The MARVELOUS Muppets: "The Amazing...Sequel!"

[muppetwriter]

Hey, True Believers!

This is my second attempt at writing the sequel to the Spidey/Muppets story, which is set before the events of the recent "MM" stories that I've written this year, thus the reason for the absence of Gonzo the Great (who at this time still believes he's a mutant). I figured that I might as well get started on this story now, if I want to be ready for the third film.

There are some minor changes in this version that you'll be able to spot as you read the story. But it's pretty much the same thing, only a different title, different franchises, and a different plot.

Enjoy.

 

[muppetwriter]

The MARVELOUS Muppets
Presents
"The Amazing...Sequel!"​

Chapter One​

Stranger things had happened at the Happiness Hotel, like Animal eating the wallpapers (as well as the walls themselves) out of rooms, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew blowing up the whole third floor of the building, or holes that were made on the rooftop by Gonzo (unbeknownst to everyone, he was actually practicing some of his newest “mutant skills”). But the strangest thing to happen to the H.H. was a foreclosure notice posted on the front door, which Kermit found that morning. That type of notice was the last thing he expected to find on his front door. He wasn’t sure why their property would be put up for foreclosure, especially when they had done everything they could to keep it.

“This doesn’t make any sense.” Kermit uttered that morning, as he read over the notice near the front door. And just when Kermit thought it couldn’t get any worse, another Happiness Hotel resident was moving out, and this time it was Link Hogthrob, who was wearing his “I love San Fran” t-shirt (with a picture of a heart in place of the word “love”). “Link, where are you…” When Kermit read his shirt, he didn’t bother going any further with his question, “Never mind.”

“I won’t be there for long, Kermit.” Link said. “I’m just there long enough to help everyone get the KMUP station back in shape, shortly after I enjoy the sights of old San Francisco, such as the Golden Gate Bridge and those streetcar things that go up and down those huge hills.”

“Well, if you’re going, don’t bother coming back.” Kermit said, and Link was a little offended to hear him say that.

“I beg your pardon?” Link asked.

“Read this.” Kermit said, handing him the foreclosure notice, which Link read word-for-word but didn’t quite understand any of it.

“Does this mean we’re getting an increase in our finance?” He inquired, and Kermit gave him a strange look.

“No, Link.” He said. “It means that we’re going to lose the Hotel!”

“Why on earth would anyone want to take this luxurious, fabulous, decent, magnificent, and glorious hotel away from us?” Kermit smirked over Link’s comment.

“Yeah, it leaves me kinda dumbfounded, too.” He tried not to sound too sarcastic in front of Link. As they continued standing near the front door, Julius Strangepork had shown up, trying to maintain his balance as he carried some of Link’s heavy suitcases.

“Is that taxicab here yet, Link?” Strangepork asked, just as there was a loud honking noise and Kermit & Link noticed a taxicab parked in front of the building, with Beauregard in the driver’s seat.

“You guys ready to go to the airport?” Beau asked them.

“We most certainly are.” Link said, before he handed the foreclosure notice back to Kermit. “Come on, Julius.”

“Okay, Link.” Strangepork acknowledged, and while the two made their way to the taxicab, Kermit went back inside, just as Lew Zealand and some chickens were leaving as well.

“Not you, too, Lew.” Kermit said.

“Duty calls, Kermit.” Lew remarked.

“Yeah, but do you need to bring the chickens with you?”

“Hey, ya never know when you need an extra wing or two.” As Lew and the chickens headed out of the Happiness Hotel, Kermit tried to tell them about the foreclosure notice. But they were already out of the building before he had the chance.

“Kermit!” Someone exclaimed, and he looked up towards the top of a flight of stairs, where Sam the Eagle was standing.

“Hey, Sam.” Kermit said. “Are you leaving for San Francisco to help the others clean up the mess there?”

“On the contrary.” Sam said. “I’m staying in New York to clean up the mess here in this hotel.”

“That might take a whole century, Sam.” Kermit said.

“I hear that we have a foreclosing problem at hand.” Sam said, and Kermit was taken aback over how he knew about something that he hadn’t shared with him yet.

“Boy, not only do eagles have good eyes, they have good hearing, too.” He murmured.

“Might I suggest a brilliant and yet patriotic way of settling this foreclosure problem of ours?” Sam asked.

“Well, sure, Sam.” Kermit said. “If you have any ideas, I’ll graciously accept them.”

“I suggest that you simply turn to your old F.A.S.A. friend, Mickey Mouse.” Kermit thought about that notion and was a bit reluctant over it.

“Mickey? Well…you know better than everyone else, me included, that Mickey and I haven’t spoken to each other that often, since our visit to Disney World years ago. The both of us have been so busy opening clubs and theaters that we rarely had the time to catch up on old times.” As Kermit reminisced a little, Sam pulled out the morning’s copy of The Daily Bugle, which had a photograph of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy on the front, with the headline “Mouse and Friends Come to the N.Y.C. to Become Newest Bugle Reporters” printed over it.

“Well, it would seem that you will soon get the opportunity.” Sam tossed the newspaper over to Kermit, who caught it instantly. When the frog saw the picture and the headline on the front, old memories began to come back to him, as his face expressed mixed feelings of joy and disbelief.

“Of all the cities in the world, he decides to come to this one?” He said, just as Fozzie Bear entered the scene.

“Hey, Kermit. Did you find out anything about Gonzo?” It took Kermit a while to snap out of the trance he had accidentally fallen into, before he finally realized that Fozzie asked him a question.

“U-Uh, I’m sorry, Fozzie. Did you say something?” Fozzie looked at Kermit’s face just once and sensed immediately that something surprising had come up.

“OK. Tell me what it is.” Fozzie said, and Kermit made a quick decision to just hide the news from his dear friend who he was happy to still be seeing around the Happiness Hotel recently, with Gonzo the Great missing for nearly two months. The frog instead just replaced the pleasant news with the bad.

“We’re being foreclosed, Fozzie.” Kermit said, and Fozzie spotted the notice in Kermit’s hands, panicking a little.

“Oh, no!” He shouted. “They’re kicking us out!!” Kermit shushed Fozzie, trying to keep the news confidential to everyone else; however, Pops heard what Fozzie said and got curious.

“Who’s kicking who out?” He asked, and Kermit tried to cover things up quickly.

“Uh, nobody’s kicking anyone out, Pops.” Kermit said. “Er…Fozzie was just watching a football game.”

“A football game?” Pops said. “Who’s playing?”

“The, uh…” Kermit obviously wasn’t a big football fanatic, and he had a hard time thinking up a couple of teams. He looked at Fozzie and thought up one team, “The Bears and the…uh…” He saw a few penguins passing by, “…And…And the Pennsylvania Guins!”

“The Pennsylvania Guins?” Pops remarked, intrigued over the name of the team. “Boy, they think up just about everything in the NFL.” With Pops convinced, Kermit focused back on Fozzie, speaking very quietly.

“We can’t let anyone know that we’re getting kicked out, Fozzie.”

“But, Kermit,” Fozzie said, “Half of the gang is in San Francisco right now. What’re you going to tell them when they come back and find the Happiness Hotel gone?”

“The Happiness Hotel won’t be gone, Fozzie.” Kermit said. “We’ll think of something to keep it standing…or partially standing.” Fozzie began to calm down, taking one deep breath after another.

“You’re right, Kermit. We’re the Muppets for crying out loud. We always pull through any worse case scenario.”

“That’s right. And even if Gonzo’s not here to help us out, you and I will save our home together by doing what we do best…being excellent Daily Bugle reporters!”

“Yeah!” Suddenly, the door flew open—startling Fozzie a little as he immediately clutched onto Kermit—and Miss Piggy, looking more glamorous than ever, walked right in. She was followed by Rizzo the Rat, who was carrying her luggage.

“Hello, everyone.” Piggy said. “Moi is here with some marvelous news.” As Rizzo walked in, he threw Piggy’s luggage down on the floor, panting like crazy.

“You know, Piggy, I gave up my job at de Happiness Hotel ta avoid havin’ ta carry people’s bags!” Rizzo exclaimed. “If ya want someone ta carry your bags, get de other rats!” Rizzo walked away in fury, while Kermit and Fozzie were in shock to see Piggy back from San Francisco.

“Piggy?” Kermit said. “What’re you doing here?”

“How come you’re not helping everyone get things straight at the KMUP station?” Fozzie inquired. “You’re always saying that you bring up the ratings there.”

“After that whole Hulk thing, they can bring up their own ratings.” Piggy said. “I quit my job at the KMUP station.”

“What?!” exclaimed the surprised Kermit and Fozzie.

“And I’m going to be working at the Daily Bugle as a reporter.” Piggy added.

“WHAT?!?!” Fozzie and Kermit screamed, really shocked.

