The bar was empty this morning. Most of the villains who frequented this place don't often arrive until the sun goes down; less of a chance that heroes would tail them. This was the safe haven for the League of Villains, away from the world of crime fighters. It was a small but well-kept establishment that would honestly look normal to the naked eye. Only a select few were around right now, lounging about the tables and behind the bar.

The bartender was the second-hand of the League of Villains, known as Kurogiri. His entire body was made mostly from a dark gas, hidden within a set of polite clothing. He found himself more often the transport for the L.O.V than anything else, while also being the only sense of reason, especially considering all the new members.

After the events of Hosu, they had received many more members alongside the ones from New York. Those American villains weren't half bad in terms of strength, but held zero personality, never wishing to hold a decent conversation. A few of them weren't that bad, yet only one decided to keep him company this afternoon.

The man sitting at one of the empty tables was a well-built, dirty blond man with an army haircut. Out of all the American villains they housed here, he was one of the few anyone actually wanted to talk with. He was saner and more focused compared to the others, who let their sinister ambitions run wild at every turn. Still, there was a dark nature to the man that stayed hidden within, one that Kurogiri found respect for.

"Another drink, Brock?" Kurogiri asked.

"No thanks, we're good," He waved off, "Got any water back there?"

"What kind of bar would I be, otherwise?"

Brock always referred to himself in plural; it was always we and not I. It could only be assumed it had something to do with his quirk, which resembled another villain they once had on the payroll. Unlike the others, Brock did his own thing more often than not, which always upset Shigaraki. Then again, what didn't upset him?

Kurogiri brought him a cup of water, which Brock took with a smile, "Nice to have it so quiet around here," he grinned.

"Indeed," Kurogiri concurred, "Your American friends are rather …loud, are they not?"

"We wouldn't call them friends, but yeah. We hate working with them. It's like they have tunnel vision; only able to focus on their own things. There's always a bigger picture."

"Amen."

The TV in the corner of the room returned to the local news, talking about this week's hottest Pro Hero and how their numbers have been doing. Brock had seen celebrity heroes before like Iron Man, but never this many. He'd argue they were more self-absorbed than Stark ever was.

"People like that are why we take the villain status in the first place," Brock commented.

"Anyone in particular?"

"Yeah, a certain web-head. Ruined our life."

"Then why don't you end his?"

"Don't worry," Brock sipped his drink, "We plan to."

...

As promised, Peter returned to the world of Pro heroes when school ended. He felt terrible skipping out on his afternoon patrol, but he could easily make up for it by going out during the night. As soon as the school day had let out, he traversed through the dimensional gates and placed himself at the doors of U.A High, texting Hatsume that he was outside waiting for her.

He was excited to work on this project with her, knowing they practically shared a creative mind. She was a huge help in developing his stealth suit and the specs for the HUD system. As clever as he believed he was, the task was easier with another mind like his own. Tony Stark was brilliant in so many ways, but there was something about Hatsume's young and excited thoughts that matched his own. Plus, he didn't want to ask Tony for anything else, not after everything he's already done.

Peter hung out by the school's gates with a hood over his head. It was easier this way to hide from the public. He had taken Aizawa's words to heart and chose to keep himself protected from the menacing eyes of the city. They were watching his every move, so he needed to step carefully.

"Sneak attack!"

As his spider-sense went off, he quickly back flipped into the air just as the young pink hero launched herself in his direction. She found nothing to grab onto as she looked for her target desperately. He landed quietly with a sinister grin, and hugged her tightly from behind, "Counter attack!"

Mina playfully screeched, laughing too hard to sound serious, "Darn it! How did you know?!"

"I've tuned my spider-sense to recognize your hug-attacks as a threat."

"Really?"

"Yes, but also you yelled 'sneak attack'."

He released her just as she turned around to hug him again, squeezing his body tightly, "Hi, Parker!"

