Spider-Man/Muppets Fanfic: The Spectacular

[muppetwriter]

Chapter Two​

On 44 Bronson Lane, located in the heart of Queens, was the second dwelling place for the Muppets, after earning enough money from their recent performances at the Muppet Theater. The two-story boarding house contained a basement, nine bedrooms shared by two or three roommates, and only one bathroom. It was first purchased by the Muppets in the previous year, and they had quickly settled into it, finding it much more cozy and relaxing (at least somewhat) than the Happiness Hotel. Kermit, Gonzo, Fozzie, Sean, and Lori were sitting on the rooftop on the evening after their Manhattan Melodies performance and looking up at the meteor shower occurring in the clear, night sky.

“Wow!” They all exclaimed in awe.

“You know, it really is nice having everyone here in the city with us.” Kermit said. “I mean, it’s hard to believe that it was only a year since Gonzo returned and that entire fiasco with the mutants took place in San Francisco.”

“I can’t believe we actually missed that.” Lori said. “We were in Washington, D.C. at the time for a nice, peaceful vacation.”

“What we went through was anything but peaceful.” Fozzie remarked, while Gonzo just smiled, enjoying the moment of reminiscing that he and his friends were doing. He still wished that he had those cosmic abilities that helped him save the world that day in May, with help from his former X-Men teammates and their new muppet-mutant allies, the Fraggles. “Hey, what about what we went through a couple of months after that with Gonzo’s family?”

“You mean when I got hurt so bad that I considered giving up stunts and then faced off against a vicious enemy that was bent on exterminating my entire family, losing my brother to a bold, brave attack that ended the reign of that same vicious enemy once known as Exod of Exodia?” Gonzo rapidly asked, and Fozzie was so lost in the quick way he replied that he had completely forgotten what he asked the weirdo.

“Uh…yeah?” The bear remarked, and Gonzo nodded his head with a bigger smile on his face.

“Yeah…that was fun.” Sean, Lori, and Kermit just shook their heads over the whatever’s idea of fun.

“Hard to believe it all lead to us meeting two former C.O.V.N.E.T. agents that are sitting in our kitchen at this moment, having dinner with the rest of our friends.” Kermit mentioned.

“Speaking of which, did anyone know who the three strangers they had brought along with them were?” Fozzie inquired, and Kermit, Gonzo, Sean, and Lori all shook their heads in reply. “I wonder if they have anything to do with C.O.V.N.E.T.”

“If they do, then Bobo would let us in on their backgrounds. You know how much knowledge he still has of the organization.” Kermit said, and Fozzie nodded in agreement, just as they all heard a loud rumbling noise. “What was that?” That was when Lori placed a hand over her flat stomach and made a face that Sean found a little funny, next to the “problem” that she was having that moment.

“Either my sister’s pregnant or she’s having a hankering for a nice, juicy cheeseburger and some warm, fresh French fries from Pete’s Diner.” The mentioning of food only made Lori’s stomach growl even louder, as she shot him a dirty look.

“You’re not helping.”

“I know.”

“If you’re hungry, Lori, then we can just stop by Pete’s and get you something. I’m in the mood for some ‘Fly Stew’.” Hearing the name of the dish had momentarily stopped the growling in Lori’s stomach, mostly because it was not the type of meal that she, Sean, or Fozzie would ever want to go near. Gonzo, on the other hand, figured it would be a big change from a butterscotch, horseradish, and raspberry pizza.

“That’s a good idea, Kerm.” Sean said, while standing up on the sturdy rooftop and clapping his hands together happily. “We all can use a good ‘After Show Dinner’ right now.” His friends all smiled at that notion, before climbing down off from the rooftop.

In a few moments, the five of them had left the boarding house in Fozzie’s Studebaker, leaving their friends and family behind to celebrate over the final days that the Muppets had left for their new Manhattan Melodies show. While they were pulling out of the driveway and driving down the road, none of them noticed a medium-sized object falling out from the sky and heading towards the boarding house. Butch and Clyde were walking out into the backyard just as it was coming.

“Oh, wow. Those baloney sandwiches sure were good.” Clyde said, while picking some food out of his teeth.

“Yeah, but there was no bread.” Butch remarked. “How can they be sandwiches if there was no bread on top or below them?” Clyde just shrugged in shoulders in response, right before Butch noticed the falling object from the sky. “What the heck is that?” He pointed directly at it, and Clyde followed the direction of his finger, seeing the object as well and seeming impressed by its size and the remarkable speed that it was traveling towards their location in.

“I dunno, boss.” Clyde said. “But you wanna know somethin’ weird?”

“What?”

“IT’S HEADIN’ OUR WAY!!!!!!!” Just as soon as Butch realized that, the both of them ducked, as the object crashed into the Jacuzzi, demolishing it entirely while unleashing a huge splash. The water came down on Butch and Clyde, drenching their fur. After the crash, they looked up to where the Jacuzzi used to be, seeing a massive amount of gray smoke billowing from a huge crater.

The crash had caused a slight tremor that everyone in the boarding house felt, but paid no mind to it (seeing as how tremors often occurred there from crazy antics). However, when the Tennyson family had felt it, they immediately went into the backyard and noticed the drenched Butch and Clyde, as well as the smoking crater.

“What happened?!” Max asked the two, as they gave him an innocent look.

“We didn’t do it!!!” They shouted, and while Gwen went inside to grab a towel to dry the former C.O.V.ies off with, Max and Ben slowly walked toward the crater. As the smoke began to subside, they noticed how the object was a four-foot, purple, metallic egg.

“What the heck is it?” Ben asked, and before Max could’ve answered his question, the egg began to split apart from the top down to the bottom. Steam shot out of the egg, right before a large figure that was crammed inside had fallen out and stumbled over the grass. With the figure out of the egg, Ben and Max were able to get a better look at what was inside of it, along with Butch and Clyde, who stood right next to them (still drenched). They noticed several lights, buttons, switches, and flat-screened monitors surrounding a black, leather chair located at the center.

“It’s some kind of…spaceship.” Max said.

“Are we gonna try to steal it, Butch?” Clyde asked.

