Arc 2 - Chapter I: Winter Heat
Hello, my adoring fans, how have you all been? Haven't been eaten by the Lizard or held for ransom by Shocker? Good, cuz' I would hate to have accidentally missed that. Sleeper would hold that over my head for like… well, ever.
No seriously, he would.
But this isn't the time for pettiness, this is the time for the holidays. Christmas; opening presents, leaving cookies for Santa, listening to the same dang Christmas song over and over on the radio (seriously, they need to stop with that crap), and all that jazz.
And I bet you're all wondering, what does the civilian identity of the Ronin do during winter break, besides getting ready for the holidays?
Well, I'll tell you…
It involves…
…
"WAKE UP, KAIRI!"
Reluctantly leaving the realm of Morpheus, Kairi pulled his pillow over his head as he gave a tired groan. "Dude, Sleeper, why?" he sighed, his voice almost unhearable due to the pillow muffling his voice. "It's winter break, I'm allowed to sleep in…"
Sleeper in its cat form padded over, placing its rear end on Kairi's pillow as it grinned eagerly. "Not today you're not!" the symbiote laughed as it lifted a paw and began to whap its paw on the pillow, knowing exactly where the back of its head would be. "We have a lot to do if we want to be prepared for Christmas!"
"Christmas is next week…"
"So? You still haven't gotten presents for everyone yet. And do you really want to wait until the last minute to go Christmas shopping?" Sleeper replied as it abandoned hitting its host to motivate him to wake and instead crawled under the pillow so that its voice wouldn't be suppressed.
Groaning as he wanted just a few more minutes in bed, Kairi turned his head away.
"Are you really going to make me do it?" Sleeper said dryly.
Grunting in annoyance at the threat, Kairi pulled the pillow off his head before sitting up. Raising a hand to cover a yawn, he looked out the window to the street outside. Snow had long since fallen in the city of New York and people who were awake to go to work were already out and about.
Shifting over to the edge of his bed, he stretched his shoulders a bit before he grabbed a towel and a change of clothes for the day just as Sleeper leaped to his shoulders. "Morning, Grandma," he said as he passed by her on the way to the bathroom.
"Morning, Little Wolf," she smiled before turning her attention to the symbiote. "And good morning to you too, Sleeper."
"Good morning, Mamy," Sleeper beamed before it jumped from its host's shoulders into the arms of the grandmother.
Kairi's grandmother had been told of the symbiote's existence by Maya when she told her what he had been up to when the event Kairi liked to call the Spider-Person Interdimensional Accidental Migration, or SPIAM for short, had occurred. And when Sleeper formally introduced itself to Maya and Mamy, the elder woman immediately took a shine to the symbiote and the symbiote in turn enjoyed the woman's company.
Kairi had found it funny, an old woman with an alien cat. The only way it could be funnier is if his grandmother started knitting.
Once he was done showering and getting ready for the day, he went downstairs where his grandmother had cooked breakfast. His mom was sitting at the table, sipping on a cup of coffee while reading a newspaper.
Walking over, he gave his mom and hug before signing, [Good morning, Mom.]
[Good morning, Kairi,] she replied before turning her attention back to the newspaper.
His mother's recovery from Tombstone's and Vulture's attack had gone without a hitch and she was able to bounce back sooner than the doctors projected. It made sense, given that his mother had faced worse injuries while operating as the Ronin before him and she still kept in shape despite hanging up the outfit. As a result of her speedy recovery, she was able to go back to her job as a teacher for disabled students quickly.
"So, Kairi, what are your plans for the day?" Mamy asked as she placed the last dish she had prepared for breakfast on the table, allowing everyone to start eating.
Though Sleeper was just eating its usual breakfast meal of tater tots and chocolate chunks mixed up in a bowl that had been placed in front of it.
"Sleeper and I are going to go out and finish Christmas shopping today," Kairi replied after swallowing a bite of his food. "And I was thinking after I would pop over to Gwen's dimension and hang out with her."
[Is she and her father doing anything special for Christmas this year,] Maya asked.
