Another shorter chapter. Sorry for people expecting comic-con but Thesis Proposal Defense is coming up next week and I can't really make any big updates till then. Besides it seems like people were pretty happy with the last chapter so maybe alternate POV's might be nice.

This one focuses on Laura and just like before there won't be much drama. I figured it'd be good to give her a focus segment since she hasn't really gotten much attention despite being bonded to Gwen's symbiote baby. I'll try to rectify this more later.

On a side note, it seems now people want a chapter of Noir's escapades. Or at the very least they wanna see Spider-Man Noir vs Evil Magical Girl. Guess it's a funny image if nothing else...


Apollo1911: OMG they just revealed a Spider-Man game! -embedded link-

reply from elsv: Saw it too! Holy crap Christmas is gonna be fucking epic!

reply from Hythrax: *me looking at my empty wallet and cries*

reply from Doe John: Who's gonna be the villain though?

reply from Apollo1911: Definitely gonna be the Kingpin. You can see a red suit and a cane near the end of the trailer but it's really blink and you'll miss it.

reply from elsv: They're definitely gonna include Jack-o-Lantern in there too, either a secondary villain or a sidequest. No way they'll ignore Spider-Man's arch-enemy in his debut game.

reply from iamaparasite: Not sure I'm a fan of the traversal system. After swinging all over the city as Spider-Woman it's gonna be pretty lame being stuck on the ground using parkour and bikes.

reply from Amy: Makes sense though. They must've been developing this for a while and Spider-Man didn't start webswinging till a couple weeks ago. No way they'll change it so late in development. If we're lucky they'll add webswinging as free DLC.

reply from Doe John: I dig it though. I never really explored New York as Spider-Woman since I never had any reason to go to the ground. That and it totally fits with Spider-Man being a street level hero compared to Spider-Woman.

reply from elsv: I'm more interested if the rest of the Defenders are gonna show up. In the Spider-Woman game the Avengers were just cameos except for Hawkeye and Spinerette. Spinerette got to be a costume, at least.

reply from Apollo1911: The gameplay had Spider-Man using guns so I'm happy about that, at least. Insomniac's definitely not watering him down.

reply from Doe John: Ten bucks that Spider-Woman will be a secret character for the game, maybe a post game thing.


She missed her mom...

Laura sighed and looked out the window. The English teacher, Mrs. Haywood, was talking about contractions and Laura was only barely paying attention. Her language acquisition skills were programmed to be above average due to her planned line of work. While she was only fluent in German, Japanese and English she was capable of learning at least the rudimentary of any language with some cursory reading and exposure.

It didn't change the fact that the class was boring.

Laura sighed again and tapped her pen against her notebook. She was supposed to be taking notes but most of the page was filled with various drawings. Some of them were of her friends, a little practice and something to pass the time, but most of them were costume ideas. It was obvious that her mom, Gabbie's mom and uncle Peter didn't like her costume. She had no why; she thought it looked really cool.

'They'll get mad if we get bad grades again.' Gabbie said worriedly.

'My English is okay.'

'What about Math?' Laura ignored her and started shading in the latest costume. This one had a cloak and big, white eyes like Spider-Woman had, 'I know it's boring but I don't want mom and parent to get mad at me.'

'They won't. It'll be my fault, not yours.'

'Not better! You're my Other so if you feel bad then I feel bad.'

'But it's so boring! Who cares about school? We'll both be heroes once we turn 18!' And it wasn't like it would matter. Mom, Uncle Peter and Kitty didn't have college degrees and they were just fine being heroes. She was sure she could make do with the implanted knowledge the facility gave her.

'That doesn't mean we should do something to make them mad at us.'

Laura groaned. She hated arguing with Gabbie, mostly because she always managed to convince her to do what she wanted, 'Fine...' She flipped to a new page and started writing notes while Gabbie hummed smugly. Jerk. She was going to pay her back later.

