Peter followed the mysterious figure, making sure to keep his distance. He'd made the mistake early on of getting a little too close and had nearly been caught a couple of times as a result. Whoever this was, they either had a sixth sense like his own, they were just that aware of their surroundings, or they were paranoid. He made sure to stay as close to a building as possible as he moved along so that he would have something to hide behind if necessary.
From what Peter could tell, the person he was trailing might not even be enhanced in any way. Some of the leaps they were making between buildings were certainly impressive, but they were also made where buildings were close together. Still, even if they were just a regular person, they were far above average in speed and agility. The individual he was tracking moved nimbly, staying light on their feet as they bounded from one place to the next. They had to be in good shape too, because they were hardly slowing down.
It also looked like this person was carrying things as well; something in their left hand and something on their back. Neither thing looked that big or heavy; the thing on the back was a cylinder shape object that went neck to lower back. It was hard to tell for sure, but Peter could've sworn he saw objects sticking out from the top of it too.
Objects that looked a lot like arrows.
All this speculation was only furthered by the fact that he was almost certain it was a bow the mystery person was carrying in their hand.
For a second, Peter almost wondered if he was following Clint Barton, Hawkeye himself, but that was impossible. He had looked up to be sure, and sure enough, none of the other Avengers had survived the Snap. Clint Barton had been reported among those whom the world had come to refer to as The Vanished. He knew the man was some kind of secret agent for S.H.I.E.L.D. before he was an Avenger, but the list of the Vanished was extremely thorough.
Besides, whoever he was following, they were a little shorter than Barton. Peter had only met the man once, when Tony had recruited him to help take down Captain America's side of the Avengers that were supposedly outside the law. He was hardly even around the man that much, but Peter remembered how Hawkeye looked a little taller than him, even from a distance.
Whoever this was, they appeared to be shorter than he was.
The figure paused after their most recent landing, and Peter ducked underneath the roofline of the building to the wall below just before they could turn around and look. He was still cutting it too close. Honestly, he was just hoping that all this trouble he was going to was actually going to end up being worth it. This was New York City after all; for all Peter knew, maybe he or she was just going to some secret archery club or something.
Well, that would be A LITTLE cool, but still, he was hoping for more.
Finally, the individual seemingly arrived at their destination: some random building in the Upper West Side. There wasn't so much as a name on the front, so the place was either abandoned or being used for some shady purpose.
Maybe this would actually end up being interesting after all.
Peter watched at the one he'd been following for a while now entered the building through the door on the roof that led downstairs, the hood they'd been wearing still shielding their face and hair from view. He was sure though that said individual was carrying a bow and some arrows now, so if anyone was in that building, they could be in danger.
Landing on the building as well, Peter contemplated whether he should follow the mystery person directly or not. If he did, it would be easier to keep up with this person, but he might risk being spotted more easily by entering through a more conventional means. If he went through a ventilation shaft though, he would basically have to start over again in terms of trying to find them, even if it meant his chances of getting caught were lesser.
This person had been all about stealth and keeping themselves hidden, hence their constant checking behind them and the hood. Therefore, they were probably more familiar than Peter was with the building, its security measures and possibly even where the people inside would or wouldn't go. He decided to take the chance, opening the door into the building and stepping inside. He did take the precaution of leaping onto the ceiling though, just to be safe. Someone with their head up from far away might still see him, but this was New York, after all.
Everybody was occupied with doing or looking at SOMETHING most of the time.
Peter tapped the side of his mask, activating an infrared scanner he'd recently installed to see if he could pick up some tracks. Sure enough, a path of steps lit up before his eyes. He had no way of knowing for sure if they came from who he'd been following or if it was another employee, but it was the best he had to go on right now, especially still being so close to their mutual point of entry.
Moving carefully along the ceiling, Peter followed the path of footsteps. He was waiting for his spider-sense to go off to alert him to someone coming, but all seemed clear so far. If there was anyone else there with them, they had to mostly be concentrated in one area. The path took him down multiple stairwells and down long hallways. The space was decent between the tracks, which meant whoever Peter was following was doing a little more than walking, but not exactly a full out sprint either.
