Web of Ranma

Disclaimer: I know that I’ve got one somewhere around here... you’ll take my word for it, okay?

< >: Thoughts

Chapter 4

The Spider Slayer

“OW!” Akane cried out as she was once again tripped up by Ranma. The martial artist with spider powers was having a difficult time of keeping his superhuman abilities under wraps. To him, Akane moved with all the speed and grace of a dead slug. Of course, if he ever went all out, the youngest Tendo daughter would be nothing more than a smear on the dojo wall from just a casual swat, so Ranma had to restrict himself to dodging and tripping his opponent. However, this lack of aggressive moves only served to make Akane angrier as she took it as an insult to her skills.

“Fight me for real!” Akane yelled as she got up and tried another whack at Ranma’s head, only to fall flat on her face again as she overextended herself. Ranma’s reflexes were just too good, and since Akane tended to telegraph her moves, one didn’t even have to rely on a spider-sense. It was like trying to hit a shadow.

“Man, you’re slow!” Ranma commented as Akane got up to charge again. He easily hopped over another kick, landed behind the angry girl, and gave a gentle nudge to the back of her head with an index finger. “You really got to work on your defense. I don’t know how you managed to last this long against Kuno and that mob every day. Then again, like I said before, they probably go easy on you.”
“SHUT UP AND STAND STILL!” Akane shouted as she whirled around with a haymaker, but only hit air as Ranma dodged the blow by mere centimeters.

The one who was secretly Spider-Man tensed up as he hated to hold back so much. Normally, he would have dodged such an attack by more than a foot, but he had to slow down and make it look like he was actually trying to avoid being hit. He wanted to make it appear that he wasn’t as good as he actually was. With his natural abilities augmented from that radioactive spider bite, he could easily outstrip excellent martial artists without even breaking a sweat. However, Ranma still trained in secret to improve on his martial arts skills. The main problem was that he was far stronger and faster than normal, so he had to up the difficulty levels to past anything that was considered normal by human standards. Some examples were shattering stacks of steel-reinforced concrete slabs, bench-pressing cars and performing acrobatic routines while blindfolded (that would have given him a platinum medal in any gymnastics competition). He figured that with the amplified training, he could achieve a level of martial arts that the great masters could only dream of.

Over the years, Ranma had discovered some other interesting abilities. His body had gained a very enhanced metabolism which allowed him to heal at an astounding rate. Now trained martial artists could focus their ki to speed up their rate of recovery, but Ranma’s body did so automatically. Now think of what Ranma would be able to do if he could add his fast recuperative powers to that ki ability of self-healing.

Ranma had also discovered that his sight was somewhat enhanced and allowed him to see into the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, giving him night vision. He could also detect heat emanations as well.

Probably the most interesting of his abilities was his power to produce webbing. Ranma was grateful that he didn’t mimic a spider completely. That would have meant that he would be shooting webbing out of his butt and have a desire to eat flies. At first, Ranma was only able to produce either a long web line, a fine spray or as a mass of sticky goop that had the adhesive powers of industrial grade Super Glue. In time, Ranma learned to manipulate his webbing to a point that he was able to shape it into various forms. The webbing itself was a wonder as it was quite strong, like steel cable or better. A few weeks before arriving in Japan, Ranma had begun experimenting with the spinnerets in his arms. With just the right amount of hardened webbing, Ranma found out that solid shapes could be achieved, making it possible to fashion blunt or sharpened objects. Anything from hardened spheres, long cylindrical shapes or complex patterns could be achieved. One of his most recent developments was the invention of what Ranma called his ‘impact webbing.’ He had used this new concept a few days ago to stop a hood from mugging an old man.

The impact webbing projectile that Ranma fired was simply a mass of condensed webbing that was coated with a very thin shell of hardened webbing. When the sphere struck its target, the webbing within would explode outward, and the sticky tendrils would then begin wrapping themselves around the target along the paths of least resistance. The target would be coated with the sticky substance within a heartbeat.

Of course, Ranma’s ability to spin webs was not inexhaustible. He did have an upper limit of how much he could produce at one time and had to sparingly use the impact webbing concept as it required a lot of webbing to create one projectile alone. Another little fact was that his webbing was like a real spider’s and was biodegradable. It would dissolve within a couple of hours into a powdery residue.