“That’s right.” Piggy said, and she walked over to Kermit, hugging him and gently stroking his head. “I’m going to be working with you now, Kermie. Together, we’ll be the greatest and most romantic reporters in the Bugle.” Kermit cringed, as he thought about how things would be, with Piggy working alongside both him and Fozzie. “Oh! Oh! And let’s not forget our friends from Disney World!”

“Disney World?!” shouted Fozzie, who felt like he had reached the highest peak of the surprise. “Are Roy and Walt working for the Bugle, too?”

“No, fur-brain!!” Piggy snapped, viciously, before turning to Kermit and speaking softly again. “I mean Donald, Goofy, and…Oh! Mickey!” Kermit knew it was hopeless to keep the cat in the bag any longer. He looked over at Fozzie, who just smiled, thinking about working with three of the biggest Disney stars under one roof.

“Sheesh.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Peter Parker was riding his motor scooter over to Pete’s Diner, which was where he worked with Jenny (a pretty girl that he went to Columbia University with), Pepe the King Prawn, and Rizzo the Rat. He had stopped by the Happiness Hotel to pick up Rizzo, shortly after Kermit, Piggy, and Fozzie left for the Daily Bugle. The both of them fought against typical Manhattan traffic, as they made their way to Pete’s. However, when they crossed by a large billboard that had the gorgeous face of Mary Jane Watson on it, Peter began daydreaming, thinking about the pleasant life that he and Mary Jane could’ve shared had he chosen to be in her life. Unfortunately, he couldn’t, only because he was Spider-Man; and that was a secret that he kept not just from Mary Jane, but from the rest of the world as well.

“Yo! Yo! Peter! PETER!!!!” Rizzo screamed, and Peter snapped out of his daydream, just in time to see how he and Rizzo were riding into the path of an oncoming bus. Immediately, Peter made a left turn, moving off the street and onto the sidewalk. Several bystanders were forced to move out of the way, as Peter’s scooter zoomed past them. Nearby, Pete was standing outside his diner, looking around for any sign of Peter and Rizzo.

“Three more minutes.” Pete murmured; his heavy Italian accent was a noticeable feature of his. “Three more minutes…and I fire those…” That’s when he saw Peter riding towards him; he held his hands up, with a stunned look on his face. “Whoa! Whoa! Parker! Stop! Stop!” Peter was able to bring the scooter to a screeching halt, causing Rizzo to fly off the front of it; he screamed, as he flew across the air and into Pete’s hands.

“Hey, thanks.” Rizzo told him. “For a second, I thought I was gonna be just another ‘Splat Rat’ on de sidewalk.”

“You’re going to be a splat rat, if you don’t get in there and tell your cousins to fix me some more burgers.” Pete said, as he gently set Rizzo down on the sidewalk.

“Just to let you know, some of those rats aren’t my cousins.” Rizzo said. “I barely even know those people.”

“Twenty rats you hire.” Pete remarked. “Twenty rats! And you only know a few?!”

“Twenty?” said Rizzo, a little confused. “I thought I hired ten!” Rizzo quickly dashed into the diner, as Peter parked his scooter to the side, chained it to a pole, and set his helmet down on the seat. Pete wasn’t too pleased with Peter’s tardiness; he was a patient man, but he was a busy one as well.

“Parker, I depend on you to be on time.” Pete said. “Even Rizzo depends on you to be on time, and he’s being coming here late long before I hired you.”

“I know, Pete.” Peter said. “I’m sorry.”

“I be sorry, too.” Pete uttered, as he and Peter walked into the diner, where a lot of satisfied customers were enjoying there meals and a lot of rats were cooking the meals, with help from a king prawn. “Yes, I be sorry on the day that I have to fire you, because you are so late.”

“It won’t happen again.” Peter assured.

“That’s exactly what you say last week.” Pete said, moving behind the counter where Pepe was, cleaning off a plate and butting into Pete and Peter’s conversation.

“Sí.” He uttered. “And jou promised the week before last week that jou would be here two hours before the time jou’re supposed to be here, h’okay.”

“When did he promise that?” Pete asked Pepe.

“Actually, it was more of a bet than a promise.” Pepe replied. “I bet him ten dollars that he wouldn’t be here before the time he was supposed to arrive. And, as jou can see…” Pepe put down the plate and held up a ten-dollar bill. “I won the bet, h’okay.”

“That wasn’t a fair bet.” Peter said. “You knew that I wouldn’t be here on time.”

“Ah! I’m offended, Peter Parker!” Pepe said, not sounding very sincere. “How was I to know that jou would be late? Jou could’ve surprised me, amigo. Jou could’ve actually been here on time.”

“But I wasn’t.” Peter said.

“Jou’ve got that right.” Pepe said, and he chuckled slyly as he walked back into the kitchen, leaving Peter feeling a little upset.

“If there’s anyone you should be firing, it’s that shrimp.” Peter told Pete.

“I am a king prawn!!” Pepe shouted, from the kitchen, and Pete shook his head in annoyance.

“I fire no one today.” Pete said. “Not today, not tomorrow, not ever.” Peter was pleased to hear that from his boss, seeing as how he had been fired from numerous jobs that he was juggling with, while taking on his responsibilities as Spider-Man. Like the job he had at Pete’s, those jobs required for him to be on time, something that the bosses take very strictly. But Peter knew from the very moment he was hired that Pete was different from his other bosses. “I believe in second chances. And though I give you several chances, I lost no faith in you yet.” Peter smiled, as Pete tossed him an apron. “Now, go fix me a cheeseburger with fries.”

Peter rolled his eyes at the order that was given to him. “The Amazing Spider-Man cooking a greasy cheeseburger with some greasy fries,” he thought with a smile. He knew that it was the worst job he could’ve taken, between going to college and fighting crime; but it was nevertheless a job that he loved coming to every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. What he loved the most about it was Jenny, whom he could not stop thinking about, ever since he first laid eyes on her during their freshman year at Columbia University. After rejecting Mary Jane, Peter wasn’t sure if he would ever fall for anyone else; but Jenny made him think differently.

“Hey, everyone.” A feminine voice said, and Peter turned his head towards the entrance, where Jenny was standing. His heart sank deeply, seeing her in a green sweater, blue jeans, and white tennis shoes. All of those thoughts about Mary Jane left his mind, whenever Jenny was around him. “How’s it goin’, Pete?”

“Not that bad.” Peter said, and Jenny chuckled as she turned to him.

“So…you were late again today?” Jenny asked, and Peter was surprised that even she knew about that, seeing as how she wasn’t there when he arrived.

“Is it that obvious now?” Peter said.

“Well, you have been tardier for work than you have for Dr. Connors’ classes.” Jenny said, and that’s when Peter was reminded of something.

“Dr. Connors’ Friday class! I missed it today!” Peter exclaimed. “What did topic did he go over today?”

“The exact same topic that you’re doing your paper on: nuclear fusion.” Jenny said. “He wanted me to tell you that Dr. Otto Octavius has been doing some research on nuclear fusion and is even using it to create a miniature electricity-generating ‘sun’.” Peter was really intrigued by that particular idea.

“With the type of equipment that he has, that’s an experiment that could possibly be a true success.” Peter said.

“You think so?” Jenny asked.

“Oh, most definitely.” Peter replied. “Dr. Octavius is one of the most brilliant men in the history of science. That’s why I’m basing my paper off of his work on nuclear fusion.” Peter remembered something about Octavius that his friend, Harry Osborn, informed him. “Hey, he’s supposed to have a demonstration of his fusion machine at OsCorp tomorrow afternoon. You want to come with me?”

“Sure.” Jenny agreed, just as Rizzo passed by again.

“Nothin’ like a couple of nerds goin’ ta a ‘Snore-Fest’ on a Saturday afternoon.” Rizzo bantered, which offended both Peter and Jenny.

“You know what?” Jenny said. “Just for that, you’re coming with us.”

“Ha! Whatever!” Rizzo exclaimed, and he was about to walk off, until Jenny grabbed his tail and hung his little body in front of her face.

“I mean it, Rizzo.” Jenny said. “It’s about time you came to something more educational.”

“What’re ya talkin’ about?” Rizzo inquired. “I was once a part of somethin’ educational.”

“Oh, yeah? What?” Jenny asked, and Rizzo took a long moment to think up a time when he actually did.

“Dere was dat one time when I went ta de annual cheese festival.” He said, and Jenny gave him an unconvinced look. “Hey! I learned some educational stuff dere! Did ya know dat dere are fifty thousand types of cheeses in Guatemala?”

“You’re coming, and that’s final.” Jenny said, as she set Rizzo back down on the floor.

“It’d better be worth an hour of my time.” Rizzo said, just before he headed back into the kitchen, only to stick his head back out again to say one last thing. “And Parker had better be on time for it, too!”