"No clue," he shrugged. It had been over a week since he had last seen her due to how hectic finals at Visions Academy could be. His girlfriend was completely sympathetic and had understood as she had her own finals to deal with at her own school. "But I'll ask when I see her. Any particular reason why you're curious?"
"Well, your mother and I were thinking of inviting them to come to celebrate Christmas here," Maya answered for her daughter. "You have gotten better at using that talisman Stephen gave you."
"Yeah, but it would be the first time I'd travel with someone using it," Kairi frowned.
During a visit to Doctor Strange, the man had given him a short lesson in interdimensional magical theory. Basically, the magic he used to open portals between dimensions was 'natural' per se due to magic-using energy drawn from all dimensions. While Fisk's collider basically tore holes in the Multiverse and therefore unnatural, especially since the collider disrupted the natural flow of the Multiverse. And as a result of that tearing, it had caused the cellular death in the Spider-gang that had been marooned in Kairi's dimension.
There were more stable scientific ways of opening portals into the Multiverse, using Anti-Metal for one and the correct vibrational frequencies, however, that little tidbit had yet to be a universal fact throughout the Multiverse. That, and apparently, not all dimensions had Anti-Metal to begin with.
"You've taken Sleeper before," Mamy frowned.
"I'm usually attached to him when he does it, Mamy," Sleeper looked up from its meal. "As my host, Kairi provides an anchor for me to hold onto and ground me, so to speak. Though Dad did mention your skill with using the talisman is improving, Kairi. You don't even need catalysts anymore."
"So I should jump to the having passengers stage?" Kairi raised a brow. He was a little hesitant, he and Sleeper going was one thing. But taking Gwen and her dad? He didn't want to cause another SPIAM by accident.
[Why not?] Maya replied. [Come on, Kairi, it's been a while since your grandmother and I have seen Gwen and if she's any indication, I'm sure her father would be a delight to have here.]
Kairi looked at his mother suspiciously. More like Gwen's dad could offer ammo against him and Gwen. [I can ask] he replied.
"Please do," Mamy nodded.
He nodded before he returned to his breakfast.
…Earth 651…
Gwen groaned as she flopped onto the couch in the living room of the apartment, landing face first into one of the cushions. Crime in the city was quieting down now that it was starting to get cold out and finals for the semester were finally over and while she was never a bad student, the tests were so grueling. She swore she could see answer sheets and test booklets on the back of her eyelids.
But alas, she was finally home where she lie down and rela-
Knock, knock.
Groaning in frustration, Gwen turned her head, opening one eye to glare at the door. Willing whomever was on the other side of the door to go away through sheer willpower and mind powers that she did not possess. Hey, a girl could dream, right? When whomever knocked on the door again, she breathed out a large sigh as she got back on her feet and trudged over to the door, ready to give whomever was on the other side a piece of her mind.
"Look, buddy-" Gwen paused when she saw Kairi standing there with a grin on his face.
"'Buddy'?" Kairi raised a brow, a smirk pulling at a corner of his lips as he regarded her in amusement. "Is that my new nickname?"
She grinned widely, "Kai! Come in, come in." Once he was in the apartment, she closed the door before turning back to him, her hands on her hips. "What are you doing here?"
"Am I not allowed to visit my girlfriend after not seeing her for almost two weeks?" he replied, crossing his arms as he remained smirking. "And here I thought you would have missed me. Shame on me I guess."
"Oh, stop," she rolled her eyes as she playfully punched his shoulder. "Is Sleeper with you?"
He shrugged, "Kinda, he's in my backpac-" He was almost startled when her hands clamped on either side of his face and pulled him down for a very heated kiss. Carefully dropping his backpack at the door, minding that Sleeper was… well, sleeping, he then wrapped his arms around her waist, he returned the kiss wholeheartedly as he spun them around and pressed her against the wall, delighting in the squeak that came from her.
It had been a very long two weeks.
"So you did miss me," he chuckled against her lips when they had separated.
"Of course, I did. I missed having someone open doors for me and scooting my chair in," she grinned as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Even almost waited at a door for a second before I forgot you were back in your dimension." Obviously not true, but she liked the banter between them.
