A night had passed, and a new day arrived.
Well, a few more days had passed. I did some patrol around Queens at night and encountered nothing. The street had been quiet for a while now. Well, that's for the best.
However, Cat had been very quiet since our last meeting. I wanted to see if she's safe or anything, but... I didn't know where she's lived.
But now, there was more important business to take care of.
Now, Felicia and I were in an abandoned construction site. Hiding on some ledges and used the shadow as our cover. And below us were at least ten men, and they're making some trade, at least from what she told me.
"Ten men..." Cat muttered, narrowing her eyes at the two men in the middle. "That's more than I expected."
"Yeah..." I trailed off, punching my wrist to ease the pain. "Dammit, it still hurts..."
Felicia turned at me with worry. "Rhino did some real damage on you..."
"It's fine. I took some painkillers before coming." I shrugged, taking a deep breath.
Well, where did my injuries came from? Uh... It's from two days ago.
The battle was almost one-sided toward Rhino, Spider-Man took on a defensive stance and kept dodging Rhino's attack.
"I can see your stamina depleting, Spider-Man." Rhino taunted to the webhead, smirking as he continued his attacks.
"Well, I'm not as huge as you, Rhino," Spidey replied, avoiding another punch with a backflip. "I don't want to have a special sized door on everything, either."
Jesus, That's not funny at all.
And my punch was too weak even to dent his armor. I need to be creative with my surroundings.
I noted a maintenance hole cover nearby and fired a line of webbing to it, pulling it up as I jumped from the wall to the air. Tightening my grip around the web, I threw the cover with all my strength, right at his less-protected knees.
The metal plate hit Rhino's knees, and he screamed in pain. "Who was that!" He exclaimed in rage, turning around and saw me standing between him and the roadblock.
Without any hesitation, I fired another line of webbing and attached to the cover again. I pulled the maintenance hole cover and launched it back, this time aimed at the giant's head.
The grey giant got knockback as the metal plate crashed with his head, grunting in more rage and charged at me. I can easily dodge his charge, but there are people behind me... I need to stop his assault before he hit the roadblock!
However, before I can even do anything, Spider-Man fired a few lines of webbing to Rhino's arms and pulled with all his strength. "Don't you dare!" He yelled.
OK, I need to do something!
I dashed forward and gave his head a dropkick, knocking him back down with the help of Spider-Man. I immediately shot a web bullet to Rhino's hand, pinning it to the ground.
However, before I can even take a breath of relief, Rhino ripped my web apart like nothing, standing back up and stared at me. "Shit." I murmured, shooting a line of webbing to get away from him.
But Rhino caught my web and pulled, sending me flying toward his fist. Without any hesitation, He clutched his hand to a fist and punched me in the face.
It hurt. It fucking hurt... Goddammit, my vision was fuzzy... Spider-Sense is buzzing like crazy... I need to get up and recover from that-
Before I can even react, the grey giant grabbed my head and slammed me onto the ground. "Bug." He plainly said, raising his foot and readied to crush it onto my torso.
"No!" Spidey exclaimed, firing his web and stopped his feet before it crashed onto me. With a faint frown, Rhino tore his web off and decided to kick me in the torso.
Then he picked me up and threw another punch at my face, sending me right at the roadblock. I crashed at the car's windshield and groaned in pain. Clutching my head, I staggered from the car toward the grey giant.
"You... you did pack a punch, Rhino," I said and tightened my gloves, trying my best to ignore the pain. "A real... fucking punch."
Rhino just laughed at my words, forgetting of Spidey behind him. "You can't talk your way out Spider-" His taunt was interrupted as a web grenade suddenly attached to his back and exploded, covering him with webbing.
"Did you just forgot about me?" Spider-Man said, running and kicked his back. "Karen, activate the electric web now! Just do it!" He said, and the web covered Rhino suddenly sparked with electricity, finally knocked him out.
Wait, he got web grenades and electric web?! Why didn't he use it in the first place?!
"Spidey, can't you just use it already..." I murmured and collapsed on to the ground, gritting my teeth in pure pain.
"Karen just won't let me use it. She said it's too unstable- Noir!"
Anyway, it's been a few days already. I should be fine, at least for now.
However, my trains of thought were interrupted as Cat suddenly grabbed my shoulder. "They're here." She whispered, pointing at the arriving black car.