“He will be, Rizzo.” Jenny said.

“How can ya be so sure?” Rizzo asked, and he looked towards Peter. “What keeps ya so busy dat ya have ta be twenty minutes late for everything anyway?”

“There are just a lot of disturbances out there, Rizzo.” Peter remarked, and as he said that, he looked down at the right pocket of his jacket, seeing how his Spider-Man mask was hanging out a little and tugging it further into the pocket.

END OF CHAPTER ONE​

 

[muppetwriter]

Chapter Two​

Later in the evening, Dr. Otto Octavius was visited by three people in the laboratory of his home: Harry Osborn (son of the late Norman Osborn and current businessman), Kim Possible (kung fu-fighting cheerleader/crime fighter), and Ron Stoppable (Kim’s sidekick and friend who carried around a naked mole rat named Rufus in his pants pocket). Harry had paid him a visit on behalf of his OsCorp business, who had promised Octavius a great finance in return for the success of his latest invention, while Ron and Kim were there on suspicions that the invention might be the next target for Dr. Drakken (Kim’s arch-nemesis who was constantly obsessed with world domination) and his evil “sidekick,” Shego.

“Nobel Prize, Otto.” Harry said, as he, Kim, and Ron approached Octavius and shook his hand. “Nobel Prize. We’ll all be rich.”

“It’s not about the prizes, Harry.” Octavius remarked.

“But you need money…you need OsCorp.” Harry contradicted, just as Octavius looked in the direction of Ron and Kim.

“Who do we have here?” Kim stepped forward and shook Otto’s hand. She was smart, but not as smart as her helpful 10-year-old genius friend, Wade, who provided her with much information about Otto Octavius and his experiment before her arrival. In order for her to understand Drakken’s obsession with the invention, she must know all about Octavius’s background; and what she learned impressed her.

“Kim Possible, Dr. Octavius.” She introduced herself. “My friend, Ron Stoppable, and I came here to…”

“I know. I know what you’re doing here.” Octavius interjected, seeming a little annoyed. “But I really don’t have the time to talk to students right now.”

“Oh, we’re not doing a paper on you or anything like that, Doctor.” Kim said. “We’re here for a little investigating.”

“Yeah, we think this really mean, crazy, blue-skinned scientist is gonna rip you off sooner or later.” Ron said, and Kim shot him a dirty look.

“Thank you for laying it down so well, Ron.” She had a sarcastic tone in her voice that Ron was oblivious to notice.

“Just call me ‘Mr. Interpreter’, K.P.” Kim just shook her head, as Harry began to make his way out.

“Well, if you all excuse me, I believe my job here is done, so I must get to an important board meeting right away.” He said, pointing at Octavius and grinning confidently. “Good luck tomorrow, Otto. And remember…Nobel Prize.” And as he headed out the door, he shouted one last thing, “We’ll see you in Sweden!!” Obviously, Kim, Ron, nor Octavius himself knew what Harry meant by that.

“Must be the corporate way for saying ‘Good-bye’.” Ron assumed.

“Interesting fellow that Harry Osborn, isn’t he?” Octavius said.

“He may look a little eccentric at first, but it’s understandable, considering what happened to his father a couple of years ago.” Kim stated. “We promised him that we’d get to the bottom of his mysterious death, which he blames entirely on Spider-Man.”

“But we think Spidey had nothing to do with Osborn’s death.” Ron uttered. “No way would the Amazing Spider-Man take another man’s life!”

“Well, I wish you the best of luck on your investigation on that matter.” Octavius remarked. “But as far as the one that involves me and my experiment goes…”

“Yes.” Kim said. “We promise that we won’t take much of your time, sir.” Ron’s attention moved away from Octavius and towards his machine at the other side of the room, which he found very fascinating.

“Whoa! Is this it? Is this what we’re keeping Drakken from stealing?”

“I believe so.” Octavius said.

“What does it do?” Ron asked.

“Hopefully, it’ll allow me to initiate and sustain fusion.” Octavius replied, as he moved to where the scientists and technicians that he hired for his experiment were working hard on his invention.

“A friend of ours told us that you use harmonics as the atomic frequencies.” Kim informed.

“Sympathetic frequencies.” Octavius said. “Harmonic reinforcements…an expediential increase in energy output. A huge amount of energy. Like a perpetual sun providing renewable power for the entire world.”

“It all sounds Greek to me.” Ron commented.

“Fortunately for you, Ron, the only language you’re familiar with is somewhere between ‘Bueno’ and ‘Nacho’.” Kim joked.

“Which reminds me…I’m hungry,” Ron said. “Do we have time to make one quick stop to you-know-where?”

“Ron! Get your head in the game!” Kim exclaimed. “We’re here to help Dr. Octavius keep his invention safe from you-know-who.”

“I’d just relax, if I were you kids.” Octavius suggested. “Even if this Drakken could get his hands on it, he couldn’t stabilize the fusion reaction like I can.”

“I guess you’re right, Doctor.” Kim admitted. “Drakken can barely even tie his own shoes more less control the power of a sun. If an amateurish lunatic like himself got a hold of a machine like this, who knows how much of the city or even the world he will blow up!”

“And if he knows what’s good for him, he’ll stay away from it.” Octavius said, and the assured smile on his face told Kim that their services at his laboratory wasn’t needed.

“Well, I guess we can be on our way.” Kim said. “But if you encounter any trouble at all, you can use this.” She handed him a communication device that was similar to her “Kimmunicator.” “If you wanna reach me, just call me and beep me on that.”

“I appreciate it, Miss Possible.” Octavius said. “But I’m sure that my security system will keep any intruders from coming in here.” Despite his assurance, Kim still felt a little unsure about leaving Octavius, his wife, and his invention alone, without any human security keeping watch. Not the one to argue with someone as confident and brilliant as Otto Octavius, Ron and Kim left the premises, but not long before receiving a call from Wade.

“What up, Wade.” Kim responded.

“Spidey’s out and about tonight on the streets of Manhattan, and I’ve got a center on his location.” Wade informed, and Kim & Ron smiled at each other for completely different reasons (Kim pleased of the new opportunity for getting some answers, and Ron pleased for the new chance at meeting Spider-Man).

“Where is he?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

The busiest time in Manhattan was at night; the streets were crowded with several different cars and people were walking down the sidewalks, either talking to each other or talking to people at a different location over a cell phone. There were a lot of people out that evening, each attending the premiere of a play that Mary Jane Watson was starring in called “The Importance of Being Earnest” at the Henson Performance Center. Kermit the Frog and Mickey Mouse were attending as well, going on a double date with Miss Piggy and Minnie Mouse. Fozzie was playing the role of chauffeur and driving them around in his “repaired” Studebaker. Unfortunately, they were stuck in heavy traffic at the time.

“Hey, why don’t we forget about the play and head somewhere else?” Mickey suggested.

“Like where, Mickey?” Minnie asked.

“Well, uh, how about somewhere like…”

“The Muppet Theatre!” Kermit blurted out, and though the expression on Mickey’s face might’ve said how much he agreed with that idea, he actually felt a little discouraged.

“Well, I was going to say my club, House of Mouse,” He said, “But the Muppet Theatre sounds like a much better place to go to this evening instead.”

“Oh, but moi thinks the House of Mouse would be marvelous place to go to tonight.” Miss Piggy said, and Kermit looked over at her in surprise, thinking about when she started wanting to go to Mickey’s club rather than the Theatre.

“Well, I think it would be nice to go to the Muppet Theatre, considering that I’ve never had the opportunity to go there before.” Minnie said, taking Mickey by surprised, as the mouse thought of the same thing the frog had, only vice versa.

It was very quiet in the Studebaker for a long time, as the four characters sitting in the backseat just stared at one another, thinking different things about the other. It wasn’t so much as tension that was coming over the scene, because they were all good friends and just wanted to see that each got the entertainment that they deserved that evening. However, due to the news about Mickey becoming the new Daily Bugle reporter along with Donald and Goofy, it seemed as if there could’ve been a tiny sense of paranoia. Most of it was coming from Kermit, who worried if the mouse’s sudden appliance would interfere with his chance of getting enough money to pay off the foreclosure and keep the Happiness Hotel.

The silence was suddenly broken once the group heard the sound of police sirens close nearby. Each of them stuck their heads out of the window, just in time to see a wild car chase happening on the streets. A stolen convertible was slamming into other vehicles, as the thieves desperately attempted to get away from the police. They fired their guns at the three cars and were able to get one of them off the street by shooting out one of the tires, causing the car to drive over a sidewalk and crash into an old pawn shop.

“Oh, my goodness!” Minnie exclaimed. “Maybe it’s a good idea to just stay home this evening!” Mickey, after witnessing the wild car chase occur before his very eyes, suddenly jumped out of the Studebaker, much to the surprise of his friends. “Mickey! Get back in here this minute!”