"So that's all I am to you?" he laughed. "A glorified man-servant?"
"Hmm," she pretended to look up in thought as she pursed her lips to the side. "Yeah. Yeah, pretty much."
Shaking his head a little, he playfully nipped at her lips before gently pressing his forehead against hers. Just staring into her bright blue eyes as he enjoyed this moment of being reunited with his interdimensional girlfriend.
"Not to nag," Gwen whispered, staring back into his amber-colored eyes, "but can we take this to the couch? I've really had a long day." She blinked when he grinned before gathering her in his arms in a bridal carry. "My hero," she chuckled as she tightened her grip around his neck a little. It was then she remembered they weren't exactly alone. "Wait, hold on, did you say Sleeper's in your backpack?"
"Yeah, but he's napping," Kairi replied before setting her on the couch. Only to yelp when she pulled him down to join her, rearranging themselves so that now she was lying on top of him.
"Wait, can symbiotes sleep?" she frowned as she got comfortable, reaching down to pull off her sneakers, letting them fall on the floor.
"Sleeper can," he replied as he also managed to yank his shoes off. "Due to his unique biology and being able to constitute his own body without needing a host all the time, Sleeper can eat and sleep on his own. But he is very insistent that he 'naps' rather than 'sleep.' Very insistent."
"Huh, go figure," she frowned thoughtfully.
"So how have you been?" he asked. "It's been a while since we last saw each other."
"Same old, same old," she shrugged as their legs tangled together, humming in content when Kairi's fingers made their way to her hair, gently running through it. "Luckily, Koala Commander left New York and went back to Australia for the winter."
He blinked, pausing in running his hand through Gwen's hair. Koala…Commander? "Wait, hold up, what's the dude's name?" he asked slowly and incredulously.
"Look, I didn't pick it, okay?" she chuckled. "But the guy trains koalas to become Drop Bears and those little bastards can be lethal." When her boyfriend remained incredulous as he stared at her, stupefied, she laughed again. "No really, those things can even bite through steel. Seen it happen before."
He stared at her for a moment longer as he tried to wrap his head around on killer koalas that could bite through steel. Didn't koalas sleep most of the whole day due to their diet of eucalyptus leaves? "Your dimension makes no sense, Gwen," he deadpanned.
"Hey," she lightly bopped his chest, "I never bashed on your dimension while I was there and I had the cloud of slowly disintegrating wracking my body over my head the whole time I was there. And you come to mine and call it weird? Rude."
"Sorry," he chuckled sheepishly, she had a point. "But c'mon, I'm pretty sure you reacted the same as me when you first encountered… snrk, Koala Commander."
Biting her lip to prevent herself from laughing, Gwen just tucked her head against his chest. The first time she had encountered Koala Commander, she had to take it seriously because she was fighting the guy. But yeah, looking back at it now, Koala Commander's schtick is a bit ridiculous.
"How about you?" she asked. "How've you been since you started operating as the Ronin?"
"Things have still been relatively quiet," he sighed. "With Kingpin and his cronies put away, Spider-man's usual villains haven't been making any appearances in New York. But I guess that maybe they also don't want to test the new Ronin given how… cold Mom used to operate when she wore the mask."
"Cold?" she frowned. "What do you mean?"
"My mom wielded two katanas, Gwen, and let's say she was quite liberal in using them," he replied. Liberal was understating it, his mother had a few warrants for her arrest during her tenure as the Ronin due to her lopping off body parts against the criminals and villains she had encountered.
"How liberal?" she asked with a frown.
"Blood-soaked," he answered.
And the answer was enough as Gwen winced a little. Though, honestly, she couldn't really picture it, a Maya Lopez whose sword was bathed in blood. Maybe motherhood mellowed the woman out.
Gwen had no idea how true her words were.
"So where's your dad?" he asked. "At work?"
She nodded, "Yeah. He got the afternoon shift again, won't be back home until tomorrow afternoon." She used to resent her father's job for the long hours, another part of the wall that was raised between her and her father when she was growing up. Idly, she found it ironic that it took her getting powers and becoming a superhero for her dad and her to actually talk things out.
