The Ultimate Spider-Bat

A menacing tower over looks much of NYC. Inside the building, a man peered out the window and turned to his desk and sat. Norman Osborn, dressed in a dark green suit tapped his finger on the desk reading over the latest headlines on his holographic computer screen:

           Third Black Market Broken-up by Batman

He mumbled with much sarcasm to himself, "Of course, flash around my logo on the crates. Not a good PR day. Who is this Batman?  It seems Gotham City knows more than I do about him."

A beeping noise grabbed his attention. He slammed his finger onto the button stopping the noise. The voice of a fellow person spoke through the speakers imbedded in his desk. "It's Otto."

"I hope the results are progressing. What stage is the formula?" He rubbed his chin.

"The final stages. I need to make a few more adjustments. I would be done sooner, but let's just say something I had hoped to obtain was confiscated by those in power."

"No more excuses, Otto. I might not like the news, but there are ways to fix it."

"Would you like to examine the formula for yourself? I have no problem working it out."

He rubbed his chin and then faced the speaker. "There are still other fruit markets out there. See to it that you find them…and yes, I'll see the formula."

Otto peered at a vial as he walked near the speaker on the wall.

"I do get frustrated by meaningless work that takes away from the project."

"And what is that?"

"Something a lab assistant could handle."

Norman smiled. "Why, that's a great idea. It will also boost Oscorp's image of 'contributing' to society. I'm so glad this is working out just great. I'll have my secretary send out the proposal."

"I would prefer an adept, gifted, worker. I can't have clumsy personal making a mistake with cleaning up equipment with the wrong solution. They could learn from us. A protégé."

"If that satisfies your ego to have someone emulate you, then I'll sure to have that happen."

"We do have to deal with a certain mammal problem slowing down the project."

The smile disappeared from his face. "It's nothing I can't handle. Good bye for now."


Meanwhile, Peter Parker peered out of his locker until the bell rang. He kicked the door open and fell out onto the ground. Cuts and bruises marred his body as various students laughed at him. He stood up tall, grabbed his books from the locker and continued on.

Flash. Just wonderful.

"Peter!" Mary Jane called.

He turned from her heading into his physics class.

"It's Flash," Liz said.

She sighed and went to her art class.

The substitute Mr. Tony Jefferson, a tall black man with a white mustache wrote on the interactive smartboard with a special stylist pen.  His yellow sleeve brushed against the board as he fixed the mistake as the students piled into class. Peter came in just as the late bell rang.

He cleared his throat. "As you know the science fieldtrip is tomorrow. I want everyone to create a blog review of what was disused. The class blog  report has to be in a week from the event. Make sure you send it to the school's site before 10 PM that night."

Mr. Jefferson pointed to the board indicating the schedule of topics to talk about in class.

"I have good news. The Oscorp corporation is looking for high school interns to help out a few hours of the week at the laboratory. This could be an opportunity to continue their aspirations even into college. You'll get a few college credits."


Great!

"Any students who wish to be part of this opportunity, talk to me after class."

Peter gladly accepted the part to be helping in the labs. The fieldtrip to the main laboratory soon arrived as the class entered the dazzling laboratory. Bright lights filled the ceilings, as scientists tinkered away on various projects.

A strange man wearing a purple hat, long matching trench coat entered. He pulled the collar to hide his pale face and pointy nose. He weaved in and out and around pillars holding the building. A strand of bright green hair poked out from his odd disguise.  He tried to hide his lipstick marks on his face. The man snuck in the group, and out another door to a meeting room off to the right of the main laboratory. The massive oak table and black leather seats were occupied by two other people-Otto and Norman Osborn.

"Welcome Mr. Joker," Norman stated as he took a seat. "All this cloak-and-dagger can be exhausting. I'm glad to be here."

"Really? It's a shame. How do you know of this Batman?"

"Oh, him," he folded his hands into a temple, "we go way back."

"So, who is he?"

"A man. He has to have a powerful business backer. I don't know how he affords all his bat toys. The man is some hero for the city. I am interested in your specialized toys."

Norman leaned closer. "You tell me about what you know about your toxins and Batman, and I'll give you whatever type of weaponry you want."

He squealed, "Oh, goodie! It's a deal," he put out his hand.

The Joker smirked, and took his hand as electricity went through his body.

