Spider-man 2099UG #4A

Miguel O'Hara is caught upon a memory from not so many years ago. It was late, and Miguel and Xina were up doing what couples do in those wee hours of the morning. The video screen was on, and while channel surfing past raunchy videos and informathons, Miguel paused on a documentary on twencen "television".

"Hold on, what's this?" Xina stopped kissing Miggy in that ticklish spot just behind and below his ear to notice the vid discussing her favorite era of American history.

"I don't know, just some useless programming before the late, late showing of 'Buxom Androids from Andromeda'."

"Oh, good. I'll bet you'll want Lyla to record that, won't you?" A playful smile lit Xina's eyes as she attacked Miguel's ear lobe with her teeth. "I should have programmed her to be jealous and more discriminating with those recordings you--"

"Aw, jammit, Xina, you know I blanked out those things after I met you!" He reached over to kiss her, and slyly slipped his hand around her neck and down her...

"Hold that thought. This looks pretty good."

The documentary was discussing early commercials, an advertising gimmick that was banned after the government uncovered grand scale subliminization and hypnotism in order to persuade viewers to buy the product or service being shown. Now, pure advertising is strictly monitored and only done on certain stations at odd hours of the day. The documentary showed clips of old commercials, but one in particular caught his eye. This old woman, who looked like a real glitch in her old age, was sitting on the floor in her house. She didn't look comfortable. She then pressed a button on a small device hanging around her neck, which was apparently supposed to contact emergency personnel in times of crisis. It must have had two-way communication capability within it, because she spoke while depressing this button. In a nasty, or perhaps fearful, old woman's voice she stated, "I've fallen and I can't get up!"

The acting by this woman was just so poor that both Miguel and Xina burst out laughing. This was supposed to scare them into buying this device? Sure, they'd take it, just in case they hyperventilate from laughing too hard!

"I've fallen and I can't get up."

I've fallen and I can't get up.

Fallen. Falling.

Get up. Wake up.

The air rushes past his face, and it feels very cold, as if his skin were flushed or burned. His arms were very sore, and he had a hard time flexing his fingers. There was the coppery taste of dried blood in his mouth, and instinctively he spit it out. That's when Miguel O'Hara realized he was wearing a mask. That's when Miguel O'Hara realized he is still Spider-Man. That's when he remembers everything from the past 65-70 minutes. There's his odorous arch- nemesis, the Vulture, draped over him, unconscious. They are plummeting to New York, the old New York, Downtown. They are falling from what used to be Alchemax Tower, which is now nothing more than rubble and twisted metal, with a whole new ventilation system. They are falling, and unless Spider-Man does something about it, they will never get up.

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Interlude 1.

Somewhere, a fat man laughs.

End Interlude 1.

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Interlude 2.

"Where's Miguel? Where's my son?!?"

Conchata O'Hara is not to be confused with the rational intelligencia of modern society. Her maglev car has been running with one less magnet than most. She is quite a few cigarettes short of a pack. That's because she has smoked most of them.

"Calm down, Mrs. O'Hara," says SHIELD Captain Duncan, "we'll find Mr. O'Hara."

"If Spider-Man didn't make it out alive, how do you expect Miguel to?" She stared into the Captain's eyes, her lower eyelids and chin quivering as if she were ready to cry. She bursts out laughing. She slumps to the ground in front of the harmonic barrier between her and what's remains of Alchemax, laughing. The Captain looks down on her, shakes his head, and gets on his communicator to ask for assistance from Wellvale Hospital.

Still laughing, Conchata looks up at the rubble, and sees some rocks shift. Conchata has stopped laughing. "Miguel?"

End Interlude 2 (to be continued in MORBIUS 2099 #5).

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Interlude 3.

Gabriel O'Hara is in search of answers. He desperately seeks answers to questions that trouble his very soul. He has not been seen by nor heard from his family in several weeks.

That's not true: he's seen Spider-Man a few times since he let Venom kill Dana D'Angelo. Damn him.

Gabe has wandered through Downtown looking for someone to talk to. He is somewhat afraid of going back into the 'Net ever since Discord nearly scattered his archetype data to the ends of cyberspace. He has tried to locate Kasey Nash, but she has not been at her usual hangouts with the Throwbacks. Who needs her, anyway? Ever since Spider-Man came on the scene, that was all she ever talked about, and she really only gave him any attention when she thought he was Spider-Man. There's a good one. Gabriel O'Hara, the amazing Spider-Man of 2099! No, that honor was given to his brother. Seems like life took a nosedive ever since then.

Gabriel now finds himself at the last bastion of his hope and salvation. How appropriate is it that Father Jennifer D'Angelo could be the one who can clear his troubled mind?

"Father?"

No response.

"Jennifer? Jenny? It's me, Gabe. I want to talk to you."

Nothing.

"Yeah. Whatever. To Hel with it all."

Gabriel walks up to the altar, steps behind the dais, turns, looks at the depressing emptiness of the church, raises his hands and shouts, "To Hel with you all! Thor, or whatever god graces this holy ground by deigning to flatulate in this direction--to Hel with you!"

His voice echoes well through the hall. No one cares.

"Yeah. Might as well plug in and be done with it."