"Hi, Ashido," He hugged back before getting her to release him, "It's good to see you."

Just then, the others of their group had arrived with laughter in their voice's. Momo, Kyoka, Izuku, and Itsuka were all walking together with Mina, who had run ahead after finding their friend waiting by the gates. They had been leaving school together more often than not, having become closer after recent events.

"Afternoon, Parker," Momo greeted first with a smile, "Surprised to find you at U.A, but it's good to see you."

"Yeah, I'm meeting up with Hatsume, today," he patted Mina's head, who still clung to him despite Kendo's glaring.

"He's working on a suit!" Izuku said, "I keep trying to ask him to see the specs but he refused!"

Mina gasped, gently smacking Peter's head, "You meanie!"

The group laughed as Peter finally pried himself from Mina, positioning himself next to Kendo who affectionately took his arm, "Hatsume and I are going to build me a new suit," he admitted, "She helped me with my stealth suit, so I figured I could get her help here."

"Smart," Kyoka complimented as she fiddled with her earphone jack, "I bet she's real excited about that."

"Oh, she is. She hasn't stopped texting me her idea's since last night. I had to mute my phone, otherwise it would have died."

Some of the other students who passed them had begun staring at the group around Peter, glaring daggers into them. When he took notice of their judgmental nature, his shoulders became tense. Kendo was the first to notice and tried massaging one of his shoulders to give him comfort, sending glares back at the students which immediately shut them up.

"Don't worry about them," she said.

"I can't not worry," he argued, "Aizawa said I need to keep my distance from people in public."

"He what?" her grip on his arm tightened, "Why would he say that?"

"Because my reputation is hanging from a thread, and he's right."

Mina booed aloud, cupping her hands around her mouth to increase the volume, "Boo! That's stupid! He's stupid!"

Momo chimed in with a regretful sigh, "I have to admit I was disappointed when Mr. Aizawa relayed this information to us this morning. We all know the truth but can't hope to explain it to people. Everyone thinks you're some kind of supervillain even though you've never hurt anyone. It's unfair ..."

He appreciated the concern everyone held for his well-being. They were some of the few who knew the fine print of his secrets, and could see past the surface level of his actions. The fact of the matter, though, is that Aizawa was right despite how unfair it sounded. Peter didn't want to drag everyone else with him if the public chose to tear him down.

"Will you at least see us off for the camping trip?" Asked Mina with her eyes matching a puppy's, "Pretty please with suger and spice and everything nice on top?"

"I don't know, Ashido …" he hesitated, "Mr. Aizawa might not-"

Kendo suddenly tightened her grip around Peter's arm, almost appearing to have steam coming out of her ears, "Screw Aizawa," She firmly stated, "If you want to see us off, you should."

He expected this kind of behavior from his girlfriend, at this point. She was strong-willed and always ready to call someone out for their wrong-doings, often being referred to as class 1-B's big sister. She refused to fit herself into the stereotypes of girls her age, choosing strength as well as brains with exquisite beauty to match. She would always be in his corner, no matter what.

"I'll think about it," he finally answered.

"Let us know," Said Momo, "I better be getting home before mother and father get too worried. It was really nice to see you, Parker."

The group had waved goodbye, minus Mina who chose a tight hug before strolling down the street with Yaoyoruzu. Peter quickly promised to Izuku that he would be home before dark, and would likely patrol in New York soon after. The only one who hadn't left yet was Itsuka Kendo, who still clung to his arm as though he would disappear.

When he asked what was wrong, she gave him the most serious expression.

"I don't like what people are saying about you," she spoke with agitation, "Everyone in school is talking about how you might still be a villain and hurt someone. They've even started thinking Midoriya is in on it."

"What?! Why?!"

"Because he's still housing you."

The last thing Peter wanted was for Izuku to suffer for his mistakes. He put himself on the run to protect his friends and family, but now he had to clean up the mess. How could anyone possibly think that Izuku was a villain? All he has ever done is train long and hard to become a Pro Hero.

