Arc 1 - Chapter VIII: The Ronin
Kairi didn't know how long he stared at the door after Gwen had left. One of his hands had lifted towards the door as if to catch Gwen's arm as she was leaving. To beg her not to leave, to let him help them as he promised he would, to… not let this be their last goodbye. But he had caught nothing and he didn't go after her even though every fiber of his being was yelling to go after her.
And yet… he didn't.
Turning his hand around to look at his empty palm, he gripped that hand into a fist as he breathed out a large sigh of frustration. There was nothing he could do, he didn't have any powers, and he would never be able to catch up with them as he was. By now they were probably halfway to Fisk's tower in Brooklyn. Collapsing in the chair that was at his mother's side, he bent over his knees as he buried his face in his palms.
Only to jump when he felt a hand place itself on his head, their fingers running through his hair. Looking up, dislodging the hand on his head, he found his mother giving him an exhausted smile.
"Mom!" he cried out happily. A part of him wanted to hug her in relief, but he was reminded of his mother's injuries when he saw the cast around her other arm. "I'll call for a doctor," he said as he hurriedly stood up.
But despite being hospitalized, his mother still had a fierce grip, something that she used to grab onto his arm. Confused, he turned around to frown at her, so he used his other hand to sign.
[What?]
Maya released her grip on his arm to sign, [What's wrong? You look worried.]
[It's nothing.]
[Sweetheart, you don't sit down in a chair hunched over like that over nothing. Talk to me, does it have to do with whatever you were helping Gwen with?]
Kairi grimaced as he hesitated to lift his hands to sign. Gwen. She had everything to do with what was wrong with him. He had no idea that she had felt that way for him and to be honest, he was a little upset that Gwen had left like that before he could say anything about it. But he couldn't really say that to his mom, that was embarrassing. So instead, he was going to come clean about what he, Gwen, and Sleeper were up to the past couple of days. When he looked up to sign, he was surprised by the odd look on his mother's face, he couldn't discern what it meant and honestly, it felt like she was patronizing him a bit.
Releasing a sigh, he then explained to his mother everything that has happened to him for the past couple of days. Everything starting from when he met Sleeper in that alleyway, waking up thinking that the symbiote's voice was evidence of him going insane, meeting Spider-man beneath Fisk's tower. Watching Spider-man die at the hands of Fisk, Gwen finding him amongst the rubble of Fisk's machine, training under her with Sleeper, going to the Alchemax facility in Hudson Valley, and mentioning that Fisk was the one who orchestrated his father's death.
Before finished his story by talking about meeting the other Spider-people who had been marooned here by Fisk's machine and how they kicked him out of the band, so to speak, in light of his mother's hospitalization. But he kept the kiss he had shared with Gwen to himself, he didn't need his mother teasing him right now. Or god forbid, his grandmother.
Maya didn't interrupt the whole time he regaled her with his story, speaking only in sign language. But her frown had become a scowl when he had mentioned his dad. She had no idea Fisk knew who she was or that Kazuma's death was basically a warning to her. Before, she had thought the man who killed him was just a simple thug, certainly seemed that when she had run him through with her katana. But if Fisk was the one who orchestrated the whole thing… it would certainly explain why one of Spider-man's villains, the Vulture, had gone after her.
[Gwen's right though. Killing Fisk wouldn't have changed anything, Kairi. I've already killed the guy who shot your father. Do you know what happened after? I just felt worse, your grandmother helped as much as she could, but I was done with life, it was just… the world seemed a little too empty without your father in it.]
He averted his gaze from her, glaring at some point in the wall. That is until she reached over to turn his head back towards her as she wasn't finished. [But that all changed when I had my first case of morning sickness and I remembered that I had you. You gave me a reason to keep on living, Kairi. Kingpin has already taken so much from us, don't let him take any more. He's not worth it.]
Kairi sighed, [I guess.]
After a moment, she frowned at her son, [So what do you plan to do?]
He raised a brow, [What do you mean, Mom?]
She rolled her eyes, [Come on, Kairi. I'm your mother, do you really expect me to believe you won't go after them and help?]
He sighed, [Look, Mom, you're hurt. You need me more and the Spiders and Sleeper have made it abundantly clear they don't need my help.]
His mother gave him a dubious look, [And when has that ever stopped you? Stan said he didn't need any help when he injured his back two years ago and yet, you still volunteered your entire summer to help out at his scrapyard until he recovered. Your uncle said he didn't need help with things at his place when he was dealing with that legal trouble over his property in New Mexico and yet you snuck behind my back and bought a ticket to fly over there so that you could help take care of his dogs when one of them gave birth. And don't think I don't know that you've been volunteering some of your weekends for the Big Brother program when you and Miles aren't hanging out at Stan's.]
It was one of the many things she loved about her son and she was glad that it was one of the few things he had inherited from his father. Kazuma was always a giving person, he gave whatever food he could from his store to the homeless, raised awareness for various causes, even donated his time away from his store to help build a park for disabled children. Which is why she knew that with stakes high as Kingpin had raised, she knew inaction was eating her son up inside which more than likely conflicted with her presence here in the hospital.
So really, it was a no-brainer as to what she should do next.
Kairi had stayed silent as his mother 'spoke.' Honestly, he had no idea what those times had anything to do with now, so he just wanted for his mother to get her point. And what she had said next, surprised him.
[Go back to the house and to my bedroom, at the bookcase, pull The Art of War before pulling The Book of Five Rings. It'll open a false wall where all my gear I used operating as the Ronin is kept; my katanas, nunchakus, a grapple gun, and shuriken. Take it all and if you go to May Parker, she can help you alter the suit to your own style and taste.]
He blinked, [Mom, are you telling me to go suit up and be a masked vigilante?]
She rolled her eyes, [No, I'm telling you to suit up and be a masked vigilante so that you can go after your girlfriend and give her a real goodbye.]
His cheeks reddened. "What? Gwen's not my-"
She smirked, [I never said that it was Gwen.]
"Well, who else would you be talking about?" he grumbled. "It's not like I've been talking to any girls besides her since Elsa."
[Exactly. So, go. Go be the Ronin and save this city and the world with those interdimensional refugees. The city needs a hero that will keep it safe, first, it had been me, and then it was Peter Parker, and I just don't think you can become that hero. I know you can.]
Kairi stared at his mother as she gave him one that reflected her belief in him. Releasing a sigh with a small chuckle, he nodded. "Thanks, Mom," he said as he placed his hand on her uninjured arm, the closest he'll get to hug her for a long while. Turning on his heel, he left the room and headed immediately for the elevators.
However, what he didn't see was that his grandmother had slipped into the room as he had turned around the corner.
"So did he admit it?" Mamy asked her daughter.
Maya rolled her eyes, [Of course, he did. Except…]
"Except?"
The former vigilante sighed as she shook her head, [Gwen's from another dimension and if she stays here, she'll die.]
…
Mamy chuckled as she waited for the punchline. But when the serious look on her daughter's face didn't change, she realized that Maya wasn't kidding. Oh… well, shit. "Well," she sighed in disappointment, "that's a shame, I like Gwen."
[So do I.]
"More than Elsa?"
[I never liked Elsa.]
