AN: Hey guys! It's time for another round of Justice Marvel, and we're jumping from Cap and League's perspective to that of our favorite, swinging, friendly neighborhood hero: Spider-Man!

[audience applause]

Now let me explain how this little Interlude chapter stuff works. We all know that the any superhero universe is a lot bigger than the stuff we see just one team going through, so naturally there are some other adventures going on somewhere in the background, but they are still pretty major events as well. In this case, we're focusing on some of the more recent adventures of Spidey, at least in regards to what happens in this story, and how things unfold for him in some aspects.

Deadpool: Ah who wants to see more of that loser? We've all seen like a million different Spider-Man things, and you yourself have at least three different ideas for Spider-Man crossover stories, four if you count the fact that you're thinking of making the Spider-Verse Arc for your Code Avengers series into a separate story at the moment.

AN:...I hate it when he actually has a point. Be that as it may, while most of the interludes will focus on things from Spider-Man's perspective, there is also the chance that other heroes will get a chance to step into the limelight and take the leading role in the interludes, but for right now, Spidey's the main focus. Not only that, but you'll also get to see a little more of the background to this story's interpretation of Spider-Man, such as events and tragedies that he's been through, and how they're still affecting him in the present.

Joker: Because everyone's crazy, and all it takes to make them snap is one really bad day.

AN:...Let it go lyokoMARVELanime. You've got stuff to do and story to get underway. Now before the psycho peanut gallery manages to drive me up a wall, let's see what's gonna go down here today.

I do not own anything from any of either of the MARVEL or DC Comics franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.


Interlude 1: Amazing Friends?

In the aftermath of Aresia's plan to wipe out all men on Earth, somehow word had gotten out that an Amazon from Themyscira had been responsible for the plot, and rumors began to spread that it was just the beginning of a possible attack by the Amazons. Most of the rumors were completely crazy and unfounded of course, but the fact that stories were being formed in the first place was cause for concern, especially if one were to ask Diana or Donna. As much as the two sisters did not wish to further persecute Aresia for her crimes, even though it was well deserved, the two were quick to take action before the rumors could go too far and before anyone started to think that Themyscira was prepared to go to war with the rest of the world, both for the sake of their home and the rest of the world. The other heroes on the League felt that such concerns were a bit misplaced and tried to insist that these wild stories would eventually pass if they were left alone, but Diana insisted on speaking to the people in order to calm them down and alleviate their concerns, believing that doing so would bring a quicker end to the rumors.

That was why Diana was now decked out in one of her best formal attire and walking into the UN Building in order to address the representatives of the world's governments with Donna following just a few paces behind her in similar attire. Donna's reasons for being there were two-fold; the first reason was that she had to be there since she was, as she had put it, babysitting her older sister so that she could later inform her sisters back home about how well Diana was doing in representing them to the world at large, and the second reason was because she did not want her sister to risk getting hurt by anyone who would react more violently or in a more extreme manner to the rumors that had spread. She knew that it was silly to think like that since Diana was more than capable of taking care of herself, a fact that her older sister had proven to her long before she had become Wonder Woman, but Donna could not help but worry all the same, given that Diana was still relatively new to man's world as well, but to a lesser extent than Donna herself was. Thankfully, the younger of the two Amazon sisters was not alone in her concerns, and she was extremely grateful for that fact, which she proved when she raised her arm so that she could speak into the wrist communicator that had recently been given to her. "Little Amazon here, the wonder has landed and is now proceeding inside," Donna reported, while making sure her continued bafflement at the odd code that they were currently using was kept out of her voice.

"Star shield here. I copy that," Captain America replied from his position on one of the upper floors inside the UN Building, which was providing him with a very good view of the gathered reporters and arriving representatives in front of him. Cap had been just as concerned that someone may react in a more extreme manner to the rumors that had sprung up after Aresia's plot had been foiled, and as a result, he had put together a small team that included Donna just to make sure that everything would go well. Out of all the heroes on this team, Cap was the only one who was part of the Justice League, because he felt that this was not really something that required the entire League's attention, and counting both himself and Donna, there were really only four heroes in total. Some would think that it was probably not a smart idea to have such a small team for this kind of mission, but that would only be before they knew the identity of the other two heroes that Cap had enlisted. "Heavy Artillery, what's your status?"

"I'm in position right above the building, I'm tapped in to every single security measure that the place has, and I've got scanners combing the entire perimeter, Cap. Even without our fourth man, I'm confident that we won't be able to miss anything with me on the job," the heavily armed, dark grey and black armored hero known as War Machine replied from where he was hovering up in the sky. To be honest, Cap had originally wanted to have help from either Rescue or Iron Man, the former because Donna and Diana were familiar with her and the latter because he was supposedly the most well-rounded member of Team Iron Man, and also because he still had yet to actually meet Tony Stark's bodyguard personally, but when Tony said that both Iron Man and Rescue were going to be unavailable for a while, Steve ended up taking what he could get when War Machine was offered in their place. Not that he was complaining; quite the opposite in fact. War Machine was proving to be a very efficient individual, right to the point that Steve was wondering if Iron Man's first partner was actually a soldier underneath that armor of his.

"Understood," Cap replied, shaking off his thoughts and ideas about who War Machine or any of the other members of Team Iron Man really were for the moment. Now was not the time to be pondering such unimportant things, because all that mattered was that he was here and willing to help them without any reason other than he simply wanted to. With that mental reminder, Steve turned his attention to the final member of the team. "Webs, are you ready…Webs?"

"Yeah, I'm here, and wondering why the best codename you guys could think of for me was 'Webs'," the tired-sounding voice of Spider-Man replied as he perched himself on the side of one of the buildings that surrounded the UN Building. "Seriously, did you guys think 'Arachnid' was too obvious, because I can tell you right now that a large number of people have made the mistake of thinking spiders were insects. I should know since I've had to correct a lot of them on more than one occasion."

"Spider-Man! Not really the best time to be starting a conversation," Captain America snapped over the communicator in Spidey's watch.

"Sorry," Spider-Man immediately replied while he mentally reminded Cap that the super soldier should be thanking him for giving all of these different guys a communicator watch in the first place or in the case of War Machine the frequency that the watches used. He then leaped over to the nearest rooftop and broke into a small run while keeping his eyes on the area in front of him as he replied, "I'm moving around the area as much as I can without anyone really noticing and without using my web-shooters, but I'm not seeing anything that should be raising a red flag just yet, and my Spider-Sense isn't picking up on anything either."

"Understood, but don't relax your guard just yet. Remember that you're serving as our first line of defense in this since your Spider-Sense can warn you of danger," Steve stated.

"Yeah, danger as it pertains to me, usually. I mean sure, it's alerted me to when other people were in trouble before, like that time when Electro first showed up and attacked Times Square, but I've never really actively used it for this kind of thing," Spider-Man reminded the super soldier.

"But you were still close by and able to sense that something was wrong, so there shouldn't be much difference here," Cap pointed out. "I know that you're not used to using your Spider-Sense in this way, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't at least try to. That's all I'm really asking you to do here, Spidey; I'm just asking you to at least try."

"Okay Cap. I won't promise any miracles, but I can promise to give it my best," Peter replied, and with that he ended the call just before he had jumped over into a nearby construction site. If it was not for the fact that he had to keep moving between buildings to make sure he had eyes on everything, Spidey probably could have used the various shadows and hiding places this construction site provided to lay low and keep an eye on everything that was happening down below, but Cap's plan required him to keep moving between buildings around the perimeter, so he was going to do that. Of course, that did not mean that he could not take advantage of the cover places like this gave him so that he could get a better read on the situation down below. There was only so much he could really tell about a place if he was constantly moving around it without even a small pause here and there.

What Spider-Man did not know was that he was not the only one who thought to use the various hiding places and shadows in the construction site to hide his presence at one point or another, because someone was actually looking down on the UN Building from up in the rafters of that very same construction site, and their eyes had immediately narrowed a bit when Spidey had landed inside of it, their steely gaze now locked solely on the web-swinging hero of New York. The minute that Spider-Man had stopped for a second to take a good look at the scene on the ground, the figure taken the chance to act, and immediately glided down towards him, hoping to pounce him from behind. What they had not counted on was Spider-Man's trusted sixth sense alerting him to the attack, so they were completely unprepared when Spidey ducked down, avoiding the attack, grabbed them by their leg, and then threw them several feet back until they were practically standing right below where they had started from.

The figure did not stay down for very long, as they were soon flipping up onto their feet once again, but unfortunately, Spider-Man could not get a good look at the person because they were sticking close to the shadows, obviously hoping to throw them off. That did not mean he could not at least hear them, and when they did move to stand again, he could hear the light swishing and flapping of what he assumed to be either a cape or a long trench coat. He did not want to waste too much time with this person, so he immediately dropped into his usual fighting stance, and he expected his mystery attacker to do the same. This had left him unprepared for when said attacker actually dropped a smoke pellet, further concealing them from his sights and then disappeared into the shadows completely.

Now, most people would probably just keep their guard up for a couple of minutes or so before they finally relaxed thinking that the attacker had left the area or something along those lines, and if they did not do that, they would likely start freaking out because they were sure that the attacker was still there and likely to pop out and attack them at any time, but Spider-Man is not one of those people. He did not need to see his enemies to know that they were close by and he did not really need to see their attacks coming to be able to react fast enough, because his Spider-Sense did all of that for him on a regular basis. It was thanks to that ever-helpful sixth sense that Spidey was still standing ready knowing full well that this person was still close by and likely preparing to attack at any moment. Of course, Spidey probably should have called the others and let them know about this sudden surprise, but then again, whoever this person was, they were clearly only attacking him, and there was really no way to know for sure if they were here to attack Diana, so Peter figured it would probably be better to hold off on letting the others know just yet. First priority was to find out who this person was and why they were attacking him, a fact that was only reinforced when his Spider-Sense immediately began tingling to alert him of an incoming attack.