“What’re you doing?!” Kermit asked, and Mickey stopped and stood on the sidewalk, turning to his friends with a determined look on his face.

“I’ll be right back.” That was all the mouse had said, before he ran down the sidewalk and rounded a corner, leaving his friends totally bewildered. After rounding that corner, Mickey looked around carefully and disappeared into a dark alleyway that was momentarily brightened by a colorful array of lights, soon before a red and blue blur flew out of the alleyway and into the skies, camouflaged by the wonderful New York City lights.

Meanwhile, the remaining squad cars kept on with the chase, forcing the thieves into reloading their weapons and continue firing at them. They barely noticed a formally dressed Peter Parker, who was riding his scooter and on his way to see Mary Jane’s play, as they headed right towards him. Thanks to his trusty spider-sense, Peter was able to leap off of his scooter in time for the thieves to run over it instead of him. His body had flipped right over the stolen convertible and landed back on the concrete after it had passed. Unfortunately, his acrobatic display caught the attention of two bystanders: a brown-haired, 10-year-old boy and his blue imaginary friend.

“Whoa!” The blue imaginary friend exclaimed, and Peter turned to them, realizing what he had just done and seeming very agitated about it. “How did you do that?” Peter stood up straight and smiled at the two bystanders, thinking up an excuse that only someone as young as the two bystanders were would believe.

“Uh…work out…plenty of rest…you know, eat your green vegetables.” And the boy and his imaginary friend instantly believed him.

“Hey, isn’t that what your mom always telling you, Mac?” The blue imaginary friend asked his companion.

“Yeah,” He remarked. “I just never actually believed her.”

“Let’s get to your house right now and gorge ourselves with broccoli and celery, man!!!” The two young bystanders, excited over the notion that Peter had provided them with, immediately fled the scene, leaving Peter’s other identity still kept safe from the public. He afterwards ran away himself, finding someplace dark and untraceable to “transform” into that other identity of his. However, the area that he eventually found wasn’t too untraceable, if Wade Load was able to detect Peter’s body heat from an infrared screen on his computer, keeping Kim up to date on Spider-Man’s whereabouts, while the wild police chase had continued on the streets of Manhattan.

“Get those pigs off our butts!!” The driver of the stolen convertible shouted in frustration.

“What do you think I’m trying to do?!?!” One of the thieves remarked.

“From what it looks up here, just wastin’ bullets!” The driver exclaimed, just before something or someone landed on the hood of the convertible, putting a big dent in it, and grinned at the driver. It was Mickey Mouse, wearing his famous outfit from Fantasia (a blue, starry sorcerer hat and a cheery red robe) instead of the tuxedo that he was originally wearing for the evening.

“Mind if I check under the hood?” He said, and the surprised driver immediately took out his gun and aimed it at him. Mickey gasped, as he leaped out of the way, just as the driver fired two bullets into the windshield and shattered it. The thieves saw Mickey the Sorcerer’s Apprentice flying over their heads, and it really freaked them out.

“What the #%@! is goin’ on here?!” The driver yelled, just before Mickey landed on the street, several feet ahead of the speeding convertible, and planted his hands on the concrete. He used his sorcery to create a gigantic bump in the street. The driver of the stolen convertible saw the bump and panicked; he swerved the car around it and nearly ran over Mickey, who was able to leap away in time. The mouse kept his eyes on the squad cars, as one of them swerved around the large bump, while the other lost control of his vehicle and made his car go over the bump and fly across the air. Mickey reacted in shock, noticing how the squad car was falling towards a group of bystanders.

“NO!!!” Mickey exclaimed, and the bystanders ducked, when the flying vehicle was only a few feet away from them. But, after a while, the bystanders noticed how the vehicle hadn’t squished them, leaving them a little puzzled. They looked up to see how the squad car was caught in a large spider web that was made between two poles. Mickey blinked in surprise; to him and everyone else, the web had come out of nowhere. That was when Spider-Man swung his way through the scene and over the cheering bystanders. It was obvious that Mickey didn’t appreciate Spidey’s company. Now that the mouse had turned into a crime-fighter by night, the web-slinger proved to be a bit of competition to him.

“I spotted this chase first, Spidey!” Mickey said, just before he flew across the air at an incredibly fast rate, catching up with Spider-Man, as he dodged several bullets that were being fired at him by the thieves. With their attention distracted on Spider-Man, Mickey landed on the trunk of the convertible and used his magic to hurl the guns out of the thieves’ hands and then their bodies out of the convertible, placing them high above the ground on a nearby streetlight.

Mickey smiled confidently at both the frightened thieves, who were clutching tightly on the streetlight, and Spider-Man, as he climbed into the driver’s seat of the convertible, making a rough left turn into an alleyway. Spider-Man stopped swinging through the air and landed on a nearby rooftop, completely taken aback over the sudden turn of events. Never had he expected to be spared the moment of stopping the bad guys by a mouse in a wizard hat.

“That was very…awkward.” He uttered.

“Tell me about it.” Someone said, and a surprised Spidey turned his attention behind him, where the voice came from, and noticed a determined Kim Possible and an excited Ron Stoppable standing on the rooftop with him. “Hello, Spidey.”

“I can’t believe I’m standing on the same rooftop with the Spider-Man!!” Ron exclaimed.

“Hey, it’s just ‘Spider-Man’, kid.” Spidey said. “There is no ‘the’.” Kim looked to Ron and attempted to snap Ron out of his fan boy attitude, which was her mistake, considering how Spider-Man took the chance to swing away from the rooftop, without being seen. But he was seen by Rufus, who stuck his head out of Ron’s pocket in time to notice and alert Kim and Ron.

“What?” Kim said, and when she saw Spidey swinging across the rooftops, she couldn’t help but to get a little furious about her foul up. “Aww, man!!!” She started using her own acrobatic skills to jump from one rooftop to another, while Ron stayed where he was, not wishing to tempt fate.

“Right behind ya, K.P.!” He shouted, while looking over the edge to see how far down the drop was. “Way behind ya.”

Kim kept jumping over rooftops, desperately pursuing Spider-Man, as he swung away from her. But the chase had come to a surprising halt once Spider-Man reached over the rooftop of the Happiness Hotel and suddenly lost control of his web-shooting. The hero screamed in terror, while Kim stopped on the rooftop of a tall building next to the Hotel and watched him fall towards its roof. Spidey’s body crashed through the Happiness Hotel’s roof, as well as several floors of the building, surprising everyone inside from the Electric Mayhem (who was practicing on the highest floor) to Pops (who was talking to someone on the phone in the lobby).

“I’ll call ya back.” Pops said, soon after Spider-Man fell through the roof and landed with a hard thud on the lobby floor. While Spidey was slowly getting to his feet, obviously in serious pain from the fall, Pops hung up the phone and took out a pen and notepad. “Now then, Mr. Spider-Man…how’re you fixin’ to pay? Your choices are: A) Credit card, B) Cash, C) Sneak out in the middle of the night, and—our newest one—D) Say yer from Sesame Street and haven’t gotten the chance to count yer money yet.”

Spider-Man didn’t really pay that much attention to Pops, because he was more focused on the sudden pain his back and the reason he had lost control of his web-slinging. He walked through the front door of the Happiness Hotel and disappeared down an alleyway, not seeing how Kim Possible was still standing from the other rooftop and keeping a careful eye on him while talking to Wade over her Kimmunicator.

“And he just fell?”

“Yeah. It was just like he didn’t have any more left to shoot.”

“But that’s impossible! Spider-Man’s webbing is organic! There’s no way he can just run out like that!”

“Unless he actually has the equipment to make his own web-shooters.” Kim had stopped talking for a moment, once she noticed how Spider-Man had removed his mask and revealed his Peter Parker identity. Anxious to know who the hero really was, she used her Kimmunicator to zoom in on Peter’s face and take a photo. “Wade, I’m sending you a pic and I want you to tell me who this guy is.” After sending the photo to Wade, the boy genius loaded it up on his computer and immediately got the information Kim wanted, reading it over to her afterwards.

“His name is Peter Parker.” Kim had heard the name before, mostly because she always read issues of the Daily Bugle that she always caught her father reading beforehand.

“The photographer? He’s Spider-Man?!”

“Apparently so.”

“No way! It’s gotta be some kind of jip!”

“If it was, Kim, do you really think an ordinary man could’ve survived a fall like the one you described to me?” Kim thought about what Wade just said and realized that he had a point. But she still couldn’t believe the direction that her investigation was taking, seeing as how she had finally discovered the true identity of Spider-Man.

END OF CHAPTER TWO​

 

[muppetwriter]

Chapter Three​

“Just let it go, Pete. I’m sure she’ll understand.” Jenny told Peter, who just ignored Jenny, as he picked up the receiver on one of the payphones at Columbia University, put in the money, and dialed the number to Mary Jane Watson.