Nodding, I readied my web-shooters and used my Spider-Wave, locating every guard around. Felicia, on the other hand, took out her grappling hook and aimed at the ledge across.
"Time to stop some gang trade," She smirked, firing her hook to the ledge and pulled herself to the other side.
I turned around and spotted a sniper nearby, and it looked like no one was looking at his direction. Without hesitation, I fired a line of webbing and pulled myself toward him. I punched him in the face and knocked him out, then used some more webbing to hold him in place.
I turned around, and Cat was doing the same thing as well, knocking the other sniper out. Nodding at each other, I crouched down and listened to their conversation.
A man in a plain black suit came out from the car, walking toward another man with his arms crossed behind. "Mr. Collins, we've been expecting you." The other man said, putting a black briefcase on the table.
Mr. Collins... Well, there's no way we were going to meet someone in the head council. But that Mr. Collins looked like someone important.
"You can cut the introduction, Theodore." Mr. Collins said, examining the briefcase on the table. "So, it's the 'Blue Ice.'"
Blue Ice? What's that? Some kind of drug?
"Yes, it is." Theodore nodded, opening the briefcase to show ten tubes of blue liquid. "Once injected to the human body, the 'Blue Ice' will start to change your body structure-"
"In short, mutant-like power, right?" Mr. Collins interrupted him, closing the briefcase. "But I heard that it'd come with severe pain as cost."
"Yes, indeed." The other man nodded, a smirk crept onto his face. "However, these were modified to give the user minimal pain when injecting."
"Hmm..." Collins nodded, taking the briefcase in his hand. "Also, I heard about some rumors about the old test subject..."
"Oh, those failures." Theodore shrugged casually, crossing his arms. "If you're worried that they're going to escape, I'm sure that they'll never be able to escape."
"Are you sure about that?"
"Of course, why wouldn't I?"
"I'm just reassuring," Collins answered, gesturing the men behind him to hand out another briefcase onto the table. "Well, here's the million, the council will be happy to continue our business."
The council... So this 'Collins' a part of Dead-Bridges. He's going to be a fantastic lead to start.
I narrowed my eyes under the goggles, waiting for the right time to interrupt them. Cat saw my movement and knew what I was about to do, and she readied as well.
Theodore nodded, opening the briefcase to reveal the stack of money inside. "Wow, you Dead-Bridges does keep your end of the deal." He said, a big smile crept onto his face as he closed the briefcase.
OK, it's time to stop them.
As if there's an invisible link between us, we perked up at the same time. Nodding to each other, she instantly jumped down and took a lone guard down, while I fired my web to another one for a takedown.
Then I changed my position and took down two more guards, webbing them to the ledges upside-down. Felicia used the shadow as cover and her grappling hook to pull more guards closer to take down.
However, we'd only taken down a few guards when they realized we're here. "Shit, group up! Someone's here!"
Without another word, the remaining guards grouped and searched the ledges above. Collins, on the other hand, started to move toward the car while covered by the guards. And Cat was slowly approaching him as I was avoiding their sight.
She needed a distraction now.
Taking a deep breath and pulled my gloves, I jumped down the ledges to face them. Most of my features still covered by shadow. And just like what I thought, every guard turned their attention toward me, and guns pointed.
I'm not as experienced as Spidey. I'd like to stick to my fist for now.
Scanning the environment and narrowed my eyes, I rushed to one guard and punched him in the gut. Sensing my Spider-Sense's buzzing, I did a backflip and fired a web-bullet at the other guard, narrowingly avoiding the bullets.
I switched my target on him and attached a line of web on him, pulling myself and punched his face. Taking this as my opportunity, I pulled his collar and hit his face again, knocking him out.
My Spider-Sense buzzed again, warning me that two guards were about to open fire. Firing a line and attached to the rifle on my right, I pulled the gun out of his hand, throwing it to the other one on my left. Then I web-pulled the one on my right toward me and punched him, knocking him out.
Sensing two more guns pointed at me, I fired a web-line at one guard's pistol holster, pulling the pistol out to my hand. Before anyone could even react, I fired two bullets to their hands, but all of them missed.
Cursing to myself, I threw the gun away and jumped away from their bullets. Now I had to think of a way to close the distance, fast.
On the other hand, Felicia dropped down to the top of the car as Collins was about to escape. "You thought Noir would come here alone?" She said, smirking at the shock and disbelief on Collins and the others.
