RED
A/N
Again, another big apology for the way ff.net screwed up the last couple of uploads. I've emailed them about it and can only suggest that you guys do the same. Hopefully then they'll actually do something about it.
Oh, by the way, the SAS v SEALS exercise mentioned is actually from real life. And the SAS kicked butt!!!!!!
On with the fic!
_____________________________________________________________________
Willow followed Peter Parker to a New York University. There, determined to get as much information about him as possible to hand over to Paul Stevens, she sat in on a couple of his classes.
He seemed to be a big science fan. All of the classes he attended were incredibly advanced and she only just managed to understand most of what was being said.
But Peter Parker appeared extremely bright, which only made his affiliation with Spiderman all the more puzzling.
Absently, Willow played with her hair whilst she listened as Dr Connors expounded on the field of science, trying to look her utmost as though she was paying attention to him, and not Peter Parker.
Her hair felt stiff, a by-product of the mousse she used to darken it to an ordinary brown. As soon as her hair got wet, it returned to her natural colour, red.
Willow frowned. She would have to do something about that soon, but she was reluctant to use home hair dye, not knowing much about it, and she certainly didn't want to go to a hairdresser to have it professionally done. She had tried changing the colour using her powers, but they didn't seem to work that way.
She shrugged; it was a problem she could worry about in the privacy of her apartment. Right now, she had a job to do.
Peter gathered his books up and left Dr Connors' class. Ahead of him, the new girl he had noticed appeared to be having trouble with her books. As he watched, her grip fumbled and they tumbled to the floor a few metres ahead of him.
Peter rushed to help her.
Willow looked up as Peter Parker approached her and smiled at him. Her ploy of materialising a few books and then dropping them in front of him had worked. It looked as though he was about to help her and that was a perfect opportunity to get to know him.
Peter gathered up the new girl's books, not noticing that the pages inside were blank, and handed them over to her. They stood together.
"Thanks." She said quietly.
"No problem." Peter shrugged. "I remember what it was like to be new here. You just transferred?"
The girl nodded. "The classes are really advanced. I didn't understand most of what Dr Connors was talking about."
"You'll catch up in no time." Peter told her confidently.
The girl shrugged and looked away. "I'm not so sure." She said.
"Well, if you'd like, I could give you some extra tuition?" Peter offered.
The girl smiled brilliantly. Peter was taken aback. That one smiled made a massive difference to the girl's appearance. Before she had been attractive, but only reasonably so. Now she was stunning.
"I'd like that." The girl said, still smiling.
Peter nodded absently. "Uh, good. I'm Peter by the way. Peter Parker."
The girl offered her hand to him. "W-" She cut herself off. Whatever she was about to say had been bitten back. "Weaver." She told him firmly. "Rowan Weaver."
"I was gonna go grab a coffee." Peter told her. "You want to come with and we'll get started?"
Rowan nodded.
_____________________________________________________________________
Xander frowned and punched the computer tower, muttering obscenities at it.
"Xander, why are you trying to hurt the computer?" Anya asked.
"Because Willow isn't going to email, she isn't going to call and she isn't going to write!" Xander said, punching the tower again. "And it isn't co-operating!"
"What are you doing?" Anya asked, walking across the floor to look over Xander's shoulder.
"I'm trying to find her." Xander explained. "But Willow's the one that can hack into computers not me."
"Move over." Anya told him, and reached down to the keyboard.
Two seconds later she had the google.com webpage up.
"What am I looking for?" She asked Xander.
Xander sighed impatiently. "You won't find anything."
"Well, what did you do?" Anya wanted to know.
Xander shrugged. "I tried to hack into the electoral roll."
Anya rolled her eyes. "Well this is simpler. Willow taught it to me. What were you looking for?"
Xander pouted, unreasonably hurt that Willow hadn't taught it to him instead. "Willow once created a person. I wanted to see if that person had done anything lately."
"If she has then it's probably Willow masquerading as her." Anya followed the train of thought to its logical conclusion. "What was the name of the person?"
"Rowan Weaver." Xander told her.
Anya typed it into the search engine and viewed the 23,400 results with dismay.
"I'll look." She informed Xander. "Make me a drink."
Xander pouted again, before shifting out of the computer seat and slouching off to the kitchen.