"Is that why you were so quick to kiss me?" he teased her.
Out of respect for the man and also to stay on the police captain's good side, Kairi didn't get handsy with Gwen when he visited the Stacy apartment. Some kisses to the cheek and sitting close to each other if they were watching a movie all together, but that was just about it. Or rather, while in George's company at least. Behind closed doors, particularly the door to Gwen's room, well, Gwen could be quite… passionate in trading spit with him.
"Keep that up, Kai," she gave him an unimpressed look. "See if I kiss you again."
Kairi rolled his eyes at the empty threat before changing the subject, "So, is this what you want to do all day while I'm here? Just veg out and do nothing?"
"Is that so wrong?" she tilted her head to the side. After her day at school doing nothing but tests, the only way her day could get better now that her boyfriend was here is if they got in bed together, just cuddling.
"I guess not," he shrugged. "Out of curiosity, have you done your Christmas shopping yet? Sleeper kept nagging me the whole time I did mine before we came here. You'd never believe it, but he can be very, very insistent when he wants to be. I mean really, I started my day, ready to sleep in when…"
If asked, Gwen would admit that she stopped listening after 'Christmas shopping.' Why, exactly, would someone ask? Because she did not do her Christmas shopping, she did not do any of her Christmas shopping at all. And Christmas was literally next week.
Scrambling off of him, she grabbed her shoes off the floor before rushing over to the coat closet. "Get up, we're going to the mall!" she called back to him.
Kairi could only shake his head and laugh to himself.
…Queens Center Mall…
"At least the malls are the same in both of our dimensions," Kairi commented as he and Gwen were walking through the halls of the mall. The familiar tune of Christmas music was sounding off in the background. Like a good boyfriend, he had taken a few of Gwen's bags that contained some of her holiday purchases.
"Are they?" Gwen asked, turning her head towards him with a curious look.
"Well, this one is," he shrugged.
Personally, I like the one in your dimension better, Kairi. They have more of those European chocolate stores. Now there are some people who really know how to make chocolate!
Smirking at Sleeper's comment, Kairi gave another cursory look around.
"Gwen? Hey, Gwen!"
Pausing when she heard her name, the blonde looked over her shoulder and smiled when she saw three familiar faces, namely the other members of her band; Mary Jane Watson, Glory Grant, and Betty Brant. "Hey, guys! What're you doing here?"
"Taking some long-deserved time to unwind," sighed Glory. "Those finals were killer."
"We tried calling you to see if you wanted to come," said Mary Jane. "But you didn't answer any of our texts."
Frowning, Gwen dug into her pocket and pulled out her phone, blinking in surprise when she saw that she had left it on 'Do Not Disturb' from when she was taking her finals. "Oh whoops, sorry, guys," she smiled sheepishly. "I forgot I had left my phone on silent."
"It's cool," the redhead waved off. "We're all here."
Are… are they ignoring you?
Yeah, kinda. But that's probably because they don't know who I am.
Hmm, you should fix that. These people seem important to Gwen.
Taking the symbiote's advice, Kairi cleared his throat, gaining all four girls' attention. "Um, sorry to interrupt, but hi, I'm Kairi." he introduced himself with a polite smile.
"Oh, right," Gwen smiled sheepishly, mentally kicking herself for momentarily forgetting about her boyfriend who had been standing there patiently until now. "Kai, these are my bandmates; Mary Jane, Glory, and Betty."
Each girl smiled politely when their name was called.
"Bandmates, this is my boyfriend, Kai," Gwen continued, her smile turning a bit anxious. While her dad knew about Kairi along with Sleeper, her friends weren't in the know because somehow Kairi always visited whenever things were slow. No band practice for upcoming gigs, no supervillains to fight to protect New York City, just chill weekends she could afford to not do anything.
"You got a boyfriend?!" the three other girls looked at the blonde incredulously. "Since when?!"
Gwen sheepishly scratched the back of her head, "Uh, two months ago?"
"Two months ago?!"
I think Gwen is a bad friend.