The grandmother couldn't have bothered to contain her laughter as she shook her head, taking the seat by the bed that Kairi had sat in minutes prior. "So, what else has our Little Wolf been up to? Has he had a crazy adventure like the ones you've had when you were Ronin?" she asked as she got comfortable.
Maya released her own chuckle as she settled against the pillows she leaned on.
…Some time later…
"What took you so long, kiddo?" May Parker asked, sipping on a cup of tea as she swiveled around in the computer chair down in Peter's lair to see Kairi coming down the lift, a bag slung over one of his shoulders.
"Anyone ever mention that Peter sounds like you?" Kairi asked.
"Well, I did raise him," May shrugged with a fond smile as she set her cup of tea aside before standing up. "So what can I do you for?"
Reaching into his bag, he pulled out his mother's Ronin outfit. It and the rest of her gear had been where she said it was. He had taken the suit, the shuriken, and only one of her swords. He knew his mother was a master at dual-wield swords, but he himself always preferred using one sword.
"Your mother's old suit?" May frowned as he walked over, placing it on one of the tables.
"She gave it to me," he nodded.
"Fitting," she nodded in approval before grinning. "So, have any particular thoughts about the design?"
He smirked, "See, I was thinking of adding a hood…"
"Like a certain female Spider-hero we know?" May's grin gained a teasing edge to it.
Kairi's shoulders slumped. "Yeah," he said a little despondently.
"Something happen between you two?" she asked in concern. Sure, she remembered that the two had an argument last night, but she remembered had been willing to look past it when he got the call about his mother.
"Yeah," he nodded slowly. "But she left with the others before some things that have to be said, could. And even if I don't have Spider-powers, I can still help the others."
May stared at the teen before she shook her head with a smile. "You know, what Mary Jane had said at Peter's funeral is true, about him choosing to be Spider-man, a hero. You don't need superpowers to save a person. Your mother certainly didn't."
"Yeah," Kairi chuckled, "I'm starting to think that the Spiders have gotten a little too used to their powers."
"I know my Peter certainly did at times," May agreed wholeheartedly.
Setting the Ronin suit in the fabricator, the two of them came up with a design that would take a new spin on the outfit while still respecting the suit came from along with roots of its original design. What had come out was a hooded outfit with a new kevlar weave along with armguards and shinguards that had overlapping plates, all of it colored black with the gold trim that had been present in his mother's design. The mask had been updated with lenses with a smart heads-up display.
Putting the ensemble on, though he had the hood down, Kairi looked down at himself, "How do I look?" he asked May.
"Not gonna lie, kiddo, you look like a ninja," May said dryly before chuckling. "But then again, so did your mother. So I guess it works out." She then gave him another once over. "It suits you, no pun intended."
"Thank you, May, for helping me with this," he said gratefully.
May waved off his gratitude, "Oh, pish posh. It's high time this city remembered that regular people can be heroes too."
Kairi went over to the table where he laid out his mother's sword, the grapple gun, and the shuriken. Slipping the throwing weapons into slots beneath his inner forearm that were able to shoot out from so that he could easily throw it, he turned his attention to the grapple gun. But he frowned when he noticed the design was off.
"Did you do something to the grapple gun?" he asked May.
"Mmhmm, while you were changing," she nodded as she sat down in the chair she was in earlier and picked up her tea. "I retrofitted the spooling mechanism, using the web-shooters as a basis, and made I changed the frame out for something sleeker so that it's more compact for you to carry around."
"You didn't touch the katana, did you?" he frowned.
"And risk Maya coming down on me for touching one of her precious swords?" May snorted. "No, no thank you. Besides you, her swords are some of the most precious things to her. She almost killed Peter when he accidentally ripped the grip on one of them."
"Really?" Kairi looked at her curiously as he holstered the grapple gun at his belt.
"My kitchen wall still has the dent from when she had flipped the table over at him," May deadpanned.
That got a laugh out of him as he slipped the katana onto his back over his right shoulder.
"Looks like you're good to go, kiddo," she observed before taking another sip of her tea.
"Maybe, but I still won't be able to catch up with the others on foot, even with the grapple gun," Kairi sighed. "They could already be at Fisk's tower by now." He was surprised when a set of keys was thrown at him, causing him to catch it in reflex. "Uh, why?"
May only smirked as she reached over to the keyboard and pressed a key, causing a platform to lower to the one that they were on, revealing a Ducati Monster colored in black with gold trims. "You ever get your license?"
He had.
And after slipping his mask on and pulling up his hood over his head, he mounted his new bike and turned on the ignition, barely able to contain his excitement. Hearing the engine purr and roar, he grinned beneath his mask before he gunned the throttle, going down a tunnel that had eventually led him outside onto the streets.
"Woohoo!" he whooped at the top of his lungs as he drove past some cars.
…Meanwhile…
Gwen looked out the window of the city bus at the passing scenery of the city with a despondent look on her face, which thankfully was covered by her mask. The lingering feeling of the kiss she shared with Kai was still on her lips and she had to catch herself many times from raising her hand to rub at them. She knew the others had been giving her worried looks every once in a while, but she ignored them as she began to bottle her feelings up for the upcoming mission.
Glancing down, she saw Sleeper, still in his cat form, lying on the seat beside her. His shoulders were still slumped, just as glum as she was for leaving Kai. But… doing so was the right choice, to protect him. At least, that was what she was going to be telling herself for the rest of her life. Reaching over, she petted the symbiote, running her hand along its back. But Sleeper continued to mope as it sighed downheartedly.
"All right, we're close, game time, people," said Peter as the bus came to their stop.
Peter led the way out of the bus, the other passengers giving them odd looks as they passed by. Sleeper had leaped onto her shoulder before she had gotten up and once she was outside, she fired a web-shot to pull herself up to the rooftops above. The others had fallen suit as they swung up to a construction crane that stood across the street from Fisk's tower.
"Kingpin has a private elevator entrance from his penthouse to the collider below," said Peni as she read one of the schematics that were on one of her screens. Earlier she had taken a copy of it from the flash drive Kairi had used to download data from Alchemax.
"Didn't count on having an audience," Spider-Noir frowned as he looked down at the gathered people below that were entering Fisk's building.
"Then just be extra careful about potential bystanders," Sleeper chimed in.
"What the alien said," Peter nodded before he fired a shot to slingshot himself over to the windowed rooftop of Fisk's tower, the others following his example as they gathered at one spot.
And what they saw inside, well, it baffled them all.
"You've got to be kidding me/You've got to be kidding me," all six of them deadpanned in unison.
Down below, the gala seemed to be held as a memorial for Spider-man, with many of the banners along the side of the hall having Spider-man's face embroidered on them. The five Spider-folk plus one alien could see Tombstone directing security and the former mobster's boss was standing at the podium, giving a speech.
"Thank you," said Fisk. "It's nice to be with you this evening to celebrate Spider-man. He and I were very close."
Gwen sneered, "What a pig."
"I'm standing right here," Spider-Ham said snidely.
Spider-Noir frowned as he noticed something and gestured to the waiters and waitresses who were working the gala, "Hold up, gang. Get a load of how the waiters are dressed. It's in poor taste, but…" And it was given that all of them were wearing the usual dress shirt, bow ties, and slacks but with Spider-man masks. "It can't be that easy."
"Can't it?" Peni smirked from the cockpit of her robot.