_____________________________________________________________________
Willow exited the coffee shop and waved goodbye to Peter. She headed off in the opposite direction until she saw him disappear around a corner and then she took a sharp u-turn and followed him.
Whilst she walked, she pulled out her cell phone and quickly dialled in a number.
"Hello, Mr Stevens?" She asked, when that selfsame man answered his cell phone.
"Who is this?" Paul Stevens demanded.
"It's me. Rowan Weaver." Willow told him.
"What is it Weaver?" He asked.
"I just wanted you to know that I'm still looking for information on the photographer." Willow told him, glad that he couldn't see her blush.
She hated lying about little things. Lying about where she was on the night she helped avert the apocalypse she could do no problem, but when it came to the little lies could she do it? Like hell she could!
"I'll be in tomorrow with the information." She told him, blushing even more furiously.
She rounded the corner and spotted Peter in the distance. She upped her speed.
"Are you sure you'll have it by then?" Mr Stevens asked.
"Absolutely!" Willow told him. "I'll talk to you tomorrow Mr Stevens."
"Goodnight Weaver." Mr Stevens told her, cutting the connection.
Willow stowed the cell phone in her purse and slowed down a little. She was a little too close to Peter for her comfort.
Suddenly he ducked down an alley. Willow frowned and regretted slowing down, immediately speeding back up.
By the time she reached the alley however, there was no sign of Peter Parker.
There was however, one of Spiderman's trademark web ropes hanging from a tall building at the other end of the alley.
Willow ran down the alley and burst out at the other end. She glanced up and down the street. Still no sign of Peter. He was probably with Spiderman taking photographs. So all she had to do was find Spiderman. Yeah, like that wasn't hard!
She scanned the skies desperately. There!
Disappearing around the corner of a skyscraper was a flash of blue and red.
Willow jumped into a taxi.
_____________________________________________________________________
Peter Parker swung lazily around Manhattan, blissfully unaware of the taxi that was following his every move.
Well, perhaps not his every move. It was extremely difficult to keep up with Spiderman after all.
Suddenly, Peter noticed a man swipe a woman's purse. The woman was busy staring in a shop window and hadn't even noticed. He sighed and swooped down, snatching the purse out of the would-be mugger's hand and shooting web fluid at the man until he was completely wrapped up in it.
That completed, he swung back and deposited the purse by the unsuspecting woman's feet, leaving the man on the pavement for the cops to pick up.
That completed, he resumed his haphazard journey.
_____________________________________________________________________
Willow gawped as Spiderman swung from building to building. It was the first time she had actually seen him in real life and she was immensely surprised at his presence.
Maybe it was the costume, but he definitely appeared larger than life. In fact she was kind of reminded of Buffy.
Mind you, it had been a definitely surprise when he had retrieved that woman's purse and given it back to her without even expecting any kind of repatriation.
In fact, Willow hadn't even noticed the mugging take place. It had been the cabdriver who had pointed it out.
Willow had managed to find one of the rare people of New York who actually liked Spiderman. Apparently, Spiderman had saved the cabdriver from a bad beating at the hands of some thugs who had wanted his days takings a few months ago.
Ever since then the cabbie had been one of Spiderman's most devoted fans, even attempting to set up a Spiderman fan club on the Internet. So far it had had limited success, but the cabdriver had furnished Willow with all of the relevant information about it.
She had made a note of the URL, thinking that it might be useful in conducting research at a later point.
Willow shook herself out of her reverie and focused on Spiderman.
_____________________________________________________________________
Anya gave up, bookmarking the page she was on and resolving to go back to it later. Not even for her beloved Xander would she trawl through any more pages about Rowan County or Rowan Atkinson in The Lion King.
_____________________________________________________________________
Willow sat in the cab watching as Spiderman sat on the top of a skyscraper, looking down at the people below. In front of her, the cabdriver, whose name was Eddie, puffed leisurely on a cigarette.
"Those things'll kill you, you know." Willow told him.
Eddie shrugged. "Meh." He said succinctly.
They sat in silence, contemplating Spiderman for a little longer. Eventually, Eddie finished his cigarette and tossed it out of the window, reaching for the radio at the same time.