Peter reached a point where he began to hear voices. He followed them, the footprints he saw leading him the same way. After a minute or so, he came to the room across the one from wherever the voices were coming from. The footprints he'd been following did not go in the room, but instead went up to the ventilation shaft, where its entry point had been torn off.
Maybe it would've been fine to use that method to start with after all.
Switching off his infrared system in his mask, Peter leapt up to the shaft, crawling his way through until he came to the room where the voices had been coming from. This entry point here had been sealed back, assuming that who he'd been following even came this way. Everything else pointed to that though, so he had to take the chance. Peter placed his fingertips against the shaft's seal, pushing with just enough force to pop it off lightly without making much noise. Peter peaked out to make sure he hadn't been seen, then slid out, resealing the way once again.
Still clinging to the wall with one hand and both feet, Peter spun around, taking a glance around the room. He found the hooded figure he'd been chasing almost immediately, crouched in the rafters. It appeared they were looking down at the people below, so Peter carefully moved into a position where he could sneak a peek as well. When he did, he saw... nothing all that interesting really. They appeared to be three normal people working away at some big computer or something. The only weird thing was that these people weren't saying anything; they seemed to just be content in working through whatever it was they were doing.
The three soon appeared to be done for the night, seemingly finishing something up on the computer before turning and heading towards the door. As they were doing this, Peter noticed the hooded figure quickly draw and arrow, drawing back the bow and pointing it in the direction of the three. Having observed nothing illegal or nefarious from them, Peter knew he couldn't let this individual just shoot them. He fired a web, latching it onto the back of the bow, pulling just tight enough to ensure that it could not be fired. The figure spun their head toward him, the hood still hiding most of their features as the three made their exit.
"First off, shooting innocent people with arrows is bad," Peter said. "Second, I think your count is off, because there were three of them, and you only..."
The individual then drew a blade with one hand, cutting the web in one quick, precise strike. Almost immediately, they spun around fully, pointing the arrow back at him.
"Oh, you want to play, huh?" Peter jabbed. He then leapt down to the ground, avoiding the arrow that came at him. He couldn't hesitate for long though, as the hooded figure quickly drew another a couple more arrows, firing them his way. Thankfully, Peter's spider-sense alerted him in timely fashion, his reflexes, speed and agility taking care of the rest to keep him out of harm's way.
"Man, you sure are no Hawkeye," Peter jabbed. "Now, are you coming with me peacefully, or not?"
The figure drawing another arrow appeared to answer that question. However, instead of aiming it at him, they fired just above him, where a chandelier was. The arrow cut the link in the chain holding it to the ceiling, causing it to collapse. Peter jumped forward out of the way, just in time for his spider-sense to ring out. This time, however, he was too late to avoid the hooded figure as they came in with a flying kick, hitting him square in the chest and sending him tumbling back. Peter quickly rolled over, already crouched into position for whatever may come next.
"Okay, point for you," Peter said. "Now, shall we continue?"
The figure then drew another arrow, letting it go quickly. Reacting with superhuman speed, Peter caught it in one hand without breaking a sweat.
"Seriously, you can't hit me," Peter said. "Like, I'm not trying to brag or anything; I just want you to understand how pointless this all is."
Peter's spider-sense then went off again, though the figure wasn't moving. It had to be the arrow, but how...
He got his answer, as suddenly a bunch of a long, hard and stringy material burst from the arrow, tightly wrapping around Peter, confining his arms to his sides. The figure then turned around and started to run away, seemingly no longer interested in fighting.
"Alright," Peter said under his breath. "That does it."
No more underestimating this individual.
Flexing his muscles, Peter burst from his restraints, tearing them to pieces as they fell to the ground. In the same motion, he fired a web, catching onto the individual's right foot and causing them to fall to the ground. He began to reel them in, pulling them one tug at a time. Of course, they pulled out their knife to cut the web again, but that didn't faze Peter even a little bit. By the time in the individual had sprung up and was preparing to draw an arrow, he was already right in front of them. The figure paused, appearing to be caught off guard by his speed.
"I don't think so," Peter said, grabbing the bow and ripping it from their hand, tossing it to the side. The figure then tried throwing some punches and kicks, which Peter dodged with little effort. Grabbing the individual by the arm, he flung them across the room, sliding them along the floor. Before they could get back up, Peter tired their arms up in a slew of webbing, repaying the favor from earlier. The individual struggled to get free, but quickly gave up, realizing it was pointless.