“I promised her that I’d be there, Jen.” Peter said, having his back facing both Jenny and Rizzo. “And I broke that promise.”

“You had a good reason.” Jenny said, and Rizzo snickered. “Not helping.”

“Sorry.” The rat uttered.

“A police chase in the middle of downtown Manhattan is no excuse.” Peter contradicted. “I’ve been making a lot of excuses to her over the past years. If she were to hear the one that I made up this time, she’ll never believe or even want to see me again.”

“So what’re you going to tell her?” Jenny asked, and before Peter could answer her question, Mary Jane had answered Peter…at least, her answering machine had.

“Hi, this is me. Just sing your song at the beep.” Peter sighed, wanting to actually talk to Mary Jane; but he knew just reaching her machine was good enough.

“Hi, M.J. This is Peter.” He began, fighting off both nerves and hesitation. “I was on my way to your show and…well…I was on my bike…uh…uh…”

“Oh, yeah. He’s really winnin’ back her respect now,” said a sarcastic Rizzo.

“Shush!” Jenny exclaimed, while Peter felt totally disappointed in himself.

“Are you there?” He asked, and wasn’t given a reply. “I really was planning on it all day, and…I know you predicted on me disappointing you. But it’s amazing, isn’t it? How complicated a simple thing, like being someplace at eight o’clock, can…” That’s when Peter was reminded of his “accident,” which he still had been feeling the effects of since the previous evening. “To be honest with you, I had gotten…” Before Peter could finish, a voice over the phone had informed him that his time had expired and needed to insert more money to finish his message. Unfortunately, Peter didn’t have any more money, and neither did Jenny, who spent the last bit she had on the hot dog that was bought for Rizzo. When he heard the dial tone over the receiver, he knew it was no use. “Oh, great.” Jenny felt sorry for him, wanting so badly to do something to cheer him up. But repairing a broken heart was something she was no expert in.

“Pete…”

“You guys go and get head start on Dr. Octavius’s.” Peter urged. “I’ll…catch up you.”

“OK. See ya.” Rizzo said, and he started walking away, while Jenny tried to move from the spot she was standing in. She had to convince herself that Peter would be alright, once they made it to Dr. Octavius’s demonstration, in order to leave him alone for a moment. Once she did, Peter was about to hang up the phone, until he stopped and looked at it briefly. He then spoke into the receiver again, pretending as if he was actually talking to Mary Jane.

“You want the truth…here it is.” He said. “I got hurt the other night, and you wanna know how I did? Because for the past two years, I’ve living a double life. One moment, I’m Peter Parker…the next, I’m Spider-Man. Weird, huh? Now you know why I can’t be with you. If my enemies found out about you…if you were to get hurt…I would never forgive myself.” Peter sighed again, wishing that the conversation was actually taking place. “I wish I can tell you how I feel about you.” Peter just let the dial tone play into his ear some more, and then he finally hung up the phone, realizing how foolish he was for speaking to no one but himself, and followed after Jenny and Rizzo.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

A lot of people had come to Otto Octavius’s home to see his demonstration, from important businessmen like Harry Osborn to common people like Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable, Peter Parker, Jenny, and Rizzo. There were even a couple of people who attended that eerily reminded Kim and Ron of Shego and Drakken—the only difference was that their skin was the color of a normal human being and their hair colors were blonde and red, instead of green and black. Kim and Ron didn’t want to jump to any conclusions and possibly make a scene, so they just kept a careful eye on the two observers, during the presentation.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Octavius began, “My wife, Rosie, and I would like to welcome you this afternoon. But, first, before we start, has anybody lost a large roll of twenty dollar bills in a rubber band? Because we found the rubber band.” Everyone laughed over Octavius’s little joke, except for Rizzo.

“Man, dis guy has a worser taste in jokes than Fozzie.” He murmured, before Octavius got serious again.

“Today, you will witness the birth of a new fusion-based energy source. Safe, renewable energy and cheap electricity for everyone.”

“I know a certain KMUP host and an annoying light will be happy ta hear dat news.” Jenny shushed Rizzo, not wanting to be distracted from such an important event.

“And now, let me introduce my assistants.” With that said, Octavius turned to where a large sheet was covering something that stood at five feet tall. After he had uncovered it, the audience was awed and amazed to see four mechanical arms resting on a pedestal. They might’ve been an impressive sight, if it weren’t for their intimidating appearance. “These four actuators were developed and programmed for the sole purpose of creating successful fusion. They are impervious to heat and magnetism.” While Octavius was talking, he stood up on the platform with the four arms and positioned himself within the boundary of a large, steel belt that automatically attached itself around Otto’s waist at the press of a button.

“Impressive,” uttered the stranger that resembled Dr. Drakken, whom Kim heard and glanced at before focusing her attention back on Octavius. She would’ve wished that she hadn’t, once everyone saw how a mechanical-like spine that was connected to the arms had stuck itself to Otto’s back and attached several needles directly into his own spine. All of the observers cringed, watching the painful display of the mechanical arms becoming one with Octavius.

“Oy! I did not need ta see dat!” Rizzo uttered, while Octavius focused hard and used his mind to activate the arms and move them around.

“That’d be so cool, if it didn’t look so scary!” Ron exclaimed, clinging onto Kim’s shoulder at the time, as Rufus did the same to his.

“These smart arms are controlled by my brain through a neural link.” Octavius informed the audience. “Nano wires feed directly into my cerebellum, allowing me to use these arms and to control fusion reaction in an environment no human hand could enter.” As Octavius explained all of these details to the crowd, the woman that resembled Shego had been taking them all down on a notepad, which Kim had noticed and got suspicious of.

“Doctor, if the artificial intelligence in the arms is as advanced as you suggest, couldn’t that make you vulnerable to them?” Jenny asked Octavius, who just smiled and turned himself around, indicating the small blue lightbulb that was connected to the mechanical spine that was attached to his.

“That’s why I developed this inhibitor chip to protect my higher brain function. It means I maintain control of these arms, instead of them controlling me.”

“Dis guy sure comes prepared, don’t he?” Rizzo commented, and that was one comment from Rizzo that Jenny seemed to agree with, just as Octavius had the technicians bring out the reactor machine that he would use for his demonstration. Everyone followed Octavius, as he walked over to the machine, and while turning it on, he used a small pair of tweezers from one of the mechanical arms to pull out a marble-sized ball of a high reactive element known as tritium and place in the center of the machine. Only the magnetic field that the machine was generating kept the tritium floating and spinning in place.

“Tritium is the fuel that makes this project go, and there’s only twenty-five pounds of it left on the entire planet.” Octavius stated. “I’d like to thank Harry Osborn and OsCorp Industries for providing it.”

“Happy to pay the bills, Otto.” Harry remarked.

“Ya mind payin’ ours sometime?” Rizzo asked him, and Jenny shot him another of her “Be quiet or else” type of looks, as Rosie Octavius approached her husband and handed a pair of dark goggles to him. Otto smiled and she smiled right back at him, just before he put the goggles on.

“Ladies and gentlemen…fasten your seatbelts.” Soon after Otto said that, he typed some information down on the keyboards in front of him and brought out eight beams to target the floating ball of tritium, causing it to start swelling in size and fieriness.

“Doctor, we have a successful fusion reaction.” One of the technicians informed, and everyone applauded over the good news, except for Kim, who was still keeping her focus on the Shego and Drakken look-alikes. Without attracting too much attention, she pulled out her Kimmunicator and positioned it under her left arm, aiming it directly at the look-alikes and capturing a photo of them. Kim then contacted Wade on the device.

“Hey, Kim. How’s the demonstration going?”

“It’s going well, Wade. But I think we’ve got some unwanted company with us.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m sending you another photo, and I want you to match the image of these two people with one of Drakken and Shego.” While Kim sent the photograph to Wade, Octavius started to touch the swelling ball of tritium with his mechanical arms, growing confident over his experiment.

“The power of the sun…in the palm of my hand.” He uttered, at the same time Wade responded to Kim’s command, sending her back the photo of the two observers with one of Shego and Drakken superimposed over it, which had the word “Match” in big, bold letters beneath it.

“I knew it!” Kim said, and as she looked over at the two observers who indeed turned out to be Shego and Drakken in disguise, she had noticed Peter close nearby, remembering the information she discovered on the previous evening. And just as she glanced at him, she noticed something he noticed as well: a paperclip vibrating on the floor and flying away towards the machine. Then the lamps hanging over the heads of everyone started bending and pointing towards the machine. Something was wrong, and everyone began to realize it, as all sorts of objects began to fly away from their bodies, such as necklaces, watches, pens, and other things that attracted the magnetic field.