His favourite radio station came on in the middle of a news bulletin about a hostage situation down at the docks.
"Do you think he knows?" Willow asked.
"Mustn't." Eddie said. "Otherwise he'd already be down there."
"Well how's he gonna find out if he's sitting up there?" Willow reasoned.
Eddie looked at her. "He ain't." He frowned. "I got an idea."
_____________________________________________________________________
Peter frowned as he noticed another man grab another purse. This time the woman was more alert than the first three times and screamed her head off.
He slipped off of the building and let himself fall for a split second before firing his webbing.
He came to a graceful halt in front of the mugger.
"Didn't your mother ever teach it's rude to go through other people's bags?" He asked before punching the man in the jaw and retrieving the bag.
The man opened his mouth to speak and Peter promptly gagged him with webbing before tying him up.
"No excuses." He told the man, picking him up and swinging over to where the woman still stood. "I want to hear you apologise to the lady and promise to never do it again."
"Let him go!" The woman demanded.
Peter looked at her for the first time and gaped. It was Rowan. That he hadn't been expecting. He leapt up onto the side of the building, still holding the mugger and Rowan's bag.
"Uh, no." He told her.
"Spiderman you don't understand." Rowan said, a thread of desperation running through her voice. "We staged the mugging so you'd come down."
"Now why would you want to do that?" Peter asked sarcastically.
Rowan stamped her foot, her eyes flashing. "Because there's a hostage situation down at the docks!" She yelled at him.
Peter dropped the fake mugger and Rowan's bag and took to the air.
_____________________________________________________________________
Willow groaned as Eddie landed on top of her. She squirmed out from underneath him and hunted frantically through her bag for the knife she had always carried there ever since she had been a senior at Sunnydale High.
She sliced through Eddie's bonds and ripped the webbing from his mouth. Along with a lot of his moustache. She winced.
"Sorry Eddie." She apologised.
Eddie beamed at her. "Spiderman hit me!" He crowed.
Willow rolled her eyes. "Can we please get to the docks?" She asked.
_____________________________________________________________________
Peter landed softly on the roof of the besieged building and silently made his way over to the access door. He ripped it open and stepped inside.
There were no shouts, no screams, no gunshots. That made sense, according to the news bulletins, the hostages were being held two floors down.
He made for the nearest air conditioning vent.
Willow surveyed the outside of the building with dismay. It was surrounded by the press and the police. She had been hoping to be able to sneak in somehow, but that was clearly going to be impossible.
She'd wanted to see how Peter got the photographs!
Willow racked her memory, trying to come up with a way into the building. Suddenly she was hit by a distant memory of Xander arguing with Giles about whether the SAS or the SEALS were better. She seemed to recall Giles mentioning a training exercise when the SAS had had to liberate a bunch of fake hostages from the SEALS. The SAS had apparently crawled through a sewer and emerged in a bathroom.
Well, she was no stranger to sewers after a lifetime spent in Sunnydale.
"I'll be back soon." She told Eddie.
"Who's gonna pay your fare if you're not?" He asked.
"Bill it to The Herald." She told him. "And tell them that Weaver said the photographer is Peter Parker. Got that?"
"'The photographer is Peter Parker'." Eddies repeated faithfully.
Willow grinned and ran to the nearest manhole.
Three miles of ventilation later and Peter was lost.
"Nice going Spidey." He chided himself. "They'll have to rescue you before they rescue the hostages."
He grinned underneath his mask. "Who am I kidding?" He asked himself. "They'll probably trade me for the hostages!"
Willow was pissed off. Actually, she had also been pissed on, but that was a whole other and extremely disgusting story.
She poked her head up out of the Willow-sized hole she'd created in the basement floor and cautiously climbed up.
When she was standing in the middle of the basement, she chanced a look down at herself.
The terrorists would probably give in long before she actually reached them thanks to her stench.
Willow thanks whichever God was currently listening that the building was actually a gym and made her way as stealthily as possible upstairs and hopefully to the nearest available locker room.
Peter was still lost and he had a worrying feeling that he'd gone down more than two floors. And was it just his imagination or was the air getting steamier?
Willow dumped her clothes and her purse in an empty locker and wondered what she could wear. Then it hit her. She was a mutant. She could create something to wear.
