Chapter 2-1

Subway

Cindy groans as she finishes weaving her costume together. It had been a while since she spent so much of her organic webs from her fingers. After she finished weaving her costume, she held it up and looked at it.

She grabbed a can of spray paint and held it up to the costume.

"Nice work, Cindy," Miles praised. "When you're done, can I have the spray paint?"

"There should be more over there," Ben Reilly said. "In the suitcase over there."

Miles grabbed the suitcase and took out a can of red spray paint.

As Cindy carefully spray-painted a red S in the center of her costume, she looked over to the television in the corner of the room. Cindy stopped what she was doing to pay attention to what the news was reporting on.

"New villains," she said.

"Oh crab," Miles said. He shook his can of spray paint once more before spraying his homemade costume. "What does this mean? If there are new villains in town, do we-"

"We'll do as we originally intended," Ben insisted. He took out a blue sweater with the sleeves cut off and drew a spider on both the front and back with a paintbrush with black paint.

"But there are three villains,' Miles pointed out. "Ben, I know we have to stop Spider-Man but what about these villains?"

"The guy on the flying skateboard looks like the Green Goblin," Cindy pointed out. "And he calls himself the Hobgoblin. And there's the Scorpion and the Prowler."

"Haven't you guys heard of the Spider-Act?" Ben asked. "When there's a new supervillain in town-"

"Spider-Man is not to be arrested until he catches or kills the supervillain," Cindy finished. She turned to Miles. "With these new supervillains in town, Spider-Man is off of the cop's hitlist. It means they're going to turn a blind eye to all the wrongful killings that he does because they see him as a necessary evil."

"That's why we gotta take out Spider-Man now," Ben said firmly.

"But what about the yellow goblin, Scorponok, and Prowler?" Miles asked.

"Hobgoblin, Scorpion, and Prowler," Ben corrected. "And we're still going to bring them to justice as well. There are three of us, three of them, and one Spider-Man. We divide our resources. One of us goes for one target and the other two go after the other."

"How are we supposed to find Spider-Man?"

Cindy opened her mouth to say something but kept it shut. She turned back to her costume and made some finishing touches.

"Hobgoblin and the others are a little too unpredictable but Spider-Man comes out only when there's a crime. If we're lucky, the three of us can take out all four targets at once."

"How do we divide our resources should it come to that?" Miles asked. "Three against four is an uneven ratio."

"I'll go after Spider-Man," Cindy said without turning to them. "Between the three of us, Miles has a good chance against Spider-Man. Especially with his electricity powers."

Ben laughed. "Aww, Cindy, you're leaving me to deal with that yellow flying garden gnome and his scorpion and prowling friend all alone?"

Cindy chuckled. "I'm just looking at our powers and comparing them to his."

Miles furrowed his brows. "How did you get your powers, Cindy?"

Cindy looked over at them. "I got bitten by a spider like you were."

"But how?"

Cindy looked at Miles. "On my foot. My ankle."

"We told you how Ben and I were bit, right?"

She nodded. "Yep, Miles. You and your uncle were down here in the subway, doing some graffiti work when you felt something pinch your hand. Looking down, it was a spider."

Miles nodded. "Yeah."

She continued. "And Ben was living down here when he got bit by some random spider. You two are an interesting lot."

Ben finished working on a couple of web-shooters for him and Miles when he looked at Cindy. "We're so envious of you. The fact that you can shoot webs from your fingertips is awesome. I can't believe it. It's a hassle making web-shooters for two people."

"Yeah, you're pretty lucky. Because I can shoot webs from my fingertips, I think I should be the one to fight Spider-Man. And as for the other villains, I think the gadgeteer genius should fight the villains and Miles serves as the go-between. He assists both of us in fighting our opponents, especially if we're in desperate need of back-up."

"Good idea."

Miles clicked his tongue. "So… what happens after we defeat Spider-Man and the supervillains?"

"We'll become the protectors of New York," Ben answered. "We have the power to stop crime and save people and we have a responsibility and a moral obligation to use these powers."

"We'll inherit all of Spider-Man's enemies."

"We would've made enemies either way. That's why we gotta keep our identities a secret."

"Who do you think Spider-Man is behind his mask?"

He thought for a moment. "I don't know. Maybe an abused child who takes his anger out on killing people. I wouldn't be surprised if he killed his own parents."

