Friendly Neighborhood Huntsmen

by lyokoMARVELanime

When a presentation of Oscorp's latest invention goes crazy, two of Earth's heroes end up stranded on another planet far from Earth. With no way back home these two are left with very little options besides the obvious: protecting Remnant from whatever may threaten it. Not that its much of a choice for your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and Spider-Woman.

3. Burning the Torch

AN: So, yeah, this one kinda, sorta, totally took a lot longer to update than it should've, but hey! It's updated! So that's something. Right?

[audience silence with cricket chirps in full effect]

Sheesh, okay, I get it. Look, it's been busy lately, and I've got like, a bunch of other stories to work on, but as long as I get them updated, I consider that a win, so...here's the win for Friendly Neighborhood Huntsmen!

[audience applause]

There we go. That's better! Much, much better. And I gotta say, the reception this one has received has been quite positive so far. Let's hope this third installation of the latest Spider-Man&RWBY crossover keeps being as such.

Ruby: And hey! It's great that you've gotten another update out so soon, too.

AN: Yeah, it's not as big a thing to celebrate as you might be thinking, Ruby. I was kinda working on this at the exact same time as I was working on the most recent chapter of SLVR Chibi, so it's only natural that it would be finished and posted so close to the same time.

Spidey: Hey, as long as it's out now, I'm not complaining. About this anyway. We all know I've got tons of other stuff to complain about. Like how people flip-flop between loving me and hating me, how so many of my friends turn into enemies before becoming friends again, albeit with some drawbacks and trust issues mixed in now and then, and of course all the "love" I get from J.J.

AN: Well, let's give you one more thing to not complain about, Spidey, and get things rolling. Right after this little Studio Fandom notice:

If you haven't already, please check out our YouTube channel "Studio Fandom". It's the best place to get updates as to what I'm doing with my writing stuff at the time along with various other content. And if you want to look at some pretty cool artwork, we've also got a DeviantArt page now "studiofandom", so check that out too, when you get the chance.

Also, we are still holding an open casting call for voice actors to help us out with the reading series videos of the Remnant of the Key Reading Series. If you're interested, just hop on over to the YouTube channel, and find Episode 8 of Studio News. It'll give you all the details on what you need to do to audition. Please look into it. We really need the extra help, especially with finding someone who can play the parts of Team RWBY, Professor Goodwitch, and Aqua at the very least.

I do not own anything from any of the Spider-Man, Marvel, or RWBY franchises, or any other franchise mentioned in this story

---

Chapter 3: Burning the Torch

A few weeks had gone by and now everyone was talking about the mysterious, spider vigilantes fighting crime in Vale. Police were often arriving on the scene either just after the crimes had been stopped or in response to anonymous tips left about the Spiders' latest successfully stopped attack, while the news was going absolutely nuts in trying to cover any details they could about the Spiders. Many folks had tried getting video or footage of the Spiders in action, hoping to make some easy lien by selling it to the news, or in some cases, hoping to score some hits on social media, but most of them were pretty out of focus at best. The only one who ever seemed to get any decent pictures of the Spiders more often than not was a young, freelance photographer by the name of Peter Parker, a rather odd name in the eyes of some, but what was even more strange was how he was the only one who ever seemed to get so many pictures and in such good quality. Nearly everyone wanted to get him signed on so they could have exclusive access to his work.

All this and more had caught the attention and interest of many individuals of high standing and authority. The Vale Council for example were abuzz with questions as to who these strange vigilantes were and where they came from, because they certainly had no records of any huntsmen or huntresses with such abilities or even such attitudes towards crime fighting. Then again, most huntsmen stuck around after the fact to give local authorities a report on what had happened and how they had helped as opposed to leaving a simple calling card behind, so they had to assume the Spiders were not huntsmen, and the Council were even less fond of that idea. It was one thing to doubt the capabilities of the police force, especially since most people held more faith in the huntsmen than the boys in blue, but ever since these Spiders started taking to the streets, people had started to think that even the huntsmen were old news, or even that they considered everything else unimportant if it did not involve the Grimm. All this and more made the council determined to track down and deal with these vigilantes. At least, in the case of most of the members.

One particular exception to the council's ill feelings regarding the Spiders currently sat in his office browsing through the latest news updates about said vigilantes. Unlike the council members, Professor Ozpin found the Spiders very intriguing. It was clear they were not huntsmen, but they were not amateurs either. From what footage he had been able to obtain of their battles, it was clear that they both had a fair amount of battle experience under their belts. Sure, their technique was a bit unrefined, more so in the case of Spider-Man than Spider-Woman, but he could tell that there was at least some form of training in their fighting styles. Perhaps of a mixture of self-taught abilities and proper instruction, but whatever the case Ozpin was impressed, and then there was their equipment. Granted, Spider-Woman did not seem to use any kind of weapon or gadget at all, but unlike most people Ozpin did quickly figure out that Spider-Man's webs were not a Faunus trait just from watching a few videos in which the male vigilante had to pause and reload some devices he wore on his wrists. The fact that the webs themselves acted just like actual spider webbing was equally impressive, which meant that the Spiders likely designed their equipment themselves. Such talent and skill was hard to come by these days, and that just raised Ozpin's interests in the two even higher.

Of course, he knew very well his curiosity was likely amongst the minority of his peers, at least as far as being one born of intrigue rather than irritation. The best example of the opposite actually just stepped into his office, her scroll firmly in hand as she rattled off several details he had already gone over a dozen times as is and could no longer really bother paying mind. When Glynda Goodwitch realized she was being ignored, her often feared scowl soon came into play and grew stronger once she realized what her boss had been paying attention to instead of her. "Are you really going over reports on the Spiders again, sir?" Glynda almost scolded. The only thing holding her back was the fact that Ozpin was still her boss. "Just what is it about these vigilantes that you find so fascinating?"

"Many things, Glynda, but first answer me this: have you ever seen or heard of anything like them?" Ozpin questioned in return.

Glynda was right on the verge of saying yes she had, with every upstart or overconfident new student with delusions of grandeur that started studying at Beacon each year, but she had a feeling that was not what Ozpin meant. Yes, the Spiders did seem to act like a couple of beginner Huntsmen taking the law into their own hands, at least if you asked Glynda, but their overall skill and ability was unlike anything she had seen before as far as she could recall at this moment. In fact, Glynda had to admit their talents may even give them reason to be confident enough to exercise these acts of heroics, but she still had a hard time seeing what that had to do with anything.

Ozpin must have realized all of this was what came to Glynda's mind, because he let out a small smirk as he pressed on his point. "In all my years, I've never seen anyone or anything like these two young heroes, and you know just how considerable a claim that is coming from me. There is something genuinely unique about these two and not just in their ability, but their actions as well. Just how many people do you know of who would go out of their way to help others without asking for any kind of reward in return?"

Glynda had to admit her boss had a point. Ozpin of all people saying he had never seen something like the Spiders before meant something truly incredible, but then again, that could just as easily be bad news as it could be good. "Are you sure this isn't just another ploy by…her?" Glynda questioned. "Even after all these years of battling her, even you can't always predict what she might do."

"If the Spiders did hold some connection to her, then there would have been some signs by now if not sooner. Certainly well before this conversation could have taken place," Ozpin disputed without pause. He turned back to the various reports and news stories on the Spiders and added, "Whoever or whatever the Spiders are, I'm certain they may be great allies."

"Sir, you're not seriously suggesting we enlist a pair of vigilantes to do the work of huntsmen are you?" Glynda questioned.

"I'm saying that if we're to truly win this secret war we've been fighting then we may need to consider every approach available to us, regardless of its origin," Ozpin clarified, still studying Peter Parker's pictures of Spider-Man and Spider-Woman as he did.

---

"ACHOO!"

"Geez, Pete. Vampire sneeze," Jessica joked as she held an arm over her mouth.

"Sorry. Don't know where that came from," Peter sniffed while wiping away any spittle that remained on his face.

"You know, in Japan they say that when you suddenly sneeze for no reason, it means…" Jess started to tell him, only for Peter to interrupt.

"Yeah, I know the myth, Jess. I've watched some anime. The sneezing when someone talks about you thing is in just about every anime in existence, or at least all the ones that I've watched."

"Oh. Well then," Jess shrugged, leaving it at that as they continued on their little walk back to the Stan Ditko Shelter after a long day of job hunting mixed with their current method of gathering money. "So, sell any more glorified selfies today?"