Otto stood horrified and then slammed his fist on the table. "What is this!"

"Oh, please, it's just a little gag! He'll be fine. It's only a tickle."

Norman pulled his sleeve and yanked him closer over the table. "Look, you little clown, I don't mind all the jokes you have for other clients, but do not do that again!"

He pushed him back as The Joker laughed and tucked in his tie. "Alright party-pooper."


Norman and the other two men left the meeting as Otto watched as the selected students took the exams on their knowledge of a laboratory and proper protocol to care for it. He stood outside the room across from the lab as the text examiner posted the correct answers on a large board. Several of the students left after failing. The ridged test eliminated anyone with one question wrong. Parker was the last one in the room. The nondescript test-giver told him to wait in the room as he left.

Norman, and Otto walked into the room as Peter turned his head half-way to the left to see them enter the room. Smiles were pasted on their faces. The Joker waited last fiddling with a small flower on his suit that stuck out from the trench coat.


"Well, congratulations, Mr. Parker on becoming our new lab assistant."

He smiled. "Thank you! I'm so honored to be part of this great company."

Peter stood and shook their hands, as the Joker hid back near the doorway.

Otto smirked. "Yes, it is a great opportunity. You must not deviate from the instructions in the lab. I don't want any mistakes on his project."

"No, Sir."

"How about, after school, say 4 PM, until 6?"

"Absolutely!"


Time seemed to rush for Peter as he did what Otto instructed as Norman  and Otto tinkered with the formula and injected it into a gas chamber  that sprayed the spiders in the large tank. The creatures scuttled up their webs, as other ones seemed to seize up. The Joker watched and took notes-or so they thought- on the notepad were really drawings of Batman getting a pie to his face. He smirked as Norman looked over the process.

"I'll be in my office," he said and then walked out of the room.

Otto delighted in seeing the results on the screen.

Peter stopped cleaning the test tubes to look over at the tank as the lights glowed red above on to the arachnids. He moved closer to seeing the new project.

"You like?"

"Of course. I see you're using the double chambered gas to deliver the solution."

"That's only one part of it. It's environmental in one part the other is how they are breed. The genetic structure has to be bombarded with the catalyst. As you can tell it's working."

"Impressive."

"Are those tubes done?"

"Oh, I just finished this one," he placed it back into the cupboard. The cleaning material is all placed back where it should be as well as the other tasks."

Beeping came from the side of the wall as Otto pressed the button. "Yes?"

"I need to talk to you immediately."

"I'm not quite finished."

"Otto."

"Really, Norman, the public view can wait to see this discovery. I'll be there." He turned to Peter. "Don't touch anything in this lab. I'll sign the form verifying you were here. Grab your items. You can leave for the evening."

Octavius grabbed the paper work on the table near the table, pulled a pen from his labcoat and signed on the paper as witness for him attending the full amount of hours. He gave Peter an odd look and left the room.

"Sure."

The Joker, left after Otto. He then stopped following him, touched his chin with his finger, and then headed back to the lab. A rhythm filled each step. Soon, a small purple vial was in his hands as he snuck into the room.

Peter walked closer to the tank admiring the spiders. He grabbed his backpack a The Joker tried to act nonchalant as he reached the tank.

The man looked back at Peter, and then the tank as Parker grabbed his bag and left.

"Heheh, how about a little bit of Bat DNA. Maybe you will be Bat-seeking spiders!"

He pulled off the section to the gas chamber, and poured the liquid in. He pressed another button as it didn't respond. "Funny." The screen stated to recheck the tank. The Joker tugged at the top of the tank and clicked the edges into places, but forgetting one edge to the right.

"Let's hurry up this bakery." He turned the nob to the highest extend as the gas sprayed the spiders. An alarm on the machine went off as The Joker's face contorted. "Uh oh." He ran out of the room and past Peter, who hurried back into the room.

"My paper! I can't be late again. Uncle Ben will make me organize his records or something. Aunt May will probably have me scrub the floors." He saw the room fill with smoke as he grabbed the paper, something on it sunk its teeth into his hand. "Oww!"

The paper fluttered to the floor as he picked it up shoved it into his backpack and ran out of the room and looked around for Otto. He called out their names. Only security guards ran to the situations. The beefy guards scolded Peter and told him to leave and so he did.