A/N: Hello, everyone! Just a quick announcement, my good friend Venom Rules All is writing another version of this story where Cassandra Cain, or Orphan from DC Comics, is brought to the Marvel universe and fights alongside the web warrior. Go check it out, it's an awesome story.
And remember, my challenge is still going: try your hand at writing a version of this story with another character from RWBY, it could be whoever you want. Any other member of team JNPR, someone from team RWBY, anyone you can think of! I'd love to see what you come up with! But for now, let's get back to Pyrrha's adventure with our dear Spider-Man!
"So, we're going after Isaac Delaney if I remember correctly, right?" Pyrrha asked.
"Right. If we find him, we can finally figure out what Devil's Breath is." Peter agreed.
"Right now, that's all we could hope for." Pyrrha agreed. The two of them traversed the city, soon reaching a college campus costume party. But the strangest thing here to Pyrrha was the fact that, while some people were indeed dressed like Spider-Man and other heroes she's been told about from this universe, they were mostly dressed as the villains she'd also been warned about. "It feels strange all these people are dressed up as villains that have cause massive amounts of destruction to their city in the past." She noted.
"Hey, I gotta give it to the villains. Their personalities are the worst, but their costumes are the best." Peter admitted. "Anyways, we should split up to cover more ground. Call me if you find Delaney." Spider-Man said.
"Right." Pyrrha agreed as they split off. Pyrrha looked at the picture they had, which showed three costumed scientists, one dressed as an old bald man in a bird suit known as "The Vulture", another in a humanoid lizard costume made to represent "The Lizard" and one final villain with a fish bowl for a head known as "Mysterio". "That one should be the easiest to find. I'll look for them." Pyrrha said, quickly scanning the grounds, eventually finding the fish bowl wearing villain in front of a house of horror. "This looks to be the right place." She said.
Suddenly, the bowl-headed bad guy leapt out from nowhere. "Oh, it's the right place, all right, Arkos! If you're here to meet your doom!" The "villain" declared, throwing down a green smoke bomb and disappearing.
"That sounded like a woman, but it also clearly had some kind of voice synthesizer. I can't be too sure." Pyrrha said, following the faux villain into the house and witnessing her own armored form distorted by the mirrors. "I never did like these places." She said, before reaching the end of the hallway where "Mysterio" stood.
"I have you now, Arkos!" The counterfeit criminal declared, firing a nerf gun at the hero, but Pyrrha simply let it bounce off her armor.
"I'm looking for Doctor Isaac Delaney. Do you know where he is?" She asked.
"He's out in the party somewhere. Probably the dance floor. Don't know why you need him, but hope you find him, kid." The pretend baddie informed her.
"Thank you." Pyrrha said as she exited the building, seeing Spider-Man up with the Vulture wannabe, before swinging to the dance floor. "I guess he already knows." She said. However, before she could make her way to the dance floor, she was suddenly wrapped up in that electric binding Sable had used on Spider-Man during their first meeting. Then, a grappling hook emerged and pulled her onto the roof. She was freed from the binding and was able to look up at her aggressor. "Taskmaster..." She said as she glared at the skull-masked mercenary before her.
"You've been quite busy. It's truly impressive, but now I think its time to put you to the test to see if you're worth all this time and investment." He said, he said, producing a shield and an energy baton similar to what she'd seen Sable using.
"I've been looking forward to seeing you again. You're dangerous and I'll be relieved when you're in prison where you can't hurt anyone else." Pyrrha said.
"Good luck." Taskmaster said, rushing in.
Background Music: "I against I" by Massive Attack
Pyrrha locked blades with Taskmaster and attempted to follow up with a shield slam to his torso, but he did the same thing, both weapons locked together, neither one gaining an upper hand, so they pushed each other back, Pyrrha spinning as she turned her sword into its spear form, preparing to rocket it forward like she had against Cardin, but to her shock, Taskmaster had his own spear-like weapon lying in wait, which he hurled at her first. She was wide open and didn't have time to block or use her semblance and/or gadgets, so she was sent back several feet as Taskmaster rushed in, grabbing the spear, delivering a wide swing Pyrrha ducked under, then a stab with the polearm the Spartan girl had to block.
She then looked up at him in shock. "Those... Are my moves." She said in disbelief.
"That's right. Every time you've done one of the challenges I've left behind or dealt with those mercenaries, I've been watching and observing. Learning your moves. And I learned how to do them myself. One look at anything you can do and I can do it, too." He explained.