"Why are people like this?" He asked, "Izuku has done nothing wrong."

"I know, but they want someone to blame for everything that's happened."

"…They always do." It was the Daily Bugle all over again, he thought, only now it came from everywhere instead of just one source.

"Promise me you won't let it bring you down," She asked, "Keep being the amazing Spider-Man, okay?"

"I don't know …thinking of using a new adjective at some point."

"I'll punch you."

"Please don't."

Instead of harming him, she pecked his check and ruffled his hair, "Text me later, m'kay? I love you."

"Love you too."

He watched Kendo leave with a grin stuck between his cheeks. She was always his ray of sunshine and hope whenever he felt down. Just the sight of her blue eyes and red-hair was enough to give him that boost he needed to get through the day.

Now that he was alone, the other students were less afraid to stare their thoughts into him. He even heard some of them whisper that he should leave. Some of them even tried taking out their phones to call the police. Of course, the officer on the other end always said there was nothing to worry about, despite their protesting.

They were silenced quickly by the roaring voice of Mei Hatsume, who came running down the schoolyard path as fast as she could. She called out Peter's name in excitement and nearly crashed into him when she finally arrived, "Come on! Let's go!"

"Greetings to you too," He said, "How was school?"

"No time for chit chat!" She grabbed his arm tightly and dragged him down the sidewalk, "There's no time to lose! Things to do! Babies to build!"

Her excitement was infectious and he couldn't help but laugh, unable to escape her grip as she dragged him down the street.

…

Hatsume's house greatly resembled her lab at school; messy. Any part of the house she inhabited the most was cluttered with tools and small inventions. Both her parents were away at work, she had told him, so they had plenty of time to themselves. The first place she had brought him too was the basement, where all of her personal tools and work was stored.

The ceiling lights were a bright yellow, yet the corners of the basement room were still concealed in darkness. Tools were scattered across the large table in the center. Baskets filled with metals and other objects were piled against the back wall. It wasn't nearly as sophisticated as her setup at school, which made sense. It was doubtful she had nearly as much funding on her own compared to the school.

"Home sweet home!" She exclaimed, referring specifically to the basement, "Give me a few minutes to change upstairs! No peeking, perv!"

Mei bolted upstairs and slammed the door behind her, leaving Peter alone in the workshop of wonder.

He used to have a setup similar to this in his own room, always keeping it hidden from his aunt by stuffing it in the closet. The only difference is that Peter only ever had one or two buckets of stuff, where as Hatsume seemed to have dozens.

"Back!" Mei landed on the floor of the basement, having leapt from the top of the stairs. She was wearing a black tank top, army jeans, and her U.A jacket wrapped around her waist.

"You change quick," He noticed, "Quicker than me, actually. What's your secret?"

"I said don't be a perv! Don't make me tell Kendo!"

"What?! No! I was just-"

"Teasing!" She poked his nose before rushing over to the work table, "Gimme your notes! I wanna see the idea for your baby!"

"It's not a-"

"Baby!"

"Okay!"

He was near scared for his life as he pulled out the notes from his bag and placed them on the table as Mei immediately started rummaging through the pages. He wanted to reach in and stop her before she ripped the entire notebook, but pulled back when he realized he would probably lose his hand, and chose to accept it.

"You draw weird," She referred to the schematics of the suit, "I don't like it."

"The drawing or the fine print?"

"The drawing, but also the fine print."

"What's wrong with it?"

She grabbed a pen and started scribbling over the page, much to his dismay, "You wanna keep the materials consistent throughout the suit, but I think that varying materials will be better. You should do a mix of polymer and Kevlar. The red should be the Kevlar since it's the main part, that way you can avoid stab wounds and bullets."

"It'll still hurt."

"Don't be a baby, just make one! Oo! I bet there's a way we can incorporate self-healing technology; the kind of fabric that is knitted and laced in such a way that it almost never rips."