Cindy looks at Ben with a wide set of eyes. She looked away before they could see her reaction. She quietly let out a breath she had been holding but kept an ear open for the rest of the conversation.

"We're not going to kill people, right?"

Ben shook his head. "No. Real heroes don't kill. We're going to fight Spider-Man and we will make sure that he is arrested." He sat up from his workbench. "Are the two of you committed to this? You have to be committed to this."

"Yes," Miles said without hesitation. "I'm more than ready."

"Cindy?"

She nodded sternly. "Yes. If it means bringing Spider-Man to justice, I'm in."

She plugged in her earbuds and listened to her music.

'I got a song filled with shit for the strong-willed When the world gives you a raw deal

Sets you off 'till you scream "Piss off screw you" when it talks to you like you don't belong

Or tells you you're in the wrong field, When's something's in your mitochondrial, 'Cause it latched on to you, like

Knock knock, let the devil in-'

David's Apartment

David carefully took a cotton swab and took a clean sample of his blood off the blade. After that, he smeared the blood onto a slide and put it under a microscope. He looked through it.

When I first looked at my blood when I first gained my powers, I noticed that some of my red blood cells turned a color that resembled red, white, and blue. About a quarter of those red-white-blue colors have vanished out of my bloodstream.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. He looked out his window and saw that the sun had already fallen, which made the snow in the streets bright up.

He stands up and puts a hand on his wound. He removes his bandage to see that his wound had already healed up.

I had my first run-in with Hobgoblin at four-thirty in the afternoon and it's already ten o'clock. The wounds already healed up.

David put his hand on the window and looked outside.

I couldn't help but notice that Hobgoblin and his ragtag crew didn't steal any money from the bank. Given that fact AND the fact that Hobgoblin poisoned me, I can only guess that the Hobgoblin drew me to the bank in order to get me to lose my powers. He's aware of the Spider-Act so he took me out of the equation. Depending on how this poison works, it is either temporary or permanent. I gotta figure out a cure quickly.

David turned away and headed back to his desk until he got a notification on his phone. David picked up his phone and checked his notification.

"A fire has broken out on the twelfth floor of the Webb Hotel."

A fire, huh? That is something that would require me to climb in some cases but I'm sure I can adapt and survive.

He grabbed his Spider-Man suit, which still had a tear in it from earlier. "As soon as I'm done with the rescue operation, I'm going to sew up this hole." He jumps to the ceiling and falls back down.

I still don't have my wall-crawling ability but I still have my other abilities. If my wall-crawling ability is the first to go, then I wonder what's the next to go. I better test out these abilities on my swing to the Webb Hotel.

He donned his mask and leaped out the window.

He swung his way to the Webb Hotel, where there was a fire on the twelfth floor. The fire broke out on the east side of the building with some people on fire jumping out to their deaths.

Spidey swung into the building, through the flames, and landed on top of a hotel bed. The walls around him had burned to the ground and Spidey held his hand up to get a better view. He leaped out and looked for people to rescue.

What the hell? Where is everybody?

The fire department made it to the twelfth floor and they worked their magic on putting out the flames.

Spidey leaps back and dived out the window he came out of and swung his way down to the ground below. He lands on top of a police cruiser and frontflips in front of a black officer.

"Spider-Man," the black cop shouted.

Spidey looked at his nametag. "Officer Davis. What's the situation?"

"I already told you."

Spidey tilts his head. "Excuse me?"

"Earlier, when you came down. Twelve people on the twelfth floor, the fire started because of a smoker who died in their room and their sheets caught fire." Officer Davis turns to the ambulance behind him.

Spidey just now noticed all the people covered in black dust standing near the ambulances. He counted twelve people and narrowed his eyes behind his mask. He walked over to the ambulance and put a hand on a survivor's shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

The survivor coughed. "Thank you, Spider-Man. Thank you for saving me."

Spidey's back stiffened. "I did?"

"Yeah. Like five minutes ago. You pulled me out from the closet with your webs. Thank you for saving my life. This doesn't change my opinion of you, however."

Huh, glad to know that when someone falsely accuses me of saving them won't do anything to change their opinion of me. Whatever.

Spidey sighs and nods slowly. "Of course. The fog got to my head, I turned around a little. I'm just glad you're okay." He turns to the paramedic tending to the survivor. "How is her condition?"