"Now, are you going to tell me what you were doing here?" Peter asked, walking up towards the individual. They said nothing, so he decided to take matters into his own hands. He grabbed the hood, tossing it back. He was somewhat surprised to see a young woman behind it, probably very close to his own age too. She had long brownish black hair and dark eyes that stared right at him seemingly unfazed by the revealing of her identity.
She actually looked a little familiar somehow, but Peter couldn't place where he'd seen her before.
"So, you going to take me in?" the woman said, "or is there any way we can talk about this?"
"Oh, NOW you want to talk," Peter said, squatting down in front of her. "Okay, let's start with why you were about to shoot those three innocent people back there."
"They weren't innocent," the woman argued, "and I wasn't going to kill them, if that's what you thought."
"Oh really?" Peter replied sarcastically.
"Look back," she said, nudging in the direction she meant with her head. "I fired the same arrow at you first that I was going to shoot at them and look what happened to it."
Taking the chance, Peter hesitantly did as she said. It turned out she was telling the truth, because when he looked carefully, he could see a mess of the same rope restraints he had ended up in earlier over there.
"Alright," Peter said, "so you weren't actually trying to kill anybody, so that's good. Still, what did these guys ever do to you to make you come after them in the first place?"
"Nothing, at least not yet," the woman said. "But they are up to something, and I'm going to stop them."
"Okay, look," Peter said, growing more annoyed as he was still trying to wrap his head around this whole thing, "either tell me what's going on, or I'm leaving you for the cops. Your choice."
"Hmm," the woman said, looking up, her lips tight as she appeared to consider her options. "I choose... none of the above."
Peter's spider-sense rang out just in time for him to see the young woman somehow free herself from her webbed constraints. She grabbed an object from her waste, throwing it down right in front of herself. The object exploded, and suddenly a bright light filled the room. Peter squeezed his eyes shut, the light still fighting to come in. After a few moments though, it passed, and he opened his eyes to see that the woman, along with her bow, were gone.
"Great," Peter muttered to himself. He walked over to find where she had been standing before, seeing a small, round object there. It looked like nothing he'd ever seen before. He put it away in a small belt compartment he had near his spare web cartridges.
Maybe an analysis of whatever this thing was could help him get back on the trail of this mystery woman.
Kate carefully entered onto her family's property, making sure to avoid any of the areas where security would be. She made her way back up to her room, climbing in through the window. Once she was finally inside and able to catch her breath, she had one thought come to mind.
"That didn't go well at all."
What in the world was she thinking, immediately taking shots at Spider-Man like that? The guy was a superhero, an Avenger even! She had training and pushing herself these last several years, getting herself to a level of physicality rarely seen in a normal person, but once he got done playing around, the wall crawler had made her look like the amateur Kate recognized she still was. She was lucky she had that pocketknife in a section of her sleeve, or she would likely be spending the night in jail, and the last thing she needed was the media circus that would inevitably ensue as a result.
Still, Spider-Man was onto her now. He had seen her face, and though it didn't seem like he specifically recognized her, it was only a matter of time before he found out who she was. It was very likely that they would meet again, and Kate had to be ready. She normally kept her composure better, even in rapidly developing situations like what had happened tonight, but she would do so next time.
Kate put her equipment away as she thought about what that next time might look like. Spider-Man had offered to talk it out with her, to hear her side of the story. It was hard to tell since she couldn't see his facial expressions through his mask, but he had appeared to relax a little in his overall body language once he realized she wasn't trying to kill them. At the time, she had been afraid he wouldn't believe her, but thinking back on it, she wished she had been more willing. Kate didn't have as much on those guys as she hoped to by now, but if it came down to it, she would have to chance it.
She was not normally one to be a team player, but if it meant not getting into another fight with the world's last Avenger, Kate was more than willing to adapt.
Yes, by "Kate," I mean none other than Kate Bishop. While I hope to capture parts of her that the MCU does, my portrayal of her likely won't be quite the same, as will likely be the case with the other new Avengers brought into the picture. I do want to honor who the characters are in the comics, but most of the one's I've chosen aren't ones that I knew much about prior to some research for this story.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed it!
Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!
"In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Luke 15:8-10