Before we begin, I would like to thank everyone who responded to the 
Teaser and I just want you to know that I appreciate that the fact 
that you like this... even if you used death threats to get that 
point across. ^_^;;;

Hopefully, the next chapter won't be so long in coming and I'll be 
able to do it, or the next chapter of Fiveman, before I leave for 
Hershey PA next Monday for three days.

Anyway, enjoy!

The Flashman
(Proud member of The Church of Tsukino Usagi)
Loyal G-Fan
www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Dojo/3105/
May The Spirit Preserve You!
___________________________


				TRIO:
			  ALONG CAME A SPIDER...
(Thanks to SKJAM! for suggesting the crossover)

	Lunchtime.

	For some, it's a time of great happiness.  To recharge themselves 
after a tough morning of work and prepare for the final stretch until 
it was quitting time.

	For others, like "Ranko" and her coworkers, it was the bane of their 
existence.

	The pure number and speed at which the orders came, was taxing on 
any one.  Even Ranko's slightly faster then average speed (which she 
had to hold back on, or raise suspicion) was taxed to it's limit as 
impatient customers demanded speedier, more efficient and friendlier 
service.  Of course, Ranko wasn't exactly the kindest of waitresses, 
but fast and efficient were another matter, and so, as long as she 
kept the food and (more importantly) the coffee, coming, she got 
several good tips.

	However, what bolstered her though the worst of the storm of 
humanity, was when two o'clock came around, and the majority of the 
lunch crowd had been satisfied.  A blonde girl with a familiar 
hairstyle would walk in and wait to be seated.

	"Hey," a girl with black hair with a red skunk streak, dressed in a 
waitress outfit called out, "Ranko.  Your 'friend' is here.  I gave 
her the same seat as always."

	"Thanks, Sandra," Ranko called out as she dumped the plates from her 
last table into the sink, "I'll be right there."

	"Such a shame," a boy with dark blue hair and dressed as a cook, 
commented as he placed a hand to his forehead overdramaticaly, "Two 
lovely young examples of feminitiy and they're..."

	Ranko cracked her knuckles as a warning.  The boy raised his hands 
defensively and said, "Easy, Ranko.  It's the nineties.  I'm not 
condemning you two or anything.  'Sides, we all saw what you did to 
Joque and I'm not crazy enough to do anything if I did disagree."

	"You say that every day, Max," Ranko replied, "You just better be 
careful, or you might be saying something you'll regret to someone 
who's not so evenly tempered."

	"HA!" someone from farther back shouted sarcastically.

	"I HEARD that!" Ranko snapped jokingly as she pointed her finger.

	Then she removed her apron and said, "I'm going on my break now.  
See ya."

	"I'll get you two love birds your usual," Max said with a grin.

	"Shut UP, Max!"

	As Ranko aka Ranma-chan, made her way to the front of the restaurant,
 she had to wonder how she didn't feel really upset or touchy anymore,
 whenever any of her coworkers teased her about "her" relationship 
with Usagi.

	Ranma-chan had tried to hide it under the guise that Usagi and her, 
were just old childhood friends who had stayed together after many 
years.  However, the fact that emploies had to stay in the restaurant 
while on break, coupled with the fact that changing back to male form 
just wasn't feasible, given her state of dress and the time she had 
off for lunch, and all of that on top of Usagi's inability to (or 
refusal to) hide her emotions at all, the others had quickly pieced 
together the fact that the two of them were more than just friends.

	Ranma-chan had not taken it well, when they started teasing her 
about her "friendship" and the only thing that had stopped her from 
belting some of them, was that none of them were the fighting type 
and would have been unable to defend themselves.  However, over the 
course of time, the obvious apathy that New Yorkers were famous for, 
displayed that her coworkers had not been serious and that they were 
glad that the "weird martial artist girl" had a softer side.

	It also didn't hurt that Usagi's, "That's how I feel and I don't 
care if you know it" attitude, was beginning to rub off on Ranma-chan.


	"Hiya," the red headed girl said as she slid into the seat across 
the table from Usagi.

	"Hi Ranm... Ranko," Usagi replied with a large smile, almost 
forgetting that she had to call Ranma-chan by her other name at work, 
"How's your day been?"

	"Not bad," Ranma-chan replied, "The lunch crowd usually gets really 
bad, only on the weekends.  How's your day going?"

	"Okay," Usagi said, "The only real excitement was when a customer 
accidently dropped a vase and I..."