Biting the inside of his cheek to prevent himself from laughing, Kairi looked over at Gwen, elbowing her arm. "Was I supposed to be your well-kept secret or something?" he teased.
She glared half-heartedly at him, "You keep that up and you won't be my anything." She then looked back at her friends, contrite. "Sorry, guys, things have been hectic the past few months, kinda slipped my mind."
Mary Jane crossed her arms, giving her a dubious look, "Having a boyfriend slipped your mind? Really?"
"Kinda?" Gwen grinned nervously.
Glory turned her eyes over to Kairi, giving him a once-over. "So, Kai, was it?"
"Kairi, actually, Gwen's the only one who shortens my name," Kairi interjected.
"Is that so?" Glory smirked, giving Gwen a curious look. One that the blonde responded by narrowing her eyes at the pianist. "All right, Kairi then. So what school do you go to?" she asked.
"I'm from out of town, actually," Kairi replied.
Waaaaay out of town…
"Long distance relationship huh?" Glory raised a brow.
Kairi shrugged before lightly bumping his side against Gwen, "We make it work."
"It's actually surprising how easily we do it," the blonde frowned a little.
It really was. While today was one of the rare times Kairi had shown up announced, usually they would plan his visits into her dimension days or a week beforehand. Typically before he left to go back home to his dimension. And yes, she'd love it if she could communicate with him every day or every other day at the very least because some days she missed him. However, she still enjoyed what they had now. Though maybe next summer she could take a vacation in his dimension.
"What? Do you want a little bit of drama or something?" Kairi smirked.
"Nah," Gwen didn't even have to think about it. Drama was the last thing she wanted in this relationship. "But is it weird that something hasn't come up?"
Knowing our lives, it won't be some petty drama like leaving the dishes uncleaned but some villain popping up and making things difficult.
Please don't jinx us, Sleeper.
Both of you don't have a large number of supervillains, Kairi, I think you'll be fine.
If it happens, I'm blaming you.
"I can't tell if they're messing with us or if they actually achieved a monumental couples goal in two months' time," Betty muttered aloud, frowning at the dynamic between the band's drummer and her boyfriend.
"Which is?" Mary Jane asked curiously.
"Calm communication," Betty replied.
"Hmm, maybe the reason our relationship is doing so well is because we're just totally awesome?" Kairi proposed.
Gwen shrugged with a grin, "Yeah, that sounds about right."
"Yueck, you two are cavity-inducing," Glory shook her head with an amused smile.
"Were the two of you on a date right now?" Betty asked curiously. "Sorry if we intruded."
"Nah, I was just doing some Christmas shopping," Gwen said, sheepishly raising the bags she had in emphasis. "Almost forgot to do it too until Kai reminded me. I seriously would've hated to do it all during the Christmas week."
All four girls cringed at the thought.
"Does it get that bad here?" Kairi asked for both appearance's sake as well as to sate his own curiosity.
Sure, malls were always crazy with last-minute shoppers in his dimension, however, given that the big ones closed up the day before Christmas all the way to the twenty-sixth to allow mall employees to enjoy the holidays with their families, things weren't as bad as it could be for Christmas shopping. But Black Friday? He never worked at a mall before, but he sure did pity any employee who had to work that day. People always went crazy because that's when Spider-man merchandise prices would go so low, it was like they were just handing them out for free.
"Some people actually wait it out Christmas shopping here in New York for a good reason," Mary Jane answered his question with a sigh. "The big stores have their biggest holiday discounts the day before Christmas to clear out their inventory for the next year. Things can get bloody."
"Have any of you experienced that?" Kairi asked, glancing in Gwen's way with a touch of concern in particular.
"No, none of us are that crazy," Gwen shook her head. "But one year, Google was basically selling one of their newest phones for a steal a few years ago. The line out of the store went for like a mile."
"No, two, at least," Glory shook her head. "The line snaked through almost the whole mall if Sally said is true. People were even paying each other hundreds of dollars for their spots in line if they were ahead."
Kairi gave a low whistle, a little perturbed.
All for a phone? Humans are weird.
Says the alien that demanded I wait in line for an hour for that Metal Gear game.
