Ranma 1/2 used without permission
Spiderman used wihtout permission
C&C is, as always, welcome and appreciated
Find my other works at http://web.infoave.net/~jedediah

        Amazing Spiderman Issue 3: Field Trial

==================================

        Keiichi Akamoto, Morita Sakaya, and Gan Toshiba were known as the
biggest men on the Furinkan campus. Gan, whose uniform was missing sleeves,
was huge even by western standards. The over two meter tall Gan was the
muscle of the trio, and often used his bulk to end any arguements.
        Morita was smaller than the other two, but had the fight of about
six. He was a scrapper from the word go, often tearing apart opponents twice
his size.
        Keiichi, however, was the worst of the bunch. His athletic, muscular
frame gave him a good balance of power and agility. Keiichi was not only the
leader of the trio, but easily the most viscious. It was he who used fists
the most to get his way, and who seriously injured some of Furinkan's
student body. Of course, he got away with it every time. None of the
students would come forward to finger any of them, not that it would have
helped. The princpal was too whacked out to do anything remotely useful,
everyone was as afraid of Miss Hinako as they were of Keiichi, and none of
the other faculty would do anything about it.

        //There you are,\\ Gosunkugi thought as he stared down at them. He
remained adhered to the side of the building they leaned against, hands and
feet easily clinging to the cinderblock surface. Strangely enough, crouching
upside-down on a vertical surface wasn't disorienting at all. In fact, it
felt perfectly natural to him.
        The street below was fairly well lit, flourescent streetlamps
providing  enough illumination to keep the shadows more or less at bay. The
street was nearly vacant, windows and storefronts darkened as their
occupants slept.
        Gosunkugi slowly crawled down the side of the building, a plan
forming on how to approach them. He definitely had the element of surprise.
Just drop down on them, and do what he's wanted to for a long time.

        He stopped when Gan and Morita began making wolf-whistles,
interspersed with rather rude cat-calls. Keiichi turned his head to the
left, Gosunkugi following his gaze.
        //What's she doing here?\\ he thought as he made out the form
walking toward the small group. Sayuri Hisakawa, one of Akane's friends he
recalled, came to a halt just a few meters ahead of the trio. She was clad
in a sky-blue blouse and tight denim jeans, her brown hair hanging down her
back in a ponytail. //What's she doing out so late?\\
        "Sayuri-chan," Keiichi said, striding toward the lone girl. "Why did
you stand me up last night?"
        "Stand you up?" she replied hotly. "I never made a date with you!"
        "Sure you did," Keiichi said, "I asked you out, and you never showed."
        "I never said yes!"
        "You wanted to," Keiichi said, his voice growing cold. Like a snake,
his arm lashed out, grabbing Sayuri's right wrist.
        "Let me go!" she shouted. Keiichi merely tightened his grip in
response. Sayuri's face twisted in a grimace as she struggled to get free.

        //That's it!\\ Gosunkugi thought as he saw the spectacle unfold. His
heart began to pound, anger filling his consciousness. He had no idea
Keiichi was also forcing himself on one of Akane's friends, though in all
honesty he wasn't surprised.
        "HEY!" he shouted, startling the four below. Their heads swivelled
in every direction, trying to find the source of the sound. "Up here!"
Gosunkugi shouted, causing them to look in his direction.
        "What the hell...?" Gan said, confused. Their faces took on
expressions of confusion at the sight of Gosunkugi clinging to the wall.
        "She said no," Gosunkugi said in the most dangerous voice he could
manage, "Maybe you guys have a hearing problem?"
        "What's with this guy?" Morita said, pointing at Gosunkugi. "I
didn't know it was gay pride day! What's with the suit?"
        Beneath the mask, Gosunkugi's face flushed as his anger went up a
notch. He had spent hours making the costume, dying the leotard red and
painting the black spider design on the blue sleeveless sweater.
        "What's with that ape messing around with the girl?" Gosunkugi snarled.
        "That's none of your business, freak," Keiichi said in a voice like
ice, "Now I suggest you crawl back into your corner like a good little twerp
before you get hurt."