Reacting on instinct, Spider-Man immediately leaned to the side and spun around in order to avoid the very sharp objects that had just been thrown at him, and from the way that said objects were whistling through the wind, it was clear that they were probably some type of shuriken-like weapon. When he landed back on his feet again and got a quick look at one of the objects that had been used to attack him, his eyes widened a little behind his mask when he saw that they had a distinct bat shape, and that gave him something of an idea as to who was attacking him, but it was one that he did not want to think could be possible. Another alert from his Spider-Sense alerted him to another attack, and he was quickly spinning out of the way of more sharp objects that he now figured were probably more batarangs.

"Hey pal, I don't who you are, mostly because of the fact that you're staying out of sight, but I'm pretty sure Batman's not going to be too happy to hear that you've been using his stuff to attack people like this," Spider-Man quipped as he evaded another pair of batarangs. "And seriously, how many of these batty, batarang things do you have? More importantly, how many of them does Batman have? Seriously that guy doesn't ever seem to run out of them." Spidey's mini-rant was suddenly cut off when one of the most recently thrown batarangs suddenly exploded when it hit the wall behind him. Luckily, his Spider-Sense had alerted him and he was able to jump a reasonable distance away before it blew, but that did not mean that he did not at least feel a bit of the heat from the blast. "Oh my god! Did you seriously just try to blow me up?! Not cool dude!"

Before Spider-Man could say anymore, his comm. device suddenly beeped, alerting him to an incoming call, and he did not need to look at the watch to know that it was Captain America who was calling him. He was just starting to contemplate whether or not he should answer right now when his Spider-Sense alerted him to another incoming attack, and he could only assume it was more explosive batarangs, so he immediately sprung up into the air, and while he was in mid-air, he fired a web at one of the bat-shaped projectiles that had been thrown at him, and immediately snagged it without any trouble. "Let's see how you like a taste of your own medicine," Spider-Man cried out as he landed and then spun the web-ensnared batarang around so that it was moving on a return path to where it had come from.

When the batarang hit its target, it immediately lit up the area in an explosion, and Spider-Man was now able to get a better look at the person who just attacked him. When he did though, he could not help but gasp a little in shock at what he saw. While he could not see the person themselves that well, let alone their face, he was able to see just enough of them to make out their silhouette much better than before, and it was one that he recognized after seeing it so many times in some newspaper photos. There, gliding through the still-under-construction-room before him, was someone who was clearly dressed up to look like a bat, pointed-cape and bat-ear cowl and all. If this person wasn't Batman, then they sure seemed to have a very strong resemblance to the Dark Knight from where Spider-Man was standing. When the figure disappeared again, Spider-Man was about to go after him, when his watch beeped again right at the same time his Spider-Sense began tingling, alerting him to something else that was not anywhere near his location. The thing that his Spider-Sense had alerted him to was definitely a good enough reason for Spidey to answer his communicator this time.

"Spider-Man, what was that explosion over in the construction site," Captain America asked, the muffled sounds of near-panicked cries in the background indicating that the super soldier was already on the ground, which was exactly where Spidey was hoping that Cap would be right then.

"Never mind that now! Someone's about to attack Wonder Woman down on the ground," Spider-Man revealed.

"What?! From where," Cap demanded.

"I…I'm not sure. My Spider-Sense doesn't exactly give me full details on that kind of thing, and I'm a little-WHOA," Spider-Man cried out as he evaded a hook that was attached to grappling line, only to end up on the receiving end of a hard kick when the person who had fired said grapple suddenly came racing in as the line retracted, pulling them along with it. Spidey was rolling along the floor for a minute with the bat-clad figure before he finally managed to kick them off of him, sending them back into the shadows once more before he could get a better look.

"Spider-Man, what happened," Captain America asked, now concerned for the young hero.

"I'm a little busy dealing with a surprise attacker," Spidey replied. "And to answer your earlier question, I think the guy who's about to attack…no wait, make that guys who are about to attack Wonder Woman are somewhere on the main floor of the UN Building, or they're about to come inside of the building on that floor," Spidey reported.

The sound of windows crashing proved that the second guess was probably more accurate, and Spidey quickly glanced down to see a squad of arm mercenaries were starting to swarm into the building. They did not stay inside for long though, because the minute that Captain America encountered them, they were soon flying back out of the building, and it was only a matter of time before Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl were both jumping into the fight as well, both having changed into their heroic attires at some point recently after the attack had happened. When Spidey heard the sound of helicopter blades from above, he immediately looked up to see three such aerial vehicles were swooping down around the building, but they did not stay airborne for long, because War Machine was quick to intercept them all and then divert them away from crash landing anywhere that would lead to any serious damage to either the city or the people below them.

Spider-Man did not get to watch much more of the action, because his new friend suddenly came back in for another round, and just like that, the web-head and the person who was possibly Batman were grappling in a fierce exchange of blows and fisticuffs. In a straight-up fight, Spidey probably would not have stood a chance against Batman, assuming this person was the Dark Knight, but this was not a straight up fight most of the time, as both combatants were constantly weaving around and ducking into shadows before trying some form of sneak attack on the other from an out-of-sight location. Of course, the fight was not made any easier for the web-head with Cap still talking to him via his communicator. "Spider-Man, we could use a little backup over here. Think you could lend a hand."

"Sorry Cap, but like I said earlier, I'm a little busy at the moment," Spider-Man replied as he blocked another strike from behind with his arm before flipping himself around to land a kick in the bat-like figure's back. Whether or not his hit did anything to the person, Spidey could not really tell, since his attacker did not let out even a small grunt of pain. "I'll do what I can to shake this guy, but until then, you're on your own."

"Understood. We'll do what we can for now, but you'll need to hurry," Cap stated.

"Yeah, you got it," Spider-Man replied, and with that, the communication finally ended. With that distraction now out of the way, Spider-Man immediately opened up a stream of webs from his web-shooters, coating as much of the area as he could with his webs, until he was sure that there would be no way his bat-attacker would be able to move anywhere without ending up in the sticky, stronger than steel substance. Not long after that, Spidey heard someone let out a grunt of annoyance, letting him know that he had caught the sneaky attacker somewhere in the web. Where exactly they were now stuck, Spider-Man did not know, nor did he really care, because right now, he had more important things to worry about. "Sorry Bats, assuming that its really you who's decided to take a turn to the villain side of the road, but I'm done playing with you, cause right now, Cap and the rest of my new friends need me to help out and do my hero thing."

With that, Spider-Man immediately leapt out of the construction site and down to the ground where Cap and the two Amazons were still fighting the attacking mercenaries. To be more accurate, Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl were fighting the mercenary grunts while Cap seemed to be fighting the ring-leader of the group. The man Cap was fighting was decked out in an all-black suit, which was heavily padded, and a similarly colored helmet that covered his entire head, save for his eyes, and had a white skull painted on the face. The chest armor he wore also had a pair of crossbones on the center, and Spidey could also see that the guy had a set of large, weaponized gauntlets on his arms, along with several other items on his person that clearly allowed him to carry multiple different weapons. Spider-Man did not need to see all of this to figure out the mercenary's identity, since the white symbol on the man's chest and the skull helmet did all of that for him. This guy was the mercenary known as Crossbones, and from the way he was fighting against Cap, it looked like he had been hoping to pick a bone with the super soldier for a long time now.

Spider-Man did not really pay that much attention to the two leaders' fight from that point on, because he found that he had more important things to worry about at the moment, namely the grunts that were still swarming around him and the two Amazons a few feet away from him, but somehow, he had a feeling that with those two, Captain America, and War Machine on the job, the fight would not last very long.


Spider-Man had been right about the fight not lasting long, as a few minutes after Cap had taken down Crossbones, War Machine easily jumped a few feet into the air with a little help from his jet boots, and then dropped down right in the middle of the remaining mercenaries so that he could aim all of his weapons at them in a silent dare for them to try anything other than surrendering. Much to everyone's relief, the grunts made the smart choice and immediately surrendered upon seeing that their boss was down and that War Machine had them at gun-point while Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl looked like they could still go a few more rounds before they had really finished getting warmed up. With the mercenaries now defeated and being carted off into custody, Spider-Man took this opportunity to swing back up to the construction site in order to check on the Bat-clad nut that had attacked him earlier. Unfortunately, when Spider-Man had made it back, he had to let out a groan of disappointment when he saw that several of his webs had been cut and that the person who he had been fighting not too long ago was nowhere to be found.

Still, that did not mean that Spidey was not going to get some answers as to why someone who was most likely a teammate of Cap and Wonder Woman's had suddenly decided to come after him like this, and he immediately swung back down to where his fellow heroes had gathered together for a quick chat after giving a statement to the police. He had made it over just in time to hear the last bits of conversation between Captain America and War Machine, as the super soldier said, "Thanks again for your help, War Machine."

"My pleasure, Captain," War Machine replied with a salute.

While this action may have not seemed like much to the common man, something about did stick out enough for Cap to notice that it was not a playful salute like he would expect from either Spidey or Flash, and that had led him to ask, "You're actually a soldier under that armor, aren't you?"

It was really more of a statement than a question, but War Machine seemed to take it more as the latter when he answered. "Former Air Force, actually. I'd love to exchange war stories, but I'm afraid I've really gotta get going now. There's no telling what kind of mess Iron Man and Rescue have gotten themselves into without me around."

"Understood. Have a safe flight," Cap saluted in return, and with that, War Machine had blasted off into the skies on a flight back home. It was at this point that Cap and the two lovely ladies he was currently in the company of finally noticed Spider-Man's approach, and Cap did not hesitate to ask the first question that came to mind. "What happened, Spidey? I thought you would've called in the fact that you were attacked like that?"

"Well for starters, it was hard to say if the person who had attacked me was after Wonder Woman or just me. Plus, I doubt you guys would be very happy to hear about how one of your teammates decided to turn me into your friendly neighborhood Spider-Punching-Bag," Spider-Man casually replied, but the edge to his tone made it quite clear that he did not find either of those things to be as funny as he was making them sound to be in his opinion.

"Wait, what," Wonder Woman gasped, while Cap and Donna both just looked at Spidey with startled expressions.

"I was just moving through the construction site when your buddy Batman decided that it would be fun to attack me," Spider-Man repeated, only this time making himself a little more clear.

Cap did not seem to like hearing about this, but fortunately he managed to keep a calm head as he moved on to the obvious next question while Wonder Woman immediately reached for Justice League comm. link. "Are you sure it was Batman?"

