CHAPTER FIVE — UNDER ATTACK

A week passed after my debut. The Internet went abuzz after the thieves told the police about the "god" that attacked and stopped them. I saw people posting things like, So how the hell did we get an appearance of Pan before Zeus? and even a mock Facebook group event suggesting that groups of people go search Long Island for signs of Camp Half-Blood. I didn't know whether to feel honored that people genuinely thought that I was a god, or to be annoyed that a non-existent deity was getting credit for the work that I'd done.

I had mixed feelings.

Over the course of the week, I finished writing my article about the Osborn interview, and began sewing lessons with Leanne. A few things on that; sewing was a lot more difficult than I'd given it credit for. It took a lot more dexterity and precision than I'd ever thought, and I pricked myself with my needle a lot. Thankfully, I had my animal powers, so I didn't have holes all over my fingers for long, but it still took a lot of getting the hang of. When I finally managed to successfully sew the first piece of cloth together, though, it felt awesome.

In between sewing lessons and homework, I went out and flew around the city, searching for as much crime as I could—and doing whatever odd tasks people needed help with. I came across one guy whose car broke down, and he got stranded two hours from his house. I flew him home in thirty minutes.

The expected J.J.J. articles started coming in at the end of the week. Oh, it was his usual spiel—"Pan; God or Menace?"—but seeing my picture grace the front page of the Daily Bugle hurt. More than I thought it would, actually.

I didn't go out superheroing the next day.

A couple days later, however, I was out on the town again, and this time I headed over towards the Bronx. I kept an eye out for any suspicious activity, stopped a few assaults and robbers, and looked out for Tartarus. Nothing seemed off, though I did feel like I was being watched.

Oddly enough, the feeling of being watched remained a few days later when I patrolled around Harlem, away from the Bronx. I wondered if it was Tartarus or something else.

The second Sunday after my debut was when things started going to shit.

I was out patrolling the city again when a sizable explosion rocked the city a street away from me. The sound sent me reeling in surprise, and I almost smacked into a high-rise before I corrected myself. I spun around quickly in the direction of the sound, senses going off and warning me of oncoming danger. A shockwave rolled through the air, and I gaped at the sight of a guy barreling through the air at me, covered in a suit of stainless-steel armor with an orange glow beneath it.

The dude's face was covered with a mask like that of the Shocker's from the Spider-Man PS4 game. Its color scheme was all wrong, though. Instead of gold and burnt orange, the design was gray and black. Even the stainless-steel armor had black highlights painted along the arms, legs, and torso.

Eyes widening as an electric gauntlet on the dude's arm swung towards me, I flipped into a nosedive and let gravity take over. The gauntlet passed over me, but as my eyes flicked back up into the air, another shockwave burst forth. And now I saw what had caused the earlier shockwave, and likely the explosion on the street; my attacker had a circular arm guard with from which he released energy blasts that he used to launch himself through the air.

I gulped, twisted in the air, and used my muay thai training to kick my leg into his arm, parrying it to the side. He tumbled away through the air past me, but pointed his arm guard behind him. Like a discount Bakugou, a huge propulsion of energy and air shot out from the guard and launched him at me AGAIN; this time, I was more prepared and swung out of my nose dive to soar up into the air and over his angle of flight.

"What the hell, man!?" I barked, heart racing. "Why are you attacking me!?"

"Nothing personal, man," he shouted back as he prepared another air blast. "Having you hanging around the Bronx is just bad for sales. Tartarus sends their regards!"

Tartarus—shit, assuming this guy was the Shocker, did this mean instead of working for Toomes, he was working for Tartarus now? And Jesus Christ, how advanced were these guys if they were making tech like this? This was a problem.

"Tartarus, huh?" I said, narrowing my eyes and diving away from another air launch and swipe of that deadly-looking gauntlet. "I've heard about you guys. What'd you do with Charlie Hardman?"

"Charlie Hardman?" I couldn't tell, but I thought the dude was grinning behind the mask. He landed on a building surprisingly gracefully and pointed his arm behind him as I flapped in place in the air. I heard a low thrum that got gradually louder and louder; shit, was he charging something up? "Oh, you are so not in-the-know. And here I thought old Osborn would've told you all about us!"

"Osborn?"

The name drop threw me off for a moment as I wondered why the hell he would have thought I'd be working for Osborn. Wait—did he somehow know what serum Osborn had been working on? Did Tartarus know!? Did they have some sort of connection with Oscorp Industries?

The Hell was—

FWOOM.

A massive blast of air rocketed from the Shocker's arm guard and tore up the roof of the building he stood on. He blurred through the air so fast I couldn't react, even with my instincts. I felt a bone crunch in my ribs and screamed in pain as an electric shock tore through me; that gauntlet had struck me right in the chest, and it hurt like HELL. I careened backwards from the sheer force of the electric punch, crashing through the stone wall of a building below and behind me. Rubble crumbling around me threw off my senses, and my body buzzed with electricity. My erratic heart beat worried me, and I panted shakily.

I didn't have to have super senses to feel the shockwave that rippled through the air, however, and I yelped, quickly transforming into a spider that raced across the floor to the hole I'd made in the wall of… whatever I'd been tossed into. My panic didn't allow me time to take in my surroundings; I just wanted to get the hell outta there before I got another taste of that nasty gauntlet. I didn't even care about the clothes I left behind.

Not a moment too soon, either. I winced as the Shocker raced by. My little spider self clambered up the wall and down the side of the building, before turning into a bird and racing away. I glanced behind me, trying to calm myself down, but gulped at the sight of my attacker making his way to the hole and peering at it, staring right at me.