“Will you get off that?!” Butch replied, just as Gwen came back outside with the towels, but soon dropping them in reaction to the egg-shaped spacecraft that her cousin, grandfather, and two new friends were gazing inside of it, while standing near the inert body a man in his early sixties wearing an aluminum spacesuit that was complete with a small purple cape that was cut off beneath his shoulder blades. After gazing into the spaceship, Max turned to where the man had laid, face down on the grass. He went to him and turned his body over, instantly recognizing his face.

“K. Edgar Singer.” Max uttered, feeling extremely upset as he stared at the unconscious stranger. When Butch and Clyde noticed him, they remembered him as well from their most recent adventure.

“Hey, that’s Zongo!” Clyde exclaimed, and Ben walked up to the pink Muppet, giving him an odd look.

“Zongo?!” He said.

“At least that’s what the Gonzonians called him.” Butch told Ben, who then exchanged awkward glances with Gwen.

“No way is that weirdo an alien!!” Ben exclaimed. “It doesn’t make any sense…does it?” Max, who wasn’t listening to the conversation that was taking place nearby, reached over Ed’s neck and checked his pulse. Once he noticed that he still had one, he grabbed the unconscious Ed and got him to his feet, carrying one arm over his shoulders.

“Let’s get him inside and try to make sense out of all of this.” Max ordered, and he began carrying Ed into the house with Ben, Gwen, Butch, and Clyde following close behind. While they were walking in, something black and gooey had oozed out of the egg-shaped spaceship and began slithering across the grass like a snake and disappearing underneath a nearby fence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, and the Thomas siblings rode through Midtown Manhattan in Fozzie’s Studebaker, which seemed a lot rustier than it had when his hibernating uncle first loaned it to him—the ceiling had a massive dent in it (almost touching the heads of its passengers from the inside), the floors were sticky from honey spills, and springs were sprouting out from the seats. When they had passed through the construction site for Bitterman Plaza, Rachel Bitterman’s soon-to-be biggest mall in Manhattan, Lori just rolled her eyes at it.

“That woman can never be satisfied until she’s made something larger than her own checkbook.” Lori said, while Kermit smirked with confidence.

“I wouldn’t worry about whatever Rachel Bitterman has up her sleeve this time.” The frog stated. “As long as we’ve paid off that foreclosure of hers with all of the performances we’ve had at the Muppet Theater, it’ll be Christmas in 2019 before she ever troubles us again.” Lori and Sean smiled along with Kermit, Fozzie, and Gonzo, happily agreeing with his assumption. But Kermit began to smile for a whole different reason, as he looked from Lori and Sean to Gonzo and Fozzie.

It had been at least four years since the five of them had all shared an evening together, and with Lori and Sean back in Manhattan with their six-year-old cousin, Stanley Thomas, it seemed like old times again. The only difference being that Kermit, Fozzie, and Gonzo were no longer working for The Daily Bugle, much to their despair. However, with the final performances of their sequel to their big Broadway hit in 1998, Manhattan Melodies, approaching very soon, going back into the world of journalism didn’t seem like such a bad idea to the three Muppets. The only problem would be deciding on where their journalistic skills, earned from years of working on the Bugle staff, would be needed.

As soon as Fozzie turned down a street corner, something peculiar happened. The entire Studebaker began to lift off the ground and hover fifteen to twenty-five feet in the air. Its passenger started to feel a bit light-headed, as they looked out their window to the streets below, seeing how far up they were. The slightest opening of a door would lead to certain death, at least for the human passengers in the Studebaker.

“Hey, Fozzie,” Gonzo said, “I didn’t know you modified your car to have hover-conversion capabilities.” Fozzie looked away from his window and at Gonzo strangely.

“Gonzo, I drive a Studebaker, not a DeLorean!” Fozzie said, just before Sean rolled down his window and stuck his head out, letting the night air blow through his silky, black hair. Looking upwards, he noticed a man wearing a black suit with some green elements and a pair of reflective green goggles and a green mouthpiece, while riding a hi-tech snowboard-shaped glider. He was using a great amount of strength to lift up the Studebaker by a small hole that had formed on the rooftop.

“Who are you?!” Sean asked the man, but he only replied by hurling the Studebaker and all of its passengers across the air, making them land hard on the rooftop of a nearby building, located in the midst of Sesame Street. Several residents of the neighborhood, from Gordon Robinson to Telly Monster, stuck their heads out from the windows of their apartments, as they heard the noise of metal crunching and car parts coming apart. They spotted the Studebaker on the rooftop, flipping and rolling ten times before it finally stopped, sitting in an upside-down position.

“What on earth is going on?!” Maria Rodriguez asked.

“It looks like a car accident.” Bob McGrath replied.

“On the roof?” Gordon awkwardly said, while one of the heavily dented doors on the battered Studebaker fell off its hinges and landed on the hard surface of the rooftop with a loud clanging noise. Afterwards, Sean stepped out from the crippled vehicle first, having a large bruise on the right side of his forehead. He helped out Lori, who had a small, bleeding cut on the side of her head that made a section of her hair redder than it partially was, and then Kermit, Gonzo, and Fozzie, who were all bruised and dazed from the surprise attack.

“What the heck just happened?” Kermit asked, as Fozzie stared at the horrible wreckage that used to be his uncle’s Studebaker.

“I know what’s gonna happen.” Fozzie said, and then quickly turned to Kermit and grabbed him by his sides, shaking him violently. “My uncle’s gonna kill meeeee!!!!!!!” He immediately stopped shaking Kermit, once he, his friends, and all of the Sesame Street residents heard a loud, fierce rocketing noise from above. They all looked up to see the man on the glider come towards Sean, Lori, Kermit, Gonzo, and Fozzie, hovering only a few feet from the rooftop. The five stared at the stranger in confusion, wondering why (out of all the people living in New York) did he choose to attack them.

“Who are you?” Sean asked them, right before he pressed a few buttons on a small keypad located on his wrist, which retracted his facial gear and revealed the stranger’s true identity to the group.

“Harry Osborn?!?!” They exclaimed, while the Sesame Street residents just watched on, wondering who Harry was and why he attacked the small group of friends.