"Well I didn't really get a good look at the guy since he was moving around so much and sticking to the shadows, but I definitely saw enough of him to know that the person I was fighting definitely dressed like Batman," Spider-Man replied before he reached into his belt and pulled out one of the batarangs that had been throw at him during the fight. He had figured that his story would be a little difficult to believe without proof, so he made sure to at least grab one or two of the signature weapons of the Dark Knight from the former battlefield before he came back. "This look familiar? A good number of them were thrown at me by the guy who jumped me, and a few of them even left some rather explosive results. Emphasis on 'explosive'."

Steve immediately took the batarang from Spider-Man's hands so that he could examine it better, and after a few seconds of not finding anything to indicate a forgery, he finally said, "It's definitely the real thing."

"But it couldn't be one of Batman's," Diana argued, joining back in the conversation. "He's been working in Gotham nonstop ever since the incident that Aresia had caused. I just checked in with J'onn, and he told me that Batman had been meeting with the Gotham City Police commissioner around the same time that Crossbones had attacked, and that he's now in the middle of pursuing a number of criminals that he suspects of having some sort of affiliation with his enemy Scarecrow."

"Well somebody dressed like Batman and using his stuff had attacked me earlier, and with the way that they were fighting, it seemed a little too much like the real thing, based off of my very limited knowledge of the man to be anyone other than him or someone that at least knows him," Spider-Man protested.

"Perhaps we should worry about these concerns later. We still don't know who sent Crossbones," Donna pointed out.

They all knew that the younger princess of Themyscira had a point. While Crossbones would likely have done this regardless, he had admitted that someone had paid him off, and they had no idea who it was. Given the circumstances surrounding the reason why this meeting was taking place, there was a strong chance that it was probably someone who believed the rumors about the Amazons that had been circulating lately, but they had no way to know for sure since Crossbones would not say. All he said every time anyone asked was that he was not inclined to give away his client's person information, or some other garbage along those lines. Cap was about to suggest a plan of action, when Spider-Man cut him off. "Don't sweat it you guys. I'll take care of tracking down the guy who hired Crossbones," the web-head stated.

"You sure, Spidey," Cap asked. He knew that Spider-Man could handle such a thing on his own, but he did not want to just leave everything on the young hero's shoulders like that.

"Like I said, don't worry about it. You guys stay here, do what you have to do, let Diana give her big speech, and then treat yourselves to some victory Big Belly Burger or Pizza, or whatever you guys normally do after a successful mission," Spider-Man insisted. "I know a guy or two that might know something about all this, and while I'm at it, I may even find some answers on the Bat-Jerk who decided to pull me into a game of Hit the Spider in the middle of an important matter."

The three looked between themselves for a minute before they finally agreed to Spidey's suggestion, and they then just watched as Spider-Man swung off, determined to get the answers he was looking for, both in regards to who had hired Crossbones and on exactly who it was that had tried to attack him earlier for reasons that he could not comprehend beyond the idea that someone up there just did not like him.


When it came to things like local crimes, the plots of the New York crime bosses, and other similar matters, Spider-Man would typically go to Blackie Gaxton, but this was not any of those things. While Blackie may have been of some help, when it came to mercenaries with a serious reputation like Crossbones, he was not very much help. When Spider-Man first asked why Blackie did not have such information, Blackie just said that he valued his life too much to get involved in that kind of crowd and left it at that. Thankfully, Blackie was not Spider-Man's only source of information when it came to fighting crime and solving mysteries in New York, and when it came to tracking down information on high-profile criminals or mercenaries, he knew of two people in particular that were always a big help to him. One of these two people was currently out of town after having left about three years ago or so, but thankfully, he knew that the second was in town right now, and that was why he was now swinging up to the part of town that typically accommodated the more well-off citizens of New York. To be more specific, the penthouse suite of one of the most impressive hotel buildings in the city, and which was pricey enough to not only be out of his budget, but was only affordable by the likes of Tony Stark or other individuals of similar financial backgrounds, regardless of how their wealth was acquired.

Upon arriving on the rather fancy porch of the penthouse, Spider-Man swiftly enters the large room and after glancing around for minute, he determines that the current resident is most likely there right now and jokingly announces, "Honey, I'm home!"

For a few minutes, no one answers him, but then a silky, slightly accented voice said, "Spider-Man. What an unexpected surprise. I don't suppose that this might be a social call for once, would it?"

Spider-Man's attention immediately turned to face the person that the voice belonged to, and he was immediately greeted with a silver-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned beauty of a woman dressed in a long, flowing white-almost silver robe that was made of a very impressive material that Spidey could only assume was either silk or some other very comfortable material. Her small smirk was only more noticeable by the silver lipstick she wore, and Spidey just knew that she was intentionally putting an extra sway in her hips as she walked across the room towards him in an attempt to get some sort of reaction out of him. The world at large knew her as Silver Sable, daughter of the former Nazi Hunter Ernst Sablinova, terrorist hunter, occasional mercenary, and on-again-off-again hero, but Spider-Man knew her as Silver Sablinova, a very lovely woman with a good heart, and who knew enough of the mercenary business to know what jobs to deny, and who was who in that branch of the world. At one point in the past, the two of them had considered pursuing a more serious relationship, but certain circumstances on both of their parts kept such ideas from bearing fruit, so they have since maintained a strong working relationship and a good friendship.

Of course, that did not stop Silver from occasionally attempting some playful flirting with him just for the fun of seeing how he would react, but in the recent year or so, his reactions were not what they once were. At least, not since a certain incident that only she and the rest of Spider-Man's closest friends and allies knew about it. This time was no different, but that was mostly because Spider-Man had come here for work, not for her attempts at teasing him. "Sorry Silver, but I'm afraid that I'm making a business call today," Spider-Man immediately told her, his voice not wavering even in the slightest.

Sable was a bit disappointed by the fact that he was still so focused on his work as a hero, as she could still recall the days when he would swing by just to talk with her and have a few friendly discussions like real friends would, but she was also able to hear the slight urgency in his voice that told her that whatever Spider-Man needed help with, it was very serious, so she dropped all attempts at teasing right then and there and seated herself on the couch with her legs crossed before gesturing for the web-head to take a seat as well. "And just what does New York's friendly neighborhood hero require of me this time? I certainly hope it's not advice on how to woo the likes of a certain wonder of a woman," Sable asked, adding the joke in at the end just to keep the mood a little light.

Peter could not help but smirk a little under his mask, because he knew full well that her sense of humor was a result of her knowing him for so long, a fact that she often reminded him of whenever he called her out on it. "I'm looking for information on Crossbones," Spider-Man said as he sat back in the armchair that he had seated himself in.

"I'm guessing that this has to do with the scene he caused down at the UN Building, right," Sable asked, just to make sure that she understood correctly.

"Wow, looks they're not kidding when they say that news travels fast. Then again, I chalk that up to the fact that gossip has been said to spread like wildfire," Spider-Man quipped, showing Sable that a little bit of that sense of humor she had always associated him with before that incident was still around. That humor quickly vanished again when Spidey picked up where they left off. "Crossbones was stopped, but he admitted that someone had hired him to make that hit. I'm trying to find out who, and I figured you might have an idea on that."

Silver was quiet for a few minutes before she glanced away and said, "I'm sorry, Spider, but I can't help you."

"What," Spider-Man exclaimed with a small edge to his tone. "Silver, someone hired Crossbones to attack one of my friends, and if you know something about this, I need to know what it is, now."

"Peter, do you really think if I knew something I wouldn't tell you," Silver asked, addressing Spider-Man by his real name to emphasize her point. She had discovered Spider-Man's secret identity a few years prior after the two of them were caught in a very deadly situation that they were not entirely sure they would survive, but that is another story. "If I did know something, I would tell you, but I'm afraid that I really don't know all that much about Crossbones' current, or should I say now-former boss. Whoever he is, he's kept to the shadows, but he's also been said to be well-financed enough to be able to hire men like Rumlow without any trouble. No one really knows what his actual motives are for the jobs he has people do for him, but some people have said that he likely just wants to watch the world burn."

Spider-Man seemed to relax a little more at that explanation, even though it did not help him at all. If what Silver had revealed was true, then tracking down the person that had hired Crossbones was going to be harder than he thought. Still, there had to be something there that could be of some help, because after being Spider-Man for a little over ten years now, Peter knew that even the smallest of clues could lead to the answers one was looking for. "Is there anything that could help to identify him, like a common meeting place or a way of contacting him?"

"I'm afraid it's impossible to contact this person, whoever they are. He's one of those people that finds you, and never the other way around. As for meeting places…well, there is one common theme to them, but I don't think you'll like hearing about it," Silver admitted, and despite the fact that she had turned away from him, Spider-Man could still see the worry and small hint of fear that were in her eyes.

"Silver, whatever it is, if it could help, then I need to know so I can stop this guy," Peter said in a soothing voice, while he placed a hand on top of hers in a reassuring manner.

Sable did not want to answer right away, but she eventually sighed in defeat and revealed the information that she did not want to tell Peter. "The places that he meets people at are usually thought to be random, but a good majority of them do have one thing in common. They have all been former bases or just had some connection to an old enemy of yours. One who had a thing for pointed ears, pumpkin bombs, and the color green."

Silver immediately felt Peter's hand tense a little against her own, and when she looked back to him, she could see that there was a slight tremor in his stance that indicated he was on the verge of shaking a little, but whether it was in anger or sadness, she could not really tell. She blamed that on the fact that his mask hid Peter's face so well. After a minute or so, he seemed to regain his composure and stood up so that he could leave, and in that moment, Silver knew that he had dropped all pieces of Peter Parker, the optimistic and usually joyful young man, and had completely replaced him with Spider-Man, a determined hero that would not let anyone get hurt, no matter what it cost him.

"Thanks for the information Silver. You've been a big help," Spider-Man said in an even tone, proving Silver's suspicions just like that, and that was something that scared her a little.