“Keep calm! It’s only a spike!” Octavius shouted. “It’ll soon stabilize!” Otto turned to his wife and smiled again, only she didn’t smile back that time. Rosie was just as worried over what was happening as everyone else had been.

“I think it’s time for us ta scat, Jen!” cried a nervous Rizzo.

“Maybe he’s right, Peter.” Jenny said, and when she turned to where Peter was standing, she was surprised to see how he had disappeared. “Where did he go?”

“Someplace other dan here!” Rizzo exclaimed, just as there was a loud siren blaring and a readout appearing all over the screens that said, “Caution: Overload In Progress—System Unstable.” It was obvious to everyone that the demonstration was taking a dangerous turn, with metal plates ripping off the walls. But Otto Octavius, overly confident in his invention, refused to stop it all.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please clear the room!” A technician yelled, and the crowd began to scatter. The Drakken and Shego “look-alikes” were heading directly towards the exit, just as Kim’s Kimmunicator and a device that Drakken’s “look-alike” had been holding for some time were sucked into the unstable tritium ball, which giving off circular solar flares that Otto, using the robotic arms, pushed back into the growing sun. The device that Drakken was holding was a DNA enhancer that gave him and Shego the ability to look differently, and with it destroyed, the two reverted back to their regular appearances, just as Ron and Kim spotted them.

“Drakken! Stop!” Kim shouted, right before a large, flaring loop from the sun shot out and tore off a section of the ceiling, causing heavy bits of debris to fall between Drakken and Kim.

“You must be crazier than me, Kim Possible!!” Drakken yelled, and he and Shego fled the scene, leaving Kim and Ron to deal with Octavius’s unstable machine, at the same time Jenny and Rizzo were looking around for Peter.

“Never mind about de geek, Jen!” Rizzo cried. “We gotta get outta here!”

“Not without Peter!” Jenny shouted, barely even noticing the huge metal structures that was coming towards Rizzo, Harry, and her. Before they could’ve gotten near them, Spider-Man swooped in just in time to move them out of sight. He placed them in an area that was at a safe distance from the machine, and while Rizzo and Jenny were grateful of his rescue, Harry was the only one that wasn’t.

“This doesn’t change a thing.” He said, and Spider-Man just looked at him, before leaping away back into the laboratory, where Kim and Ron were urging Octavius to shut off the machine.

“Doctor, you have to turn it off!” Kim shouted. “It’s too unstable now!”

“It’ll stabilize! I’ve got it under control!” Octavius assured.

“Uh, dude? If this is your way of getting control, then I’d hate to see when you lose it!” Ron exclaimed, just as Spidey swooped in and attached himself to the ceiling, right above the power source to Otto’s machine.

“What’re you doing?” He asked Spidey.

“I’m going to pull the plug!” Spidey replied, and just when he attempted to do so, Octavius turned his body and accidentally made one of his mechanical arms operate to swoop towards Spider-Man and hit his body, sending him flying hard into a wall. Kim attempted herself, only to have the same thing happen to her, once Octavius noticed her. She was hurled across the room and directly into Ron, causing the both of them to land right near Spider-Man’s body. They were luckily able to be out of harm’s way, when the metal structure holding a nearby window broke off, forcing all of the glass to fly off and come towards Rosie Octavius.

Hearing the sound of his wife screaming and the glass shattering, Otto forced himself to turn and see how his wife had been killed by a piece of glass that struck her left eye. Distracted by the sudden death of his wife, Octavius didn’t even see the fiery loop that ruptured out completely from the sun and struck the spine link of his mechanical arms device, electrocuting him and destroying the inhibitor chip in the process. Kim, Ron, and Spider-Man had come to their senses just in time to see Octavius in danger and immediately went to the power source.

“Help me shut this thing down!” Spidey ordered, and they each grabbed a plug from the source and began ripping it away from its outlet. Once the power cables broke off, the sun had then imploded along with one part of the machine, not before unleashing a powerful explosion that had imploded as well and disappeared, leaving the entire room pitch black.

“Man! I’m stayin’ the heck away from science!” Ron exclaimed.

END OF CHAPTER THREE​

 

[The Count]

Very very good stuff. Not sure about Sorceror Mickey though, his appearance/interference would've been enough to peek my curiosity as to how he'd be involved in the story. A bit of cleaning needs to be done before posting chapters, reread it to yourself and see if something needs minor touchups. For example, "the both of them" should be just "both of them" instead.
Little things like that.

Overall, I like where the story's headed and hope to get more of this and the Batman Begins one as well in the upcoming future.

 

[muppetwriter]

Yeah, I've got a knack for not reading my stuff before it's posted. The only time I ever check over anything is when I'm turning it in for a College Writing assignment.

On the case of Mickey, I'm building up his purpose to the story as I go. Originally, this story was called "Web of Heroes," and the heroes were basically Spider-Man, Kim Possible, Mickey Mouse, characters from Kingdom Hearts, and one other hero. I had to find a reason to reunite Mickey Mouse and the Muppets, so I just made Mickey's Sorcerer Apprentice persona a sort of a superhero to this tale.

And I'm still getting over my writer's block for the SS/Batman Begins story. I'm using a technique right now for writing this 2nd installment of the Spider-Man/Muppets series, which I think will be useful once I get back to the "Sesame, DC" continuity. But I should really focus on this one for now, because we're only six months away from you-know-what.

 

[The Count]

If you say so... Looking forward to it then.
What I do when posting story is I write it up, post it, then read it to myself and go back in to make whatever small touchup edits are necessary. Tend to get some replies in the meantime, but I don't read those until I'm satisfied with the outcome of what was posted. Course, those settings are offset at the moment and I'm not sure how to get them back.

But I'm rully looking forward to the rest of your crossover stories.

Oh... And on the W.I.T.C.H. front...
The episode they did for Halloween must've been out of continuity, since last week's and this week's episodes have shown stuff that flows together in continuity previous to the Halloween episode. Either that, or it's weirdly out of place while being in place. Not sure how to explain it better than that.

 

[muppetwriter]

Oh... And on the W.I.T.C.H. front...
The episode they did for Halloween must've been out of continuity, since last week's and this week's episodes have shown stuff that flows together in continuity previous to the Halloween episode. Either that, or it's weirdly out of place while being in place. Not sure how to explain it better than that.

Yeah, I read that they just showed the "W" episode, because it was set on Halloween and Jetix just happened to be showing Halloween specials on the weekend it aired (missed the one for Yin Yang Yo!). I'm just interested in finding out what'll happen by the end of this season, which has turned out to be the longest season run for the show, and whether or not Disney decides to have a third one.

And speaking of W.I.T.C.H., I'm deciding to have it replace Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends as the number one secondary franchise for the third Spidey/Muppets story. That should bring the list down to this...

1) W.I.T.C.H.
2) Kim Possible
3) Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?
4) Ben 10

And the villains from each of these franchises will be included as well.

 

[muppetwriter]

Chapter Four​

After the disaster at Otto Octavius’s demonstration, the good doctor was immediately taken to the St. Mullen Hospital to have the mechanical arms that were still attached to his body removed. The pins that were connected to the spine link had been broken directly into Octavius’s spine, so it was crucial that the doctors removed the arms in order to know the extent of the damage. However, when a surgical procedure was in the hands of Dr. Bob, a wisecracking dog of a doctor, one can always bet that things won’t always get done.

“Now then, it seems the patient has got a bit of a problem on his shoulders…all six of them!” Dr. Bob joked, and only a few of the surgeons around him chuckled at his joke. “Look at this guy. I don’t know if this is surgery or auto repairs!” The doctor got a few more laughs out of that joke, just as two more surgeons came into the emergency room. They were actually Dr. Drakken and Shego in disguise again, interested in the mechanical arms that were fused with Octavius.

“I don’t see why those freaky arms are so important to us now.” Shego said. “With that machine destroyed, they’re useless.”

“They are not, Shego!” Drakken snapped. “I could use arms like those for miraculous purposes, like…”

“Reaching for the remote control?” Drakken gave Shego a nasty glare, which didn’t intimidate her at all.

“Let’s just get those arms!” Drakken and Shego placed their surgical masks over their faces to obscure their identities, joining Dr. Bob and the other surgeons.

“Ah, I see we’ve got two others that want to witness this interesting operation.” Dr. Bob said, addressing Shego and Drakken. “I would ask you to leave the room, if you happen to have a weak stomach. But who gets a weak stomach from looking inside a man that has a radiator in place of one?” All of the surgeons laughed heartily, while Shego and Drakken were taking the operation very seriously.

“Ha, ha, ha!” Drakken mocked. “Can we just get on with this?!”

“Patience, buddy.” Dr. Bob remarked. “This is a man’s life we are dealing with here.” For a moment, it seemed as if Dr. Bob was finally starting to take the operation seriously. But then he said, “How else do you think he’s gonna go on that date with R2-D2?” Drakken and Shego just rolled their eyes at the corny jokes, while the surgeons just laughed and laughed.