	Suddenly, the blonde stopped talking and seemed to be looking at a 
point behind Ranma-chan with wide-eyed shock.  Looking over her 
shoulder, the red head saw a man with short, brown, mussy hair, walk 
in and be seated at one of the booths by the front window.  "Ranko," 
Usagi said in an excited whisper, "Do you know who that guy IS?"

	Ranma-chan took a good look at the man and shrugged, as she replied, 
"Not really."

	"That's Peter Parker!"

	"Who?"

	"You know, the guy who did that really cool photo book!"

	Ranma-chan nodded slightly, pretending to understand, as he replied, 
"Ah, right."

	Usagi raised an eyebrow at her as she said, "Webs."

	"Uh huh."

	Usagi looked Ranma-chan dead in the eye and asked, "You're just 
pretending to know what I'm talking about, aren't you?"

	Ranma-chan could only nod and say, "Uh huh."

	Usagi sighed and pulled out of a plastic bag she had dropped by the 
side of her chair, a thick, colorful looking book.  The cover was 
adorned with the image of one of New York's premiere super heroes; 
Spider-Man and the title, <WEBS>.  "Oooh," Ranma-chan said, finally 
understanding, "THAT book."

	Webs was a collection of some of the photographer Peter Parker's 
most notorious, and private stock of, pictures of the web slinger.  
Ranma-chan said, "No offence, but isn't it kind of... improper for 
anyone to have that book anymore?  I mean, with that murder and all...
"

	"Please!" Usagi exclaimed, "Just because that creepy Osborn guy 
keeps saying those things, even though Prodigy cleared him of the 
crime, doesn't mean I can't like him.  Besides, that costume of his 
is soooo cool."

	Ranma-chan snicker, "I should have figured.  You girls always do put 
fashion over reputation."

	Usagi shot back, "What do you mean 'you girls'?"

	Realizing several seconds too late (an improvement for her), that 
she had crammed her foot in her mouth, Ranma-chan said, "Well... ah...
 you see..."

	Usagi broke down into a fit of giggles and, when she recovered, said,
 "I'll be back in a minute.  I'm going autograph hunting."

	With that, the blonde stood and kissed Ranma-chan on the forehead.  
As she blushed, Ranma-chan said, "You know how I feel and all... but 
do you haffta do that in public?"

	As she started to move off, Usagi smiled and said, "I can't help 
myself when I'm with you.  I guess it must be love."

	This caused Ranma-chan to blush even deeper, as Usagi went to talk 
to the brown haired man sitting alone.

	Peter Parker was happy... or at least as happy as he could be, 
considering all that had happened in his life lately.  The return of 
Norman Osborn, a man Peter could honestly say he wished dead, the 
loss of his clone "brother" Ben Reily, his daughter being stillborn, 
and now, rumors were surfacing that the Kingpin was making a comeback.
  Yeah... he was real happy.

	Then again, on the flip side, he and his wife were still healthy and 
happy, he could be Spider-Man again, without worrying about an army 
of bounty hunters going after him, he was rebounding in his collage 
courses and he was about to meet his wife, Mary Jane, for a good old 
fashioned, cholesterol filled, burger and fries lunch.  Things could 
have been worse.

	At that moment, a shadow fell over him and he turned to look at the 
young blonde with the strangest hairstyle he had ever seen.  
Internally, he made a Spider-Manish remark of, "Whoa... Do those 
things get good reception?"

	The girl smiled at him and said, in a voice that did little to hide 
her excitement, "You're Peter Parker, right?"

	Peter blinked and replied, "Last time I checked.  And you are..."

	The girl bowed slightly and said, "My name is Usagi.  I'm a big fan 
of your book."

	Peter looked confused for a second, but then realized how long it 
had been since anyone had mentioned Webs to him.  Secretly, he 
thought that Osborn was squelching production of the book (through 
both blows to Spider-Man's reputation and through putting pressure on 
the publisher), since the royalties were an occasional, but 
substantial, source of extra income.

	A smile blooming on his face, Peter said, "I'm glad to hear that.  
Seems as though you're in a minority though."

	Usagi waved dismissivly as she said, "My boyfriend said the same 
thing.  That Osborn creep is full of hot air.  Spider-Man's a real 
good guy.  I can tell just by your photos."

	It was then that Peter noticed the book in Usagi's hands as she held 
it out to him, along with a pen, and asked, "Could I get your 
autograph?"

	Peter's smile grew as he took the book, opened it to the front page 
and said, "Sure, kid.  Anyone who think's Norman Osborn is a creep 
full of hot air, is someone I like."

