Along came a spider
Disclaimer: This is a sequel to my first story The Devil's Justice. It might be better if you read that before this story since there are characters and events that will be mentioned that were unique to that story and not the Young Justice TV show or the Daredevil comics.
New York, Queens, June 4th, 2015:
For most kids the start of summer vacation represented freedom. Freedom from the drudgery of school, freedom from homework and most importantly, the freedom to wake up as late as they wanted to. Unfortunately, Peter Parker wasn't like most kids.
'Peter. Wake up, it's eight in the morning,' Uncle Ben said, knocking on his door.
'Yeah,' Peter said after lazilily throwing away his bedsheets. 'I'll be down in a minute.'
Peter let out a large yawn and sat at the edge of his bed. He felt around the surface of his bedside table and grabbed his glasses. He put them on and looked around his room and saw the posters of old school bands and scientists plastered across his walls and smirked. Most of the bands he listened to were probably considered dated when his aunt and uncle were his age and most kids didn't exactly beg their parents or guardians to buy them a poster of Einstein. But the piece de resistance in Peter's eyes was the poster of Daredevil next to his window.
Ever since the vigilante saved him from a burning building five years ago Peter became obsessed. He used to read the paper with his uncle everyday just to see if there were any stories about Daredevil. A practice he quickly stopped after his aunt managed to convince uncle Ben they needed to instal WiFi.
Peter scrolled through his phone while brushing his teeth, looking through forums that revolved around discussing the potential identities of super heroes. Peter almost laughed when he read someone's post, suggesting that Batman's real identity could be Bruce Wayne.
Like someone that rich would want to jump off rooftops and beat up bad guys, Peter thought.
He took a quick shower and walked back to his room for a quick change of clothes. Peter scratched his left forearm after he ensured that his long sleeved shirt completely hid his burn mark. People always looked at him with pity whenever they saw it and explaining that he got it after nearly falling to his death in a burning building was not exactly pleasant for Peter.
At least it's not on my face. That would have been way worse.
Not wanting to lament the past he cracked his knuckles, dropped down to the floor and tried to do a push up. Peter grunted as his elbows felt like they would buckle under his own weight and he could feel sweat pour down his face onto his glasses.
'If you flair your arms out like that you're gonna mess up your joints,' a voice said.
Peter got up and saw uncle Ben standing in front of him. Uncle Ben was the complete physical opposite to Peter. He was a tall man with broad shoulders while Peter was of average height at best and was as thin as a whip. Ben's once blond hair was now a faded grey that was neatly combed over and Peter's hair was scruffy and brown.
'Your dad used to do the same thing when I came back from the army. I think it was his way of showing how tough he was. Not sure why he had such a chip on his shoulder, he was the smartest guy in every room he was in,' Ben said, giving Peter a towel to wipe off his sweat.
'To be fair you did look like Rambo when you were younger,' Peter said, making Ben laugh.
'It was the 90's. Mullets were in style. Now let's get you downstairs before your aunt marches up here.'
The two of them walk down to the kitchen and Peter hugged his aunt as she set the table.
'Say aunt May. Is that a new uh… perfume?'
'Flattery won't fill your stomach. Eat your wheatcakes before they get cold,' May said pulling out a chair for Peter.
'Why do you never remind me to finish my breakfast?' Ben asked.
'If you'd stop ordering those awful Big Belly burgers I might,' May said.
Peter scoffed down his breakfast while the two playfully bickered and read through a few news articles online. He saw that one of the headlines mentioned the name Osborn and he clicked on it immediately. Apparently someone stole something from a lab at Oscorp industries and the police have cordoned off roads in Midtown and Hell's Kitchen.
Harry's dad won't be happy.
New York, Hell's Kitchen, June 4th, 2015:
'Do we have to go to that fundraiser tomorrow?' Matt asked Foggy over the phone on loud speaker after finishing his hundredth consecutive handstand pushup.
'We have to, Matt. There'll be a truckload of rich potential clients who'll drink loads of champagne and if we're lucky, they'll be inebriated enough to actually join up with our firm,' Foggy said excitedly.