She lifted off the protective amulet that served the dual purpose of protecting her from anyone trying to find her and subduing her still somewhat uncontrollable powers and allowed her imagination free rein.
Five minutes later she was wishing she hadn't done so.
She was clothed in what was probably the most outlandish outfit anyone had ever worn, complete with mask.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, the quick shower she'd allowed herself had caused her hair to revert back to its normal red.
She took a deep breath and prepared to change her outfit.
"Hey!" A voice said.
Willow whipped around to see Spiderman sitting on the ceiling beside an open air vent.
"I got here first." He continued, his amusement clearly audible in his voice. "I call dibs on the rescue."
Willow looked in the mirror again.
She looked like a superhero, she realised with a shock.
Peter grinned as he watched the costumes female check her appearance in the mirror.
It appeared that all women, everywhere were the same. They couldn't do something without checking their make up first. He just hoped that whoever it was, was on his side.
Willow grinned and decided to go along with it. She might as well do some good whilst she was in hiding!
"Haven't you ever heard of share and share alike, Spiderman?" She asked.
"Well yeah, but you're hardly sharing fairly." Spiderman pointed out.
Willow frowned. "What do you mean?"
"You know my name, but I don't know yours." He said.
Willow panicked. What should she call herself? The Moleculeator? Ms Atom? Perhaps she should style herself after The Bugle's favourite description of Spiderman and simply call herself the Menace? That would probably save J. Jonah Jameson a great deal of trouble when it came up to thinking of a name for her.
"I don't have one yet." She admitted.
"Ahhh." Peter said wisely. "New huh? Well that would explain why I haven't seen you around before."
The woman gave him a saccharine-sweet smile. "Whilst I hate to break up our touching meet and greet." She said. "I can't help but feel that there's probably something better we could be doing with our time."
Peter grinned and dropped to the floor.
"Never let it be said that I dared to argue with a woman." He said, crossing to the door.
It opened before he could reach it however and he sprang back up to the ceiling.
One of the hostages entered and the door closed and locked behind her.
The woman stopped, clearly terrified at the sight of Spiderman and Willow.
Willow smiled reassuringly.
"Don't worry." She soothed the woman in a low tone of voice. "We're here to save you."
"What floor are we on?" Spiderman asked.
Willow frowned. "You don't know?"
"I got lost!" The costumed superhero said defensively.
"Why is it that men never stop to ask for directions?" Willow asked the hostage.
"Perhaps because women can't give them?" Spiderman said.
He dropped back down to the floor, picked the hostage up and the two of them disappeared into the open air vent. A second later Spiderman dropped back down.
"Wait there until either we or the police come." He told the hostage.
"Are you ready?" Willow asked, crossing to the door.
"Lets dance." Spiderman said.
Willow knocked on the door and the terrorist on the other side made the mistake of unlocking and opening it.
Two seconds later, he was on the floor, cocconed in Spiderman's webbing and his gun had mysteriously disappeared into thin air.
Willow and Spiderman dumped him into the locker room and closed the door.
"The hostages are on the next floor up." Willow informed Spiderman and the two of them headed for the stairs.
Peter looked down at his unexpected accomplice from the wall of the stairwell.
"So, I'm guessing you know what I can do." He commented. "What can you do?"
The woman smiled mysteriously and her green eyes danced merrily behind her half-mask.
"Well, for one thing, I can fight." She told him.
Peter frowned. It sounded like she might become more of a hinderance than a help.
"Anything else?" He asked.
"You'll find out." She said, not faltering in climbing the stairs.
"Show me." Peter said, worried now.
Now it was her turn to frown. "If you insist." She said.
She held out her hand and instantly her fingernails grew about eleven inches and turned to metal.
"I don't suppose you're related to anyone called Wolverine?" Peter asked, trying not to sound impressed.
She laughed and her fingernails returned to normal. "I don't think so."
They reached the next floor and Peter went to kick the door down.
"Wait." Willow said, stopping Spiderman and changing the molecules of the wooden door into oxygen.
"Impressive." Spiderman commented nonchalently.
"Thank you." Willow said, smiling as she walked through the doorframe.
Peter's spider sense went haywire as the woman moved through the doorway, but he was too late to call out a warning.