Without any hesitation, she jumped from the car and kicked his torso, knocking him back and dropped the briefcase. The two guards instantly held up their rifles at her, but still not fast enough before she gave him a kick on the face. Then she jumped over his shoulder and kicked his back twice, sending him right to the other guard.
The two crashed to each other, and Cat wasted no time to strike again. She dashed forward and dropkicked the two, knocking them out. Once Collins and the other two guards were taken care of, she looked at my direction and saw me started to struggle with those other men.
"Oh, no."
Back to me, the guards all decided to drop their guns and engaged me in a fistfight. Some of them took out a knife or batons to fight. Even though I didn't need to worry about being shot anymore, but it just made the whole fight worse for me.
Now they didn't need to worry about friendly fire anymore, they all attacked me every time they saw a chance. And dealing with four people at once was not easy, not easy at all.
I was about to punch one of them when my Spider-Sense suddenly buzzed, warning me for another attack from behind. Turning around and blocked the incoming knife, another guard suddenly swung his baton at my wrist, right at my wound earlier.
Even with Spider-Sense's warning, I wasn't able to dodge the attack, and it hit. "Ahh!" I screamed in pain, releasing my grip at the other man's hand and dropped onto my knees.
Sensing more warning, I quickly shook my head and webbed the hand of the one with a knife. Then I grabbed the baton coming and punched him in the face, following it up with a kick to his chest.
However, there's one person I forgot about in the whole fight, that Theodore guy. He picked up a knife nearby and went for my head, and I was too late to dodge that stab.
Fortunately, Felicia used the grappling hook and attached it to his hand. Pulling him toward her, she dashed, and spin kicked his head, knocking him out on the ground.
As the final guy looked at her in surprise, I took this as my opportunity and gave him an uppercut to the chin, sending him up into the air. And the fight was finished.
"Why would they chose to hit me there..." I muttered between heavy panting, clenching my wrist. "Cat, the briefcases."
She nodded and took the two briefcases to the table. Opening it and seeing that everything inside is not damaged, we sighed in unison. "At least we won't trigger an outbreak or something," Felicia said, closing the cases and turned at me. "Noir, what should we do with them?"
"I have contact... in the police..." I murmured, walking toward Collins on the ground. "But before calling her, we can get some information from this guy."
I webbed everyone up into one giant web net except Collins. I hung him to one of the ledged, feets barely able to touch the ground. "Wake up," I said, slapping him until he's awake.
He opened his eyes and started to struggle, but I grabbed his chin and stared at his eyes, silencing him. "I heard that you're one of Dead-Bridges," I said in a threatening tone. "You can either give us what we want, or I'll hang you upside-down until all of your blood is in your head."
He winced at the reflection on my goggles, fear written all over his face. "W-what do you want?"
"Why are you getting those compounds?"
"I-I don't know. I'm just following orders, man."
"Oh, orders." I plainly said, tightening my grip. "Then who gave you the order."
"T-the order came through multiple people..." He said, the voice distorted from my grip on his chin. "I-I get it from a person called I-Ivan, in the Franzy's."
Franzy's...
"Franzy's the club, right?" Cat suddenly added in, narrowing her eyes dangerously.
Collins only nodded desperately, clutching his eye shut. "I-if you want to go after him, h-he's not h-here right now."
"Oh, so when can we finally meet the 'Ivan?'" I said sarcastically, emphasizing the 'Ivan.'
"H-he's not in New Yo-York un-until next week."
OK then, there's the lead we needed. "Well, thank you for your cooperation," I said, knocking him out and released my grip.
"I guess this is it, for now," I turned around, shrugging.
Felicia nodded, holding her hands on her hips. "Yeah... We're only needed to wait for next week..." She trailed off, sighing and glanced at my wrist. "Hey, your wound's OK?"
"Not really," I answered, wincing as pain suddenly spread through my body. "B-but not that I can't handle it..."
"You don't look like it," She deadpanned, taking a few steps closer. "Let's just call it a night, you need some time to recover."
"You're right... But I need to make a call first," I nodded, taking out my phone and called Yuri.
"Noir?"
"Miss Watanabe, Cat and I just interrupted a trade between Dead-Bridges and some other organization," I explained, eyeing the two briefcases on the table. "Please send some men over to take care of those people and compounds."
"A trade? Compound?"
"J-just take care of the scene, it's in the construction in Midtown, the one near the park."