Of which I deeply apologize for. The game was a freakin' clusterfuck. Should've known a Metal Gear game without Hideo Kojima would've blown.
"So what'd you get us?" Mary Jane asked Gwen, peering over at one of the bags in Gwen's hand, trying to get a peek.
Gwen tugged the bags back, "You'll find out on Christmas, MJ."
"Spoilsport," the redhead pouted.
The blonde shook her head, "Anyway, I still have some shopping to do for some people, in particular, so Kai and I should be on our way." She gave her boyfriend a significant look, shifting the bags from one hand to the other before grasping his free hand with her own.
"Sure," Betty nodded before looking at Kairi. "It was nice meeting you, Kairi."
"It was nice meeting all of you," he nodded with a polite smile before being tugged away by Gwen. When the couple had gone some distance away, Kairi looked over at Gwen. "I thought you were done with your Christmas shopping."
"Oh, I am," she nodded, glancing at a store window that caught her eye.
He raised a brow, "Then…?"
"Is it wrong that I just want to hang out with just you today?" she shrugged, favoring him with a soft smile as she tilted her head towards him. When her comment elicited a smile from him, she gave a pleased hum when he lifted their clasped hands to press a kiss against the back of her hand.
God, the two of you can be so mushy sometimes.
…Some time later…
Kairi and Gwen had gone back to the Stacy apartment with Gwen stashing her purchased gifts in her room. Along the way back, the two of them had bought some Chinese takeout for dinner. Which they were enjoying as they watched movies while seated on the couch. Sleeper was seated on the coffee table in its cat form, enjoying a bowl of soybeans and raw shrimp that stood as its dinner.
Kairi was in the middle of chewing when a pair of chopsticks not his own reached over and took a piece of his Sweet & Sour pork from its carton.
"Do you mind?" he quipped with an amused grin.
"No, not at all," she smirked before popping the piece of pork into her mouth.
Rolling his eyes, not really minding that she took some of his food, he turned his attention back to the movie playing on the TV, The Greatest Showman, a musical film. The plot was kinda predictable, but at least the music was pretty good.
"So, Sleeper, remind me why you're eating soybeans and shrimp?" Gwen asked during a lull in the film.
Sleeper turned to look over its shoulder, "These foods are high in phenylethylamine. We symbiotes cannot produce the chemical ourselves, so I need to eat foods that are high in it. Such as chocolate, nuts, and raw meat. And also brains."
Gwen blinked, "You… have to eat brains?"
Sleeper rolled its eyes, "I don't have to eat brains, Gwen. Personally, I find the taste of brains disgusting. Ergo why I eat foods that have phenylethylamine."
Kairi sat up, "Wait, but you have eaten someone's brain."
"Yeah," Sleeper sighed. "Ate someone's head off when Dad opened that portal to send me to your dimension, Kairi." It's face scrunched in a grimace, "Head to spit out the kevlar and hair."
"Kevlar?" Gwen raised a brow inquisitively.
"He was wearing a combat helmet."
"Oh."
Sleeper shivered at the memory before going back to chowing down on its soybeans and shrimp. As it chewed, something it didn't really need to do but enjoyed doing so anyway, Sleeper lifted its head to continue watching the movie.
Gwen looked over at Kairi, a brow raised, a question written over her face; Is this your new normal? Kairi could only chuckle quietly as he shook his head in amusement. He gave a nod in answer before he grabbed the styrofoam box sitting on the coffee table, opening it to reveal the desserts they had ordered, pineapple tarts. Gwen immediately reached over, taking one for herself as she leaned against him. Wrapping his arm that held the pineapple tarts around her shoulder, he tugged her closer and used his free hand to direct the partly eaten tart she held to his own mouth.
"Hey," she covered her mouth to finish chewing.
"You took my Sweet & Sour pork, call it even," he chuckled.
"Glory was right, you two are cavity-inducing," Sleeper rolled its eyes.
Before another word could get in, they heard the echo of an explosion.
"Was that…?"
Jumping off the couch, Gwen went over to a window and immediately saw the light from a fire and smoke in the distance. "Really?" she mumbled. The holidays were so close! "Sorry about this, Kai."
