Peter wasn’t sure what he was doing there in the holodeck with a group of bowling Cadets, but they were tapped into the Starfleet news channel, and suddenly a story about Spider-Man was on.
But what could they possibly have to say about…? Peter was stunned, but did his best to hide it. Admiral Jameson was speaking.
“By now a large number of Starfleet personnel and even civilians have heard of Spider-Man. But no one knows his true identity or his real motives! And that is what this program intends to investigate! My name is Admiral J. Jonah Jameson, publisher of ‘NOW Magazine’ and ‘The Daily Bugle’! I am sponsoring this program in the public interest, to expose Spider-Man to the public as the menace he is!”
“Look at the Admiral, sponsoring his own program just to attack Spider-Man. Unbelievable,” Wesley remarked.
“I say that Spider-Man belongs behind bars!” The program continued, now in the background.
“Aw, Jameson’s not so dumb!” someone else retorted. “He’s just getting good publicity for his publications.”
“Yeah!” Flash Thompson spoke up with enthusiasm. “Personally, I think Spider-Man’s great!”
I can’t say anything to make them suspect me, Peter thought, I’ll talk against Spider-Man.
“You can’t tell. Jameson might be right. Nobody really knows Spider-Man.”
“Yeah, well, it’s obvious that you don’t, ya wimp,” Flash snapped. “You’d probably faint if you ever caught sight of him.”
“I would too…” Liz put in, “…from sheer excitement! I’ll bet he’s really handsome under that mask of his,” She sighed with adoration.
“G’wan, Parker, get lost!” Flash held up his hand aggressively. “You’re in the wrong place anyway! This is a holodeck, not a knitting parlor!”
That’s it, Flash, keep it up. One of these days you’ll go too far, and you’ll never know what hit you. There’s even a limit to Spider-Man’s patience.
The broadcast was also picked up in Latverian space, where an armored monarch known as Doctor Doom listened with interest.
“Spider-Man?! Hmm…he may be just the one I’ve been seeking! Each time I attacked the Fantastic Four in the past, they have fought me to a standstill! Alone, I do not seem able to defeat them! But with one such as Spider-Man at my side, even that accursed quartet would not be able to save themselves from my wrath! Ordinary men tremble at the mention of my name! The entire civilized world fears the menace of Doctor Doom! And yet, in one respect, I have been foiled time and time again! No matter how perfectly I lay my plans, the Fantastic Four have always managed to frustrate me! I still remember our last parting…I leapt out of the shuttle as it gained the upper atmosphere and plummeted down toward oblivion…but once under cover of the clouds, the jet-powered flying belt I wore enabled me to glide to safety…to repair to a new lair where I could lick my wounds like a vanquished beast! But now, that is all behind me. Now it’s time to strike again!”
He meandered through his castle until he entered a shuttle where a spider was contained within a glass orb attached to an electronic device.
“With the aid of that imprisoned spider, I will transmit a message to Spider-Man using his own wavelength!”
In some strange way, he has the sensory powers of a spider…and so it was a simple matter for one of my genius to create this spider-wave transmitter!
Doctor Doom set a course for the Enterprise’s last known position and prepared himself for the attack. Once he was within range, he teleported himself into a hidden compartment aboard the ship, and…
“Calling Spider-Man! Calling Spider-Man! I must contact you at once!”
Meanwhile, in his quarters, Peter Parker practiced his agility with his web in privacy. He was taken off-guard, however, when a voice shouted in his head.
“Calling Spider-Man! Calling Spider-Man!”
“I can sense a message! Someone is trying to reach me! Who can it be? Who could have figured out a way to reach me through my spider-sense? Well, there’s only one way to find out!”
Peter donned his mask and set out via the Jeffries tubes, more wary than ever with Captain Picard out for blood. He had to find out what was going on.
It’s a simple matter for me to follow the sensory impulses to their source! It’s great to be getting back into action again!
But he would not have been quite so enthusiastic if he knew who was waiting for him at his ultimate destination.
“It should be child’s play for me to persuade Spider-Man to join me against the Fantastic Four!” Doom mused as he waited.
A moment later, Spider-Man crawled into the compartment along the ceiling. It was a tight enclosure; there would not be much room to maneuver.
“So it was you who tried to contact me, Doom?! It would have had to be someone with your talent, but why?”
“Ah, Spider-Man! Is it necessary for you to make your entrance quite so dramatic, my impetuous friend?”
Spider-Man dropped from the ceiling into a standing position. “Mister, from what I’ve read about you, you haven’t got any friends…impetuous or otherwise!”
“Friendship is for weaklings! What I offer you is power! Together we could rule the world! You’re an outcast, the same as I! You dare not reveal your true identity! And yet, right under your nose, the Fantastic Four bask in the limelight, while you are shunned and hunted!”
I’ll appeal to his sense of envy…of pride! Then, once he has served his purpose, I’ll destroy him without a second thought!
At that, Spider-Man had to stop and stroke his chin…through his mask. “Me team up with you, huh? Man, wouldn’t that be crazy? Jonah Jameson would really have something to howl about then!”
Doom put his hands on his hips. “Ah, so you will do it! Speak! Give me your word!”
“Not so fast, tin-head! Sure, it’s an amusing thought to kick around, but just between us, I need you like I need another nose! The answer is no, buddy!”
“I warn you…if you are not with me, then we are deadly foes!”
“Doc, you’re scarin’ me out of my mind! Here, chew on this hunk of web for a while!” He covered Doom in webbing from his wrist-shooters. “That’ll keep you under wraps while I figure out what to do with you! Hey…how come you’re so quiet? So still? Cat got your tongue?”
A voice from behind caught him off-guard.
“You brazen fool! Haven’t you guessed yet?”
Another Doom was standing behind him.
“It wasn’t you at all! Just a robot…a dummy made up to resemble the real Doctor Doom!”
“Naturally! You are not fighting one of your usual insipid antagonists now, Spider-Man! Doctor Doom cannot be so easily trapped!”