She actually paid attention till class ended and the bell finally rung. Laura put her arms above her head and grunted softly as the rest of her classmates went out. Mom was still in San Fransokyo (she promised to take her there sometime, so she was looking forward to that) while Kitty was doing another job like she always was. And of course her dad was saving the world. Before he left he said something hunting down a man with some kind of red skull.

Laura grabbed her backpack when Cassie walked up to her, "Hey, Laura!" Cassie smiled and Laura smiled back. She liked Cassie. If only they didn't meet because of that ugly, toad like boy dropping that nail in her drink, "You wanna come over? Dad said he had to work late so we can go over to Mr. Townley's place." Mr. Townley. An old man with bushy white hair and a moustache that made him look like Albert Einstein. She liked him. His wife passed years ago and he had no children so he was always happy to help out his neighbors.

'Let's go! He always makes the best treats!' Gabbie cheered.

'You like everything.' Not that Laura could judge. Most days her diets were junk food and takeout that she could buy with that app Kitty installed for her. She was even on a first name basis with her driver. Jacob was having another child and she even ordered a cake she let him keep for his wife's birthday. If Kitty complained then it was her fault for giving Laura full access to her credit card.

Still, it was sort of odd that Gabbie didn't find what food she wanted yet. Spider-Woman's Other liked chocolate while the red one preferred raw meat. Gabbie did like chocolate (not so much raw meat) but not like her parent did. They were still trying to figure it out.

The two of them walked back to Cassie's apartment building. She wanted to swing her over there like Gabbie's mom always did for her friends but her mom told her not to, at least not until she was sure she wouldn't drop someone midway. She didn't like it. Even if she was still young she had more training than most adults could get across their entire lives. And it wasn't like she couldn't take care of herself once the fighting started.

"Hey can I ask you something?" Cassie suddenly said.

"Is something wrong?" Was that toad like boy hassling her again? If he was then...well, she couldn't punch him anymore, but she'd think of something.

"Daddy went to hang out with Spinerette last weekend. Are they...um..."

"I don't know." Laura shrugged. She would've preferred if her mom ended up with her dad to make her family feel more normal but she wouldn't have minded if she dated Cassie's dad instead. It was okay as long as she was happy, "I they they are dating? I didn't get a chance to ask mom before she left."

"Oh..." Cassie gripped her backpack straps and looked down at the ground.

"Do you...not like that?" She'd be lying if she said she wasn't hurt. She thought Cassie would be happy like she was.

"I-It's not that! Spinerette's really cool and daddy was happy after their date but..." She chewed on her lower lip, "I just don't want him to feel sad again, like after mom...left." She didn't talk about her mom a lot. The few times she did she always just said she 'left' with that sad smile on her face. Laura didn't pry. She knew what it was like to have a mother who treated her like someone to throw away.

"Mom wouldn't hurt him."

"I know. I hope it works. I want daddy to be happy."

Neither of them said anything in the short walk back to the apartment building. She'd watched enough television to now how difficult it was for parents to separate and end up with other partners. But she could hardly call her family normal. Her dad was in another dimension, her sister was another living weapon (and sleeping with her dad...) and her mom only started taking care of her a few months ago.

Laura knew how odd it was, the way she clung to her. Moms birthed their kids, they were there from when they first breathed life into the world. She was born in a test tube with the genetics of her former tormenter and a drunken immortal as her baseline. Neither of them could be her parents. Sarah Kinney only saw a tool and Logan treated their relations as some kind of amusement. She never had the chance for something normal.

Neither did her mom. She was ripped away from her own family when she was a teenager and spent ten years trapped in a bunker. Just like how she spent her first ten years of life in the facility. Other would think of their relationship as odd at best, but Laura didn't care. What was normal in a world like this where people could get powers and aliens invaded on giant ships?

'Don't forget new partners,' Gabbie chirped happily.

'How could I forget?' She smiled.

She spent time with Cassie and Mr. Townley till the sun was about to come down before she finally left to go back home. Snowball and Chester were with the neighbors so she didn't have to worry about them till tonight.

Time to go be a Superhero.

