Peter sat perched on top of one of his usual spots, scanning the streets below him. It was a quiet night - so far he'd only come across two crimes to stop. As his thoughts continued to wander, something in an alley below him caught his attention.
A girl was walking down the alley by herself, and she couldn't have been much older than Peter. She was walking slowly and scanned the area as if she was looking for something. Peter knew that the alley didn't lead anywhere and was about to help the girl out, when he spotted someone else. A man had turned down the alley and was trailing the girl. When he pulled something out of his coat pocket, Peter sprung into action.
Before Peter even landed on the ground the girl had spun around, and her eyes widened at the two of them. Focusing on the strange man, Peter glared when he smirked at them.
"Ah," The man began. "how lucky am I? Spider-Man and our little escapee in one place." Escapee? The girl didn't seem dangerous.
"How did you find me?" She asked.
He laughed. "We know the Avengers infiltrated the base you were at; we figured you'd be somewhere in New York. Hydra is not full of idiots, my dear."
Hydra. "What do you want with her?" Peter asked.
"She is nothing but an experiment, boy, and she's coming with me."
So that's it; the poor girl was captured by Hydra. Peter knew about what they did, and it was all he needed to hear before landing a punch to the man's jaw.
He stumbled, but was up again quickly and pulled out a knife. He swiped at Peter several times, and he managed to dodge them all. The man did however get a hold of Peter's left wrist, and was strong enough to damage and disable the web shooter. Eventually Peter landed a kick to the man's stomach and sent him flying backwards, to the side and the knife up in the air.
Peter let his guard down for just a moment, making sure the knife didn't land on anyone, when he heard the girl gasp loudly from behind him. When he turned around, the man had a gun pointed in her direction and promptly fired.
Peter acted as quick as he could - he ran and pushed her out of the way, sending them both crashing to the ground. She seemed to be unhurt, but he suddenly felt a stinging in his left calf. Looking down, he was surprised to not see a bullet wound, but a dart stuck in his leg.
Whatever was in the dart, it was making him dizzy. His vision blurred and things around him seemed to be spinning. For it to act that fast and to even work on him period, it had to be strong.
"No!" He heard the girl, who was sitting next to him shout. The man then shot another dart, this time hitting his intended target in the upper arm.
The last thing Peter saw before he passed out was the man's retreating, blurry figure.
"We'll meet again, Macey. And you as well, Spider-Man."
"What do you mean she's gone?"
"Exactly that, sir. She left the tower late last evening and requested that I did not inform you."
"Do you have any idea where she was going?"
"No, sir. She did not inform me."
"Well, that's just dandy!" Tony yelled, prompting eye-rolls from several others in the room.
"It's not like she was a prisoner, Tony. She was free to leave whenever she wanted." Bruce reasoned.
"We still don't know what she's capable of." Natasha added.
"Yes." Thor said. "What if she's dangerous?"
"She didn't seem it." Steve said.
"Something is definitely up with her." Wanda added. "There's no possible way she could have escaped her holding cell without... something."
"Friday, pull up footage of Macey's room from last night."
"I cannot do that, sir. Mr. Rogers requested those cameras to be shut off for last night."
Tony gaped at Steve. "I'm sorry, you did what?"
"She deserved her privacy, and I knew you'd record her!"
"Yeah, and because I didn't, we have no idea where she is!"
"Excuse me, sir. But I do have some footage of Macey, from the outside of the building." Friday didn't wait for a response before pulling up a large screen. The Avengers watched intently as security footage was displayed not from the front of the building, but instead the side. The video clearly shows Macey as she leans over the edge of her bedroom window. At first it appears as if she is going to fall out, but then she begins scaling down the side of the tower using nothing but her hands and feet. The video ends when she reaches the sidewalk, and promptly runs out of view of the camera.
"What the hell?" Sam asked. Everyone was staring at the screen with confused looks on their faces.
"How did she do that?" Clint asked.
"And why does it look so familiar?" Bruce asked, furrowing his brow.
"Because you've seen it done before." Everyone turned around, surprised to hear Nick Fury's voice and see him exiting an elevator and walking towards them.
"We've seen it done before?" Steve asked.
Fury nodded. "All over the news. Friday, pull up recent news footage of Spider-Man."
The screen quickly changed to news reports, and several different videos of Spider-Man played. Sure enough, he could be seen scaling walls in several of them.
"The creepy crawling vigilante?"
"I wouldn't be so quick to brand him that, Stark. While you're lying on a beach somewhere he's out in the streets of New York stopping crime and saving innocent people's lives daily."
"Maybe. But he doesn't look at the bigger picture."
Fury rose an eyebrow. "Oh? Have you all forgotten the incident with that electro dude and the Green Goblin not too long ago? What about the lizard incident before that?"
No one responded so Fury continued. "Records show that in both of those incidents, only one or two civilian casualties were reported. He did it all by himself, while half of you were nowhere to be found."
"So where are you going with this?"