Matt let out a few groans after he switched to doing his handstand pushups with one arm. 'And why would a bunch of snobby one percenters want to do business with a law firm that's literally a week old?'
'That's where that Matt Murdock charm comes in. Plus you have that good looking, blind philanthropist thing going for you.'
Matt sighed. 'I'm not a philanthropist, Fog. I only gave away that settlement money cus it was from LexCorp.'
'Money they had to give you after one of their drivers nearly ran you over and spilled radioactive crap in your eyes. Most people would have kept the cash,' Foggy said sympathetically. Matt let out a dry laugh. He always enjoyed how Foggy never walked on eggshells when talking about his disability.
'It's not like I didn't spend some of it,' Matt said launching himself several feet off the ground with one hand and flipping forward to land effortlessly on his feet. 'I did use it to put us through law school.'
'Yeah. I nearly had a heart attack when the bank called to tell me that my student loans were paid for. Pretty sure you did that just to get me to start the firm with you.'
'It's a pretty good bargaining chip,' Matt said sarcastically. He dried himself with a towel and walked towards the stove in his small apartment and put a pan on top of it. 'You mind picking me up tomorrow. I really don't want to take the subway in a tux.'
'Yeah sure. Just remember to turn on the charm,' Foggy said.
Matt smiled and shook his head before he cut the call. Matt spent the last four years putting himself through law school. Most people have to do a four year undergrad degree before they could apply to any worthwhile law school, which would have set him back $300,000 and seven years. Not wanting to spend that much time or money, Matt went to the University College London and applied to their dual LLB/JB course. Meaning he could be qualified to study and eventually practice law in four years. Two years at UCL in London and two more at Columbia law in New York, which is where he met Foggy.
One of a handful of friends he had who didn't spend their evenings wearing spandex.
It was hard work, balancing his studies and his life as Daredevil but he eventually graduated top of his class. Which was all the more impressive since he was blind. Matt finished making a batch of scrambled eggs and slumped into his couch to eat them, huffing his chest with pride thinking back on the past four years.
Matt took stock of his little studio apartment. It was hardly the most spacious accommodation. The hall, kitchen and bedroom were basically one room with only a paper thin sliding door separating them. If you counted the ensuite bathroom he basically lived in a two room apartment.
The walls smelled like cheap wallpaper and soggy towels, which Matt assumed was from the mould he spent over a week trying to scrub out. The sound of his neighbours downstairs arguing was barely muffled by the cacophony of cars, pedestrians and pigeons blurting out ungodly levels of noise. Matt ignored the taste of his blood particulates floating in the air from an injury he sustained a few nights ago and drowned it out the best he could with a few last spoonfuls of eggs.
He had no decorations on his walls except for a few family pictures, a card from his school friends Lux and Britt, a picture of him and the Team in civies just before he joined the League and his degree, which was framed by Foggy. While he could never see any of them he enjoyed having them on his wall to remind him of how far he had come and the people he had in his life.
'Wish you could have seen me graduate,' Matt said thinking about his father, mother and brother. All of them dead. All of them a victim of crimes he couldn't stop.
Matt heard his communicator buzz and he walked into his room to put it into his ear.
'There was a break in at Oscorp an hour ago. The cops nabbed one of the perps and mentioned that Selina Kyle was involved,' the voice over the communicator said.
'Catwoman? In New York? Why didn't Bruce tell us she was in town?'
'He isn't exactly the best at relaying information,' Lux said, staring at her screen. 'She's probably in Jersey by now.'
Matt had known Lux since he was in middle school. She was her man in the chair so to speak and one of the few people he trusted with his secret. Though she only figured it out after she shot him thinking he was a member of the Yakuza. A fact he loved to bring up whenever the two were in a petty argument.
'I'll patrol the streets anyways. Keep tabs on police chatter. I doubt she's the subtle type judging by what Dick told me. Shouldn't be hard to catch her,' Matt said as he finished his eggs and put on his Daredevil suit.
'Please don't flirt with her when you do catch up to her. The female villains always give you the slip when you do,' Lux said over the communicator.
Matt scoffed and put on his helmet.
'Like I would do that. I'm a professional.'
