It's the Circle of Liiiiife...

Re-Edited 10/7/14

Chapter Seven

Hic Sunt Leones

By the time Falcon reached Spider-Man and his new friend, they had already destroyed half of the Museum of Natural History and caused a major accident across the street.

Spider-Man went sprawling onto the asphalt and just looked up to see the giant man-beast throw a purloined Tyrannosaurus Rex skull at him. The hero would be surprised, however, when the skull halted in mid-flight and went straight back at its thrower, striking the attacker and sending it back into the museum – and away from the bus full of innocents the skull would have crashed into.

"Falcon!" Spider-Man looked up as the girl landed on the bus, opening the jammed doors with her mind so the civilians could make their escape. "About time!"

"Hey, you should be more grateful!" she complained, overturning a flipped taxi and allowing a family and the driver to scramble out. They were bruised and banged up, but seemed mostly unhurt. The daughter, around twelve or thirteen, had to be pulled away by her mother after becoming enraptured by the sight of the two heroes and complaining to see the rest of the fight. Falcon was personally glad to see them all gone and out of her way. "I had to break at least a dozen school rules to get here. I flew as fast as I could!"

Spider-Man was about to retort when the most recent public disturbance came charging back out of the museum, having gotten over the blow Falcon had dealt him. He seemed to go for Spider-Man at first, but paused when he realized there was another player in the game.

The beast raised his head, covered in a thick brown mane and sniffed the air, feline eyes narrowing on the bird girl. "What manner of creature is this? I have heard of you, the elusive Falcon. You do not smell like the animal you mimic, girl."

"Yeah, I wouldn't think too hard about it," Falcon replied, trying to figure out just what she was looking at. "And you're one to talk, Mufasa. What are you supposed to be, a reject from the stage of Cats?"

Spider-Man actually laughed, seeming surprised of himself. "Ha! That was actually funny!"

Falcon allowed herself a small smile. She had been working on her quips, deciding it was time well spent in detention while she otherwise wasted her time. The man-beast, however, did not seem as amused by her hard work, snarling and lowering onto all fours, like a lion ready to pounce. He shouted, "You will merely become another trophy of my achievements, bird! No animal can overcome Kraven, the Hunter!"

Falcon threw a glance at Spider-Man. "That's the name he's going with?"

Spider-Man just shrugged. "Hey, I don't always get to make the call – oof!"

Kraven the Hunter, as he so liked to be called, decided to take advantage of Spider-Man's moment of distraction and slammed into the Webhead at full speed. The two became a blur of red, blue, orange and black as they crashed through the park beyond. Spider-Man's landing was softened with a tree trunk and he fell into a snow bank, momentarily stunned.

When Falcon dropped down beside him, Spider-Man had picked himself up and said, "Jeez, you couldn't be bothered to help?"

"Do want me to hold your hand, too?" Falcon shot back, pointing at him. "You're the senior hero here; I just showed up to support you."

"In a non-combative capacity?" Spider-Man replied, then paused and looked around. "Um, where did he go?"

The two heroes immediately went on high alert. Spider-Man jumped into the tree above them, scanning the area while Falcon dropped low, in case the Hunter decided to pounce.

She winced when Spider-Man started calling: "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty! Here, kitty, kitty...You know, Falcon, I wish I was playing Hide and Seek with Black Cat. I still prefer my feline's female."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Falcon called back, trying to tone down the weird shudder going down her back. There were a lot of things that a superhero had to get used to, and male family members (even if she only had one) talking about attractive females still made her a bit uncomfortable.

A second of silence passed. Then two. It seemed to stretch on forever, but Falcon knew that it was just her nerves that were twisting with her perception of time passing. The fact that she sensed nothing on her radar, even when she stretched it as far as she could manage without feeling dizzy, made Falcon worry. Just how good was this Kraven? Maybe his title as a hunter wasn't so silly-sounding after all...

Like a bat out of hell, Kraven seemed to appear out of thin air, roaring as he tackled Spider-Man. Or tried to, at least, because Spider-Man, for all his wild antics, was a second faster.

Spider-Man jumped away before the hunter's unnaturally long claws could wrap around him, bouncing between two trees as the Kraven followed close behind. It was like a game of pinball, if the pinball had a very determined tailgater.

Falcon was starting to confuse herself with these analogies.

But Kraven was still fast enough, knocking Spider-Man off balance and tossing him back and forth before the hero finally fell at Falcon's feet.

"Um, help please?" Spider-Man groaned as he tried to pick himself up again. Falcon didn't need to be told twice as Kraven came back down, heading straight for the fallen hero.