Spider-Man lunged and swung at Doom, and in such cramped quarters, Doom was lucky to dodge the blow, which dented the bulkhead behind him. The robot then grabbed Spider-Man from behind and flung him into an adjoining bulkhead. Spider-Man immediately whipped around and backhanded it, sending it staggering backward. Then the real Doom pointed his finger at Spider-Man.
“I am not entirely without weapons of my own…such as this most effective miniature finger-gun!” Doom told him while an energy beam erupted from the fingertip of his gauntlet.
“Nice try, rattle-trap, but I saw that coming seconds ago!” Spider-Man teased as he leapt clear, sticking to the top of a crawlway at the top of the chamber and pulling himself in.
He escaped me! Well, I’ll let him go for now! But he shall still serve my purpose…only, in a way he cannot possibly suspect!
“NO PICTURES?!” Admiral J. Jonah Jameson raged from the screen at the back of the bridge. Betty Brant visibly winced, and looked from Jameson up at Peter with sympathy. “Parker, I will pay you if and when you get me something other than an excuse! The security officer on duty clearly picked up weapons fire on the ship, and detected movement within the Jeffries tubes. Spider-Man was no doubt involved--and where he is, I want you to be!”
“I don’t know, Mr. Jameson,” Peter began, tentatively, “People are beginning to say you attack him too much! They’re beginning to wonder what your real motives are!”
That’s when Betty Brant piped up. “I think Parker is right, sir. I’ve heard some of our officers mention that they think you’re jealous of Spider-Man for some reason!”
Well, well! Peter thought. I never knew I had an ally in J.J.’s liason! And I never realized how pretty Betty Brant was…’til now!
“That’s enough! I’m still the ranking officer here, and I’ll decide our policy! I have only one real motive…to make money! The more I attack Spider-Man, the more people read my papers! It’s to our advantage to keep pounding away at that corny costumed clown! Everybody is interested in him…whether they agree with me or not doesn’t matter…Spider-Man sells papers! Understand??”
I sure do, you big, blustering phony!
A short time later, in the holodeck bowling alley…
“This’ll be one for the records!” one of the girls exclaimed.
“Poor Peter! He’ll never get over it!” added a giggling Liz Allen.
Flash Thompson stood before them in an authentic replica of Spider-Man’s costume, carelessly making muscles and chuckling his head off.
“Where is Peter Parker!” he asked the crowd around him. “I want him. Bring him to me!” Then he took off the mask. “Well, how did I look? Will Puny Parker fall for it?”
“Like a ton of bricks, Flash!” said one of his buddies. “You’re a genius!”
“The gals did a great job on this costume,” Flash told the crowd. “This’ll teach our bookworm buddy to knock Spider-Man!”
As the web of fate drew tighter, Doctor Doom continued to work as his ship paced the Enterprise.
“There! I’ve devised an instrument which will react to a spider’s impulses the way a geiger counter reacts to uranium! All I need to do is scour the ship until the device registers positive, and I will have found Spider-Man’s real identity! But how to hide among the crew…?”
When one is a master of science, as I am, there is nothing which cannot be accomplished! Sooner or later, I shall eliminate all those who dare oppose me!
But on the bridge, something on the security monitor grabbed Tasha Yar’s attention.
“Captain, there’s something pacing the ship…” she rigorously operated her keypad.
Picard’s interest was immediately spiked. “What is it, Lieutenant?”
“It’s…I can’t believe I didn’t notice this before, sir.” She shook her head. “It’s a cloaked ship, but the cloaking technology is fairly primitive. I’d say…Latverian.”
There was gravity in Picard’s body language as he stood up, and Commander Riker looked at him with concern.
“Hail the vessel,” Picard ordered.
Yar tried. “No response, sir.”
Picard walked toward the viewscreen, although he knew a visual would not be possible. Who was pacing them? What did they want?
“There’s Parker now!” one Cadet said. “We’ve got to tell Flash!”
Two of them saw him coming from around the corner and scrambled around to the other side of the deck, where Flash waited inside a cramped Jeffries Tube in costume.
“Betcha he’ll jump clean out of his skin when he sees ‘Spider-Man’! This’ll be the greatest gag of the century!”
Someone else passed very close by, however, wearing a holographic disguise to blend in as a crewman. Ahh! My device is beginning to register! I am nearing my prey!
Flash’s buddies came running up to him, unable to suppress their light-year-wide grins.
“Flash, hurry! Parker’s walking by on the other side of the deck!”
“Okay!” Flash replied, replete in a Spider-Man costume, but not yet wearing the mask. “Everything’s set! You guys hide somewhere and watch the free show!”
Flash then charged around a couple corners and hid ahead of Peter, then donned the mask and waited. “Parker’ll be the laughing-stock of the ship when I’m through with him! If he’s too scared to fight, this is one way to show him what we think of him!”
“All stop,” Captain Picard ordered.
“All stop, sir,” reported Geordi at ops.
Picard then turned to Yar.
“It’s stopped with us, sir,” she told him.
Picard stared back out at the starfield, then turned to Commander Riker, who met his eyes with concern.
“Latverians don’t have a reputation for doing stupid things,” Riker commented. “If we detected this ship, chances are it wasn’t an accident.”
Picard nodded. “One would think they would respond to our hails, then, and tell us what they want.”
Doctor Doom zeroed in on Spider-Man. “There he is! Strange, he’s wearing his costume in the middle of a ship’s corridor! Well, no matter! Within seconds, he’ll be my helpless prisoner!” Doom moved in.
It’s time to show myself to Parker now, and…
Flash turned when he heard heavy, booted feet approaching. “Hey, wha…? What’s this? What’s goin’ on?!”
“Open hailing frequencies,” Picard ordered.
“Hailing frequencies open, sir,” Yar reported.
“Latverian vessel! I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation starship Enterprise! You are in violation of our space, and you are following us under cloak, which could be considered an act of war! Reveal yourself and your intentions, or I will have no choice but to consider you a threat to the safety of my ship and crew!”