“You were all in on it, weren’t you?!” Harry angrily inquired. “You all knew the truth!!!” While Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, and Lori seemed very confused over what Harry was talking about, Sean seemed to have an idea of it, recalling the events that took place on Roosevelt Island between his father, Norman Osborn (a.k.a. “The Green Goblin”), and his best friend, Peter Parker (a.k.a. “Spider-Man”). But never in his wildest dreams did Sean think Harry would go through measures similar to his father’s, just to get back at the ones responsible for his death.

“What’re you talking about, Harry?” Lori innocently asked, only making Harry more upset than he already appeared to be.

“Don’t act like you don’t know!!!!” He screamed, as he rocketed towards the group, forcing them to run and duck in opposite directions. A couple of pumpkin bombs popped out from Harry’s glider, and he caught them instantly, just before he started hurling them at the fleeing people below him. The bombs went off as soon as they hit the rooftop, taking massive chunks out of it.

“Harry!! Stop this!!!” Sean demanded. “You’re going to seriously hurt someone!!”

“No…just you!!!” Harry began to fly towards Sean, who dived from the edge of the roof as soon as he noticed him coming and landed on a nearby fire escape. Harry rocketed over Sean’s head and disappeared afterwards. While Sean looked around to see where he had gone, his friends quickly joined him on the fire escape, looking very panicky.

“Is there any reason Harry Osborn is trying to kill us?” Fozzie curiously asked. “What did we ever do to him?”

Before Sean could answer the question, he and the others noticed how Peter Parker was riding through the street on his scooter. They looked down and attempted to scream out his name to get his attention. But before they could’ve, Harry swooped down towards Peter and snatched him off his scooter, while his facial gear was back on his face and obscuring his identity from Peter. The two nearly ran into an oncoming bus, as they grappled on the glider, punching and kicking and even slicing (Harry had retractable claws protruding from the side of his gauntlets that he scratched Peter’s stomach with, tearing a section of his shirt in the process).

“Has he gone insane or something?!” Lori asked.

They watched intensely as Peter was knocked from the glider and began to fall away from it. Lori and Fozzie shielded their eyes in reaction to seeing Peter fall, while Sean, Kermit, and Gonzo kept watch of the action, seeming to know what happened next. Peter fired a web strand towards the pole at the very top of the Chrysler Building, swinging around it while firing several web-balls at Harry. Lori and Fozzie unshielded their eyes and noticed immediately how Peter Parker was swinging on a web and doing things that was highly similar to what Spider-Man always did.

“What the heck…?” Lori uttered in shock.

“Is he doing what I think he’s doing?” Fozzie asked with surprise, and his eyes and Lori’s eyes locked on with those of Kermit, Gonzo, and Sean, who just shrugged with sheepish looks on their faces. Their eyes soon again returned to the fight that was taking place in the skies of Manhattan, as Harry cut the line of webbing and caused Peter to freefall uncontrollably towards the ground.

But Harry didn’t let Peter fall for very long. Sean, Kermit, Gonzo, Lori, and Fozzie watched in surprise, as Harry tackled Peter in midair, causing him to fly right into the brick wall of the building that they were on. The five ended up being closer to the action than they had anticipated, watching Peter slowly recover from the incredible blow, as Harry hovered a few feet in front of him and retracted his facial gear again to reveal his true face to Peter, surprising him.

“Harry?” Peter weakly said, as Harry grew angrier just from looking directly at him.

“You knew this was coming, Pete!!!” Harry yelled, just before he rocketed towards Peter, attempting to strike a final blow. However, Harry was robbed of that opportunity, as Peter flipped his body upwards, causing Harry to punch through the huge dent that Peter made in the wall instead, digging his arm deeper into it. Seeing how avid Harry had become in killing Peter in revenge for what happened to his father, Sean quickly made an attempt to talk some sense into him.

“Harry! Listen to me!” He desperately exclaimed. “I was there the night your father died…”

“Which is why you’ll be next after Pete!!!” Harry looked away from a puzzled Sean and upwards, seeing Peter’s upside down body clinging to the brick wall, staring back at Harry.

“I didn’t kill your father, Harry!” Peter shouted, but Harry wasn’t listening. He just continued to attack, swinging at him again but only left hitting the hard surface of the wall, while Peter dodged and clutched to another section of it, positioning himself in an upright position only a couple of feet to the left of Harry. “He was trying to kill me! He killed himself!”

“SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!” Peter suddenly felt the entire wall that he was on shift and tilt, as Harry used his remarkable strength to detach it from the side of the building and cause Peter to fall with it. Harry rocketed downwards and crashed both him and his steel glider through both Peter and the wall, tearing it to pieces and leaving Peter freefalling again. Meanwhile, Sean, Kermit, and Gonzo started climbing down through the fire escape, while a befuddled Lori and Fozzie remained at the top.

“Where are you three going?” Lori asked, and Sean stopped to look up at her, while Kermit and Gonzo kept moving down.

“Stay there! We’ll be right back!” Sean ordered her, before he continued down the fire escape. Lori seemed very upset over his response, screaming at him, as he, Kermit, and Gonzo made it to the bottom and ran down a nearby alleyway.

“Sean Thomas! You come back here and tell me what’s going on!!!” But Sean, Kermit, and Gonzo were no longer in earshot by the time she made her demand.

“So are we just going to stay here?” Fozzie asked, and Lori turned to him with a determined look.

“No,” She replied. “Follow me.” The both of them began to move down the fire escape at rapid speed.

Sean, Kermit, and Gonzo ran through alleyways and sidewalks, trying to keep up with the fight between Harry and Peter, as Harry repeatedly punched Peter as he fell, bouncing him up and down. Harry then commenced in grabbing Peter by the ankle and slamming his body against several windows, before hurling him against the window of one office building, making him crash against one on the other side of it and start falling towards the ground again.

“Wow. Harry sure has been taking his vitamins.” Gonzo said, and Kermit couldn’t believe the comment he made, staring at him strangely.

