Return of the Spider-Gwen Chapter 2, a spider-man fanfic

At 9:30 the next morning, Gwen and Peter came out of the kitchen and bathroom respectively wearing their Spider suits under their clothes. They entered the living room to find María wearing a flat purple outfit with a black symbol of chaos on the front and back.

"Wow." Gwen said.

"You look great." Peter added.

María beamed. "Gracias."

Katie put a hand up. "I helped her with the design, but that much purple was her idea."

"Well, it goes with your eyes." Peter commented.

"Is that the symbol of chaos?" Gwen asked, pointing at it.

María nodded. "I'm a fuerza de la naturaleza - a force of nature. Nature is chaotic."

Peter shrugged. "Makes sense to me."

There was a moment of silence, then Gwen asked "So what's the plan?"

María sighed as she put a pair of pants and a shirt on over her costume. "The Elemental often strikes several times in a short period of time. We should go downtown and see if he tried anything today."

Katie sat down at the computer desk and woke up their computer, then pulled up a map of the area. "Right now it's about a three minute drive or a ten minute walk downtown."

"Okay." María replied. "We should probably drive."

Katie opened a drawer and pulled out a touchscreen police radio scanner. "Did you guys bring earbuds?" She asked.

"Shit." Peter smacked his thigh. "I knew we forgot something."

"That's alright." Katie pulled out several sets of earbuds and handed a pair to María. "We have a crapload of them." She gave two pairs to Gwen, who handed one to Peter.

"So, you're like María's girl in the chair." Peter said.

Katie thought for a moment. "Basically, yeah." She pulled up a video from the news report.

"A group of armed men robbed the United Bank of El Paso today." The anchor said. "Eyewitnesses report that the gunmen were led by the man known as the Elemental. They are believed to have gotten away with over $500 million in cash. At this time, no one is known to have been hurt."

"Should we start at the bank?" Gwen asked. "Or is that kinda pointless since they'd be stupid to go back there?"

"Probably pointless." María replied, grabbing her car keys. "We can always find somewhere to park and go from there."

Katie looked at the map. "Here. There's a parking lot on the corner of East Missouri Avenue and North Mesa Street. Two blocks Northwest and two blocks Southwest of the bank."

María pulled up the map on her phone. "Found it."

Peter opened the map on his phone as well. "Why are there so many churches in El Paso?"

María chuckled. "You should see the other side of the border. Same thing. Apostolic, Christian, Catholic, Pentacostal, all within a mile of each other."

Gwen chuckled. "And people think we're so different."

"You guys should get going." Katie said. "I'll update you when I get more info."

Gwen, Peter, and María headed outside and got into the purple SUV. A few minutes later María pulled into the parking lot. They removed the clothes from over their suits and put on their masks. María's was the same shade of purple as her super suit that covered the top half of her head. She pulled a snake camera out of the glove compartment and tucked it into her mask. The trio got out, and Peter looked around and commented "Not a lot of tall buildings."

"Yeah, sorry about that." María said with a shrug. "If you want somewhere high up to perch and keep an eye out, there's a government office right there," She pointed to a tall white building nearby. "But the Tax Office is probably the best option."

"Lead the way." Gwen replied.

María rose into the air and flew off. Gwen and Peter fired webs and followed her. Soon they landed on the roof of the Tax Office and took in their surroundings.

"Hey guys." Katie's voice said in their ears. "How's the view?"

"See for yourself." María turned on her camera. "Is it working?"

"Yep." Katie replied. "There's a couple pictures of you guys on social media. Sooner than I expected, but whatever."

Over the next few hours, the trio took turns patrolling the area while Katie kept tabs on social media, police communications, and the news. At one point Peter stopped an attempted mugging, but otherwise it was uneventful.

Around 3:30, they were taking a break when Katie exclaimed "Guys, I got something. Cops just got a call. Three armed men and a woman just entered the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel and went upstairs."

"How tall is the building?" Peter asked as he fired a web to follow María.

"14 stories." Katie replied as Gwen and Peter swung around a tall, skinny building with a green roof and over Texas Ave before landing on the roof of a shorter white building.