Infiltrating the building had been easy, someone had left a window open and luckily the room they entered was an empty dressing room. And conveniently, some clip-on bow ties were left on one of the tables.
"What about Peni and I?" asked Spider-Ham.
Gwen was fixing the bow tie at her collar when she noticed a white sheet hanging over one of the glamour mirrors. Getting an idea, she glanced over at Sleeper. "Hey, Sleeper, is it possible for you to change your form?" she asked.
"Yeah, of cour- Wait. Why?" The symbiote looked at the hooded Spider-hero with suspicion, all four of its eyes narrowed.
"Think you can form a table for Spider-Ham and Peni's bot to hide under?" she asked.
"Oh, no. No, I refuse."
"Hey, we don't have a lot of options here, dude," Peter frowned as he slipped the bow tie on so that it wouldn't pinch his skin under his suit. "Since the rest of us are going as the help, no one would blink if we were pushing a table around."
"Especially if we had 'food' on it," Spider-Noir chimed in, using air quotes.
"You know, Kairi wouldn't have asked me to do something so menial," Sleeper huffed. And embarrassing.
"Yeah, well, Kairi isn't here," Peter replied. "So chop-chop, we don't have much time here, folks."
"Sorry, Sleeper," Peni apologized from inside her robot as it crouched down.
Grumbling, the symbiote leaped on top of the robot before its form began to expand and envelop over Peni and her robot, forming the perfect shape of a table. And not long after, Sleeper's black and gold flesh began to change colors until it resembled the white sheet Gwen had noticed.
"Well, Sleeper's a chipper guy, ain't he?" Spider-Ham commented cheerfully.
The other three looked at the pig, perplexed, as they had no idea whether or not he had been serious.
"Sorry about this, Sleeper," Gwen whispered to the symbiote, placing her hands on one end to 'push' the table out of the room they were in. His form shifted underneath one of her hands, the only acknowledgment from him.
"I can't believe it's that easy," sighed Spider-Noir as they traversed the hall where the gala was taking place.
When they had entered the hall that led to Fisk's penthouse, they spotted two guards standing outside a pair of doors. Heading down a corridor before the guards could see them, Sleeper's form shifted back to a cat before leaping onto Gwen's shoulders.
"Fair warning, I'm never doing that again," Sleeper hissed.
"Thanks for taking one for the team, dude," Peter quipped with a chuckle.
"Ghn," Sleeper grunted.
"How much you wanna bet that the doors those guys are guarding lead to Kingpin's penthouse?" Peni joked from inside her robot.
"More than likely," Spider-Noir shrugged.
"Well, if I can get close to them, I can create an aerosol gas that can put them to sleep long enough," said Sleeper.
"You can?" Peter looked at it in surprise.
"He can," Gwen nodded.
"Indeed I can."
"Cool, we're going with that then," Peter nodded before he peered up at the ceiling. "We'll take out the guards after Kingpin goes in there, no need to make the guy suspicious. Let's do it from above, this place has unusually high ceilings. Though in retrospect, it's probably on account of Kingpin being so tall."
"Sounds like a plan!" Spider-Ham gave him a thumbs up.
The five of them jumped onto the walls and climbed to the ceiling, sticking to it and they traversed back into the hall with the guards. As they did so, the doors that had led to where the gala was opened, revealing Wilson Fisk.
"Looks like we don't have to wait long," whispered Peter.
Moving slowly but surely, they followed Fisk to the penthouse doors along the ceiling. And when the man entered the room, closing the doors behind him, that was when Peni's robot and Spider-Noir fired webs that latched onto the guards and pulled them up with Peter being quick to fire a web that covered their mouths. Gwen has holding Sleeper from its back at the guards and the symbiote opened it maw, releasing a bright red colored gas at the guards, causing them to almost immediately knocked out.
"Night night," whispered Spider-Noir.
"All right," Peter said once the guards went limp in the respective grips of the robot and the trenchcoat-wearing Spider. "Peni, find the elevator, Noir and Ham go with her. Ghost, you and I will hide them in the room across."
"On it!" Peni replied as her robot saluted after handing the guard in its grip over to Gwen and was the first that leaped down to the floor with Spider-Noir and Spider-Ham.
Peter, having taken the other guard from Spider-Noir, leaped down before Gwen did and went to the room that stood across the penthouse. Opening the door a bit, he peeked in to see that the place was empty. "Coast is clear," he said to Gwen before opening the door fully and going over to one of the couches and throwing the guard onto it.
Gwen had just thrown the other guard onto the sofa chair when Sleeper had suddenly leaped off her shoulder. "Sleeper? Something wrong?" she asked.
The symbiote frowned, "Just… a feeling. You two go on ahead." But before either of them could protest, Sleeper's form shifted from a cat into the same form he held whenever he became Kairi's outfit.
"Wait," Gwen blinked as she stared at the symbiote in incredulous accusation. "Are you telling me I didn't have to carry you around this whole time?"
"I can't hold this form long without a host," Sleeper admitted with a shrug as he tested his limbs. "It's easier to wrap around a host who can act as a frame than it is for me to do this on my own. It's why I stayed as a cat, they're a lot smaller. Anyway I'll see you two down at the collider."
And before Gwen and Peter knew it, Sleeper had slipped out the door and down the hall.
"Does he do that a lot?" Peter asked Gwen.
Gwen sighed, "Must've picked it up from Kai."
Traversing through the halls, it didn't take Sleeper long for him to encounter the person he had sensed, the Vulture.
"Ronin?" Toomes balked. "We took you down!"
"I ain't the Ronin, asshat," Sleeper snarled as claws erupted from his fingers. "But you are going to pay for what you did to her!"
Toomes sneered as his wings extended from the pack he wore on his back and a helmet folded out from his collar and encased his head that took the form of a bird's head with glowing green eyes. Flapping his wings, he launched himself at Sleeper, who dodged the swipe from the man's wings. Sleeper itself had no experience in fighting, but it did have a copy of its previous host's memories who not only had experience, but years of it. Using those combat memories, Sleeper tried to go for Toomes's wings since the man was nothing without them.
As stated before, Sleeper himself had no experience in fighting, so despite moving quick enough, Toomes did have the advantage of reach with his wings and after a few swings, he had successfully sliced through the symbiote. However, Sleeper was still a symbiote without a host, so not only did the bladed feathers on the Vulture's wings not hurt it, but the wing had also passed through cleanly as if Toomes had sliced through water.
"What the?" Toomes was dumbfounded.
"Heh heh, that tickled," Sleeper decided to intimidate the man.
"What the hell are you?" Toomes demanded but choked when Sleeper reached out and gripped him by the neck. "Ack!" Lifting his arms, he gripped the arm that was choking him, trying to pry it off, but to no avail.
"I am Sleep-"
Adrian Toomes had been thinking of anything that would help him out of this situation. His wings were out and he had no other weapons on himself. Maybe Tombstone was right, maybe he should've carried a gun or something on him in case of situations like this. Looking around wildly, it was then he remembered that his helmet didn't just only protect his head and eyes, but a weapon had been installed on it as well.
At first, he had thought the whole idea had just been a joke in poor taste on his moniker, from when the Shocker had gotten his hands on the helmet. However, with no other viable option, he took one hand off of the arm whose hand was choking him and flicked the switch on his helmet to activate the weapon. Taking in as much of a breath as he could, he then called out, choked out as it was. However, the weapon in his helmet was a sound amplifier, turning his choked shout into a sonic bird shriek.