“To heck with this!” Drakken yelled, moving past Dr. Bob and taking a chainsaw off of the tray. “I might as well take these arms off myself!” Shego’s eyes widened, as she watched the disturbing sight of Dr. Drakken holding a chainsaw.

“Whoa! Dr. D!” She exclaimed. “Maybe you should leave this to the professionals!”

“Yes, leave it to them.” Dr. Bob suggested, and then looked around the room. “Where are they anyway?” Drakken shook his head, wondering where Dr. Bob must’ve gotten his doctoring degree from.

“I really think you should stop, before you actually do start barking up the wrong tree, Doctor.” Drakken said, unknowingly making a joke that everyone, except Shego, thought was humorous.

“Now this is a doctor after my own heart.” Dr. Bob commented. “It’s just too bad that he has to cut me open first to get it.” The laughter grew louder, until there was a noise that put it to an abrupt stop. Everyone looked up to one of the hooks that were holding up one of Octavius’s mechanical arms, which was where the noise had supposedly come from. They looked at it for a moment and figured that it was probably nothing.

“Let’s get this over with. I’m missing tonight’s episode of Lost!” Drakken complained, and as he turned on the chainsaw and brought it closer to Octavius’s spine link, Shego and the others noticed something creeping up from behind Drakken.

“Dr. D!!!” She cried, and Drakken turned just in time to see one of the arms, fully functional, come after him. With a quick swipe, Drakken was knocked several feet across the room and sent crashing through glass doors. The once laughing surgeons were now screaming in terror, as the terrifying arms slithered themselves from the hooks, like mechanical snakes, and started attacking everyone in the room.

“Uh, my contract didn’t say anything about this! I’m outta here!!” Dr. Bob shouted, and he was about to leave the room, until the steel claws of one mechanical arm grabbed his ankle and hurled his body around in the air. “Ahh! If I wanted this type of thrill, I’d go back on Space Mountain!!” The mechanical arm tossed Dr. Bob aside and made him crash right through a window, before assisting its fellow mechanisms in killing several surgeons, some of which tried to fight back but led to no avail. Shego was able to make an easy escape into the hallway outside, checking on an injured Drakken.

“Yo! Dr. D! You okay?” Drakken just groaned in reply. “Yep. You’re cool.” Drakken’s groans were drained out by the sound of a running chainsaw, as the last surviving surgeon attempted to sever one of the arms, only to be severed by the other three. Shego dragged Drakken’s inert body out of the hallway and into a broom closet, while the mechanical arms drooped a little over the body of Otto Octavius, who was beginning to regain consciousness, with one arm taking a bandage that had been covering his eyes off his head. He opened his eyes and looked around, shocked to see where he had suddenly ended up and what was still attached to his body.

“NO!!!!!” He howled, as he got off the operation table and on his feet, while two of his mechanical arms cling to the floor beside his bare feet, leaving the others to slither around through the air. It was obvious that they were responding to his every move and his every emotion, as he staggered his way out of the emergency room. Shego noticed just that, watching Octavius move past the broom closet. She left the unconscious Drakken in there, before she followed after Octavius, who busted his way out through some double doors, with a lot of help from his mechanical arms.

Keeping a safe distance from him, Shego watched in surprise as Octavius crossed the street, at the same time a taxicab came his way. Before the cab driver even had the chance to step on his brakes, Octavius’s arms grabbed hold of the yellow, checkered vehicle and threw it high into the air, making it land on top of another parked taxicab. After seeing what his new robotic arms had done, Octavius was scared and felt like he needed to get away, especially before the police—their sirens already wailing from a distance—arrived. Shego wanted to follow after him, but knew that if she had left Drakken were he was, the police were sure to find him. So, instead, she went back into the hospital, got Drakken’s body, and fled the scene.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

The next day at the Daily Bugle, Peter arrived at work with Kermit, Fozzie, and Piggy joining him, all heading towards J. Jonah Jameson’s office for the same purpose: ask the boss for an advanced payment. They knew that they had a better chance at bringing Al Capone back from the dead. However, it didn’t hurt to at least ask, so they met up with Betty Brant, who graciously led them into the office, where Jameson had been discussing about the current situation involving Otto Octavius with none other than Robbie Robertson and the newest Bugle reporters (Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy).

“It’s all over town! Gossip! Rumors! Panic in the streets…if we’re lucky, that is.” Jameson said, looking out through one of the many windows in his larger than life office.

“Duh, why would we wanna be lucky about panic in tha streets?” Goofy asked, and Mickey elbowed him in the side, reminding him about lesson one in the rules of a journalist: never ask the publisher any questions. “Oh, right.”

“Crazy scientist turns himself into some kind of monster. Four mechanical arms welded right onto his body.” Jameson said, and he chuckled. “A guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs. What’re the odds?”

“It does sound kind of strange, chief.” Mickey said, and he suddenly got an idea from what he just said. “Hey! Maybe that’s what we should call him in the papers…Dr. Strange!”

“That’s good, mouse. I like it.” Jameson commented. “Only one problem: it’s taken.”

“Oh, yeah.” Mickey said in defeat.

“We need something good to call this guy.” Jameson uttered, and before he could shout the name of one Bugle employee named Hoffman, the man himself came into Jameson’s office, much to his surprise. “What’re we gonna call this fella?”

“Uh…Doctor Octopus?” Hoffman suggested.

“Eh…crap.”

“Science Wiz?”

“Crap.”

“Dr. Strange?”

“Mouse already thought of that one, and it’s taken!” It was quiet for a moment, as the characters in that room tried to think of a good name, until Goofy finally did.

“Uh, how ‘bout ‘Doc Ock’? Sort fer ‘Doctor Octopus’?” He suggested, and Hoffman was about to say something, until Jameson stepped in.

“I like it, Goof! Like it enough to give you a five percent raise in your salary!”

“A-hyuck! Hot dog!” Mickey and Donald shook their heads, neither having the heart to tell Goofy that it wasn’t very much. Jameson was pleased that he finally found a good name for the new villain in town, certain that it would make a big impact for the paper. He looked over at Hoffman, completely forgetting about the reason he called him in.

“What’re you doing here? Looking for a raise? Get out!” Jameson demanded, and Hoffman immediately left the room, just as Betty brought Peter, Kermit, Fozzie, and Piggy in. Kermit noticed Mickey in the room and felt a little edgy with the mouse in the room, while Fozzie and Piggy enjoyed his company, as well as that of Donald and Goofy.

“Hiya, guys.” Fozzie told them. “How’s it goin’?”

“We just thought of a new name fer that feller with tha arms.” Goofy remarked.

“Yeah, we’re calling him ‘Doc Ock’.” Mickey said. “Isn’t that neat, Kermit?” Kermit didn’t reply; he didn’t even realize the mouse had asked him a question.

“Kermie?” Piggy said in her peaceful tone. “Mickey just asked you a question. It isn’t nice to dawdle.” Kermit snapped out of his trance and finally gave an answer to Mickey.

“Oh, uh…yeah. It’s great, Mickey.” Kermit said.

“You bet it is, Frog!” Jameson exclaimed. “This is gonna be some story that the mouse, the duck, and the goofball will be covering.” Kermit nearly jumped—literally—in surprise over what Jameson had just said.

“The story they’re going to be covering?!” Kermit shouted, not even realizing that he was shouting. “Mr. Jameson, what about Fozzie and me?” Piggy cleared her throat, reminding her boyfriend of who else was on their team. “Oh, I’m sorry. What about Fozzie, Piggy, and me?”

“What about you three?” Jameson asked.

“We’re always the ones who cover the biggest stories for the Bugle.” Kermit stated. “Remember the Green Goblin?”

“Oh, come on, Frog. That was yesterday’s news…two-year-old news to be more exact.” Jameson indicated. “It’s time to live in the now, son! You’ve got a madman with mechanical arms running around now, at the same time you’ve got three of the biggest stars of Disney becoming brand spanking new Daily Bugle reporters. Do the math right, and you’ll know that all adds up very nicely!” Kermit couldn’t believe what he was hearing. While it was very depressing news to him, it was in fact great news to everyone else, including Mickey. But Mickey could see the disappointment in the frog’s face and felt bad for him.

“Uh, Mr. Jameson…” Mickey said, but the Bugle publisher didn’t give him the chance to finish his statement.

“Ah-ah! Thank me later, Mouse.” Jameson said. “Right now, I need your tail out on those streets, doing some serious investigating.” Mickey wasn’t going to thank Jameson, but instead declare that he handed the story over to Kermit, who deserved it more than him. However, Mickey suddenly remembered the number two lesson of being a journalist: never back down from an opportunity that was provided to you by the boss. “As for you, Frog, you’re going to help Parker, the pig, and the bear cover the Planetarium Party. What do any of you know about high society?” Peter was going to answer that question, but Piggy answered instead.

