Spider-Man 2099 #11 — Nick Peron

Feb 22

Feb 22 Spider-Man 2099 #11

Under Siege

Two Public Eye officers have caught a young man spray painting anti-Alchemex graffiti on the wall. They are about to beat the graffiti artist when they are interrupted by Spider-Man. One of the Public Eye goons is looking forward to an encounter with the hero because he is wearing a SIEGE Unit, an enhanced suit of armor with strength boosters, additional weapons, and flying capabilities. These enhanced weapon capabilities keep Spider-Man on the defensive. Thing begin to look dire when the SIEGE Unit fires missiles that have locked onto Spider-Man, something the officer says the masked hero cannot escape.

While directly below the battle are Gabriel O'Hara meets with Dana D'angelo outside of the offices of Synthia for lunch. Gabirel was running late because he was spending time with his girlfriend Kasey Nash. When Dana expresses an interest in meeting Kasey, Gabriel tells her that Kasey stays Downtown since she is wanted by Alchemax.[1] He hopes that he can convince his brother Miguel to do something on Kasey's behalf. While above, Spider-Man manages to evade the missiles long enough to snag them in his webbing and directs them back at the Public Eye officer. Unfortunately, the missiles have no effect on the officer, who manages to snare the hero with a cable around his neck. Spider-Man is at the risk of being choked to death when a mysterious figure blasts a hole through the chest by a mysterious gun-toting man dressed as an ancient Roman Centurian. The dead Public Eye officer falls to the ground, landing right in front of Gabriel and Dana. They are horrified, particularly since a graffiti artist takes an opportunity to spray paint "Alchemax Bites" on his body. While back above, Spider-Man tries to get a good look at his mysterious rescuer. Unfortunately, the strange man has returned to his ship and it quickly flies away. All Spider-Man can see is the Greek symbol Ω detailed on the bottom of the craft.

Returning home to patch up his wounds, Miguel O'Hara tells his holographic assistant, Lyla, about the strange encounter. He tries to make sense of the encounter, and what the omega symbol might mean. When he asks Layla what she thinks, he reminds her that she is an artificial intelligence incapable of thinking like a person. He then rephrases what he is asking and asks her to give him an opinion. Lyla then tells her that if she were a human, she would tell him that she has fallen in love with him. This comes as a shock to Miguel who doesn't know how to respond to this revelation. He then tells her that he has to go to Alchemax and leaves Layla alone. With Miguel gone, she sits on a chair quietly waiting for him to return. When he arrives at the office, Miguel is upset to discover another scientist working in his lab. He learns that he is Jordan Boone, who had just been transferred from Euromax by Tyler Stone. This was not only because of Boone's Virtual Unreality project but his secondary expertise in genetics so he can give a second look at Miguel's work. Annoyed at this recent development, Miguel decides to go visit Tyler Stone to tell him how "grateful" he is about having Boone around. When Miguel goes up to Tyler's office to complain about Boone, he is surprised to see his fiancee Dana with Stone.

Tyler explains how he has gotten Dana to broker a deal between Alchemax and Synthia. She also tells him that Tyler has arranged for the pair to have a business trip to Alchemax's new floating city the next week. He and Dana then return to Miguel's lab and tells her that she needs to drop the Alchemax account because Tyler Stone is bad news. His warnings fall on deaf ears since this is good Dana's career. She also can't keep a straight face when Miguel puts his face on a microscope that has shoe polish smeared around its lenses. Meanwhile, the armored man who saved Spider-Man stands atop his ship gazing at the Nueva York skyline. He plans to take down Alechmax and bring them the Hell on Earth they richly deserve.