Reticent Monsters (Ultimate Spider-Man - Cartoon)

Chapter 13: Rubber Bullets Still Hurt

They've added rubber bullets.

Oh, of course, they couldn't just stick with a freaky, colored coded maze with electric-shock cuffs, or a room so white it was practically eating his soul, or weird visits while he's unconscious so they can leech the blood from his body - oh, NO! They just HAD to add that extra 'oomph' to push it over the top. That was so - so like the bad guys, Peter's associated himself with.

Why did these guys have to go to such extremes? This has moved past just experimental and now ran along the lines of intentional. We're the bullets, or electric shocks "encouraging" him to move faster, really necessary? Was the excessive blood "donations" needed? Did they really need to put him back in that frickin white room on his arm so it went dead and gave him that horrible pins and needles sensation that made him want to punch a wall??!!!

Of course, they did. Because this was Michael Morbius they were talking about. Yeah, Peter figured out who that disembodied voice in the walls was the next time he was put in the maze. How could he forget that annoying nasally voice? Not to mention the gloating. The guy boasted almost as much as Octavius, and that right there was saying something.

And it might've also been because the guy literally showed himself to Peter just so he could laugh and go "Ha. Ha." in his face. Well, not exactly like that, but it was the message Peter got. It was when he was back in the white room after their first "session" in the maze. He woke up to the pig-nosed face of Morbius staring at him.

Not the most gracious wake-up call, let me tell you.

It was a brief visit. Morbius acted smug, Peter was sarcastic, Morbius got mad, Peter got more sarcastic, and Morbius did that weird energy sucking thing of his that left Peter feeling like he just ran a 20-mile marathon, non-stop, with the Rhino strapped to his back. After that, Morbius graciously thanked Peter for his numerous "blood donations" and finished by shocking Peter into unconsciousness. When Peter woke up, the deranged scientist was gone.

Ugh, he was really starting to hate that guy. Like - a LOT. It was bad enough with that whole Carnage-fiasco thing and Morbius controlling the Carnage Queen (who had also, at the time, been his friend, Mary Jane Watson), but now the dude was making it a point to make his life a living (hell). Why, why, why, WHY?

And now, here he was. Running fiercely down the black trail of the maze with only the fluorescent lights above keeping him from running into a wall as he jumped, dodged, and bounced around to avoid the rubber bullets. They weren't fatal (unless they hit you in the eye, probably), but they still hurt like a ----

The cuffs on his wrists were weighing him down too. They were bigger now, and thick, and he could feel their constant hum of electricity clear through his white jumpsuit. They weren't a bother in the beginning, but after several shocks and who-knows-how-long, they seemed to be getting heavier and heavier each time he lifted his arms.

He wasn't sure how long he's been in this maze, but it felt like weeks. Time was paced in two ways with him now, either ticking at a slow pace or dragging on at an excruciatingly slow pace. And it was killing him!!!

How long did they expect him to keep moving like this? His spider-sense has almost become a constant tingling in his brain since arriving, to the point it was beginning to feel weird if it stopped for even a second. Certainly, they couldn't keep him going forever! Morbius always stopped after a while, but this session was definitely taking too long.

So what were they waiting for?

Peter jumped from wall to wall, flipping and twisting in the air as he rounded another bend. They took his webshooters away again, too. That was almost just as annoying. If he had them, he could've webbed up these stupid rubber-spitting holes ages ago. But, he supposed that defeated the point.