قطار ال

Chapter ten

The El train

Peter put on his Spider-Man clothes. They felt right. He wasn’t thinking about his problems now. He was only thinking about MJ. And now there was no problem with his webbing. He jumped off the roof of the Daily Bugle and swung through Manhattan. Spider-Man was back!

He swung through the tall buildings until he arrived at the Westside Tower. It was three o’clock and Doc Ock was waiting for him.

‘Where is she, ‘ called Spider-Man.

‘She’ll be fine,’ said Ock. ‘Let’s talk.’

A metal arm swung at Spider-Man from the right. Another swung from the left. Spider-Man was falling - fast! He shot some webbing onto the tower. Then he shot some webbing at Ock and pulled - hard! Ock and Spider-Man fell together… right onto the top of an El train!

Spider-Man and Doc Ock fought each other on top of the train. Ock broke the train windows and took two people with his metal arms.

He threw the people down to the street below. Spider-Man quickly made webs and caught the people. Then Ock moved to the front of the train. SMASH! One of his metal arms broke the front window of the train and the driver cried out. Then the arm broke the train controls. Now the train was going faster and faster. It was going to crash!

Spider-Man had to save the passengers - and Ock knew this. He smiled at Spider-Man and jumped off the train.

Spider-Man used his spider sense to look ahead. The end of the line was very near, and it was high above the water!

He shot webbing onto a building on one side, and a building on the other side. But the webbing just pulled off bits from both buildings. Then Spider-Man shot webbing onto every building. He held all the lines of webbing in his hands. His body was ready to break. The train reached the end of the line, and stopped just in time.

The passengers pulled Spider-Man into the train. They lifted him above their heads. Very carefully, they put him on the floor. Then, slowly, Peter opened his eyes. He saw lots of faces looking down at him.

Faces of men, women, and children. And Spider-Man was their hero. Slowly, Spider-Man stood up. But just then Doc Ock appeared! He pushed Spider-Man to the floor. And this time, Spider-Man couldn’t get up.

It was a stormy night and Harry was drinking in his father’s old room. Suddenly he turned around and Doc Ock was standing there - with Spider-Man in his arms.

Ock dropped Spider-Man onto a sofa. ‘And the tritium,’ he asked.

Harry unlocked a secret cupboard. A long metal arm pushed Harry away and took out the tritium. Then Ock disappeared quickly into the storm.

Harry moved slowly towards Spider-Man. He took a knife from his father’s desk. His face was white and angry. He lifted the knife above Spider-Man.

‘First let’s see your face,’ he said. ‘I can look into your eyes as you die.’

In the light from the storm Harry looked at the true face of Spider-Man. He stood back and dropped the knife.

‘Peter! No! It can’t be!’

Peter looked into Harry’s eyes. He got up quickly.

‘Harry,’ he said. ‘Where is she?’ Peter was only interested in one thing. ‘He’s got MJ!’

‘No,’ Harry couldn’t believe it. ‘He only wanted the tritium.’

‘Tritium,’ shouted Peter. ‘He’s building the reactor again! When that happens, she’ll die. And half of New York will die, too!’

‘Peter… you killed my father.’

‘There are bigger things happening right now,’ said Peter. ‘Harry, please! I have to stop him!’