New York, Queens, June 4th, 2015:
Peter handed the money his aunt gave him for groceries to the shopkeeper and picked up his reusable bag off the counter. He plugged his earphones into his phone and started playing an old Frank Sinatra song.
He walked past a sea of people and greeted almost all of them. Some of them in English, some of them in Spanish wishing each of them a good morning. His uncle and aunt always told him to be polite to people. And seeing people smile when he gave them a simple greeting always made Peter feel good about himself. One of them was kind enough to remind him to tie up his shoe lace.
His blissful walk was interrupted but the sight of two shady men in hoods walking behind an old man on the other side of the road. Peter removed his headphones and kept his eye on them as he crossed the sidewalk.
Why am I following these guys? Why are they walking to an alley? And is that a giant rat? Peter thought in quick succession.
Peter could feel his heart pumping a mile a minute and it was getting stronger every second he was tailing these men. He almost turned around to run when he heard the old man shout in pain. Peter rushed to hide behind a very old dumpster and used one hand to plug his nose and the other to film the three of them threatening the old man.
He couldn't really hear what they were saying since the traffic from a nearby road drowned most of it out but he could make out that it involved the old guy owing one of them money. Peter continued to record the incident and winced when he saw one of the men punching the old man in the stomach.
One of them pulled out a knife and pointed it at the old man and instinctively Peter jumped out of hiding and waved his arms around.
'Hey Rocky and Bullwinkle, I've got you guys on camera. You better leave before I call the cops,' Peter said, shouting at the top of his lungs, not sure where this new sense of confidence was coming from.
'Aleksei,' one of them said. 'Grab the kid.'
Peter slowly backed up as the guy he assumed was Aleksei marched towards him. Peter turned around to run but he tripped on his own laces and was picked up over Alexi's shoulders before he could get up and run.
Aleksei was a mountain of a man who had a large, neanderthal like forehead and muscles that felt like stone to Peter. He grabbed Peter's phone and crushed it in his hands like it was a soda can.
'What should we do with him, Flint?' Aleksei asked in a thick Russian accent, gagging Peter with his gargantuan hands.
Flint looked at Peter and pocketed his knife. He was half a head shorter than Aleksei but still was much much taller than Peter. He looked to be about uncle Ben's build but was much younger and had brown hair that was in a buzzcut and was wearing a striped shirt that had a dark and light green color scheme.
'We get what we want from the old man and tie up the kid and throw him in the dumpster,' Flint said.
'So we ain't gonna kill him?' Aleksei asked innocently. Which made Peter squirm in his grasp.
'What? No! Why would we? Do you want a murder charge if we get caught? That's like twenty years minimum. I think,' Flint said, scolding Aleksei, while grabbing on to the old man's collar, to make sure he did not run away.
Please tell me I'm not going to die because of these morons, Peter thought.
Selina had never taken a job in New York before. She spent months gathering intel, scoping out the Oscorp building and gathering the right crew to execute the heist perfectly. The only problem was that their getaway driver crashed into a cab before he reached the rendezvous point, leaving her and the rest of the crew to escape on foot.
Luckily I always keep my work clothes handy, Selina thought as she jumped across rooftops in the middle of what she assumed was Queens, wearing her Catwoman outfit. She adjusted the straps on her small backpack that was custom built to house the cylindrical, glass container she stole from Oscorp. She had no idea what was in the container nor did she care. It would have been unprofessional to ask.
It's probably some bioweapon Osborn was developing for the military, Selina thought.
A cable wrapped around her body before she could ponder the thought any further and she fell on her back to lower the impact of the fall. Selina flexed her fingers and popped out ten cat-like claws from her gloves and sliced the cable into ribbons with one swipe.
'I was expecting someone with a cape,' she said.
'Capes are overrated,' Daredevil replied, perceiving Selina's outline with his radar sense. 'You can either hand me the bag and I try and convince the cops to be lenient with the charges or I pry it from your claws after tying you up.'
Catwoman smiled and crouched on the floor like a lion ready to pounce. 'Might want to buy me a drink first before we get to that part.'
It's going to be one of those fights, Matt thought raising his fists. Don't flirt back. Do not flirt back.