“Gonzo! Stay focused, will ya?!” Kermit urged him, as Sean watched Peter get tackled by Harry again, grappling with him on his glider. He was able to web Harry’s facial gear, blinding him long enough to throw him off the glider. As soon as Harry was off and falling towards the ground, Peter fired two web strands and connected them to the edges of two different rooftops, catapulting himself off the glider and towards the street, heading in their direction. Sean had soon realized that Peter had accidentally lost a small object that looked just like a wedding ring.

Meanwhile, the freefalling Harry removed his webbed facial gear, just as his glider returned to his feet and allowed him control over it again. He tackled Peter once more while he was swinging towards the wedding ring, making him fall directly onto another rooftop. Luckily, Peter had caught the ring before Harry tackled him, but he was left running from him again, as he was rocketing in his direction, coming in for another fierce blow. Several pipes and chimneys snapped and crumbled on impact with Harry’s glider, and Peter ducked in time to avoid becoming another victim of it.

Down below, Lori and Fozzie had come out of an alleyway, just in time to see Peter swinging on several web lines, trying to get away from Harry. The two weren’t certain what was more puzzling: the fact that Harry Osborn had become another version of the Green Goblin or the fact that Peter Parker was the real Spider-Man. They watched him closely as he swung into an alleyway across from the one that they just came out through.

“Oh, brother. I am just really confused right now.” Fozzie nervously said.

“Don’t worry, Foz. We’ll get our answers.” Lori determinedly said, and she then crossed the street, without even looking left and right for the oncoming vehicles. Both she and Fozzie dodged in between several buses and taxicabs, in order to get to the other side. And once they had, they immediately bumped right into the path of Sean, Kermit, and Gonzo, knocking them all to the ground. When Sean looked up to see his sister in front of him, he was anything but pleased.

“I thought I told you to stay behind!!” Sean angrily yelled.

“Oh, yeah. Like I’m really going to do what you say.” Lori sarcastically remarked, before getting serious and furious at the same time. “I can’t believe you’ve been keeping such a big secret from me!” Sean was about to explain his reasons before she got to her feet and dashed into the alleyway, bringing Sean, Kermit, Gonzo, and Fozzie to do the same. The all of them continued following in on the action, as Harry pulled a small green sword from his back that he intended on murdering Peter with.

“I’m still here, Peter!!!” Harry shouted, as Peter briefly looked behind him to see Harry hot on his tail, slashing through several metal objects that stood in his way as he chased him. Harry made one bold move in his attempt to annihilate Peter by leaping high in the air, executing a complete somersault, and trying to jab his sword into the swinging Peter, who got out of his way in time to leave him jabbing the sword into his own glider that he landed back onto. Meanwhile, back on the concrete, the Thomas siblings and the Muppets continued running, watching Harry as he pulled out another pumpkin bomb from his glider.

“Man! What is it with these Osborns and their bombs?!” Sean asked, while Harry threw the bomb at Peter. The bomb had instantly transformed into a metallic bat as it soared through the air, flying towards a panicking Peter as he continued swinging through the alleyway. Harry then followed that one pumpkin bomb with four others that had done the exact same thing.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Gonzo exclaimed in surprise.

Peter stopped swinging momentarily and allowed himself to soar freely through the air, in order to turn and fire some web balls at the metal pumpkin bats, disarming them and forcing them to fall uselessly to the ground. Fozzie stopped running for a moment to pick up one that landed near him. As he continued running with his friends, Peter in the meantime caught one pumpkin bat with his web and hurled it back at Harry, causing it to pierce his shoulder. After removing with much force and through much pain, Harry continued pursuing Peter. However, he was soon caught by surprise from a line of webbing that had come into his path and clotheslined him off his glider.

“Ouch!!!” Lori exclaimed, as she, Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, and Sean stopped, watching Harry’s body bounce off of several metal objects, such as a pipeline and a dumpster, before hitting the concrete hard. When they saw Harry’s body lying there lifelessly, they began to panic, rushing to his aid, while Peter (shocked by what he had done to his friend) jumped from the wall he was clinging to high above. Lori and Fozzie looked over their shoulders and spotted him, as he slowed down the speed of his fall by firing a web strand into the air and connecting it to a section of the wall. Once he had landed on the ground, he approached the group as they attempted to revive Harry.

“Is he alright?” Peter asked, and Gonzo looked up at him worriedly.

“You just knocked him off his glider, twenty feet in the air,” The weirdo replied, “How do you think he’s doing?” Peter watched on in anxiety, as Lori performed CPR on the unconscious Harry Osborn.

“Come on, Harry!” She cried. “Breathe, you crazy son of a…”

END OF CHAPTER TWO​

 

[The Count]

A lot of action in this chapter as the first villain is revealed. Keep it coming Sean! And of course, there's that part with Butch and Clyde I know Prawny will love as it brings us our second villain.

BTW: You're almost at SM status!

 

[muppetwriter]

BTW: You're almost at SM status!

Yeah, I know. I can't wait.

 

[theprawncracker]

WHOO! That was AWESOME! Such an epic scene, just like in the movie! Great to see some of the Sesame Street gang, and yes, I LOVED Butch and Clyde and the symbiote emerging with Zongo! Great job, Sean, keep it up!

 

[muppetwriter]

Thanks, P.C. I appreciate the support.

To be honest, I'm going to take my time with this story, unlike the people who made the film. If that means having to do the other stories I promised for the series simultaneously with this one, then so be it. I've done it before with that Sesame Street/Batman Begins tale and the first F4/Muppets tale. I'm already working on a story for another fanfic series at the same time I'm doing this one, which is why I'll be taking frequent breaks in between chapters.

A lot of drastic changes will be made to the story, some influenced by the addition of Muppet villains and villains from other franchises. But most of them will be from my way of seeing how the film should've been this past weekend when I'd first seen it.

 

[The Count]

Well... Just don't burn yourself out like what happened last time. Looking forward to the next chapter.

 

[muppetwriter]

Chapter Three​

Police sirens deafened the sound of train tracks roaring high above the Brooklyn neighborhood, where six figures dressed in orange jumpsuits were running away from where the sirens were blaring. Though they were in a group of six, pairs of them were chained together at the ankles, which made it very hard for them to run and forced them to call out their directions to avoid breaking an ankle under the heavy weight of the chains. Printed on the back of their suits were the words, “Riker’s Island Prison Facility.”