"Ugh! I thought we agreed we were never going to call them that again," Peter groaned irritably, until a devious smirk grew on his face. "The joke died as soon as your boyfriend tried making it while we were dog-sitting Lucky that one time."

"Oh my god! You know full well Clint is not my boyfriend," Jess growled in response, having hated that rumor from the moment it started. "Seriously, he's old enough to be like my brother who's already finished college and settled down or something. I swear when I find out who started that bogus rumor, and you promised to never bring that up again."

"Then don't call my Spidey pics glorified selfies again like we agreed," Peter jabbed back, grinning all the while. Jess was right in saying he knew she and Clint were not a thing, especially since they also knew Clint had a family of his own, but he could not help but bring up the ill-conceived rumor every now and again when Jess said something he really did not like hearing about. "For real though, I did manage to sell a few pictures to some good places, and considering how much they all paid for those Spidey Pics, I'm now more convinced than ever that J.J. was either cheating or underpaying me."

"In fairness Peter, you are technically freelance, so your pay is only determined by who you sell to, when you actually bring something in, and how much your client likes the pictures," Jess pointed out. "Still, have any of them expressed interest in making you a full-time photographer? I know you don't want to have a job that makes you Spider-Man and Spider-Woman's private paparazzi again, but right now it is kind of our best bet."

"I know, but so far none of them are too interested. Not unless I get them an exclusive interview with the Spiders, and I don't think they're willing to settle for just one of us," Peter reminded her. A second later though, he did have a quick afterthought to add. "Then again, I think Vale News is coming around on hiring me without the interview. At least based on what that one reporter told me. Lisa Lavender, I think?"

"Oh yeah. I've seen some of her segments. She does seem to cover a lot of stories around Vale, so she must have a pretty good ear to the ground a lot times. If she says they're coming around, you just might have a chance," Jess noted aloud. Her contemplation came to a fast end when she thought about what she had ended up doing for work that day, and she sighed, "It's a lot better than what I've gotten lately."

"Hey, you're the one who said she was willing to take on any kind of work, and jumps at every odd job notice that gets sent to the center," Peter reminded her.

"Yeah, but I was kind of hoping for something a little more impressive than what basically amounts to heavy duty chores and such," Jess admitted. Just today, she had been hired to clean up the garbage in a nearby park, walk some dogs for one of the local animal shelters, and paint lord-knows-how-many fences, because she honestly lost count. "Have I mentioned how much I miss my SHIELD job? Or even living at Avengers Tower? At least then I could get paid for saving the world or just take it easy by living off of Tony's bank account."

"At least five times a day, every other day. Now, I have every reason to say welcome to my world," Peter half joked in response.

"Pretty sure you don't, since we're not currently on your world," Jessica joked back. When she realized she made such a horrible joke, she shot Peter a glare as she declared, "Look what you have done to me!"

Peter just laughed. "Who knew it would take getting stranded for your humor to improve this much."

Jessica's first response was to slap Peter, or at least attempt it. Peter just batted her hand away, and then her other hand, and he continued to do so as they delved into a playful slap fight all the way through the entrance of the Stan Ditko Center. Upon entering the center's front lobby, they did pause at the sight of Naoko talking with an interesting-looking pair of new arrivals. One was a boy with long black hair tied into a low ponytail, dressed in a dark green tailcoat, white pants, and black shoes, and the other was a slightly shorter ginger haired girl dressed in a black sleeveless vest, pink skirt, white sleeveless shirt, detached sleeves, a silver armor piece wrapped around her waist, under her breasts, and around the back of her neck, and white, low-heeled ankle boots with pink soles and laces. The most interesting thing about the girl though was the silver contraption on her back, because it did not look like something a typical civilian would carry. Or any civilian for that matter. Apparently, Naoko recognized this as well, and was feeling just as nervous about her fidgety nature as Peter and Jessica were.

"Alright, just to make sure we all have a clear understanding, you can keep your weapons on you, but you are not to draw them within the center at any time unless there's a freak Grimm attack," Naoko explained as plainly as possible. "You can use the center's workshop for any maintenance or repairs you may need to make on them, but otherwise they stay holstered and in storage mode at all times. Okay?"

"Yes ma'am. We'll be on our absolute best behavior and not bust out our awesome weapons at any time unless necessary. Like if a Grimm gets into the center, or someone breaks in to rob the place, or if a sweet little kid asks us to show them off," the girl eagerly saluted, much to her friend's tired exasperation and Naoko's worry.

"No, no! Showing off for kids is not a necessary circumstance, and as bad as it would be, do not use them on robbers either. That is something you leave to the police or licensed huntsmen. The last thing we need is for this place to be damaged by reckless kids who barely know what they're doing," Naoko scolded.

"Hey! We know perfectly well what we're doing! We've been handling ourselves without any help since we were kids," the girl snapped back, clearly insulted.

"Well, you're not just looking out for yourselves anymore. There are several other people here who need this shelter standing, so please," Naoko practically pleaded.

Before the girl could snap again, the boy placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her and then calmly assured Naoko, "Don't worry. You have my word that we'll keep that in mind." He spared a quick glance to the girl and added, "And that I'll keep an eye on Nora to make sure she does behave."

While Nora let out a miserable whine and made a face at the boy, Naoko just smiled in appreciation, glad to see the girl's other half was rational enough to keep her calm. At that point, she finally noticed their audience, and did not hesitate to wave them over. "Peter! Jessica! Welcome back," Naoko called, prompting the other two kids to turn to the secret superheroes. "Any luck on the job hunts today?"

"No more than what we've had for the last couple days, Naoko, but we're still getting by with Jess's odd jobs and my picture sales so, it could be worse," Peter sighed.

"I just hope you know you can't depend on getting lucky with finding those nutcase vigilantes forever," Naoko told him.

Hearing this made both Peter and Jessica mentally roll their eyes, as Naoko had made it no secret she was not the Spiders' biggest fan. Not to say she hated them or anything. Quite the opposite; she was glad there was someone looking out for the little guys like the Spiders did. She just did not approve of their methods in taking the law into their own hands and acting as vigilantes. To put it simply, it was hard to really know for sure how Naoko would react if the Spiders so much as appeared at the center for any reason, let alone if she found out she was actually harboring them here.

"Uh excuse me? Hi. Really quick question: what's this about pictures of vigilantes?" Nora suddenly interrupted reminding Naoko of why she had called Peter and Jessica over when she did.

"Oh, excuse me," Naoko apologized to everyone. "Peter, Jess; I'd like you to meet our newest temporary tenants: Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie. Nora, Lie; this is Peter Parker and Jessica Drew. They've been staying at the shelter for only a few weeks, and yet, they've made quite a name for themselves amongst everyone here. Although, Peter's made a name for himself for his work in taking pictures of Vale's new superheroes."

"Wait a minute. You mean…you're the one who's always taking those awesome pictures of the Spiders?!" Nora excitedly cheered.

Peter had to hold back a tired sigh. After all this was not Earth, so it people were not constantly seeking him out thinking he could somehow contact Spider-Man just because he took pictures of said hero. At least not all the time. There were a few folks here at the shelter who had already posed the question or some variety of it on more than one occasion after his first week's worth of pictures went public, so he still felt justified in the response he gave.

"Yeah, that's me, and no, I can't get you an autograph. From either one of the Spiders," Peter flatly told Nora.

Lie looked like he was on the verge of assuring Peter his friend was not going to ask that, until Nora whined, "Awwww. Fine." She quickly brightened up again though as she pulled out a magazine with one of Peter's pictures on the cover and a pen, and asked, "Can I get your autograph instead then?"

"I'm…I'm sorry. What?" Peter exclaimed. This was the first time anyone had asked him for his autograph. Sure, people did it all the time when he was Spider-Man but never as Peter Parker, so he was a little unsure on how he should react.

"Is it really that surprising? You have gotten pretty famous as the only person to ever get good pictures of the Spiders," Lie pointed out.

"Peter's gotten too used to being the nerdy kid that others would shove into lockers and stuff, so for him, any kind of attention like this is going to be pretty surprising," Jess explained.

Lie hummed in acknowledgement of this while Peter shyly agreed to give Nora his autograph, much to the ginger girl's glee. Seeing how well the four were getting along made Naoko smile too, and she did not hesitate to push forward with her plan. "Anyways, Lie and Nora…"

"Ren," Lie interrupted.

"Excuse me?"

"I prefer Ren. I know it may seem a little strange, but everyone has referred to me by my last name for so long that I've started to prefer that," Ren explained.