Laura ducked into an alley and searched through her notebook again for the perfect costume to use. Her mom and Gabbie's mom made them promise not to do any heroics until they finished her poorly defined training. Training...it was more like babysitting. Hovering over their shoulders, making sure she and Gabbie didn't do anything 'too unsafe' like she didn't help them fight her mom's evil twin just a year ago.

But now they were both in San Fransokyo and they didn't make her promise that she wouldn't go out and try to be a hero on her own while they were gone. Exact words and loopholes; Kitty loved using them all the time.

'They're going to be so mad at us when they get back.'

'We just have to show them that we can take care of ourselves. Once they know that we can be heroes they'll be happy to leave us alone.'

'I'm not so sure. Mom's really overprotective. Just ask her other Other.'

Despite her complaints she didn't say anything as they shifted into the last costume that Laura drew, "Hm..." She looked at her reflection in a nearby window. She'd changed her color this time to a black and blue mix and replaced the goggles with bulging sockets. She didn't really know what to make her costume about. She wasn't a Spider like the other people with symbiotes and her designation wasn't an animal of any kind. It was always X-23, nothing more and nothing less.

'We need to think of a Superhero name,' Gabbie suddenly said.

'Any ideas?' Laura jumped over the edge of the building and shot her arm out like her mom and Gwen taught her to. Even if she wasn't a Spider they taught her how to move like they did. Lithe, quick and with inhuman agility. It was similar to her training back in the facility. Speed and precision were prioritized over raw power and careless strength. She was to be an assassin, not a wrecking ball.

'It's hard. I wanna do something cooler than what mom and her friends do but there's so many names I can't just pick one. Phage, Lasher, Toxin, Scream, Sleeper...so many cool names!'

'We could always switch whenever we get bored.'

'But then people wouldn't know what to call us! When people see mom swinging in the air they know it's Spider-Woman. It'd be lame if people went 'look, up in the sky it's...what name were they using today?'. That'd be horrible! And super lame!'

'You already said that.' She agreed, though.

Sadly her attempt at patrol didn't get very far. As full of crime as New York tended to be it was hard to find crime so high up in the air where her keen sense of smell was dulled. Uncle Peter, her mom and Gwen had their spider-sense while the red one often patrolled at night in dangerous parts of the city. Now she was swinging around in the gap between day and night. The criminals were still preparing for their hunts.

Laura on top of an office building's roof and crouched down like she saw the Spiders do. It was odd. She hadn't used her claws ever since she stopped the shrinking man in red for blobnapping Gabbie. A lot of her training instead came from ensuring that she held back her strength enough not to kill the criminals she stopped. She was supposed to be a hero, not an assassin.

She didn't have the heart to tell them that killing people was still hardwired into her. While she knew not to do it, especially for innocent people, if she did have to take a life there was no sense of guilt. She didn't take pleasure in it like Kitty, but she also didn't think it was wrong the way Gwen did. To her there was no difference if the bad people were in jail or in a hospital.

She at least knew enough to understand that not all criminals deserved that, though. Murderers had done it to others but thieves hadn't. It wasn't perfect but she was trying. It was the best she could do considering she was never meant to ever question the people she killed. Men, women, children...all to be killed without a shred of hesitation as soon as her tormentor was paid.

Laura was about to leave till she saw a figure in red swing a few blocks away. It was the red symbiote and her host, 'Ooh, we should go say hi!' Gabbie jutted out of her shoulder, 'I never got to talk to them back when I was born.'

'Okay.' Patrolling wasn't doing anything anyway.

Laura followed for a short distance till the one in red stopped and landed at the back of an alley. Laura landed behind her and the redhead turned around with her fists raised, "What the f-" She looked down to meet Laura's eyes and her posture slackened, "Uh...wait, who are you?"

"My name is Laura." It was safe to tell her their secret identity. They worked together a year ago to stop her mom's evil twin.

"Oh...little claw girl. Yeah, I heard you got Spider-Woman's kid..."