The group was lead by two men: Flint Marko and Nicky Holiday. They were one-time partners during a jewel robbery at the Mallory Gallery, in which Marko was forced to take part in by Holiday. The incident left him incapacitated for at least two years, and then he came back to his disgraced wife and a daughter whose age was the same as his sentence. Holiday, a man whose conscience seemed absent compared to Marko’s, had changed drastically during his time in Riker’s. He used to be a cool, collected person (if not somewhat dim-witted); but after Riker’s, he had transformed into a violent maniac (and a thousand times more dim-witted).

Joining these two men were four ladies, one of which had nothing in common with the other three (especially their peculiar similarities in names). A woman named Shego was that one. She was provided the opportunity of escaping from the maximum-security prison, as soon as she heard of Marko and Holiday’s plans one day during their lunch break. Anything was better than teaming up with a moron like Dr. Drakken again, especially after their partnership with the late Doctor Otto Octavius. Though Shego didn’t expect the current partnership she was in to last for very long. Just looking at Marla, Darla, and Carla (Nicky Holiday’s henchwomen) made her feel very awkward, because they always looked gorgeous and perfect wherever they went, even in a prison cell.

“Hide!!” Holiday quietly exclaimed, and the six escaped convicts hid in a shadowy alleyway, while a group of police cars passed by, failing to see their dark, shrouded bodies in the process. As soon as the police and their wailing sirens were away, the six convicts stepped out into the light and looked to around to see if the coast was completely clear. Meanwhile, Marko had looked around the alleyway that they hid in and seemed to have recognized it. Just as he did, he began walking towards a fire escape, tugging his “chain buddy,” Marla, along with him. When Holiday took notice of what Marko was doing, he beckoned Shego, the one chained along with him, to follow him. “What are you doing?”

“I recognize this building.” Marko replied, while pulling down a ladder that led up to the fire escape. “This is my home.” Holiday gazed up at the apartment complex, seeing how ghetto it was. Lines of wet clothing hung between it and another, windows were crudely stained, and traces of fungus were growing on the bricks. The sight was enough to sicken a once high-class people like Holiday and his three girls.

“If you think we’re hiding out in this dump, then…” Marko was angered by Holiday’s words. He had spent a lot of time hating Holiday for forcing him to take part of a crime that was one of many that ruined his relationship with his wife and daughter.

“Look! You don’t have to stay!” He told him. “In fact, the only reason we’re in this together is because you were transferred to my cell, after you couldn’t stand hearing another marketing story by Doc Hopper! And we both wanted the same thing at the time…to get the heck out of prison!” Holiday couldn’t agree more with Marko. However, those weren’t the only reasons that he wanted to partner with Marko again. He had heard of the most heinous crime that Marko had pulled off, five years ago, which involved killing an elderly man for his car. That crime was what made Holiday think of hiring Marko once again to kill his worst adversaries of all…the Muppets. And it was that one reason why Holiday calmed himself down and acted a little grateful towards his old partner.

“Hey, listen…I didn’t mean anything by it, old buddy.”

“I’m not your buddy, Holiday!!”

“OK. Fine. Let’s just not stay here for very long. The girls and I have to pick up some old clothes from my sister’s mansion near downtown.”

“What about me?!” Shego asked, feeling left out of the whole thing. “Do you think I wanna prance around New York, looking like a Sunny Delight advertisement?”

“Oh, did we forget to tell you?” Carla asked, only frustrating her more.

“Yes, you forgot to tell me!” Shego sarcastically replied, mocking Carla’s thick British accent, before finding herself curious to know what it was that she forgot to tell her. “What?”

“Lady Holiday herself was the one who designed your ‘Team Go’ clothes.” Marla informed.

“She still has the prototype sitting in her office at her mansion.” Darla added, and Shego seemed slightly impressed by that information. As she was taking it all in, Marko began climbing up the ladder with Marla joining alongside with him. Their chains briefly came in contact with the steel ladder, making tiny clanging noises as they did.

“You think it would be a marvelous idea if we got rid of these chains, before we go up any further?” Holiday snootily asked, and Marko looked down at him, shooting a dirty look at him.

“Well, what do you suggest?” Marko asked, before there was a bright green flash that he caught at the corner of his left eye. He gazed in the direction that it had come from and was amazed to see how her hands were glowing. His amazement had increased as he watched her melt away the chains that were attached between her and Holiday, Darla and Carla, and then Marko and Marla (who she climbed up the ladder to in order to do it).

“Impressive.” Holiday commented, before looking a bit puzzled. “Why didn’t you think of doing that as soon as we were away from the island?” As soon as Shego realized that herself, she was about to slap her forehead in response to her denseness, but she stopped as soon as she noticed her hands were still glowing.

“Never mind about that. Let’s get inside.” Marko ordered, and they all began to climb up the fire escape, until they had reached the section that was located near Marko’s former apartment. He slowly opened the window, allowing himself and his fellow convicts into a room that was decorated with materials suitable for an eight-year-old girl. And that was exactly whom the room had belonged to: Marko’s eight-year-old daughter, Penny. She slept in her bed the moment her father came in, with tubes up her nose.

Marko sat at the windowsill and sadly watched his daughter as she slept, while Shego, Holiday, and the three former models had poured in. While Holiday was getting in, his pantlegs had rode up and exposed part of his colorful socks, making Shego cringed a bit over the clash in designs. But her attention went to another direction, as she noticed Marko’s daughter laying in bed and all of the medical equipment sitting around both her and it. Shego might’ve been a wicked, temperamental woman, but she had a soft side for people with disabilities, especially kids.

“She’s beautiful.” Shego said, and Marko glanced at her, realizing that she was referring to his daughter. “What’s wrong with her?”

