DISCLAIMER This story takes place after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, if you have not seen the film and do not want anything spoiled, do not read this.
Chapter 1
On a cold snowy night, Peter Parker settles into his new apartment. As he crafts his new suit he looks to the side of the desk and sees memories of his old life, the lego Emperor Palpatine from Ned, and the coffee cup from MJ. Having recently lost everything, he mourns his old life but as he works on his new suit finds purpose in everything he learned from the multiverse incident.
After putting the finishing touches, Peter lifts up the suit and admires his work. The simple reds and blues and the larger spider symbol on the suit were inspired by his other Peter Parker variants.
"10-33, witnesses have reported a break-in, location is MoMA," said the police scanner on his phone.
With this Peter quickly put on his suit, mask, and web-shooters and jumped out of his apartment window.
Spider-Man brands his new suit as he swings gracefully past Rockefeller Center and its massive Christmas tree. As he arrives at MoMA, Peter lands on a covert rooftop overseeing the garden area of the museum.
"Hmm, lots of guys here to just steal art," Spider-Man looks at the door they have breached and sees more armed men searching the museum. "Let's see what these art enthusiasts are looking for," Spider-Man swings to a nearby air vent and crawls into it. As he crawls through the air vent he overhears a conversation between two of the men.
"What did the boss say we're looking for?"
"It's called 'The Persistence of Memory' now shut up and keep looking!" said the other thug.
"You know if I had actually gone on the school trip to MoMA, instead of going to space with Mr. Stark maybe I would have known where this painting is," said Peter.
He continued to crawl through the air vents until he could see a museum brochure on the floor through one of the grilles, he quietly opened it and webbed the brochure to grab it. Spider-Man opens it and attempts to find the display on the map.
"Where is it, where is it... aha! Salvador Dali Floor 5, they must be on their way already, but I can get there quicker!" Spider-Man says as he jumps out of the air vent to the outside of the building and swings up to the fifth floor. After again crawling through the air vent he drops down and starts searching.
As he turns the corner he sees that the painting is off the wall and resting on the floor.
"What?! but they couldn't have gotten here before-" Spider-Man stops himself as his spidey-sense alerts him of someone behind him a figure in a black suit comes in for a kick which Spider-Man skillfully evades. As he finally lays eyes on his assailant he observes a beautiful woman with greyish-white hair in a black outfit.
"9/10 for the entrance 4/10 for the outfit, I think Black Widow would be offended," says Spider-Man.
"Looking good Spider, so nice to finally meet you," says the woman in a very flirtatious manner. "People call me the Black Cat, but today I'm just the lady who's been hired to take this little thing from that painting," she says as she holds up a flash drive.
"Who hired you? and what's on the drive?"
"That's a lot of questions, and I'd love to answer them next time I see you, Later Spidey," suddenly a smoke bomb that was planted there before went off and filled the gallery with smoke. Spider-Man webbed to the roof to see clearer and realized that this Black Cat had disappeared. As the smoke cleared Spider-Man dropped to the floor again.
"This is all connecting to something bigger I need to find out what," Peter's senses then alerted him to something else.
The thugs soon reached the location of the painting, "Hey boys! It's Spider-Man, he stole the drive! GET HIM!"
Spring 2018, Hell's Kitchen
As he shuffles papers for his latest case, Matt Murdock practices his opening statement.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury my client has been wrongfully accused of-"
knock knock knock
He is quite annoyed to be disturbed while preparing for his trial but nevertheless he goes to the door to see who has arrived.
"Buddy! Long time no see!" says Foggy Nelson as he hugs his best friend. "Hey Fog," says Matt.
"Preparing for a case I see," said Foggy looking at his case files.
"Yeah, uh just another pro-bono case,"
"And just wondering but is it just Matt Murdock working this case or is Daredevil on the case too?"
Matt faces the wardrobe where the chest containing his suit is, and looks back at Foggy, "Nope just Matt,"
"It's not the same without you Foggy," Matt said
"I do miss the Nelson and Murdock days," said Foggy smiling warmly to Matt as he smiles back.
Murdock's head snaps towards the window as he hears people running and screaming two blocks over and then right outside of his building. He can sense some people's screaming suddenly stop.
"Matt! what's going on?!" Matt's eye twitches as he tries to make sense of what's going on.
"I don't know what do you see?" exclaims Matt.
"Oh shit Matt I... I think I'm gonna pass out," Says Foggy as his eyes begin to close. "Foggy, Fog, Hey calm down, you're good," says Murdock as he puts his hands on Foggy to reassure him. However, he felt Foggy's arms disappearing until his senses told him that Foggy was no longer there.