And for Sleeper, there couldn't be any worse of a weapon it could be pit up against. Recoiling back as its form shifted and undulated, Sleeper howled in agony as it fell away, crawling back to avoid the Vulture's sonic shrieks. Sound. Sound! Why did have to be sound?! Of the two weaknesses of a symbiote, it hated sound the most. Fire could be avoided, sound could not, not this close.
Toomes had collapsed on the ground when the symbiote let go of his neck, causing him to cough violently as he regarded Sleeper. Realizing that his adversary was reacting far worse to his sonic shriek than anyone else would, given that it was curled up on the ground and mewling in pain, he smirked. Coughing and despite the pain in his throat, he stood up and activated his sonic weapon again, breathing in a breath and screeching out a cry.
Sleeper roared in agony as his form began to undulate again as it began to shrink back into the form of a cat. Unsteadily, it tried to crawl away, but Toomes followed it, shrieking again when the alien tried to make a break for it.
"I don't know what you are, but I'm sure my boss would pay me a hefty fee for bringing you to him," Toomes chuckled as he reached the spasming cat.
Before he could touch the cat, however, a blade had come from behind him and ran through one of his wings, turning the bottom of his metal feathers into liquid. Spinning around, he tried to face his adversary, a yell on his lips, but only got a boot to his face for his trouble and effectively knocked him out as his helmet worked against him.
"Hey, Sleeper, you all right?"
Recovering just a little, Sleeper looked up to see a masked man in black and gold with a katana in hand. Its four eyes widened when the man pulled down his hood with his free hand and took off his mask, revealing his face. "Kairi!?" it exclaimed in shock.
"Did you really think I'd stay away?" Kairi smirked.
Sleeper chuckled, despite the pain. It lost its form as a cat and became a moving puddle-like mass and moved over to him. "Really glad that you didn't. But what about your Mom?"
"My grandma has her covered," he replied as he took a knee. "I said that I would help you go back home, Sleeper, and I intend to keep my word."
Sleeper regarded its first host in silent surprise. Honestly, a part of it knew that Kairi wouldn't have accepted how it left things back at the hospital. But its father and the father who raised it were heroes back on his Earth and they always said that a person shouldn't get their friends hurt. And that's why it had left, he didn't want to hurt his friend or his family by cause of its actions. However, after spending days with Kairi as a host, he really should've known better.
"I… thank you, Kairi."
"You're welcome, Sleeper," Kairi nodded. "Ready to join with the others and save the multiverse?"
Sleeper was about to nod when orange light sparked in the air and before either the symbiote or the human could comprehend it, a portal had opened up. And it was surprised when two copies of the human that raised him walked through.
"Dad?"
"Hey, Sleeper," one of the Dr. Stranges nodded with a relieved smile.
"Dad!" Sleeper cried joyfully as it leaped from the floor at the Sorceror Supreme.
"Dad?" Kairi frowned in confusion, his gaze flicking between the identical men wearing blue robes and a red cloak. "Are… you guys twins?"
"No," the other one who didn't have Sleeper in his hands replied. "I'm basically this guy," he jerked his thumb at his other, "from another dimension. He asked me for help in trying to locate the symbiote he was raising. I didn't have anything better to do, so I thought why not." The then peered down at Kairi's sword, "Hey kid, did you know that your sword in made of Anti-Metal?"
"What?" Kairi blinked. What the heck is 'Anti-Metal'?
"Never mind then," that Dr. Strange shrugged before turning to his other, "Anyway, you got this, right?"
"Yeah, thanks again," the Dr. Strange with Sleeper nodded.
"No problem," the other Dr. Strange gave a two-fingered salute before he opened another portal and disappeared through it.
Kairi could only stare dumbfounded. Was… was that magic? It sure looked like magic.
"Dad, you won't believe what I've been through the past couple of days!"
"I bet," Dr. Strange smiled before looking up at Kairi. "And I guess I have you to thank for keeping Sleeper safe?"
"Hi, I'm Kairi Lopez, the new Ronin," he replied as he sheathed his sword over his shoulder.
"Doctor Strange."
Kairi tried really hard not to laugh. "So, Sleeper, he's the one you were worried about?" Kairi looked down at the symbiote in the sorcerer's hands instead.
"Aww, I didn't know you cared, Sleeper."
"Well, if you were all right this whole time then I take back all my worry!"
Dr. Strange shook his head before he frowned at Kairi before looking back at Sleeper. "Thank you again for protecting Sleeper," he said to Kairi. "I know it must've been difficult keeping his existence a secret."
Kairi cocked an eyebrow, "What do you mean? Sleeper just kept himself under my skin whenever I was in public."
Dr. Strange's eyes widened before looking down at Sleeper. "He's your first host?"
"Um, yeah," Sleeper's form shifted so that it could make a shrug motion.
"How was it?"
"It was great! Well, there were some things I somehow forgot that I could do as a symbiote for its host, but Kairi's a good guy. He went a little crazy and a little in denial during the first day I bonded with him, but he was willing to help me when I explained who I was and how I got here."
Dr. Strange frowned contemplatively. "Is that so…" He looked at Kairi. "So what do you plan to do now?"
"Some friends of mine, they were marooned here like Sleeper was but it had been through a collider device that was commissioned by Wilson Fisk," Kairi replied. "Right now they're trying to use that collider to get themselves to their respective homes. I'm going to destroy the collider so that Fisk doesn't do something like that again."
Dr. Strange nodded slowly, "Sounds like you could use some help."
Kairi raised a curious brow, "Is that an offer?"
"Not from me, no," the sorcerer shook his head before looking down at Sleeper. "You've already got it if Sleeper's willing."
Sleeper balked, "What?"
"You always talked about wanting to be a hero, Sleeper" Dr. Strange chuckled. "Now's your chance."
"But… our Earth's my home." The man was right, it had been Sleeper's dream to be a hero, ever since it reviewed the memories of its symbiote parent and saw the good it and Eddie had done, it wanted to do the same. To help people. But it wasn't so sure if it wanted to give up its home.
"Well, now that I've found which dimension you ended up in, I can pop in whenever you feel homesick, Sleeper," Dr. Strange assured. "But your friend is going to need all the help he can get and you're the best person to give it to him."
A frown settled on Sleeper's face as all four of its eyes narrowed in thought. It then turned around to face the first person that had become its host, looking for his input. And if it was also what Kairi wanted, it did leave him on not the best of notes.
Kairi blinked when the symbiote just stared at him, but when he realized what Sleeper was asking, he chuckled, "I'm game if you are, Sleeper."
If it could grin, Sleeper's would split its face in two as a tendril from its mass stretched out towards him. Kairi reached out his own arm and he smirked as the now familiar feeling of Sleeper's flesh covered his body. However, he realized that he and Sleeper weren't taking the form they usually took, instead Sleeper was assimilating to his suit, like a second layer. Though he did note that Sleeper had covered his head.
"Trying for a new look this time, Sleeper?" he asked as he caught a glimpse of his reflection through one of the pictures hanging on the wall.
It didn't look like his outfit had changed much except for two things, Sleeper's face was acting as a mask per usual and the gold v-shaped marking that was usually on their chest was on this form as well. In fact, Sleeper's flesh complemented his Ronin suit quite nicely.