"Ah, I see," Naoko nodded in understanding. "Anyways, these two are new to Vale and will be staying with us until they can catch the airships to Beacon in a couple weeks. I know you two are still pretty new yourselves, and that you both just got back from your job hunts, but you're also the only ones available right now, so any chance you could show them around the city? Help them get a lay of the land and all that."

Peter and Jessica barely exchanged more than a small glance before the latter said, "Sure thing. We don't mind. It certainly beats moaning and groaning about our lack of jobs over whatever's cooking in the cafeteria right now."

"Which smells great, by the way," Peter quickly assured Naoko in the hopes of keeping Jess's comment from sounding like an insult to the shelter's food. He knew it might not be a great cover up, considering they were nowhere near the kitchen, but he had to make an effort. "But yeah, we can play tour guides for a little while."

"Perfect. Thanks you two," Naoko waved them off as she turned to another shelter resident.

"Well then, shall we explore the wonders of Vale?" Peter dramatically inquired as he led the way back outside again.

"Yes please," Nora cheered before racing out the door with Peter in tow.

The other two watched their respective partners go as they calmly followed after, until Jessica said, "Your girlfriend sure is the peppy, cheerful sort, isn't she?"

"What? G-girlfriend?! Uh…um…I," Ren stuttered, losing all sense of composure he had been exuding at long last.

Apparently Nora had heard this too, because she skidded to a stop and started to laugh nervously. "We're not together," Nora tried to explain. "I mean, yeah we are together as in we hang out together, travel together, and basically live together, but we're not together, together."

"You're not? Seriously?" Peter exclaimed just as surprised as Jessica looked. "I mean, you guys look so close."

"And you seem like you'd make a really cute couple," Jessica added with a smirk.

"Th-thank you," Ren stuttered on his and Nora's behalf, mainly because Nora's face had started to turn red as an apple. "But no, we're just really good friends. I suppose it is only fair you would assume such things about us since I was making a similar assumption about you and Peter."

"Ew, gross! I mean, yeah, I love Pete, but only like a brother. A very geeky, sometimes annoying little brother," Jessica insisted.

"Awww! I knew you cared, Sis," Peter teasingly cooed. He then leaned over to Nora and whispered, "You can tell she really means it when she calls me annoying. And if we're all being honest, we both know that I'd clearly be the older sibling if we were related, mainly because she's jealous of my incredible wit and charming demeanor."

"Oh you wish," Jess shot back without a second's pause, much to everyone enjoyment, thus beginning a new bond of friendship born through jokey banter and teasing. Not that it changed either Spider's mind about Ren and Nora making a cute a couple, even if they did seem to be in pretty deep denial.

---

"…and this area of the shopping district is the biggest hot-spot for a quick meal at a cheap price. At least from what we've gathered. I'm sure there are a few places here that are a little more expensive, but with our budget, Jess and I have been sticking to the spots we can actually afford when we eat out," Peter explained to his newest friends as they all continued touring the city.

"Wow. For someone who hasn't been here very long, you seem to have gotten to know this place pretty well, Peter," Nora noted aloud.

"Oh, I don't know about that. Most of this stuff is things I only learned from Jess. She's the one who got an easy lay of the land within our first couple of days here," Peter corrected.

"Really?" Ren inquired in surprise.

"Well, some old coworkers at this job I hated did teach me a few useful skills that can be used just about anywhere in life, so might as well make use of them," Jessica shrugged. It went unsaid that she used her old HYDRA training for casing a location to map out the city for her and Peter, but only because she and Peter were the only ones who would know anything about that for obvious reasons. Hoping to steer the conversation away from her past, Jessica then looked between their two charges and asked, "So Naoko mentioned you two were only staying at the shelter until Beacon's next school year started up. Does that mean you're hoping to become huntsmen?"

"Yep! Ever since we were kids," Nora confirmed with pride. Her face fell a little upon recalling the details leading up to her and Ren's decision to become huntsmen, but she still pushed on regardless. "We grew up outside the kingdoms and had to fend for ourselves for a long time, so we want to make sure we can keep other kids from having to go through the same thing. Plus, what's the point of having our Semblances and the ability to fight if we don't use them to help others, ya know?"

Ren just silently nodded in agreement, but Peter and Jess both picked up on the slightly haunted look in both their eyes. Even so, Peter could not help but ask, "What about your families? What do they think about the whole thing?"

The two huntsmen-to-be looked down in sorrow, answering the question without saying a word. Peter hastily offered an apology, but they both waved him off, saying it was alright and he could not have known. Jessica could not help but ask for a little more detail though. "What happened to them?"

"The Grimm," Ren stated simply, glaring off to the side at some unknown thing only he could see, prompting Nora to place a comforting hand on his shoulder. Ren gave his friend a smile of thanks before looking back to their newest friends and asking, "What about you two? It's hard to believe you'd be staying at the shelter and out hunting for jobs when you're not much older than us."

"Uh…It's complicated, but to make a long story short, the two of us are pretty much all we have right now," was the only thing Jessica could think of to say, and it did not look like Peter was much better off.

"I won't ask anymore then," Ren assured them.

"Guess that makes us even, because I was going to drop our questions about your past after that last comment," Peter informed him, much to Ren and Nora's surprise. "I know some folks say talking about it makes things easier, but you shouldn't try to force yourself. All that matters for now is that you're here, you're about to live the dream, and you've got a couple of new buds to watch your backs. After all, us orphans gotta stick together, right?"

"Right," Ren chuckled in response, and it was not long before Nora was smiling happily again. Only this time, it was more heartfelt and a little less like something you would find on a kid in the midst of a super sugar rush. The four had shared a quick fist-bump with one another to cement their new bond when they suddenly heard a loud crash from somewhere close by.

"What was that?" asked Jessica.

"Don't know, but I'm gonna find out," Nora determined, and before anyone could say or do anything to stop her, she took off to where the sound had come from.

"Nora! Wait! Don't just run off on your own," Ren shouted as he chased after her.

"Guys, maybe we should call…some…one," Jessica started to call after them, only to trail off when she saw the look Peter was giving her. "You're right. They should be fine." A brief silence between them before she exchanged another look with her brother in all but blood and asked, "We're still going to suit up and help them out, aren't we?"

"Like that was ever in question," Peter remarked, already turning towards the nearest alleyway they could duck away and change in. "At least this way we don't have to come up with an excuse to ditch them."

Jessica smirked a little at Peter's joke, but had to grin as she pulled off her top to unveil her Spider-Woman costume underneath and added, "And maybe seeing them in action will be all the more with helping you get over your concerns about this world's huntsmen and huntresses."

"Eh, hehehe, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, Sis," Peter cautioned after snapping on his web-shooters and gloves.

---

The crash the four friends had heard was caused by a gang of crooks who were currently in the midst of robbing a nearby Dust store, and unfortunately for them, some random civilian had tried being a hero, prompting one of the crooks to teach them a lesson by throwing said civilian out through the window. Needless to say, his buddies were not too fond of the attention his chosen course of action may now be drawing.

"You idiot! What part of keep it as discreet as possible did you not get?" one of the thugs demanded as he began sweeping more dust into every case he could a little more recklessly than he had been before.

"Gee, I don't know. How about the part where we're robbing this place in broad daylight? Discreet went out the window long before that dumbass did," the window-smasher/civilian thrower pointed out.

Before either of them could get further into it, the lead thug snapped, "Both of you shut it and just grab whatever you can. Did you forget that we're just on loan here? If any of us get caught it's likely to go back to our boss and not the guy who hired us for this job, and I for one don't want to end up getting webbed by the Spiders."

"The Spiders? Man, are you for real? The Spiders are just some myth a bunch of guys made up when a couple of rookie huntsmen got lucky or something," the skeptic of the bunch brushed off.

"Nah man, the Spiders are definitely real. My cousin, Jerry said he saw one of them hog-tie his pals to a lamp post just the other night. Besides, don't you see the news? The Spiders are all over it, pictures and everything," Window-Smasher argued.

"Oh sure, because everything in the news must be true, like that story about how Atlas is building some robots that can act and even look like real people," Skeptic disputed without a second thought.

"I don't care what's real or not. I just want this job done and us gone, so can you all shut it and do your jobs," the lead thug snapped again.

"Or you could just surrender and not get beaten up. That's a pretty good idea too," a bright, cheery voice offered. The thugs all turned to see Nora standing in the entrance, weapon ready and pointed at them in its gun mode. A gun mode that had everyone, civilian, employee, and thug panicking.

