I, Sadly, don't own Spider-Man. This is for fun and not for profit. Enjoy!

Way of the Spider: Chapter 4

Dancing with the Devil in the Pale Moonlight:

Wednesday Night

Peter's Bedroom

"Yes it works!" yelled Peter excitedly as the device he has been working on was finally functional. He quickly put the device around his neck and adjusted it, using the computer next to him.

"Testing, Testing. Wow this is going to take some time to get use to." This time Peter spoke, but his voice came out robotic like. That device was none other than the voice changer. He has been working on it for the last two days and now had a working prototype. The voice changer was made from the research and schematics he stole. He was able to build one, but it turn out to be too big to carry. He quickly got to work on making it smaller and after many tries, he has succeeded. The new mini-voice changer had some improvements that Peter has added, like a small sensor that turns off the device when he wasn't talking. To extend the battery life.

"She sells seashells by the seashore, she sells seashells by the seashore, she yells. Damn it, oh well. Now to use this to scare the criminals silly." Peter said in his new, cold, metallic ,and emotionless voice.

He turned to his closet door and opened it. He was looking for the bag he took from the drug dealer last Friday. "Found you." the still unfamiliar voice exclaimed. He opened it to see all the money he stolen from the drug dealer that night. He was not interested in the money, but on the potential leads on the Kingpin. "Now. Let's see what secrets you hide" Peter said as he turned to his computer with a cell phone's S.I.M. card on hand.

Friday Night

High above the streets of Hell's Kitchen

"Nothing!" Yelled Peter in his head. The reason for Peter's frustration was twofold. First reason was that the information that Peter got from the drug dealer last week, all lead to a dead end; meaning he had no new leads. So now he has to find the devil to find out more about the Kingpin of crime, which where lies the second problem. He, the devil, was nowhere to be found.

He was pissed off with his current situation. After letting all those people buy the drugs, in hopes of finding their source, it was all for nothing since there were no new leads. The cell S.I.M. card, had a couple of encrypted calls that Peter wasn't able decipher, which sucked. Then the license plate he took from the drug dealer was from a stolen car which was recovered then sold to a recycle company to be recycled. Then the devil hasn't appeared for the last two days and all the hopeful leads he thought he had lead to nothing.

He was brought out of his line of thought, when he got a glimpse of a man jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

It was the Devil.

Peter couldn't help, but smile, under the mask, as he thought that his luck was finally turning around. With one huge swing, he landed in front of the devil, blocking his way.

"Well, well, well, What do we have here?" Peter asked as the devil stopped his run and looked at him confused.

"Kid, is that you?" the devil asked which now confused Peter. Sure, he changed his voice, but his costume was still the same.

"Of course it's me. What are you blin-" Peter wasn't able to finish his question, as his spider-sense ringed and Peter was forced to jump out of the way.

Thump, Thump, Thump!

Three shurikens, throwing stars, lodged themselves on the ground, where Peter was just standing. Peter turned his head to see where they came from and found three Ninjas jumping to the roof that he and the devil were on. The ninjas were all dressed in black, with red trim lines on their clothes, and the only thing that differentiate them apart, was the weapons they were carrying. One had two swords, strapped to his back. The other had two daggers on his belt, and the last one, had two more shurikens in each hand.

"Friends of yours?" Questioned Peter, since they all appeared similar to the devil's garb, only the colors were different.

"Damn, they caught up to me" the devil cursed as he and Peter were forced to dodge more shurikens by jumping away from each other. That was just what the ninjas wanted as Peter and the devil were forced to fight one ninja each while the last one kept throwing shurikens at them. Peter was stuck with the ninja with the two swords.

"Hey Devil, your friends have a funny way of saying Hi!" Yelled Peter as he was dodged a slash to his chest. "Must be an European greeting?"

He ducked down to dodge a blade swipe aimed at his neck, only to jump to his right as more shuriken were being thrown at him. Jumping over the two bladed ninja, which Peter has royally dubbed him as Swords, to dodge his blades and shuriken. Peter was quickly becoming annoyed at their attacks. He kicked Swords, sending him flying across the rooftop, and fired a web line at the other ninja, now dubbed as Pain in the Butt. Pain in the Butt ducked under the web line, but that was what Peter wanted. Using the web line, he cross the distance between them, by jumping and pulling on the same line. He kneed the ninja with his right knee and then used his left leg to kick him, while still mid air. This attack send the ninja flying over the edge of the building. Peter quickly fired another web line, catching the ninja, and attaching the web on the ledge of the building's rooftop.