"We need a plan." María said.

"I'll start at the top and work my way down." Gwen said as she and Peter fired webs and swung up to the roof of an L-shaped building next to the Postal Service building. "Peter, you start at the bottom and go up. María, overwatch. Hover outside and keep an eye out."

"Copy that." María said.

The web slingers ran across the L-shaped building. They fired webs and launched themselves up to the roof of the government office building María had pointed out earlier. Reaching the other side, they saw the hotel a couple blocks away diagonally, but there were no tall buildings between it and the building they were on. Acting on instinct, they fired webs at the edge of the roof, backed up, and slingshotted themselves over a city block and onto the Kalavera Culture Shop, a shorter building next to the hotel. Gwen swung up onto the hotel roof, Peter swung down to the ground and went in a back entrance, and María hovered about halfway up the building, scanning the windows for movement.

"First floor clear." Peter reported.

"Fourteen is clear." Gwen said a moment later.

María slowly moved around the building, continuing to watch the windows.

"Floor two clear." Peter said. "Every room has an open door."

"Thirteen's clear." Gwen said.

María continued scanning the windows while Peter and Gwen checked more floors. After several long minutes, movement at the edge of her vision alerted María. She looked closer and saw three people searching a room they had just broken into. The left the room, and a minute later they burst into a room on the next floor up.

"I see them!" She exclaimed. "They finished checking the fifth floor and just started on six!"

"Copy that. On my way up to five." Peter replied.

"Heading down to ten." Gwen said.

Peter raced up to the sixth floor, stopping to slow his breathing. He carefully opened the stairwell door and peeked out. About a third of the way down the hall, a Mexican man stood in the hallway, holding an assault rifle and wearing a bulletproof vest over a gray t-shirt. A moment later two more men and a woman came out of a room and walked across the hall. The man that appeared to be the leader wore a dark green trench coat, the third man wore a navy blue hoodie, and the woman wore a camo jacket. The group walked down the hall to the next room, and the man in the green trench coat used telekinesis to break down the door. This time the three men went inside to search room while the woman stayed outside. Peter waiter until her back was to him, then quietly opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, but she immediately spun on her heel and aimed her rifle at him.

"Guys!" She shouted. "Spider-Man is here!"

"Very funny Night Fox!" A man's voice shouted from inside the room.

Night Fox rolled her eyes. "See for yourself!"

The men returned. The one in the navy blue hoodie aimed his rifle at Peter. The one in the green trench coat stepped forward with a surprised look on his face.

"I'll be damned." He put his hands on his hips. "It is Spider-Man."

"You must be the Elemental." Peter said.

The man nodded. "That's me, but you can call me Jonah. What the hell are you doing in El Paso?"

Peter shrugged. "Vacation. Happened to be in the neighborhood when you started...whatever you're doing here."

Jonah chuckled. "It's funny you should mention that, because we're going to continue what we're doing, and if you come any closer we'll open fire."

Peter sighed and put his hands behind his head. "Fine."

Jonah and the man in the gray t-shirt resumed checking rooms while Night Fox and the man in the blue hoodie kept their guns trained on Peter. After the fourth room, Jonah walked across the hall to the fifth, and when he broke this one down he was greeted by several gunshots, one of hit him in the torso. He stumbled back and took cover while the man in the gray t-shirt returned fire with his rifle. Peter heard several rounds hit something squishy.

A moment later, several things happened in less than ten seconds. At the other end of the hall, Gwen stepped out into the hallway and fired a web at Jonah. Night Fox reacted faster than humanly possible, grabbing shoulder and pulling him out of the way. The man in the gray t-shirt turned to aim at Gwen, but a second web from her snatched the rifle from his grasp. Peter fired two webs in quick succession, one at Night Fox and one at Jonah. Night Fox pulled out a knife and cut the first web half a second after it hit her. The second web missed Jonah and hit the forehead of the man in the blue hoodie. Peter yanked hard, making the man fall on his face. Night Fox fired a round at Peter, who leapt up and stuck to the ceiling to avoid it. Outside, María used her telekinesis to grab Jonah and Laura's guns and pull them out the window of the hotel room they had just fired into, then floated into the room through the window. Peter dropped to the ground.