"Foggy?... FOGGY!"
Matt started hyperventilating as he was still trying to get a grip on what was going on. He then also felt the same as Foggy but ten thousandfold. The screams outside suddenly silenced, the chaos and finally he himself started to feel his hands turn to dust until he turned completely turned to dust.
Then, suddenly came back almost as if what he saw didn't happen. Matt obviously couldn't see but sensed Foggy was there again. "Foggy! Foggy are you okay?!"
"Yeah yeah I'm okay I don't know what happened, I-I just went smoky, and then when I checked my phone I thought the date was wrong but-"
"But what Foggy?" says Matt. Foggy checked his phone in awe and confusion as he looks at Matt and says, "It says it's October 2023 but it can't be,"
Matt senses the room full of dust and his furniture covered in bags, it is as though time has definitely passed. He senses that the chest with his suit is still there which comes as a relief.
Matt moves his head around to sense the rest of the room and faces Foggy, "I don't know but something very wrong has happened."
"What do you mean?" says Foggy worried.
"I mean that your phone is not wrong, Fog, five years must really have passed,"
Present Day
"You know it's great that you want to admire art but maybe do it during business hours," Spider-Man quips as he prepares to fight as one of the thugs begins to charge him. Spidey webs the thug, jumps and flips the man slamming him into the ground. Two more men charge him and Spider-Man thwips them both and slides past them tripping them, dropping them, and webbing them to the ground. Spidey was going to web the last two however, they instead got tased by a lone female police officer. The officer then pulls a gun on the web-slinger.
"Hands in the air now, Spider-Man,"
"Woah Woah, hey, steady I'm on your side,"
"Prove it," said the cop. "You don't see the bad guys webbed up?" said Spider-Man. The cop furrowed her eyebrows more as if that wasn't enough to lower her guard.
Spider-Man started getting nervous "Okay so these guys were after a painting but they weren't after the painting per se there was a flash drive that was hidden in it but before they could get to it this lady in a black suit and white hair stole it and-"
"You mean the Black Cat? said the cop. Spider-Man's eye lenses widened, "Yeah, Yes, that's her!"
The cop stowed her gun and looked at Spider-Man inquisitively. "Aren't you supposed to be fighting bigger battles like with the Avengers,"
"Was... I was," says Spider-Man again reminiscing his old life.
The cop hears other police officers on their way up on the radio. "Look I'm Detective Yuriko Watanabe, there's more to this whole thing but I need someone outside the force to help me out, meet me at the rooftop of the NYPD headquarters tomorrow at eight pm,"
"Oh okay, sure, I'll uh see you then," said Spider-Man as he swings off.
The next evening...
Matt Murdock sits at a table alone in Josie's bar drinking his favorite scotch.
"Hey Matt," says a smiling Karen Page accompanied by Foggy.
"Hi Karen, Foggy," the three friends smiled and sat down to join Matt.
Later, Foggy lines up to shoot a shot at the pool table but completely misses. "Still doing better than you, Matt,"
Matt lines up his shot and sinks three balls at once, Matt smiles, "Sure about that Fog?"
"Next round I'm gonna get you," says Foggy,
"Sorry but uh I have to go," says Matt begrudgingly.
"Oh okay well I'll see you later bud," says Foggy.
"Matt, can I talk to you?" says Karen. Matt freezes looking at Karen, "Uh yeah sure Karen,"
The pair walk out to the cold and dark Hell's Kitchen night. Karen looks on Matt endearingly and touches his face, "You know I like your face better without the scars and the bruises,"
Matt smiles and looks away, "Well the city was safer when I did have them,"
Karen frowns and pulls her hand away, "Any chance that 'trial' involves Daredevil?"
"I know but the only reason I stopped was because we put Fisk away but we blipped and in those five years anything could have happened there's a lot of new threats out there I need to see what they are," Matt says reluctantly.
"I'd try to stop you but that's not gonna work," said Karen. "Just be safe please,"
Matt chuckles, "You should take your own advice,"
The two laugh and Karen smiles at Matt as he walks away tapping his cane as he goes.
Once Matt gets back to his apartment he suits up donning the red and black kevlar Daredevil suit, grabs his billy club, and stands on his rooftop. He stands at the top of his apartment building and focuses on the city's sounds
*cars beeping stuck in traffic two streets over*
*dog barking at each other on 49th and 10th*
Matt then focuses on something more important.
*men shouting on 43rd and 11th 'hurry up and get in the car boss wants us in Bowery ASAP!"