Every now and then, he had to give his spinnerets a rest to replenish their supplies of the special enzymes they used to create his webs. Though Ranma was trained to fight without weapons, he considered his spinnerets a part of his own body, and therefore were not counted the same as one who was armed with a sword, gun or such.

Ranma winced as Akane once again kissed the floor. Her overall fighting style was mediocre and looked to be mostly self-taught. He wondered how anyone could be so clumsy and easy to read, especially since her father was supposed to be Genma’s equal in skill. After all, Soun was supposed to have trained with Ranma’s father. Surely he would have been training Akane to take over the dojo, right?

However, in the last few days, the heir to the Saotome Anything Goes had seen Soun do nothing more than casual exercises, smoke, drink or play shogi with Ranma’s father all day. He assumed that Akane’s father was more or less retired from martial arts and had let his skills degrade over the years. He also seemed pretty high-strung in the emotional department and would always go on about his dead wife, or about that half-baked pledge to unite the families. Fortunately, he and Genma had not been bothering him about it for a while as the news of Spider-Man was usually the main subject of many discussions at dinner.

Akane huffed as she picked herself painfully off the floor and glared at her sparring partner. “Why don’t you fight back? All you dodge!”

Ranma simply shrugged his shoulders and replied. “Why bother? If you can’t even hit me, then there’s no way you could take any of my attacks.”
“Hmpf! You’re pretty sure of yourself aren’t you?” Akane sneered as she began stomping away. “Ahhh, I don’t know why I’m wasting my time with some guy who won’t or CAN’T throw a punch and dodges like a coward! You’re no real challenge like Spider-Man!”

This caught Ranma‘s attention as he gave her a questioning look. “Spider-Man? What’s he got to do with it?”

“Hmpf!” Akane turned to face him with a disdaining look. “Spider-Man is a REAL fighter and he’s like a true martial artist!”

“Oh? And what exactly is your idea of a true martial artist?”
“As if someone like you would know.” Akane said with sarcasm. “He fights crime and protects the weak. He’s not some arrogant smart aleck like you!”

Ranma gave a snort and gave a dismissive wave. He couldn‘t believe this situation. Akane couldn‘t stand him because he was a boy, but she was idolizing his alter ego. “Spider-man, Schmider-Man. Who cares about some guy who runs around in tights and swings on ropes like Tarzan.”

“Hah! I can tell that you’re jealous of him! I bet you wish you could the things he can do!” Akane sneered as she stalked away.

Ranma just barely managed not to snicker as he watched the short-tempered Tendo girl leave the dojo.

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Later that night...

Ranma smirked as he swung on his web line high above the streets of Tokyo in his garb of Spider-Man. It felt good to do a little web swinging to clear his mind and relieve the tension of the day. After firing off another web line to an adjacent building, he then made a graceful arc upward like a pendulum and then released his hold at the peak of the swing. Making a neat flip in midair, he then shot out another web line to snag a flagpole on the opposite side. He then swung to a nearby water tower, rebounded off it, then made a triple ricochet bounce off a trio of smokestacks. He made a spectacular tumbling routine that would have made the best Olympic athletes green with envy. Finally, he made a double reverse flip off the side of another building, used a flagpole to rebound himself back up and easily landed on a nearby ledge.

<Ahhh, that was a decent warm up. > Ranma thought as he stretched out and worked out the kinks. Just as he turned to continue his nightly patrol and training, his spider-sense went off.

<What the...? > He looked up and to his right as he suddenly caught a noise that sounded like the whooshing sound of jet engines. That was when he saw... them.

There were five of them and each resembled a flying eyeball with wings. Each were about the size of a football with a circular, red, glowing camera lens in the front. Each ‘eyeball’ zoomed their camera lenses at him as they hovered above.

<What the heck are those things? Are they dangerous? >
The devices answered Ranma’s unspoken question as they suddenly accelerated toward him and tried to knock him off his perch.

<Whoa! Well ask a stupid question...> Spider-Man ducked one of the machines that tried impact with his head, then began making a series of evasive maneuvers up the side of the building as the flying devices continued to chase after him.