Well, I thought that since you took the initiative to bring a new outfit to the party, I thought it'd be rude of me if I went ahead and ruined that look. Besides, you wanted to keep the hood, didn't you?
It's good to have you back, Sleeper.
Good to be back.
"Not going to lie, you look like you'd fit in with the Avengers, kid," Dr. Strange chuckled.
"Who?" Kairi tilted his head.
Superhero group in Dad's and I dimension that has saved the planet a few dozen times, don't worry about it. We have Spiders to save!
"Right, sorry to leave like this," he apologized to the sorcerer.
"Go, be a hero," Dr. Strange grinned in approval.
With one last nod, Kairi turned on his heel and headed for the penthouse. And the sorcerer merely watched on, proud that the alien child he had raised was finally going to be what it had dreamed of doing.
"Hey, Strange, what're you doing?"
The former surgeon groaned in annoyance and turned around to see Eddie looking through the portal he had left open to their home dimension.
"Whoa," Eddie whistled, a little impressed at how fancy the place was. "This must've cost a pretty penny for an interior decorator to design."
"Oooh, I like it, it's all in your face," said Venom as its head popped out from its host shoulder, also looking around in awe. "Is this place yours, Stephen?"
"No, it's not," Dr. Strange sighed as he walked back through the portal and closed it behind him. "By the way, we don't have to worry about Sleeper."
Eddie frowned, "You found- You found him?" He then grinned, "Well that's great! Where is the little fella? Wait, was he back in that fancy place you were just in?"
"He was," Dr. Strange nodded as he adjusted his gloves.
"What?" Eddie's frown deepened. "Then why… why did we just leave?"
"Sleeper found a compatible host, a strong host," Dr. Strange replied as the room shifted so that the two of them plus Venom were now standing in the study. Tossing his gloves aside on a nearby lamp table, he grabbed the teacup and saucer that had appeared right next to it as he sat down in one of the chairs. "He's happy."
"Happy?" Eddie maintained his frown.
Dr. Strange nodded as he took a sip of his tea, "Mmhmm."
"Is he, Stephen? Is Sleeper happy?" asked Venom.
"More than happy, Venom," Dr. Strange replied as he leaned back in his chair with a sigh, mindful of the cup of tea in his hands. "He's going to be all right."
"Hmm, okay."
Eddie looked over at his symbiote incredulously, "Venom, you're okay with this?"
Venom nodded, "I am. I know what it is like, having so much rage as a result of a bad host, and if Sleeper had managed to find a host that could prevent him from having to endure so much pain and agony, then I support Sleeper's decision."
"Besides, now that I know where he is, I can easily open up a portal to him," Dr. Strange chimed in before raising his cup to take another sip.
Eddie looked over at the sorcerer in disbelief, "Then why didn't you lead with that?!"
…Back in Earth 291999…
Having found the elevator entrance down to the underground facility to Fisk's collider, not that it was hard given that the doors had been busted in, Kairi had leaped down into the elevator shaft without a second thought. As he neared the bottom, several of Sleeper's tendrils arched off his back, latching onto the sides of the elevator shaft to slow his descent. From where they were, they could hear the whirring of Fisk's collider working.
"Are we too late?" Kairi asked aloud.
No, but we should hurry, I hear gunfire.
"Right," he nodded before he sprinted down the halls. "Sleeper, cloak us."
On it!
As he turned down the hall, they had become invisible, a good thing too given that there were men at the other end of the hall, probably responding to the others. Drawing his sword from his back, Kairi grinned beneath Sleeper's mask.
"Time to have some fun…" he whispered.
And launched himself at Fisk's hired help, using the enhanced strength and speed Sleeper gave him as he knocked them over, slicing their firearms with his katana and turning them all into hot goop that made the thugs yelp in pain as their guns melted before their eyes.
"What the hell?"
"What's going on?"
"My gun just melted?"
Some of the hired muscle shouted as their weapons melted and their teammates were knocked into the walls. For good measure, Sleeper released a cloud of gas that came from the palm of Kairi's offhand, effectively knocking them out for a few hours. Kicking them out of the fight before they could even enter it.
Ohhh, that was fun. Let's do it again!
"Sorry, Sleeper, we're short on time at the moment, remember?" Kairi chuckled as he sprinted down the hall that the thugs had intended to go down, sheathing his blade over his shoulder.
Hmm, next time.
"Oh, dude, for sure."
When they entered the large chamber where the collider was kept, both symbiote and host could see that the Spider-people were fighting off Fisk's men plus the villains he had hired; Doc Ock, Tombstone, and… Scorpion? Wasn't Gargan supposed to be in prison?
Kairi, up high.
Looking up, he found Doc Ock above at one of the panels of the chamber, and in the clutches of her robotic arms was…
"Gwen!" he cried out.
Firing tendrils a tendril from both his arms, he used them to slingshot himself towards Doc Ock, his foot stuck out to knock the scientist away with all the momentum he had built up, and just before he made contact, Sleeper deactivated the active camo. And the both of them enjoyed the look of surprise that had been plastered on Octavius's face before the bottom of his boot met her face and knocked her away. And acting quickly, Kairi fired another shot at Gwen before she could fall into the collider beam and pulled her to join him to stick on the ceiling.
"Kai?" she looked at him in surprise. "Is that you?"
Sleeper's face receded, allowing for Kairi's face to be revealed to her, his amber eyes glinting in the light caused by the collider beam. "Hi," he smiled at her.
"Hi," she replied back. And although it couldn't be seen from behind her mask, she was smiling back. There were so many things she wanted to say to him right now as she felt two emotions within her. A bit of anger that he was risking his life but still overjoyed that he was here.
…
"Okay, I get you two are having a moment" Peter called out as he dodged a strike from one of Doc Ock's robot arms, breaking the two teens' gaze from one another, "but can you two put a pin in it for later?! We're all kinda in the middle of a fight if you remember!"
Gwen gave a reluctant sigh as she turned back to Kairi. "Nice suit," she said with a nod of approval after giving him a once over. "I like the hood."
"Thanks," he replied. "A recent mentor of mine had a hood on her hero outfit too."
Feeling her cheeks warm beneath her mask, Gwen shook her head with a chuckle, "Yeah? Well, let's see if you can put what she taught you to practice."
Smirking at the challenge, Kairi drew his sword from his back as Sleeper's face enveloped his head. Gwen fired a web-shot to swing from to rejoin the battle as Kairi simply leaped off the ceiling toward a platform that had more of Fisk's hired thugs that had been shooting at the other Spider-heroes. Brandishing his sword, Kairi stared down at the armed men.
"Heh, did you really bring a sword to a gunfight, punk?" one of them sneered as he raised his weapon, ready to fire.
Kairi laughed, "No, I brought an alien to a smackdown."
The thug frowned in confusion, "Alien? What alien?"
If Sleeper had a mouth, it would be grinning as it leaped from Kairi's body in the full human size it had used when it face off against the Vulture prior. And the thugs all screamed as they fire their weapons, but the bullets did nothing to its flesh as Sleeper charged them. Using the opportunity the symbiote created, Kairi leaped over Sleeper with his sword aimed at the rifle of the closest gunman to him.