A/N
Again, another big apology for the way ff.net screwed up the last couple of uploads. I've emailed them about it and can only suggest that you guys do the same. Hopefully then they'll actually do something about it.
Oh, by the way, the SAS v SEALS exercise mentioned is actually from real life. And the SAS kicked butt!!!!!!
On with the fic!
_____________________________________________________________________
Willow followed Peter Parker to a New York University. There, determined to get as much information about him as possible to hand over to Paul Stevens, she sat in on a couple of his classes.
He seemed to be a big science fan. All of the classes he attended were incredibly advanced and she only just managed to understand most of what was being said.
But Peter Parker appeared extremely bright, which only made his affiliation with Spiderman all the more puzzling.
Absently, Willow played with her hair whilst she listened as Dr Connors expounded on the field of science, trying to look her utmost as though she was paying attention to him, and not Peter Parker.
Her hair felt stiff, a by-product of the mousse she used to darken it to an ordinary brown. As soon as her hair got wet, it returned to her natural colour, red.
Willow frowned. She would have to do something about that soon, but she was reluctant to use home hair dye, not knowing much about it, and she certainly didn't want to go to a hairdresser to have it professionally done. She had tried changing the colour using her powers, but they didn't seem to work that way.
She shrugged; it was a problem she could worry about in the privacy of her apartment. Right now, she had a job to do.
Peter gathered his books up and left Dr Connors' class. Ahead of him, the new girl he had noticed appeared to be having trouble with her books. As he watched, her grip fumbled and they tumbled to the floor a few metres ahead of him.
Peter rushed to help her.
Willow looked up as Peter Parker approached her and smiled at him. Her ploy of materialising a few books and then dropping them in front of him had worked. It looked as though he was about to help her and that was a perfect opportunity to get to know him.
Peter gathered up the new girl's books, not noticing that the pages inside were blank, and handed them over to her. They stood together.
"Thanks." She said quietly.
"No problem." Peter shrugged. "I remember what it was like to be new here. You just transferred?"
The girl nodded. "The classes are really advanced. I didn't understand most of what Dr Connors was talking about."
"You'll catch up in no time." Peter told her confidently.
The girl shrugged and looked away. "I'm not so sure." She said.
"Well, if you'd like, I could give you some extra tuition?" Peter offered.
The girl smiled brilliantly. Peter was taken aback. That one smiled made a massive difference to the girl's appearance. Before she had been attractive, but only reasonably so. Now she was stunning.
"I'd like that." The girl said, still smiling.
Peter nodded absently. "Uh, good. I'm Peter by the way. Peter Parker."
The girl offered her hand to him. "W-" She cut herself off. Whatever she was about to say had been bitten back. "Weaver." She told him firmly. "Rowan Weaver."
"I was gonna go grab a coffee." Peter told her. "You want to come with and we'll get started?"
Rowan nodded.
_____________________________________________________________________
Xander frowned and punched the computer tower, muttering obscenities at it.
"Xander, why are you trying to hurt the computer?" Anya asked.
"Because Willow isn't going to email, she isn't going to call and she isn't going to write!" Xander said, punching the tower again. "And it isn't co-operating!"
"What are you doing?" Anya asked, walking across the floor to look over Xander's shoulder.
"I'm trying to find her." Xander explained. "But Willow's the one that can hack into computers not me."
"Move over." Anya told him, and reached down to the keyboard.
Two seconds later she had the google.com webpage up.
"What am I looking for?" She asked Xander.
Xander sighed impatiently. "You won't find anything."
"Well, what did you do?" Anya wanted to know.
Xander shrugged. "I tried to hack into the electoral roll."
Anya rolled her eyes. "Well this is simpler. Willow taught it to me. What were you looking for?"
Xander pouted, unreasonably hurt that Willow hadn't taught it to him instead. "Willow once created a person. I wanted to see if that person had done anything lately."
"If she has then it's probably Willow masquerading as her." Anya followed the train of thought to its logical conclusion. "What was the name of the person?"
"Rowan Weaver." Xander told her.
Anya typed it into the search engine and viewed the 23,400 results with dismay.
"I'll look." She informed Xander. "Make me a drink."
Xander pouted again, before shifting out of the computer seat and slouching off to the kitchen.