"Near the par- Oh, that one." Yuri paused for a moment before coming back. "I've sent in some men toward your location. I'll just treat this as anonymous."
"Thank you, Miss Watanabe." With that said, I cut ended the call and turned back to Felicia. "Job well done." I smiled under my mask, holding a hand up for a high-five.
Cat smiled as well, responding to my high-five. "You did well as my partner."
"You too." I giggled. "We need to watch each other's back, right?"
"Yep." Her smile widened before she took out her grappling hook and aimed at the rooftop nearby. "Well, I'll be going now, good night."
"Good night." I waved, taking a deep breath to ease my pain before pulling myself to another rooftop, and we went on our way.
[The next day, Midtown High.]
Even though I've accustomed to the fact both Noir and Spider-Man were the talks of the town, but I couldn't help but noticed the shift in topic. After all, Christmas was only about two months away. Now, Peter, MJ, and Gwen were sitting in the canteen, enjoying our lunch.
"Everyone's talking about the party..." I sighed, shifting my focus from the others to my three friends. "C'mon, it's about two months away..."
"Well, they're excited and looking forward to it." Peter shrugged, taking another bite to the bread. "But, I bet they're only interested in the dance."
"Ah... The dance." MJ sighed heavily at the mention of 'dance,' dropping her fork to the tray. "I hate it."
"Relax, Mary." Gwen giggled, playfully nudging her shoulder. "I know it sucks to not able to play at the party..."
"But we practiced so long for this day..."
"There's more chance to play on stage, MJ," Peter said reassuringly.
"Yeah, I'm agreed with him." I nodded, shifting my bangs aside. "Just... don't focus too much on 'now.'"
"Easy for you to say that, Ethan," MJ smirked, nudging my shoulder with her's. "Now, let's just forget about it and enjoy our lunch."
With that said, we returned to our lunch again in silence. But there's something weird... Ever since my conversation with Felicia that night, I always felt like someone's watching me. And it's creepy...
Maybe I could go to the lockers and see if that person will follow me or not. And now I just finished my lunch, and it'll be an excellent excuse. "Oh, I just forgot some books in my locker." I lied, standing up with the tray in my hand. "See you in class, I guess."
"Huh? Ethan, where are you going-" Before Peter could even finish, I rushed away and toward the corridors. Leaving Peter, MJ, and Gwen started at my back with questions.
"Uh... What happened to him?" Gwen asked, eyes darting between them. "Any idea?"
"No, not at all," MJ answered, shaking her head.
However, Peter stared at a table at the other end of the room. "Wait... Felicia?"
[Corridor]
Once I had left the canteen and headed toward somewhere else, I sensed someone following me. '...Yep, my theory is true.' I thought, stopping in mid-walk and turned around.
...And It was Felicia.
Widening her eyes in shock and surprise, she quickly regained her composure and shyly waved at me. "H-hi, Ethan."
"You're following me?" I asked, raising an eye. "I know someone's been staring at me for days now."
Felicia blushed, avoiding my gaze as she was trying to look for an excuse. "U-Uh..." She stammered. "Yeah... It's me..."
"Why? You can just talk to me or something." I asked again, tilting my head in slight confusion.
"B-but you forgot about me, right?" She said, meeting my gaze as she shifted her glasses. "You remembered Peter, MJ, and Gwen, but not me..."
"And it's kind of awkward... You're always with them..."
"O-oh, you're not into the crowd..." I nodded, taking a step closer to her. "Well, you can pick up your courage to have some new friends... I guess."
"I used to have you, at a minimum," Felicia said. "But since you met with them, we drifted apart, and now you'd completely forgot about me... How could I just greet you again as nothing had happened?"
"B-but about that one time, you act like you don't know I'm in Midtown too."
"It's just an act. I was hoping that you remembered me."
"Oh..." I trailed off.
I wanted to tell her that I'm from another universe, but she's definitely not going to believe in me. And I just had to roll with that 'I lost some memories' excuse... It fucking sucked.
"U-um..." Pondering for a while, I decided to use my... Noir's advice to her. "Well, we're still young. Why not just start to be friends from here?"
"Start to be friends from here..." Felicia repeated, tilting her head in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, we can restart from here," I answered, internally hoping that she's not going to notice the parallel between my two identities. "Maybe I can recall some memories back in our childhood."
"Restart..." She murmured, looking down to her feet thoughtfully. "Just like what Noir said..."