"I see, so you can turn fully into animals, not just partially…" he mused, and I stared. How did he know!? While I quickly dived down towards a building across the street, he blasted himself forward, then as I curved to fly alongside the building instead of at it, he corrected his course. "But it won't be enough. Maybe Osborn will learn that he can't hide from his past when you're laying in pieces all over the ground!"

I needed to defend myself, I needed to defend myself, I needed to—

"Holy shit, what did I do to you!?" I demanded, twisting around to face him as I transformed into a brachiator, though I kept my human vocal box. Brachiators, for those lacking the knowledge, are a species of primates that happened to develop hugely long arms. This was important for me because I wanted to stop him with as little danger of that gauntlet striking a dangerous part of me as possible. I grabbed one side of his arm, another side, and started spinning like I was Mario fighting Bowser. "I don't even work for Osborn, you idiot!" While we dropped through the air, after building up enough momentum, I at last let go and flung the dude into the building we fell past.

SMACK. My super strength yeeted him so hard he dented into the wall and became stuck there. I landed on the street below into a roll, panting.

Feeling the small onset of transformation exhaustion rising up in me, I glanced around the street. People kept a safe distance from me, but had their iPhones and iPods out, snapping pictures and filming videos of the fight. That wasn't what was important to me, though. What was important to me was the bakery I spotted. I raced at it, yanked the door open, and before anyone could stop me, jumped over the counter and grabbed a loaf of bread. With employees shouting in annoyance behind me, I dashed out the door, scarfing the bread down to replenish my carbs.

The Shocker struggled in the wall, but he was good and stuck for the time being. Not content with that, though, I edged away down the road, then quickly ran.

That… that had happened. My first encounter with a supervillain…

I… needed a change of clothes. And I really needed to hurry up and get better at sewing so that I could have a damn outfit that wouldn't be lost when I needed to make a full transformation.

…Speaking of which… I should probably go get those lost clothes.

I turned back into an eagle and headed for the building I'd been blasted through. My flapping wings powered through the air, the cool wind rolling off my feathers. I perched on the entrance to the hole and, now that I wasn't panicking for my life, took in the place that I'd landed in. It had been an unused office by the looks of it; there wasn't even a computer on the desk. A single plant lay withering away in a pot next to the door, and it looked kinda dusty.

I glided over to where my clothes lay in about the middle of the floor, picked them up, turned into a human with an ape head, and began putting them on. Don't want to leave too much evidence lying around… It'd be bad if the police got their hands on the clothes and took my fingerprints off them.

While I was struggling to put my clothes on, I thought I heard something and paused, listening carefully. When nothing was forthcoming, I shrugged and kept pulling my pants up. I zipped and buckled the fly, cracked my back—

BEHIND YOU!

I swung myself to the side just in enough time that I missed the blade slashing through the air only cut off a few gorilla hairs instead of my actual head.

What the—what now!?

My eyes followed my sensory warnings to the sight of a black-and-purple clad menacing figure slinking at me from the shadows. Glowing purple claws rose out of holes in the back of his suit, and with that three-spiked cape, it could only be one villain—the Prowler.

What. The. Hell.

"Where are you guys COMING FROM today!?" I yelped, nervously taking a few steps towards the open hole in the wall. The Prowler stalked forward, claws in his metal glove stretched out menacingly. He held his hand out and dragged them along the wall, throwing a disgusting sound of metal slicing against stone out. I winced, clapping a hand over my ear, and I also stared as the blades cut through the stone like butter.

Shit, not good. Oh, no, not good at all. If those things cut through me, that'd be very, very bad.

Swallowing, I backed up towards the hole, but just as I was about to utilize the ability of the chameleon, a shockwave rocked out and the Shocker jumped through the hole. He landed two feet away from me, glanced to his side, and saw me. He readied his gauntlet, but the sound of the Prowler's blades cutting through stone dragged his attention away.

"Prowler," he growled out, glancing between us. "Two versus one? I guess your boss didn't like the results of the last time we met."

"You're not who I'm after, Schultz," the Prowler, voice made more mechanical than it should've been, probably to hide his identity. "Stand back and get out of here if you know what's good for you. The animal's mine."

My eyes flicked between them nervously. They certainly seemed to have history, and I… wasn't sure if that was good or bad for me. It didn't exactly appear to be a friendly history, though, so maybe I could use this as an advantage…? As I looked around for an opening, though, Schultz, which confirmed that my previous attacker was indeed the Shocker as I'd guessed, growled.

"What the hell? The kid's not with you? You expect me to believe that?"

The Prowler's yellow eye-holes narrowed. "I don't have time for this, Shocker. I'm on a tight schedule here."

They tensed, eyes focused on each other, and a second later, Schultz cursed. "I've fucking had it with you guys' shit, Prowler, this ends now!" He dashed forward, and gauntlet clashed against deadly sharp blades as a wild fight started up. Seizing the opportunity, I gave myself the camouflaging ability of a chameleon, and as quietly as I could, jumped out the hole in the wall and flew away.

My head spun, and even as the Prowler got knocked out of the high-rise and created a new hole in it, with the Shocker following behind him, I didn't allow my heart to calm down. I turned my head back around and gained as much distance as I could, pointedly ignoring the sounds of increasingly large destruction. The wailings of police sirens joined the cacophony of the villains' battle.

With both Tartarus and the Prowler after me… I needed to lie low for a while.

Shit, shit, shit.

As I hid out in my room later that evening, the pride that I'd slowly built up over the week and a half slipped out of my grasp.

I still couldn't do anything but run away from my problems when faced with actual supervillains, and I was starting to think I'd stumbled across something way bigger than what I'd ever thought.

I was wrong. The superhero life wasn't my speed after all.

And that hurt way worse than the Shocker's electric gauntlet.