"She'll be fine," the paramedic reassured. "They'll all be. Thanks for the help, Spider-Man."

Spidey turns to the other survivors. He turned to the only one that did not have an oxygen mask on. "What happened up there?"

"Smoker died in bed, cigarette went off, a fire broke out," he said simply. "Then you came in like five minutes later and you pulled all twelve people in the fire to safety. I'm grateful for your hard work."

They all said the same thing: I saved them. I just caught here two minutes ago and I didn't even pull anyone to safety. What the fuck is going on?

"Could you describe the incident in detail, please? I need to make sure I didn't forget anything on my rescue operation."

The civilian rubbed his forehead. "I don't know how else I can be specific. You came in from the outside, fired several of your webs from your fingers or wrists or whatever, and you yanked us to safety. I was a little too preoccupied with making sure everyone got out to make out specific details, sorry."

"It's okay."

What else can I learn here? Most of these civvies are saying the same thing so there's no point in making these people go into specific detail as to who happened. But maybe...

"Do you remember which direction I swung off in?"

The civilian pointed behind him.

"Thank you, much appreciated. I guess my mask didn't completely protect me from the smoke."

Now I know where to go.

"We'll take it from here, Spider-Man," Officer Davis insisted. "You better leave before I decide to arrest you."

"Spider-Act protects me from being protected."

"Don't get too comfy, murderer."

"Whatever."

Spidey leaps into the air and swings away in the direction the civilian pointed to.

What the fuck is going on? A fire broke out and these twelve people were saved and multiple accounts say that I saved them. I did NOT save any of them but they all said that the person who saved them had webs of their own. The way I see it, there are only two things at play here.

He swings between two cars before flying up into the air.

A, these are suffering from mass hysteria or B, there's a copycat. Or, copy-spider; I won't say 'copycat' out of respect for my girlfriend.

He landed on top of a building, his apartment building still a few blocks away.

If it really is a copy-spider, what should I do? Should I consider him or her to be a friend or an enemy? And the more important question is: if this really is a copy-spider, how much of a duplicate of me is he?

His spider-sense went off.

I should've known.

Spidey dodges a web shot at him. He rotates on his heels and fires back. The web-slinging figure kicks Spidey in the chest and knocks him into the snow. Spidey kicks this female web-figure off of him and backflips onto the edge of the building in a perched position.

Spidey tilts his head as he looks at the spider figure before him. A woman with a slim figure with black arms and legs sleeves, a chest with a spider-web pattern like his costume but instead of a spider symbol, her symbol was an S. This figure also wore a red mask that covered the bottom half of her face. Spidey was instantly drawn to the woman's silky black hair and Asian features.

"Cindy." He eyes her up and down but his eyes focused on her breast the most. "Nice form-fitting costume. You make it yourself?"

"Shut up and fight me."

"You've got some pretty big balls attacking me, Cindy."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

I should've known, how could I NOT know? The only person on this earth that has spider-powers aside from me is Cindy and she wasn't my first suspect.

Cindy lunges for him. Spidey leans back and falls down the building. Cindy falls after him. Spidey created a web for her to fall in before he swings off.

"You were the one who saved those people, right?!"

Cindy pried herself off the web and said, "One of them."

One of them?

His spider-sense went off. As he swung out of the alleyway, he was nearly tackled by another web-slinging figure. Spidey swings away and takes a huge risk in looking behind his shoulder at the new figure.

The new figure that swung out was a shorter person wearing a Spider-Man costume that had been dyed black with a red spider spray-painted on the front. What stood out was that this Spider-Man was wearing clothes over his Spider-Man outfit, which included a cargo jacket with a red hood and sneakers.

What the fuck?!

The one thing that instantly grabbed his attention was this Spider-Man's wrists. Spidey's eyes widened behind the mask when he saw red web-shooters attached to his wrist.

This guy has my web-shooters.

Spidey lands on another snowy rooftop. He slides across the roof before he leaps out. He tried to jump thirty feet to the next building but he fell short and began falling to the ground after jumping five feet off the building.

Oh, so my super-jump is the next power for mine to go.

He caught himself on a web and swung off.

Great, now TWO copy-spiders are hot on my tail and one of them has my web-shooters and on top of that, I can't climb walls nor jump. I'm clearly at a disadvantage but I can't lose because if I lose, Cindy and her accomplice will NEVER stop coming after me. I have to win here and NOW but how?

