She flipped over the edge of the roof, the stealthy approach didn't really work against Hand ninjas, especially not when they were expecting her, so she didn't bother with it.
Like Murderdock had told her his men had dutifully gathered on that single roof and, as expected, most of them had turned her way before her feat even touched down on the roof. Unlike what she expected these ninjas weren't wearing the standard red ninja-suits the Hand was known for, but a gray version with a different mask design. Actually the whole suit was different in subtle ways, but the masks where the most obvious outliers.
Gwen glanced to their leader, who was standing apart from them on top of the roof access, then shot her webs into the crowd. Most dodged, dispersing across the roof but staying on it, others didn't react fast enough or they failed to dodge because their allies where in their way, so they had their arms webbed to their bodies or their feet tied down.
Keeping the initiative she chased them down, punching some while webbing others who were further away. Others still, drew their weapons and came after her.
She dodged under some sword slices, barely avoided a sickle chain and got nicked by another. Her Spider-Sense went off, she was moving back towards a sword in motion, she webbed the ground ahead and pulled hard, but it still hit home, slicing all the way across her back.
She fell, off balance from pulling herself to the ground as well as from the sword slicing her up. The ninjas pounded her back.
She put her hands on the ground and pushed. Hard, without holding back. She barreled past them as she flew up into the air, pulling one unfortunate ninja with her. Free at last she webs some more ninjas from the air before pulling herself back down.
Murderdock tapped his cane three times and the ninjas suddenly charged towards the doughnut shop, towards her friends on the other side. She rushed after them but before she had even left the roof something stabbed her back.
She stumbled, her head woozy, her vision blurred, but she stayed on her feet. The ninjas, she noticed had stopped moving, or at least they weren't chasing after her friends. Some of them were moving, though. Towards her.
She punched one guy, and he flew back a bit too far, had she not held back enough? Another one came at her but she ducked the sword then shot her webs at him. Her head cleared slowly as she kept fighting, but she wasn't moving much, and she felt week, and tiered.
Murderdock tapped his cane again, and she thought she'd have to chase the ninjas, but they gathered behind him this time. He handed his cane to one of his minions then he, alone, moved towards Gwen.
She put up her guard, but she was sore everywhere her muscles screamed at her, and she felt so, so tiered. When he punched her she reacted too slowly, repeatedly.
He kept punching and she kept being slow; and his punches hurt, much more than she remembered from their last fight, and she felt tiered, and week. It wasn't even a fight anymore, just a beat-down, but he kept going, and going, and going.
Gwen walked down the street. Hurt. She could web swing, would be faster, but it'd also hurt a lot more, so she walked.
She walked past The Dollar Dog. The only place The Bodega Bandit seemed to rob.
"Your corn dogs or your life!" Here we go again.
She opened the door and got ready to fight. Just the usual, Bodega bandit was threatening the owner without so much as a weapon drawn, and Bandito was sitting guard... Bandito was always outside, and she hadn't walked past him. The Bodega Bandit wasn't really his normal self either; he looked… sad.
"What's going on here? And what do I have to do to make you give up without a fight today? I just got my ass whopped, though I whopped some right on back."
The bandit looked at her, tears streaming down his face. "So I..." He sobbed. "I have a chance at beating you today?"
"I wouldn't say that, but it does hurt to move so I'd rather not. Now, will you tell me where Bandito is? Is he hurt? Is that why you're crying?"
"He- dark- hic, he... and the- car." Oh. That was enough of an explanation, even with all the crying.
"There, there. Why don't you give the corn-dogs back and we can just call it a night. I'll even buy you one for Bandito's funeral service. Could attend it too."
"I... That- Okay." He put the few corn-dogs he had taken back down, as Gwen went to pay for one.
"You know that you really don't have to do that, Ghost-Spider. His dad would just pay for the damages anyway. Including the corn-dogs he stole."
"Theft is still a crime!" And no Stacey will let a crime happen right in front of them. She was her father's daughter after all. "He needs to do better. Honor Bandito by making something of himself. Maybe volunteer at a dog shelter."
Daisy and Rayshaun had spent the past few hours planning. Not for anything in particular, just setting up game plans for various enemies they could face, and what to do if they were missing a member or two.
After that they took a well earned rest in the common room, watching TV.
"You and Doreen seem to get along well." Daisy said.