The man had yelped when his gun turned into metal liquid before his eyes only to get knocked back and knocked out by Kairi's boot from his follow-up kick. Another gunman aimed his weapon at Kairi, but Sleeper grabbed the man by his own rifle and flung him away as the man couldn't keep his grip on his weapon. Easily dispatching the rest of Fisk's thugs as both symbiote and host dealt with them as a team, they had eventually ended up staring down the remaining man.
Who looked ready to piss his pants.
"Rock paper scissors to decide who gets him?" Kairi offered.
"Sure, why not?" Sleeper shrugged.
However, before they could play for it, the thug threw his rifle into the air and with a high-pitched scream, he bolted.
…
"Well, that was disappointing."
"Yeah, no kidding."
With a sigh, Sleeper returned back to its host. However, they could not get a reprieve as buildings and vehicles began to emerge from the collider beam. With the top of a skyscraper almost nailing them in the face if Kair hadn't ducked at the last moment as the skyscraper kept moving as more buildings came from the collider.
Holy shit!
"That can't be good," Kairi grimaced from behind Sleeper's mask.
*What the? Who are you?*
Startled at the random voice coming from behind him, Kairi turned around to find a portal had opened behind him. And on the other side… was a Spider-man colored black and red? And from the looks of it, it seemed he was fighting at a collider too.
Kairi's eyes narrowed, the voice… it sounded familiar. "Miles?" he realized as Sleeper's face receded, revealing his face.
The black and red Spider-man blinked before pulling his mask up enough to reveal his face, "Wait, hold up. Kairi?"
"What are you doing here?/What are you doing here?" the two of them said at the same time. "What's with the Spider-man getup?/Why are you dressed like a ninja?
"You seem a little taller/Why aren't you wearing your glasses?" Perplexed, both Kairi and Miles gave one another odd looks before they both reached out towards the portal that opened in front of them tentatively.
"Kairi!"
"Miles!"
Both teens turned when they heard their names called, reminding them of the fights both were respectively in the middle of. Though both noted that the voice that had called out to them was familiar to the other. Another Gwen?
"Figure this out later?" Kairi offered as Sleeper's face formed back over.
"I'm game," Miles nodded as he pulled his mask down.
As they turned around, the portal had closed behind them as if it never existed.
Gwen and Peter leaped down, joining the symbiote host on the platform he stood on. Their own surprise was more than apparent as they looked at the phenomenon that was occurring around them in awe.
"Looks like our dimensions are coming to us," Gwen breathed in surprise.
"It kinda looks cool though," Peter observed in curiosity.
Now that he mentions it, it kinda does…
"Sure, in a twisted the multiverse-is-going-to-collapse and kill us all kind of way," Kairi said pointedly to both his symbiote and Spider-man
"Oh, right. Sorry," Peter chuckled sheepishly.
Yeah, my bad.
"We need to get back up to the panel," said Gwen, ignoring the other two as she spotted the panel in question above from where they were standing. "I'm not keen on what multiple dimensions occupying the same space at once will look like."
Behind you!
Kairi looked over his shoulder at the same time Gwen and Peter looked over theirs, their Spider-senses tingling and forewarning them of the danger. Behind them was Doc Ock with a city bus held by her two upper robot arms, reared back to throw the public transportation at them. As a result, the three heroes leaped from the platform just in time before the thrown bus could do any harm to them. However, it was clear Doc Ock wasn't done with either of the Spider-heroes or the symbiote host.
Let's make some calamari out of her!
"Uh, Sleeper, calamari is made from squid, not octopi," Kairi said aloud as he dodged a strike from one of Doc Ock's robot arms that was followed up leaning back to avoid a car that had been thrown by another robotic arm
Doesn't matter! They're both cephalopods!
Kairi gave an exasperated groan as he shook his head.
"Let me guess, Sleeper said something about turning Octavius into sushi or something?" Gwen guessed as she landed next to him.
He chuckled, "Calamari actually."
She raised a brow at him, a facial expression that was reflected on her mask, "But squids and octopi are different animals, even if they are related."
"That's what I said."
Spotting a floating door coming their way, Gwen held up a hand. "Hold that thought," she said before running forward, firing a web-shot at the door, and pulled on her web to swing the door and slam it into Doc Ock.
"Rah!" Octavius roared as she split the door in two with her arms and used her robotic arms to grasp both halves of the door she had just cut.
Flinging one at Gwen, who despite her initial attack having failed, kept the momentum going with a kick to the female villain's face as she flipped over the half of the door flung at her. Unfortunately, that was when Gwen glitched, causing her to shudder in pain and allow Doc Ock to slam the other half of the door into Gwen, sending her straight into the side of a nearby displaced building.
"Gwen!" Kairi called out before firing a tendril from both arms to latch onto a nearby floating taxi to slingshot himself toward her, catching her before she could fall.
"My hero," she chuckled through a wince.
"Like you need one," he laughed back as they landed on the side of another building, letting her go so that she could get onto her feet. "So, as it turns out, my mother's sword can actually melt metal, did it to one of Vulture's wings. Wanna see if her robot arms turn to goo?"
Gwen looked at him incredulously, "What? Kai, your sword can do that? Why didn't you do so in the first place?!" He could've saved her a door to the face that she hadn't been keen on receiving earlier.
She raises a valid point.
"Uh, my bad?"
She shook her head with a sigh as she palmed her face. Great, the boy she liked could still be an idiot. "Just… just go," she sighed tiredly as she flicked her wrist at him, giving him the motion to leave.
"Sorry," he still offered sheepishly before he leaped towards Doc Ock who was engaged in a fight with Peter.
As such, she did not see him coming when he unsheathed his sword from his back and cut through one of the metal arms like a knife through butter, turning the place where the laceration was made into liquid. Both Doc Ock and Spider-man witnessed the event in complete surprise and before either could say anything, Kairi landed on the roof of a nearby floating car and jumped again, cutting off two more of her robotic arms. To further capitalize on his attack, Kairi grabbed one of her cut-off clawed robot arms and spun around to build some momentum and slam the cut-off appendage into her face.
Seeing that his help wasn't needed, Peter swung over to where Gwen was standing as she witnessed the one-sided fight. "Did you teach him that?" he asked her. "Cuz if you did, bravo."
"I didn't teach him that," she shook her head as she watched Kairi dodge the strike from Doc Ock's remaining robotic limb, slicing it off as he spun in the air before placing his feet on the side of the building he and Doc Ock were fighting on and leaped upward, his fist impacting against the bottom of the villain's jaw and sending her away. "I definitely didn't teach him that move."
That was fun!
Grinning beneath the mask, Kairi suppressed the urge to laugh as he rejoined Peter and Gwen on the building he had left her on just moments prior.
"Good job, Kai," the blonde heroine gave a playful punch to his shoulder. "And nice form on that last follow-up punch."
"Thanks, never would've thought to combine my gymnastics experience and Krav Maga like that until now," he chuckled.
"Don't think I'm done yet, Spiders!"
Turning around, they saw Doc Ock pull herself up and unsteadily get up on her feet, brushing off some of the dust off her face as she regarded the three of them angrily. She would not allow them to stop her life's work! She refused!
"Technically, I'm not a Spider!" Kairi pointed out with a finger raised.
But Doc Ock ignored him as she pushed off where she had been standing, launching herself towards the three, regardless if her main weapons of attack were gone.
