AN: Sorry for the delay folks. Life and other hobbies got in the way. This chapter was meant to be longer, but it needed to go through a couple edits. These edits are now in the next chapter. At the end, I have a small bit of information to all of my much appreciated readers. Until then, please enjoy.
Chapter 10
Spider-Man found himself playing an emulation of classic video games on his phone as the stake out went on into the night. He didn't want to admit it, but he was beginning to think that his plan to wait here all day and night was not the brightest. After infiltrating The Kingpin's labs, there would likely be pressure from the man to acquire the program as fast as possible in order to stay ahead of the hero's. Spider-Man worried at this point that the facility was somewhere else. He shouldn't need to be passing the time because bad guys should have been here already if this was the place.
Spider-Man looked of and saw that Black Cat was once again on her phone, likely scrolling through social media for celebrity gossip. "What are you up to?" he asked casually.
"Checking the guest list tomorrow for the art exhibit." Black Cat said smiling. "Your aunt and Jay are indeed on it."
"Wonderful." Spider-Man said with deadpan sarcasm. After the events this morning, Spider-Man was not keen to spend time with both his aunt and his girlfriend in the same room.
"Hey. You promised that you would go as my plus one." Black reminded him sternly.
"Ugh." He groaned.
"I have a new slinky dress that I plan on wearing." She said in a leading manner.
"Ooooh." He hummed happily.
A crash from the streets below broke their conversation. As they looked down, they saw the same van that took Shocker away from the assault on the Alchemax van crash through the gate to the work campus right below them. It sped in a straight line straight line towards a warehouse that was near the back of the property. The late night workers that were still on duty bolted out of the way of the speeding vehicle.
"Time to get to work." Spider-Man said casually.
The Spider dove off of the roof they were on and shot out a webline that took him over the fence the surrounded the Alchemax compound. He then landed on the cement sidewalk that served as the path between buildings and began to run after the van. He heard the sound of footsteps behind him, informing him that Black Cat was on his tail.
Ahead of them, they saw the van stop and the doors, and rear compartment opened up. Shocker and the three men from before with their Type 56 Assault Rifles jumped out and ran into the nearby warehouse.
As the two hero's got closer, they each shot a webline and grapple to the second story of the warehouse and entered through the windows. This put them on a gantry on the second floor. Below them Shocker and his crew were beginning to scavenge the place for the computer that would have the nano-tech program. The robbers moved with urgency, but in a pattern so that they didn't miss what they were looking for. Because they were behind the thieves, their entrance went unnoticed.
"Alright. Find the computer, rip out the hard drives. Then we can get out of here. Remember that the science guys said that we need to shut the computer down before we can take out the hard drive or we'd fry the data." Shocker said to the men in his crew.
The three thieves broke off and began to disappear into the maze of scaffolding, boxes, cubical offices, and computer servers. The gunman stared at the wall and shelves and moved briskly, quickly losing site of one another. Shocker stayed behind near the entrance to watch out for police and Alchemax security to hold them off if and when they showed up. Strong arm tactics fell right into the fluffy felon's wheelhouse.
"All right. They're splitting up." Spider-Man stated. "We should handle them quietly."
Black Cat's eyes glinted with mischief and mirth. She smiled brightly with an understanding that she knew what she was going to do. She jumped up into the shadows that were in the rafters.
Spider-Man smiled under his mask and followed. Black cat had already disappeared, so he followed the rustle of the armed gun in the floor below. He worked his way over to the first robber. As he got over the top, he shot a two web lines straight down and attached one to his mouth and one around his legs. Spider-Man jumped down out of the rafter, acting as a counter weight, he pulled the member of Shocker's crew up and hung him high in the sky. The speed of action ripped the weapon from his hands, rendering him no longer a threat.
Spider-Man looked up at his handy work. Pleased with himself, he launched himself up to the top of the nearby scaffolding. Looking down the next aisle, he saw another thief. Spider-Man shot more web lines down and wrapped up the felon in a cocoon of web, and yanked him upward out of sight. He then jumped over another aisle. He expected to see Black Cat standing victoriously over a defeated opponent. Instead he saw the third gunman moving on his own power.
From the front of the warehouse, a loud burst erupted. "Nice try bitch." Shocker voice echoed.
"BOSS!" shouted the gunman below.
"Ah hell." Spider-Man muttered. He then made a twelve foot elbow drop down on the man below him. A quick punch to the temple and the man dropped. Spider-Man then sprinted out the aisle to where the commotion was. "CAT!" he shouted.
Black Cat was kneeling on the ground, several feet from Shocker, holding her side in pain. "Yeah, he saw me."
"Yeah figured that you'd show up and pull some shit like that." Shocker said now trying to keep a focus on both Spider-Man and Black Cat. "Always remember to look up when dealing with you two." He said proudly.
"Can't you follow directions?" Spider-Man said annoyed. Life and death situations were not the situations where you settled personal grudges.
"You said take care of them quietly. You didn't say who." Black Cat defended, working her way to her feet.
"Yeah, luckily I took care of the others." Spider-Man said.
"God Damn." Shocker shouted angrily. "Ya think that professional thieves could be a bit better at their jobs. I need to start working with the guys from the Vegas job again."
Shocker continued to stare down Black Cat and Spider-Man. Spider-Man moved over to stand by Black Cat and help her stand up. "How do you think that you can both get the hard drive, defeat us, and escape without getting caught?"
"By being patient." Shocker said calmly.
Beneath his mask, Spider-Man had a scowl on his face. Shocker was not an idiot. Despite being a thug, he was pretty good a planning a heist. Sometimes, he planned for things to go south. That was when he made off with whatever he was trying to steal usually.
The door to the ware house opened, and several armored Alchemax riot personnel charged in. In addition to the blue and grey riot gear, they wore gas masks, and carried stun batons, and tear gas. The men in the uniforms weren't here to stop criminals. They were hear to stop everyone.
"Was this seriously your plan? Get us all stuck in a standoff with each other? Hope we get preoccupied while you make off?" Spider-Man asked bewildered.
"Almost." Shocker said with a grin underneath his yellow mask.
"O.K. I'll bite. What's left?" Black Cat asked.
Just then an explosion ripped hole in the roof. As the smoke cleared, Hobgoblin flew in on his glider, cackling manically. "I couldn't help but overhear this little party going on. Thought I'd gate crash. And crash anything else for that matter that suited me." He said as he pulled pumpkin bombs out of his satchel.
"GET 'EM" Shouted the leader of the Alchemax security squad. The riot team promptly started tossing tear gas into the air.
"Get down!" Spider-Man shouted as he pulled Black Cat behind nearby cover.
Shocker also dove behind cover. "Now it's a party." He said calmly.
AN: So first the bad news. I have a business trip that is coming up that is about three weeks long at the end of this month. I will be far too busy to update. On the plus side, the edits to this chapter means I already have content for the next chapter, and I plan on at least getting one more out before said trip. Please be patient though. I have am not going to compromise quality for time though. About the middle of February, regular updates will resume. Stay classy everyone.