_____________________________________________________________________
Willow exited the coffee shop and waved goodbye to Peter. She headed off in the opposite direction until she saw him disappear around a corner and then she took a sharp u-turn and followed him.
Whilst she walked, she pulled out her cell phone and quickly dialled in a number.
"Hello, Mr Stevens?" She asked, when that selfsame man answered his cell phone.
"Who is this?" Paul Stevens demanded.
"It's me. Rowan Weaver." Willow told him.
"What is it Weaver?" He asked.
"I just wanted you to know that I'm still looking for information on the photographer." Willow told him, glad that he couldn't see her blush.
She hated lying about little things. Lying about where she was on the night she helped avert the apocalypse she could do no problem, but when it came to the little lies could she do it? Like hell she could!
"I'll be in tomorrow with the information." She told him, blushing even more furiously.
She rounded the corner and spotted Peter in the distance. She upped her speed.
"Are you sure you'll have it by then?" Mr Stevens asked.
"Absolutely!" Willow told him. "I'll talk to you tomorrow Mr Stevens."
"Goodnight Weaver." Mr Stevens told her, cutting the connection.
Willow stowed the cell phone in her purse and slowed down a little. She was a little too close to Peter for her comfort.
Suddenly he ducked down an alley. Willow frowned and regretted slowing down, immediately speeding back up.
By the time she reached the alley however, there was no sign of Peter Parker.
There was however, one of Spiderman's trademark web ropes hanging from a tall building at the other end of the alley.
Willow ran down the alley and burst out at the other end. She glanced up and down the street. Still no sign of Peter. He was probably with Spiderman taking photographs. So all she had to do was find Spiderman. Yeah, like that wasn't hard!
She scanned the skies desperately. There!
Disappearing around the corner of a skyscraper was a flash of blue and red.
Willow jumped into a taxi.
_____________________________________________________________________
Peter Parker swung lazily around Manhattan, blissfully unaware of the taxi that was following his every move.
Well, perhaps not his every move. It was extremely difficult to keep up with Spiderman after all.
Suddenly, Peter noticed a man swipe a woman's purse. The woman was busy staring in a shop window and hadn't even noticed. He sighed and swooped down, snatching the purse out of the would-be mugger's hand and shooting web fluid at the man until he was completely wrapped up in it.
That completed, he swung back and deposited the purse by the unsuspecting woman's feet, leaving the man on the pavement for the cops to pick up.
That completed, he resumed his haphazard journey.
_____________________________________________________________________
Willow gawped as Spiderman swung from building to building. It was the first time she had actually seen him in real life and she was immensely surprised at his presence.
Maybe it was the costume, but he definitely appeared larger than life. In fact she was kind of reminded of Buffy.
Mind you, it had been a definitely surprise when he had retrieved that woman's purse and given it back to her without even expecting any kind of repatriation.
In fact, Willow hadn't even noticed the mugging take place. It had been the cabdriver who had pointed it out.
Willow had managed to find one of the rare people of New York who actually liked Spiderman. Apparently, Spiderman had saved the cabdriver from a bad beating at the hands of some thugs who had wanted his days takings a few months ago.
Ever since then the cabbie had been one of Spiderman's most devoted fans, even attempting to set up a Spiderman fan club on the Internet. So far it had had limited success, but the cabdriver had furnished Willow with all of the relevant information about it.
She had made a note of the URL, thinking that it might be useful in conducting research at a later point.
Willow shook herself out of her reverie and focused on Spiderman.
_____________________________________________________________________
Anya gave up, bookmarking the page she was on and resolving to go back to it later. Not even for her beloved Xander would she trawl through any more pages about Rowan County or Rowan Atkinson in The Lion King.
_____________________________________________________________________
Willow sat in the cab watching as Spiderman sat on the top of a skyscraper, looking down at the people below. In front of her, the cabdriver, whose name was Eddie, puffed leisurely on a cigarette.
"Those things'll kill you, you know." Willow told him.
Eddie shrugged. "Meh." He said succinctly.
They sat in silence, contemplating Spiderman for a little longer. Eventually, Eddie finished his cigarette and tossed it out of the window, reaching for the radio at the same time.
