Wednesday night, about 10 PM
After storming out of Dr. West's office that afternoon, Bobby had flown from Yonkers in the general direction of New York City, the city with more superheroes than anywhere in the world. He spent several hours soaring above the skyline, too angry to think about anything other than getting above the world. He didn't feel sick, but the doctor had been very sure of himself.
He spent several hours just practicing his flight. He didn't know HOW exactly his powers worked. It seemed if he could imagine it clearly enough, he could make his body do it. He spent an hour or so flying alongside jets leaving the JFK International airport, waving at the passengers. The little kids waving back happily did make him feel better. Captain Hero did a flying corkscrew for one group of kids on a British Air flight, and he was pretty sure he had seen some of them clapping.
He didn't want to get sick. He definitely didn't want to die. But it helped to know that maybe he was going to be able to do a few cool things first.
He stood atop the Flatiron Building and watched the sun go down. He changed back to his plain old normal 12-year-old Bobby Wright self, stood on the edge of the roof, and thought about what he was going to do next.
Spiderman was on one of his nightly patrol routes. He did his best to mix them up, to avoid being predictable. Tonight was one of his favorites. Three times around Central park, then south around Times Square twice. Then to the top of the Empire State Building, south through Koreatown, and around the Flatiron District in a zig-zag pattern, ending up going east to Stuyvesant Town. It gave him a good mix of environments, heavy population density, and at least guaranteed him one chance to help someone in need every time he went that route. Plus it was one of his routes he could run and jump roof top to rooftop for almost the whole time. Web fluid wasn't cheap, after all.
Scurrying along the side of the Flatiron Building, his spider sense gave a small tingle in the back of his neck. Somewhere close was something powerful enough to be a potential threat… not a flat out danger, more like a heads up to not be careless. "Maybe I better take to the high ground and see what's around. Could be nothing, or could be that The Sandman's getting a Jamba Juice across the street. Worth a look anyways."
As he got to the edge of the roof, he felt a sudden shock. A young blond boy in a red t-shirt and blue jeans was standing on the far edge of the building, and looked like he could step over the edge any second! The kid hadn't seemed to hear him. From past experience, Spiderman knew that yelling "HEY, DON'T JUMP!" was likely to scare people into leaping off the edge.
"Don't miss, Parker," he thought to himself. "you haven't lost a jumper in years, keep the streak going…" He fired two webs, sticking to the kid in the middle of his back and at the waist, and pulled firmly, dragging the kid backwards roughly ten feet. Reeling in the slack, he now had the kid leashed, in case he dived for the edge and the long fall to the street below.
"What the heck! Oh, wow… SPIDERMAN! I've seen you a few times but never this close up. Once you were swinging around the Brooklyn Bridge and I was walking across. Why'd you web me?"
The kid wasn't screaming in fear, that was good. And he didn't seem like he'd been in the middle of a suicidal jump. Better get the whole story. He cleared his throat, and replied, "It seemed like you were close to falling. What's your name and what're you doing? You're a bit out of place up here."
The kid ran his fingers through his hair, kicked the roof under his feel and looked defensive. "Wasn't doing nothing. Just looking around. I'm Bobby, whats YOUR real name, fair's fair," he said the last with a mischievous grin.
Spiderman moved closer, to get a better look in the low light. He'd once been tricked into saving an android that looked like a small child, that turned out to be a very powerful bomb. It seemed like every stupid way to kill someone had been tried on him one time or another. But Bobby didn't set off his danger sense the way a booby-trap would. "So how did you get up here Bobby, I'm the town's official wall crawler, so you better not be stealing my act."
"Maybe I flew up, you don't know."
"For every person who tells me they can fly that CAN, I meet about 200 that're just on drugs. Now if you're on drugs, I have to get an ambulance to take you to the hospital for your own safety… huh…." Spiderman stopped talking as Bobby slowly floated off the roof and hovered about three feet up, with a grin. "Well if one of us is on drugs, it isn't you. Where did you pick that trick up? I don't see jet boots. You're a mutant maybe?"
Bobby floated back to Earth with a shrug. "Maybe. I've only been able to since today. Even my parents don't know yet, you're the first person who's seen it, I think."
Peter Parker had lied a lot when he was a teenager about being superhuman. He was the world's greatest expert at covering up this particular thing, and he'd counted at least three lies Bobby had just told, probably four. But thinking back to 15 year old Peter Parker, he knew that calling the kid out wouldn't help any.
"Can you do anything other than fly?" Spiderman asked nonchalantly, flipping somersaults to the edge of the roof and sitting down.
"No, just fly," Bobby probably lied. As Peter Parker, he often wished his Spider-Sense for danger also alerted him when people were lying to him. It'd make negotiating with J. Jonah Jamison over how much he was willing to pay for Peter's photos a breeze for one thing. The kid still gave him the uneasy feeling he felt around the sorts of superhumans that can knock down a building without any effort. But maybe the kid hadn't figured out how powerful he was?
"So what's your plan? Not going to be a costumed criminal, I hope. You seem like a nice kid, hate to see you banging heads with Thor or Iron Man. Thor hit me once and I still feel it when a thunderstorm starts."