"That takes care of that. Now to help and ask the devil som-" his thoughts were again interrupted by his spider-sense, as he cart wheeled to his left. Swords was back again and continued to attack him.

"What?" Peter thought confusedly as he dodged Swords' slashes. "I'm pretty sure I hit him hard enough to knock him out." The ninja swung his left blade at Peter, but Peter caught him by the wrist with his right hand..

"Enough." Peter irritated commanded as he squeezed the wrist using all his might. This caused the wrist to break under the massive pressure that Peter was used. The ninja stiffened slightly under the pain, but brought his right blade down to cut his opponent. Quick as lightning, Peter released the broken hand and caught the other with his left hand. This time, instead of crushing the man's hand, Peter used his right hand to punch the elbow with an excessive amount of force, effectively breaking the arm. The onslaught wasn't over, as Peter sent a roundhouse kick to the man, once again sending him flying. Peter shot out another web line to the airborne ninja and pulled. The web stuck on the ninja's mask, and was pulled off. This surprised Peter, as he wanted to pull the ninja into another kick, only to unmasked the ninja.

"Oh well, he should be passed out by now from the pain" thought Peter as he turned to see what was happening with the devil. But he caught a glimpse of the ninja getting back up. Once again, Peter was shocked. Not only due to the fact that the man was getting up, but more so due to his face.

He only had one eye that seemed to be protruding out of his eye socket. Where his other eye should be was empty and rotten. He was pale and the flesh from his cheeks travelling towards his mouth was tearing apart, allowing Peter to see his teeth through the holes. He had no nose and had a few strands of hair still attached to his head. He was missing an ear and the other was bitten in half. He smelled of death and decaying flesh.

Zombies.

Peter couldn't believe it.

He was fighting Zombie Ninjas.

Zombjas.

"What the f* #? Zombie ninjas? How?" Peter yelled out in disbelief of what he seen. The ninja just popped the broken bones back into place, and put his mask back on.

"Kid, you need to kill them! You can't just disable them! They will just get back up and go after you once again!" the devil yelled out from the other end of the rooftop.

"NO, SH$* Sherlock, I noticed the zombies parading as ninjas!" Peter shouted angrily at the devil for not telling him that the undead were real, let alone, skilled at the fighting arts. This just proved that a real zombie apocalypse was coming and Peter felt foolish for not believing in it, or preparing for it. Like all those crazy people. Damn, maybe he should swing by the gun store and buy a shotgun.

Peter's spider-senses rang again and he ducked as more shuriken flew over him. "Of course he's back!" thought Peter as he turned around to see Pain in the Butt back on the roof, readying another volley of shuriken. Then once again his spider-sense rang as he had to dodge the ignored Swords' attack.

"Well it could be worse, kid!" Devil yelled out as he just snapped the neck of the ninja he was fighting with. The newly re-dead ninja was engulfed in a black mist and disappeared leaving nothing.

"You did not just say that out loud!" Peter incredulously yelled out.

And as to prove Peter right, eight more ninjas jumped onto the rooftop. Peter turned to glare at the devil which the devil responded with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I hate you." Grumbled Peter as he turned back to the Zombjas before him and proceeded to bash their heads in.

The next thirty minutes were hell on earth for Peter. He was able to dodge most of the attacks and was able to kill some of the Zombjas. The real problem was that when Peter or the devil "killed" one, more just showed up. This is how we find Peter and the devil, back to back, surrounded by a horde of undead assassins. That within itself is a scary thought.

"You... still alive.., kid" asked the out of breath devil as some of the ninjas that he failed to kill got up.

"Yup.., but.. Barely." respond an equally tried Peter. The same scene played out in front of Peter as the ninjas he injured got up. Peter was in a worse state compared to the devil, seeing as he had cuts all over his body from failed evasions.

"This is.. Bad.. normally I would be.. Able to run and.. Hide from them.., but." the devil didn't finished his sentence as he was struggling to catch his breath. The ninjas that got up started to realign their dislocated limbs back to place.