"Peter, wait," Silver called out, just as Spidey was about to sling out a web. "I know you probably don't want to hear this, but I'm worried about you, and so are Mary Jane and Doctor Connors, and if she were here right now to see you, I'm sure Felicia would be worried too. When was the last time you ever took some time to really just live outside of that Spider-suit, aside from when you and MJ had dated?"

"I don't really see how that matters right now," Peter replied evenly, but his tone clearly carried a slight warning to it that advised against continuing this conversation.

"It does matter. I know at one point after what had happened, you thought that you should stop being Spider-Man, but now it seems like you're trying to stop being Peter Parker. More than that, you're denying yourself a chance to be happy with someone again," Silver argued, ignoring the warning completely.

"Drop it, Silver," Peter warned, now making it much more clear that he was doing that. "I'm just doing what I do best, and living up to the great responsibility that comes with my great power."

"But if you let it consume you, then what's the point," Silver tried to reason. "Peter, you need to live your own life sometimes, and not just when it's necessary like for your job with Curt." Seeing that he did not appear to be listening anymore, Sable immediately walked over to him, and spun him around so that he was facing her. Before Peter could say anything, he suddenly found his mask moved up so that his lower face was visible, and his lips were suddenly assaulted by Silver Sable's as she planted a strong kiss on them.

Such a gesture was not entirely unexpected on Peter's part, as they had kissed before a few years ago back when they were thinking about taking their relationship a little further than that of friendship, but right now, it was most certainly unwelcome to him, which was why he eventually managed to push her back. "What the hell was that," Peter demanded as he pulled his mask back down.

"Consider it a reminder that you're not alone, and that there are people who care about you," Silver started. The next thing he knew, he saw a hint of red adorning her cheeks before she finished, "And also…a bit of a confession that my feelings for you haven't changed."

Spider-Man did not really know what to say. He had a feeling that Silver still felt that way, but right now, he was still not entirely sure about pursuing a relationship with someone, and that was without considering the fact that any serious relationship with Silver was going to be a challenge that neither one of them were sure that they could weather. "I'm sorry, Silver. I appreciate you telling me that, but right now…I just…"

"What? You can't think about being with me, or with anyone at all? That isn't something you really need to think about. Some things you just need to let happen. Can you really say that you don't still feel something between us," Silver asked.

If he was being honest, Peter did still hold strong feelings for Silver Sable, but they were not as strong as they once were, and experience had long since proven to him a relationship with her was more than likely impossible. More than that though, there was still one particular thing holding him back from pursuing something with her or anyone right now: a wound that he was not sure would ever truly heal no matter how much time had passed. "I'm sorry, but I can't do that, and you know it, Silver."

"Can't or won't? It's not the same thing in this instance, Peter, and you know it, don't you," Silver said, and while it may have sounded like a question, the way she said it made it seem like it had not been.

Spider-Man did not give any response to that beyond sparing her a quick look and then swinging away without another word, much to Silver's disappointment. She knew that Peter was trying to be strong, but right now, he needed help more than he was willing to admit, and she could only hope that someone would eventually come into his life to give him the help he needed. What neither she nor Spider-Man knew, was that someone had spotted the web-head when he left her penthouse and was now following him from the shadows. Someone who had a very bat-like appearance.


Hearing that someone was using some of Green Goblins old hideouts again definitely did not bring back good memories for Spidey, but he was able to put all negative feelings on the matter aside and focus on work for the moment, and after a quick call to the Spider-Parlor, where MJ was already ready and waiting for the call, Peter's redheaded friend had managed to determine which of the various locations tied to the Green Goblin was the most likely meeting point for Crossbones and his boss. As it turned out, it was actually an old Oscorp warehouse where the original Goblin had stored a vast amount of his weapons and tools, in a part of the city that some had come to affectionately nickname the Goblin-Zone. It was not to honor Green Goblin or anything like that, but it was really more of a reference to how the area was right on the edge between Hell's Kitchen and the rest of New York, and yet it seemed to be a territory that seeped out into both areas due to the fact that so much of the area seemed to be under Green Goblin's control when he was still around.

Peter shook out all the memories he had of those days, especially in the case of those last few days, and immediately started staking out the warehouse to see if he could find some indication that would lead him to Crossbones' client or that said client might come back here. After searching for a few minutes, Spidey was not able to find anything outside and figured that he might have better luck inside the warehouse, but just as he was about to go in, his Spider-Sense started tingling, and he immediately jumped out of the way as someone or something came flying in to attack him once again. When he turned to face the person that had just tried to attack him, he immediately caught sight of a bat-like shape in the shadows, indicating that this person was the same one he had met earlier.

"Well, looks like this is my lucky day. I go hunting for Crossbones' last client, and I run into you along the way, Bats. You may have gotten the drop on me before, but this time, I'm ready for you," Spidey quipped as he immediately lunged forward in an attempt to catch the bat-clad individual off-guard with his change of tactics.

It seemed that he was successful in doing so, because the figure had clearly been expecting Spidey to drop into a fighting stance as a way of being cautious like last time, so they just barely managed to jump clear before Spidey had managed to tackle them. What the figure was not expecting was for Spider-Man to fire a pair of web-lines at them, which he then used to pull him in so that he could land a pair of spin kicks to his front, knocking him to the ground where Spider-Man soon had his mystery man pinned. In the process of his attack though, Spider-Man noticed that the figure did let out a grunt of pain when he kicked him, and that said grunt sounded a little too feminine for a man, but it was not until after he had them pinned down that he finally realized that the person who had attacked him just now, and probably before as well, may have been a bat, but they were definitely not a man.

There, pinned to the floor beneath Spider-Man, was the black and yellow clad, red haired form of Batgirl, and despite the fact that she was pinned down, she was still glaring up at the web-head with her blue eyes shining with a determination that made it seem like she was not beaten yet. "Don't think a color change is going to mean anything, Black Spider. Once I've got you down, I'll be able to pull every last bit of evidence that you were trying to destroy so you can be locked away for good," Batgirl snarled.

"Wait, what," Spider-Man asked in confusion, but while he may have relaxed his hold a little, Batgirl was still unable to get up. "Okay, you attack me for no reason, throw a bunch of those batty batarangs at me, try to blow me up in a construction site, and now you're getting me mixed up with hack wannabe assassin, who I fully intend to have words with about how he has been trying to steal my shtick? I thought you bats were supposed to be smart."

Batgirl's glare had dropped for a minute at the first part of Spider-Man's mini-rant, but immediately return in full with a new intensity at that last sentence. "Excuse you? You're the one who didn't even think to say something in the first place and just went ahead with trying to fight me."

"Well what was I supposed to do with you doing that whole ninja vanish and sneak attack routine of yours? More to the point, you attacked me without rhyme or reason, and never once said anything about why you were doing so in the first place," Spider-Man pointed out.

This time Batgirl's glare dropped completely and became replaced with a more sheepish expression. "Okay that might have been a slight oversight on my part," the redhead admitted.

"Wow, can you say understatement," Spider-Man quipped in retort as he finally got up off of the Gothamite, allowing her to stand up again. "You really should've figured out that I'm Spider-Man and not that wannabe Black Spider long before now, and without me having to spell it out for you. What're you even doing in New York anyway?"

Batgirl bristled a little at his latest insult to her intelligence, but let it slide so she could answer his question as calmly as possible. "For starters, Batman thought it might help if Cap had a little backup in protecting Wonder Woman, which would've gone much more smoothly if you hadn't tied me up in that slime of yours."

"Which I wouldn't have had to if you hadn't insisted on playing Hit-the-Spider in the first place," Spider-Man interrupted.

"And also because I'm following up on a case that Batman entrusted me with, which just so happens to tie in with the one you're clearly following," Batgirl finished with a slight edge in her tone, due to the web-head's interruption.

Hearing her mention that she was working on a case that tied into his investigation earned the female member of the Bat-Clan Spidey's full attention, but there was still something off about that little story. "Just what does this case your following up on have to do with my investigation into Crossbones' last client?"

"Let's just say that it involves a smuggling operation that Cap was part of a few months back and leave it at that," Batgirl said shortly.

"Fine, well then how about this: you go take care of your case, leave the mystery of the man who hired Crossbones to me, and then go back to Gotham for a victory make-out session with Batman or Nightwing," Spider-Man said as he knelt in front of the air vent that led into the warehouse.

Now Batgirl was more than a little upset, but it was mostly due to that last comment that Spider-Man had made. "First off, I do not have that kind of relationship with Batman or Nightwing. We're just partners. Second, I just told you that Crossbones and his last employer have connections to my case, so I'm not going anywhere until I get what I'm looking for."

Spider-Man could not help but let out a growl of frustration in response before he turned to face Batgirl and look her straight in the eye as he spoke. "Fine, but let's get a few things straight here, Batgirl. This is not Gotham City, and it's definitely not your city either. New York is my territory, and while I may not be as stiff about it as your boss, I still prefer to not have non-local heroes coming in thinking that they can act how they normally do, so to put it more simply, we do things my way. Got it," Spider-Man grounded out.

Batgirl met Spider-Man's gaze with an even one of her own, but whether or not he was glaring at her like she currently was him, she could not tell you because of his mask. Though if she were to judge by the tone of his voice, she would say that he probably was. Another thing that she could not help but note was that unlike Batman, Spider-Man did not tower over her. He was certainly taller than her, but it was probably only by a few inches minimum, so she had no trouble meeting his gaze as she replied, "Perfectly, but only if it doesn't get in my way."

Spider-Man would have retorted, but he knew there was not any time for that, so he simply just pulled the grate open and started leading the way into the warehouse as quietly as possible. Just because the place was abandoned by both Oscorp and the Goblin, did not mean that there was not still a chance that someone could still be in there. As they were going, Spidey glanced over his shoulder to see Batgirl following close behind him, and he asked, "Your boss has information on pretty much every known criminal in the world, right? Including the ones he's never even encounter himself?"

"He has files and a way to access information that he doesn't have a file on, yeah," Batgirl replied, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"And have you seen all of that info," Spidey continued.

"Where are you going with this," Batgirl questioned. She was not really dodging the question, but she had no intention of telling the web-swinger anything that he did not need to know.

Spider-Man was quiet for a few moments before he replied with another question of his own. "How much do you know about the Green Goblin?"

