All in a Night's Work

Gwen lined up her eye with the crack left by the slightly ajar door and peered into the facility's lab. She nearly sighed at the sight of the big, purple shoulder hunched over a computer. Oh, this was going to be fun. Pulling the door open just enough to slip into the lab, Gwen attached herself to the wall next to it and climbed up it and then onto the ceiling. Creeping across the room until she was hanging above the Prowler, Gwen shot off a stream of webbing at the computer, covering its screen and keyboard.

"Don't you think you're a little above breaking into labs to steal their data?" Gwen asked the Prowler as his head shot up to look at her.

His eyes narrowed at Gwen as he unsheathed his laser-claws and swiped them at her.

Skittering backward, Gwen complained, "Hey! Just because I'm right isn't a good reason to jab your claws at me!"

He ignored her in favor of using his claws again in an attempt to knock her off the ceiling.

Gwen dodged his attack for a second time and shot webbing at his hand in an attempt to turn his claws null and clog up the gun she knew he wasn't far from trying to engage. "Come on, Prowler, we both know under all that armor and behind those claws you're just a big softie," she teased as she tried to lead him closer to the lab's door and out into the hall where she'd have him chase her down the hall so she could trap him in the spiderweb she'd created around the corner of it. Though, Gwen already knew she was going to have to change up the end-part of her plans now that she knew who'd broken in. She wasn't going to leave the Prowler here to be taken in by the police. Gwen didn't know if Jefferson knew about his brother's alt-identity, but she was sure Miles didn't and the last thing she wanted to do was ruin his image of his favorite uncle.

Backing up further and ever closer to the door as Prowler worked the webbing off his claws, she complained, "If you keep this up, you're going to force me to stop you. I can't overlook what you're doing just because you've done a couple of good deeds."

His claws came free from her webbing just as she got herself to where the ceiling met the wall. Without a moment of hesitation, he swung at her. "Oh boy," Gwen muttered before doing some twisty acrobatics to avoid them and swing herself out of the lab and into the hallway. Once there, Gwen started to race down the hall, leaping from the floor to the wall to the ceiling as the Prowler and his claws dogged her every step. When she turned the corner into the hallway where her webbing was, Gwen prepared herself. Running as fast as she could, she dove through the hole sized for her in the middle of her webbing and twisted around just in time to fill it in as the Prowler ran face first into her trap and got stuck in it with his limbs all askew on either side of him.

"Gotcha!" Gwen crowed before beginning the meticulous work of breaking down the web's anchor points and wrapping the excess webbing over prowler until he looked more like a nearly finished chrysalis with only his hands and head sticking out. Feeling it was now safe to do so, Gwen began to poke and prod at the Prowler's gauntlets. Expectedly, he growled and did his best to fight the webbing. However, it was futile. Gwen had visited Aunt May for extra help to make sure this webbing would be especially durable. "Ah-ha!" Gwen said upon finding the gauntlet's catches and releasing them. Bundling the pair together with some webbing, she then attached the pair to the Prowler's cocoon. She then fashioned herself a handle and began the slow work of dragging Prowler out of the faculty.

As they made their way through the halls, she apologized, "Sorry about all of this, I know it's got to be embarrassing for you to be dragged around by a girl – spider enhanced or not – but this is what I gotta do if you don't want the police to arrest you."

The Prowler ceased his fighting a moment and when Gwen glanced back, she saw he was staring at her and could tell, even with his mask, he was shocked. She bet that wasn't what he'd expected her to say. She nearly chuckled, but thought better of it. He might get the wrong idea if she did something like that. Instead, Gwen settled for smirking behind her mask and continued the trek out of the business in silence. Once they were outside and she'd maneuvered the Prowler out of the window she'd broke to get into the building initially, she crawled up the short length to the roof and pulled Prowler on up beside her.

For a brief moment, she crouched on the roof's ledge and told the Prowler, "I'm gonna take you a few blocks over to this alleyway I know you won't be bothered in and leave you there. The webbing will dry out and weaken enough for you to break it come morning."

The Prowler, of course, had nothing to say in reply. Instead, he just glared at her, making sure she knew he was extremely angry with her— Not that Gwen cared. She'd done what she needed to. She had stopped him from stealing from this facility and she was even going against her better judgment and letting him get off relatively scot-free. Shooting some fresh webbing at the Prowler so she could swing him along with her, Gwen began the trip over to the alleyway she planned to dump him into. However, after swinging a couple of blocks, her Spidey-sense began to tingle.

"Aw, come on," she complained. Turning back to look down at the Prowler who was stiff as a board from what she assumed was fear as they flew through the air, she yelled, "Sorry! We've got to make a quick stop! Someone's in trouble down there!" Swinging them to ground level, she propped the Prowler up in some shadows by the edge of a building. "I'll be back," she promised him. Casting her gaze out on the street, it didn't take her long at all to spy a woman who was being followed by a couple of men. Gwen frowned and swore, "Fuckers." With no time to waste, Gwen looked up and shot some webbing at the corner of a building and swung down the street until she was just behind the men who were closing in on the now clearly panicking woman.