        "Who said I was gonna get hurt," Gosunkugi answered as he sprung off
the wall. He landed expertly on his hands, bending at the elbows before
springing forward with all the strength he could muster.
        One foot caught Morita in the face while the other hit Gan in his
chest, but the result was the same; the two were sent flying backward,
coming to a rest after a two meter flight. Gosunkugi landed in a crouch
before rising to his full height as the two hit the sidewalk.
        "How was that?" Gosunkugi asked, his anger mixing with a sense of
triumph. THIS was real power! He took two of them down with one shot,
nothing could stop him! "Now, I suggest you let that girl go or you'll get
the same!"
        "Gan," Keiichi said in that cold tone, "get him!" Gan, who had by
then gotten to his feet, cracked his oversized knuckles and began to advance
on Gosunkugi. With a shout, Gan charged the red-clad Gosunkugi. His arms
thrusted outward like twin pistons, intending to smash the smaller one's
head into paste.
        "Uh-uh, big guy," Gosunkugi said mockingly as he easily ducked under
the strikes. He wrapped his arms around Gan's wide midsection in the best
bear hug he could manage, and pushed up.
        He lifted the large man with little effort, holding Gan's hefty
frame over his head easily. He saw Morita charge him, fists at the ready.
Gosunkugi knew full well how the other man fought, and had no intention of
being caught with his hands full. Smiling beneath his mask, Gosunkugi tossed
Gan forward.
        He saw Morita's eyes widen as the larger man came hurtling toward
him. Unable to dodge, he simply raised his arms in a futile attempt to ward
off the impact. The two collided, landing on the hard concrete in a tangled
heap.

        "You two just don't know when to quit, do ya?" Gosunkugi asked as
Gan pulled himself off of Morita. The smaller man also rose, though somewhat
less steady. Gosunkugi decided to stop playing around. He still had to deal
with Keiichi, after all. Before the two could fully regain their footing,
Gosunkugi shot two thick webs form the spinarettes on his forearms.
        The webs opened out like twin nets, slamming into Gan and Morita.
The two hit the concrete for the third time that night, the sticky webbing
preventing them from rising again.
        "Now it's your turn," Gosunkugi said as he advanced on Keiichi, who
had by then released his hold on Sayuri's wrist. Sayuri had taken a few
steps backward, her eyes glued on Gosunkugi. Keiichi, however, just stood
there glaring.
        "You want a piece of me?" Keiichi growled, his cold mask slipping.
"Then come on!" Keiichi lunged forward, his right fist aimed straight at
Gosunkugi's temple.
        The blow never landed. Quick as a lighting strike, Gosunkugi's right
hand lashed out, catching Keiichi's fist in mid-swing. His left hand reached
out less than a second later, grabbing the other fist that was headed his way.
        Gosunkugi almost laughed as Keiichi futiley struggled to free his
hands from the other's vice-like grip. Confidence filled him as he released
Keiichi's fists, delivering a double-handed palm strike to his chest not
even a second later.

	That the intruder had so easily handled Gan and Morita had not come to
Keiichi Akamoto as all that much of a surprise - people like that did exist
in Nerima, after all.  That such a person was _here_ tonight, on the other
hand, was.  None of the others seemed to give a rat's ass what he and his
friends did.  The... webbing, for lack of a better word... binding his
friends to the sidewalk was something new, too.
	"You're not human," he hissed as he painfully rose to his feet.  "You're
some kinda freak, like on that show with... whatsisface, Muddy?"
	"What I am, is fed up with your crap."  Keiichi's next strike was just as
easily blocked, then he felt a hand closing around his neck and himself
being carried to a wall.  "Retribution is at hand."
	Unnoticed for the moment, Sayuri took a couple of nervous steps back. While
she was glad that _somebody_ was finally standing up to the loutish trio,
the man's idea of 'retribution' might not be something she could stomach
seeing...
	She had just turned around when the stranger's voice caught her immediate
attention.
	"Are you okay?"
	"Y... yes,"  she answered, turning around to face him. The stranger was
clinging to a wall, a squirming Keiichi -with his forearms and lower legs
cocooned in the same substance which kept Morita and Gan immobile - tucked
under one arm.
	"I'm sorry you had to go through this."
	Sayuri watched him clamber up the wall as easily as an ordinary person
might ascend a flight of stairs, quickly losing sight of him in the darkness.

	Gosunkugi allowed himself a smile, believing he handled that quite well.
Neither Gan nor Morita would be moving for a while and Sayuri was making her
way to wherever-it-was she was going.  One more thing had to be done to
bring this field test, as it were, to a close.
	After a few seconds' delay to decide on the best course - and a couple of
sharp squeezes to remind the still-squirming Keiichi of what could happen if
he didn't settle down - Gosunkugi was off.
	A few minutes later, he was smiling again.  The screaming had started
shortly after he'd tired of the rooftops and taken to swinging the rest of
his zigzag way to his destination, all the while using Keiichi as a human
yo-yo, yanking him back in the moment before he would have impacted with any
of many hard or pointed surfaces.  One close call with a billboard later,
and Keiichi was screaming again.