Batgirl was not sure how to respond to that, but that was mostly due to the fact that she had picked up something of an edge to Spider-Man's voice when he asked that question. Most people would probably have thought it was because Spidey was still a bit upset with her, which was mostly likely true as well, but Batgirl had heard that particular edge before very many times in the past. It was the same kind of edge she would sometimes hear Batman using whenever he discussed matters involving either the Joker or Ra's Al Ghul. Shaking the matter from her thoughts for a moment, Batgirl eventually managed to reply as calmly as she could, "He was a criminal mastermind that nearly took over New York's criminal underworld after you and Daredevil first exposed Wilson Fisk as the Kingpin of Crime. He disappeared for a brief period shortly after you had first defeated him, only to surface again until his supposed death after your final encounter with him. No one was ever able to determine his real identity, but there were a few suspicions that he was someone with deep connections into Oscorp, despite the fact that most of his tech was actually stolen from Oscorp."

Spider-Man gave no indication of whether or not she was correct beyond a small nod in response, until they finally reached the grate that would drop them into the middle of the warehouse. "You'd be surprised how accurate those suspicions are, especially since this warehouse was one of the Goblin's old hideouts and secret caches of weapons and tech back in the days of his final play. In point of fact, a lot of buildings that Oscorp owned even in the slightest bit were actually used by Green Goblin for one reason or another."

"You sound like you actually knew who the Goblin really was," Batgirl commented. While she had not meant it as anything serious, Spider-Man's silence made her think that her observation was not that far off. "You did, didn't you? You know who the Green Goblin really is," she gasped in shock. "Why keep it to yourself though? Why didn't you ever tell the authorities."

"I've told you already, this isn't Gotham. The police don't just take the word of a costumed vigilante like GCPD does without some real hard evidence, and even then, they can't just take that at face-value," Spider-Man explained, a little more harshly than he had really intended to, if he was being honest. His tone then softened and grew more somber as he added, "Besides, it doesn't really matter now. He died years ago, during our last face-off, actually."

Batgirl did not know what to say to that, because from the sound of things, it almost seemed like Spider-Man was upset by the fact that one of his enemies was dead. She knew that some heroes tended to define themselves in certain ways when it came to their villains, but somehow, this did not seem like that. "You didn't…kill him, did you," Batgirl asked.

"That's none of your business, and it's really not anyone else's either. Not anymore, so just drop it. I'm only telling you all of this so you can at least have an idea on what to expect when we get in there. There's a chance there's some Goblin tech and weapons that were never cleared out when the police had come in here to clear them out," Spider-Man had practically snapped, making Batgirl think that she was talking with her mentor for a moment.

Neither one of them said anything after that, and instead just dropped down into the otherwise empty warehouse. Looking around for a few minutes yielded no results to their search efforts, and it certainly did nothing to improve their attitudes towards each other, seeing as they would both throw the other a small glare when they thought the other person was not looking. Clearly they were both still sore about their interactions with one another up until now, but that did not stop Spider-Man from bounding over to Batgirl when his Spider-Sense suddenly started tingling.

"Hey, what're you…" Batgirl started to say when she suddenly found herself scooped up into one of Spidey's arms as he pulled them both up to the ceiling and then slapped one hand over her mouth once they were in the rafters.

"Shush! Someone's coming in, and it might be Crossbones' boss," Spider-Man whispered.

Batgirl immediately pushed Spider-Man's hand off her mouth and was about to ask how he could possibly know that when a group of thugs walked right into the building not two seconds later. The redhead was curious as to how Spidey knew that these people were coming, but right now, she was more interested in what was unfolding before them. Entering from one side of the warehouse was clearly a group of Crossbones' remaining goons, while on the other side was a group that were decked out in what looked like grey and black body armor and helmets that seemed to have pointed ears on the sides. Of course, it was the leader of the second group that really had her attention, but mostly because of how bizarre looking he was, and if Batgirl thought someone looked strange, that should more than likely tell you something.

The man in question was bigger than the average person, but not by to the extent of someone like Superman or Martian Manhunter could be considered, though he was pretty close to that, and he seemed to have pale-green skin, while his hair stood up straight and his ears were pointed, much like that of either an elf's or a goblin's, and from what Batgirl could tell, his fingers seemed more like claws than they did regular fingers. His outfit consisted of what looked like a set of armor that covered his entire body save for his head, which was colored dark green with some hints of grey and black lining it, while a pair of black gloves with silver fingertips adorned his hands, and black boots were on his feet. Looking at this strange person's face, Batgirl could not help but feel like she should recognize this person, but with the way his face seemed so disfigured and twisted into this goblin-like visage, she really could not tell who he was for the life of her. When she turned to her current companion to see if he knew this leading figure, she had to pause for a minute upon seeing that his hands were tightly clenched into fists and were shaking as much as he was in anger, telling her that Spider-Man most likely did recognize this person and it was not for a good reason.

Her attention was brought back to the group below them when the goons that worked for Crossbones spoke up. "Look, I know that the boss didn't deliver in his promise to kill Wonder Bitch, but what do you expect us to do? In case you hadn't noticed, she's clearly got help," the goon said. "Captain America was there, along with War Machine, Spider-Man, and Wonder Girl. The whole thing was a total bust and…"

"It went exactly as I had intended it to," the leader of the other group suddenly said in a deep, yet still surprisingly high-pitched voice.

"What," the goon asked, sounding both surprised and a bit angry at what it sounded like this person was implying.

"I didn't want you to kill Wonder Woman. I'll admit that would've made a great bonus, I just wanted you and your boss to get people's attention. Sow some seeds chaos. Prove my point that no matter who they are, they're not safe, and that heroes can't do anything to stop things like that from happening until after they've happened," the goblin-looking man explained with a light snarl to his voice and a mild cackle that would probably have made Joker a little jealous.

"So…you set us up so our boss would get arrested," Crossbones' goon asked.

The goblin-looking man actually did let out a small laugh at this question before he said, "Well, like I said, I was proving a point, and having the mighty Crossbones get arrested does help that a little. Besides, look at this way: you'll be putting your payment to good use. You can use it to pay for his bail."

That turned out to be the last straw for Crossbones' men, and they immediately pulled out their guns as the leader said, "Keep your damn money. Crossbones will be happier with the fact that we killed the bastard who double-crossed him."

"Oooh…very poor decision on your part," the goblin-man stated, and he simply raised one hand to signal his own men to draw their very impressive looking weapons and start firing. It did not stop there though, as a second later, the windows were smashed in as what looked like a glider flew in and around the room before the goblin-looking man jumped up in an impressive back-flip, landed right on top of the glider, and was soon throwing around explosives at anything that was not on his side with a mad cackle

It was at this point that a full-on shoot-out/brawl had broken out, and any sensible hero in their right mind would be able to tell you that if someone did act fast, this fight would likely spread out into the streets where some innocent civilian would get hurt, and Batgirl was more than prepared to do just that, regardless of whatever risks there might have been. At least she was until she heard Spider-Man say something that made her pause. "How…how is it possible that he's…How could that son of a bitch still be alive," Spider-Man whispered in a low, dangerous tone of voice.

Now Batgirl did not know much about Spider-Man other than what she had learned from both this little encounter so far and what she had read in the files Batman kept on the Bat-Computer, but she did know enough to know that hearing the wall-crawler say something like that was definitely not something that would be considered normal for him. She was about to try and say something to him, but Spider-Man had already jumped down into the fray by the time she had even opened her mouth. As usual, Spider-Man's arrival into the fight was met with the criminals shouting his name in shock, but unlike the goons, the goblin-like man just grinned, showing the shark teeth in his mouth when he did and let out a loud cackle.

"Well, I was wondering when you would finally catch on to my return, Spider-Man," the goblin-man stated.

"Oh I'm about to catch a lot more than that, Goblin," Spider-Man snarled before he fired a web-line that immediately snagged onto the glider that the madman was riding, not knowing that Batgirl was now staring in shock at what Spider-Man just said. "I don't know how you're still alive, but I'm gonna make sure that you wished you were dead by the time I'm done."

"Doth my ears deceive me? The friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is actually out-right threatening me with a promise of violence? And here I thought you wouldn't have lost your wit and sense of humor in my absence," Goblin mocked as he pointed one of his fingers at Spider-Man and fired off a beam of energy from them.

Spider-Man easily twisted and spun through the air to avoid the blasts, but he was unable to dodge the explosive that detonated right next him after Goblin had thrown it at him. He then tumbled across the floor for a minute before rolling back up into a crouching position and firing another web to snag one of Goblin's most recently thrown explosives. The minute that his webbing had the pumpkin bomb in its adhesive grasp, Spider-Man instantly spun it around so that it would be sent back to the person that thrown it in the first place, and it soon exploded once it had made contact with the flying madman. Batgirl could not help but gasp in horror at the brutality that she had just witnessed from Spider-Man, but that horror was quickly dissipated when Goblin came spinning out of the smoke and landed on his glider once it had positioned itself underneath him once again.

"Well someone's certainly much more aggressive than he used to be," Goblin continued to mock, almost as if he was encouraging Spider-Man to continue his efforts to try and kill him. Not that he really had to try, because Spidey was quickly up in the air and swinging over to engage Goblin up close once more, and he did not seem to be holding back at all.

Batgirl would have just sat there and continued watching, but the sound of an explosion and gunfire below her served as a quick reminder that Goblin was not the only problem at the moment. There was still a pair of goon squads battling it out with each other, and who would likely end up dragging the fight into the streets if she did not do something quick. Thinking quickly, Batgirl immediately pulled a few smoke pellets from her utility belt and threw the small spheres down onto the floor below, creating a large smokescreen the minute that they had struck the ground. When the rain of gunfire had come to a complete halt and was replaced by the sounds of goons coughing, Batgirl quickly glided down from her perch and into the middle of the groups so that she could dispatch as many of them as possible while the smoke was still clouding their vision. By the time that the room was clear of smoke, Batgirl had subdued and tied up at least half of the goons in the room, with their weapons either discarded or dismantled by the caped crusader, and when the remaining thugs saw her, they all paused in shock at the sight.