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“Amazing! Look at his speed and agility!” The man said as he watched the images being transmitted to his monitor by the flying cameras. Beside him, two others watched the screen with equal interest. One of them was in a wheelchair.

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<What the heck are these things? They’re like a mini air force! > Ranma thought as he did a complex acrobatic somersault routine up the side of the building, flipping over the edge of the roof to get more fighting room. The five flying cameras followed him relentlessly like heat-seeking missiles.

Spider-Man did another series of tumbling maneuvers, then came up with his arms extended and launched two small projectiles at his attackers.

THAP! THAP!

The impact webbing exploded against the camera lenses of two of the flying projectiles, instantly coating them with their sticky payloads. The devices began flying off haphazardly as their sensors were gummed up and their navigational computers were made useless. After making several blind passes at their target, the two camera eyes slammed into a nearby radio tower and exploded.

Ranma had to duck for cover as the two flying eyes blew up like hand grenades and sent twisted, flaming metal debris at him. <Whoa! Those things are like flying smart bombs! > His spider sense then alerted him of the remaining three as they sped toward him on kamikaze dives. He leapt form roof top to roof top in a dazzling display of agility and speed, then leapt between twin smokestacks. He then turned and fired off a wide spray of webbing, which began congealing into a large net between the stacks. The three flying bombs were unable to alter their courses in time and slammed into the sticky netting, exploding a moment later and devastating the roof. Fortunately, the arachnid martial artist easily leapt to safety and was now perched on the side of an adjacent building.

<I wonder what THAT was all about? > Ranma wondered as he gazed at the burning rooftop. Fortunately, the building had been slated for demolition and no one had been injured in that encounter.

-----------

“I am... most disappointed.” Dr. Yamashita said as he turned from the monitor which was now showing static to the two other people beside him. “You failed.”

Dr. Spencer Smythe frowned a bit as his son Alistair began defending him from his wheelchair. “My father is the foremost expert in the field of robotics! He is not a failure!”

His father Spencer waved it off as he began pushing his son’s chair out of the monitoring room with Dr. Yamashita following him. “Calm down Alistair, there’s no need to defend me.”

“No need?” Yamashita said incredulously. “Your Spider Seekers failed to bring down Spider-Man.”

“That’s not their job.” Spencer replied as they entered a large, darkened room. “This was only a trial run and it has proven that the Spider Seekers can track down Spider-Man.”

Yamashita softened a bit at that statement. “Perhaps, but what good are they if they can find him yet not be able to catch him?”
“The Spider Seekers are the ‘eyes’ of the operation. My other invention shall be our hands!” He then flipped a light switch and revealed what was standing in the middle of the room. “Gentlemen, I give you... the Black Widow, my Spider Slayer!”

Both men were in awe at the huge machine that was in the shape of a gigantic spider. The robot was about the size of a small truck, had thick armor plating and glowing red eyes. In the back and on its underbelly, it had powerful propulsion thrusters. Its fangs were equipped with a variety of weapons and equipment that were specially designed for one purpose... to defeat Spider-Man!

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Ranma sneaked back into the Tendo home and quietly removed his costume. It had been a easy night with only five muggings, two gang fights and saved three people from being run over. Fortunately, his father was already snoring away in the guest room and would not awaken even during a nuclear blast. It was a relatively simple matter for his son to stow away his costume into a secret compartment in the storage closet that he had recently made and then laid down in his boxers and undershirt on the futon. As he went to sleep, he wondered about those strange devices that had attacked him that night.

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The next day at Furinkan...

“Did you hear about the latest news about Spider-Man?”

“He was totally awesome!”

“I’m going to join up with the Spider-Man Fan Club!”

“With Akane? Count me in!”

“Look! Here comes Akane now.”

Ranma and Nabiki shrugged as they walked by the crowds that were surrounding and asking if they could join the club that she was a member of. Apparently, the fight-Akane-so-you-can-date-her had been abandoned as joining the Spider-Man Fan Club was less painful.

“I don’t know what’s the big deal is about this Spider-Man character.” Ranma said nonchalantly. He had decided that feigning indifference to the celebrated status of his alter ego would help keep people from suspecting him of being the masked crime fighter.