“I don’t know too much about the medical details of it,” Marko said, “But the doctors say it can be serious enough to…”

“Is anybody hungry?” Holiday interjected, and his timing seemed to have been really bad, judging from the nasty looks that Shego, his henchwomen, and Marko were all giving him. “I think I might get a little something from the kitchen.” While Holiday went into that area of Marko’s apartment, Marko went into the area that used to the room he had shared with his wife, pulling out some old clothes from a drawer, such as a green, striped shirt and beige cargo pants.

“Wonderful clothes.” Marla said.

“I wouldn’t recommend them for a new fashion line though.” Carla added, and Shego looked at the two women strangely, wondering if fashion was all they ever had on their mind.

As soon as Marko was dressed out of his jumpsuits and into his street clothes, he and the girls went into the kitchen, where Holiday was eating a baloney sandwich, much to his displeasure. Shego opened the pantries to see what exactly Marko had in his home, and when she noticed how there wasn’t much food inside them, she couldn’t help but to feel somewhat concerned. She glanced over at Marko, who was cutting apart a loaf of bread, attempting to make himself his own sandwich to feast upon.

“What do you people think you’re doing here?” Someone asked, and all of their heads turned towards the doorway to the kitchen, where Flint’s wife stood with a disgusted look on her face and her arms folded. None of them said anything for a long moment, leaving Mrs. Marko to continue expressing her disgust through her harsh words aimed mostly at Marko. “Don’t think you can just come back into our lives, expecting us to forget what you’ve done.”

“I’m not staying long.” Marko innocently said. “I just came to see my daughter…that’s all.”

“Well, you’ve seen her…now take your cellmates and get on out of here!” Mrs. Marko demanded, while Holiday propped his feet up on the kitchen table and grinned at her.

“Aww, you want us to leave so soon?” He said with a great deal of wit and sarcasm that no one found amusing. “We were just getting comfortable.” Mrs. Marko saw the way he was sitting and immediately pushed his feet off the kitchen table with a good amount of force. Marko glared at Holiday, who wasn’t making their stay at his home any easier. Holiday didn’t appreciate the way she forced him to remove his feet from the table, and just when it seemed as if something terrible was about to unfold between them, a small voice spoke out and caught everyone’s attention.

“Daddy?” Everyone turned to see Penny, wide awake and out of her bed, standing in the opposite doorway to the kitchen. Marko immediately went to her, kneeling down to give her a big hug.

“I promise, baby. I’m going to get the money to make you better.”

“What? Are you going to kill someone else to get it?” Mrs. Marko furiously asked, and Marko didn’t reply, just seeming to be ignoring her words. “Just get out of here. We can get by just fine without you.”

Shego was becoming very irritated over the words said by Marko’s wife and wanted to give her a piece of her mind. Although she knew that it was only make things worse for Marko, especially while his daughter was present at the time. So she had refrained from doing anything drastic, as Marko let go of his daughter and gestured for his fellow escapees to go out the window near the kitchen, where there was another fire escape waiting. Holiday, Shego, and the three “Arla’s” went out onto the fire escape first, and then Marko had done so himself. Before he left, he gave one last message to his family.

“I’m not a bad person. I’ve just had a bad life.” And with that, he disappeared, leaving his wife to help his daughter get back to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Peter sat patiently inside the waiting room of the St. Juhl Hospital with Kermit, Fozzie, and Gonzo. Standing near them were the Thomas siblings, who were engaged in a pretty heated discussion, in which Peter’s dual identity as himself and Spider-Man was the main topic. They were all waiting for the news on Harry’s condition, as doctors had been hard at work for almost fifteen hours straight. As Peter waited, he looked at the bickering siblings for a moment and then towards Fozzie, who was sitting right next to him, looking down at the floor with a puzzled look on his face.

“You’re not upset about me keeping my secret, are ya?” He asked him, and when Fozzie realized that Peter was addressing him, he looked up and smiled warmly at him.

“Oh, not at all, Spidey…Peter…I mean…” The bear then started to look concerned, resting his hand on his left paw. “Oh! I don’t know what I mean! I don’t even know what to call ya anymore.”

“Just call him ‘Peter’, Fozzie.” Kermit suggested.

“Yeah, you’ve always called him that before.” Gonzo said, but Fozzie was still looking very confused.

“But he’s Spider-Man, and I’ve always been calling him ‘Spidey’.” Fozzie contradicted. “And if Peter’s Spider-Man, then that means I’ll have to call him Spidey, too. Unless when he’s not wearing the costume, then I’ll call him ‘Peter’. But when he is, then I’ll call him…”

“Uh, Fozzie?” Kermit interjected.

“Yeah, Kermit?”

“Shut the wock up, will ya?” Fozzie did as Kermit asked him, and it was uncomfortably silent between the four of them, while things continued to get hectic between Lori and Sean.

“So you knew he was Spider-Man the moment I was lying on the ground at Roosevelt Island, unconscious and having no idea what was happening around me?” Lori asked, and Sean was about to answer, until she threw him another question. “And you didn’t even bother to tell me?!”

“Lori, listen! If you found out something as big as this and knew that the person who has worked so hard to hide it, while saving the lives of many people in the city, was a good friend of yours, would you go out and tell the world about it behind his back?” Sean asked, and that point was something she couldn’t argue against, as he looked at Peter, who innocently looked back at her.

“No.” She calmly said with a sigh. “But I’m your sister, man! You can always trust me.” Sean laughed at that statement. “What?”

“Trust you? Like I trusted you with the five bucks that I loaned you for school supplies, but was used for six rounds of Star Wars Arcade?!” Sean said with a grin.

“Hey! You don’t know how hard it is fighting Darth Vader with a wobbly game stick!!” Lori retorted, and Sean just laughed at her, not long before she began to laugh at herself. Peter, Kermit, Gonzo, and Fozzie saw how the siblings had ended their bickering and were pleased that they had. They both eased their laughter long enough for apologizes to be made. “I’m sorry I had overreacted, bro. I guess that’s just the old me coming back, after spending years away from The Daily Bugle.”

“It’s alright, sis.” Sean said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You’re human. And being human is what helps us get past our mistakes.” Lori smiled, knowing how great of advice that was. She then looked over at Peter, who was wondering how she was going to start looking at him since he knew about his secret.