	He scrawled a message of,
<To Usagi,
Don't believe everything on TV.
Peter Parker.>

	His name, he signed with over dramatic gestures and then handed the 
book back to Usagi, who looked as if her face was going to split from 
the size of her smile and how wide her eyes had become.

	Usagi felt as if she were in heaven.  She barely felt the book as it 
returned to her hands, and she was equally unaware when Ranma-chan 
bolted out of nowhere, knocking her to the ground.

	The sound of gunfire, however, quickly brought her back to the 
present.

	Two minutes earlier....

	The black and white jeep skidded around the corner, it's colorful 
rider gripping the light bar with one hand, and holding something in 
the other.  That object reveled itself to be a machine gun, as the 
gold and purple clad figure opened fire on the people walking down 
the street.

	The costumed man swung the gun in a back and forth arc, cutting down 
everyone on the right hand of the street.  He then deftly switched 
his hands positions and then began shooting the people on the left 
side of the street.  "Nice shooting," said the overly muscular being 
with the head of a wolf, who was sitting in the front passenger seat 
and indicated for the Scarab Demon driving to turn right at the 
corner, "You are certainly earning your pay, Taskmaster."

	"Well," Taskmaster replied, "the money helps the old school and the 
high profile of this helps the old rep... and what helps the old rep, 
helps the old school even more.  Good thing I reviewed those tapes of 
the Punisher your bosses gave me."

	Taskmaster had an unusual costume, even by super villain standards, 
in that it was unusually busy.  On top of the skull mask and purple 
cloak with a hood, along with the purple and gold body suit, there 
were a large variety of excesories.

	On his left forearm, there was a gold shield that looked much like 
Captain America's in design, hanging against his right hip, was a 
sword much like the one wielded by an obscure hero known as The 
Swordsman.  He had razor sharp cutting cards, ninja shuriken, a twin 
pair of sai's, a billy club, a pair of retractable claws over his 
wrists and other such devices hidden over his body.

	That was why he didn't get out much anymore, sometimes it took him 
over two hours just to suit up.

	The reason he had all those weapons in the first place, was because 
of a very unique quirk of genetic fate.  Where some people were given 
photographic memories, Taskmaster was blessed with the talent of 
photographic reflexes.  All it took was for him to watch something 
once or twice and he became a master of it.  He could tap dance like 
a Broadway star, play chess like a Grandmaster, play football and 
baseball like a pro, do rope tricks like a rodeo expert and could do 
martial arts like Bruce Lee, Jean Claude, and Jackie Chan.

	However, Taskmaster had always been fascinated by crime, and, after 
renting tapes of famous super hero battles and spending a straight 
week in his basement studying them, he came out and started a school 
to teach criminals how to counter the various abilities of the super 
human community.

	Of course, he took freelance assignments like the one he was 
currently undertaking, to buy equipment to train his students with... 
and add a little more to his pocket when he felt the tuition fees 
weren't enough for his taste.  However, there was an extra 
stipulation to this job that made it even more appealing.  The chance 
to learn some new, powerful, and (most important of all to someone as 
bogged down by equipment as him) weaponless skills, from a super hero 
team that's only know recording was a fuzzy five minute video of 
their female member.

	"They're paying me enough not to ask," Taskmaster said as his 
gunfire shattered the window of a restaurant and made those who 
didn't get hit, duck for cover, "but I'd just like to know if, it's 
okay with you.  Why the pointless carnage?"

	The creature sitting in the passenger seat asked, "Do you know what 
I am?"

	Taskmaster replied, "Besides being something that shadowy guy 
summoned out of nowhere?  Not a clue."

	"I," the monster said, "am an Ogor Wolf.  The bullets you fire have 
my cells on them.  Any who are shot with them, become one of my pack.
"

	The jeep screeched to a halt and Taskmaster took a look at the 
victims who had fallen pray to his shots.  First, the bullet wounds 
would ripple and then disappear, then the skin of the person would 
sprout fur the same color as their hair and their faces would 
elongate into wolfish snouts as their hands became sharp claws.  The 
transformed people stood and let out a symphony of howls that echoed 
up and down the streets.

	"Neat-o," Taskmaster commented.

	Ogor Wolf stood, smoothing out his black loin cloth with the Eclipse 
Syndicate symbol on the front and back, as he addressed the 
transformed masses.  "Go," he said, "my pack.  Take all that you can 
find, leave none for those who are not one of us."

	The transformed humans went on a rampage.  They smashed store 
windows with whatever they could find or ripped off the doors with 
their bare hands.  Once they had access they entered the stores and 
apartment buildings, emerging with sacks filled with money, jewels 
and other kinds of valuables, a few minutes later.