His favourite radio station came on in the middle of a news bulletin about a hostage situation down at the docks.
"Do you think he knows?" Willow asked.
"Mustn't." Eddie said. "Otherwise he'd already be down there."
"Well how's he gonna find out if he's sitting up there?" Willow reasoned.
Eddie looked at her. "He ain't." He frowned. "I got an idea."
_____________________________________________________________________
Peter frowned as he noticed another man grab another purse. This time the woman was more alert than the first three times and screamed her head off.
He slipped off of the building and let himself fall for a split second before firing his webbing.
He came to a graceful halt in front of the mugger.
"Didn't your mother ever teach it's rude to go through other people's bags?" He asked before punching the man in the jaw and retrieving the bag.
The man opened his mouth to speak and Peter promptly gagged him with webbing before tying him up.
"No excuses." He told the man, picking him up and swinging over to where the woman still stood. "I want to hear you apologise to the lady and promise to never do it again."
"Let him go!" The woman demanded.
Peter looked at her for the first time and gaped. It was Rowan. That he hadn't been expecting. He leapt up onto the side of the building, still holding the mugger and Rowan's bag.
"Uh, no." He told her.
"Spiderman you don't understand." Rowan said, a thread of desperation running through her voice. "We staged the mugging so you'd come down."
"Now why would you want to do that?" Peter asked sarcastically.
Rowan stamped her foot, her eyes flashing. "Because there's a hostage situation down at the docks!" She yelled at him.
Peter dropped the fake mugger and Rowan's bag and took to the air.
_____________________________________________________________________
Willow groaned as Eddie landed on top of her. She squirmed out from underneath him and hunted frantically through her bag for the knife she had always carried there ever since she had been a senior at Sunnydale High.
She sliced through Eddie's bonds and ripped the webbing from his mouth. Along with a lot of his moustache. She winced.
"Sorry Eddie." She apologised.
Eddie beamed at her. "Spiderman hit me!" He crowed.
Willow rolled her eyes. "Can we please get to the docks?" She asked.
_____________________________________________________________________
Peter landed softly on the roof of the besieged building and silently made his way over to the access door. He ripped it open and stepped inside.
There were no shouts, no screams, no gunshots. That made sense, according to the news bulletins, the hostages were being held two floors down.
He made for the nearest air conditioning vent.
Willow surveyed the outside of the building with dismay. It was surrounded by the press and the police. She had been hoping to be able to sneak in somehow, but that was clearly going to be impossible.
She'd wanted to see how Peter got the photographs!
Willow racked her memory, trying to come up with a way into the building. Suddenly she was hit by a distant memory of Xander arguing with Giles about whether the SAS or the SEALS were better. She seemed to recall Giles mentioning a training exercise when the SAS had had to liberate a bunch of fake hostages from the SEALS. The SAS had apparently crawled through a sewer and emerged in a bathroom.
Well, she was no stranger to sewers after a lifetime spent in Sunnydale.
"I'll be back soon." She told Eddie.
"Who's gonna pay your fare if you're not?" He asked.
"Bill it to The Herald." She told him. "And tell them that Weaver said the photographer is Peter Parker. Got that?"
"'The photographer is Peter Parker'." Eddies repeated faithfully.
Willow grinned and ran to the nearest manhole.
Three miles of ventilation later and Peter was lost.
"Nice going Spidey." He chided himself. "They'll have to rescue you before they rescue the hostages."
He grinned underneath his mask. "Who am I kidding?" He asked himself. "They'll probably trade me for the hostages!"
Willow was pissed off. Actually, she had also been pissed on, but that was a whole other and extremely disgusting story.
She poked her head up out of the Willow-sized hole she'd created in the basement floor and cautiously climbed up.
When she was standing in the middle of the basement, she chanced a look down at herself.
The terrorists would probably give in long before she actually reached them thanks to her stench.
Willow thanks whichever God was currently listening that the building was actually a gym and made her way as stealthily as possible upstairs and hopefully to the nearest available locker room.
Peter was still lost and he had a worrying feeling that he'd gone down more than two floors. And was it just his imagination or was the air getting steamier?
Willow dumped her clothes and her purse in an empty locker and wondered what she could wear. Then it hit her. She was a mutant. She could create something to wear.
