Spidersona Week! Day 5: Archenemy (Minor ish spoilers)
“Every hero has an opposite. The yang to the yin. The antagonist to the protagonist. Basically the big bad pulling the strings behind the curtain. And even though I’m a newbie I was no exception to this universal rule.”
Marcus recalls the many times he’s gotten laid out by Peter’s original rogues galley. Electro fried his brains once, sandman got himself all cozy in Marcus’ boots, and even Mysterio gave a strong right hook with floating boxing gloves. But those were joke villains, they never actually tried to kill him until he met Tombstone...
“L. Thompson Lincoln. Pale skin, sharp teeth, and a strange taste for dark suits. He’s the white shark who runs illegal activities while playing dolphin with the press. He’s fooled the whole city with donations and forced smiles but they weren’t enough to fool me.”
Marcus had taken notes on the whispers he heard throughout the city. The goons too scared to say the name of the man they feared. It took multiple nights and a few torn up bars to figure out who was in control of the underground businesses. With Peter worrying about Fisk Marcus figured he’d take down Lincoln and prove his worth. If only he knew it wouldn’t be easy...
“With a name like Lonnie I thought he’d be easy pickings. A pale guy in a suit shouldn’t be able to handle someone with spider strength. But I learned the hard way that Lincoln didn’t enjoy playing games.”
The penthouse was nice. Large open living room, a piano in the far corner, and expensive paintings hung all along the walls. Marcus expected something fancy but this wasn’t what he envisioned.
Scaling up the building was easy and getting inside the home was even easier. The window was simply unlocked, meaning Lincoln must feel pretty comfortable in his own home. But when Marcus though he’d gotten in without tipping anyone off the main doors slammed open to reveal two beefy guards. They wore matching suits and carried some type of batons. Apparently they were the sparking kind.
Marcus glared at them but easily avoided their random swings, using his lean body to slip through the gaps between themselves. But not wanting to fool around Marcus quickly grabbed one of the men and webbed his hands together before throwing him towards the ceiling, firing more webbing to keep him up there. As for the second guard Marcus flawlessly jumped over him just fire two more Web lines at their back. As he was coming down he used his momentum to pick the guard off his feet and harshly slammed him into his stomach, knocking him unconscious.
“I’m not here to put the kids to bed. I want to know where Lincoln is.” Marcus demanded the first guard after jumping to the ceiling to start questing the outmatched goon. But before the man could get a word out a more deeper but calm voice spoke up, drawing in Marcus’ attention.
“You know I do take appointments. I dislike making people search for me.” Lincoln walked out from a corner with a blank expression. Unlike the guards he wore a more sleeker and expensive black suit. The rings on his fingers shined as the light reflected off them. Even from on the ceiling Marcus could tell this man was tall.
Abandoning the webbed up guard Marcus dropped to the ground to crouch a few inches away from Lincoln. “Yeah, and I dislike having to chase goons down on a weekend but here I am.”
Lincoln’s expression didn’t change as Marcus sassed him. His patients was one of his best traits. “What do you want Spider-Man?”
“The thugs on the streets gave you up, they revealed the true crime lord you keep hidden behind those fancy suits.” The young hero tried to make himself sound older and intimidating but it wasn’t exactly working the way he wanted. Even as he stood up to face off against Lincoln he realized that being 5’10 wasn’t really that tall. “I want you to cut all ties with the criminal empire. Including ones with Wilson Fisk.”
Lincoln actually reacted to that in a subtle way. He raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised that Marcus would know about their secretive partnership.
“This is the only warning I’m giving you Shark Bait. Back off or I’ll take you down.” Marcus clenches his fists and steps closer, letting himself become fully serious.
Lincoln’s sharp teeth pop out as he clenches them together, a glare forming onto his face. “I’ve been called many things throughout the years,” he too steps forward which makes Marcus take a step back, “but my favorite is Tombstone.” And with that being said he lunges at Marcus!
Even with spider sense going off Marcus wasn’t quick enough to avoid the right hook that had him seeing stars. Even as he stumbles back two more hits blindside him enough for Tombstone to kick him across the room.
Landing on a couch Marcus eyes widen as he sees Tombstone lift the entire thing up just to throw him across the room again. Luckily though he springs off the furniture to go into a swing, sticking out both his legs to kick the larger foe. But instead Tombstone grabs both his legs out of mid swing and slams him against a wall, sending cracks trailing up it. Without wasting time Tombstone did it again but this time slamming the poor hero right on top of the piano.
“I’ve had tougher men threaten me. Every single one of them thought they could cap me.” Tombstone released his grip on Marcus to tower over him yet again, cracking his knuckles. “The only thing they had in common was how they perished by my hands.”
Marcus winces but gets the energy to fire a shot of webbing into Tombstone’s face, blinding him for a hot second. With a strong push he’s able to jump out of the dent his body created in the instrument and deliver a more successful double kick. Tombstone falls into a wall and Marcus uses the opportunity to get in a few of his own hits. He gets in one good hook and uppercut before Tombstone slams his head against Marcus’.
“You just don’t get it kid.” Tombstone rips the webbing from his face before delivering a ground pound on Marcus, dropping him onto all fours. “I’ve gone toe to toe with the real Spider-Man and he’s never defeated me.”
Marcus tries to throw a punch but it’s caught by Tombstone easily. He squeezes hard enough to cause the hero to yell out in pain but not enough to break it. After all, this was the warning.
“Agh...shut up, I can beat-“ Marcus was interrupted by Tombstone heel kicking him through the air just to be stopped by the patio’s glass doors.
With body going numb Marcus simply went limp when the villain grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against the glass door, causing it to crack on impact. He would have lost all the air in his lungs if Tombstone wasn’t squeezing his neck so tightly.
A small grin forms when Marcus claws at Lincoln’s arm, trying hard to escape. Like a trapped bug. “Stick to the sidelines kid. Rough up a few bullies and save cats from Trees. Because as far as I can tell, you’re out of your league.”
With one last grunt Tombstone pulls Marcus back and slams him through the glass doors, shattering it into a million pieces. With little effort he tosses the young spider into the night sky to let him tumble through the air. He watched until the darkness swallowed up the defeated Spider-Man...
- Tombstone just as danger as Wilson Fisk. Due to playing the “victim” card the public doesn’t suspect illegal activities to be linked to him.
- Tombstone’s very daughter is secretly a villain as well, following in her fathers footsteps but not becoming as ruthless.
- His daughter actually has a minor crush on Marcus (whaaa spoilers)
- Tombstone doesn’t have the unbreakable skin like Luke cage but he is in fact overly strong and durable.
- Tombstone did in fact take down peter multiple times but out of respect he did hold back on doing violent crime. He’s now strictly a business man avoiding getting too much blood on his hands.
- Marcus only goes after Tombstone because he wants to help his mom rest up on some very draining cases.
A/N: Sooo Tombstone has always been one of my favorite villains. Every since I was a kid Lonnie Thompson Lincoln was the coolest pale faced-leather wearing mercenary ever. I only began to love him more after the spectacular Spider-Man cartoon which I based this version of him off of. Except here he’s more violent and deadly, matching Fisk’s brutality while keeping his calm personality. But in the end I can only thank @spideymultiverse so much for making this week amazing. You’ve helped me construct this Spidersona with your prompts and that’s the best thing ever. I hope everyone reading this enjoys the story, I wouldn’t be anything without you guys.
