Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Two Mercs, One Mouth

Spider-Man arrived on the roof of the precinct, and saw Yuri waiting for him.

"So, what's up?"

"We received a strange letter," she answered. "It's addressed to you."

"To me?" Spidey asked as he took it and opened it up.

Inside was a phone, which instantly rang and the caller ID said "Number Blocked".

Reluctantly, Spidey answered and put it on speaker, "Hello?"

"Hello Spider-Man," A deep male voice responded. It sounded cold, calculating and professional. "Glad to see the police gave you my package."

"Who is this?" Spidey asked.

"Wrong question. You should be asking, "Can you stop the bombs I've planted"?"

"What?!" Spidey questioned. "What bombs?!"

The mystery caller didn't respond, then the phone showed a map of the city and three red triangles with exclamation points spread out at different locations.

"Tick-tock, better hustle," The mystery caller taunted before hanging up.

"Should I radio the bomb squad?" Yuri asked.

"There's not enough time," he answered. "The bombs aren't far and are close to each other."

Yuri nodded, "Go!"

Spidey swung away and headed toward the first location. Once he got to it, he immediately found the bomb, then threw it into the air with his webs!

'Hope this works...!' He then fired several web-balls at it, to try to contain the explosion. Thankfully, it worked!

"Phew!" he sighed in relief. "That was way too close." He did the same thing for the other two bombs, with 30 seconds to spare on the countdown.

Before he could start to feel good about it, the mystery caller spoke into his comms,
"Nice work with the bombs, but you lean into your throw too much. Hurts the accuracy."

"Is this some kind of sick game to you?" Spidey questioned with some fury in his voice.

"Games are for kids. I'm a professional, and I get paid like it."

"Guess your client wasted money," Spidey refuted.

"Sometimes information is worth more than money, and I've learned plenty from watching you. Oh, by the way, you can call me...Taskmaster. I'll be in touch." Then the line went dead.

"Dammit...!" Spidey cursed. "Just what I need; another stalker."

If he wanted to understand this guy, he needed information. So, he called Ned, "Hey Peter, what's up?"

"I just had some mystery man make me defuse three bombs," he responded. "But it was like he wanted to see how I'd do; like a test run."

"That's seriously fucked-up," Ned winced. "Did he give a name?"

"Yeah, search the name 'Taskmaster'."

"Taskmaster? Because he left you a task to complete?" Ned snickered.

"Ned, this isn't funny! Seriously, this could be bad! What if someone's life is in danger!" Spidey shouted.

"Dude, calm down! Did you give any indication that someone was in danger?"