"But I'm here… Frig...My life." Peter was not as out of breath as the devil, but his cuts were starting to burn, more than normal. He noticed that when he first got a cut, his body started to move more sluggishly which continued as he received more cuts. The only explanation he could think of was that the Zombjas were using poisoned weapons. The Zombjas finished putting themselves back together and readied for another attack. Peter needed a plan to lose the ninja and fast. Some of the undead jumped to continue the attack on the masked vigilantes.

Peter kick the first one that got close, and punched the head off another ninja that used the first ninja as a diversion to attack him. Dodging a fatal stab to the stomach by side stepping to the left, Peter shot the ninja, that was sneaking behind him, on the face with his webs.

At that moment Peter had an epiphany.

"That is it! Devil, when I say jump. You jump as high as you can!" which the devil responded with an intelligent "uh." His response was not important, since Peter had a plan to survive the horde.

Kicking a ninja on the jaw and following with another kick to its chest caused it to be sent flying towards the others. The force of the kick was so strong that it even sent the other ninjas flying as well and toppling them to the ground. This left Peter some breathing room, as he reached for a new web cartridge and threw it up in the air. Some of the ninjas recovered, got up and attacked him again. Peter charged ahead, bobbing and weaving through ninja's attacks, looking for the final piece of his plan. After dodging a sword swipe, he found it. A ninja throwing shuriken. This brought a smile to Peter as he thought of the poetic justice that was about to happen.

With a mighty punch, Peter tore a hole through the ninja's chest, but before the ninja disappeared in black smog, Peter took a shuriken from the undead assassin. With the shuriken at hand, Peter yelled for the Devil to jump. Peter mustered all of his remaining strength and jumped to the airborne devil. As Peter got the devil, he send the shuriken to the web cartridge that was still in the air. Peter's strengthened jump had caused them to fly over the edge of the building when he reached the devil.

The punctured cartridge exploded. Sending its high pressured contents all over the rooftop. Entombing the horde of undead assassins with high strength webbing.

The free falling heroes were now in a predicament as the poison in Peter's system finally took its full effect, knocking him out unconscious. Peter's last sight was the cold, hard, and unforgiving ground racing towards him.

Next Day

Unknown Location

Peter awoke from his poisoned induced sleep to the smell of some sort of incense. Looking around, he didn't know where he was. The room was large, but was voided of any furniture. The only thing in the empty room was him and a small container, which held two lit incense candles. Peter got up from the floor and quickly regretted the movement, as his head started to pound in protest. He reached to comfort his head with his hand only discover that he was unmasked. He was missing his shirt as well, and was bandage.

"What happened?" questioned Peter to himself, not expecting anyone to hear him nor receive an answer to his question.

The door opened to his right, and a voice called out to him, "Ah, you're awake? So soon?"

The response caused him to turn to the source. Trying to focus his still, blurry vision on the source, he saw an old man walking into the room holding something in his hands. Peter seeing he could again some answers, directs his question to the old man which caused him to chuckle.

"You, my friend, just survived a lethal dose of viper poison. I thought you were a goner. Imagine my surprise to find a pulse. You must be a hard man to kill?" The man questioned but sounded more like a statement as he sat near Peter.

"It doesn't feel like that's true," He replied earning another chuckle. Peter then heard pouring water. Trying to see, Peter was able to observe the old man pouring a drink into a cup. "Here," the old man handed the cup to Peter. "It will help flush out the venom," which Peter proceeded to drink. The awful bitter taste caused a coughing fit."Don't complain, it is medicine. It is supposed to taste bad."

"Well then, this is one hell of a cure. I think it can cure cancer with a taste like that." retorted Peter as he downed the rest of the tea.

"With that out of the way, who are you?" asked Peter. The medicine was working fast as he was finally able to see the old man. The man was indeed old, late fifties to early sixties by the looks. He had grey, but a full set of hair. From the looks, he was Asian or from Asian descent.

"It is considered good manners to introduce oneself, before asking the name of the other person. But seeing as you were wearing a mask, you wouldn't give out that information out easily, no?" The man said "Well, my name is Shang-Chi, young man. And before you ask, you are in my house. Now that I answered two of your questions, may I ask two of my own?"