Matt quickly runs and jumps off the rooftop to follow those men...
Meanwhile...
Peter Parker sits at his desk working on something when he hears a knock at his door. Peter looks at the door, puzzled. 'Who could that be? I mean it can't be anyone no one knows who I am, but maybe...' Peter thought as he looks at the coffee cup. 'Oh my God MJ! Maybe something made her remember? Shit, I look terrible!' thought Peter as he turns on the faucet to put some water in his messy mask hair to fix it, puts on a nicer shirt and runs to the door stumbling. He hears another knock but manages to open the door before the knocking finishes.
When he opens the door he is surprised but disappointed to see that it's not MJ but rather his landlord. "Hey, rent's due at the end of the week don't be late,"
Peter frowns, "Uh yeah thanks," He closes the door and sighs, he looks again at the coffee cup again, 'I'm so sorry MJ, I really miss you."
He then goes right back to what he was working on. He solders the inside of his mask around the lenses and when he finishes puts it on. He looks around his room with his new lenses with his own built Heads Up Display. "Nice new mask HUD built by me, and brand new taser webs built by me," Peter smiles as he puts the rest of his suit on.
"And I thought 'Iron Boy Jr.' couldn't do anything himself, let's prove you wrong Jameson," said Peter as he jumps out of the window and swings over to NYPD headquarters.
"Ugh, I really need to get some money for rent," he says as he swings along.
Detective Yuri Watanabe stands alone on the rooftop of the building smoking a cigarette as she looks out onto the city. She looks down at her watch '8:13', she rolls her eyes and takes another puff.
Yuri turns as she hears a thud behind her, "Spider-Man you're late,"
Spider-Man stands up from the pose he landed in and shrugs, "Sorry late is kinda my thing,"
"So who's this Black Cat?" asked Spider-Man.
"Black Cat is a thief, a good one too, no one in the force has ever caught her, and ever since I've heard about her she's always worked alone,"
"But she was hired, or at least that's what she told me,"
"Yeah which makes this odd, she's working for some big bad and we don't know who,"
"And the guys that were at MoMA work for this mystery boss," wondered Spider-Man.
"Maybe, maybe not we don't know, for all we know they could be working for someone else but that's something we need to find out, but I have a lead,"
"Oh okay well that's something,"
"I've been tracking these guys' movements and from what I've heard there's something going down in the Bowery, I don't have the clearance to go but I need you to go check it out let me know what you find, and call me at this number,"
Yuri hands him a piece of paper, but thanks to his new HUD he quickly scans the number and saves it.
"Take it!" Yuri said annoyed.
Spider-Man looks at Yuri and then at the paper his lenses close and open again and then looks back at her. "Oh I already scanned it, I uh have a thing that... you know what never mind, I'll call you,"
With that Spider-Man swings off towards the location the detective told him about. "Wow, real smooth Peter, I really need to lose the awkwardness,"
Spider-Man searches the Bowery until he finds a suspicious warehouse, he perches on a nearby ledge and looks down at some men. "Why do all bad guys hide in a warehouse, they really need to get a new trope."
"HEY! Who are you? Kill him!" shouted a man from inside. Flashes can be seen from outside from the gunfire and blows can be heard. "Oh great well so much for stealth," Spider-Man dives down and swings right in, and hangs from the wall he sees a mysterious dark figure fighting the thugs. The man was jumping off walls and doing spinning kicks. "Woah that guy really knows how to fight," Spider-Man jumps down on the ground, his lenses close more, "Let's join the fun,"
Spider-Man swing kicks a thug and webs him to the wall, then thwips another thug pulls him violently towards him, and does a backflip kick on him, but before he could continue fighting he realizes the mysterious man had beat them all but was nowhere to be found. Spider-Man looks around to try and find him. He hears footsteps around but can't pinpoint where. His Spidey-sense activates but before he could react a baton hits him right in the forehead and goes right back to the one who threw it. "OW!"
Spider-Man tries to the web in that direction but there's nothing there, "Ugh Peter you have a thermal scanner in your HUD, stupid," Spider-Man turns on his thermal scanner and looks around the room. He gets a peek of the man on his scanner but before he could do anything a billy club shot out and wrapped around Spider-Man's neck choking him. He gasps for air as he sees the man walk out of the darkness, his suit red and black and his mask resembling that of the devil with horns but exposed his mouth.
Spider-Man struggled to speak, "Wh-Who... are you?"
The man smiled and said in a dark voice,
"I'm Daredevil,"
To be continued...