"I guess." Rayshaun shrugged.
"You just friends or is there a chance you'll go on a date one of these days."
Ray glanced her way, before switching channel. "I think we're just friends, why d' you want to know?"
"Just small talk, catching up with my old partner." They switched channel again, browsing during an ad break. "You know you're the only one besides Kamala who's gone to her house, right? You sure there isn't something more between you?"
"Hey, I never said I was sure of anything. You know I'm not the best at that sort of thing so all I can do is guess. She hasn't said or done any overtly flirty things though, and I'm at least sure I don't have a crush on her."
"And if she asked you out?"
Ray took a moment to consider it. "Then I'd probably say yes. I mean, we're good friends so I should give her a chance, right?"
"And you'd say yes even if it where Kamala, Gwen, America, or me?"
"You know America's gay so that wouldn't happen, and Kamala might be just a bit too young, but other than that... I don't know." He shrugged. "Probably."
"Huh." She heard the elevator coming down.
"I'm serious Gwen; you seem really hurt this time." America said. Daisy stood up from the couch and went to fetch the first aid kit.
"My healing factor should take care of it. Should have already done a lot more than it has."
"Maybe your powers are on the fritz?" She heard Doreen's voice say. "Oh, maybe they were stolen again."
"I hope not, that'd be really bad."
She saw the three of them coming into the room when she turned around, med-kit in hand.
"You should have called for backup Ghost-Spider," Rayshaun said, starting the usual lecture about relying on her team.
Gwen had been a hero for a while before joining their team and had always been solo, so she wasn't in the habit of calling for backup, which Rayshaun, who had been trained by Captain Teamwork himself, took issue with.
"And you should get some new lines Patriot. I'm fine. This was one of my usual rouges' gallery, not Secret Warrior stuff."
"You don't look fine, chika."
"Yeah, maybe you should listen to Rayshaun." Doreen suggested.
"Let me look at your wounds, Gwen. If your powers are on the fritz we wouldn't want you bleeding out, or healing a broken bone poorly."
"Fine." She did as Daisy said; lying down on the couch, back down. Daisy didn't get a good look at it but Gwen had definitely hurt her back too, her suit had been torn and she saw some red from blood. "Most of the pain's in my ribs, you should start there." She pulled up her stretch suit's upper half, showing some rather nasty looking bruises.
"Ho-ly acorns, that looks bad." From Doreen's reaction, knowing she'd seen Gwen's back not a minute earlier, she assumed that her back probably wasn't that bad. Even if people usually had a stronger reaction to bruises than a clean cut despite the former being less urgent.
"Feels bad too, but I've had worse."
Daisy prodded at Gwen's ribs, carefully feeling for something broken and looking at her face to see where it hurt the most.
"That's... not a good thing," Doreen said.
"It's what happens in our business, nothing to worry about," Gwen retorted and Doreen looked slightly mortified.
"Yeah, I wouldn't say that . You've never needed to go to the hospital because of your healing factor but I think with bruises that bad you might have broken a rib too," Patriot said.
Daisy stopped her prodding; she needed better access if she was going to do more, which meant the suit needed to go.
"If I'm going to pull up my shirt any more, only one of you will get to see it. Up to you who the better medic is though."
"You wouldn't be more comfortable with Daisy?" Patriot asked.
"It'll be embarrassing regardless of who it is."
Once Gwen has gotten first aid the others came back in.
"So how bad is it?" America asked.
"Nothing major: bruises, possibly some bone fractures, but nothing broken. Powers are out though." Daisy answered.
Gwen's healing factor had definitely done something before it stopped working, unless she imagined the sword slashing across her back. And getting stabbed.
"Told you I'd be fine."
"You were lucky. How much time passed before you got here?" Gwen could practically feel the lecture on the tip of Rayshaun's tongue.
"Let's see... I was close by but I wasn't walking fast, maybe twenty minutes, and then roughly the same for Bandito's memorial service."
"You went forty minutes without getting checked out?" Doreen sounded panicked. "You could have had a punctured lung!"
"I think I'd have noticed that, and with plenty of time to call you."
"If you'd have had backup you wouldn't have needed to call us. Or walk." Patriot started again, thankfully Daisy cut him off.
"Who did this to you? Did they get away? We could go after them together."