Bobby looked like he was deep in thought. "It'd be nice to have people liking me, to save people in trouble, keep them from being hurt. But I want to do other stuff more." Bobby looked up at the moon overhead, and said quietly, "I see in the papers. You know just about everyone. Every hero, every criminal, the police, the reporters. Who's the absolute best detective you know?"
Peter could tell this was an important question, and he could guess why. Someone or something was a mystery that Bobby needed solved. "It depends. I've never seen anyone figure out a crime scene faster than Daredevil. Far as police work goes, Captain Jean De Wolffe can get the city's law enforcement system going full speed on a case better than anyone. If you're looking for a criminal that's in hiding, I have to give Frank Castle credit, The Punisher finds people better than anyone I've ever even heard of."
"What about someone who's been missing a real long time. Like more than ten years." Bobby was barely above a whisper, looking at the moon.
"That's hard to say," Spiderman looked over the edge of the building in thought. "That takes someone who knows a lot of other people to ask, calling in favors, getting help sorting through all the trails people leave. Someone who doesn't give up. Heroes for Hire are the first ones that come to mind. They usually charge for their help, but they will work for free if it's for a friend, or someone sympathetic."
Peter thought of the times he had encountered Luke Cage and Danny Rand, better known as the Iron Fist. Maybe they owed him a favor. They could at least listen to the kid, help him know who to go to for help finding whoever he was missing. He made a decision, and turned back to where Bobby had been standing.
"Hey, kid, maybe I can…. Where'd ya go? HEY, KID!" He looked into the sky, around the surrounding building tops. This kid was a fast, he hadn't expected him to zip off so quickly. "Blast it, I was going to try and help. Why'd you have to take off so soon?
From about 400 yards above and a block south, Bobby squinted down at Spiderman. He felt bad sneaking off like that, but he'd learned in foster care not to trust anyone in authority more than he absolutely had to. Spiderman was a superhero, he didn't want to risk him suddenly asking if Bobby was a runaway and deciding to "bring him in for his own good."
But it was lucky to meet him and find out from him that Bobby's guess was right. Heroes for Hire were his best bet to find his mom. And even Spiderman said they would work for free for a friend!
Maybe if he flew just right, he could follow Spiderman tonight. The way the Daily Bugle made it sound, Spiderman had a major battle with masked criminals every single day. It'd be awesome if he got to see a fight up close!
Spiderman leapt from building to building, southeasterly, towards the Gramercy Park neighborhood. The actual park itself was private, with only a few hundred local residents able to purchase keys to get in, at a very high price. One of the benefits of being able to make a 30-foot standing leap, climb walls and scurry in shadows was that Peter had been able to explore many such places over the years. If anyone asked him why he patrolled inside the park sometimes, he would say it was in case anyone in there was in danger but the truth was he thought it was quite beautiful there at night. After a short time inside, he headed east towards the nearby junior high school; he'd surprised some vandals there recently, so it was worth a peek.
Sure enough, in the parking lot were two very out of place looking white vans, one painted on the side advertising a car detailing service, the other was a rolling billboard for an exterminator. From the looks of the five guys conversing between the vehicles, a business transaction was being discussed. At 11:20 at night. In a place that was easy to drive to and from with little notice. "Nothing suspicious here…" Spiderman wished he had supersensitive hearing for the millionth time. They could be discussing something as boring as pirated DVDs, or something as all-important as smuggling weapons of mass destruction for HYDRA. It was even possible they were just discussing something legit, in the least legit looking way imaginable.
He watched a bit, unaware that he was being watched from above, by a hovering Bobby Wright.
"Well Parker," he muttered through his mask. "If I was a detective hero like in the movies, I'd have my butler back in my cave run their license plates. I'd have thrown a bat-shaped microphone on top of their vans and listened to their talk. Heck, I'd know who their criminal mastermind was before I even got near them. Real life sucks…"
Finally, the two from the exterminator van and the three from the auto detailing van seemed to reach a conclusion. The detailers retrieved two rather heavy looking gym bags and handed them to one of the exterminators. After looking inside both, the exterminators opened the back of their van, and began to off load boxes the size of milk crates, passing them to the detailers who put them into their van.
"OK, so I'm not a detective. BUT… I know how to do this."
"HEY GUYS, WHATCHA DOING?!" Spiderman shouted as he leaped and flipped and cartwheeled towards the two vehicles. If a crime was in progress, his spider sense would go off, guns would be pulled, GUNS would go off, he'd dodge the bullets…. Worked every time. Who needs detective work?
"It's the bug! Shoot him!" Yep, thought so, Peter said to himself.
"Aw guys, I was totally bluffing! If you'd offered me a beer I'd have left!" Webbing shot from his wrists and he yanked two guns away, leaping in the air to dodge the shots of the third car detailer. As he landed, a backhand and a kick knocked the third gunman unconscious.
The two men he had disarmed tried to rush him, apparently hoping to get him to the ground and have some advantage. The two from the exterminator van had focused on diving into the back of their van and slamming the doors, the engine started.