"What the hell?! Are you crazy, kid? You want to fire a grenade launcher into a Dust shop?!" Lead Thug demanded as he and his boys all scrambled to put some distance between either the Dust still on the shelves or Nora. It was hard to tell which would be the safer option.

"Oh, I don't want to, but the real question is are you gonna make me," Nora informed him, a manic grin stretched across her face.

"Nora!" Ren shouted as he came rushing in, his guns already in hand. "We're supposed to be saving the people in the shop. Not scaring them more."

That wiped the grin off Nora's face. "Ren! I'm just bluffing!" she whispered to him. "I'm trying to scare them out of the shop and away from everyone else inside."

"Well maybe you should have tried that tactic in place with a lot fewer civilians," Ren pointed out, indicating the scared people inside.

"Oh…Yeah, right," Nora muttered to herself. While the two were still distracted, the gang took their chance to get out and make a run for it. Sadly, the two huntsmen-in-training still noticed and immediately raced off in pursuit, even as Nora called back to everyone, "Sorry for scaring you all! I really wasn't going to fire; I just needed to get those guys out of here before anyone else got hurt!"

The two best friends put all their focus on stopping the criminals after that, but they soon realized they would have a hard time catching up since they all piled into a nearby getaway car and began speeding away. Though they did leave a few friends behind for Nora and Ren to fight, and the two were soon battling it out with the grunts that were still present. Of course, they were not standing for long, at least in the case of the ones who ended up fighting Nora, because she easily brought them down with some easy swings of her hammer. Ren did fire a few shots at them with his guns, but for the most part, he focused on bringing them down with his martial arts and the knives attached to his weapons.

What neither one of them expected was for the thugs to have some more friends waiting in the wings to ambush them as soon as the first batch was down. Some of them had even tried to jump the two friends from behind, but their efforts were thwarted when a surprise web-line suddenly pulled them both back into a nearby wall. Several more webs later, and the two jumpers were stuck in place against the wall they crashed into, and the person behind the webs soon came swinging to join the fight afterwards, kicking down two more thugs as he landed alongside of the surprised Nora and Ren.

"Does it really take this many guys to fight a couple of kids? I mean, I know they're armed and all, but it still seems like overkill where I'm from," Spider-Man quipped to the gathered entourage of bad guys even as he proceeded to kick, punch, and web them up.

"Oh crap! It's that spider guy!"

"Seriously? The name is Spider-Man. I'm pretty sure I've said it either out loud or on the cards my partner and I leave behind for folks to find like a few dozen times now. Spider-Guy just sounds weird. And it doesn't work with the theme tune," Spider-Man critiqued as he kicked down another thug, webbing him to the ground right after so he would have one less bad guy to deal with.

"You have a theme tune?" another goon questioned, not knowing his pause would be the exact moment Spidey would use to web him in the face and then pull him down into unconsciousness afterward.

"Sure I do! Here, I'll hum a few bars for ya," Spider-Man excitedly informed them, and he then proceeded to start singing the first couple of lines to his song as he finished webbing up the criminals, much to the amusement of Nora and Ren, who were just sitting back and watching him work at this point. "Spider-Man~, Spider-Man~. Does whatever a spider can~. Spins a web, any size~. Catches thieves, just like flies~. Look out~! Here comes the Spider-Man~!"

By the time Spidey hit the last note, all the thugs were down, leaving only Spider-Man and two very impressed huntsmen-in-training standing. Meaning, Nora now had the perfect opportunity to talk with the superhero and she did not hesitate to take it. "That. Was. AWESOME!" she cheered upon racing over to Spider-Man, startling him a little with how fast she had approached him. "How'd you do all that? Where did you learn to fight bad guys? What's your weapon? Who made your outfit? Is there more to the song? And can I get your autograph?"

Ren looked like he was ready to tell Nora to slow down, but after spending time with Quicksilver and being around many excitable kids Spidey was already used to such rapid fire questions, so he was already responding to all of Nora's as best as he could. "A mixture of spider-powers and experience, I'm mostly self-taught, do web-shooters count as weapons, I made it myself, yes, and sure."

Nora could not help the excited squeal she let as she pulled out one of Peter's many Spider-Man pictures from her bag and a pen, not knowing Peter was smirking beneath his mask over how funny it was she was getting the same person's autograph twice in one day without even knowing it. He may have done similar things like this in the past back on Earth, but this was probably the first time he truly found nothing but humor from the situation and had to fight to keep his chuckles down. As soon as Spidey finished signing the photo for Nora, Ren stepped in to remind them of something pretty important.

"I'm sorry to break up the mood, but these aren't all of the thugs," Ren informed the superhero. "The ones who were actually responsible for the robbery—"

"Got away in a van earlier?" Spider-Man interrupted, much to Ren's surprise. "Yeah, we noticed. Along with how a certain someone thought it'd be funny to imply they would fire a grenade launcher into a Dust shop."

"I was bluffing! Geez! I may be excitable and like smashing and blowing up stuff, but I'm not an airhead," Nora loudly insisted.

"Right," Spider-Man mused, willing to play along only out of fear that Nora would use her hammer/grenade launcher on him. "Anyways, while I stuck around to help you guys out, my partner went after the rest of their gang. Speaking of which…" Spider-Man then tapped the side of his mask, activating the radio hidden inside it. "Yo Spider-Woman, are you still on our crooked little pests?"

"Better than that. I've followed them all the way back to their hideout. Not sure if it's a main base of operations or not, but considering the size of this warehouse, I doubt they're as small time as they seemed on the surface," Spider-Woman responded.

"Only one way to find out," Spider-Man decided. "What's your location?"

"Uh…Somewhere down by the docks. I'm activating the tracking signal in my Avengers ID card so you can find me a little easier," Spider-Woman replied.

Upon retrieving his Scroll from his belt, Spider-Man let out a sigh of relief at seeing the software he installed in order for him to pick up the trackers in their ID cards was working perfectly, and he was happy to inform Jessica, "Got it. I'm on my way."

"Can we come with? We could be a big help," Nora offered.

"It does seem only right that we help finish things," Ren added on.

"I appreciate the offer, but I think we can handle it," Spider-Man told the two, much to Nora's disappointment. Luckily, Spidey is a wiz at cheering people like her up. "But you could always deliver our famous calling card for me. And you know, tell the cops what happened when they eventually get here."

Just like magic, Nora immediately perked up and saluted back to him once he had handed over the card in question. "Yes sir, Mister Spider-Man. We won't let you down," she promised. Just when the web-head was about to swing away though, she did ask one more question. "Any chance you have another one of these I can keep? Please?"

This time Spider-Man did not hold back his laughter. It was very flattering hearing how big a fan Nora appeared to be, so he saw no reason not to oblige her request and hand over another calling card as requested. With all of this settled, Spider-Man swung off to meet up with his partner, leaving Ren to deal with a very excited Nora on his own. Not that he really needed any extra help, of course.

---

Seeing as she could fly and did not need to worry about a limited supply of items for her main method of travel, Jessica could not say she had been surprised when Peter told her to go after the goons in the getaway vehicle while he helped Ren and Nora, but she was a little disappointed over not getting to see her new friends in action. Still, there was important crime-fighting work to do, so she would have to settle for a play-by-play from Peter later. All the same, she did wish her spider-brother could have made things a little easier by loaning her one of his spider-tracers, and she made it a point to say so the second Spider-Man had landed next to her on the roof overlooking the warehouse their targets had fled into.

"Remind me again why we couldn't just tag the van with one of your tracking devices? We could've both helped Nora and Ren take down those other thugs a lot more quickly that way," said Spider-Woman.

"Because unlike certain other superheroes, I don't have a budget anywhere between millions to billions, and have to make the things myself. So unless it's absolutely necessary, I'd like to avoid throwing them out too much right now. Especially if there's a good chance I'm not going to be able to get them back. Believe it or not, building my spider-tracers is actually just as if not a bit more expensive than getting the chemicals for my web-fluid," Spider-Man reminded her, and he then put all their focus on their current criminal problem. "So, what've we got?"

"Not much of anything, at least not as far as I've been able to determine from here," Spider-Woman reported. "They went in just a couple minutes before you called, and they haven't come back out in a while. And I've made sure to keep an eye on all the other exits, so unless there's a secret one inside, they should still be in there."

"Why didn't you use some of that superspy stuff to sneak in and scope things out a little better?" Spidey asked.