He’s seen me! Doom thought as he closed on his prey. But it’s too late for him to stop me! I’ve planned this coup too carefully! And as Peter Parker, the real Spider-Man, walked calmly by, wrapped in his own deep thoughts, One burst of this fast-acting sleeping gas will do the trick silently! And after another moment, Done! Now, all that remains is to carry him back to the ship! It was even simpler than I expected! Strange that he should have been so easy to trap. Perhaps Spider-Man possesses less super powers than people think…
Meanwhile, as Flash’s friends watched Peter walk nonchalantly by…
“I don’t get it! What’s Flash waitin’ for?”
“Parker’ll be gone in another few seconds!”
“Maybe something went wrong! Maybe Flash’s costume tore or something. Gee! What a disappointment!”
Minutes later, after Peter reached his quarters, he switched on subspace and called his Aunt May to talk.
“Hi, Aunt May! How’s life back home?”
May smiled. “There isn’t much to talk about, Peter, dear, but then again, that’s a good thing these days.”
“I’ll say. Have you at least been catching the latest from Starfleet Entertainment?”
“I was just watching that hilarious--”
Suddenly Peter’s screen was bathed in interference. “What’s wrong with my screen? It’s been working like new since I got on board…”
…and then the mask of Doctor Doom appeared on it.
“This is Doctor Doom. I have resorted to this drastic means to communicate with the Fantastic Four. I have a message of grave importance for them!”
Riker’s eyes twinkled with the promise of excitement, but the concern never left them as he turned from the screen to regard Picard once again. “Not exactly the answer we wanted…”
Doom, still transmitting only one-way, continued. “As you can see, I hold Spider-Man a helpless captive!” His screen panned to show Spider-Man restrained somehow in the background. “Unless the Fantastic Four promise to disband and surrender to me, one at a time, Spider-Man will forfeit his life! I will wait exactly one hour for a reply!”
Peter’s communication with his Aunt was cut. I’ll have to contact her again later. This is serious! I don’t get it--who was that joker in the Spider-Man outfit? What’s it all about? Is it some kind of trick?
Just then, he received a communication from Liz and put it on-screen. “Peter, something terrible has happened! Flash Thompson is missing! He--he had dressed in a Spider-Man costume last night to…play a joke on somebody…”
Aha! I can guess who that somebody was! So that’s who Doctor Doom is holding prisoner--my loudmouthed, bullying classmate!
“Sorry, Liz, nothing I can do about it. Flash doesn’t exactly head my list of favorite people, remember?” He cut the communication.
What a break for me! The FF will never agree to Doom’s terms, so all I have to do is keep out of it, and Flash Thompson will never bother Peter Parker again! Things are finally going my way!
Aww!! What am I thinking?! Who am I kidding?!! I can no more sit back and let any harm come to Flash than I could swim to the moon! The real Spider-Man will have to go into action again!
As Spider-Man exited his quarters into the Jeffries Tubes, he decided to give his equipment a once-over. First the web-fluid in his cartridges, then the flashlight on his belt.
“That’s it! Now for Doctor Doom!”
But things were going quite differently in the Captain’s ready room…
“Hail him and tell him what, Number One? Spider-Man isn’t one of ours as far as I can tell, and if he is, I can’t prove it! Better to be rid of the nuisance anyway, as far as I’m concerned.”
“Sir, that may make sense on the surface, but we can’t just sit over here and let Doom kill him. What I don’t get is why he’s giving the Fantastic Four the ultimatum. Are they connected to Spider-Man?”
Picard shook his head. “You’re correct, of course, Number One. I wish I could sit here and allow Spider-Man to die at the hands of Doom, but I find I cannot. Perhaps we can find a peaceful solution to all of this.”
Lieutenant Yar’s voice came through Picard’s combadge.
“Sir, the Latverian vessel is moving off.”
As Picard stood and strode to the door, Riker in his wake, he replied, “Follow it, don’t let it get away!”
At that very moment, at the famous Starbase home of the Fantastic Four…
“We don’t have much more time, Reed! What are we going to do?”
“Well, Sue, we certainly can’t let any harm come to Spider-Man if we can help it.”
“Blasted amateurs, always gummin’ up the works!”
“Since when did you get superhero union card, Thing, ol’ pal?”
“In order to break in on all the comm. frequencies, Doom needed a ton of power. Like engineering? Or his own ship.” Spider-Man racked his brain as he crawled through the ship looking for his enemy. When he passed over engineering and his spider-sense wasn’t triggered, he began to wonder if he would find Doom at all.
“I’ll have to run a scan of the interior and exterior of the ship, or else maybe I can hack the navigation and security feeds…” He set to work at a console deep in the bowels of the ship, while…
“We’re getting a hail, Captain,” Yar called out.
“On screen,” said Picard, now seated in his command chair.
Doctor Doom appeared, seated imperiously in a command chair of his own, hands gripping the ornate arms and head raised, his posture reflecting perfect poise.
“Who dares to follow Doom?”
“I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the starship Enterprise.”
“I listened to your message from before, Picard. I know your name and the name of your ship. Your reputation precedes you as well. But what is your business in pursuing my vessel? I warn you that it is a mistake, and I demand that you break off at once.”
“I cannot do that, Doom. You have someone on board your vessel whom you have kidnapped from mine, and I cannot allow you to keep him prisoner.” As Picard spoke, the sincerity crept from his eyes, but he continued to deliver his declaration with iron in his voice.
“Spider-Man? I know of his reputation as well, and I also know there is no love on board your vessel or, indeed within the Federation, for Spider-Man.”
“Doom, I will not say it again. Lieutenant Yar, arm phaser banks and photon torpedoes.”
“You will not fire upon me! I am sovereign of Latveria!”
“I do not recognize your sovereignty in light of these circumstances. You have lowered yourself into the position of a base hostage-taker, and you will be treated like one.”
“Then you leave me no choice, Captain Picard.”
Doom severed the connection.
Tasha Yar spoke up with excitement. “He’s arming some kind of weapon!”
“Shields up, fire phasers!”
“Sir, we’re at warp,” Riker warned.
“Do it!”
“He’s dropping out of warp,” Yar said.