Seeing María, Jonah charged at her, tackling her out the window and into a pool on the roof one floor down. María instinctively formed an air pocket around her before impact and when they hit the water it sounded like a 50-foot tall person open-palm slapping another 50-foot tall person.

Inside, Night Fox shouted "Blackout, now!"

The man in the blue hoodie rose to his feet and snapped his fingers. A second later all power in the building went out, along with Gwen, Peter, and María's earbuds. Peter heard the sound of something flying through the air at him and dropped to the floor, but the knife still grazed his left shoulder. There was a loud noise that sounded like a boulder breaking through the floor, and Night Fox and the two men dropped through a hole in the floor. There were four more identical sounds. Peter and Gwen jumped down the holes, but when they reached the ground floor and ran outside the group was gone. A moment later María landed next to them, panting.

"I've fought him before, but never hand-to-hand." She explained. "He is very strong, and fast."

"Did you see where they went?" Gwen asked.

María shook her head. "Nothing."

"We should head back." Peter said. "I think Blackout fired an EMP."

The moment they opened the door to María's apartment and stepped inside, María was practically tackled by Katie.

"You're okay!" Katie exclaimed, hugging María tightly. "Everything cut out all at once! I freaked out because I thought there had been an explosion."

"Estoy bien, está bien." María assured Katie, rubbing her back. "We think it was an EMP."

"I was scared I lost you." Katie kissed María, then hugged her again. "Te quiero."

"I love you too." María said softly.

They hugged for a moment, then Katie laughed.

"I'm sorry." She said, looking at Gwen and Peter. "I'm glad you guys are okay too."

Gwen chuckled and looked down, then back at Katie and María. "It's alright, we've had more than our fair share of those moments."

Peter nodded. "I wish I could say you get used to it."

After discussing what happened, María donned her super suit and brought the footage from her snake camera to the police.

The next morning, they turned on the news to see if there were any updates.

"Violence broke out at the border last night, and for once, it did not involve Mexican immigrants." The anchor said. "Two American border guards were killed when they confronted a group of criminals attempting to flee to Mexico. A pair of Mexican guards were also killed when they fired on the criminals' vehicle after it broke through the barrier. Additional footage supplied to the police by the superhero vigilante La Fuerza shows the criminals breaking into a man's hotel room and gunning him down after he fired at them in self-defense. The victim has been identified as Damien Wallace, a retired US Army Colonel." A picture of a black man in an Army uniform appeared on the screen. "The group activated some sort of EMP that allowed them to escape. According to La Fuerza, one of the criminals, the man known as The Elemental, referred to himself as 'Jonah,' but his identity is not currently known. Mexican law enforcement has identified one of the men as Javier Martinez, a former Mexican Federal Police officer." A picture of the man in the gray t-shirt appeared. "Martinez was declared MIA and presumed dead two years ago when a drug raid he was a part of resulted in a shootout and ended with an explosion that destroyed the entire house. The identities of the third man and the woman are not yet known, but according to La Fuerza they were referred to as 'Blackout' and 'Night Fox'. More on this story as it develops."

Peter sighed. "Looks like we might be here a while."

"We'll have to go into Mexico." María added. "You guys brought your passports, right?"

Gwen nodded. "Yeah, I made sure of it."

Katie perked up. "Wait, that means I'm coming with, right?"

María smiled and kissed Katie on the forehead. "Sí. No te voy a dejar atrás."

"Yes!" Katie pumped her fist. "I'll go get changed." She left the room.

Gwen and Peter looked at María. "Changed?"

María shrugged. "Sometimes she comes with to help in person."

Katie returned a few minutes later wearing an orange mask that was otherwise the same as María's and tan t-shirt that said "My better half is a superhero" in bold black letters. She had a light gray hoodie hung over her arm.

María blushed lightly when she saw the t-shirt. "That shirt? Really?"

"Really." Katie replied. "I'll change shirts if you go somewhere out of costume."

María sighed. "Alright. Let's go."