"No!" Maybe not thankfully , since she changed the topic to the absolute worst one. "Not this one. Any other one of my rogues gallery is fine, Man-Wolfs gang, maybe the hand? And I'd actually appreciate someone coming with me to fight that creep Jackal. But stay away from this one." Just the thought that Murderdock could meet them, that her Spider-Sense had stopped working and that she had missed a ninja following her, made her regret going to their base instead of collapsing in an alleyway.
"Gwen-" Daisy's voice was stern.
"I'm not budging on this, Daisy." The others could probably hear the fear in her voice, she hoped they did, her pride be damned. "They're not ready for him and honestly, if this was how you where treated until now, neither are you."
"But you are?" Daisy asked.
"I didn't get a choice , you do . He came after me, targeted me. I've had to deal with him several times now and it's always bad. It'll be worse for you guys."
"And what do you mean by that?" Doreen asked, crossing her arms.
"This guy... He's got an army of ninjas, so unless you can teleport" She glanced to America, who smirked, overconfident, "or have super-senses you'll never be safe. He'll also figure out your secret identity, it's only a matter of time, even if you can avoid the ninjas. Once he does he'll use everyone you've ever cared about as leverage against you.
"He almost killed my dad just to prove a point..." It was painful just to remember those times, but it was worth it judging by the reaction Doreen had. Even America, who didn't have a family anywhere in reach of Murderdock, seemed less eager to face him.
"Then," she continued "once he's beaten and caught, if you ever get that far, he's the sort of person who'd get away with all of it. You'd need months of surveillance and evidence gathering to get any court to convict him of his crimes. Months where you are vulnerable to his, let me say it again, army of ninja assassins.
"Promise me, Daisy, you won't let them go after him."
"Alright," Daisy said with a solemn nod. "Maybe we should get the more experienced heroes on the case? I'm sure they could handle him," Daisy suggested with a comforting smile. It didn't comfort her.
"Maybe, but if that were true he'd already be behind bars. He used to be the local boss for the Hand, so they should already have him on file." Daisy went to the control panel and searched for known local Hand operatives. Only thirty results and even then most of them probably only had a code name and the blurry picture Gwen could see from the couch.
"Which one is he?" She scrolled through the files, going past a man in a red suit with sunglasses on.
"I saw him. Like I said they know of him, but they've never managed to stop him."
"Gwen..."
"...Fine. I call him Murderdock, red suit with sunglasses." Daisy opened the file.
It was largely empty; his background in particular was a complete unknown. Known associates included Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. the Kingpin, and The Hand. Superpowers listed where 'super-senses' with a question mark to show that they didn't know anything about it. The only substantial thing the file had was a name: Matthias Murdock, and that he was a criminal defense lawyer.
"He's got super hearing, if you grunt from being hit during your fight, or if you're stupid enough to talk, he'll remember your voice, then if you bump into him without your mask he'll have his ninjas mark you as an enemy. If you're going after him, everyone you care about should be in S.H.I.E.L.D. protective custody, or in a safe house. Preferably on another continent.
"I think Fisk hates him now, he tried to steal his empire then sacrificed it all to manipulate me into doing whatever he felt like, up to and including our last fight until today.
"The Hand shouldn't like him much either since they were allied with Fisk at the time," she suppressed a grunt "but I wouldn't put it past Murderdock to have staged the falling out."
Daisy typed up what Gwen had said. "Right. I'll make a report of that."
"Can I call my friends now?"
"The band?" Rayshaun asked.
"Yeah they were with me when Murderdock's goons appeared, they weren't followed though."
"Should we put them in protective custody?" Rayshaun asked as he typed something into his S.H.I.E.L.D. issued phone.
"Can you do the same with my dad?"
"Of course."
"Then I guess that'd be best." She sighed. "I'm not sure you can convince him to stay away from his work, even for just a week, but maybe he could have a protective detail."
"You should go too, at least until your powers come back." Daisy said.
Gwen wanted to object, wanted to suggest using her as bait or something, but she knew that wasn't the best idea, that it was just her pride talking. "Alright," she said. Murderdock was serious business, not someone you could beat while holding on to things like pride, but she'd tell whatever pro they sent that she'd help in any way. "I'd suggest a top S.H.I.E.L.D. spy," she said without prompting, "someone who can out-ninja the best ninjas around, not a hero."