Spidey launches himself in the air with his webs and shoots webs at Cindy and the sidekick. Cindy and the sidekick dodge the attacks and fire their own webs at him. Spidey dodges and continues to swing off. He launches himself in the air but a web is fired at his back and yanks him back.

Spidey falls towards the earth but he catches himself and swings between two buildings. Cindy and the accomplice descend to his level and chase after him, swinging between vehicles to get after him.

Spidey swings between a truck and its trailer while Cindy and the sidekick leap off of it. The sidekick catches up to Spider-Man and holds his hand out, electricity surging through his fingertips.

Spidey's spider-sense alerted him of this.

What the fuck? Does this guy have electricity coming out of his fingertips? Better stay away from him!

Spidey spins around and webs the sidekick in the face. The sidekick falls to the ground and Spidey rotates once more to swing out of there.

Cindy swings low and picks up her sidekick with one hand and flings him into the air. He rips the webbing out of his face and chases after Spidey.

How am I supposed to take these guys out? They're practically my identical twins, especially with the same powerset and everything. How am I supposed to beat myself?

He swings towards a crane and does a loop-de-loop over it. He swings up into the air, tucking his knees to his chest, and does a few backflips.

That's it! That's how I'm going to beat them.

Cindy and the sidekick follow Spidey's example and do their own loop-de-loop over the crane. Spidey kicked himself into the air and rotated towards them as they finished swinging over the crane.

Spidey held his hands out and with careful aiming, he fired two webs at the sidekick's web-shooters. The sidekick's web-shooters were jammed with webbing and he was helpless as he fell to the ground. Cindy had no choice but to catch him.

She swung down and caught him by the back of his jacket and set him down on the closest building.

Spidey made a sharp right into an alleyway and let himself fall. He saw a manhole cover below him and he webbed the manhole open and fell down, closing the manhole above him.

Cindy turned the same corner that Spidey took and rested on the wall to her right as she scoped out the area. She narrowed down the alleyway and looked down at the manhole cover. She shot webs from her fingertips at the manhole cover and yanked it up. She leaped into the manhole and closed it up.

Spidey crawls out of a storm drain and onto the sidewalk. Without thinking, he runs into the closest alleyway and swings out of there.

Cindy was left roaming in the cold sewers. She climbed out of the nearest storm drain and scanned her surroundings. She checked the front, back, left, and right for Spidey and glared when she got no results.

"What the heck?" she muttered under her breath.

A pedestrian crossing the street noticed her and took out his phone. "Hey, nice costume. Who are you, Spider-Woman?"

Cindy ignored him and leaped into the air and swung off. She regrouped with her sidekick on the roof and checked on him.

"You okay?"

The sidekick nodded. "I'm fine. I'm just upset that he got away."

She chuckled. "Don't worry, we'll get him next time."

"If Ben were here with us, we would've taken down Spider-Man."

"Maybe. Hang on, Miles." She took out her phone and called Ben. "Reilly, SM got away, what's your current position?"

The Bank

"Currently engaged with the Hobgoblin and his crew."

Ben Reilly, undergoing the moniker known as Scarlet Spider, dodged the explosion of a pumpkin bomb and landed on the side of the building. He was forced to hang up as he prepared himself for the continued assault from the Hobgoblin. The villain known as the Hobgoblin was laughing at the top of his lungs and deploying guns on his glider and firing at him.

The Scarlet Spider dodged these gunshots and leaped for safety. Hobgoblin continued to laugh at him.

"Is that all you got, Spider-Man?" Hobgoblin flew after him. "You think that new costume is going to save you? And what's with the sweater, trying to make a fashion statement in this weather? My grandma looks better in a sleeveless sweater, and she's dead!"

The Scarlet Spider was wearing an all-red Spider-Man suit with a utility belt. He donned a sleeveless blue sweater with a black spider painted on the front. The Scarlet Spider reached for his utility belt and pulled out a web-fluid vial. He reloaded his web-shooters and fired at the Hobgoblin.

He caught the Hobgoblin's glider and forced him to a halt.

The Scarlet Spider clicked a button on his web-shooter and electricity shot through the web and into the goblin's glider.