'Sorry. I'm not into dating older women,' Daredevil said with a bit too much gusto.
He heard Catwoman's facial muscles funnel into a frown. Her heart rate spiked and she lunged at Daredevil who felt her claws cutting through the air in front of him. Daredevil leaned back to avoid getting the arteries severed in his neck. He grabbed both of her wrists and forced her arms behind her back and pinned her to the ground.
Daredevil grabbed the bag and briefly paused. His radar sense detected low levels of radiation exiting the bag.
Catwoman seized her opportunity and twisted her entire body around and used the momentum to kick Daredevil in the chin. Daredevil felt a trickle of blood drip down his lip and let out an animalistic grunt.
The gloves are off.
He stepped in at a speed Catwoman's eyes could barely register and delivered a rib cracking shot to her body, dropping her to the ground. Daredevil paid no attention to her moaning in pain and ripped the backpack off of its straps. He unzipped it to examine its contents.
Low levels of non-ionising radiation. The glass in the cylinder feels porous and not airtight. Why? Wait. Is there something crawling inside of it? Matt thought as he heard the small pitter patter of something small walking along the inside of the container.
Catwoman pointed one of her claws at Daredevil and shot it at his hand like a projectile. Daredevil felt it penetrate his wrist and dropped the container which rolled off the edge of the building. He pulled the claw out and focused his senses on the container. Daredevil heard the glass shatter as it hit the ground and sighed in frustration.
Maybe I'll flirt with the cat burglar next time instead of calling her old.
Aleksei and Flint were startled when they saw random shards of glass scatter at their feet. They looked up to see if someone had dropped it and yelped after seeing a body fall from the sky into the dumpster in the alley.
Peter struggled in Aleksei's grasp but all it did was make him hold onto the teenager even tighter as if he were a living teddy bear. Alexei heard a thud behind him and his stomach started to churn.
'Flint?' Aleksei asked with a trembling voice. He turned around to check on his partner and his body froze. 'Дьявол?' he asked in Russian. Daredevil stepped over Flint's unconscious body and slowly walked towards Alexei who could not find the courage to run away.
'Hand over the boy,' Daredevil commanded in Russian. Alexei nodded and slowly passed Peter over to Daredevil who carried him over one shoulder. In the blink of an eye Daredevil extended his arm and Alexei felt a brief but crushing pressure in his throat. His sight faded to black and he collapsed on the floor like a back of bricks.
Daredevil kneeled down and let Peter sit against the wall. 'You ok kid?' he asked. Daredevil was concerned when Peter's heart started beating faster instead of slowing down. Peter let out a high pitched whine which made Daredevil's ears ring.
'You're… but I'm… what?' Peter said incoherently pointing a finger at Daredevil in disbelief.
Daredevil patted Peter on the shoulder. 'You're in shock. Don't move while I tie these guys up and check on the old man,' he told Peter kindly.
'What about the dumpster?' Peter asked.
Daredevil turned his head towards the dumpsters direction. 'That's just Catwoman. She's alive. Don't worry.' He went to check up on the old man Flint and Alexei were assaulting before Peter could continue the conversation.
That's Daredevil. That's actually Daredevil! He's a lot taller from what I remember. And blurrier too. Wait. Where are my glasses? Peter thought. They must've fallen off when that big guy grabbed me.
He squinted his eyes to try and make his vision clear enough to look around the floor for his glasses. Peter crawled on the floor towards where the glass had shattered which made him shiver thinking how many people probably relieved themselves in this alley.
Peter's eyes focused on a brown smudge behind some glass that appeared to be his glasses. He carefully moved the glass away to avoid being cut but he felt something crawl on his hand. Peter raised his hand closer to his face to see what it was and right as it was coming into focus he felt the creature bite his hand.
Daredevil stopped instructing the elderly gentleman about personal injury lawsuits when he heard Peter scream. He ran towards Peter and caught him before he fainted. Daredevil traced his fingers over Peter's hand and felt something stuck to Peter's skin.
A spider? Matt thought as he perceived it's outline. That's what Catwoman must have stolen. But I don't taste or smell any venom from the spider's fangs or the kids' wound. He's not having an allergic reaction either. Why did the bite knock him out?.