He was worried she would rip the page with how hard she was writing, but he let it slide. She was full of great idea's he hadn't considered before. Had he the budget, he would have considered Kevlar before for the suit, "Can you even afford all that?"

"Bro, I got this, don't you even worry."

"Right …" He moved in to examine her notes, "I still have some more ideas to incorporate. I've been thinking about how we worked on the stealth suit, and I think I can lace the technology into the threads to create the same effect; maybe have the activation button-"

"-In the emblem!" she spoke in unison, "Genius! If we make the emblem big enough, we could hide a lot of the gritty mechanics under it!"

"That …might actually work."

He had never had anyone to bounce off of before. Hatsume was a genius, to say the least, with a mind so similar to his own. With how well they got along, part of him worried it would have been an identical situation to Mina and Momo when they first met, but it never came to that. She was honestly more like a sister than anything else, one that shared an interest in inventing.

They continued to discuss his different ideas for the new suit, including the idea for something he called web wings. He had tried such a thing when he first started as Spider-Man, but was never able to perfect it, and it even restricted his arm movements. If there was any way to make them retractable, Mei could find it. She had already started writing down different materials and chemicals they could mix to get such an effect.

"I've uh …never had a partner before," he admitted, "I've always improvised my gear through dumpster diving. It's nice to have someone helping me."

"Boy, you've been tied down too long! You gotta let your creativity run wild!"

"I know, it was just hard before, since I was keeping it a secret from …"

For a moment, he had nearly forgotten her death was only a few weeks prior. What kind of nephew forgets something like that so soon, or at all? He tried his hardest not to let it show, but Mei couldn't help but take note of the dread on his face. She was able to get back to being herself after the funeral, but what about him?

She suddenly poked his cheek, making a 'boop' sound as she did so, "No frown," she commanded.

"Excuse me?"

"No frown, mr. spider! We have babies to make!"

"Maybe don't word it that way."

"We're gonna make you the most amazing Spider-Man this world has ever seen! Throw all those garbage opinions into the trash and burn them!"

"Please don't burn trash."

"I'll burn all the trash!"

Her joy was contagious and Peter couldn't help infection. She was a good friend and a good person once you got to know her. Even though to most she had seemed so distant, she actually had the ability to deeply care for others. Watching her work with him was a nice change from the glaring daggers of the city's eyes.

He still worried, though, that what Aizawa warned him of would come to pass, affecting everyone he loved, including Mei.

…

The night came and blanketed the city in darkness; the perfect cover for criminals. Mirko, the rabbit hero, preferred doing work at night since that's when crime was highest. Rather than assert her presence on the street level like other patrolling heroes, she perched herself high above on the rooftops and surveyed the area, keeping a radio next to her that was tuned to police chatter.

She just didn't feel like talking to civilians lately; she was too pissed off and didn't want to be rude to them by accident. The way the other heroes talked about Peter—as though he was an issue and not a person—made her mad after all they had been through together. She may have hated him at first, but the wall-crawler warmed up to her with his wits and strong sense of morality. He didn't deserve all this hate, not one bit of it.

"10-66 reported near Ditko Avenue, over," The radio sounded.

Perfect, she thought, an ass she can kick.

One strong takeoff and she was soaring through the air, slicing through the clouds by the edge of her ears. She wasn't far from Ditko Avenue; just a few leaps should get her there. It would be a good distraction from her angry thoughts.

She came upon the avenue quickly and landed with a loud thud. It was empty of people. And any sign of life came mostly from the squirrels that ran under the lampposts. It was a long stretch of concrete sidewalk lined with trees on both sides, so there were few places anyone could have been hiding. Perhaps she should have radioed for more details instead of just rushing in.

Mirko stayed under the shade of the tree's and kept her eyes peeled for anything that looked suspicious. She was able to hear slightly better due to the rabbit ears on her head, but it only did so much. Besides, she didn't need super hearing with how eerily quiet it was.