Falcon jumped in the way, blocking Kraven's path. The giant lion beast seemed completely undeterred, perhaps because she was even smaller than Spider-Man. Feeling a twinge in frustration to see that she brought no fear into the hunter's eyes, she opened her wings and brought her arms up.

Kraven's skin was covered in a thick layer of fur, which explained why he was bare-chested (so to speak) and dressed incredibly lightly for the burgeoning winter. Meanwhile, Falcon was in the middle of freezing her bones off while she prepared for the full strength of Kraven's impact and used the beast's momentum against him.

Instead of simply stopping his attack with her own body, Falcon let her palms face out and push up when Kraven came into contact. The hunter cried out when she sent him flying in the air, using nothing but the sleight of hand and his own force to send him halfway across the park.

"Nice," Spider-Man admired her work as Kraven disappeared into a plume of snow. "I thought you were the brute force type, but it's nice to see you switching up your moves."

"You think I was going to stop that?" Falcon replied, bewildered. She nodded towards Kraven, who was charging back at them, angrier than ever. "Are you kidding? That would really hurt."

They had about three more seconds before the Hunter would be on top of them. Spider-Man looked at her and said, "I've got a plan. You in?"

"Well, I didn't have a plan, so yeah, let's see what you've got."

"All right!" Spider-Man threw his arms up in the air. "Tag team! I'm it!"

Whether Kraven was going along with it or he was prioritizing with killing Spider-Man first, it was hard to tell, but that's who he went after. Falcon took to the sky above while Spider-Man ran across the snow, webbing trees as he went and boxing in him and his feline attacker between a series of nets.

Falcon managed to figure out was Spider-Man was trying to do with his first attempt at a trap, but it wasn't working very well. His steel-strength webbing was no match for the Kraven who, although mildly frustrated with getting turned into a mummy, managed to break free every time.

Spider-Man's attempts at trying to get Kraven stuck in his web between trees barely slowed the hunter down. In fact, it just made the man-beast angrier as he tore off, taking some frozen bark with him. Spider-Man managed to throw in a good punch or two, but when he started climbing the trees, it became clear that merely trapping the Kraven wasn't going to be enough.

The hero leaped from tree to tree and tried to web the branches along the way to slow down the pursuing Kraven, but there came a problem when he was at the end of the tallest branch, with no near tree in sight, and having completely run out of web fuel.

Kraven reared back, triumphant at Spider-Man's apparent defeat. "Now you're mine, prey!"

"Uh, sorry," Spider-Man looked up at the hunter, looking only a little annoyed. "Who's the prey? Falcon, you're it!"

"What?" Kraven stared at the Webhead, bewildered. He looked up just in time to get a nice combat boot to the face.

"About time!" Falcon said, landing on the branch beside Spider-Man as Kraven went sprawling into the snow below. "I was getting bored up there just watching you. If you called me earlier, we'd be done by now!"

"Hey, you don't get to question my planning!" Spider-Man scowled, jumping back and kicking Kraven in the chest as the hunter leaped back up the tree. He directed the blow towards Falcon, who had distanced herself as well to prepare for the incoming Kraven. "When you said you didn't even have a plan!"

"You don't hold the rights on planning!" Falcon replied, grabbing Kraven's leopard print vest (which unfortunately felt very real) and punched the hunter in the face before throwing him back at Spider-Man. "I could've come up with a better one if you'd given me some time."

"Well, when you come up with a brilliant master plan in the middle of a heated battle," Spider-Man shouted back, decking Kraven with another gut kick and launching him back towards Falcon. "You come and tell me and we'll see how it goes!"

Falcon had to fly into the air to catch Kraven this time. She clasped her hands together and brought her fists down on Kraven's head, punctuating her blow with a mighty, "DEAL!"

Battered, bruised, and beaten, Kraven fell into the last web below, catching his fall and leaving the hunter unconscious as the heroes descended to admire their work. Spider-Man announced, "Take that, pussy cat! A lesson in humility, courtesy of the original and still Number One genetic misfit: Me!"

Falcon crossed her arms and glared at him. It didn't matter if there was no one in the direct vicinity to hear him, Falcon still wanted some respect. And maybe some humility in Spider-Man himself.

Spider-Man closed his eyes and sighed, then threw a thumb in her direction. "And his loyal sidekick, Falcon."

He got a snowball to the noggin for that one. That was about as good as Falcon was going to get, however. Spider-Man laughed and Falcon managed a smile of her own, but the merriment was cut short when something blipped on her radar.

She looked around, alarmed. Falcon couldn't tell if it was physical movement or the wind or a sound, just that it resonated deep enough for her to notice. She didn't see or hear anything after that, but Falcon was reassured she wasn't going crazy, because Spider-Man seemed to notice it, too.