"Do I look like Black Widow? More importantly, does it look like we can call SHIELD in case we need help at the last minute? I'd prefer to wait for any and all backup I can get right now, and seeing as it's just the two of us against the world at the moment," Spider-Woman told him.

"Point taken," Spider-Man conceded. He then narrowed his eyes on the warehouse and asked, "What do you think the chances are they're setting a trap?"

"Hmm…Given how much of a name we've been making for ourselves lately, and how many of their buddies we've probably left to be hauled off to prison, I'd say the chances are pretty high," Spider-Woman reasoned out with a smirk.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I see no reason to disappoint them," Spider-Man joked in response.

"Good; that makes two of us," Spider-Woman agreed, and with that, the two made their way over to the roof of the warehouse, where they quickly located a way to get inside unnoticed.

Once they were inside, the Spiders each made their way to one end of the building, listening in on the thugs as they spoke with one another and watching carefully for any signs of the trap they were sure had been waiting for them. Since they had not been active on Remnant for more than a few weeks, neither Jessica nor Peter was surprised by the lack of guards looking around at any position up above the room, or even patrolling the higher walkways and various other vantage points, but there was still a very noticeable number of goons with guns all the same. Spotting the getaway van they had been chasing took very little time too, mainly because it was one of the only vehicles parked by the garage door, and the guys who had been in the van were currently standing next to it while getting chewed out for their actions.

"You mean to tell me you guys got scared off by a little girl?" a high-ranking thug questioned the robbers from earlier.

"Hey, this wasn't just some girl, okay? She was a huntress, and a crazy one at that! The chick was going to fire a grenade launcher at us while we were still in the Dust store," a thug that Spidey recognized as the window-smasher from earlier defended.

"Yeah, who wouldn't be freaked out by that?" the leading robber added on in his buddy's defense.

"Did you ever think she might've been bluffing? I mean, you had hostages, didn't you?" the high-ranking thug questioned in return.

"Dude, you didn't see the look on that kid's face. She was all smiles and wide grins, like some kind of crazy person that belongs in an asylum or something," the skeptic from earlier added.

"We're just lucky we got out of there before the Spiders showed up," Window-Smasher stated.

"Oh geez, don't start that again," Skeptic groaned. "I'm telling you, there ain't no Spiders."

"You want to tell that to Roman? Why do you think he hired us out from the boss?" Mister High-Rank questioned in return. He took their silence as a no, and then put them all back to business. "Just unload whatever you did get, and then get ready to go back out again. He's going to want to hit as many as he can before nightfall since those vigilantes have taken to making sure the streets are 'safe' at night or whatever."

"Yeah, yeah. If they were so great, how come they haven't been hitting more of those White Fang guys and their bases?" Skeptic questioned.

"They have been. Why do you think the animals are so willing to cooperate with us right now?" High-Rank retorted.

"I thought it was because of this benefactor I sometimes heard Roman muttering about," Window-Smasher stated.

"Keep your mouth shut about that, will ya?! The last time someone let it slip they overheard one of Roman's conversations about these jobs he's doing lately, they ended up sleeping with the fishes after the guy blasted him in the face with that gun-cane of his," High-Rank snapped.

"You sure? I heard he shot them in the stomach and then buried him in the foundation of a nearby construction site," Skeptic told them.

"No, it was in the face. I saw the burn marks on him myself before Roman told me to help dump the guy's sorry ass into the ocean," High-Rank revealed. "Real shame too. The guy was a good drinking buddy of mine."

"Wait, are you talking about Paulie?"

"No. Larry actually."

"Oh no, not Larry. The guy was always the life of every party," Window-Smasher moaned in despair. "Man, we get back to the club, we should have a few drinks in Larry's memory. Gotta send a homie off right, ya know."

"I hear that," Lead Thug agreed, prompting similar agreements from all the others.

None of them ever realized they had just given Spider-Man and Spider-Woman a good deal of information about this operation. Most notable being how they were not done making the rounds tonight, how these guys were just on loan from someone else, and even the name of their employer. Sure, the news about them partnering up with the White Fang was a pretty big deal, but they were already dealing with the terrorist group anyway, so they doubted they had too much to worry about there. Thinking they had enough information for now, the two decided it was time to take action. Just a little more on the stealth side of things. After all, just because the room was so big, did not mean there were not still some places other thugs could be hiding, and they still had not seen this boss of theirs yet. Better whittle down the number of bad guys before taking on the big fish.

Working his way up to the ceiling, Spider-Man soon started picking off goons one at a time, webbing them to the ceiling as soon as he had them snagged. A tried and true tactic, but one that he did not exercise for very long. He knew he was running low on webs, and would likely be running out completely before too long so he had to pick his shots very carefully if he wanted to keep web-swinging for a long time. After webbing up three goons, Spidey decided to change things up by getting in close and grabbing some guys from behind in a sleeper hold; a little trick he had learned with some help from Black Widow and Captain America. After the guy had passed out, Spidey moved him into a secluded location where he would go unnoticed, and then proceeded to move back onto the wall. From there, he managed to jump a couple more guys from behind, knocking them out quickly with some quick jumps and acrobatics in order to keep from being spotted by anyone.

Spider-Woman used some tactics similar to what Spidey had switched too after his first few thugs were webbed up for most of the time, which came as no surprise since she had never used webs in battle like her male partner. She would sneak around and grab guys from behind, slip in from a wall to knock them out with a tiny zap from her bio-energy blasts, and sometimes even just go for a straight-up, quick knock out strike that consisted of either punches or spin kicks. All these maneuvers and more were executed with the precision and skill one would expect of a master SHIELD agent and former HYDRA assassin, and that was without factoring in her spider-powers. Of course, there was one particular trick she kept up her sleeve until the very last moment.

See, a little known fact about Spider-Woman, at least among most people back on Earth, is that she has one power that is rather difficult to control: a special spider-pheromone power. Generated by her metabolism, Jessica can use this power to mess with people's minds in various ways, including making them very afraid or incredibly attracted to her. It's not something she really likes using, mainly because she cannot control it due to how it can react to her own mood and stress at times, but when she does use it, she makes sure to only keep it going for just long enough. A fact her last target would soon find out when he caught a teeny tiny whiff of those pheromones.

As soon as the thug had sniffed the delightful sent, he could not help but follow it in a daze to its source. Upon discovering said source, he barely registered that Spider-Woman was standing before him, looking relaxed as can be as she struck a very alluring pose. Jessica's smile only widened by a fraction as she noticed he was not likely going to come around any time soon, and she could not help but quip, "Hey tall, dark, and unconscious."

"Uh…what was that last…?" the thug started to ask, only to end up zapped to sleep when Spider-Woman blasted him with a small dose of bio-energy, motioning like she had just blown him a kiss when she did.

"Gets them every time," Spider-Woman mused with a chuckle as she stepped towards him latest victim, casually taking her time in moving him out of sight in case there was anyone she or Spider-Man had missed.

"Hey, what was that?" someone suddenly said, confirming that there had been at least one person she had missed.

"Oh crap," Jessica cursed as she hurried her pace in moving the thug. "Come on big guy. I need you to sleep over here in the corner before we get caught by your friend."

Unfortunately, Spider-Woman ended up being too slow or her thug was just a little too heavy. Whatever the case, it led to the last thug spotting them and preparing to sound the alarm. He only failed to do so because of a last minute web-line grabbing him and lifting him up and away right before he came swinging back down all nice and snug in a cocoon of webs. Shortly after, Spider-Man lowered himself down to Jessica, hanging upside down from his web as he often would, and could not help but jokingly scold her for her sloppiness. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. For shame Spider-Woman. For shame. Making so much noise before checking to make sure the whole area is cleared of all but the one thug. And you're supposed to be a professional."

"Even the pros can make a small mistake now and then. Something you would know better than anyone, Mister Experienced Crime Fighter," Spider-Woman quipped back after dropping the thug she had been trying to move. And not very gently either. Hey, the guy was unconscious; it was not like he would complain or anything.

Right when Spider-Man was about to make a joking retort, a new voice suddenly called out "Hey! What are you idiots doing out there? You know we've got other places to be and more Dust to steal tonight don't you? And more importantly, you do remember this warehouse is full of Dust right? So how about you stop horsing around before you blow us all to kingdom come, and get back to work?" When the speaker received no answer, a door suddenly opened up with a loud bang, prompting both Spider-Heroes to leap away into cover as the big boss himself finally made his grand entrance. "Hello! Does someone want to tell me what is going on out here? Don't make me go digging for answers, people. You won't like it when I do, or even when I'm annoyed by incompetence."