Daredevil put his finger on his ear to activate his communicator. 'Detective Blake. I need you to send a few squad cars and an ambulance to my coordinates.'
Peter had never been in an ambulance before. He used to spend hours learning about the myriad of instruments that would be used in an ambulance after binge watching a few medical dramas out of sheer curiosity. But with him feeling like he had dove head first into a frozen lake and with the blanket the paramedics provided him doing little to warm him up he couldn't care less about anything other than going back home.
Daredevil and Detective Blake kept Catwoman in custody till the FBI showed up. They sent a medical team to accompany her transport to prison since she sustained several internal injuries; which is to be expected after being thrown off a building into a dumpster.
'Could have gone easy on her,' Blake told Daredevil.
Daredevil shrugged. 'She'll survive. You manage to ID the other two?'
'Flint Marko and Aleksei Sytsevich,' Blake said. He was used to Daredevil's callous treatment of criminals. 'They used to be muscle for a local loan shark.'
'And the old guy was their former employer?'
'Yep. Aleksei said that he owed the two money. The three of them will probably see jail time but I wouldn't be surprised if the old man managed to get a plea bargain.'
'What about the kid?'
'Hmm? Oh right. Name's Peter Parker. Kid lives with his aunt and uncle here in Queens. We called them and they're on their way now.'
Parker? Matt thought. Why does that ring a bell?
'You mind if I talk to the kid?' Daredevil asked.
Blake nodded and went to deal with a group of reporters who were trying to film the crime scene while Daredevil approached Peter who was being treated by a paramedic in the ambulance.
Peter's heartbeat became louder and faster the closer Daredevil came to him. Daredevil wasn't sure if that was due to the spider bite or Peter getting nervous at the sight of a man dressed as the Devil.
'Can you leave us alone for a moment?' Daredevil asked the paramedic. 'I need to talk to him.'
'Normally I'd say no but you saved my brother from a mugger a few years ago so I guess I owe you one,' the paramedic said.
Daredevil gave the paramedic a brief smile before he went away and he sat himself down next to Peter who was fanboying on the inside.
'Ok. Whatever you do, don't freak out Pete. He's just a dude. He's totally ordinary and why am I talking to myself?' Peter muttered to himself.
Daredevil did not pay much attention to what Peter said and was instead more focused on the intensity of Peter's heartbeat. It was somehow more intense than a normal person's. Like a racehorse, his heart sounded like it could go into overdrive in a split second if Peter needed to exert himself. The change was so subtle that Daredevil had to put all of his concentration on Peter's heart just to make sure he did not imagine what he heard.
That explains the subtle increase in body temperature and increased respiratory capacity, Matt thought. What did that spider do to him?
'Uh, hello?' Peter asked, snapping Matt out of his analytical stupor.
'Sorry,' Daredevil said. 'Zoned out for a moment. How are you feeling?'
'Kinda lousy. We don't really have the best medical insurance and I don't want my uncle and aunt to waste their cash on me just cus I got into trouble,' Peter said, scratching the surface of his bandaged hand where the spider had bit him.
Daredevil was not expecting that answer.
'Don't worry about that. I can take care of the medical expenses,' Daredevil said, knowing that taking legal action against Oscorp for criminal negligence would be useless since Catwoman stole the spider from them in the first place and he doubted the other two criminals had any capital to give Peter as compensation if they did take them to court.
'What? How?'
'Let's just say I know a few people in high places,' Daredevil said with a smirk.
'Never knew you superhero types liked to give out loans,' Peter said sarcastically.
'I'll expect you to pay interest next time.'
'I'll keep that in mind when I try to stop a mugging and get bit by an arachnid.'
'That was really brave what you did. Stupid. But brave.'
'Thanks?'
'Just call the cops first if you see something like this. I can't save you every time you get into trouble.'
'Well you did before.'
'Did I?'
'Yeah. When Amazo attacked the city. It set a building on fire and if it weren't for you I'd probably look like the underside of a campfire.'
'That was you?' Daredevil said in disbelief. 'I should be the one to thank you. You pulled me up when the floor collapsed.'