Pyrrha turned her spear into its rifle form, which Taskmaster back-flipped and dodged around, drawing his own firearm and shooting at Pyrrha, who took cover behind the stairwell. She popped out from cover and fired several times at Taskmaster, who ducked behind the exhaust fan he'd been using for cover. Pyrrha continued to fire until she was out of ammo, quickly reloading and popping back out, ready to fire, but Taskmaster hadn't popped out, either. "He's gone. He came here for a reason, he wouldn't have just revealed himself and left. He has to still be here." She told herself, turning just in time to see Taskmaster leap off of the building and throw a round kick at her.
She rolled out of the way and fired at him a few times, but he blocked it with his shield, rushed in and used his energy baton to knock her weapon out of her hands. She tried to block his next attack, but he swung his shield arm and knocked her shield out from in front of her, no longer protecting her, allowing him to land several hits on her. She eventually recovered and used her semblance to deflect his next attack, leaving him open for a jab with the butt of her sword to his ribs, uppercutting him with her shield, dropping and sweeping him, then rising up and thrusted her spear at him with a blast forward, knocking him back.
"You've gotten better at not relying on your power. But you're not the only one who can use magnets." He said, dropping a strange device on the ground. Suddenly, Pyrrha felt herself being pulled forward by an intense force. She tried to resist, but was unable to and was dragged towards Taskmaster, who proceeded to use the exact combo she just did on him in order to knock her back to the other side of the roof.
End Music
Pyrrha staggered back and dropped to one knee, panting heavily from the battle. "You're good, but you lack a killer instinct. You wear your opponents down over time, but you don't actively work towards disabling and debilitating them. And you let yourself get concerned by the people around you. You shouldn't care for them. You need to be fiercer. More violent. And willing to deliver the final blow. Or else it will eventually be delivered to you instead." Taskmaster told her.
Pyrrha let these words sink in. She couldn't deny, the only two times she'd come close to using deadly force was against Cinder and Penny, even if the latter was an accident. And while Pyrrha fought for all she was worth against Cinder, her strikes had only been focusing on dealing as much damage as possible, rather than striking the right place. Like if she had damaged or injured Cinder's hands or arms, perhaps she could've limited her ways of shooting fire, or going for her neck to completely disable her. Lastly, the ultimate reason she lost her life on Remnant to Cinder was because she was trying to ensure the safety of her friends, rather than focusing on escape. But she shook her head. "That's not who I am. It may pose a greater risk to me, but I'm not a killer. I won't take away someone's life prematurely. Everyone deserves a chance to live." She declared.
"Fine. Then I'm giving you one chance. Improve and get stronger before we meet again. Or next time we fight, I'll kill you." Taskmaster warned, dropping a smoke bomb and disappearing.
"Wait!" She cried, attempting to chase him, but he was gone.
"Pyrrha!" Spider-Man called, landing on the roof behind her.
"Where were you!? You disappeared on me! And now Li's got a new target! After he made Delaney kill himself!" He snapped.
"He showed up again. Taskmaster. I was caught off-guard and taken away. I'm sorry." Pyrrha apologized.
Peter was shocked at this. "No. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have assumed you just ditched or something. You were put in danger from a psycho. I should've been able to save Delaney on my own. I could have if I had just shoved that goofball in the Rhino outfit." Peter apologized as well.
"So, what do we do now?" Pyrrha asked as they took off, the armored teen following the arachnid hero's lead.
"Delaney gave Li a name. Doctor Morgan Michaels. MJ's looking into him. We think he works on Devil's breath, but we're not sure. Well, I'm sick of not knowing. So the only other person who knows for sure is Norman Osborn." Peter said.
"It's a top secret project, Peter. I doubt he'll tell a pair of vigilantes he barely or doesn't even know." Pyrrha said.
"Right, but I'm gonna sneak in and use his computer database to do that. We'd probably have to go in through a vent, though. I don't think you'd get in with your armor on." Spider-Man said.
"I'm sure there will be other matters for me to deal with." Pyrrha assured him. They soon reached the Oscorp tower, landing on a building a safe distance away.
"Alright, here's the plan: to disable Oscorp's security measures, I'm gonna have to hack the security network modules from the outside. But as I do that, systems will go out and Sable will probably start looking for any threats." Peter explained.
"I'll do my best to throw them off and keep you hidden." Pyrrha said.
"Thanks, partner." He said, before swinging onto the building. After a few moments, the lights around the buildings went out. A few snipers put on laser sights, but Pyrrha EVER so slightly altered their paths if she saw a laser too close to the web slinger. Not long after, drones were deployed, but using her semblance to mess with the blades, the drones wound up flying all wonky and were soon forced to land as well. Finally, a chopper was brought out with a searchlight. However, this one was perhaps the easiest to deal with, Pyrrha making the rim of the searchlight cave in a bit, causing it to break the bulb, making the chopper useless.