“All stop!” Picard commanded.
The Enterprise stopped, but Yar then told them, “I’ve lost him.”
Picard had gotten to his feet during the action, and now all he could do was shake his fist at his side and pace back to his seat. “Find him, Lieutenant.”
But while this was going on, Spider-Man had found a way to beam himself over to Doom’s ship, and he was now prepared to confront Doctor Doom. He approached by walking along the ceiling and then shone his belt-light on the unsuspecting target.
“Spider-Man! But you’re my prisoner inside! How…?”
“Correction, Doc! I’m the real Spider-Man! You just captured a fake!”
“If that’s so, then you are a fool to place yourself in jeopardy again. This time I shall not allow you to escape!” He fired an energy beam from the fingertip of one of his gauntlets, which Spider-Man easily jumped clear of.
“Funny! I was thinking the same thing about you! Nothing like a quickly-build web column to ask as a life-saving shield!” Spider-Man whipped up a protective shield of webbing to keep Doom’s blasts from hitting him. “And now while I’m all comfy and cozy back here, I’ll just spin myself a little weapon of my own! Here we are! Hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long, rustpot, but it takes a few seconds to make a web ball filled with web-fluid!”
Spider-Man neutralized Doom’s finger-blaster with a well-aimed ball of webbing, but Doom himself was far from neutralized. When he turned to run, Spider-Man flung an entire spread of them. They seemed to do little good against a man in a suit of metallic armor.
Uh-oh! I sense danger above me! He’s trying to lead me into a trap! Better build another shield for myself…fast! Just in time! That falling liquid is turning into ice on contact! It might have frozen me solid!
Spider-Man pursued Doom deeper. “Ready to talk turkey yet, Doom?”
“On the contrary, Spider-Man! I want to thank you for acting as a guinea pig for me! I’ve been wanting to test out this little device for days now!”
“Iron globes, revolving at great speed around a magnetic core! You sure have some interesting hobbies, Doc!”
“More interesting than you suspect, braggart! You’ll find your web cannot stop the irresistible motion of my little playthings! They are far too powerful!”
They’re whirling faster and faster! Can’t dodge ‘em much longer! Only one chance…I’ll dive under them and shoot my web to the base of the spinning machine! It worked! It jammed up the mechanism! The balls are dropping--their power source no longer propelling them!
Then he jumped.
Oh, for the--now he’s got liquid heat shootin’ up from the floor! I’d sure feel sorry for anybody who had to fight that walking rattle trap…if they didn’t have the powers of a Spider-Man!
But…
“The steel section of flooring I landed on…you’ve got it electrified!”
He’s increasing the current! Can’t take much more of it! It would have knocked out a normal human by now! Lucky I loaded up with plenty of web fluid before coming here!
Fighting desperately to maintain consciousness, Spider-Man shot out his awesome web, which carried with it the same electric current which was weakening the desperate crime-fighter! And, as the web struck the startled Doctor Doom, the same charge of electricity ran through his body, magnified many times by his metal garb!
“Ugh! I’m caught in my own trap! Got to shut current off!”
And, after the electrical charge had been nullified…
“Now, we’ll play it my way, Doom…without any of your gadgets!”
“Not yet, Spider-Man, I am still in contr--eh?”
At that fateful second, something outside a nearby window caught the eye of Doctor Doom, and…
“It can’t be! Not now! I…I’m not ready for them yet!”
Doom ran to his controls and transported Flash Thompson away, followed by Spider-Man, and then he scurried to an escape pod and rocketed away.
“…so it would appear that Spider-Man was indeed aboard Doctor Doom’s vessel for some length of time, and we managed to pick up a mask that was left behind.” Reed Richards explained to Captain Picard over his viewscreen. He was sitting in the Fantastishuttle with the rest of the Fantastic Four. “There wasn’t much time before Doom’s vessel self-destructed, but I managed to run a genetic analysis on skin left behind on the mask, and it does not correspond with that of a super-powered being…simply a normal human. Whoever was wearing this mask, it was not Spider-Man.”
Picard looked hopeful. “But it is safe to say that Spider-Man and Doctor Doom were working together, is it not?”
Reed raised one eyebrow. “I don’t believe it’s safe to say anything of the sort, Captain, not without more evidence.”
“If he is, he’s gonna get a poundin’,” Thing added from the backseat.
“Very well.” Picard pouted. “Thank you, Mr. Richards. As always, your services have been invaluable to Starfleet.”
Peter had materialized in the middle of an empty corridor, and panicked when he realized that he might be spotted. He leapt to the ceiling and found his way into the nearest Jeffries Tube, and then followed the tubes back to his quarters. Once there, he was quick to change out of his Spider-Man costume and access the main computer to find out what had happened.
“So that’s it! It’s the FF…like the cavalry in the ancient west!”
The following day, he was brought to the bridge for another conversation with Admiral Jameson.
“Some great news photog you are, Parker! Last night a Cadet named Flash Thompson escaped from Doctor Doom! The Fantastic Four found Doom’s starship, but they must have scared him away and it self-destructed! And not one measly photo from you!”
“Sorry, Admiral Jameson! I was home last night! I’ve got to sleep sometime!”
“Don’t feel too badly, Peter,” Betty spoke up. “I may not be much more than a glorified secretary, but I think you’re wonderful!”
The next day…
Gosh, I never realized that Betty felt that way about me! As a matter of fact, I never realized how I felt about her, either! Hmm…look at that crowd of Cadets! Well, at least this is one time I won’t have to worry about Flash ribbing me! He must be the most embarrassed kid in school by now!
But there was Flash, surrounded by Cadets and grinning from ear-to-ear.
“Wow! Tell us more, Flash!”
“Naturally, I wasn’t scared of that tin can Doctor Doom! He couldn’t keep me a prisoner for long! When he saw I escaped, he was so worried that he ran out before I could get my hands on him!”
“Well, Flash, this’ll certainly make you a big deal around here!”
“Why so gloomy-looking, Peter?” Liz asked as he passed. “Although I suppose I shouldn’t blame you for being jealous of a man like Flash!”