'The kids at school used to pick on me when I said that "I saved Daredevil". Though I guess bringing it up everyday at recess probably didn't help.'
'Do you remember anything else from that day?'
'Oh. You mean,' Peter said mimicking the motion of taking off a mask. 'Not really. I kind of closed my eyes for most of it.'
'Thank heaven for that,' Daredevil said. He heard two sets of hurried footsteps running towards the ambulance. 'Someone's here to see you.'
Aunt May immediately embraced Peter in a hug and he almost collapsed in her arms, letting out a few tears.
'I'm so sorry. I know what I did was really dumb. I shouldn't have made you worry like that.'
Uncle Ben raised a hand and Peter stopped talking. Time moved still for Peter, expecting to be on the receiving end of a massive lecture. Instead Ben rested both his hands on his shoulders, filling Peter with an immense sense of security.
'You shouldn't apologize for doing the right thing son. You saved that man's life. Sure you got banged up in the process but that comes with the territory,' Ben said.
Ben turned to Daredevil and extended a hand. 'Thank you. For saving my boy.'
'Thank you and your wife for raising him right. Just make sure he's more responsible in the future,' Daredevil said, shaking Ben's hand.
'We know a thing or two about responsibility in this family,' Aunt May said. 'Speaking of which. What do we say to the nice man?'
'Who? Oh right. Thank you,' Peter said to Daredevil.
'Don't mention it. Now if you'll excuse me,' Daredevil said, aiming his billy club in the air. He pressed a button and shot out a line onto a nearby building and grappled away.
I wonder what that's like, Peter thought.
'Five years of hard work and half a billion down the drain all because you couldn't deal with a lady dressed like a cat?' Norman Osborn shouted rhetorically.
'Sorry boss but… ' Hammerhead started to say.
'Save it,' Norman said. 'Should have known that adamantium in your skull would dull down what little brain power you had left.'
'At least you have the body,' Hammerhead said, hoping to find a silver lining in this situation.
'The spider's corpse has been contaminated. And the others don't have the genetic potential to develop the mutagen that made the one we lost so unique,' Norman said, pouring himself a glass of whiskey, while he looked down on the city in his highrise suite.
Hammerhead brushed the hair on his flat head and straightened his suit. 'Will that be all sir?'
Norman dismissed him with a wave of a hand and Hammerhead left the room. He should be at home right now with his wife and son. Instead, he will have to spend the entire night explaining why a multi-million dollar project went down the drain to his investors.
He took another glance at the police report from his phone and threw it aside. 'At least the spider didn't kill the kid.'
Peter wasn't really sure whether or not he believed in hell. But he could not imagine it being any worse than what he was feeling right now. Peter spent the entire night, tossing and turning in bed. His body would feel like it was on fire one moment and then like he was freezing in an icy tundra the next. His muscles did not stop twitching for hours and he could feel his heart beating so hard that he thought it would fly out of his chest.
This went on for hours. Peter wanted to scream for his aunt and uncle but his mouth did not have the energy to make a whisper. Peter wanted this to be a nightmare. He wanted the images of spiders and webs to get out of his mind.
He just wanted to wake up.
Peter's alarm rang and startled him. He felt an intense buzz in his head and he leapt out of his bed. When Peter opened his eyes, he saw that the ceiling was barely an inch away from his face. His hands and feet were somehow sticking to its surface and his vision seemed as clear as ever, even though he wasn't wearing his glasses.
'What the - ' Peter said before he felt the adhesion in his fingers fade and he fell from the ceiling. Peter instinctively rolled in the air and landed on his feet like an olympic gymnast, which freaked him out to no end. He ripped apart the bandage on his arm like tissue paper and looked at his hand to check the spider bite. Much to his surprise, the wound had completely healed.
'Please tell me someone spiked my wheat cake last night.'
People asked for a sequel and I guess I'm providing you all one.
I have not written a story in months and I'm sorry if this chapter seemed sloppy but I am really rusty.
I'd like to thank AvatarConnor for giving me the motivation to write this chapter.
If I get decent responses to this I might continue the story. The Young Justice season 2 stuff will become more prevalent soon.