“Are you kidding?” Nabiki said incredulously. “Spider-Man is the biggest thing to have hit Tokyo since Godzilla.” The middle Tendo sister had been making a good amount of yen by snapping photos of him in action. She had been having her cronies on the lookout for any and all appearances of the arachnid superhero. Recently, Ranma had been seeing other students with pictures of him in action as Spider-Man. Apparently, Nabiki too had been making a few secret nightly excursions to snap photos in action. She had invested in a telescopic camera and snapped the pictures from a distance, just outside of his spider-sense range. She had been getting a lot of preorders for any action shots or better yet... the face behind the mask. She was even selling several photos as a freelancer to a local newspaper.

Nabiki had a potential fiancé in Ranma and a good money maker in Spider-Man. She would have been even happier if she knew that they were both one in the same

It was at that time that Kuno appeared on the scene, breaking up the crowd surrounding Akane.

“What do you want, Kuno?”
The so-called Blue Thunder puffed himself out. “Ah, the fair tigress Akane! I see that you still under the spider-demon’s spell that you do not shower your affections and attentions on your one true love! Fear not my love for I, Tatewaki Kuno shall free you by vanquishing the foul spider-demon!”

Akane gave Kuno a disdainful snort. “Hah! As if you could ever compare to Spider-Man! You wouldn’t last five seconds against him!”

The rest of the crowds murmured their agreement. As long as Akane was speaking out against Kuno, they could also voice their opinions without fear of reprisals from the kendoist.

“It cannot be! I am the great Blue Thunder of Furinkan High and this Spider-Man cannot possibly be my better!”

Akane shrugged as she replied without hesitation. “Fine. If you can actually beat him, then I’ll sacrifice myself and go out with you.”

The rest of the crowds gasped when they heard this, but Akane wasn’t worried. She knew that her idol could make mincemeat out of Kuno, so she’d have nothing else to worry about. Maybe this would also get those other jerks to lay off attacking her every morning as well.

The rest of the crowds were still a little shocked at Akane’s announcement as Kuno went into his usual ranting mode.

“I promise you Akane Tendo, that I, Tatewaki Kuno the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High shall defeat the evil Spider-Man and rescue you and free you from the clutches of his sorcerer’s ways! This I vow!”

“Yeah, whatever.” Akane said as she waved him off and walked away, leaving him to continue ranting. As she approached the main building, she was joined by Ranma and Nabiki.

“Akane, are sure about this?” Nabiki asked.

Akane shrugged again, not at all worried. “Why not? Spider-Man could take out Kuno with one finger. Besides, Kuno first has to find Spider-Man and you all know how hard it is to track him down.”

“True...” Ranma allowed. “Still, I’ve seen Nabiki managing to get some pictures of Spider-Man.” <And that’s something I’d better be careful about in the future. > Ranma mentally added.
Akane considered that fact for the moment and nodded. “Maybe, but it’s not like she knows who he is.”

“All a matter of time, Akane.” Nabiki assured. “I’ve already gotten more information about him that I’m willing to sell.”

“What? You actually know who Spider-Man is?”

This got Ranma to be a bit nervous as Nabiki began giving details. “Not yet, but as a courtesy to my dear little sister, I’m going to give you the information that I’ve collected so far on Spider-Man for free. But when I find out who Spider-Man is, I hope that you and all the other fans have their wallets ready. Now then, I would say that Spider-Man is between the age of fifteen to eighteen, given his height and probable weight. And here’s some information that might surprise you. I have reason to believe that he may be a student at Furinkan High.”
“What? He’s a student here?”

“That’s right. Remember that fire that we had a while ago? He was seen wearing a student uniform, remember?”
“So? What does that got to do with it? He probably just threw it on to blend in or something before he got that costume he wears now.” Ranma said to try and throw Akane and Nabiki off track.

“Oh? Then how can you explain that he was there at the right time and place and KNEW where to go to save the entire school from blowing up?”

“Probably just a coincidence.”

“Oh sure it was.” Nabiki said. “Well, according to what my sources are telling me, Spider-Man’s appearances have been concentrated around the Nerima area, where most of the students do live in and I have good reason to believe that he may be among the new arrivals and transfers, since that was about the same time that our web-slinging friend started showing up.”