Gabbie slipped out of her shoulder again with a cheerful chirp, "Yep! It's nice to finally meet you!" Mary Jane stepped back slightly at Gabbie's loud greeting, "We didn't get the chance to talk when I was still living in Ms. Van Dyne's place. So hi!"

"Uh...hey. Didn't know you were...actually, what the heck are you doing?"

"Being heroes." Or at least they were trying to be. It wasn't going well so far, "Spider-Woman and mom are in San Fransokyo so we thought that we could do some patrolling to make sure the city was safe while they're gone."

"Hey, don't drag me into it! This was all your idea!" Gabbie huffed.

Before Laura could reply a snake-like figure slithered out of Mary Jane's own shoulder. It looked different from Gabbie and Spider-Woman's partner. Where their manifestations were smooth and friendly this one was all teeth and jagged skin, its blood red flesh pulsating as it looked down at them both with a twisted smile. Laura wasn't scared. She'd seen far scarier than that.

Gabbie wasn't scared either judging by the wide-eyed look of awe she had, "Wow! It's nice to finally meet you!" The red blob blinked in surprise as Gabbie suddenly leaned in so close that their heads almost bumped together.

The red symbiote growled and looked away, "That makes one of us."

"Crimson, be nice." Mary Jane sighed.

"Why should I? You know I hate kids, especially annoying pink ones."

Laura made a growl of her own when Gabbie suddenly nuzzled her cheek, "Don't be mad, Laura. Auntie Crimson is just grumpy!"

"Auntie?! Never call me that again!" 'Crimson' screeched while Mary Jane laughed under her breath, "Rrgh, this is why I hate kids. Shouldn't you be scared of me? You have that chocolate addict's memories so you know what I've done."

"Yep. But I also know you're with Scarlet Spider now. You're trying to be a hero too, right?"

"Listen here you little-"

"Of course we are." Mary Jane cut in, "And speaking of which, me and Crimson are still busy with something so we really should be going."

"Could we come with you?" Laura asked. She really didn't want her heroic debut to end so poorly.

"Ah...not this time. We're actually not doing normal hero work. More investigating."

"Yes, because you're still obsessed with finding that missing model even though she's likely dead by now."

"You shut. I did what you wanted yesterday so you don't get to whine."

"We can help with that. My senses are very keen." Investigating wasn't her favorite thing in the world but it also something she was taught. After all, assassination targets wouldn't just fall onto her lap.

"...Tell you what, I'm gonna try and look on my own. If I don't find anything tomorrow then we'll do a team-up. Sound fair?"

"I guess..." She would've preferred to do it now but she learned to be patient.

"Then we'll see you tomorrow! By Auntie Scarlet, Auntie Crimson!"

"Stop calling me that!"

Laura reluctantly said her goodbyes and went back to pick up where she'd stashed her backpack. This was lame. Not a single crime stopped with only the promise of a team-up if Scarlet Spider didn't find anything. Why was being a hero so hard? Everyone else made it look so easy.

'I wish we had mom's spider-sense. Then we can find criminals with our eyes closed!'

'Maybe we can sneak out at nighttime? That's when most criminals do their crimes.'

'We have school tomorrow. I really don't want us to fail and get grounded.'

Laura made a noise at the back of her throat but didn't argue. For someone who broke the rules almost as much as she did Gabbie was really annoying about making sure they kept up with their schoolwork.

She opened the door and was met with Snowball and Chester's excited barks. She picked up the fluffy Pomeranian while the Japanese Spitz trotted along next to her despite his lame leg, "Welcome back, munchkin." She turned to the couch and saw Shadowcat lying down on it with her feet propped up over the edge and a lazy smile on her face.

"Kitty. I thought you had work." Her older sister scooted over to give her some space to sit down. She placed Chester at her lap Snowball scrambled up the couch next to her and snuggled at her side.

"Yeah, just came back, actually. Figured I'd take some time off, take it easy for a while."

"No more jobs?"

"Eh, we'll see. Cindy asked me for something. Not a job, but I figured I owed her for taking care of your dwarf ass."

"When will you stop with the height jokes?"