	Sitting down again, Ogor Wolf indicated for Taskmaster to hold on 
tight and for the Scarab Demon to begin driving again.  "We are 
finished here," the monster said, "We must return to base to discuss 
your fee... and of other duties we may ask of you."

	Back at the restaurant...

	The heavy tingling in the back of Peter's head, which was his ESP 
like Spider Sense, began to fade as the immediate danger sped away.  
After shrugging off the worst of the glass shards, he got up from 
where he had thrown himself to the floor as the window had imploded.  
He looked around and saw the red headed girl confirming that she had 
protected the blonde that he had been talking with, from harm.  The 
question was answered with an affirmative as the smaller girl grabbed 
her friend in a hug.

	Suddenly, a cook with blue hair cried, "SANDRA!"

	Jumping over the counter, the cash register in her hands, came a 
female werewolf, with black hair containing a red streak that went 
from the top of her head, to over her left eye and dressed in a 
waitress's uniform.  The werewolf glared around at everyone in the 
room and then leaped out the shattered window, three other 
transformed people following.

	Usagi looked up at Ranma-chan, and saw that she had her teeth bared 
in anger.  "Seer," Ranma-chan growled under her breath, "I know he's 
involved with this."

	"Are you sure?" Usagi asked.

	Ranma-chan gave her a look, indicating a pain that, no matter how 
hard she tried, Usagi would never be able to fully share or 
understand.  In a whisper so low the martial artist almost didn't 
hear it herself, she said, "I know."

	Usagi nodded, then turned and asked, "Mr Parker, are you..." where 
the semi-famous photographer had been, there was now no one, "Where'd 
he go?"

	"SANDRA!" Max shouted as he ran in from the back.

	Ranma-chan turned to her coworker and said, "She got away.  How's 
everyone else?"

	"They're shook up pretty bad," the cook replied, then grimaced, "I 
don't think I'm much better."

	"Check and see how the rest of the customers are," Ranma-chan said, 
"I'm going to see about getting the police."

	"But you're the martial arts girl, Ranko!" Max protested, "What if 
someone else has been turned into one of those... things?"

	Ranma-chan growled to herself, but said in a more controlled voice, 
"They don't seem to be attacking people, just taking stuff.  Plus, I 
can run to the station faster than you could.  If you see one, just 
get out of it's way."

	"Roger that." Max replied as Ranma-chan and Usagi bolted out the 
door.

	The two ran down the street, reached the nearest alley and, after a 
touch of a compression rings jewel and the uttering of a few magic 
words, Yin Yang-chan and Sailor Moon jumped to the rooftops to race 
for the source of the chaos.  Sailor Moon looked up and cried out, 
"Look!  Gohan's here!"

	Yin Yang-chan raised her head skyward and saw Great Sayaman flying 
down to join them and the hero landed in front of them.  "Hey guys," 
he said, "I see you heard about what's going on too?"

	"Heard about it?" Sailor Moon commented, "We were at ground zero for 
it."

	"This is unusually open for the Eclipse Syndicate," Yin Yang-chan 
said, "but I guess we're gonna stop them anyway."

	"Eclipse Syndicate?" Sayaman asked, "How do you know it's them?"

	Yin Yang-chan gave him the same look that she had given Sailor Moon 
earlier.  "I understand," Sayaman replied, "Let's go.  Yin Yang, you 
and I will try and wear them down.  Sailor Moon, when you've got an 
opening, try and heal them."

	The others nodded in understanding and they Trio prepared to put 
their plan into action, when a voice behind them said, "Mind if I 
lend a hand?"

	A blue and red form swung over them on a thin grey line.  The figure 
let go of the line, back flipped and then landed in a crouch in front 
of them.  Sailor Moon was the first to recognize the red and blue 
garbed figure wearing the red mask with a black spider's web design 
on it and with the two oversized, white eyes.  "Spider-Man!" she 
exclaimed.

	"Now," Spider-Man said, "I know it's traditional that there's 
supposed to be a big rumble between the new and old super heroes 
whenever they meet, but since we're in an emergency, what do you say 
we skip it this time?"

	Sayaman smirked as he said, "I've heard a lot about you.  Mostly 
from The Bugle and from those interviews with Norman Osborn."

	Spider-Man groaned and Sayaman chuckled as he continued, "Don't 
worry," he jerked a thumb at Sailor Moon, "she makes a pretty good 
Democratic response.  We'd be glad to have the help."

	The leader of the Trio and the wall crawler shook hands and then, 
all four of them raced for the heart of the maelstrom.

TO BE CONTINUED...