"What? You fellas never seen a female superhero before," Batgirl quipped with a small smirk as she ran over to them and immediately knocked the closest thug out with a hard hit to his head, which was soon followed up by a spin-kick into the next closest thug's chest. Said kick had sent the thug flying into the crate that was situated behind him, and the minute his head had struck said crate, he was out cold as well.

That little display had snapped the rest of the goons out of their daze, and they were soon either running up for a chance to either kill Batgirl or just reloading their guns before attempting to shoot at her. While a few bullets managed to graze her a little, Batgirl was not injured by the shots thanks to the fact that her suit was made of a very flexible and durable body armor that Batman had provided her with after he officially welcomed her into the fold, and she was soon able to disarm the shooters with a series of batarangs. More to the point, dealing with the other thugs was a simple matter of incredible acrobatics and skill that Batgirl had spent years training and improving on, and the fact that she had more flexibility than the thugs that were trying to kill her was also a factor that played into her favor, so it was no surprise that she had practically cleared the room of about half of the remaining thugs so quickly.

Since he was still grappling with Spider-Man, Goblin had not noticed the newest arrival to the party right away, but when he did, he was not the least bit bothered by it. Instead, he just cackled a little more before he remarked, "So the spider's decided to call on one of the bats for help, has he? I wonder if she knows about what happened to the last girl that had ended up in the middle of our business."

Something in Spider-Man had snapped at that point, and the next hit he threw at Goblin not only threw the madman off his glider, but also made an impressive dent in one of the building supports as well. Before Goblin could rise again, he found himself being pressed back into the dented support by Spider-Man's arm, and the web-swinger just continued to press said appendage against his enemy's throat as he snarled, "Leave her out of it. This is between you and me."

"You mean like it was years ago? And yet, there was nothing you could do to keep poor little Gwen from…" Goblin started to say, only to find himself choking a little more when the pressure against his throat suddenly increased.

"Shut up! You don't get to say her name," Spider-Man practically roared in anger while he raised his free hand up into a fist, almost as if he were ready to send it through the man's skull. The minute that Goblin had said that particular name, everything else around him was blocked out, including Mary Jane's voice as it shouted in his ear, pleading for him to stop what he was doing, because right then, nothing else mattered to Spider-Man but making the madman in front of him pay for what he had done.

Thankfully, something finally managed to get through to him before he did anything he could regret, and that something was Batgirl grabbing his arm after she finished dealing with the last of the thugs and run over to them in an effort to stop what was happening. "Spider-Man, no! Don't let him get to you," Batgirl reasoned. Her tone may have been harsh, but her words were definitely not spoken with any anger.

At that point, Spider-Man finally realized what he was doing, and he relaxed a little bit, allowing Goblin to drop to the floor, panting a bit as he tried to get his breath back, while the web-head just slowly stepped back and looked at his hands, not believing what he had just nearly done, while Batgirl stood by watching him in concern. All contemplation ended though when Goblin suddenly shot one of his finger beams into Batgirl's leg, making her stumble a little and drawing Spider-Man over to her when she cried out, more due to surprise than actual pain. Goblin used this little distraction to return back to his glider and then release a number of bombs into the room around him as he lifted up into the air.

"Your choice, Spider-Man. Save yourself, your new girlfriend, and as many of these pathetic fools as you can, or stop me. Then again, I think we both know what you'll choose to do," Goblin cackled before he blasted out of the building.

Spider-Man just cursed under his breath at the fact that Goblin was right, and he immediately pulled Batgirl into his grasp before firing a web-line out through the broken window that Goblin's glider had come in through, pulling them both to safety. Batgirl had tried to insist that she was fine and able to save herself, but Spider-Man was either to angry to hear her or just did not listen, and he immediately dropped her unceremoniously on the rooftop that they had landed once they were outside before he turned to go back for the thugs that were still there. Unfortunately, he never made even made it off the roof, because seconds after he had turned around, the building went up in a glorious blaze of fire and explosions, taking everyone and everything that was still inside with it.

Spider-Man just stared at where the building had previously been before lowering his head in shame, both at the fact that he had allowed Goblin to play him and that he had failed to save any of those other men before it was too late. Batgirl wanted to say something to him, but somehow, she just could not find the words to do so. Perhaps it was because she could feel the sadness radiating off of him, or perhaps it was because she really did not know what to say about what had happened. Either way, the redheaded hero from Gotham ended up unable to do anything other than lower her head in sadness like Spider-Man had.


A few hours later, the two had long since left the warehouse and were now standing on the rooftop of one of the taller buildings in New York, making them invisible to anyone who was not flying directly overhead and low enough to see them, and despite the success they may have gained, there was no denying that there was just as much failure in there as well. At the same time though, Batgirl was clearly frustrated by what had happened and by the fact that a wanted supervillain who was supposed to be dead had actually turned out to be alive without anyone even knowing, including Batman apparently, but her frustration over this fact was nothing in comparison to Spider-Man's, and she did not need to be able to see his face to know this, because it showed in his body language. Of course, that just meant that all they needed was for Spider-Man to tell her who the Goblin really was, and then they could get the information to the police so that they could help them track down the criminal.

It seemed like a sound plan to Batgirl, but before she could give it any voice, Spider-Man cut her off with a plan of his own, one that definitely did not sit right with her. "We're done here. Whatever case your chasing after, it's over now," Spider-Man stated in a hard voice that likely could have rivaled Batman's commanding tone.

"Excuse me," Batgirl replied, hardly believing this guy had the nerve to tell her something like that. "In case you haven't noticed, Green Goblin is still out there planning something. We have to let Captain America or the NYPD know about this so that they…"

"What part of this isn't Gotham don't you get," Spider-Man rhetorically demanded. "We can't just go to the police saying 'Hey guess what? The guy who put out the hit on Wonder Woman is Green Goblin back from the dead! Mind helping us catch him?' Not only will they think we're crazy, they'll probably just try to lock us up instead once they find out we were at that warehouse that just blew up!"

"That wasn't our fault! Did you ever think that maybe if you would just explain what happened they wouldn't try to blame everything on you," Batgirl angrily asked.

"They won't accept any statement unless I reveal who I am, and unless you've recently told the world who you are under that cowl, I doubt they'd really accept your statement as easily as the GCPD does," Spider-Man stated. "Need I remind you that I said you could only tag along if you followed my lead? Well guess what? My lead is now for you to drop this, leave Goblin to me, and go back to Gotham."

"I also remember telling you that I would only follow your lead if it didn't get in my way, and this is doing that," Batgirl pointed out, but Spider-Man just turned away from her as though he were planning to leave. "Do you really think you can stop him on your own? I can help."

"No you can't. You'd just be in the way. The only way for me to stop Goblin is if I face him alone, otherwise someone will get hurt," Spider-Man replied without facing her.

"Bull. Why don't you just admit that you're too afraid of someone getting hurt? Newsflash, Web-Head: I've faced way worse than Green Goblin back in Gotham," Batgirl retorted.

"Well unless Joker and Harley Quinn have recently done something as terrible as him, you'll excuse me if I have a hard time believing that," Spider-Man retorted as he continued walking away.

His departure eventually came to a halt when Batgirl finally ran around to stand in his path, leveling the most heated glare she had ever given to anyone who was on the same side as her. "Just what is it about Goblin that makes you go from the witty, smart-mouthed hero that everyone is always saying you are into some controlling nutcase that could rival Batman," Batgirl demanded.

Spider-Man was silent for a minute, making Batgirl think that she had really made him a lot more mad than he already was, until he finally replied in a voice that was just barely above a whisper, "Think about who your boss' worst enemy is, assuming that isn't the Joker, but rather the absolute worst enemy he's ever faced, and then you'll have at least a small idea of what Goblin is to me." That put Batgirl into a stunned silence for a moment, having not expected that at all, but she was snapped out of it again when Spidey next spoke. "I'll say it again; we're done here, and your case is over. Go home and leave Goblin to me."

"No. I'm just dropping this, and you can't make me," Batgirl retorted in a continued effort to defy the web-head.

"Well, maybe I can't make you leave, but I can make sure that you don't follow me while I keep working. Especially since I just webbed your feet to the ground," Spider-Man replied with a bit of his usual whimsical nature coming out for a moment.

"What," Batgirl exclaimed as she tried to take a step in any direction, only to find her efforts in doing so completely useless, and upon looking down to her feet, she saw that Spider-Man had indeed used his trademarked webbing to make sure that she was stuck to the rooftop and unable to take a step in any direction.

Batgirl then turned her gaze back on Spider-Man, but she found whatever heated remark she had vanishing a little when she noticed that Spidey had narrowed the distance between them so that he was right in her face, leaving him the chance to give her one more warning. "Now for the last time, either go back to Gotham willingly, leave the Green Goblin to me, or I will send you back to Batman my way."

"How? By webbing me to the side of a jet," Batgirl asked in some small attempt of showing some bravery in the face of this rather intimidating side of the web-head.

"Only if I'm in a good mood, and you're really, really lucky," Spider-Man replied, and with that, he instantly aimed his web-shooter at the nearest building, and jumped off the roof to start swinging away.

"Hey! HEY! You can't just leave me here like this! Spider-Man? SPIDER-MAN," Batgirl shouted, but Spider-Man did not even make the slightest indication of turning back to free her from his webs, so she ended up just shouting his name to the sky as a curse until he was finally out of sight.


"You didn't have to go and do that to her, you know," Mary Jane scolded Peter for what seemed like the hundredth time to him since he had returned to the Spider-Parlor.

"Will you please stop saying that? You're starting to make it sound like I had left her there tied up in my webs and half-naked," Peter groaned while he finished reloading his web-shooters with a full cartridge of freshly made web-fluid. "Besides, you know why I did that."

"Yeah, because you're being a total tool," Mary Jane smartly replied as she tapped away at her keyboard, the screens all lit up with various displays that whisked this way and that across her monitors. Upon turning to glance at Peter out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Peter was now giving her a small look that said he was not laughing at her remark, so she just dropped the matter for now so that she could bring him up to speed on what she had found recently. "I'm tapped into every traffic cam and security system that I can get into in the hopes of picking up a trail on our recently revived nemesis Norman, but so far, it's coming up blank. Still, I have to ask; are you absolutely sure that was Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin? Last I checked he was a lot more green and way bigger than that. Like almost Hulk-sized. Not that I would know for sure, since I've never seen the Hulk in person, but he sure looked like he could be that big."