	It came as a surprise to the paired officers, so much so that they nearly
drove into a parked car.  Having come to a safe spot, however, the two
stepped out to examing the mess that had splattered itself on the
windshield and hood of their car.
	"You hear something, Kensuke?"
	"Huh?"
	"I could've sworn I heard someone screaming..."
	Kensuke shook his head.  This neighborhood was a commercial one, for all
practical purposes deserted at the close of a workday, much less late at
night.  "Nuh-uh, Shinji... damn what _is_ this stuff?"
	Both officers looked up - nothing was moving, not that it was easy to make
out much against the streetlights' glare - then back at their cruiser.
	"Gross, that's what it is."  Kensuke popped the trunk.  "Get the washer
started, willya?"

	"What the hell are you going to do to me?"  They had finally stopped, not
that Keiichi could see where they were - a small batch of webbing had made
for an effective blindfold.
	It was a fair enough question, Gosunkugi decided.  "I'm just going to leave
you here."
	Keiichi shook his head, screaming obscenities and threats even as Gosunkugi
proceeded to cocoon him.
	"Oh, one more thing.  It's 'Mulder', not 'Muddy'."

====================================

        HIkaru Gosunkugi stood atop the clock tower of Furinkan High, a
sense of triumph surging through his veins. He had done it! He, Hikaru
Gosunkugi, had taken on the three worst thugs Furinkan High had to offer and
won! When the students came trudging in the next morning, they would see
Keiichi Akamoto suspended helpless right above the main doors and would
never fear him again.
        //Well, I think this was a rather successful test,\\ he thought as
he stared out at the darkened Tokyo skyline. //I've got the costume, the
power, what else do I need?\\ It occurred to Gosunkugi at that point that
what he needed was a name.
        //Let's see, what's in a name? I got these powers from a spider, and
I got a spider on this red suit... how about the Scarlet Spider!\\ Gosunkugi
repeated the name in his head for a few moments before discarding it.
        //Nah... Too corny,\\ he thought. Gosunkugi drew a blank for a few
moments, no other names coming to mind. Finally, one came to him. //I got
it! How about the Spectacular Spiderman... no no no...... the AMAZING
Spiderman! That's it! Look out Tokyo, look out Japan, hell; look out WORLD!
Here comes the Amazing Spiderman!\\

===============================

        The morning sun cast it's bright glow on the gathered crowd of
blue-and-black clad students on the front yard of Furinkan High School.
Excited murmurs passed through the assembled teenagers as they stared up
above the doors to the school.
        "Wow, is that Keiichi?"
        "Sure looks like it."
        "Wonder how he got up there?"
        "Who did it?"

        Sayuri stared up at the still-struggling and cocooned form of
Keiichi Akamoto, oddly relieved that he wasn't dead. Most likely humiliated,
but not dead.
        She found herself wondering who the garishly-dressed man was who
layed out Gan and Morita and stuck Keiichi to the front of the school. He
was small, and his voice sounded rather funny, like he was trying to sound
menacing and not quite succeeding. He was strangely familiar, though, she
was certain she had seen him before.
        "Hey, Sayuri," came Akane's voice from her left. Sayuri started
slightly at the sound, being so lost in her own thoughts.
        "Oh, hi, Akane," she replied.
        "I wonder who did that?" Akane asked, pointing up at Keiichi.
        "So do I," Sayuri said distantly.
        "Sayuri," Akane said with a concerned look on her face, "are you okay?"
        "Yeah. Yeah, just thinking, that's all."
        "This isn't like you, Sayuri-chan," Akane said. "What's going on?"
        "I saw who did that to Keiichi," Sayuri whispered.
        "You did?" Akane asked in amazement.
        "REALLY!?" choroused the rest of the crowd. Sayuri gulped audibly as
the mob whirled on her, shouting a myriad of questions all at once. The
noise assaulted her ears mercilessly, causing her head to pound.
        "ENOUGH!" she shouted, the crowd gradually growing quiet. "I don't
know who he was. He was wearing some red suit, with a blue shirt and a black
spider drawn on it. He layed out Gan and Morita, then grabbed Keiichi and
climbed straight up the side of a building."
        "Get outta here!"
        "No way!" The crowd began to babble unintelligibly, shouting
disbelieving remarks of various kinds as members of the faculty came out of
the school in an attempt to usher students into the building. At the sight
of Miss Hinako approaching, the crowd immediately dispersed in the hopes of
avoiding her bizarre, yet effective, punishment for being late.