"What was that?" she asked aloud, looking over to the streets, the general direction of the noise...or whatever it was. Falcon had the creepy feeling of being watched.

"I don't know," Spider-Man replied, as confused as she was. "Whatever it was, it's gone now."

They turned around to gaze at their catch. But the net was empty. Kraven had gone.

"And so is our new friend," Falcon muttered, frustrated that she let the minor distraction let a major problem get away. "Too bad. I wanted him to see what the inside of Ravencroft Institute looked like. And maybe my fists, too."

"Well, that's a battle for another day." Spider-Man sighed, dropped down to land on the net and placing his fists on his hips. He took a second to examine the empty space where Kraven would be, as if he could somehow divine how the man-beast got away without either of them noticing. Then he turned back to Falcon, still in the tree, and said, "So what did you want to talk to me about again?"

"Oh, right," Falcon shook her head, at first confused as to what Spider-Man was referring to. After dealing with Kraven, Falcon had forgotten the reason she came here in the first place. "It's about the White Rose. And you're not going to like it."

"What else is new?" Spider-Man said.

OoOoO

I joined Peter on his trip to the hospital. He had to explain to me who got hurt and why he wasn't there for them.

"Didn't you see the game?" Peter asked me as we walked through the doors into the emergency room lobby. He had a black eye from the fight with Kraven, but it was of little notice in a room full of broken bones, bloody noses, and other various injuries. "Flash broke his leg. It was pretty nasty – but hey, we won State!"

"How would I know that?" I replied, frowning. It was one thing to expect me to care about sports; it was another to expect me to actually watch the games. "I was in detention, remember? I missed the entire thing."

"Not that you would've gone anyways." He said, and he wasn't wrong. But it still left a question unanswered.

So I said, "And don't you hate Flash? He's, like, the last person in the world you'd feel sorry for. Among others."

Peter looked a little embarrassed, rubbing the back of his head and chuckling, "Well, tonight's been a really weird night. I actually threw a stuffed gorilla in Flash's name. Can you believe it?"

"I believe you're starting to lose your mind," I said, smirking, just as we turned a corner and nearly ran into someone else. Well, I didn't, because I sensed them coming, but Peter was caught completely off guard by the sudden bear hug he received from a girl with long dark hair. It didn't really take too much to figure out who it was. "Oh, hello."

"Petey!" Liz Allen cried, burying her head into his shoulder. "I'm so glad you came."

Peter grunted a little at the impact. After getting a similar but much more violent treatment from Kraven, he was a little worse for wear. "A-are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said, stepping back to look him in the eyes. Or eye, since the other one was closed due to injury. "But Flash is still in surgery. I know you two aren't exactly close, but...if you just sit with me?"

"Yeah, sure," Peter murmured.

Liz finally seemed to notice I was standing there, having watched the entire thing. For her part, Liz looked a little embarrassed. She bit her lip and her eyes flicked away. "Oh, hi, Amy. I...I didn't see you there. You here for Flash, too?"

I was not about to be the third wheel in a Liz-and-Peter thing. On top of the fact that I still wasn't sure if they were actually dating or not (or how I felt about the situation), I also knew Liz wasn't my biggest fan. While she was nicer than most cheerleaders, it didn't take much to see that she was swayed by the rumors about me. Rumors that may or may not spoil the relationship between her and my cousin. I knew when I wasn't wanted.

"Nah, I was just dropping Peter off," I said, trying to make light of the situation and managed a smile. Peter threw me an aside glance and I just ignored him. "I'm gonna head back out. If you need anything, Pete, you know where to find me."

He nodded his thanks and went over with Liz to sit in a nearby seat. As I left, I heard the sound of doors opening – Flash just being released from surgery, a crowd of family and friends gathering around his sleeping form. I didn't turn back to hear about his current condition.

As I went through the emergency room lobby again, I looked at the people waiting for aid. There were those that I mentioned before, injuries from utility accidents, car accidents, a few from the recent spar with Kraven. But there was disproportionate number of haggard individuals with red eyes and shaky hands. They were not physically injured but it didn't take a genius to figure out why they were here.

My gaze had been focused on a particular individual, a boy probably no older than myself, shivering and hugging himself as he stared at the floor. I had to turn away when he looked up, as though sensing that I was watching at him. It made me angry, to see someone like him like this. A part of me didn't want him to think I was disgusted with him, but the other part wanted me to go up and ask what the hell was he thinking?

If the boy thought anything was off with my reaction, he didn't say anything. He just went back to looking at the floor, hunching up and trying to make himself smaller. He looked so thin and cold – I tried to imagine what it would be like in his shoes, but I couldn't. I didn't want to. The boy, this room, this hospital were all just reminders of the White Rose's work.

I couldn't leave the building fast enough.