I might as well face it! I’ve got nothing but luck…and it’s all bad!
But what could they possibly have to say about…? Peter was stunned, but did his best to hide it. Admiral Jameson was speaking.
“By now a large number of Starfleet personnel and even civilians have heard of Spider-Man. But no one knows his true identity or his real motives! And that is what this program intends to investigate! My name is Admiral J. Jonah Jameson, publisher of ‘NOW Magazine’ and ‘The Daily Bugle’! I am sponsoring this program in the public interest, to expose Spider-Man to the public as the menace he is!”
“Look at the Admiral, sponsoring his own program just to attack Spider-Man. Unbelievable,” Wesley remarked.
“I say that Spider-Man belongs behind bars!” The program continued, now in the background.
“Aw, Jameson’s not so dumb!” someone else retorted. “He’s just getting good publicity for his publications.”
“Yeah!” Flash Thompson spoke up with enthusiasm. “Personally, I think Spider-Man’s great!”
I can’t say anything to make them suspect me, Peter thought, I’ll talk against Spider-Man.
“You can’t tell. Jameson might be right. Nobody really knows Spider-Man.”
“Yeah, well, it’s obvious that you don’t, ya wimp,” Flash snapped. “You’d probably faint if you ever caught sight of him.”
“I would too…” Liz put in, “…from sheer excitement! I’ll bet he’s really handsome under that mask of his,” She sighed with adoration.
“G’wan, Parker, get lost!” Flash held up his hand aggressively. “You’re in the wrong place anyway! This is a holodeck, not a knitting parlor!”
That’s it, Flash, keep it up. One of these days you’ll go too far, and you’ll never know what hit you. There’s even a limit to Spider-Man’s patience.
The broadcast was also picked up in Latverian space, where an armored monarch known as Doctor Doom listened with interest.
“Spider-Man?! Hmm…he may be just the one I’ve been seeking! Each time I attacked the Fantastic Four in the past, they have fought me to a standstill! Alone, I do not seem able to defeat them! But with one such as Spider-Man at my side, even that accursed quartet would not be able to save themselves from my wrath! Ordinary men tremble at the mention of my name! The entire civilized world fears the menace of Doctor Doom! And yet, in one respect, I have been foiled time and time again! No matter how perfectly I lay my plans, the Fantastic Four have always managed to frustrate me! I still remember our last parting…I leapt out of the shuttle as it gained the upper atmosphere and plummeted down toward oblivion…but once under cover of the clouds, the jet-powered flying belt I wore enabled me to glide to safety…to repair to a new lair where I could lick my wounds like a vanquished beast! But now, that is all behind me. Now it’s time to strike again!”
He meandered through his castle until he entered a shuttle where a spider was contained within a glass orb attached to an electronic device.
“With the aid of that imprisoned spider, I will transmit a message to Spider-Man using his own wavelength!”
In some strange way, he has the sensory powers of a spider…and so it was a simple matter for one of my genius to create this spider-wave transmitter!
Doctor Doom set a course for the Enterprise’s last known position and prepared himself for the attack. Once he was within range, he teleported himself into a hidden compartment aboard the ship, and…
“Calling Spider-Man! Calling Spider-Man! I must contact you at once!”
Meanwhile, in his quarters, Peter Parker practiced his agility with his web in privacy. He was taken off-guard, however, when a voice shouted in his head.
“Calling Spider-Man! Calling Spider-Man!”
“I can sense a message! Someone is trying to reach me! Who can it be? Who could have figured out a way to reach me through my spider-sense? Well, there’s only one way to find out!”
Peter donned his mask and set out via the Jeffries tubes, more wary than ever with Captain Picard out for blood. He had to find out what was going on.
It’s a simple matter for me to follow the sensory impulses to their source! It’s great to be getting back into action again!
But he would not have been quite so enthusiastic if he knew who was waiting for him at his ultimate destination.
“It should be child’s play for me to persuade Spider-Man to join me against the Fantastic Four!” Doom mused as he waited.
A moment later, Spider-Man crawled into the compartment along the ceiling. It was a tight enclosure; there would not be much room to maneuver.
“So it was you who tried to contact me, Doom?! It would have had to be someone with your talent, but why?”
“Ah, Spider-Man! Is it necessary for you to make your entrance quite so dramatic, my impetuous friend?”
Spider-Man dropped from the ceiling into a standing position. “Mister, from what I’ve read about you, you haven’t got any friends…impetuous or otherwise!”
“Friendship is for weaklings! What I offer you is power! Together we could rule the world! You’re an outcast, the same as I! You dare not reveal your true identity! And yet, right under your nose, the Fantastic Four bask in the limelight, while you are shunned and hunted!”
I’ll appeal to his sense of envy…of pride! Then, once he has served his purpose, I’ll destroy him without a second thought!
At that, Spider-Man had to stop and stroke his chin…through his mask. “Me team up with you, huh? Man, wouldn’t that be crazy? Jonah Jameson would really have something to howl about then!”
Doom put his hands on his hips. “Ah, so you will do it! Speak! Give me your word!”
“Not so fast, tin-head! Sure, it’s an amusing thought to kick around, but just between us, I need you like I need another nose! The answer is no, buddy!”
“I warn you…if you are not with me, then we are deadly foes!”
“Doc, you’re scarin’ me out of my mind! Here, chew on this hunk of web for a while!” He covered Doom in webbing from his wrist-shooters. “That’ll keep you under wraps while I figure out what to do with you! Hey…how come you’re so quiet? So still? Cat got your tongue?”
A voice from behind caught him off-guard.
“You brazen fool! Haven’t you guessed yet?”
Another Doom was standing behind him.
“It wasn’t you at all! Just a robot…a dummy made up to resemble the real Doctor Doom!”
“Naturally! You are not fighting one of your usual insipid antagonists now, Spider-Man! Doctor Doom cannot be so easily trapped!”
