I examined the body that lay spattered on the cement. Police bustled around the scene, taping up the scene with yellow tape and little note cards. "He died after falling from the Empire State Buildings roof." A police officer told me cautisouly. Who would want to trust Spider-man? Anyone who read the Daily Bugle definitely wouldn't. "I can see." I replied as I turned away from the now pancaked man. A police officer who had been examining the body gestured to the medical examiner and they carefully inspected the body, sending worried looks my way. The portly officer adjusted his pants with a grimace and waddled over to me. "I need to take you downtown sir." He said.
The world shifted. "Wait, what?" The officers pulled a pair of handcuffs of his belt. "You're arresting me?" I sputtered. The officer nodded, his hat wiggling dangerously on his round head. "Yes, just for now. The victim had a web like substance on his wrists and arms, a substance only you can make." I shook my head frantically. "I had nothing to do with this!" The officer shrugged and looked unsympathetic. "We can do this peacefully or not sir. It's your choice." I nodded, almost in denial and allowed the officer to cuff me. He led me to the car. "Don't read me my rights." I requested.
The officer just nodded and closed the door. As we set off towards the station I stared at the hands in front of me. Red material and black webbing like material covered them. Those hands had done a lot, but they hadn't ever touched that man. In fact, they had been at home trying to work up the courage needed to dial their girlfriend's number. The car screeched to a stop in front of the station. The officer hauled me into the station. Police officers sent us curious looks but said nothing.
The officer shoved me in an investigation room and left. "It wasn't me!" I called, but no one replied. "Come one guys!" Silence reflected back at me. I had seen enough cop shows to know that the mirror in front of me was one sided and on the other side I was being analyzed by cops and who knows who else. I rubbed my mouth under my mask. Time ticked by. Finally the door creaked open and an African American man swept in. His black trench coat swept the floor and his one eye glistened with potential. He looked at me for a second. "Are you staring at my eye patch?" He growled. I frowned under the mask.
"No sir?" He nodded. "Good." He went and sat down at the table, removing pieces of paper from his folder and spreading papers everywhere. "Care to sit?" He raised an eyebrow. I'm a superhero, but this guy made me nervous. I obliged and sat down.
"Colonel Nick Fury." He announced without looking up. I drummed my fingers on the metal table. "Well here we are Spider-man." He gave me a disbelieving look. "Really now son, who else would you be, Iron Man in a Spidey costume?" I hesitated, unsure of how to continue. "I'm sorry." Fury sighed. "Don't be sorry. I'm here to talk to you about the murder of a street thug, Carson Daley." My fingers tightened to fists. "I had nothing to do with it!"
Fury cleared his throat. "I never said you did." I unclenched my hands. "Well I was just arrested for a crime I didn't commit." Fury finally looked up. "It was all under false tenses." He said with a wave of his hand. "I needed a way to get you down here." He looked casually at the glass mirror. "But what about the webbing found on the body?" I asked. "Oh that's very much real and the reason you here."
Fury picked a glossy piece of paper off the table and handed it to me. It almost looked like a mug shot. In it was a very beautiful woman. She had long hair that floated over her shoulders in an inky mass. Her green eyes were a brilliant emerald, but seemed shielded as if the world had tricked her too many times for her to trust anybody. Her red lips were pursed and her face showed obvious worry, but she was still exotic. "Who's this?" I set the picture down. Fury held up a stack of paper filled with tiny words in black ink. "This is Jessica Drew, 19 years old and incredibly dangerous." She looked tough, but someone I could handle.
"What's so dangerous about her?" Fury gave a rough laugh without any humor in it. "Dr. Jonathan and Miriam Drew were scientists conducting spiderlike investigations. Mrs. Drew was pregnant, and during an experiment a rouge beam came into contact with her stomach. When Jessica was born it was clear she was very different. Jessica was ten when her parents disappeared under mysterious circumstances. That's when HYDRA entered the picture." He paused to let it sink in. I knew about HYDRA. While S.H.E.I.L.D was a law enforcement agency, HYDRA was the opposite. It seemed they were always fighting with heroes and loud explosions.