“Oh come on now. If that was the case, then Ranma here would be among the suspects.” Akane snorted. “And I happen to know that he couldn’t POSSIBLY be Spider-Man!”

“Why not?” Nabiki gave Ranma a mischievous grin. “Ranma’s about the same height and weight as Spider-Man is and did you ever notice that he’s never around when our webbed wonder appears?”

“That’s because he always runs away to call the police or something!” Akane scoffed. “Besides, Ranma doesn’t have what it takes to be a superhero with his always dodging and afraid to throw a punch. Spider-Man is much more a true martial artist than he’ll ever be.”

“Are you sure? It could be all an act.”

“Hah! I can TELL when somebody’s pretending to be something he’s not. Just like the way Kuno says he’s the best. Ranma’s no more Spider-Man than I am!” Akane said without hesitation as she walked off to her homeroom, leaving Ranma and Nabiki to discuss among themselves.

“Nabiki... were you really serious about me secretly being Spider-Man?”

‘Oh don’t worry your little head about it, Ranma. I just wanted to ruffle Akane’s feathers a bit, that’s all. Though I would LOVE to see the look on her face if that were true!” Nabiki chuckled a bit at the thought. “In any case, you’re not really a likely suspect and I was only making conversation, that’s all.”

Ranma became a bit relieved at this news, but was still a bit on alert. Unlike her sister, Nabiki was much more observant and used her head more than the short-tempered Akane.

----------

“Well, everything is all set.” Dr. Spencer said as he made the last adjustments to another squadron of Spider Seekers and giving the Spider Slayer its final instructions.

Alistair nodded as he powered up the monitor. “If we want that new laboratory and that grant from Yamashita’s employer, then we’ve GOT to destroy him! With someone like Spider-Man, there won‘t be a second chance.”

Spencer nodded. “Yes, and we’ll finally be able to get those... special doctors for you. Alistair... that explosion back at the old lab was my fault. I’ll make certain that you’ll get all the treatments that you need to get you to walk again... and all we have to do is destroy one man... Spider-Man!”

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“The Spider Slayer is ready, sir.” Dr. Yamashita said as she spoke into a communications console.

“Excellent! And you are certain that it will be able to do the job?” Yamashita’s employer asked.

“Yes sir. I have been assured that with the data I have supplied to the Smythe family, the Black Widow will be able to neutralize all of Spider-Man’s powers. Soon, he shall be ours! I am certain that after I have analyzed his biological and genetic structure, I will be able to duplicate the original spider venom and we shall have our own Spider-men!”

“Yes indeed, and if the Spider Slayer is capable of defeating Spider-Man, then we shall also have the means of controlling ‘our’ Spider-Men as well.”

“And if the Smythe family fails in their venture, then we shall have two very talented experts in robotics under your control. Very interesting. Either Spider-Man is destroyed or we get the famous Spencer as our subordinate. Whatever happens... you win.”

The big boss (and I do mean big), smiled as he spoke from his private office in New York City. “That’s why I am called the Kingpin.”

----------

It was at that moment that Spencer Smythe pressed a button on his control console and launched a fleet of Spider Seekers into the air. The devices shot up from a secret launching site from their base of operations, which was located in an abandoned warehouse.

The hunt for Spider-Man had begun!

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Later that afternoon...

Ranma yawned after emerging from the last class of the day. The session had been one of the dullest ones yet and he began wishing for anything to break the tedium. Unfortunately, his wish was about to be granted as he suddenly stopped when his spider-sense went off. He looked up and his eyes widened as he saw that was hovering above. Several of those strange flying eyeballs were floating above and scanning the area. He immediately ducked behind a tree and waited as the machines scanned each and every one of the students below.

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“Father! The Spider Seekers had detected a large amount of spider bioenergy!”

“Location?”
“It’s in the Nerima district! Right near a place called Furinkan High School!” Alistair pointed to a blinking dot on a schematic map of the area.

“Yes, many of the sightings of Spider-Man have been in that area. Thanks to the special spider detectors in the Seekers, we can now send in the Spider Slayer!” Spencer then pressed another button and launched their ultimate weapon against Ranma.