Spider-Man lunged and swung at Doom, and in such cramped quarters, Doom was lucky to dodge the blow, which dented the bulkhead behind him. The robot then grabbed Spider-Man from behind and flung him into an adjoining bulkhead. Spider-Man immediately whipped around and backhanded it, sending it staggering backward. Then the real Doom pointed his finger at Spider-Man.
“I am not entirely without weapons of my own…such as this most effective miniature finger-gun!” Doom told him while an energy beam erupted from the fingertip of his gauntlet.
“Nice try, rattle-trap, but I saw that coming seconds ago!” Spider-Man teased as he leapt clear, sticking to the top of a crawlway at the top of the chamber and pulling himself in.
He escaped me! Well, I’ll let him go for now! But he shall still serve my purpose…only, in a way he cannot possibly suspect!
“NO PICTURES?!” Admiral J. Jonah Jameson raged from the screen at the back of the bridge. Betty Brant visibly winced, and looked from Jameson up at Peter with sympathy. “Parker, I will pay you if and when you get me something other than an excuse! The security officer on duty clearly picked up weapons fire on the ship, and detected movement within the Jeffries tubes. Spider-Man was no doubt involved--and where he is, I want you to be!”
“I don’t know, Mr. Jameson,” Peter began, tentatively, “People are beginning to say you attack him too much! They’re beginning to wonder what your real motives are!”
That’s when Betty Brant piped up. “I think Parker is right, sir. I’ve heard some of our officers mention that they think you’re jealous of Spider-Man for some reason!”
Well, well! Peter thought. I never knew I had an ally in J.J.’s liason! And I never realized how pretty Betty Brant was…’til now!
“That’s enough! I’m still the ranking officer here, and I’ll decide our policy! I have only one real motive…to make money! The more I attack Spider-Man, the more people read my papers! It’s to our advantage to keep pounding away at that corny costumed clown! Everybody is interested in him…whether they agree with me or not doesn’t matter…Spider-Man sells papers! Understand??”
I sure do, you big, blustering phony!
A short time later, in the holodeck bowling alley…
“This’ll be one for the records!” one of the girls exclaimed.
“Poor Peter! He’ll never get over it!” added a giggling Liz Allen.
Flash Thompson stood before them in an authentic replica of Spider-Man’s costume, carelessly making muscles and chuckling his head off.
“Where is Peter Parker!” he asked the crowd around him. “I want him. Bring him to me!” Then he took off the mask. “Well, how did I look? Will Puny Parker fall for it?”
“Like a ton of bricks, Flash!” said one of his buddies. “You’re a genius!”
“The gals did a great job on this costume,” Flash told the crowd. “This’ll teach our bookworm buddy to knock Spider-Man!”
As the web of fate drew tighter, Doctor Doom continued to work as his ship paced the Enterprise.
“There! I’ve devised an instrument which will react to a spider’s impulses the way a geiger counter reacts to uranium! All I need to do is scour the ship until the device registers positive, and I will have found Spider-Man’s real identity! But how to hide among the crew…?”
When one is a master of science, as I am, there is nothing which cannot be accomplished! Sooner or later, I shall eliminate all those who dare oppose me!
But on the bridge, something on the security monitor grabbed Tasha Yar’s attention.
“Captain, there’s something pacing the ship…” she rigorously operated her keypad.
Picard’s interest was immediately spiked. “What is it, Lieutenant?”
“It’s…I can’t believe I didn’t notice this before, sir.” She shook her head. “It’s a cloaked ship, but the cloaking technology is fairly primitive. I’d say…Latverian.”
There was gravity in Picard’s body language as he stood up, and Commander Riker looked at him with concern.
“Hail the vessel,” Picard ordered.
Yar tried. “No response, sir.”
Picard walked toward the viewscreen, although he knew a visual would not be possible. Who was pacing them? What did they want?
“There’s Parker now!” one Cadet said. “We’ve got to tell Flash!”
Two of them saw him coming from around the corner and scrambled around to the other side of the deck, where Flash waited inside a cramped Jeffries Tube in costume.
“Betcha he’ll jump clean out of his skin when he sees ‘Spider-Man’! This’ll be the greatest gag of the century!”
Someone else passed very close by, however, wearing a holographic disguise to blend in as a crewman. Ahh! My device is beginning to register! I am nearing my prey!
Flash’s buddies came running up to him, unable to suppress their light-year-wide grins.
“Flash, hurry! Parker’s walking by on the other side of the deck!”
“Okay!” Flash replied, replete in a Spider-Man costume, but not yet wearing the mask. “Everything’s set! You guys hide somewhere and watch the free show!”
Flash then charged around a couple corners and hid ahead of Peter, then donned the mask and waited. “Parker’ll be the laughing-stock of the ship when I’m through with him! If he’s too scared to fight, this is one way to show him what we think of him!”
“All stop,” Captain Picard ordered.
“All stop, sir,” reported Geordi at ops.
Picard then turned to Yar.
“It’s stopped with us, sir,” she told him.
Picard stared back out at the starfield, then turned to Commander Riker, who met his eyes with concern.
“Latverians don’t have a reputation for doing stupid things,” Riker commented. “If we detected this ship, chances are it wasn’t an accident.”
Picard nodded. “One would think they would respond to our hails, then, and tell us what they want.”
Doctor Doom zeroed in on Spider-Man. “There he is! Strange, he’s wearing his costume in the middle of a ship’s corridor! Well, no matter! Within seconds, he’ll be my helpless prisoner!” Doom moved in.
It’s time to show myself to Parker now, and…
Flash turned when he heard heavy, booted feet approaching. “Hey, wha…? What’s this? What’s goin’ on?!”
“Open hailing frequencies,” Picard ordered.
“Hailing frequencies open, sir,” Yar reported.
“Latverian vessel! I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation starship Enterprise! You are in violation of our space, and you are following us under cloak, which could be considered an act of war! Reveal yourself and your intentions, or I will have no choice but to consider you a threat to the safety of my ship and crew!”