"What? Why're you sorry?" he raised a brow as Sleeper leaped onto his shoulders, a tendril shot over to his backpack and yanked it to its host's awaiting hand. "We're coming with you."
"Kai, you and Sleeper don't have to," she tried to assure them. "I'm sure it was probably just a spark in a gas main or an electrical fire. Plus, isn't fire one of Sleeper's weaknesses?"
"I can hide in Kairi until he needs me."
"Plus," Kairi added with a shrug, "we can still hang out."
She smirked as she raised a brow at him, "At a building fire?"
"You have Spider-powers and I have an alien attached to my physiology, Gwen," he chuckled. "Normalcy went out the window for both of us." Though to be fair, living in New York City meant that normalcy wasn't even in the building in the first place.
"Fair enough," she chuckled as she shook her head. "Thanks, both of you," she gave them both a smile before sprinting over to her room for her suit.
…Some time later…
Landing on the roof of the building standing across from the one that was on fire, Kairi and Gwen, both suited up, perched themselves on the edge of the roof.
"I'll do a sweep inside," Gwen said as the building was surrounded by first responders and gawkers. "Start from the ground floor, make sure everyone no one got stuck and made it out."
"I'll head in from the roof then," Kairi nodded. "With Sleeper filtering out the smoke, I'll check from there before the fire becomes too much for us."
She nodded, "Be careful, both of you."
"You too," he nodded before they both leaped off the roof of the building.
A straight shot to the burning building's roof, Kairi made the jump easily and found the roof access door. Kicking the door in, he jumped down the steps and immediately started looking.
"Hello?! Is anybody in here?!" he called out.
If he hadn't had Sleeper, he'd be choking on the very heavy smoke right about now, that or he would've been forced to crawl close to the floor. Which was why he hoped everyone made it out. And it was a shame there wasn't a way for him to track anyone.
Well, I could. I could have us see in thermal vision, but with all this heat…
Don't sweat it, we'll go apartment by apartment, quick.
Going through the first two, there weren't any people, alive or dead, in them. But when he burst through the third apartment, he was a little bewildered by how dirty it was. Beer bottles and cans were strewn about along with a lot of paper takeout bags.
Whoever lived here was a slob…
"Hello! Is anyone in here?!"
Almost immediately, they heard a muffled banging, like metal on a wall.
Kairi!
Yeah, I heard it!
Heading into the only bedroom in the apartment as he followed the noise, Kairi had bad feeling in the pit of his stomach when he realized the sound was coming from the closet, along with some heavy coughs. Heading over to the closet, he frowned when he saw that there was a lock on the door. Ripping the door off its hinges, a surprised yelp soon followed, but not by him.
His eyes widened at what he found inside the closet, or rather who. A young girl, who couldn't be older than four or five had her leg cuffed to the wall. She looked back at him anxiously, her face covered in soot and ash.
I… I did not see that coming…
"Please… help…" the little girl rasped beseechingly, reaching a hand out towards him.
Hearing something, probably part of the floor give way outside, Kairi turned his attention towards the chain that tied her to the wall as he knelt next to the little girl. "Don't worry, I'm going to get you out of here, okay?" he assured her before he drew his katana from his back and slashed through the chain, causing the broken pieces to melt into a puddle, before sheathing his blade.
Sleeper, we'll need something to cover her face with.
On it.
Without revealing its host's face, the regular Ronin mask that Kairi wore had shifted off of his head and came out of Sleeper's flesh in his hand. "This is to help you breathe, okay, kiddo?" he said, slipping the mask over her head.
Drawing her into his arms, she immediately latched onto him as he placed a hand to protect the back of her neck. Standing up, he turned on his heel to leave the room but stopped when he realized that part of the floor of the apartment had collapsed, revealing some flames below.
Can we make that jump?
As long the fire doesn't grow, yes.
Bending his legs to prepare himself to jump, he turned away when something caused the flames to roar. The little girl yelped in fright, along with Sleeper, though that had been heard in Kairi's head.