From where they were, both Spiders could now get a very good look at the big man in charge, and neither one of them was all that impressed with what they saw. The man in question was decked out in typical crime boss get-up, from the black pants and white suit, with a gray scarf around his neck and black gloves on his hands. Along with all of this, he kept his hair tucked under a black bowler hat, and casually spun a black cane around in his hand. Adding in the cigar he was currently smoking, and Spidey had a hard time believing this guy could be anything other than the Remnant version of his old foe Hammerhead. One that liked to pretend he was a major league, big-time crime boss like Tombstone or Kingpin. Seeing how little a threat this guy appeared to be, it was no surprise that Spider-Man saw very little need to keep hiding in the shadows, and soon made his presence known, much to Spider-Woman's displeasure. Then again, it was not like they really needed to keep quiet anymore.

"Hi there! Are you the one in charge, because I've got some serious complaints to file about your customer service," Spider-Man called down, drawing the boss thug's attention up to him as he crawled over. "I mean, all your employees are just so rude! Every single time I went up to ask one of them a simple question, they all decided to just drop down and take a nap! Really, what kind of business are you running here?"

Unlike his goon squad, this thug did not seem even the slightest bit deterred or intimidated by Spider-Man's presence. In fact, he just smirked back with a smug retort at the ready. "Oh hello there!" he called out. "I'm so sorry about the boys. First off, most of them are actually on loan to me from a third party associate, and second, I think they just wanted to show how excited they were at seeing the circus was in town."

"Dude, with a face like yours, I wouldn't talk," Spider-Woman quipped in response as she descended down her own wall.

"Oh snap! You just burned hard by the woman!" Spider-Man hollered jubilantly. "Seriously, you have no idea how much that should sting. It is very rare for her to dish 'em out so easily like that, Guy-Liner."

"Yes, quite impressive," the thug snipped in return. "So, judging by the horrible sense of humor and attire, I'm guessing you two must be the ones who have been mucking up my operations in Vale recently."

"Your operations huh?" Spider-Man quipped.

"Yes, my operations, because, guess what bugs, this is my city, and I don't appreciate would-be heroes messing around in my city. I barely tolerate huntsmen as it is, be it the official ones or the kiddies who attend Beacon."

"I have to agree with my partner's skepticism. There's no way you're the big bad crime boss in this town. You look more like the person said boss would go to when he needs to bring in the outside help," Spider-Woman remarked.

"Besides, I doubt this is your city since I don't see your name on it," Spider-Man quipped right after, prompting an eye-roll from Spider-Woman.

"Oh, real mature. Do either of you even know who I am?"

Both Spiders exchanged obvious looks with one another before spending the next several minutes studying their newest foe from head to toe with thoughtful hums, much to his annoyance. "Are you…Jacque Schnee?" Spider-Man guessed.

"Ugh! Don't insult me, please!" the thug demanded.

"Oh! Are you the owner of that one noodle shop I keep hearing about around town?" Spider-Woman guessed afterwards.

"No."

"Hmmm…Wait! I've got it! You're our newest fan-boy! You should've just said so! But I gotta tell you, I can't approve of any fans of mine taking part in criminal activities. It makes it seem like I support the things I'm trying to stop, which by the way, does include smoking. You know that's bad for your health, right?" Spider-Man rambled on with his next guess.

"No! I'm Roman Torchwick! Notorious master criminal and crime kingpin! My mug-shot and wanted posters are all over Vale!"

"Is that who you are? Ohhhhhhh!" both Spider-Man and Spider-Woman gasped in fake awe. They dropped the façade barely a second later with simultaneous shrugs. "Meh. Never heard of ya."

"What do you mean you've never heard of me? How can you not have heard of me?" Torchwick demanded.

"Like this," Spider-Woman responded, and proceeded to make a show of shrugging her shoulders. Or at least as much of one as anybody could make.

Torchwick rolled his eyes at the heroes before spinning his cane around so it was pointed at them. "I don't have time for you brats. So, I guess I'll just have to get rid of you myself and be on my way."

"Pfft! Yeah right. Like you're gonna have any better luck than these other losers we already knocked out," Spider-Man scoffed, not noticing how the end of Torchwick's cane suddenly popped open. At least, not until a familiar tingle rang in his skull. "Uh why's my Spider-Sense—Oh thwip!"

Spider-Man and Spider-Woman both immediately jumped out of the way after the former's shout in order to avoid the fire ball Torchwick just shot out of his cane at them. Luckily they managed to avoid any areas close to the explosion that followed when his blast hit, but Jessica was more interested in something else. "A cane that is also a gun," Spider-Woman mused aloud. "Somehow, I think I can see Tony using something like that at some point in his life."

"Oh please, don't be ridiculous. Tony's would have a repulsor in it and you know it," Spider-Man scoffed.

"…Yeah, okay. You're right," Spider-Woman admitted. "I'll try and get him from behind. You take him from the front."

"Okay, no," Spider-Man immediately protested even as he easily leaned to one side to avoid another blast from Torchwick. "Aside from the fact this plan basically makes me the bait again…"

"Dude, you're too good at it. Especially since your Spider-Sense is better than mine," Spider-Woman insisted. Spidey just carried on like he had not been interrupted.

"We don't need any plans to take this guy. I mean look at him! He looks about as threatening as Marko did before he got all sandy," Spider-Man insisted. "I can take him no problem while you just watch the show."

Before his partner could even try to stop him, Spider-Man swung down to land an easy swing kick into Torchwick, much to Spider-Woman's annoyance. To his surprise, Torchwick actually managed to block Spidey's kick with his cane, but the web-head did not let that deter him. He spring-boarded off of the cane and then lunged forward to go on the attack in full. Surprisingly, Torchwick managed to block or counter many of Spidey's attacks. Not only that, but he also managed to score a few hits on the web-head with his cane, but Spider-Man did not let this slow him down. He had been doing this long enough to know how to roll with the punches, and soon managed to zip in to land a fast kick into Torchwick's front, followed by a hard punch and back-flip kick.

Spider-Man was not the only one able to use a line to pull in enemies though, as Roman soon proved when he spun his cane around and used the hooked end to get a hold of Spider-Man's leg after launching it like a grappling line. Using said line allowed Torchwick to pull down the web-swinger while he was in mid-jump and slam Spider-Man into the ground. Roman was about to move in and deliver a hard hit to the back of Spider-Man's head when Spider-Woman finally made her move and blasted him from behind with her venom blasts.

Spider-Woman fired off a few more rounds of her energy blasts just to discourage Roman from getting close to them again, until she was standing next close enough to her partner so she could help him to his feet again. "And here I thought you'd learned not to underestimate an opponent by now," Jessica scolded. "I mean, this is exactly like what happened the first time you confronted Tombstone back when he was the Big Man of Crime."

"You're only saying that based off of what I told you about the encounter," Spider-Man accused her.

"And am I wrong?"

"…No, you're not," Spider-Man groaned in defeat. "In my defense though, Tombstone actually looks scary even when he is wearing a suit. Mister Spaghetti-Bowl over here? Not so much."

"Spaghetti-Bowl?" Spider-Woman questioned, honestly bewildered by this newest nickname.

"Uh, yeah. Because of the bowler hat and how his hair looks like spaghetti? Can you really not see it?"

"I feel like that one comes across as highly insensitive," Spider-Woman hedged.

"Hey, at least I didn't go for the typical jokes about redheads and souls. Gotta be original after all," Spider-Man argued in his defense.

If there was one thing Roman hated more than do-gooders sticking their noses in his business, it was being ignored, and right now, he felt like the heroes were ignoring him quite a bit. On the plus side though, that meant he now had a chance to get away, so he shoved his problem aside in order to focus on sneaking out. Too bad for him the Spiders were a little more attentive than he gave them credit for, as the web-shot to his feet soon proved. Feeling rather disgruntled, Roman pulled and pried at the webs now holding him in place even as the heroes started walking over to him.

"So I'd say you're pretty much beat. Take my advice, Conan, and surrender while you're still conscious," Spider-Man advised once he and his partner stood before their perp.

"First off, the name's Roman, not Conan. And secondly, why surrender when I've still got a few cards up my sleeves," Torchwick grinned in response, pulling a remote out of his jacket pocket that he immediately activated.

"Uh Spidey? Is your Spider-Sense suddenly going crazy too, or is it just me?" Spider-Woman asked, hoping that for once she was imagining things. Then again, it was not like that had ever been the case before.