He’s seen me! Doom thought as he closed on his prey. But it’s too late for him to stop me! I’ve planned this coup too carefully! And as Peter Parker, the real Spider-Man, walked calmly by, wrapped in his own deep thoughts, One burst of this fast-acting sleeping gas will do the trick silently! And after another moment, Done! Now, all that remains is to carry him back to the ship! It was even simpler than I expected! Strange that he should have been so easy to trap. Perhaps Spider-Man possesses less super powers than people think…
Meanwhile, as Flash’s friends watched Peter walk nonchalantly by…
“I don’t get it! What’s Flash waitin’ for?”
“Parker’ll be gone in another few seconds!”
“Maybe something went wrong! Maybe Flash’s costume tore or something. Gee! What a disappointment!”
Minutes later, after Peter reached his quarters, he switched on subspace and called his Aunt May to talk.
“Hi, Aunt May! How’s life back home?”
May smiled. “There isn’t much to talk about, Peter, dear, but then again, that’s a good thing these days.”
“I’ll say. Have you at least been catching the latest from Starfleet Entertainment?”
“I was just watching that hilarious--”
Suddenly Peter’s screen was bathed in interference. “What’s wrong with my screen? It’s been working like new since I got on board…”
…and then the mask of Doctor Doom appeared on it.
“This is Doctor Doom. I have resorted to this drastic means to communicate with the Fantastic Four. I have a message of grave importance for them!”
Riker’s eyes twinkled with the promise of excitement, but the concern never left them as he turned from the screen to regard Picard once again. “Not exactly the answer we wanted…”
Doom, still transmitting only one-way, continued. “As you can see, I hold Spider-Man a helpless captive!” His screen panned to show Spider-Man restrained somehow in the background. “Unless the Fantastic Four promise to disband and surrender to me, one at a time, Spider-Man will forfeit his life! I will wait exactly one hour for a reply!”
Peter’s communication with his Aunt was cut. I’ll have to contact her again later. This is serious! I don’t get it--who was that joker in the Spider-Man outfit? What’s it all about? Is it some kind of trick?
Just then, he received a communication from Liz and put it on-screen. “Peter, something terrible has happened! Flash Thompson is missing! He--he had dressed in a Spider-Man costume last night to…play a joke on somebody…”
Aha! I can guess who that somebody was! So that’s who Doctor Doom is holding prisoner--my loudmouthed, bullying classmate!
“Sorry, Liz, nothing I can do about it. Flash doesn’t exactly head my list of favorite people, remember?” He cut the communication.
What a break for me! The FF will never agree to Doom’s terms, so all I have to do is keep out of it, and Flash Thompson will never bother Peter Parker again! Things are finally going my way!
Aww!! What am I thinking?! Who am I kidding?!! I can no more sit back and let any harm come to Flash than I could swim to the moon! The real Spider-Man will have to go into action again!
As Spider-Man exited his quarters into the Jeffries Tubes, he decided to give his equipment a once-over. First the web-fluid in his cartridges, then the flashlight on his belt.
“That’s it! Now for Doctor Doom!”
But things were going quite differently in the Captain’s ready room…
“Hail him and tell him what, Number One? Spider-Man isn’t one of ours as far as I can tell, and if he is, I can’t prove it! Better to be rid of the nuisance anyway, as far as I’m concerned.”
“Sir, that may make sense on the surface, but we can’t just sit over here and let Doom kill him. What I don’t get is why he’s giving the Fantastic Four the ultimatum. Are they connected to Spider-Man?”
Picard shook his head. “You’re correct, of course, Number One. I wish I could sit here and allow Spider-Man to die at the hands of Doom, but I find I cannot. Perhaps we can find a peaceful solution to all of this.”
Lieutenant Yar’s voice came through Picard’s combadge.
“Sir, the Latverian vessel is moving off.”
As Picard stood and strode to the door, Riker in his wake, he replied, “Follow it, don’t let it get away!”
At that very moment, at the famous Starbase home of the Fantastic Four…
“We don’t have much more time, Reed! What are we going to do?”
“Well, Sue, we certainly can’t let any harm come to Spider-Man if we can help it.”
“Blasted amateurs, always gummin’ up the works!”
“Since when did you get superhero union card, Thing, ol’ pal?”
“In order to break in on all the comm. frequencies, Doom needed a ton of power. Like engineering? Or his own ship.” Spider-Man racked his brain as he crawled through the ship looking for his enemy. When he passed over engineering and his spider-sense wasn’t triggered, he began to wonder if he would find Doom at all.
“I’ll have to run a scan of the interior and exterior of the ship, or else maybe I can hack the navigation and security feeds…” He set to work at a console deep in the bowels of the ship, while…
“We’re getting a hail, Captain,” Yar called out.
“On screen,” said Picard, now seated in his command chair.
Doctor Doom appeared, seated imperiously in a command chair of his own, hands gripping the ornate arms and head raised, his posture reflecting perfect poise.
“Who dares to follow Doom?”
“I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the starship Enterprise.”
“I listened to your message from before, Picard. I know your name and the name of your ship. Your reputation precedes you as well. But what is your business in pursuing my vessel? I warn you that it is a mistake, and I demand that you break off at once.”
“I cannot do that, Doom. You have someone on board your vessel whom you have kidnapped from mine, and I cannot allow you to keep him prisoner.” As Picard spoke, the sincerity crept from his eyes, but he continued to deliver his declaration with iron in his voice.
“Spider-Man? I know of his reputation as well, and I also know there is no love on board your vessel or, indeed within the Federation, for Spider-Man.”
“Doom, I will not say it again. Lieutenant Yar, arm phaser banks and photon torpedoes.”
“You will not fire upon me! I am sovereign of Latveria!”
“I do not recognize your sovereignty in light of these circumstances. You have lowered yourself into the position of a base hostage-taker, and you will be treated like one.”
“Then you leave me no choice, Captain Picard.”
Doom severed the connection.
Tasha Yar spoke up with excitement. “He’s arming some kind of weapon!”
“Shields up, fire phasers!”
“Sir, we’re at warp,” Riker warned.
“Do it!”
“He’s dropping out of warp,” Yar said.
“All stop!” Picard commanded.
The Enterprise stopped, but Yar then told them, “I’ve lost him.”