Jumping down all but on top of the men, she punched one in the head and swept the feet out from the under when he lunged at her. With them now both on the ground, she shot webbing at the two. Once they realized they were truly stuck, the bigger of the two began to cuss her out. Annoyed, she shot just enough webbing at the man to cover the would-be criminal's mouth. "Like you have any right to curse me out," she chided. " You were about to commit a crime." She eyed the other criminal a moment, but he appeared smarter than his partner as he kept his eyes averted and his trap firmly shut. Satisfied, Gwen nodded to herself before turning to the woman.

"Thank you, Spider-Woman—!"

Gwen put up a hand before she could say more. "I'm just doing my job," she said.

Tears in her eyes, the woman nodded.

Looking around, Gwen asked her, "Where are you going? Is it far? I could walk you the rest of the way."

"It's just two blocks," she answered. "I swear I ain't usually stupid enough to walk home on my own. The coworker I typically go home with had to leave work early 'cause her father fell down the stairs at their building. Nothing usually happens when we walk home and I'm trying to save money for my baby's birthday so I didn't wanna call a taxi…"

Gwen nodded along. "I understand," she assured the poor, rattled woman. "You didn't know it would be one of those not-safe days."

Relief softened the woman's eyes and she smiled. "If you really don't mind, I'd like if you could walk with me."

"Yeah! No problem!" Gwen agreed. Then, remembering the Prowler was waiting for her just a block away, she swore, "Shit!" Looking back to the woman, she said, "Sorry. I just almost forgot something. I'll be back in a flash, okay?" she said before darting off to get the prowler. Once back at his side, she said to him, "Hey, I gotta walk this lady to her apartment building. Do you wanna wait here or have me drag you along?"

The Prowler stared at Gwen, his disbelief very evident to her.

She sighed loudly. "Come on, you can shake your head! Yes or no?"

He made an angry huffing sound, but nodded all of the same. That was probably the smartest choice, she noted. If there were some thugs hanging around to hurt a lone woman walking home, who knew who else was around and what they might do with a bound up Prowler? Grabbing onto the handle she'd made earlier with her webbing, Gwen dragged him down the street with her. Even with Gwen's enhanced strength, it wasn't easy. The Prowler was just so big and bulky since he couldn't help her, being webbed-up and all, he was basically dead weight she was lugging along.

When she came up to the lady she helped just minutes before, Gwen saw there was a fresh look of panic on her face as she stared at the Prowler over her shoulder. Gwen jutted her thumb at him and told the woman, "Don't worry about this guy. He's contained!"

She didn't look entirely convinced by her words, but bobbed her chin and said, "Okay."

As Gwen walked her down the street, she decided to try and make some chit-chat to ease the tension. "You said your baby's birthday is coming up? How old are they going to be?"

"Comfort turns eight in two weeks," she answered. "She wants to go rollerblading with a friend at the rink and a new Bratz doll to play with…"

A few minutes later, when they reach the woman's, who Gwen had learned in the couple of minutes they were together was named Lisa, apartment building, she waved at her as Lisa went and unlocked the front door and let herself in.

"See ya!" she called after the woman. "I'll swing around this way some time to see how Comfort's birthday went!"

Lisa grinned at her, cheeks dimpling in the process. "Thanks, Spider-Woman, I look forward to it! Bye now!"

Once Lisa was safely inside, Gwen turned to the Prowler and said, "See? When you're a hero, people smile at you and look forward to running into you again!"

The Prowler only turned his face away and scoffed.

Gwen sighed. "Well, anyway, let's get you to that alleyway."

Soon after they were in the air once again. After several minutes of swinging from rooftop to rooftop, Gwen dropped them down between a pair of highrises. There, she settled the Prowler behind a dumpster beneath one highrise's fire escape. When done, she stepped back from him and said, "There."

He only glowered.

She ignored it in favor of saying, "The stuff should be brittle enough for you to break out of come five-ish I'd say. No one should bother you, this is a nice enough neighborhood and the garbage truck comes later in the morning." Nodding to herself, Gwen turned and shot off a web at the streetlight across the street. "Oh!" she exclaimed while turning to face the Prowler one last time.

"I did leave a nice note for the facility's security about what was happening when I showed up and that they should bring in some police consultant or whatever to look over their building for weak-spots and stuff. I imagine breaking and entering won't be so easy the next time you try— If you had planned to anyway." She waved at the now-enraged Prowler. "See ya around!" Gwen yelled before swinging off into the night. As she swung down the street she decided she would patrol a few more streets before heading home to study for her French vocab quiz tomorrow and practice her dance a bit for the recital she had at the end of the month.

Here's a little more Prowler and Spider-Woman for you. How did you like it?

Thanks for reading!