"What did you just do?" Spider-Man demanded.

"Oh nothing much. Just set off the timer on the bombs I've got stashed around the building. In less than a minute, this whole place is going to be blown sky high with everything inside, and I'm the only one with the means of stopping it," Torchwick grinned triumphantly. When Spider-Woman reached for the remote, Roman easily tossed it away and they watched as it shattered up hitting the nearby wall. "Whoops! Make that I was the only one with the means of stopping it."

"Are you crazy?! You'll blow up yourself and your own men with us!" Spider-Man pointed out.

"Hey, they aren't my guys. I did say they were on loan after all. I'll just have to pay their actual boss a little extra for their deaths, and remind him that I did warn him there would be a strong likelihood of serious health hazards," Roman shrugged like it was no big deal. "And besides, who said I was stopping with just this one warehouse."

"What're you talking about?" Spider-Woman questioned.

"You bugs do know what we've been keeping in here, don't you? A good chunk of the Dust we've managed to steal in the city. I'd say there's enough in here to send a few blocks up in flames. Give or take a block," Torchwick revealed. Both Spiders were about to punch his lights out after hearing that, but a sudden gust of wind made them pause just long enough for Torchwick to finally get free of the webs and begin rushing to the nearest getaway van. "So here's a good old fashioned hero's problem: chase the bad guy or save some meaningless lives. You can't do both after all."

The two Spiders watched as Torchwick slammed the door on his van shut and then peeled out of the building, only getting just a quick glimpse of the driver to know they were shorter than Roman and had pink and brown colored hair, before Spider-Man finally asked, "He does know there are two of us, right? As in one of us can chase after him while the other stops the bombs?"

"Spidey, considering how badly my Spider-Sense is tingling, and how badly I know yours has been since he hit the trigger, do you really think either of us can get all the bombs in this place alone?" Spider-Woman asked in return.

Much as he hated to admit it, Spider-Man knew his partner had a point, and they both soon set to work finding all of Torchwick's bombs before they blew them and the rest of the street to kingdom come. Lucky for them, Roman did not go to great lengths in hiding the devices. In fact, the bombs were placed in location so obvious both Jessica and Peter felt more than a little silly for not noticing them until just now. Working quickly, Jessica managed to safely remove each bomb from where they were, and then carefully dropped them into a web-sack Peter had managed to spin up. Once they were sure they had gotten the last bomb, Spidey lifted the web-sack over his shoulder and swung out the nearest window.

Upon getting outside, Spidey got as high up as he could, and then proceeded to wind up a powerful throw, sending the explosives flying out towards the sea. A few well-placed web-shots helped to make sure it would go all the way out before Spider-Man shouted for Spider-Woman to fire off another venom blast, destroying the bombs in one blast and well away from anything that could have been damaged or harmed as a result.

"Phew! That was close," Spider-Woman sighed in relief. She then turned to Peter and asked, "I don't suppose you managed to get a tracker on Roman or his van before he got away, did you?"

"Sorry, but I was a little distracted by the bombs we needed to get out of the warehouse full of Dust before they went off," Spider-Man shrugged. He was not saying that to be rude or anything; he just needed to vent a little frustration. "Any chance the worst rush hour traffic could have slowed him down?"

"Ended a couple of minutes before we even went inside. So, I guess we're just going to have to try and search for him the old fashioned way," Spider-Woman told him.

"By combing every corner of the city until we find a hint of a clue to follow. Great," Spider-Man groaned wearily. "I think we'd better call Ren and Nora, and let them know to head back to the shelter without us, because it's going to be a long night just with that. Speaking of calls though…"

"Way ahead of you," Jessica confirmed as she pulled out her Scroll. "One anonymous tip to Vale's finest about the treasure trove of stolen Dust and unconscious fools coming right up."

Having settled that last detail, the Spiders shared one last nod before they split up and move to try and track down their runaway criminal mastermind. Even if they did still have some doubts about Torchwick being an actual mastermind, considering what he just tried to do, they knew it would be way too dangerous to leave him to run free out there.

---

"Paging Roman Torchwick! Paging Mister Roman Torchwick," Spider-Man merrily called out as he swung between the buildings and streets. Not that he was expecting an answer, but he still let out a frustrated groan over not finding any sign of the bowler hat wearing criminal as he landed on the side of one building. "Man, I hate it when the bad guy gets away. Especially when its guys like this pint-sized Wilson Fisk."

Knowing little help complaining was going to do him, Spider-Man prepared to swing off yet again when the sounds of someone in distress reached his ears. Turning to the source, Spider-Man had an easy time spotting the woman and child currently being cornered by two Faunus dressed in the signature colors of the White Fang. Spidey and Jessica had both had plenty of run-ins with these guys since that first time at the SDC building, but this was probably the first time Spider-Man could recall catching them acting like common thugs. Not that it was going to stop him from jumping in to save the day. After all, this was just what the doctor ordered for helping a disgruntled superhero with his frustrations over escaped criminals.

Without even a second's hesitation, Spider-Man swung over and snatched away the weapons of each White Fang thug with his webs, before he finally came to land between them and their targets, his next quip already loaded and ready. "Hey fellas. Didn't your parents ever teach you not to pick someone smaller than you? It's a pretty important lesson, you know. Where do you think that saying about big things in small packages came from?"

Considering he had just come out of a pretty intense fight and how unprepared these White Fang goons were for his interference, it came as no surprise that Spider-Man was able to handle these guys pretty easily. He barely even had to use that many of his powers or webs for that matter, because he managed to knock out and web up several of the thugs in one go around, and before too long, the fight was already over. Sure, he still spared a few webs for the odd thug he had simply knocked out, but at the end of the day, this was a cakewalk after the dance he and Spider-Woman just had a little earlier. Normally, this would be the part where Spidey would have left his calling card and swung away, but considering how freaked out the mother and child seemed to be, he felt it might be a good idea to check and make sure they were okay first.

"Are you two okay?" Spider-Man asked once he was kneeling down next to the woman and child.

"Y…Yes," the mother nervously replied, holding her child close as if afraid of Spidey. Not that this would be the first time that civilians seemed more afraid of him than the criminals he had just saved them from, but Spidey did still feel a small twinge of annoyance from it all the same. At least until he heard the woman nervously asking "Who…why did you…?"

"Why did I what," the Spidey asked in return.

"Why did you help us? Aren't you…"

Spider-Man glanced over to the thugs he had just defeated and tied up when he noticed the woman looking over his shoulder at them, and soon put two and two together. "What, you think I'm with those losers," he asked with an obvious laugh in his voice. "No way! For one thing, I'm the good guy. You know, saving cats from trees, pulling people out of burning buildings, that type of person. And for another thing, I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm clearly a lot smarter, at least when it comes to fashion sense."

"Um…what?"

"You're kidding right? You really don't see it," he asked. "I mean, just look at them! They wore white to a street fight, or whatever nighttime thing they were doing before ending up like this. White! An entire spectrum of colors, many of which would be so much better for any variety of nighttime activities, and they still chose to wear white. Not only does it stand out like crazy, even with the black that they paired it with, but it stains so easily! You can clearly see just how much dirt and grime they've been rolling around in."

As he continued on and on about the White Fang's choice of colors, Spidey could see how the corners of the little boy's lips started to slowly turn upwards, smiling a little more with each passing second, until finally, the kid began giggling and then chuckling happily. Seeing this brought a smile to Spider-Man's face. Out of all the perks to being a superhero, the one thing he always enjoyed the most was seeing how happy the kids could become just from seeing a hero was around, be it for a patrol or to save the day. The mother still seemed to have some wariness about him though.

"But I thought you were Faunus. Like them," the woman finally admitted.

"Nope. Not a Faunus, and even if I was, you really shouldn't lump them all in with the handful of bad ones like these guys. They're just as human as the rest of us," Spider-Man advised, on the off-chance this woman held some kind of prejudice before or after this recent event. "As for me though, I'm just…a guy who uses very unique talents and gadgets to try and make a better difference in the world. Or at the very least in this city."

"Really? So then are you a huntsman?" the child asked with all the wonder and excitement a kid could have.

"No, I'm not a huntsman. If anything, I'm a guy that could make most huntsmen green with envy just from all the stuff I can do," Spider-Man joked in reply. To keep the joke going, he leaned closer and faux whispered "Oh! But don't tell them I said that. It might give them even more reasons to try and steal away my secrets, and then I won't be as special anymore."