        Gosunkugi walked through the doors to Furinkan, munching on his
eighth pop-tart of the day. When he awoke that morning, after his most
succesful trial, he felt nearly starved. Finding his parents gone yet again,
Gosunkugi had helped himself to his usual breakfast of blueberry pop-tarts.
Eating those two in record time, he toasted two more, then two more after
that. Grabbing another two pop-tarts, he dashed out the door. He had never
been that hungry before. Then again, before last night, he had never been
that active either.
        Seeing Keiichi Akamoto dangling above the doors was yet another good
boost to his rapidly developing ego. He could just imagine what the crowd
was thinking when they saw it. It was now official, Keiichi Akamoto lost any
and all power he held over the student body.
        //Now, for the next step,\\ Gosunkugi thought, //to win the heart of
Akane Tendo!\\ Admittedly, that would be no easy task, what with Ranma
around. He briefly wondered once again about going public with his new-found
abilites. It would be a sure-fire ticket to getting the respect he'd always
wanted, but was he really ready to reveal his secret? After a few moment's
debate, he decided against it. He simply wasn't ready.
        //First off,\\ Gosunkugi thought, //I need money, and fast. How can
I get it?\\ As he walked past the large cork bulletin board, his eyes fell
on a small sheet of white paper with a little camera printed on the top.
//Photography club meeting tomorrow? I forgot!\\ Before he could berate
himself, a stroke of genius hit him.
        //Of course!\\ he mentally exclaimed, nearly kicking himself for not
thinking of it sooner. //I can get started right after school! I'll still
have plenty of light!\\ The end of the school day couldn't come fast enough.

====================================

        "YAHOO!" Gosunkugi shouted as he swung through  the concrete canyons
of Tokyo at a height of roughly ten stories. The wind rushed past him as he
hurtled through space, adding to the exhilarating freedom that came with
what he now called web-slinging. Gosunkugi had to admit, this was the
greatest feeling he'd ever had.
        Releasing the strand of web he held in his right hand, he tucked
himself into a ball. Sailing unsupported through the air, he rolled twice
before straightening out and firing another web. The web connected with the
side of one of the many impressive skyscrapers in the city, his momentum
carrying him around on the webline.
        Gosunkugi turned himself around in mid-flight, firing another web in
a sideways arc to a building across the large gap between buildings on each
side of the street. He remained frozen in space for a brief second, a
sensation of weightlessness seizing him before he began swinging toward the
building to which his web was anchored. The building came up at breakneck
speed, growing exponentially as Gosunkugi approached it. He released the
web, flying free once again before landing on the side of the structure. His
hands and feet clung to the surface, muscle and bone easily absorbing the
shock of the impact.
        He scampered up the side of the building to a batch of web beneath a
small ledge. Reaching to the web, Gosunkugi pulled out a small camera. The
Nikkon camera had been expensive, but well worth the cost. It may not have
been quite as good as one made by Cannon, but was enough for his purposes.

        //Thirty minutes of web-slinging, and all of it caught on film,\\
Gosunkugi thought as he placed the camera inside a small belt he wore
beneath his costume.
        His muscles tingled merrily with the exertion of swinging through
the city at such a height. If he kept it up, Gosunkugi was certain he'd
finally get an actual figure instead of going about looking like a pale
twig. And that would be a definite help when asking Akane out.
        //If I hurry, I can develop these and have them ready for the
morning edition.\\

=================================

        //Who is this guy?\\ Nabiki Tendo sat at the head of the small wood
table, newspaper in her hands. Quiet murmurs circulated throughout the room
from the other five members of the photography club. None of them could
believe the photos that adorned the front page of the Tokyo Times. Even more
unbelievable, however, was the name of the one who took them.
        //How did you do it, Hikaru?\\ Nabiki asked herself as she gazed at
the big photo of the one the paper called "Spiderman" swinging  through the
air on what looked like a thick webline. The photos were genuine, she was
certain. She knew the buildings in the background, having been through that
area of Tokyo several times. But the big question, aside from who Spiderman
actually was, was how Gosunkugi actually got the shots.
        Hikaru Gosunkugi was at least as good with a camera as she, though
Nabiki would never admit it to anyone even under pain of torture. From the
pictures, she was sure they weren't taken through a window. Was Gosunkugi
crazy enough to actually crawl out on a ledge to get these pictures?