“Pete…” Lori said, while coming up to him and taking his hands into hers. “You’re a great kid who’s noble enough to do a lot of good for millions of people in this city. I should’ve respected that and not act like it was more important knowing who Spider-Man really was. I hope you can forgive me, sweetie.” Peter just looked at her and smiled, not the one to hold any grudges.

“I do.” Peter said, and Lori chuckled happily, as she gave him a hug. Once the two had stopped their embrace, a doctor came into the room and gave them an update on Harry’s condition. He revealed to them that the blows Harry took to the head had given him short-term memory loss, meaning he could not remember anything that had recently happened to him.

“You guys didn’t bend his legs or arms back to prove that, did ya?” Kermit asked, and the doctor and his friends looked at him strangely, after asking such an odd question. “Just checking.” They just ignored the question altogether and went back to the problem at hand.

“Is the amnesia permanent, Doc?” Lori asked.

“It might be. But it’s too soon to tell.” Neither of them was certain as to whether it was a good or bad thing that Harry had amnesia. But, judging from the way Harry acted in the previous evening, it might as well be a marvelous thing.

“Anyway we can see him?” Sean inquired.

“I’d highly recommend that he gets his rest,” The doctor stated, “But I don’t see any harm in a few minutes of just talking.” They all smiled gratefully, as the doctor led them into the room that Harry was being kept in. As soon as Harry noticed them come in, he smiled.

“Hey, guys.” He weakly said, and they were relieved that he was actually happy to see them all. “How are ya doing?”

“Shouldn’t we be asking you that, Hare?” Sean said, and Harry chuckled softly, knowing what he was referring to.

“Yeah, I banged my head pretty hard.” Harry remarked. “The doctors told me that it was a hit and run. Guess I should go back to Driver’s Ed, eh?” They all laughed at Harry’s joke, feeling good that they were finally having a peaceful moment with him, after all of the years of stress and agony over his father’s death and the person he held responsible for it, Peter. However, Harry seemed to have remembered something of it, because he sadly turned to Peter and asked him a question that was more difficult to ask than it was to answer. “My dad’s dead…right?” Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, and the Thomas siblings looked at Peter, who swallowed hard before he answered.

“Yeah.” He said, and Harry nodded in understanding, not wanting to ask how or when he had died. The room had fallen silent for a moment, until one last visitor walked into the room. It was Mary-Jane Watson, who Harry was even more pleased to see.

“Hey! I recognize that lovely face!” Harry exclaimed, and M.J. smiled as he gazed upon him.

“You doing okay, Harry?” She asked.

“I’m fine.” Harry replied, before gesturing towards Peter, the Muppets, and the siblings. “I was just about to tell these guys how much I’m looking forward to getting out of here, so I can see what’s been up for the past years. Who knows? Maybe what I’ll see will get a few scraps of memory back.” Hearing that made Peter and the friends who had discovered his secret concerned again. They prayed, for the sake of Peter’s secret, that it wouldn’t lead to that. Before the happy reunion could’ve continued on, a nurse came into the room and addressed the visiting friends.

“I think it’s time for you all to scoot along.” She told them. “Mr. Osborn needs his rest right now.” They all nodded and said their goodbyes to Harry, who smiled as he watched them leave. As the nurse pulled the curtain and gave Harry his privacy, she looked at him and smiled herself. “You have some really great friends, Mr. Osborn.”

“Yeah…I do.” Harry uttered, as he closed his eyes, his smile not once leaving his face. “I’d give my life for them.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

At the office of Rachel Bitterman inside the Bitterman Bank and Development complex, instead of glancing at foreclosing letters and checks with large amounts on them (as she had usually done), Rachel was glancing at designs to weapons that had a sinister appearance to them. One design contained schematics to a larger, fiercer version of the original “Goblin Glider” that Norman Osborn once rode while masquerading as “The Green Goblin.” Before she could look over the design further, her office phone rang. She put down the blueprint and picked up the receiver, speaking to the person on the other line.

“Bitterman Bank and Development, we make you pay for it.” Soon after she said that, the voice of Rachel’s old boyfriend, Quentin Fitzwaller, came over the receiver.

“Rachel. It’s Harry.” He said, and she let out a sarcastic chuckle.

“Gee. You don’t sound like my nephew.”

“I’m being serious. Something bad has happened to him.” Hearing that, Rachel immediately got concerned. However, she only concerned for his condition, because she didn’t want to lose a valuable key to her big plans.

“Is he alright? What’s happened?”

“They’re saying that it was a hit and run.” Rachel wanted to believe that story, but she knew the truth of the matter was that Harry was defeated by Spider-Man. Although it didn’t bother her, since she knew that she and her nephew would just have to try again.

“Well…when are they saying he’ll be out?”

“First thing tomorrow morning. But…uh…Rachel…” Quentin’s hesitation to tell her the rest of the news was what robbed him of the opportunity to do so, just as Rachel had interrupted him.

“Well, I’m sure that he’ll be pleased to see his good old auntie again, once he gets out.” Rachel said through gritted teeth, while taking her pen and making a few marks on the designs.

“But, Rachel, he has amnesia.” The pen had suddenly broken, just as soon as Quentin told her that, spraying blue ink all over the right side of her face and over the design that she was marking on.

“WHAT?!?!”

“The blow to his head knocked out his memory of recent events. He doesn’t remember how his father died, he doesn’t remember that Peter Parker is really Spider-Man, and…worst of all…he doesn’t even remember you being his aunt.” It was at that moment when Rachel was about to have a nervous breakdown, feeling as if all of the hard work that she put into convincing Harry to kill Peter Parker (as well as the Muppets) was all for nothing.

“Wha…How…What am I…?” Then she stopped and looked down at her designs. Her stress began to ease, as she picked up the one design of what she was naming “The Hobgoblin Design.” She may’ve lost Harry and her chances of getting revenge, but she still had the equipment necessary to do it all herself. “Never mind, Quincy. I don’t think I’ll need him anymore. I have what I want.”

“What do you mean? What’re you going to do?”