"It was him. I'm sure of it," Peter insisted, practically growling as he did. "I'd know that voice of his anywhere, and it wasn't just the voice, but the words too, and there was also the fact that he moved just like the real thing did, even for someone who was that massive. That was definitely the real Green Goblin."

"Still, how did he change from the massive monster that we've all seen Hobgoblin as into someone that seems a little more…human-like, except for the goblin-features," Mary Jane asked.

"I think I may have an answer to that," Connors replied as he stepped away from a computer that he had been working at over in the medical center of the Spider-Parlor. "The last time that Peter fought Norman, he was able to at least inject him with a small amount of our Goblin Cure, but it was not enough for it to really make that much of a difference. Even as Green Goblin, Norman was always a genius, so it's possible that he found a way to counteract the cure, and the results were what you saw tonight, Peter."

"You really think that's the case," Peter inquired.

"It's the only thing that makes sense. Even with that small injection, Norman should've been reverted back to normal over time, assuming it had been left alone, but clearly that wasn't the case," Curt nodded in response.

"Well whatever he did to himself, it doesn't change a thing. We track him down, I go after him, and I put an end to this nightmare," Peter said as he turned away to his lab table to do some maintenance work on his web-shooters.

"You mean like you almost did tonight," Mary Jane demanded. "Is that what you're going to do, Peter?"

"I never said that," Peter replied.

"Well you're not saying otherwise either," Mary Jane pointed out. "Peter, if you go after him like this, you'll be going against everything you stand for. What happened to great power coming with great responsibility?"

Both Mary Jane and Curt ended up jumping in shock when Peter suddenly slammed his fist down on the lab table, cracking it a little under the strength of his blow when he did, as he shouted, "What do you want me to do?! After all this time, that bastard is still alive! We thought he was gone, that after everything he stole from us, from me, that we wouldn't ever have to worry about him ruining our lives again, and now we've found out that he's played us all like a piano! Harry blames Spider-Man for the murder of his father, even though he's still alive, Captain Stacy is dead because he tried to help us stop him, and Gwen…Gwen is…and yet after all of that, it was all for nothing!"

Curt just exchanged a quick look with Mary Jane before he excused himself from the room, leaving the two best friends on their own as the redhead slowly placed a comforting hand on Peter's back in an attempt to help calm him down and ease his pain a little, all while Peter was doing everything he could to stop himself from breaking down into tears. "I know that you miss her. Gwen was my friend too, you know," Mary Jane reminded Peter. "But you can't keep doing this to yourself Peter. You need to stop holding on to this and blaming either yourself or Goblin for what had happened, and move on. Gwen would want you to do that."

For a moment, it seemed like her words were getting through to him, but in the end, Mary Jane ended up disappointed when Peter stood up again and slipped his mask on before heading over to the open window with one final statement on the whole thing. "Sorry MJ, but I can't let go or move on from this. At least not until I've stopped Green Goblin."

Mary Jane could do nothing more at that point than watch as Spider-Man jumped out of the window and swung away while letting out a sad sigh. It looked like Silver was right when she had called them earlier. Peter really was just trying to shut everything other than Spider-Man down in his life, and it was going to take something other than his friends to help him, especially with all that had now happened. Whatever the case may be in regards to her friend, she put it aside for now. She still had one other thing to do for Peter, and she quickly sat herself down at her computer setup so that she could make the necessary call.


The following night saw Spider-Man landing at the base of the clock tower where he had fought what should have been his last battle against Green Goblin, thinking there might be something there or in the nearby power plant that could give him a clue as to where Goblin might be hiding. If it had been up to him, Peter probably would have never come back to this place, because it was full of far too many memories that he would have preferred to have left forgotten, but it seemed like the universe just couldn't let him have a moment of peace. As he moved throughout the area, it was not hard for him to imagine the mad cackling of the Green Goblin, his pleas for him to not do what he was intending to do, or even the screams of a certain woman he knew quite well as she fell to her death, because even after all the time that had passed since then, he still had nightmares about that night, and those cackles and cries still echoed in every single one of his dreams even now.

After listening to these phantom echoes for what seemed like hours, it finally became too much for him to take, and he finally let out an agonizing yell as he punched the nearest wall as hard as he could, breaking the worn brick wall down a little once he had. He then panted heavily for a minute, mentally cursing Green Goblin's name over and over again while he regained his breath, until he finally straightened up and looked over his shoulder in a seemingly random direction. "I know you're there, so you might as well save us both the trouble and just come out," Spidey called out.

A second later, Batgirl dropped down from the shadows behind him, a neutral look on her face so that nothing she was feeling in regards to Spidey or anything at all was betrayed. She then looked between her fellow, costumed crime-fighter and the wall he had just punched before she finally asked, "So, what did the big bad wall do to you?"

Spider-Man said nothing in reply to this question, but instead just asked one of his own. "Shouldn't you be back in Gotham chasing some literal or figurative clowns or something?"

"Like I told you before, I'm in the middle of a case here in New York, and I'm pretty sure Batman wouldn't like it if I just left it half-done," Batgirl easily replied, her lips curving upwards by just a little smidge.

"Really, because I think Batman would like it better when his protégés are being a little more honest with him," Spider-Man easily quipped, wiping the smirk that had started to form on the redheaded hero's face away in an instant while her eyes widened a little in surprise.

Batgirl was quick to school her features again though, thinking that Spidey had not noticed, and simply asked, "And just what are you trying to imply?"

"Don't bother hiding it, Batgirl. I already called Cap, who asked Batman about that so-called case you were following up for him, and he said that there was no such thing," Spider-Man revealed, and the startled expression on Batgirl's face just served as further proof that he was right. "He did admit that you were supposed to help Cap keep Wonder Woman safe, but apparently, you were supposed to go back to Gotham once that was over and done with, along with whatever other business you had in New York. So, care to try and talk your way out of this, because I'm pretty sure that he was not referring to anything that involved batarangs and capes."

Batgirl just stared at Spidey in surprise for a few more minutes until she finally sighed in defeat. "Alright, I wasn't following up on any case, aside from trying to find out who hired Crossbones that is," Batgirl admitted. "I mean, that was all that I was doing at first, but after a while, both after I first started and after I finally got out of the webs you had tied me up in on that rooftop when we last spoke, I started doing a little more to help out. You know, stopping some crimes here and there, and for once…it felt like I was really making a difference. Like I was actually helping people as someone other than…one of Batman's sidekicks. If felt amazing, being able to do that and actually stand on my own out there and doing things in my own way instead of how people would probably expect Batman to do them, you know?"

Spidey was quiet for a minute or so, until he finally said, "Yeah, I think I have an idea of what that's like. I spent a great deal of my life trying to solve the mystery of what happened to my parents while living up to what my father was, that it wasn't until I started being able to do…well you know, whatever a spider can that I finally felt like I was becoming my own man instead of just my father's son."

"Well…the minute I get back to Gotham, that little adventure's over, and it's all back to being Batman's sidekick, even though we're technically partners," Batgirl sighed.

Hearing all of this from Batgirl, along with the disappointment in her voice, prompted Spider-Man to rub his head a little sheepishly before he finally said, "Listen…about the other night…I, uh…I'm sorry about that. It's just that…Goblin's a really personal matter for me. The last time I dealt with him, someone I cared about a lot ended up getting killed, and that kind of thing…well, it changes you."

"Yeah, I get that, but you shouldn't just shoulder all of that on your own. I mean, I can't be the only one who's offered to help you with this, can I," Batgirl pointed out. When Spidey said nothing, she took that to mean she was right, and she immediately pressed on by adding, "Besides, I've already started scoping out a few different locations that he could have slipped away to. If we work together we can find him and bring him in."

"No, I can't let you do that," Spider-Man denied.

"Why? Because you want to kill him yourself? So you can get revenge for what he did," Batgirl asked.

"No, it's because…because if I do expose him to the world, it will destroy my best friend," Spider-Man revealed. "Before Green Goblin had…supposedly died, he asked me to never tell his son what had happened to him, and to this day, I never have. I've let him think that I was the one that killed his father, be it at some point during my battle with Green Goblin or otherwise, and if he were to ever find out the truth, that his father was…is the Green Goblin, it would destroy him. More than that, the truth is that…Goblin's sick. He hasn't been in his right mind ever since he injected himself with a kind of performance enhancer that was supposed to be an attempt at recreating the super soldier serum. Because of that, he turned into the monster that you probably remember seeing in the files."

Batgirl was not sure what to say to that, but in the end, she eventually stepped forward to place a hand on his shoulder as a comforting gesture to him as she said, "I get it. You don't want your best friend's memory of his father to be tainted like that, but that doesn't change what you have to do. We still have to stop Green Goblin, but at the same time, we don't have to kill him."

"I don't plan on killing Goblin. I'm well aware that if I were to do that, he would win, and I appreciate the offer, really, but this is personal. I have to stop him alone," Spider-Man insisted.

"Well too bad, because I'm not letting you do this alone," Batgirl stated.

"And just how do you plan on doing that," Spidey challenged, his fingers already moving into their iconic position for when he was about to fire his web-shooters.

"Because I'm going to be sticking around for a long time to come," Batgirl revealed. That little surprise caused Spidey to freeze just as his fingertips were about to brush the triggers of his trusted wrist devices and Batgirl had clearly noticed his shock if the wide smirk she gained afterwards was any indication. "I've actually got something of a reason to move here on the civilian side of my life, so if I were you, I'd expect to see me around a lot more often, and don't think for a second that I won't keep on this Goblin case while I'm here, because I will be going on the hunt for him no matter what you say."

Spider-Man just stared at her for a minute before he finally asked, "So what? You think this means we're partners now or something, because I'd hate to break this to you, but Spider-Man doesn't have a sidekick."

"Please, if anything, you're the sidekick," Batgirl scoffed as she pulled out her grapple.

"Yeah right. Between the two of us, who actually has superpowers beyond a belt full of fancy little bat-themed toys," Spider-Man scoffed in reply.