"When you stop having to tippy toe to look me in the eye." Shadowcat grinned and rubbed the top of her head. Laura pouted but didn't say anything and just silently scooted closer and snuggled up to her sister's side as she turned on the television. Just like her and her mom they weren't normal. Kitty never censored herself around her or was shy about telling her about how cruel the world was. Though she did insist on her trying to be normal like the rest of their family.

Gabbie slithered out and grabbed a packet of choco crisps with her teeth, 'Change the show. I want to see how mom's show ended.'

"Ugh. Still have to get used to you being around. This is pretty weird even for me," Kitty said.

"She grows on you."

Another day over. She wondered what the next would bring.


Chosen1s: So since it's been confirmed that the Spider-Man game will have a weapons and upgrade system I'm wondering something. Dark Spider why do you never use anything but pistols?

reply from Dark Spider: Don't see the point. A bullet's a bullet and if something can ignore pistol rounds then chances are I'll need another way to get rid of it.

reply from Chosen1s: Still wouldn't it be better to have it on hand.

reply from Dark Spider: Not really. Like I said guns aren't something I need for every fight. Besides, climbing and moving around with an assault rifle in your hands isn't exactly easy. Better something that you can hide or holster quick in case you need to move.

reply from Brinkwolf: Why do you even need guns? I thought you had like super strength?

reply from Dark Spider: Doesn't mean I'm bulletproof like Spider-Woman. Someone's shooting at me across a room what sounds smarter, running over there and getting into a fistfight or pulling your own gun out and shooting his hand to make sure he can't fire again?

reply from Solar Wraith: Seems like staying at home and not getting shot at is the smarter option :P

reply from Achillez: Question of my own. You gotta know Jameson shittalks you every night, why don't you do anything about it?

reply from Dark Spider: Do what? Being a fink ain't criminal. He can scream as much as he wants, don't care what that bozo thinks about me.


End of the Laura chapter. Next one will depend on what the readers want and my mood. So far these shorter chapters are a lot less stressful and seems like people are cool with them to.

Questions:

1. Not sure if I asked this before, but what do you guys think about a Noir/Mary Jane Extra chapter in the same vein as the Cindy one? While I'm not that keen on the pairing (at least for this fic) I am tempted since it would have a much more strained cheating lovers/guilty romance sort of feel, which ties into the film noir genre than anything I've written for the past 100 chapters. Especially the Cindy romance which was just very vanilla friends-to-lovers sort of thing.

2. Did you guys like the lighter tone of Laura's segment? Before it was pretty grim and relatively serious but now she's acting more like a kid hero, dark moments aside. Wondering if I should revert a bit since it felt a bit too saccharine as I was writing it.

3. Since I have so many characters are there any individuals or subplots you guys want cut out? Might help streamline the story a bit if I have it resolved off-screen or rush their storylines...

Review Answers:

roxasdualwielder - Thing is whether you like is hard to gauges since there's so many different Gwen. Spider-Gwen fans probably didn't know or care about the original Gwen.

rc48117 - Mmm, something like that (government POV) seems like something that could be seen from the eyes of Norah or Matt.

Yami666x - Peter can't use symbiotes, remember? Same way Gwen can't use chi.

retrogunner7 - Watch Miraculous Ladybug to see what he had to deal with in France. As for Japan, think evil Sailor Moon.

RedHood001 - Other classmates are tempting but I worry that it'll just come across as them being jealous of Peter, which is just character wanking. Also, this fic is hardly the orthodox Peter/Gwen story. Gwen is a badass superhero tomboy while Peter, one of Marvel's purest heroes, is written as a violent jackass who allies with psychopaths. I doubt it's what you were looking for.

PandaTobi - Moon Knight mentioned earlier that the current Sorcerer Supreme is Baron Mordo. Strange is just a doctor here.

KasugaRomio - Frog-Man is now undergoing character development, he deserves some good hits.

chiripa012 - Kaine and Gwen? Uh...Noir and Gwen are already together here. And Noir basically acts like anti-hero Scarlet Spider Kaine anyway.