Now even the woman was smiling a little, especially since her kid had started laughing a little harder while trying to show Spider-Man he would keep quiet, but she still had to ask one last question. "Still, why did you save us?"

"Why wouldn't I? Doesn't matter how big or small the problem is, or who or what's responsible for it. If I see someone in trouble, I can't just look the other way. If I can do something to help out, then I consider it my responsibility to at least try," Spider-Man answered.

That seemed to have struck a chord with the family, given how the kid's face went from cheery amusement to start-struck wide eyes, but regardless, Spidey could tell his work here was officially done. So, after helping them up and making sure they had everything they would need upon getting home, he turned to get back on the search for Torchwick. The only reason he stopped short was because he heard the little boy calling out, "Thanks for saving us, Mister!"

"Hey! Whoa! None of that 'Mister' stuff, kid," Spidey chuckled after pausing in his departure. "The name's Spider-Man. You know, like your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. 'Cause that's who I am."

That prompted another round of chuckles from both mother and child, and Spider-Man could not help but smile a little more as he heard the kid shouting a fond farewell to him as he swung away into the night. Safe to say Spidey now felt a lot better about Torchwick getting away. Sure, he and Jessica would still need to track down the crook, but it always made him feel good knowing he was able to make even a little difference. After all, helping out with the little things is what made him a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, and Peter had no intention of forgetting that any time soon.

What Spider-Man did not know was that there had been another witness to this whole event, watching secretly from a rooftop across from the alley. A young woman who had just been getting ready to step in and deal with the White Fang herself until the wall-crawler had arrived on the scene, and her amber eyes had followed his every action right up until the end with a great deal of curiosity and intrigue. Even as he swung away, the girl continued to stare after him, all while a new desire began to rise up within her. "Spider-Man, huh?" mused one Blake Belladonna. "I wonder if I can meet with him sometime soon."

---

AN: Whelp, that happened. I'm gonna be honest, I'm a little concerned about how well I wrote the fight scene with Torchwick. I mean, I always kind of am, but only because Roman doesn't really do that much up-close and personal fighting. At least, not compared to most of the other RWBY characters. But yes, all the dialogue that took place during the fight was necessary. Like you really expected Spider-Man to have an encounter with someone like Roman and not make fun of him in every way he possibly could. Is it cheap for me to have Roman get away in the way that he did, maybe a little, but I feel like it would make less sense if he got caught and then got out of prison again in time for his fateful encounter with Ruby, let alone quick enough to have a Round 2 with Spider-Man and Spider-Woman in addition to the third round he'll have when that night finally comes around.

Weiss: Question: why is it that Ren and Nora have now had more screen time than anyone on our team?

AN: Kinda just worked out that way. Listen, we all know that Ren and Nora grew up outside the kingdoms, so I kind of wondered where the two had been living before they got into Beacon. I mean, if they were staying in the ballroom with all the other new students that first night, then they must not have been at the school beforehand, and I kinda doubt that they really had all that much money before school had started either, so it only makes sense that they would end up in a place like the Stan Ditko shelter. If that's not what happened in canon, feel free to let me know however you like. Just remember to do so in a polite manner, because this is how it went down in this story, and it served as a nice way for Peter and Jess to get a simple first look at what some of the huntsmen-in-training at Beacon may be like. A nice little way to ease Peter off the idea of Beacon being a school full of Kravens-in-the-making if you will.

Plus, who else totally expected those reactions from Nora? I think I'm a little too good at writing out scenes like that for her, but then again, this is Nora back when things were much more simple and straight forward for her, so maybe that has something to do with it. Plus a little bonding between one of RWBY's OG OTPs and the Spiders is pretty nice to have, so why not throw that in, am I right?

Blake: Makes sense to me. I'm just glad that I've finally gotten to show up at last.

AN: Hear, hear! Yes, our favorite Cat Faunus is finally here at last, and all through a change of perspective from the scene I teased way back when over in RWBY Meetings. Now it's just a matter of time until she has her personal chat with Spider-Man, but that does still raise the question as to what Spider-Woman was doing at the time of said conversation, now doesn't it?

Yang: Let me guess, that's something we're not even going to get a hint about until you run the next chapter's preview, right?

AN: Yeah pretty much. But before that, we've got a few reviews that need answering.

First off to our old pal "Monkey D. Conan", you are most certainly correct and well within your rights to say it time and time again how great The Spectacular Spider-Man is. As for your questions about Blake's relationship with Peter, I will go ahead and say yes, she will eventually develop feelings for him. You'll just have to wait and see how the relationship develops though. All I can say for now is that there's will be something of a slow burn for the time being. And yes, it has been very well established that Peter has quite a thing for cats, in many different varieties. As for the matter of Remnant having its own J. Jonah Jameson, it will in fact have one. His name's Jacques Schnee. Have you heard of him?

Weiss: Of course my father would fall into such a role in a Spider-Man&RWBY crossover.

AN: I mean, can you blame anyone for putting him in that position. The two of them do have similar tastes in mustaches.

[audience laughter]

Alright, alright, getting back on track. "Spiderfan626", glad to see you enjoyed the first two chapters so immensely, and that you caught all of those Easter Eggs and nods to Spider-Man Unlimited. Oh, and thanks again for your help in developing the ideas for this story. Hope I continue to live up to the expectations you have for this bad boy.

"Dragon Rider 66", yeah, you definitely nailed it on the head when calling all of those updates an overload, given how long it took for me to post anything afterwards, never mind how long it took me to post this chapter, but hey! It all worked out pretty well in the end. Also, to answer your question as to where Chewie was when Avenging Spider-Man and Aelita made a stop in this story's universe...well, they never paid a visit to Peter, Jess, Miles, and Gwen's dorm room, now did they?

" 42", yes, I'm sure everyone is more than capable of imagining how Ruby would react when meeting Iron Man, and how she would react to seeing the Iron Man armors. Be it just one or even all of them. Especially when it's the Ruby we're seeing right now in this story. Not so sure how Ruby would react to it at the present time in the series canon, given all that's happened to her recently, but let's not focus on the negative right now, shall we?

"ENDDRAGON369", yeah, I'm with you there buddy. Not gonna lie, but I kinda ship it too.

"Guest" of 10/31/2021, glad you enjoy Jessica's presence in this story, because rest assured, she's not going anywhere any time soon.

"Guest" of 11/7/2021, can you please keep questions about SLVR Chibi over on that story, and not on an unrelated one?

"twilightnite13", as you can see, there was nothing to worry about. I mean, yeah, there was the little matter of the Spiders nearly getting blown up at the end there, and maybe Ozpin and Goodwitch taking an interest in them could be considered worrisome in some sense, but otherwise, nothing to worry about! It's all good.

"Guest" of 12/5/2021, I understand your concerns, and sympathize a little. Most of the Spider-Man&RWBY crossovers I've seen as of late do seem to have gone down in quality a little, but I fully intend to keep this one from falling into that trap, so don't worry too much. If you feel like this ends up not being for you though, that's your call, and I'll respect your judgment on the matter. I totally get feeling the need to vent every now and then.

"7-Eleventh", ask and you shall receive. There's Blake now, and her meeting with Spidey is not too far behind from now.

"DeionR9040", if you want some small idea, you can hop over to RWBY Meetings and see for yourself. I've got a description of the two's new huntsmen attire, or at least their initial outfits right there for the viewing.

And to everyone else who reviewed, thank you all for your kind words, praises, and so on. And to all of you who have favorited/followed this story so far, an additional thanks to you as well. Hope you continue to enjoy things as the story goes on.

Now, let's move things along to the most important part of these ending notes, shall we? Onto the Preview!...

Tracking down Torchwick has proven to be a little harder than either Spider-Hero thought it would, but luckily, they may just be close to hitting pay dirt. Word has caught Spider-Woman's ear as to whom Torchwick had been hiring thugs from lately and she's already on her way to investigate. Spider-Man would be with her right now, but he's found himself caught up in an unexpected meeting. Guess Jessica's going to have settle for another dance partner tonight. Lucky for her, a major blonde bombshell is more than happy to share the dance floor at this club once things get explosively heated. See just what will come about from these meetings next time in…Chapter 4: Rooftop Rendezvous and Club Crashing.

Once again, be sure to check out my YouTube channel "Studio Fandom" and the DeviantArt page "studiofandom" if you haven't already. Always looking for more followers and subscribers on both.

Oh, and special thanks to Spiderfan626 for all your help in coming up with various ideas for this story. And as always...

Please read and review, and we'll see you next time, fellow true believers!