"You should be set now, Spider-Man." Pyrrha told him.
"Got it. Thanks." He said.
"Hey, Pete. Pyrrha." MJ said as she suddenly called them.
"Hello, MJ. Peter's a bit busy at the moment, but I'm willing to hear you out." Pyrrha said.
"Right. So, I got a lead on Charles Standish's location. I'm thinking if I can get to him, I can make him talk." MJ explained.
"It makes sense. If he knew about Delaney, then he probably knows about-" Pyrrha started.
"If who knows about Delaney." A voice came from behind her.
Pyrrha turned to face the voice, readying her weapons, coming face to face with Silver Sable herself, aiming her guns at the teenager. "Silver Sablinova." She said.
"Arkos. So, tell me. Who were you speaking with?" She questioned.
"I don't think that's any of your concern." Pyrrha said harshly.
"It is my concern when an unauthorized vigilante is speaking of Oscorp employees my men and I are stationed to protect." Sable corrected.
"Well, you clearly aren't doing your job well, because Delaney is dead now, because of the Demons. And you're here to protect the city. Innocent people trying to live they're lives, not just Oscorp employees who are clearly working on something that could be a danger to the entire city. And from what I've seen, your men just harass anyone who so much as looks at them funny, let alone complains about their patrols and surveillance." Pyrrha countered.
"You clearly did your research. You seem to know as much as we do. Maybe more. And you're by far more reasonable and level-headed than the Spider. Perhaps we can make a deal. Pool our resources. Share our knowledge. Together, we may be able to stop these demons. It'd greatly help you're reputation. You'd be more of a hero than Spider-Man ever was. And you'd be greatly rewarded. Either by the mayor, or by me." Sable offered, lowering her guns as she made the deal.
"And that's all you care about, isn't it? The money and your reputation. And for those things you're willing to bully civilians and hide information from the cops you're supposed to be working alongside, not to mention outright execute the demons, who are just innocent civilians that have been corrupted by one evil man. An organization like that and the woman leading it is something I want nothing to do with." Pyrrha denied.
"Fine, then. We'll do this the hard way and I'll MAKE you tell me everything you know." Sable snapped, raising her guns again.
Background Music: "Light 'Em Up" by Fall Out Boy
Sable rushed at Pyrrha while firing her guns, but Pyrrha raised her shield to block the bullets. Sable then fired at Pyrrha's feet, to which she crouched and covered most of her body with the shield. Sable had planned this, however, jumping and twisting in the air, aiming her guns at Pyrrha as she flew over the armored teen. However, Pyrrha had anticipated this and was waiting with her weapon in its rifle mode, aiming at and shooting Sable in the chest, blasting her back. She convulsed slightly do to the electric dust, but got up, confused as she tried to figure out how she was still alive. "What is this? How am I not dead?" She questioned.
"My bullets don't kill in one shot. I'm not a murderer for hire like you." Pyrrha told her.
Sable growled at this and rushed in, dropping down and throwing a sweep kick Pyrrha stepped back and raised one leg to avoid it, then crouching to avoid Sable's rising round kick aimed at her head, rising herself and delivering an uppercut with her shield, stunning her, then delivering a side kick to Sable's chest, extending her spear to full length and knocking her down with a wide swing from it. Sable got up and rushed at Pyrrha, jumping at her and delivering a diving kick with both feet. Pyrrha blocked with her shield and shoved her back, causing her to land on her back, but roll into a three-point landing position.
Unfortunately, her aggressive frontal assault was a ruse in order to distract Pyrrha, leaving her unaware of the strange land mine thing she dropped like during their first meeting. And just like they did with Spider-Man, these mines activated and shot out the electric cording, which wrapped around and shocked Pyrrha. She cried out in pain as Sable rushed forward, unloading a round from both guns into her. While they weren't getting through Pyrrha's armor, they were more than capable of rattling the Spartan girl inside the armor. Sable then rushed in and delivered a decent combo of kicks to Pyrrha, knocking her down with a round kick to the head.
While, once again, Pyrrha was being protected by the armor, she was still feeling the force behind each of those hits. Not to mention, she still hadn't fully recovered from the fight with Taskmaster, so she was rather drained at this point. She refused to give up, however and used her sword to cut herself free, headbutting Sable and delivering another side kick to Sable's chest to knock her back, flinging her shield forward as Sable raised her guns. She rolled under the shield and took aim, but Pyrrha pulled the shield back with her gauntlets, causing it to hit Sable in the back of the head, making her stagger forward towards Pyrrha, who delivered a backflip kick to knock Sable about her own height into the air. She then landed a good few feet away as she called her shield back to her hand, Sable standing back up and aiming her guns at Pyrrha once again.