"We analyzed the records taken from the most recent Hydra base you infiltrated. Records show that they somehow managed to obtain a DNA sample from Spider-Man himself, and used it to duplicate his abilities on Macey. We've kept somewhat of an eye on him but haven't ever brought him in because he doesn't appear to be a threat, and he also seems on the young side."
"What do you mean you've kept somewhat of an eye on him?" Bruce asked.
Fury sighed. "He's.. slippery. He swings high above street cameras, crawls into hiding spots, and wears a mask. He's constantly evading the police so there's not one record on the guy."
"Impressive." Natasha said.
"Macey however, is a different story. We don't know one-hundred percent if she's a threat or not, so you need to find her. And I can bet you any money that if you find Spider-Man, you find Macey."
Fury makes a point to look each Avenger in the eye before continuing. "Quite frankly, this isn't up for debate. You'll find her, and maybe if you're lucky you can bring Spider-Man in too."
"And if we can't?" Tony began. "You said yourself that he's slippery."
"Like I said," Fury stepped into the elevator again. "Not up for debate."
Peter opened his eyes, squinting and blinking at the bright light. After taking a few seconds he quickly realized he was wearing his mask, and shot up into a sitting position. He was deep into an alley, behind some abandoned building and thankfully out of view. After looking around he realized that he wasn't alone - the girl from the alley last night was unconscious next to him.
He began to lightly shake her. "Hey. Hey, wake up."
She stirred slightly, then blinked a couple of times before opening her eyes completely. When she saw him, she gasped.
He put his hands up. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you. Are you alright?"
She nodded. "You're Spider-Man."
"I am. What's your name?"
"Macey. I was.. I was actually looking for you last night."
The only people that were usually looking for him were the police, so that was different. "You were? What for?"
She paused for a moment. "You see, something happened to me.." She trailed off, playing with her hands when she appeared to notice something on her wrist. Her eyes widened and she grabbed it, jumping up as well.
"What, what is this?" She began walking down the alley towards the street. Peter wanted to follow her, but they couldn't exactly talk out in public. He ran to her and wrapped his right arm around her, quickly shooting them up onto the roof of the building.
When he let go of her, she was still holding onto her wrist and staring at it in shock. "What's the matter?" He asked.
She shook her head. "This wasn't here yesterday. I don't understand how it happened."
Peter was still confused. "How what happened?"
Her grip on her wrist loosened, and she moved her fingers around. As she did, she mindlessly placed her ring and middle finger down to her palm. As soon as she did, a string of web shot out from her wrist and attached itself to a nearby railing. It caused her and Peter to gasp, and she stared at it for a moment before shaking the web off.
Peter was stunned. He'd never seen anyone do that besides himself, and this girl in front of him that he'd never even met just did it. Then he realized, she didn't have any web shooters on her wrists.
He took a cautious step towards her. "Was that... a natural ability?"
She looked at him. "It wasn't yesterday."
"How?"
She sighed. "Remember last night, when that man said I was an experiment? This is what they did to me."
It all suddenly hit Peter like a train. The man from Hydra that had knifed him several nights ago must have wanted a blood sample so that they could attempt to duplicate his powers - and it worked.
Peter looked at her sadly as she continued. "That's why I wanted to find you. You're the only other person on this planet that knows what's happened to me. But this.. web. I discovered my abilities yesterday, and I couldn't do that."
"I don't have natural web." Peter said. "I built these web shooters." He moved to show her, but his eyes widened when he saw that one of them was broken.
"I'm confused though." The girl said. "I'm pretty sure you grabbed me with your right arm, and shot the web from your left wrist."
"That's what I thought, too.." He trailed off, removing the damaged web shooter and placing it on the ground. Slowly, he pushed his glove down a bit and revealed two small slits that formed an X. Beneath his skin, a white substance was somewhat visible. The girl placed one of her wrists next to his, and hers looked the same.
"Holy..." When he gained his abilities, he sure as hell didn't have that.
"I'm guessing that's new for you, too?"
He nodded, still staring at his wrist. Wanting to test his, he promptly pressed his ring and middle finger down to his palm. Sure enough, and string of web shot out.
He turned to the girl. "How did this happen?"
She shook her head. "I don't know for sure. But I'll bet you anything that those darts that Hydra asshole shot at us have something to do with it."
That made Peter chuckle, and it was a genuine laugh he hadn't had in a while. He liked this girl. "You know, a while ago someone told me something important - with great power, comes great responsibility."
"That's a very wise statement."
Peter nodded. "Yeah, I thought so too. So if you're up for it, I can help you use your abilities for good."
Macey took a moment to think. She'd never really considered using her new powers to fight crime like Spider-Man did - but then she thought about what he'd said again. With great power, comes great responsibility. With that, she made her decision.
"I'm in."
And that's the end of chapter two!
Next, the Avengers will finally see Macey again and meet Spider-Man himself. We'll also learn a bit about Macey's family and personal life.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and thank you for reading!
Chapter three will be up soon!