Disheveled, in need of a bath and a good meal, and most of all in need of a friend, Gabriel O'Hara leaves St. Patrick's; he's coming home.

End Interlude 3?

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Interlude Last.

Somewhere, a fat man laughs harder.

End Interlude Last

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"Come on, Vulch, wake up!" Spider-Man screams at the Vulture as they continue to plummet. The Vulture does nothing but continue to fall. "You know something? This is just another reason why I'm not inviting you to my funeral."

Having taken this trip before, Spider-Man knows his own web-foils are not going to be enough to help him. He's pretty sure there's not going to be any Thorite hanggliding to fall into, but he has the next best thing. He grabs the Vulture and rolls himself on top of his counterpart.

"This vid's corrupted."

With each hand, he grabs the Vulture by the wrists. He spreads the Vulture's wings out and tries to glide down to the ground. They still have a way to go, and using the Vulture as a marionette is exhausting to the already battle- fatigued Spider-Man. Nevertheless, it's working; their descent is slowing just a little, and at least Spider-Man has control.

"Tk, tk, tk, look at you two! You're lucky the Vulture is unconscious, or he might be upset that you mounted him like that. He doesn't like when his prey takes him for a ride."

Spider-Man almost ignores the words spoken next to him. He's fought Halloween Jack, Thanatos, Morbius, the Specialists, and the Vulture already this morning. How can it possibly get any worse? That couldn't be someone else coming to pick a fight with him, could it?

Spider-Man made his first mistake of the day by answering the videophone this morning. He makes his second mistake by looking over his shoulder just to see if there actually is someone there.

The Goblin smiles back. "Boo!"

Miguel has gone from top of the world to Downtown in an hour. There's just not much left now. There's pride, there's disbelief, but all that matters right now is anger.

"Shock you! Who the Hel are you, anyway? You attacked me out of nowhere, claiming that I was corrupting Downtown! You claimed I was just a corporate stooge for Alchemax and even Hikaru at Stark/Fujikawa! Well, let me tell you something, Goblin, I don't know how you know so much about me--why, I'm sure you probably know my secret identity like almost all of my enemies are learning this morning, but I am not the heavy for a Machiavellian megacorp! O'Hara and I were trying to change things, and that meant helping Downtown! How dare you accuse me of turning my back on the people! I put my life on the line every single day when I put this mask on! I'm cleaning up this city, uptown and downtown, of trash like the Vulture and YOU!"

With that, Spider-Man leaps from the Vulture's back, finding yet another untapped reservoir of energy. The Goblin, taken off guard, tries to put up his hands to blind Spider-Man with his finger blasters. Spider-Man, having felt those blasts and their hallucinatory effects before (see SM2099 #40) grabs his hands.

"Oh, no! Not again! One Goblin is plenty, in fact, I think you are one too many!"

Fighting back the pain and fatigue, Spider-Man wrenches the Goblin's arms back and gives the Goblin a bear hug using all the strength he can muster. The Goblin was completely caught off guard, not ready for this attack. He came here to tease this man and was not completely ready to go to war. Beginning to black out from the pressure, the Goblin...whistles?

"What's that for? Goblin, you really do scare me!"

Suddenly, with the force of a small battering ram, Spider-Man feels something slam into the small of his back. The unexpected blow causes Spider-Man to release his grip, allowing the Goblin to fly away. Getting his bearings once more, Spider-Man looks to find the Goblin flying to and then standing on a strange hovering platform in the shape of a giant bat.

"Spider-Man, I don't know what that was all about, but I swear you'll pay for that and all you've done to me and to this city, my city, and my people who you've beguiled into believing you were the savior and harbinger of better things to come."

The Goblin, still hurting from this small portion of Spider-Man's rage, flies off on his new glider, stopping to pick up the Vulture, who still seems to be knocked out cold. Spider-Man watches as they fly down to land somewhere beyond his vision's range.

**Okay, I'm back where I started**, thinks Miguel. **At least I don't have that putrid-smelling Vulture nauseating me. But now I'm without his wings.**

By now, Spider-Man has about ten seconds before he hits the ground. He thinks about shooting out a web line, but his wrists are still in pain, and the flexing of his arms just wakes him up more to his impending death. **Aw shock it, what else do I have left? Maybe I should just let--**

A rush of air, and all Spider-Man knows is that he has stopped falling, and is now just drifting down to Earth.

"Wow! Who thought I would have come all the way down to New York City to find Alchemax already in ruins and the great transnat savior Spider-Man falling to his death?"

**Another one?** Spider-Man, held by his arms by this new player, swings up, delivering a nasty kick to the face of Northstar 2099. He lets go, and Spider- Man falls, ungracefully but still alive, to the ground. "You ungrateful--! What was that for? Shock you, eh?" Northstar leaves Spider-Man on the ground and flies back Uptown, back to his mission.

Spider-Man, in a lot of pain and maybe not quite so thankful that he is alive, takes the opportunity to enjoy the quiet and rest.

"Okay, buddy, don't move."

Spider-Man looks up and sees a big white skull emblem behind a very big gun.

"Don't worry."

Spider-Man sighs and slumps back to the ground.

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Epilogue:

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

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End Spider-Man 2099 UG #4, part A. To be continued in PUNISHER 2099 #9