“Oh, come on.” Piggy said. “Who the heck do you think you’re talking to? Courtney Love?” Jameson gave another of his newest reporters an odd look.

“Huh?” He said, and Kermit quickly stepped in, before Jameson decided to fire Piggy on her first day on the job.

“What she means is that as Muppets, we know all about high society.” Kermit said.

“Good! Because my society reporters and their photographer all got hit in the head by polo balls and you four are all I’ve got.” Peter, Piggy, Fozzie, and Kermit found that a little hard to believe, but neither bothered to point that out to him. “There’s a big party for an American hero,” And Jameson said proudly after that, “My son—the astronaut!”

“Wow! Your son’s an astronaut?!” Fozzie asked.

“One of the best since Neil Armstrong!” Jameson replied.

“Did he ever get the chance to walk on the moon?” Donald asked.

“Walk on it? He probably played basketball on it!” Jameson said, and Goofy thought about the possibilities of that. He might’ve been dumb, but he knew a thing or two about psychics.

“Duh, wouldn’t that be a little impossible?” He asked, and Jameson grinned at him.

“You wanna talk about something possible? Turn to the kid that’s helping you out on your assignment.” Jameson said, just before he tossed a photo of Kim Possible over to Mickey, who smiled as he looked at it. When Peter noticed the picture of Kim, he recognized her from the other night, still wondering why she came after him the way she did.

“I still think you guys should’ve gotten me from my good side.” Someone said, and everyone turned their heads toward the doorway, seeing Kim herself standing there, with Ron and Rufus behind her. Peter’s eyes locked on with hers; the two of them pondering over things that were different yet similar in a way. “You must be Peter Parker.” As she shook Peter’s hand, he looked up and down at her, seeing how regular she looked when out of her crime-fighting gear. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Same here.” Peter said, as Kim looked up and down at him, noting how normal he looked when out of his Spidey costume.

“Possible, we were just talking about you.” Jameson said. “Happy to have you helping the Bugle on this ‘Doc Ock’ case.”

“Ah, yes. Otto Octavius’s accident.” Kim remarked, not taking her eyes off of Peter. “You know, I heard Spider-Man was there.” Peter’s eyes looked a little suspicious to Kim after she said that. But the photographer was able to keep his cool in front of her.

“Is that right?” He said.

“Yep. And I think I recall you being there as well, Mr. Parker.” Peter noticed how all the eyes were on him now, and he wondered what they were all thinking about him that moment.

“Well, I didn’t stick around long enough to see Spider-Man there,” Peter said, “But I did eventually hear about his good deed.” Silence had befallen over the room again, as Peter and Kim stare at one another, while Mickey and Kermit had done the same thing. Jameson looked at the four, wondering if some kind of showdown was happening, and broke the silence.

“Alright! Alright!” He shouted. “What is this? Paid programming? There’s a madman out there and my son’s getting a hero’s honor at the Planetarium tomorrow night at eight o’clock! Everybody get outta here and get me some stories for my paper! New York isn’t just gonna sit around and wait for the sun to come up, people. Let’s go!” On Jameson’s demand, the group began to move themselves out of his office. “Sheesh!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

When Drakken had regained his consciousness, Shego immediately alerted him of what had become of Otto Octavius. Drakken didn’t believe her at first. But when news about an eight-limbed madman started coming all over New York City, he had no other choice but to find Octavius and convince him to take over the city by his side. The mad “scientist” figured that if he couldn’t beat him for the mechanical arms, then he might as well join him.

After spending the entire morning searching all over Manhattan for Octavius in a hovercraft that Drakken designed (but didn’t make), Drakken was ready to give up. That was, until Shego reminded him of a mechanism built into the hovercraft that would enable them to track down any particular matter. Entering heat- and magnetic-resistance mechanical limbs into the hovercraft’s computer, Drakken and Shego were able to discover Octavius’s current location: an old, tilted building with stained glass windows on a wharf at the center of the Hudson River. It was there that they had found Octavius, looking down at a pool of shallow water that had filled up a section of the building’s interior and talking to himself.

“My Rosie’s dead…My dream is dead…” He then looked up at the mechanical arms attached to him. “And these monstrous things should be at the bottom of the river…along with me.” The mechanical arms seemed to have reacted to what Octavius had said, because they looked directly at them afterwards.

“They’re not monstrous, dear doctor.” Drakken said, and both Octavius and his mechanical arms turned to see him and Shego inside the worn-out building. “They are marvelous…no, not marvelous…they’re magnificent…no, not magnificent…Argh! Shego, help me out here!”

“Marvelous?” Shego uttered, while filing her gloved nails.

“Yes! Marvelous!” Drakken exclaimed, but Octavius wasn’t buying in to his compliments, because he was too distraught.

“I don’t know how you got in here, but you’re not welcomed!” Octavius shouted. “Now…GET OUT OF HERE!!!” Responding to his fury, the mechanical arms extended towards Drakken and Shego and snapped at them, causing Drakken to hide behind Shego.

“Shego, please say something to ease the good doctor’s nerves.” Drakken begged.

“Don’t think he’s so good anymore, Dr. D.” Shego said, just as she and Drakken noticed how Octavius was looking upwards, as if he was listening to another unseen party. “And I don’t think he’s all there anymore either.”

“Something…in my head…something talking.” Octavius uttered, and that’s when he realized what could’ve been the cause, “The inhibitor chip!!” He felt over the back of his neck and realized that the chip had been destroyed from the accident. “It’s gone.” He knew that everything seemed hopeless at that point, until one of the arms crept up to his ear and moved its claws around, looking as if it was whispering to Otto. “Rebuild? No.” The rest of his arms had gathered around him, while Drakken and Shego moved a little closer to him. “Peter was right. I miscalculated.”

“Who’s Peter?” Drakken whispered to Shego.

“Have no idea.” Octavius turned to Drakken and Shego, who both jumped, wanting to escape while they still had their skin intact. But their fear and interest in Octavius’s arms were what made them freeze in place.

“I couldn’t have miscalculated. It was working, wasn’t it?” Octavius asked them, and they both agreed with him by shaking their heads, with nervous smiles on their faces. “You two were there at the demonstration, only you both looked…different.” Octavius looked closely at Drakken and Shego, at first wanting them to leave, but then becoming increasingly interested in their reason for finding him. “Who are you people? What do you want from me?”

“We…uh…want to…help you.” Drakken stammered, but Octavius still wasn’t buying into his tricks.

“What can you possibly do to help me?” He asked, and Drakken tried to think of something to tell him but couldn’t. When Shego realized that, she stepped in and improvised.

“Those arms appear to be talking through your mind and telling you to do things that we can assist you in, such as rebuilding your machine.” Shego said, and Drakken, following her improvisation, stepped in and addressed Octavius.

“Yes! Let us help you, Dr. Octavius.” Drakken said. “We can provide the technology needed to recreate the fusion process and take over the…uh…I mean, get your good reputation back.” Octavius thought over their proposal and started to grin, signifying his admiration and already dreaming about regaining the life he once had.

“Yes! We can rebuild!” Octavius exclaimed, his arms carrying him high into the air, as they stomped across the wooden floor and around Drakken and Shego. “Enlarge the containment field! Make it bigger and stronger than ever!” The mechanical arms rested him back down on the floor, as he faced his new helpers: Dr. Drakken and Shego. “You say that you have the technology to help me rebuild. Can you bring it here?” Drakken wished he could have said “Yes.” However, due to several attempts at defeating Kim Possible, he was running short on the money needed to purchase useful parts.

“Uh…what’s in your wallet?” Drakken asked, and Shego & Octavius rolled their eyes, seeing how empty Drakken’s pockets were.

“We need the money.” Octavius said, just as another of his mechanical arms had “spoken” to him. “Steal it? No, no, no! I’m not a criminal!”

“But we are.” Drakken said, with a wicked smile. “Shego here has even taught others how to become experts in the art of criminality.”

“Though with those sweet mechanical arms of yours, you wouldn’t need my teaching, Doctor O.” Shego indicated, and Octavius turned to his mechanical arms again, listening to what they were telling him.

“That’s right.” Octavius said. “The real crime would be not to finish what we started.” Two of the mechanical arms planted themselves on the hard wooden floor, bringing Octavius back up in the air, while the other two mechanical arms slithered high above his head. “We’ll do it here! The power of the sun in the palm of my hand! Nothing will stand in our way!”

“Yes! Nothing!” Drakken shouted. “Not even Kim Possible…or Spider-Man.”

END OF CHAPTER FOUR​

 

[The Count]

Rully liking what's going on here and awaiting more.