"I don't think she cares, dude," Peter whispered to the symbiote host.
"Buckle up, guys, this might take a while," Gwen sighed as she got into a fighting stance.
Only for a floating semi-truck to slam into Doc Ock's side, taking her with it.
Oh my god!
Surprised himself, Kairi looked over at the other two, gauging their reactions. Peter had a hand raised to his mouth in shock, his eyes wide while Gwen looked a little stupified as the tension for a fight that would not come left her shoulders. It was always so shocking seeing someone getting hit by a moving vehicle.
Especially a semi!
"Well, all right, all obstacles are cleared," said Kairi as he looked around, noting that Spider-Noir, Spider-Ham, and Peni had taken care of Tombstone and Scorpion. "Let's get you all home."
Peter shook his head, "No, kid. Nothing's changed, I'll go. I'm the one with the goo-" When he reached for where he had been keeping it around his wrist, he was surprised to feel nothing but the material of his suit. "What the?"
Kairi smirked from behind Sleeper's flesh mask as one of the symbiote's tendrils waved the flash drive in question. "Sorry, man, Sleeper has sticky fingers," he joked before he fell back off the ledge into open space.
Hey, wanna see something cool?
Of course.
Feeling some of Sleeper's flesh gather around his back, he looked over his shoulder when and saw that the flesh began to form what looked to be like a pair of rockets. Kinda like a jetpack. Wait, hold the phone.
No way.
No fuckin' way.
We can fly?
The rockets on their back fired, causing them to zip around for a bit before Kairi and Sleeper got a hang of their new ability.
We can fly!
Peter's and Gwen's respective jaws dropped.
"They can fly?!" Peter whined in complete and utter jealousy and envy as he watched Kairi fly up to the ceiling where the panel had been exposed. "Dude, not only do they have the same powers we've got, but they can create knockout gas and turn invisible. But now they have a jetpack?!"
Gwen's shoulders slumped as she watched her once momentary student as his new jetpack receded back into Sleeper's flesh. Peter was right, that was sooooo totally unfair. Pressing down her jealously for the new toy the boy she liked now had, she sighed. "Come on, let's go," as she fired a web-shot to swing herself to the ceiling above.
"Oh, suuuuuure, we'll swing up there like boring regular Spider-people who totally don't have awesome jetpacks," Peter grumbled as he followed after her. "Guy gets to live out my lifelong dream to fly in the sky like Boba Fett and what do I get? Boring Spider-powers that's what."
Not gonna lie, Sleeper, that was kick-ass.
I know, I'm awesome.
"Indeed you are, my friend," Kairi chuckled aloud as he slotted in the goober in the panel access. "All right, Sleeper, plug in."And from it, a holographic interface popped up above the panel as one of Sleeper's tendrils connected to the other ports of the panel, giving them both fine-tuned access to the collider. "Guys!" he called out to the others. "I've got control of the beam, get up here!"
ALERT! QUANTUM POLARITY HAS BEEN REVERSED.
Kairi ignored the automated voice on the loudspeakers as the others joined him at the panel, making sure things were steady for his friends so that they could all go back home safely.
"I guess… this is it," said Peter as they all realized this was the end of this journey.
"Well, it's nice to know we're not alone," Peni chimed in, sans her robot since it was catastrophically damaged in the fight. Though the Spider she was psychically connected to was sitting on her shoulder. "Right?"
The Spider-heroes all traded looks and nodded in agreement. As the Spider heroes in their respective home dimensions who always operated by themselves, it had been fun being part of a group.
"Yeah," Gwen nodded.
Kairi raised a finger, "Weeeell, technically, Sleeper and I-"
"You're in the band, Kai," Gwen chuckled as she playfully punched his shoulder. "You and Sleeper, just accept it."
"Oh, does that mean we'll all get matching t-shirts?!" Spider-Ham gasped in hope.
All of them shared a laugh.
Kairi pressed one of the holographic buttons, "Portal's open, you first, Peni."
"Thank you, Kairi, Sleeper," Peni smiled at him gratefully before glancing over at her spider on her arm. "From both of us." With a salute, she let go of Spider-Noir and fell into the portal, her form disappearing in a flash of light.
Spider-Noir glanced around the remaining others. "I, uh, love you all," he said, a little proudly. It was nice being part of a family again. He then raised a Rubix cube that had confounded him since he had found it in May Parker's house, "I'm taking this cube thing with me. I don't understand it, but I will." With a tip of his hat, he let go of the ceiling panel and too fell into the portal, this time the portal flashing black and white.
Spider-Ham sniffled as he approached Kairi, pulling out a cartoon wooden mallet. "I want you to have this," he said as he suppressed the urge to cry. "It'll fit in your pocket."
Not knowing what to say, Kairi just wordlessly accepted the mallet and put it away in his belt.
Oh my god! It actually does fit in your pocket! What is this magic?!
"That's all, folks," Spider-Ham said in farewell before he too fell into the portal.
Peter frowned, "Um, was he allowed to say that? Legally?" Shaking his head, he looked at Gwen and Kairi. "You know, this was nice, teaming up with everybody, we all should do it again sometime. Just without the whole glitching thing that could've led to our disintegration."
Kairi looked up thoughtfully, "You know, Sleeper's dad is some sort of magic user that can open portals. Maybe we can look into that."
Peter looked at him in surprise before he groaned, palming his face, "Duh, of course! Doctor Strange! We could've gone to him for help!"
Kairi wisely kept quiet on the fact there wasn't a Dr. Strange on this Earth as well as the fact that the Dr. Strange that had raised Sleeper had come and gone via an interdimensional portal almost half an hour ago.
Yeah, we should probably keep that one to ourselves…
"Maybe it will be easy to get the band back together," Peter mused before he gave Akira and Gwen a two-fingered salute and jumped into the portal.
"So," Kairi turned to Gwen as Sleeper's flesh receded, revealing his face, causing Gwen to remove her mask. "I guess this is it."
"I guess so," she nodded.
She hated goodbyes. And now she was going to have to say goodbye twice.
Unable to stand the silence, Kairi reached over, caressing her face as he leaned over and pressed his lips against hers. This time, both he and she poured their feelings for one another into it as Gwen pushed herself against him, one of her hands leaving the ceiling panel to wrap itself around his neck. When their lips separated, they gently pressed their foreheads against each other as their eyes remained close to soak up whatever vestiges of this moment together as much as they could.
"I want more time," she whispered.
It almost broke Kairi with how fragile her voice had sounded. "So do I," he whispered back. "We'll figure something out, I promise."
She bit her lip, "And if we don't?" The doubt gnawed at her like a tick.
"We will," he said resolutely before kissing her again.
She would later admit a few tears escaped the corner of her eye as she relished in this kiss, though hopefully, not their last.
"YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING!"
The two teens turned to see Kingpin standing atop a floating city bus, having batted away a car from in front of him.
Really?! I've finally got these two together and your bald ass is going to ruin it?!
"I'll hold him off," Gwen said as she slipped her mask back on. "Blow the collider!"
"No, I said I would get you home, Gwen," Kairi grabbed her hand before she could leap off. "And I intend to keep my word." Unsheathing his sword from his back, he flipped it around to hold it in a reverse grip before stabbing into the panel she had been clinging to. Which caused the panel to melt below her feet and for her to float in the air with Kairi as her only anchor, though he had let go of her hand.
