom, his security and firewalls could not be broken without his knowledge, his suit wasn’t even connected to the main system that controlled his castle, it shouldn’t be possible for them to access it…wait!

His mind thought of the small window of opportunity that had presented itself earlier when he checked the hanger doors, increasing the growing anger that was being directed at the unknown hacker. He didn’t know who they were, but they had just humiliated him. No one did that and lived to tell the tale.

“Good Job Crystal.” Doom’s eyes narrowed once more at the name, quietly filing it away, as Peter strolled over and slowly picked up Doom in his immobile state. Turning him around gently, Peter placed him back down so that he was staring at cargo ship ready for launch.

Stepping back for a second and looking at the statue Doom, Peter nodded his head before walking to the ship. “Another villains plan’s thwarted by the dazzling Spider-Man….and of course you too Crystal.” He gave a small laugh as he could feel the pout Crystal just sent his way at being ‘overlooked’ but to Doom, that laugh meant something completely different, with each step he took away from the villain, the higher Doom’s own anger grew.

Peter stood on the ramp leading up to the ship as he stared Doom down. Flourishing his hand he took a quick bow as he spoke. “Remember this as the day you almost caught, Captain Jack…. Wait no!” Stopping himself short he shook his head before bowing once again. “…The day you almost caught Spider-Man!”

And with that he turned his back on the increasingly furious Doom and walked into the ship. Seeing the ramp close behind him, Peter let out a smug smile and went to sit down, waiting for the ship to take off. After 30 seconds of no activity he started to get nervous.

Looking to the c.o.c.kpit he shouted to Reed who was fiddling with the controls. “Umm Reed what’s taking soo long?” Reed didn’t even look up as he responded. “Just give me a second.” Peter began to sweat as he looked out the onboard window at Doom who was starting to fight Crystal’s hacking.

He felt his heart pound as he swore he saw a finger twitch, looking into the small eyes that were looking right back at him, he could see the red hot malice shooting his way, giving new meaning to ‘if looks could kill’. “Reeeeeeed…figure it out faster!!!!” even as he shouted, Dooms arm had raised and his body started to move. Finally after what felt like an eternity the craft came to life and started to power up.

Peter couldn’t help but plaster his face to the window looking out as Doom finally started to move. ‘Thank god we’re out of here.’ He finally let a sigh out as the ship rose into the air and they started their journey towards Wakanda.

Crystal had opened the hanger doors, and they were off before the Latverian defenses could get them. Surprisingly they would be heading straight for Wakanda, though they didn’t like people finding out about their hidden civilization, they were making an exception because of the help the fantastic four and him were provided.

This would be the first time he would be visiting Shuri, in her home, it wasn’t unusual for Pen Pals, to never meet in real life, but with Shuri’s background, something he had found out after a while, it should have been pretty simple.

But in the end they had only met one or two times, and that had been when Wakanda had to go to their embassy in New York. To say Peter was a bit nervous was an understatement; they hadn’t talked a lot once ‘that’ happened.

The first he had heard from her in such a long time was when she needed his help. Before that he had practically ghosted her for a full year and a bit. Relaxing into the surprisingly comfy seat he was in, he tuned everything out as he let the tension in his muscles release.

It had been a long 2 days. ‘Hopefully nothing bad had happened to New York while he was gone.’ He gave that thought a few seconds of his time, before he relaxed even further, the city could deal without Spider-Man for at least 2 days. Maybe not a week though.