Urgh… the window…
Kairi's eyes snapped towards the lone window in the room and sped over to it. "Hold tight to me, okay, kiddo?" he whispered to the girl before he punched the window out. Looking down to make sure he wouldn't land on anyone, he jumped.
Having landed on the alley side of the building, he would have to make his way over to get the girl some help. "All right, kiddo, we're out," he said to the little girl as he gently tugged his mask off of her to get some deeply needed fresh air.
All she did was cough as she still clung tightly to him.
As Sleeper's flesh took his mask underneath it, he jogged over to the street where the first responders were. Luckily, the gawkers were on the other side opposite of the sidewalk that was across from the burning building, so he didn't need to deal with them.
"Hey, this girl needs some help!" he called out as he neared an ambulance.
One of the paramedics turned when she heard his voice and immediately ran forward. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"She was in the building, smoke inhalation, I don't know how long," he replied.
"Get her on the gurney," the paramedic ordered.
Kairi nodded as he made to place the little girl on the gurney, however, the little girl just clung to him harder. "I- she won't let go of me," he said to the paramedic. "Look, kiddo, this nice lady is going to help you, okay? Make sure you're healthy."
The little girl whimpered through a cough as she still continued to cling to him tightly.
Kairi… we did find her chained to the wall…
I know… there's a good chance she was abused and we can deal with that later. But right now we have to focus on her health.
The paramedic frowned at him, "So, who are you supposed to be? Goldie?"
"It's Ronin, actually," he replied.
"Well, all right, Ronin, just make sure to fit this over her face, okay?" the paramedic turned back into the back of the ambulance and pulled out an oxygen mask and tank. "I don't think she's going to let go of you anytime soon. So, just let her take deep breaths, that's all we can do until we can get her to the hospital."
Kairi looked back unsurely at the burning building.
You know Gwen can take care of herself. And we won't be able to do much if parts of the floor collapse.
Yeah, you're right.
Besides, the little girl needs us.
Accepting the oxygen mask and the tank, he gently pried the little girl's face off his shoulder and placed the oxygen mask on her face. "Deep breaths, okay, kiddo? Deep breaths," he softly instructed her.
She stared up at him, almost unblinkingly as she did as he said. That was the scene Gwen found after she did one last pass through the apartment.
"Thanks for the help, Ghost-Spider," the fire lieutenant thanked, stopping her.
"Don't worry about it, LT," she replied. "I just hope we got everyone out."
The lieutenant nodded, "Me too, the building super is doing a roll call now." Something caught his attention, he frowned at the unknown masked hero with the little girl near an ambulance. "You get a partner or something?" he asked the Spider-themed hero, gesturing to the sight.
"Something like that," Gwen admitted with a sheepish chuckle. Giving the man a wave in farewell, she walked over to her boyfriend. "I leave you alone for five minutes and you come back with a kid. Trying to tell me something?"
Looking over his shoulder, he shook his head. "No, I found her in the building," he replied. He then gave a cursory look around before he lowered his voice as best he could, "And… I found her chained in a locked closet." He was a little divisive on whether or not he wanted the girl's parents to be here. On one hand, he didn't want them near this child, even if they were her parents. On the other, he would very much like to introduce them to Sleeper in a dark alley.
I'd gladly eat their heads.
Gwen startled, "Wait, what? Are you serious?" She looked at the toddler in surprise while the little girl just stared back, her eyes wide as she beheld the costumed heroine.
"Mmhmm," Kairi nodded somberly.
Gwen frowned, her mask's lenses mirroring the expression. "Oh webs," she muttered in disbelief.
AN:
I'm back bitches!
As promised I'm going to be releasing Arc 2 of the story when it was appropriate given the winter holidays. A little early, but given I have picked up a temp job full time, I'd rather finish Arc 2 at least by the end of January or February and I have no idea how much time I have given my other responsibilities. Either way, I figured it'd be nice to get into the Marvel flow of things given that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's release date is literally around the corner and RIP Chadwick Boseman, your film legacy continues on. Can't wait to watch it myself!
Same day next week, I should have the next chapter up.
As always, stay safe, stay healthy, and you all have a good day.