“None of your business!” Rachel snapped. “All you need to know is that our relationship is over…and this time, it’s for good!” She could hear Quentin gasp over the phone, and a wicked grin crept across her face over the thought that she just broke her boyfriend’s heart again. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking it over lately, Quincy. And, honestly…you were never really my type. You’re just too much of a goody-two-shoes to hang around with me. I want a man who would actually kill to be with me.”

“But…”

“Goodbye.” She hung up the phone and went back to her schematics, grinning at them as she continued sorting through them. Not once did she think about what she had done to her again ex-boyfriend. All she had on her mind was total vengeance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Inside a bedroom at the boarding house that belonged to Gonzo the Great and Rizzo the Rat, the two Muppets stood in their room with Butch, Clyde, and the Tennysons, all staring down at the still unconscious body of K. Edgar Singer, a former C.O.V.N.E.T. agent and the Ambassador of Earth to the Gonzonians, Gonzo’s alien race. He laid on the bottom hammock, which belonged to Gonzo, muttering in his sub-consciousness.

“And he just fell outta da sky?” Rizzo asked.

“Well, he fell while cooped up inside this big metal egg.” Butch said. “It’s incredible how such a big guy like him could fit in such a small place.” While the others were talking amongst themselves, Max was checking on Ed’s vital signs, in order to determine what his status was.

“How is he, Grandpa?” Gwen asked in concern.

“Unfortunately…he’s alright. He’s got quite a bump on his head…but he’s fine nonetheless.” Max replied, and though the others were relieved to hear that he was, they couldn’t help but feel a bit bewildered over the way Max had answered.

“Uh, don’t ya mean ‘fortunately’, Grandpa?” Ben asked him.

“Trust me. If you kids knew what kind of man this guy was, then you’d want him to be dead.” Gonzo was a little offended by Max’s words, and he immediately was at Ed’s defense.

“Hey! This is the same guy who helped my family get through a fierce battle with one of the most dangerous aliens in the galaxy!” He exclaimed. “Even if he was the one who tried have my brain sucked out, too. But he was just curious to know all about our race.”

“That’s just his problem…curiosity!” Max retorted, pointing angrily at the unconscious Ed. “This man tried to keep another dangerous alien alive, long enough to do study on him and learn about his race. He kept that alien in his C.O.V.N.E.T. headquarters, and when he escaped from their clutches, he began to terrorize parts of our planet, leaving me and other brave defenders of Earth to hunt him down and get him off this planet!” They were all stunned by Max’s story, some of them even started questioning Ed’s sense of nobility. Gonzo didn’t once question it; he kept standing at his defense.

“The man you’re talking about is gone. The guy laying in my bed is a completely different person now.” Gonzo stated, and Max just glared at him, still not convinced.

“Grandpa?” Ben uttered. “That alien you were talking about…was it Vilgax?” Just uttering that name made Ben very uncomfortable. Max was about to answer his question, until Ed began muttering louder, with his head moving left and right as he started to regain consciousness.

“Ve…Ven…Venom.” He said. “Sy…Sym…Symb…Symbiote. Have to…must…AARGH!!” Ed suddenly shot up, screaming very loud. Max immediately put a hand over his mouth to silence him, before anyone in the house could be alarmed.

“Shut up!” Max quietly exclaimed, and Ed’s eyes darted towards him, and he recognized him right away, as he moved Max’s hand from his mouth.

“Tennyson?!” Ed remarked. “What are you…?” While he was giving up from the hammock, he looked down at himself and noticed the spacesuit that he was wearing. “What am I doing in this ridiculous outfit?” Gonzo, Rizzo, Butch, and Clyde were very confused to hear him refer to his formal Gonzonian attire that way, after all he had done for the aliens as Ambassador of Earth.

“Don’t you remember, Zongo?” Gonzo said. “My brother hired you to be…” Just as soon as Ed noticed Gonzo, he advanced towards him, with a crazed look in his eye.

“ALIEN!!!” He screamed, and the tone in his voice made Gonzo immediately back away from him. Max held Ed back, before he could’ve come closer to him. “You won’t escape from me again! I will find out what you are…who you are! I will be remembered for…” Before Ed could continue his insane rants, Max punched him directly in the face, and he fell back, going back into unconsciousness again. Max then turned to Gonzo, with an “I told you so!” look on his face.

“Something’s wrong.” Gonzo said. “He’s not suppose to act like that.”

“Dat was really weird.” Rizzo said. “It was almost like he forgot all dat we went through over da years.” It was then that Gonzo had suddenly realized what had happened to the man who was once addressed as Zongo.

“Amnesia.” The whatever sadly deduced. “He has amnesia.”

“So that’s why he’s actin’ like a C.O.V.ie again?” Clyde asked.

“It must be the only reason.” Butch replied, while Gonzo began to slowly walk out of the room. Rizzo noticed him leaving and got curious at the same time he was concerned.

“Hey, Gonz.” The rat said. “Where ya goin’?”

“If I stay here any longer, then I’m bound to have my brain sucked out of my skull.” Gonzo remarked. “I’ll be at the Happiness Hotel…hiding.” Gonzo left the room, while everyone else just looked to one another, feeling very sorry for him losing the only connection he had to his family in outer space.

END OF CHAPTER THREE​

 

[The Count]

That was rully great Sean. Loved it all and all of the description work you put into this thing.

So sad to see what's happened to Lull Mathers Jr., he used to be such a nice guy. We should've seen this coming from the days he changed his name to Ned and married Stacy.
How many villains does that make?
The evil snooty business man in George of the Jungle.
The jerk in Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight.
And now Flint Marco in Spider-Man/Muppets 3.

OK... Harry having some head trauma from the fall after his first fight with Peter/Spidey... Sure, I'll buy that. But amnesia? That to me is red herring #1.
But I rully want to find out what Rachael has planned and how this'll develop. Please post more soon!

 

[The Count]

*Twiddles thumbs. Wonder if there'll be a new chapter posted soon. Course, I probably need to go over the small subtle changes needed. But eh, I just want this great story to get an update!

 

[theprawncracker]

Oh that was AWESOME! I loved seeing Shego, and the "Arlas" (love the nickname for them), and Nicky! Funny bit with his socks. Great scene at the hospital too, verry cool. Great job!