Hobgoblin screamed briefly before slashing at the web and flying off. "Sorry, Spider, not in a mood to get electrified." He looked over at the bank where his cohorts were coming out with money. After escaping with the money, they climbed up the bank and hid from sight. Hobgoblin grins behind his mask.

"How did you even electrify your webs? Did you steal electricity from an electric fence or something? I want to steal electricity from an electric fence." He zoomed off on his glider.

The Scarlet Spider chases after him, web-slinging throughout the city. He launched himself forward and landed on the glider.

Without looking Hobgoblin elbowed the Scarlet Spider in the face before punching him in the stomach. "Sorry, no stowaways allowed."

Scarlet Spider threw a punch. Hobgoblin ducked and forced the glider to rotate and nearly knock the vigilante off his balance. Instead, Hobgoblin backflips off the glider and onto the nearby building. He runs off and leaps over the edge and onto another roof.

The glider lets off a beeping sound and chases after Hobgoblin. Scarlet Spider nearly lost his balance and when the glider took off, he fell over before he could properly secure his feet. He webbed the glider and let it drag him with him.

Hobgoblin pulls out a pumpkin bomb from his pouch and throws it in the glider's path. The pumpkin bomb soared through the air and erupted with a cloud of yellow smoke.

The glider flew through the yellow smoke. The Scarlet Spider quickly let go but it was too late. The Scarlet Spider caught himself on the side of the building to his left.

Hobgoblin jumps back onto his glider and rotates to see the Scarlet Spider wall-running up the building before taking a leap at him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" Hobgoblin warned.

Hobgoblin flies several feet back, just out of Scarlet Spider's reach, and watches the vigilante try to use his web-shooter on him. The web-shooter failed the young vigilante and the vigilante was flailing his arms out as he fell to the ground.

Hobgoblin finally realized something that made him gasp behind his mask. "It's… it's you," he whispered to himself.

Hobgoblin flew down and he caught the Scarlet Spider before he hit the ground. He put the Scarlet Spider in a chokehold as he flew up. He quickly threw the Scarlet Spider onto a nearby roof.

The Scarlet Spider rolled across the roof until his back hit a wall and he looked up at the Hobgoblin. He narrowed his eyes behind his mask as he studied the Hobgoblin, his face unreadable from the mask.

"I'm not the target, jackass," Hobgoblin said. "And here I was thinking you'd be a good boy and go after the real Spider-Man. Don't tell me I chose poorly." Hobgoblin produced a pumpkin bomb from his pouch and tossed it like a softball toward the Scarlet Spider.

"Here, have a pumpkin bomb on me."

Scarlet Spider leaps to the side, knocking the grenade away but the bomb already detonated and sent Scarlet Spider flying back a few feet.

Hobgoblin pulled a 180 on his glider and took off. "Hasta lasagna, Spider-Fake."

The Scarlet Spider landed face-first in the snow. He picked himself up in a push-up position and shook the snow off his face. He looked behind him and saw the Hobgoblin taking off. He jumps to his feet and shoots a web out from his web-shooter but nothing comes out.

He quickly takes a look at his web-shooter and pries the wristwatch open. The wires and devices inside had been burnt to a crisp, the webs dissolving before they were even spun.

He checks on the bank and sighs with a hint of regret. "Perfect, just perfect." He looks down at his web-shooters. "He called me Spider-Fake and he assumed that I was the real Spider-Man. Then I did something that showed him I wasn't the real Spider-Man." He sets himself against the wall and begins working on his web-shooter.

"Whatever that yellow smoke was, it disabled my web-shooters. If the real Spider-Man showed up, he would've used that yellow smoke to disable his web-shooters. But why did he save me? And his wording: 'I'm not the target.'"

He takes out his phone and calls Cindy and her sidekick. "Cindy, Miles, the 'flying yellow elf' got away. How did it go on your end?"

"SM got away. Miles's wristwatches were jammed."

"Crab," Scarlet Spider sighed. "Everybody is suffering from a jammed or malfunctioning watch. Anyone hurt?"

"No; didn't even touch SM."

"We'll get him next time. What about the people in the burning hotel?"

"We saved all of them."

"Then that's all that matters." He hung up and let his head go limp against the wall. "Man, superhero movies make it look easy to take out supervillains. Can't trust anything a Marvel movie shows you."

The song Cindy was listening to was Venom by Eminem.