"As head of S.H.E.I.L.D I have been monitoring Miss Drew very closely. HYDRA raised and trained her as an assassin, but one day two years ago she left. We tracked her as she searched London, her birthplace and San Francisco for her parent's killer but she went off the maps three months ago. We have just found her again." I picked up the picture. "She has spider like abilities. I'm guessing when she came back onto your radar it was here in New York?"
Fury nodded. "Correct. Miss Drew has been adjusting to the city and lying low, until last night when she finally made a move." He adjusted the blue tooth in his ear. "All day our best agents have been working to figure out what happened to Mr. Daley. It turns out he was mugging an old lady when Jessica Drew picked it up. From there we figured out the rest of the night from video cameras at the Empire State Building." Fury nodded to an old TV in the corner and it blared to life.
I watched the end of Carson Daley's life in silence. At the end Jessica turned her covered eyes to the camera. "There's another spider in town." She hissed. "And her name is Arachne. I'm going to fix this city- the right way." She raised her hand and a blob flew to the camera, cutting the feed short.
I leaned back. "Is she a villain?" Fury sighed. "That's where things get complicated. Drew is a trained assassin, and we've been trying to figure her out since she broke from HYDRA. Our expert analysis has said that Drew herself is not a bad person and her guilt over her crimes is clear. The thing is though crime is all she has known. So she's trying to do good in a misguided way." I gulped.
A person like Jessica was incredibly dangerous, even as a good guy. "How old is she?" Fury's eyes were filled with sadness. "Nineteen." I reeled from the news. "She's just a kid!" Even though I had been younger when I began my spider crusades, my path hadn't been as cluttered or hard as Jessica's had been. Fury pulled out another paper. "Miss Drew's abilities seem to be more advanced than yours, as you could see from the video."
He began to read from the paper. "Abilities include superhuman strength, reflexes, endurance and speed. Also, She can focus the bioelectric energy that her body generates into "venom blasts" sufficient to stun or kill normal humans, and she can also adhere to almost any surface by excreting an unknown adhesive substance from her palms and soles. Jessica rapidly forms an immunity to all poisons and drugs, and is totally immune to radiation. Her body also exudes a high concentration of pheromones which elicit pleasure in most humans while eliciting fear in others, though she uses a chemical "perfume" that can nullify this effect. She has also demonstrated superhuman senses as well as flight and being a talented hand to hand fighter." He paused to catch his breath.
"Is there anything she can't do?" Fury nodded. "Yes." I stretched my arms. "So what am I to do?" Fury put all the papers away. "We aren't sure yet. Miss Drew possesses one other power, and that's pheromone generations. Instantly all men who come to contact with her will fall for her while woman will hate her. We don't want you in contact with her until we can assure that you won't fall head over heels for her and forget your mission. But when we do solve the problems we want you to befriend Miss Drew, show her how everything works and eventually bring her in for a cleansing."
Something about the 'plan' seemed off. "Cleansing?" Fury nodded determinedly. "Yes, cleansing. We want to completely wipe Miss Drew of her HYDRA origins." I frowned. "I don't know if I agree with that." Fury shrugged. "We can cross that bridge when we come to it." I nodded. Fury stood up. "Thank you for your time Spiderman." He handed me a card. "Let's stay in touch. You're free to go." Without another word Fury swept from the room as mysteriously as he had come in. The door hung open in an invitation.
I crept into the hallway. No one tried to stop me. I exited the building and took a breath of fresh air from under the mask. It had been afternoon when I was taken downtown but now it was night. I shot a strand of webbing on a pole and swung off into the night, letting the moon guide me. I reflected on the Jessica Drew story. Was her nature even her fault?
Before I could ponder an answer a dark shape flew towards me. Before I could react I was flying through my air, a person on me. "Stop wiggling!" They demanded. The roar of the wind prevented me from deciphering if it was man or woman. We smacked onto concrete and I gasped with pain. The figure was lying firmly on top of me, preventing me from moving. I knew not to scream. Besides the fact it wasn't manly it would draw the attention of civilians, and then they would be in danger. A sickly sweet wafted into my nose, fuzzing my brain. The figure sat up, backlighted by the moon. The alley we were in was deserted.
"Hello Spider-man." Jessica hissed.