"Oi!" she shouted, "I know you're here somewhere! Come on out! Don't make me look for you!"

It almost seemed like the air immediately became thicker. The sinister presence she had expected came over like an invisible fog. The gentle, raspy breathing that seemingly came from nowhere, coupled with the shiver of the nightly atmosphere.

She was no longer alone.

It was too quick to see just what had happened. Something strong had wrapped itself around her body and thrown her to the ground, letting her roll out of its grip. Before she could get back up, a large foot had pinned her down by the stomach. It was too dark to see just what it was, but its bright white eyes pierced through the darkness.

He was obscured by shadow, but she made out a tall, muscular shape keeping her on the ground. His body was covered in some kind of deep black suit, with a massive white logo over his chest. The very presence of this monster-like being admittedly gave her a sense of fear she often didn't feel. He was such an imposing figure despite the obscurity of the light.

"Here we are," Said the large man, his voice raspy and deep, "Care to dance?"

Using her powerful rabbit feet, she pushed the man off and into the light of the lamppost before quickly standing up.

Now revealed by light, the man was far more menacing than before. His entire body was covered head to toe in some kind of black suit, but his mouth almost looked to be part of the getup. His sharp eyes were almost like large teeth. The symbol on his chest was rather familiar; a near perfect resemblance of the spider-logo that Parker wore. In fact, minus the strange mouth, his costume looked like something the web-head would wear.

"That style is taken, pal," she scolded, "Plus, you lack all the charm."

"We don't desire charm, my dear," He smiled wide, revealing his sharp teeth, "We simply desire pain from others."

"Who's we?"

"We," He laughed, "are Venom!"

Anxiety rushed through her veins for the first time since Hosu. This man, or whatever he was, resembled Carnage in so many ways. She would have heard of someone like this on the streets; was this one of Peter's villains from New York?

In a state of adrenaline, Mirko was the first to attack with a hook kick to the monster's head. He took it in stride and countered with a backhand which sent her crashing into the nearest tree. Very few were able to match her in strength, and that worried her.

When Venom came charging at her, she spun around the tree and kicked at the base of the bark, pushing as it came apart and collapsed onto the man's body. Venom caught the tree with both hands and tossed it aside, continuing his flurry rush against her. She dodged his attacks left and right, noticing his movements to lack in speed, unlike Carnage.

She tried to kick him again, but this time he caught her foot and swung her around, tossing her into the nearby street. She tumbled across the pavement and only stopped when her body collided with a moving truck. Horns honked at her presence in both annoyance and fear; it was never a good sign when a Pro Hero was being knocked around.

Venom roared as he leapt high into the air and shot out two strands of black webs, nearly identical to Spider-Mans, and slung himself toward the rabbit hero. She jumped out of the way just as he used a nearby car as a landing pad, before immediately throwing it her way. She jumped over it only to be webbed and tossed further down the road.

This man was throwing her around like a rag doll. Though she was faster than him, his strength rivaled her own, if not surpassed it.

Another vehicle came flying her way, this time aimed at a group of civilians on the sidewalk. She knew she had to act fast, so Mirko used her powerful legs to launch forward and kick the car back toward the park, away from danger.

The people cheered as she landed, but her focus was elsewhere.

She expected the monster to attack her again, but there was nothing. No roars of anger or destruction, just the sound of the city. Venom was no longer anywhere in sight. Had he fled already? He should have known he had the advantage over her, yet he abandoned the fight?

A coward if she ever knew one.

"Is everyone alright?" She asked the people who cheered for her, who responded only by taking pictures and shouting her name. She tried asking if they saw where the monster went, but their only care was her. She wasn't going to get anything out of them, so she fled to begin her search.

Hidden on a shadowy rooftop, the monster known as Venom watched her leave the scene with a grin on his face, "She has charm," He said, "We like her."