End Music
Both ladies were visibly exhausted, by while Pyrrha still had a fully functioning arsenal and armor protecting her, Sable's guns were out of ammo and the woman herself out of steam to continue fighting. "This is not over." She snapped, stepping off the roof of the building.
"Wait!" Pyrrha cried, rushing up to the edge, thinking she had just jumped to her death, only to find she had jumped into some kind of aircraft and flew off.
"Pyrrha!" Spider-Man called as he swung out and landed beside her. "I saw the end of the fight. You okay?" He asked.
"Just a bit tired. She's a talented fighter." Pyrrha admitted.
"Dang. Two crazy mercenaries taking you on in like an hour. This is not your lucky day." Peter said.
"You can say that again." She agreed.
"But it's not MJ's either, but that's mostly her fault. Standish is in a Sable base and she's trying to sneak in and reach him. If they find her, you know they're gonna scratch those itchy trigger fingers." Peter told her.
"We can't let that happen. Let's go." Pyrrha said as they flew towards the camp in Central Park. They reached the camp, locating a tent where their masks recognized MJ, but detected another person holding her at gunpoint.
"No!" Peter said, firing a web line and zipping in.
"Peter wait!" Pyrrha called, but followed quickly behind him. He tore through the tent and landed between MJ and the person with the gun, who was revealed to be Charles Standish. Pyrrha landed beside Peter a second later. However, Standish backed away and tripped over a metal rise in the ground. Pyrrha managed to catch him and stop him from falling, but before anything else could be said, some Sable agents were alerted to the commotion and started entering the tent, forcing them to flee against MJ's protests.
"I can't believe you two! I was fine! I was getting the information, then you knock out the guy with the information!" MJ snapped as they landed on the rooftop of her building.
"Fine?! That was the furthest thing from fine!" Peter argued.
"Look, Peter, I may not have spider powers, but I'm not made of glass." MJ argued.
"You may as well have been! You broke into a facility full of heavily armed guards who don't hesitate to shoot the first thing they see!" Pyrrha countered.
"But you unlocked my aura. I can take a bullet now." MJ argued.
"A bullet. Maybe a few, but they had fully automatics. And even my aura would likely be depleted after taking a single clip. You're is untrained and much weaker. There's no way it'd take a full clip from their weapons. We just saved your life, MJ. I'm sorry if you feel like we're being hard on you, but once again, we aren't being nearly as hard as those Sable thugs would be. The only singular reason you are breathing right now is because of us." Pyrrha said harshly.
"Whatever. Dr. Michaels is in the Bowery, they're moving him at noon." MJ said, starting to storm towards the door.
"Wait! Before we busted in, didn't I hear something about Grand Central?" Peter asked.
"He said that..." MJ began, before getting a look like she changed her mind and sighed. "Nope. Forget it. It's nothing." She said, opening the door to go inside, but Pyrrha used her semblance to slam it closed.
"Mary Jane Wattson. You have vital knowledge we need in order to protect people. Are you really not going to tell us because you're having a temper tantrum, when us having this knowledge could be the difference between countless people living and dying?" Pyrrha demanded. She only rarely took this tone when Jaune or Nora were putting off homework or major projects for classes until the day before they were due. And late into the day at that, so they likely wouldn't get done without the invincible girl's intervention.
And this seemed to work, because MJ looked nervous, then sighed once again. "Fine. He didn't get to finish what he was saying, but he said Sable was ignoring Grand Central, where the Demons are gonna go to get SOMETHING, but he didn't get to say what. That's all I know." She explained.
"Thank you. Again, I'm sorry I had to be so harsh, but once again, nowhere near as harsh as the guilt you would've felt if something had happened at Grand Central and people had gotten hurt because you didn't say anything." Pyrrha told her.
"Sure, whatever. I think YOU can sleep on the couch tonight for a change." MJ told her as she stormed back inside.
"Did you really have to be that hard on her?" Peter asked.
"Lives could've been on the line, Peter. I know she's important to you and you clearly want to get back together, but you can't just let her keep vital information like that to herself." She told him.
"You're right. We should both probably get some rest. If they're moving Delaney tomorrow, we'll need to be at our bests." He said.
"Agreed." Pyrrha said, heading inside after MJ as Peter swung off to an unknown location.
Rest In Peace, Chadwick Boseman.
Wakanda Forever.