Picard had gotten to his feet during the action, and now all he could do was shake his fist at his side and pace back to his seat. “Find him, Lieutenant.”
But while this was going on, Spider-Man had found a way to beam himself over to Doom’s ship, and he was now prepared to confront Doctor Doom. He approached by walking along the ceiling and then shone his belt-light on the unsuspecting target.
“Spider-Man! But you’re my prisoner inside! How…?”
“Correction, Doc! I’m the real Spider-Man! You just captured a fake!”
“If that’s so, then you are a fool to place yourself in jeopardy again. This time I shall not allow you to escape!” He fired an energy beam from the fingertip of one of his gauntlets, which Spider-Man easily jumped clear of.
“Funny! I was thinking the same thing about you! Nothing like a quickly-build web column to ask as a life-saving shield!” Spider-Man whipped up a protective shield of webbing to keep Doom’s blasts from hitting him. “And now while I’m all comfy and cozy back here, I’ll just spin myself a little weapon of my own! Here we are! Hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long, rustpot, but it takes a few seconds to make a web ball filled with web-fluid!”
Spider-Man neutralized Doom’s finger-blaster with a well-aimed ball of webbing, but Doom himself was far from neutralized. When he turned to run, Spider-Man flung an entire spread of them. They seemed to do little good against a man in a suit of metallic armor.
Uh-oh! I sense danger above me! He’s trying to lead me into a trap! Better build another shield for myself…fast! Just in time! That falling liquid is turning into ice on contact! It might have frozen me solid!
Spider-Man pursued Doom deeper. “Ready to talk turkey yet, Doom?”
“On the contrary, Spider-Man! I want to thank you for acting as a guinea pig for me! I’ve been wanting to test out this little device for days now!”
“Iron globes, revolving at great speed around a magnetic core! You sure have some interesting hobbies, Doc!”
“More interesting than you suspect, braggart! You’ll find your web cannot stop the irresistible motion of my little playthings! They are far too powerful!”
They’re whirling faster and faster! Can’t dodge ‘em much longer! Only one chance…I’ll dive under them and shoot my web to the base of the spinning machine! It worked! It jammed up the mechanism! The balls are dropping--their power source no longer propelling them!
Then he jumped.
Oh, for the--now he’s got liquid heat shootin’ up from the floor! I’d sure feel sorry for anybody who had to fight that walking rattle trap…if they didn’t have the powers of a Spider-Man!
But…
“The steel section of flooring I landed on…you’ve got it electrified!”
He’s increasing the current! Can’t take much more of it! It would have knocked out a normal human by now! Lucky I loaded up with plenty of web fluid before coming here!
Fighting desperately to maintain consciousness, Spider-Man shot out his awesome web, which carried with it the same electric current which was weakening the desperate crime-fighter! And, as the web struck the startled Doctor Doom, the same charge of electricity ran through his body, magnified many times by his metal garb!
“Ugh! I’m caught in my own trap! Got to shut current off!”
And, after the electrical charge had been nullified…
“Now, we’ll play it my way, Doom…without any of your gadgets!”
“Not yet, Spider-Man, I am still in contr--eh?”
At that fateful second, something outside a nearby window caught the eye of Doctor Doom, and…
“It can’t be! Not now! I…I’m not ready for them yet!”
Doom ran to his controls and transported Flash Thompson away, followed by Spider-Man, and then he scurried to an escape pod and rocketed away.
“…so it would appear that Spider-Man was indeed aboard Doctor Doom’s vessel for some length of time, and we managed to pick up a mask that was left behind.” Reed Richards explained to Captain Picard over his viewscreen. He was sitting in the Fantastishuttle with the rest of the Fantastic Four. “There wasn’t much time before Doom’s vessel self-destructed, but I managed to run a genetic analysis on skin left behind on the mask, and it does not correspond with that of a super-powered being…simply a normal human. Whoever was wearing this mask, it was not Spider-Man.”
Picard looked hopeful. “But it is safe to say that Spider-Man and Doctor Doom were working together, is it not?”
Reed raised one eyebrow. “I don’t believe it’s safe to say anything of the sort, Captain, not without more evidence.”
“If he is, he’s gonna get a poundin’,” Thing added from the backseat.
“Very well.” Picard pouted. “Thank you, Mr. Richards. As always, your services have been invaluable to Starfleet.”
Peter had materialized in the middle of an empty corridor, and panicked when he realized that he might be spotted. He leapt to the ceiling and found his way into the nearest Jeffries Tube, and then followed the tubes back to his quarters. Once there, he was quick to change out of his Spider-Man costume and access the main computer to find out what had happened.
“So that’s it! It’s the FF…like the cavalry in the ancient west!”
The following day, he was brought to the bridge for another conversation with Admiral Jameson.
“Some great news photog you are, Parker! Last night a Cadet named Flash Thompson escaped from Doctor Doom! The Fantastic Four found Doom’s starship, but they must have scared him away and it self-destructed! And not one measly photo from you!”
“Sorry, Admiral Jameson! I was home last night! I’ve got to sleep sometime!”
“Don’t feel too badly, Peter,” Betty spoke up. “I may not be much more than a glorified secretary, but I think you’re wonderful!”
The next day…
Gosh, I never realized that Betty felt that way about me! As a matter of fact, I never realized how I felt about her, either! Hmm…look at that crowd of Cadets! Well, at least this is one time I won’t have to worry about Flash ribbing me! He must be the most embarrassed kid in school by now!
But there was Flash, surrounded by Cadets and grinning from ear-to-ear.
“Wow! Tell us more, Flash!”
“Naturally, I wasn’t scared of that tin can Doctor Doom! He couldn’t keep me a prisoner for long! When he saw I escaped, he was so worried that he ran out before I could get my hands on him!”
“Well, Flash, this’ll certainly make you a big deal around here!”
“Why so gloomy-looking, Peter?” Liz asked as he passed. “Although I suppose I shouldn’t blame you for being jealous of a man like Flash!”
I might as well face it! I’ve got nothing but luck…and it’s all bad!