After a few moments of pondering, she nodded with a faint smile on her face. "Y-yeah, maybe a restart can be a good thing."
I smiled as well, taking another step closer. "So... friends again?"
"Friends again." Felicia nodded, widening her smile to a full one. "I don't know, but... maybe I can join your circle as well."
"Of course you can. They're nice."
She brightly smiled again, shifting side to side and blushed. And... she looked cute. I never thought that I would use the word 'cute' to describe her, but here I am.
We didn't talk afterward, just walking around the school for the remainder of the period, since I couldn't just come back and said I'm friends with her. I'll just be the victim of endless teasing from them, especially MJ.
But now, at least I've restarted the relationship with her. Not that I had one with her before, that was the other Ethan's. After all, I'm an outsider.
Whatever, I'll stick with it. Maybe one day I'll be able to come back to my universe, but now... I kind of didn't want to.
[?]
In a dark and dirty basement, there were a few cells in the room, each containing a person in it. Some of them were young teens or even children, and one of them was a teenage girl with neck-length dark hair and blue eyes.
She was sitting at the corner of the cell, knees hugged close, and her jumpsuit was rugged, holes and scratches everywhere. She kept herself quiet, avoiding any chance to look outside.
Suddenly, the sound of door opening rang through the whole room, snapping her from deep thought and widening her eyes in fear.
"Theodore got caught by that Noir guy, and now I'm in charge of these failures..." The man said, walking down the staircase. "But I can do anything with them..."
The girl clutched her legs closer, her whole body shaking uncontrollably. And the sound of her cell's door opening only worsened it.
"Subject R..." The man trailed off, stepping closer and crouched right next to her. "I heard that you're a fine little girl and an excellent slave."
The girl's head perked up and stared at his eyes, shaking and backed away from him as far as possible. "N-no..." She muttered.
"I won't take 'no' as an answer, Subject R," The man's face fell, forcibly grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to him. "You're coming with-"
"NO!" Before the man could even react to what happened, five lines of electricity suddenly came out from her fingers and spread through his body. The man screamed in pain until smoke started to come out, and he dropped onto the ground, dead.
The girl looked at the dead man in horror, before noticing the opened cell and basement door. Without another word, she ran through the room and the doors.
So uh... This fic is not dead. I just had an awful writer block (I rewrite this whole chapter once), and I was busy with my other fic and life in general.
I'm sorry, this is no one's responsibility but mine.
Now Felicia and Ethan decided to restart their relationship and to have a lead on Dead-Bridges. It all seems to be good for him.
However, we got some glimpse of a new character. (Spoiler: She's not Eletro, Maxwell Dillion is already Eletro before Ethan's arrival.)
Review Response:
First, for all those reviews which said 'Noir-Spider' is a stupid name. Yeah, it was stupid, and I decided to change it to just 'Noir.' (ArchieElite, thanks.)
Reader41532: Yeah, about the whole amnesia thing, I changed it into 'Ethan just forgot some part, and now he remembered most of them.' (Thanks to his other self's journal.)
Raidentensho: Hmm... That was an interesting idea, using vibranium like the shock wave in the PS4 game. I haven't thought about it, but now that you've mentioned it, he might get some vibranium of his own and lining it to his fingertips.
As for the future and effect of his work against Dead-Bridges. Yeah, he would run into The Hand and the darker part of the city, and it's going to affect him.
Jroker105: Um... Yeah, as a non-native English speaker, grammar is a rough part for me to write fanfiction. But now I'm trying my best to improve my grammar, and I happy that you're positive about the story! Even though it's partially inspired by The Spider and the whole idea is not original at all.
Anyway, I'm learning as a fanfic writer, and I'll try my best to improve. Both in grammar and the story department, and I'm happy to have ideas suggested so I won't be disconnected from the reader.
Night-Stryder: About the human traffic scene, it's kinda too light-hearted and a bit unrealistic for him to joke about it. I've made some changes to that scene to make it more serious, and he joked much less now in the trading scene. (And in the future.)
And about the whole 'only one gang is running the network,' another gang will come out and take the place The Animal was holding, and it's not going to be light-hearted at all. So uhh... the whole situation will be more serious and damaging to him mentally.
CorruptedDrake: About the whole phone and register thing, Ethan had never got a number on his own in his universe of this one. So he didn't know about the whole register thing.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story so far! Reviews are welcome!