At this Peter got worried that Shang-Chi was going to ask for his identity or worse, a number to call his guardian. Aunt May would kill him before asking questions. Despite his worries, he nodded and the man asked away.

"Where did you learn to fight?" that threw Peter off, but he still answered nonetheless. "Nowhere. I, well, taught myself based on movies and fight video games." This answer got Peter a "Hmn, interesting." from the older man.

Shang-Chi stared at Peter in disbelief as he heard his answer and contemplated only to bring silence between them as the minutes dragged on. After a while, he asked his last question, "Okay then, would you like to learn how to fight?"

This was met with the ever intelligent, "UH," response from Peter. He wasn't expecting that question in a million years, but before he could voice his confusion, Shang-Chi continued.

"What? Think this old man can't teach you how to fight? Well you would be wrong, young man, for as you see, I was the one that taught Matthew how to fight." Shang-Chi said with a smile, but it was short lived, by Peter's confused question,

"Who?"

"Oh sorry, you may know him by his codename, Daredevil." This caused Peter to look at the old man with wide eyes at the revelation of the devil's name and master.

"This old man trained the Devil and now wants to train me" thought Peter, still not believing Shang-Chi.

"What's the catch?" Peter asked as he knew that every good deal almost always comes with one. Every good legal contract always have conditions and terms that apply and be meet in order for it to be valid. It was the same with deals. There is always some benefit to be reaped by making deals.

The reply to his question caused Shang-Chi to laugh, again. "You're smart to question my motives, but I assure you that we have been look at you for quite awhile now. Matthew has been trailing you for the last week and the fight you just survived has increased our interest towards you. Not many can survive an attack from the Chase with little to no training. You see, we are a part of an old organization that has been fighting the injustices of the world for many years. We can provide you with training and information on the one you are looking for. The Kingpin."

At the word Kingpin, Peter became serious and focused his full attention to the old man. "We can help you stop him. Stop his hold on New York." added Shang-Chi.

"All we ask is to let us help you. You have potential, young man. Don't waste it. Join us." finished Shang-Chi as he extended his right hand to Peter.

Peter was a bit overwhelmed with everything. This was happening way too fast for him to even wrap his head around. First was the fight with the undead assassins and now he was offered to join a secret organization. He had too much questions. This was all changing his view on the world he had, but truth be told, he needed the help. He hasn't been making any progress on finding and taking down the Kingpin. Sure he has been at this for only two weeks, but still. The Kingpin covered his tracks very well. The devil, in their last fight together, has said that the Kingpin had strong bodyguards. And if, the Zombjas were any indication, he was right. Plus they had more information on his target. Let us add, that Peter has no idea on how much time he was out. They could have used his blood from the injuries he got, to find out who he really is under the mask. That would mean his aunt and cousin were not safe if he would decline their invitation to join.

With a tried sigh Peter reached out to Shang-Chi's hand and shook it.

"Peter, Peter Parker." He said his name to Shang-Chi in which he replied with a smile.

"Welcome Peter to the Hand."

Meanwhile, Back on the rooftop.

All the undead were still struggling to free themselves from the webbing. They have been trying to escape their entombment for the last couple of hours without much success. Some that were able to free a limb would just stick themselves again on the webbing. It was quite the conundrum they were in.

Thump

The sound caught the attention of the struggling ninjas. There on the ledge of the building stood another ninja. He had the same black attire, but he had green trims instead of the red the others had. When the entombed ninjas saw who he was, they kneeled to him, well the ones that were able to.

He hopped off the ledge and onto the webbing. He proceeded to walk to the nearest trapped ninja to touch the webbing on him. He managed to rip a piece of the webbing that was on the ninja. With him rubbing the web on his fingers he said, "Kumo" (Spider). He then turned his attention to the same ninja that was still entrapped and with a punch, he killed the ninja, freeing him in the process. He then turned to the ledge he was just on, and walked towards it. As he was getting closer to the ledge, more ninjas appeared on it. He told the newly appeared ninjas, to kill the ones that were trapped, as he jumped and disappeared over the ledge. The ninjas on the ledge pulled out shuriken and send a volley to the trapped ones, killing them all, before they too jumped to follow their master.

Here is another one. Hoped you guys enjoyed the chapter and remember, an author fuel are the comments. Stay golden guys.