She lifted off the protective amulet that served the dual purpose of protecting her from anyone trying to find her and subduing her still somewhat uncontrollable powers and allowed her imagination free rein.
Five minutes later she was wishing she hadn't done so.
She was clothed in what was probably the most outlandish outfit anyone had ever worn, complete with mask.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, the quick shower she'd allowed herself had caused her hair to revert back to its normal red.
She took a deep breath and prepared to change her outfit.
"Hey!" A voice said.
Willow whipped around to see Spiderman sitting on the ceiling beside an open air vent.
"I got here first." He continued, his amusement clearly audible in his voice. "I call dibs on the rescue."
Willow looked in the mirror again.
She looked like a superhero, she realised with a shock.
Peter grinned as he watched the costumes female check her appearance in the mirror.
It appeared that all women, everywhere were the same. They couldn't do something without checking their make up first. He just hoped that whoever it was, was on his side.
Willow grinned and decided to go along with it. She might as well do some good whilst she was in hiding!
"Haven't you ever heard of share and share alike, Spiderman?" She asked.
"Well yeah, but you're hardly sharing fairly." Spiderman pointed out.
Willow frowned. "What do you mean?"
"You know my name, but I don't know yours." He said.
Willow panicked. What should she call herself? The Moleculeator? Ms Atom? Perhaps she should style herself after The Bugle's favourite description of Spiderman and simply call herself the Menace? That would probably save J. Jonah Jameson a great deal of trouble when it came up to thinking of a name for her.
"I don't have one yet." She admitted.
"Ahhh." Peter said wisely. "New huh? Well that would explain why I haven't seen you around before."
The woman gave him a saccharine-sweet smile. "Whilst I hate to break up our touching meet and greet." She said. "I can't help but feel that there's probably something better we could be doing with our time."
Peter grinned and dropped to the floor.
"Never let it be said that I dared to argue with a woman." He said, crossing to the door.
It opened before he could reach it however and he sprang back up to the ceiling.
One of the hostages entered and the door closed and locked behind her.
The woman stopped, clearly terrified at the sight of Spiderman and Willow.
Willow smiled reassuringly.
"Don't worry." She soothed the woman in a low tone of voice. "We're here to save you."
"What floor are we on?" Spiderman asked.
Willow frowned. "You don't know?"
"I got lost!" The costumed superhero said defensively.
"Why is it that men never stop to ask for directions?" Willow asked the hostage.
"Perhaps because women can't give them?" Spiderman said.
He dropped back down to the floor, picked the hostage up and the two of them disappeared into the open air vent. A second later Spiderman dropped back down.
"Wait there until either we or the police come." He told the hostage.
"Are you ready?" Willow asked, crossing to the door.
"Lets dance." Spiderman said.
Willow knocked on the door and the terrorist on the other side made the mistake of unlocking and opening it.
Two seconds later, he was on the floor, cocconed in Spiderman's webbing and his gun had mysteriously disappeared into thin air.
Willow and Spiderman dumped him into the locker room and closed the door.
"The hostages are on the next floor up." Willow informed Spiderman and the two of them headed for the stairs.
Peter looked down at his unexpected accomplice from the wall of the stairwell.
"So, I'm guessing you know what I can do." He commented. "What can you do?"
The woman smiled mysteriously and her green eyes danced merrily behind her half-mask.
"Well, for one thing, I can fight." She told him.
Peter frowned. It sounded like she might become more of a hinderance than a help.
"Anything else?" He asked.
"You'll find out." She said, not faltering in climbing the stairs.
"Show me." Peter said, worried now.
Now it was her turn to frown. "If you insist." She said.
She held out her hand and instantly her fingernails grew about eleven inches and turned to metal.
"I don't suppose you're related to anyone called Wolverine?" Peter asked, trying not to sound impressed.
She laughed and her fingernails returned to normal. "I don't think so."
They reached the next floor and Peter went to kick the door down.
"Wait." Willow said, stopping Spiderman and changing the molecules of the wooden door into oxygen.
"Impressive." Spiderman commented nonchalently.
"Thank you." Willow said, smiling as she walked through the doorframe.
Peter's spider sense went haywire as the woman moved through the doorway, but he was too late to call out a warning.