"Kai, what are you doing?!" she demanded as she held onto his hand to stop herself from falling into the portal. "Kingpin will kill you if you fight alone!"
He smiled. "I'm not fighting alone, Gwen," he replied.
Sleeper's head formed out from his shoulder, "He'll never fight alone."
Gwen bit her lip as she considered the two before she then glanced at Sleeper, "Keep him safe."
"Always."
She then pulled her mask up enough to reveal her face to stare into Kairi's bright amber-colored eyes. "I love you, Kai," she said before she let go, delighting in the surprised expression on his face as she fell into the portal.
…
"Oh, she's definitely a keeper."
Kairi couldn't keep the fond smile off his face even if he wanted to, "I know." He then stared over at Kingpin as the large man arrived at the side of a displaced tower. "You ready for this, Sleeper?"
Sleeper's head flowed over to its host face.
More than ready. I set the collider to implode rather than to explode so that the tower doesn't come down on us or anyone still caught inside. And I also put it on a timer.
How long we got?
Ten minutes, give or take.
"Plenty of time." Flipping the grip on his sword to the regular grip, Kairi crouched down before leaping to the opposite side of Kingpin on the tower. "For my father," he said as he got into a sword stance, his knees bent with his sword held beside his face, its edge pointed downward.
Kingpin snarled as he pulled out a handgun and fired.
For the sake of it, Kairi dashed to the side to avoid the man's ammunition, before he stabbed his sword into the building. And despite its interdimensional displacement, it was still made out of a majority of steel, causing the metal to melt and the glace to raise up. Kingpin fired into the glace regardless, intent on killing his adversary. However, using his own natural agility that was enhanced by Sleeper, Kairi dashed forward using the scattered windows as platforms to give himself a little height. And once he got high enough, he leaped off of the piece of glass he had been on, causing it to shatter from the force behind his jump with his sword raised overhead.
Kingpin fired several shots at Kairi's approaching form, however, with Sleeper's flesh covering him, the bullets did no damage. Growling in frustration, the large man then grabbed a nearby taxi and slammed it against Kairi as the teen was close enough to strike, sending him straight into a floating subway.
Well, that sucked.
"No kidding," Kairi grunted as he got up from his downed position in the train.
However, before he could do anything else, Kingpin slammed himself into the train car he was in, leaving a big hole as he climbed in. "Not so easy doing it on your own, is it?" the man taunted as he reloaded his weapon.
Kairi raised a brow, chuckling quietly before shortly becoming full-blown laughter.
"What's so funny?" Kingpin snidely demanded.
"Dude, I'm never alone."
Kairi took a step to the right while Sleeper took a step to the left, one now becoming two, much to Kingpin's utter shock. Snarling in anger, he raised his handgun and fired repeatedly at the two. Sleeper pushed forward, his arm expanding into a shield that blocked all of the man's bullets. Kairi stayed behind the symbiote, waiting for Kingpin to run out of ammo in his current magazine for his firearm. And once he did, leaped over Sleeper's head just as he heard the click of an empty gun while Sleeper's shield receded. Kairi cut the handgun in half before Kingpin could reload, turning both parts into liquid.
"Gahh!" Kingpin held his hand in agony as the handle of the gun felt boiling hot from the rapid change from metal to liquid. But he used that pain, turning it into rage to grab Kairi while he had been in midair and slammed him down to the floor.
However, he had momentarily forgotten about Sleeper as the symbiote pushed forward and punched the large man straight in the face, causing him to fly back further into the train car. Sleeper then turned to Kairi and helped him up before the two of them looked over at the man known as Wilson Fisk.
"You… you aren't Maya Lopez," Fisk realized.
Kairi shook his head as he pulled down his hood with his off-hand, followed by his mask, "No," he said. "But I'm her son."
Fisk scoffed as he got up, "Tombstone wasn't able to find you at your school but here you are, right in front of me. Tell me, your father's death almost broke your mother. How much pain do you think she'll be in when I toss your corpse in front of her?"
"You are never taking anything from my family ever again, Fisk!" Kairi snarled as he pointed his sword at him as Sleeper bent down in a fighting stance.
Kingpin scoffed. "What? Not man enough to fight me one on one?" he taunted, hoping to get the kid to make a mistake and get rid of his advantage.
"I'm not just some kid you could manipulate, Fisk," Kairi replied as he sheathed his sword while Sleeper's flesh returned to his body and covered his face. "We. Are. Ronin!" And with that, he leaped at the bald man.
Fisk tried to preempt their attack with a punch of his own, but Sleeper pushed Kairi out from behind, catching the man's punch. Which allowed Kairi to come around and slam his elbow into the side of Fisk's face with Sleeper following up with a punch to the other cheek. The rest of the time for Fisk was absolute hell as he was rained down by punches and blows that he couldn't keep up against, he couldn't fight on two fronts, not against two people who were so in sync with one another.
As Fisk bent over from a kick to the gut by Sleeper, both it and its host came together and slammed an upwards kick that caught Fisk's chin and sent him reeling as he crashed into the ceiling of the train car before falling back onto the floor. As Kingpin groaned, effectively knocked out, Kairi regarded the man as he looked down at him. And his hand raised towards the sword on his back and pulled it out of its sheath.
Are you sure, this is what you want, Kairi?
Are you going to stop me? You gave me your word.
If this is what you want, then no, I won't.
Good.
But I don't think your father would want you to go down this path if what you said about him is true. Your mother certainly wouldn't, nor your grandmother, or your friend, Miles, and certainly not Gwen.
I thought you said you weren't going to stop me!
I'm not, I'm reasoning. There's a difference.
Kairi glared down at Fisk with as much hatred he could muster, his hand that was holding his sword was trembling. This was the one who killed his dad. The reason why he never got to know what it was like to have a father love and protect him. The reason why his mother would sometimes cry at night staring at his father's picture.
But in the end…
He stayed his hand.
He hated to admit it, but everyone was right. Kingpin wasn't worth it, the guy wasn't worth staining his hands over.
And so, releasing a sigh, Kairi instead pressed the tip of his sword on the floor of the train car, turning the metal into liquid and sending Kingpin down to the bottom of the collider chamber below. Having fired a tendril at the ceiling of the train car to prevent himself from falling as well, Kairi sheathed his sword as he hung there.
I'm proud of you.
He rolled his eyes as he made the tendril let go as he landed on a floating taxi, intent on getting out of the building before the police and other authorities would show up.
Dude, don't ruin it.
AN:
Whoo! This is the penultimate chapter for the current arc and the last chapter is pretty much almost done, so I will for sure release the next chapter next week on Monday. And on that day, this story will go into a hiatus until the year becomes more appropriately themed for the second arc.
As for Kairi becoming the Ronin instead of Sleeper, I liked to think that with Sleeper's unique physiology, both it and its host could form a sense of symbiosis that didn't meld two people into one. But rather two people fighting as one. Plus, it should've been obvious that Kairi would've taken his mother's mantle since I added her at all into this story. And to be clear, yes, the events of this story occur in a different dimension than Mile's. Take that for what you will in regards to the sequel movies.
Oh, and for my American readers, happy 4th of July!
And everyone else, uh, happy Monday?
Either way, as always, stay safe, stay healthy and you all have a good day!