"Oh like you really don't wish you had stuff as cool as this," Batgirl easily retorted before firing off the grapple and swinging away.

"Like I need any of it! I do whatever a spider can, and I can easily get around via web-swinging, which your trying to copy with what you're doing right now," Spider-Man bantered back as he fired a web-line and swung off after Batgirl, and the two continued on like that for hours on end into the night.


The next day, Peter was making his way across the ESU campus with Doctor Connors so that he could perform his day job as Connors' lab assistant. It was not really much, but it was still a much better job than his old freelance photography job at the Daily Bugle, and unlike Jameson, Connors actually gave Peter a decent pay, and by that it meant that Connors did not underpay Peter for his work. At the moment though, lab experiments, research, and other usual business for a pair of scientists was not the matter that they were discussing as they walked to Connors' lab. No, the subject of conversation for them right now was actually the events that had unfolded for Peter the previous night after his encounter with Batgirl.

"So you just argued with her for the rest of the night while fighting bad guys and looking for any clues to lead you to Goblin," Connors asked, just to make sure he had heard right.

"Pretty much," Peter shrugged. "But it wasn't really arguing. If anything, it was more like…bantering."

"I thought that's what you did with your enemies," Connors asked.

"Hey, superheroes can banter with other heroes from time to time too," Peter insisted rather defensively.

"If you say so, Peter," Curt shrugged, but the smug look on his face told Peter that this was not going to be the end of the matter as far as the good doctor was concerned. Moving on from there though, Connors then asked, "So what happened after you finally decided to call it a night?"

"Nothing too special. We just exchanged a few more words of banter, I turned to swing away, and when I turned back to ask her if she was actually serious about moving to New York, she had already pulled that whole Bat-vanish thing you always hear about on me," Peter shrugged. He then leveled Curt a look and asked, "Why do I get the feeling that you're asking me all this stuff because you're thinking that the whole thing was some kind of weird date?"

"I never said anything to suggest such a thing, Peter," Curt replied in a knowing tone. "Still, you have to admit, you do seem like you may actually…"

"Let me stop you right there," Peter interrupted. "Need I remind you that she attacked me twice now, confused me for that copycat knock-off, Black Spider, she's incredibly stubborn, prefers to do things her own way, and to top it all off, I just can't stand her."

"I believe that I've heard some people say that the best ones normally start out that way," Curt pointed out.

Peter just groaned in response, but before he could further argue his point, he suddenly found himself colliding with someone and dropping to the ground along with them and several books and papers. "Oh jeez, I am so sorry about that," Peter immediately apologized as he quickly started helping to gather up the other person's dropped items.

"No, no, it was entirely my fault. I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going, and got a little turned around," the other person replied, their voice immediately telling Peter that he had run into a woman.

Just as Peter had reached out for one of the last papers, his hand suddenly brushed against the woman he had just run into, and they both immediately jerked up to lock eyes with one another. There before him, was a lovely young woman with fair skin, bright blue eyes that were hidden behind a pair of square-rimmed glasses, and long red hair that hung down over her shoulders a little. She was dressed in a rather simple outfit of a light blue, button-up shirt, a black knee-length skirt, and simple black shoes. The two of them just sat there staring at one another for what seemed like eternity until a small cough from Connors snapped them both out of their shocked states, and they immediately sprang up to their feet after Peter had handed her the last paper that they had both reached for.

"Um…so I guess you're a new student here at ESU or something," Peter asked.

"Yeah. Just started actually," the redhead admitted in an attempt to keep any awkward silences from forming. "Oh, I'm Barbara. Barbara Gordon."

"Peter Parker. Nice to meet you," Peter replied as he shook hands with Barbara.

"You wouldn't happen to be the same Peter Parker who used to take all of those Spider-Man pictures for the Bugle, would you," Barbara inquired, sounding rather intrigued and a bit excited.

"Uh, yeah. That's me," Peter admitted. "I actually work as an assistant for Doctor Connors here now."

"Really? Well, maybe you could show me around sometime, and maybe show me a few of your other Spidey pictures as well," Barbara asked with a hopeful note in her voice.

"Sure thing. Just name the time and place," Peter nodded.

"Well how about somewhere around here? It seems like this is the only place I really know how to find since I keep ending up here for some reason," Barbara offered.

"Yeah. Is Friday good?"

"Perfect," Barbara nodded.

"It's a date then," Peter replied. His words then registered in his mind, and he quickly said, "I mean, not like a date-date, I was just saying that I'd see you then. I mean, if you'd want to call it a date, that'd be cool too, but I wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable or anything…"

Barbara just let out a small, cute laugh before she said, "Relax, I know what you meant, so I'll see you then, Mister Parker."

"Likewise, Miss Gordon," Peter nodded, and with that, Barbara walked off with Peter watching for a bit longer than was normal for someone. Another cough from Connors brought Peter out of the clouds, and upon seeing the knowing look on the doctor's face, Peter could not help but quirk an eyebrow in confusion at what he was smirking about now. "What?"

"Nothing. I'm just glad that you're finally starting to find a way to move on and meet someone new, but don't you think Batgirl might be a little jealous," Curt replied.

Peter knew that Connors was teasing him, but that did not mean he was able to stop the blush from forming on his face. Sometimes he wished he was always wearing his mask, because without it, he was as easy to read as a kid's book. "It's not like that," Peter insisted. "I-I was just being nice, and besides, why would Batgirl be jealous? I don't even know who she really is, and the same goes for her about me!"

"Yet you're not denying that there might be something between you two," Connors pointed out.

"I'm not denying it because it's obvious that there isn't," Peter insisted.

Curt just paused in his tracks before looking at Peter for a minute and then saying, "Well, it seems that denial really is more than just a river in Egypt."

Peter just let out a frustrated growl and stalked away, with Connors laughing a little behind him as he did, neither of them knowing that Barbara Gordon was smiling rather excitedly at the thought of what was coming this Friday. One thing was definitely certain though: things in New York had just gotten a lot more interesting.


AN: Well, there you have it. More insight to Spidey's history, and Spider-Man's now had his first encounter his love interest in this story, both in their hero identities and in their civilian ones. Yes, you heard me right, for this story, Spidey's gonna get paired up with Batgirl. I know what you're thinking, "if he's gonna be in a relationship with Batgirl, then he's not really off to a great start, at least as far as the hero side of things is concerned." Well, not every relationship has the best start, and besides, in case you haven't noticed, it looks like Peter Parker and Barbara Gordon are on friendly terms. The question now is how long will that last when they finally find out each other's secret identities?

Joker: Oh, I can just taste the suspense!

Deadpool: When they finally find out, do you think they'll beat the crap out of each other, or do you think they'll screw each other on a rooftop?

Joker: You mean like a certain pair of heroes did in the animated movie Batman: The Killing Joke? Hm, you know that's actually a good question.

AN: No, it isn't, you sickos! [hits control]

Joker: [gets catapulted into the path of a runaway train]

Deadpool: [gets blasted into the air by a massive cannon barrage]

Joker&Deadpool: [collide with one another after getting out of their respective beat downs only to look up and see multiple different versions of Spider-Man standing over them and cracking their knuckles] Whelp...bye now! [run away screaming with all of the Spider-Men on their tails]

AN: Okay, now that that's dealt with, on another note, let's talk about this story's version of Silver Sable. Originally, she was just going to be an informant that Spidey would go to for info on Crossbones, and an old friend, but I figured that with the history that those two had, however brief it may have been in the comics, it would've been more interesting to add a little more flare to the history of their relationship. Basically, they were once close to being a thing, but their costumed double-lives kinda got in the way of things and now their just friends.

By the way, in case it isn't obvious by now, the supposedly final battle between Spidey and Green Goblin happened pretty recently, and Spider-Man's still trying to get over what had happened during that fight, ie Gwen Stacy's death, hence the reason why he's so opposed to starting a relationship. I know I mentioned that he and MJ went out for a little while, but as it has been pointed out, that was more of a rebound thing for Peter, and it ended up leading them to going back to being just friends. So whether or not Spidey&Batgirl/Peter&Barbara happen any time soon may depend on how many chapters pass until the next interlude.

As for Goblin, I'd like to make something very clear here about his appearance. At one point before he appeared here, he looked like the hulking monster he is in the Ultimate Spider-Mancartoon, but now he looks more like he did in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, so basically, he's slightly bigger than a human being, but he also still looks like a messed-up monster. While we're on the subject of appearances, Crossbones looks like he did in Captain America Civil War, and I doubt I really need to tell you all how War Machine looks, since that dude's appearance doesn't really vary that much.

Now then, I do believe we have a preview to move onto, and I suppose some of you are thinking that next chapter is going to be the events of "Legends", right? Well, technically you are half-right, because it will kinda start out the same way as that adventure had, but the rest of it is actually going to be something different. If you've seen the special sneak preview from one of my other stories, then you know what's coming next time, but if you haven't, here's a more simple version. Onto the Preview!...

A battle in Metropolis leads nearly all of the Leagues save for Batman and Superman to be thrown all the way to New York, or at least what appears to be New York, but something is not quite right here. An encounter with another group of heroes similar to them leads them to even more questions about this strange world, and to a discovery that they're not expecting. Just what sort of adventures awaits the League in this world where the Justice League does not exist, and Earth is defended by a team of heroes that consist of both heroes that they know and ones that they don't know? Brace yourself for a lyokoMARVELanime special crossover event, next time in…Chapter 11: Another Code of Heroes.

So in case its unclear, let me spell it out for you. Next chapter is going to be a big crossover event between this story, and my Code Avengers story series. Don't stress out too much if you haven't read any of it yet. I'm gonna try to make it so that you won't really need to have read it for any reason other than to get an idea of just where in that series this chapter will take place.

Oh and one more thing, if any of you are curious about that little idea that was mentioned earlier, the one about me writing a Spider-Verse story that'll take place at a later point in my Code Avengers series, let me know in the reviews for either this story or Code Avengers: Cosmic, please. On that note, I guess I'll just be sending you all off to carry on with your days, so...

Please read and review, and I'll see see you all next time, hero believers!