Takes Place After Spider-Man 2099 #42 (Marvel Series)
Spider-Man's fist flattened the organ legger's nose in a gush of blood. "DO! NOT!" He huffed mightily towering over the craven creature, "TOUCH HER!"
The watch-out collapsed to the ground in a fetal position, clutching the shapeless mass that had been his nose. His two cohorts down the alley way froze, ceasing their sick work of organ removal for a quick buck. They released their prey, a young blonde girl, and shrank down the other end of the closed alley. With slow deliberate strides, the harbinger of Thor approached them.
"Not so fast," Spider-Man hissed as he flashed menacing, razor-sharp finger tip talons. "You want to play surgeon, we can play surgeon."
Dread welled inside the two thugs as their eyes transfixed on the red stylized skull across the chest of the Spider-Man's blue-black outfit. It was less terrifying than the mask. With the red sickle-shaped markings that highlighted the space where the eyes should be, just something about it made it nothing short of sinister.
His exposed talons balled hard into fists, his knuckles audibly cracked under the pressure. The young girl, quivering and sobbing, slid out of her savior's way and against the side brick wall.
A world of hurt was about to be unleashed.
The air whistled above and an all too familiar sound boomed in the narrow back way. "PUBLIC EYE! Surrender or face extreme prejudice!"
The lone skycycle circled the entrance of the alley before touching ground. In brown para-military garb, the corporate pay cop dismounted his flying equivalent of a motorcycle, hand-blaster in firing position.
"Lucky." Spider-Man shook his head at the two soulless creatures before leaping up and with the aide of his foot and hand talons attached to the side wall. Quickly he scurried up and over the ledge.
An icy breeze picked up as Spider-Man, known to a few as Miguel O'Hara, galloped from roof top to roof top. The use of the lyte byte material attached to the back of his costume and the occasional strong updrafts found in skyscraper dominated Uptown allowed for brief moments of airborne flight.
The night was quickly dissolving into day, the horizon now a bluish color began to take over the sky from the inky black.
Miguel didn't have to run from the Alchemax owned Public Eyeball stooge. But he did out of habit.
Everything had changed so fast in his life, and it wasn't just the talons, fangs, super-strength, agility, and organic webbing. No, the Spider-Man thing was old news.
But Doom taking over America and then uniting all the mega-corps. That was a shock, but not nearly as earth shaking as him being put in charge of Alchemax, the largest and most powerful corp on the planet.
Doom was gone, whereabouts unknown, and the puppet presidency of Captain America collapsed left the country once again fractured. In a gentlemen's agreement, the corps pledged not to double cross each other for the time being. A new government was being erected, and Miguel got to put his two cents in.
He was no longer at odds with the system, he was the system. He could lord over it and dictate to it. His will was law...after the appropriate paperwork had been filed and the bureaucrats enforced it.
If, if they enforced it. A problem he would admit, but over time Miguel figured he would finally reel in all his department heads.
Ahead of him sat one the most posh sections of Uptown New York City. Tyler Stone, his former boss, had secured him a residence in the exclusive Babylon Towers. The name itself oozed overt decadence. Nothing less for one of the brightest minds at Alchemax, as Stone said.
But Miguel knew better, he was the brightest mind there.
Miguel slowed his fever paced race to beat the sun home. Today was going to be an alright day, he might as well indulge a little in it.
Really, how many of those did he get?
Next Issue: It begins...
It's been a long time since I've done anything like this.
And what I mean by "anything like this," is writing.
The last time I wrote was in mid-2002, maybe a little before summer. So, to say it was an experience knocking the rust off in 2004 by tackling both Spider-Man 2099UGR and X-Men 2099UGR would be an understatement. Not that it hasn't been fun, but between hurricanes and putting together a kick ass staff, the writing was a chore at first. But I love and will continue to do it... regularly... (I'm serious Alex, stop rolling your eyes.)
I've always dug Miguel O'Hara. He's a character with flaws, especially on the personal level. He doesn't do this Spider-Man thing because of "great power comes great responsibility." He does it mostly to cause trouble or get himself out of it. The last thing Miguel wants is to be a hero, and most of the time he doesn't feel goaded into being one. And I can dig that.
This book has been nothing but fun since I started. And I'll continue to write it until it stops being fun. Which might be quite aways, away. So sit back and, hopefully, enjoy the show!
-Michael Shirley January 10th, 2005