Peter knew he had to make this quick. Chasing a speeding van through midtown was not a good idea, pedestrians could get hurt. He threw one of the two men charging him into the other, stunning them both. He immediately turned, ran after the van as it started to move, grabbed the rear bumper and lifted, the wheels spinning in the air. Two quick lifts up and slams down and the wheels broke off the axel.
The driver stumbled out of the crippled vehicle, and collapsed, apparently unconscious. The passenger stepped out, unusually calm, and Peter's spider sense warned him of possible danger. It was a man in his early forties, Black unruly hair with the beginnings of grey creeping in, a neatly trimmed beard and mustache, with round frameless eyeglasses. His somewhat baggy green suit was old fashioned, out of style and somehow familiar. Where had Spiderman seen this guy before, he thought quickly.
"How…. How do you people find me," the passenger said as he stood shaking with some sort of palsy. "I quit the game, just whipped up some crystal meth to pay the bills and you STILL find me!"
Peter's spider sense went from a tingle to a loud scream in the back of his head. "Oh, man. I know this guy! He used to brawl with Thor all the time! Win or lose, this is gonna hurt…"
From about a hundred or so feet above, Bobby hovered, not yet turned into his Captain Hero form. He assumed smaller was better, harder to spot up in the air. He'd been thrilled to see Spiderman dodging bullets. He had almost changed and flew in to save the day…. Well, save the night. But Spidey seemed to be doing just fine alone.
Could he move! The way the hero leapt about, punching, kicking, dodging faster than the eye could follow, even from a distance. Fighting against that must be nearly impossible! And there were some super criminals that were supposed to be faster that Spiderman. Bobby resolved right then and there to get MUCH faster at doing his moving-through-solid-matter trick. Especially since he hadn't figured out if he was bullet-proof when he went hard as steel to have super-strength.
The hero RAN after the speeding van, lifted the back half up and slamming it down once, twice, sending the wheels flying off, immobilizing it for good. WOW, that was a good trick. Bobby had thought he was trying to flip it over, but this was much cooler.
Two men got out of the van, the driver collapsed in a few steps, the passenger was shaking so much Bobby could tell it even at this distance. He couldn't make out what was being said; he decided it was a shame he didn't have super-vision or hyper-hearing or whatever those powers were called. They sounded useless until you needed to see something far away….
The passenger was growing, screaming in pain or anger… Spiderman jumped at the man in the greenish suit, stood on the screaming man's shoulders, as he suddenly doubled in size, throwing punches at the man's head. The giant in the green suit staggered, and swatted Spiderman off the way a man swats a fly.
Spiderman landed and tumbled back to his hands and feet on a low crouch. He fired both his web-shooters, attaching sticky rope lines to the giant man's ankles, and yanking back hard. The big man toppled, screaming in rage. Spidey whipped the web lines hard, sending the giant into a nearby wall with the sound of a wrestler slamming into a table.
Reaching down and tearing away the pants cuffs the webs had stuck to, the giant regained his footing and snarled so loudly that even 100 feet away. "YOU LEAPING FOOL! I am Mister Hyde, I have smashed Thor and the Hulk! Beaten Daredevil into a pulp, and had Captain America at my mercy! I will DESTROY YOU!"
The two charged each other, hero and villain trading strikes, punches and kicks. Spiderman was faster, dodging most of the attacks but several hard blows had him obviously stunned. The gigantic Mr. Hyde was apparently unaffected by the dozens of strikes Spiderman had landed.
Hyde swung an arm back and connected with a massive haymaker, sending Spiderman back a good 20 feet, skidding across the pavement, his body limp.
"Time to earn my name…" Bobby thought. A blinding flash of light lit the sky like a lightning flash as he changed to his adult, red and blue costumed form.
"CAPTAIN HERO, COMING THROUGH!" Flying at his top speed down, thinking himself as hard as steel, Bobby tackled Hyde from behind, driving the super villain into the ground. He went into ghost form suddenly, before Hyde could grapple with him on the ground. Bobby had seen enough professional wrestling to know that when it comes to up close grappling, whoever was strongest would win. And Hyde certainly LOOKED bigger and stronger than Captain Hero did, anyway. Better to not risk it.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Hyde roared, stumbling to his feet, shaking off the injuries from being dive bombed into the ground.
With courage in his voice that almost reached his heart, Bobby stood, hands on his waist, a smile on his face, blue cape blowing in the wind in a heroic pose. "I am Captain Hero, defender of the helpless and protector of the innocent, you fiend!" He remembered reading that line in an old comic book, and had always liked it. Especially since he felt helpless and innocent most of the time.
"Captain HERO?! What a stupid name!" Hyde laughed at him, preparing to charge.
Bobby was nervous. He'd fought in school yards and ball courts, like every young boy. But never with someone who actually wanted to KILL him. He'd watched plenty of pro wrestling and kung fu movies, so he sort of knew what to do. But he had been scared to really fight a real super villain, especially one as savage as Hyde. But then that fool made fun of Bobby's special name for himself.
And NO ONE makes fun of a 12 year old without making an enemy for life. Bobby stopped being scared and Captain Hero decided to show what he could do.