        "Hey, Gos-man!" Juuhachi exclaimed as he rose from his seat.
Juuhachi Kamazo had what seemed to be a year-round tan, and was quite fond
of surfing. He spoke with a rather laid-back accent, and kept his hair dyed
blond in a skater cut. "Great snaps! Front page, too!"
        "Th-thanks," Gosunkugi stammered, trying his best to sound humble.
        "Yeah, Hikaru," Nabiki said, "those are great shots. Mind telling us
how you got them?"
        "Um, well, a good telephoto lens and a lot of luck, I guess," he
replied sheepishly.
        "C'mon," another member of the photo club members said, "tell us!
How'd you do it?"
        "I was just lucky, Yukio," Gosunkugi replied, "that's all."
        "Well, anyway," Nabiki said, getting the meeting back on track,
"let's get down to business." She was willing to conceed that Gosunkugi had
been fortunate enough to be in just the right place and at just the right
time. After all, dumb luck always played a factor in even the most carefully
devised plan. "How are we standing, Treasurer?"
        "Well, Madam President," Yuu replied, rising from his seat to her
left. He was a freshman, short dark hair and large brown eyes on his
somewhat boyish face. He had potential to be a real looker, Nabiki thought,
when he got a bit older. "We have almost raised enough money for our trip.
Just another couple of weeks, and we can put the deposit down on the bus and
rent the cabin." He kept his gaze fixed on the sheet of paper held in his
hands. Nabiki suppressed a giggle at  the young man. He was painfully
nervous around girls, and had a huge crush on her from what she could tell.
        "Very good, Yuu-chan," she said, causing him to blush furiously as
he sat down. The meeting went on as usual then, debating which camera
equipment was best for which situation and whatnot. After the end of their
customary hour or so of discussion, the meeting was adjourned and the group
went about their separate lives.

=====================================

        "Not bad," Gosunkugi said to himself as he perched atop the roof of
the small building. "Come Saturday, I'll ask Akane out. The money from those
pictures should be enough for a decent date. I hope, anyway." Gosunkugi had
to admit, he had no practical dating experience. Come to think of it, he had
no dating experience of any kind.
        "It's so peaceful out here," he said to nobody in particular. "So
quiet." Just then, the strange tingling sensation he had felt when Keiichi
and his cronies were chasing him returned. He felt there was danger nearby,
but oddly enough, not directed at him.
        //What the,\\ he thought as he looked to his right. Whatever it was,
it was coming from there. //May as well check this out.\\ Leapng into space,
he fired a web into the darkness and swung into the night.

        Akemi had never been so terrified in her life. She had come to Tokyo
a day earlier to visit a friend who lived nearby. It wasn't a trip she made
often, coming over from Shinjuku to Nerima took a while and she couldn't
always afford train fare nor get sufficient time off from the bar.
        Regardless, she had always been comfortable on the streets at night.
Not once had she been accosted by any hoodlums on her way back home from the
bar where she worked. Approached, hit on, and such, yes, but never assaulted.
        However, as they say, there's a first time for everything. This big
ape who had snatchd her into the alley was proof of that. She had given up
her purse, money, credit card, the works in the hopes that he would just
leave. However, the leer on his face told her that the worst was about to
begin. Opeing her mouth to shout for help, a massive impact rocked her head
sideways. The strike left her face stinging and the coppery taste of blood
in her mouth.
        "Hey!" came a voice from out of nowhere. Both Akemi and her attacker
looked about to find its source, seeing only shadows and empty air. "Didn't
your mother ever tell you that's not how you treat a lady?" Finally, the two
looked up.

        "Who the hell're you supposed to be?" The oafish man asked,
Gosunkugi stared down at him from his crouch atop the thin metal rail of a
fire escape. He was almost as big as Gan, and looked just as intimidating.
The red-haired woman was almost dwarfed by him.
        "Who, me?" Gosunkugi asked innocently, "just your friendly
neighborhood Spiderman."
        "You're that spider guy?" he asked in disbelief. "You don't look so
tough!"
        "Well," Gosunkugi said as he thrust out his left hand. A thick
stream of webbing shot out of the spinarette, expanding into a  smal net at
the end as it rocketed toward the huge man. The web encircled his midestion,
pinning his arms to his sides. Grabbing the web wit both hands, he easily
jerked the mugger off his feet and into the air. "Big things come in small
packages," he finished as he wrapped wome of the webbing around the rail.
The mugger hung there helpless, struggling in vain to get free.
        Making sure his captive was secure, he easily leapt the four meters
to the pavement. Once on the ground, he picked up the small black purse the
mugger had dropped when Gosunkugi had webbed him.