The Inspiring Spider-Hope
Issue 5: The Cracked Diamonds
This event takes place almost two months after Naegi Makoto got bitten by a radioactive spider and one month after he took the name of Spider Hope.
That day he was patrolling around his city just as usual. His Super Hero exploits weren't very impressive so he wasn't particularly popular. Not that he minded it. He would rather keep it that way to be honest.
In any case, that patrol.
For him, a perfect patrolling session would be where nothing went wrong, everyone was chill and would wave at him when they saw him swinging over their head. But his luck was totally against him that day.
First of all he had to help an old man cross the street. Five times. And it was the same old man each time. He swore that the man was either part of a quintuplet who lived in the same place or it was some sort of prank, how else could a man be in five different locations in less than two hours? At least people were getting a good opinion each time they saw Spider Hope helping the old man. And the fifth time he even offered Spider Hope some churro.
Naegi couldn't remember when was the last time he ever ate a churro so he accepted the gift.
Shortly after this he heard some panic down a street so he swung there as fast as he could and what he saw was a car that the driver had lost control and was going at full speed towards a heavy traffic. He immediately jumped down in front of the car and with a big spider web and his body, Spider Hope managed to stop the car and save the day.
But the day wasn't over, far from it. Because that day would be the beginning of a big case.
As he swung by a dark alley, Spider Hope noticed two shady individuals surrounding a young man. It looked like bullies or something else. He couldn't ignore this so he stuck on the wall and slowly crawled towards their location, unseen. When he got in hearing range, he stood still.
"You got the cash?" one of the shady men said, wearing a white long coat that seemed familiar.
Spider Hope then noticed that there were actually five of them, the other three were on the back, hiding in the dark for some reason.
"Y-Yeah… What about you? Have the… the thing?" The client, a young man in his late teens asked nervously.
"The drugs? Of course! What did you think I was, some loser?" the dealer said in a very annoyed tone.
"Yeah, we're Crazy Diamond! We ain't losers, you bastard!" the second dealer yelled.
Oooh, they are members of the great biker gang the Crazy Diamonds… Weird, since when did they start doing drug dealing? Last time Spider Hope checked, they were just supposed to be loud delinquents who would get in fights with other gangs or go beyond speed limits. Nothing that serious as drug dealing.
"A-Aaah!" the client shrieked at the sudden aggressivity.
Things are getting out of hand, time to intervene. Spider Hope jumped down from his hiding spot while yelling a 'HEY!' and landed in front of the whole group, surprising everyone, even making the hidden bikers come out of their hiding spot to see what was going on.
"Since when did you hooligans turned to drugs? There are better things to do when stepping down from a bike, you know? Like… uh…" Crap he had nothing.
"S-Spider Hope?! What the-? Did you trick us?!" the dealer suddenly turned towards their would-have-been client with boiling rage.
"What?! N-No! I swear! I have never met Spider Hope personally before!" the young man panicked.
"Yeah right! You're fucking dead!" The gang member roared as he pulled out a knife.
The young superhero didn't hesitate a second to shoot two webs towards the enraged biker. One to the weapon in his hand, the other directly on the man's back. He effortlessly snatched the blade from his hands and stuck it high enough against a wall for anyone to try and grab it. And then he threw the confused biker against the wall, hard enough to knock him out.
"Oops, sorry!" Spider Hope exclaimed, he just wanted to web him against the wall.
That action, of course, made the remaining Crazy Diamonds go red in rage. One of them grabbed anything around that could be used as an improvised weapon, like the broken piece of wood that was sticking out of a garbage can. The others just raised their fists for a fight.
"Dangit… Can't we just talk?" Spider Hope tried one last attempt to clear this without any more violence.
"Are you seriously asking this after knocking out one of our own?"
Argh. There was really no other choice huh? Spider Hope yelled to the 'client' to get away as this alley was soon going to be a fighting ring. The young man didn't hesitate a second to run away as fast as he could with a yelp.
With him gone, Spider Hope wouldn't have to worry (much) for any straggler to get involved in the upcoming fight. In all honesty, he didn't like to fight but he knew that sometimes some thugs and thieves will fight back no matter what, even if they knew they barely had a chance against a Spider Man. And it happened more often than he'd hoped.
Anyway, Spider Hope got into a fighting stance: legs bent with the left foot forward while leaning forward, same for his right shoulder; right hand open and close to the ground as the left one was next to the left shoulder, pointing at the threat in front of him.
Time to get serious.
The first one to make a move was the armed thug who raised his weapon while charging at the young hero. The latter reacted just as fast as he immediately webbed the piece of wood and yanked it from the biker's hands, and after a couple of swings with his arms, as if he had a lasso, Spider Hope threw the wood on the man's face. A bit too hard as it knocked the man unconscious with the impact, even breaking his nose.
"Oh crap! I'm sorry!" The hero apologized.
But he had no time to check as his spider sense quickly made him duck out a hook punch coming from the side.
"Hey! No one is going to check on him?" he asked the remaining thugs as they approached him, one trying to kick him on the head.
"We will after we beat the shit outta you!"
"Oh, how nice."
While the goon had his right foot reared back while putting his balance on his left foot, Spider Hope did a low circular kick to trip the man, it worked as he landed on his back hard. As the man groaned in pain and Spider Hope stood up, the other two thugs quickly rushed to both of the hero's sides with their fists raised ready to form a knuckle sandwich with the hero's head, almost literally.
But when they were close enough, the Spider Hero backflip kicked both of their chins, stunning them. He then webbed them together and with one pull, they both collided into one another with a body slam followed by a headbutt against each other, knocking them out instantly.
As Spider Hope webbed the two ko'd Crazy Diamonds thugs, he asked the remaining conscious one who had trouble standing back up.
"You guys should one day explain to me why you think it is a good idea to attack a guy with literal super strength and super powers." He said before webbing the once-armed thug on the floor and walking towards the last conscious thug.
"F-Fuck you."
"Eh. I wasn't expecting an answer today anyway."
Spider Hope shot a web on the guy's mouth before trapping him on the floor too. The man started to squirm and growl but it was barely audible.
"Well. That's done. Now to have the police take you away…" He noticed some young group of kids watching from the streets with their mouths wide open, "Oh hey! Can one of you call the police to report them? I have to go." He webbed the corner of the building and pulled himself up into the air, "Remember don't do drugs if you don't want to end up like theeeeeem!" he yelled the advice before disappearing between the rooftops of the city.
A couple of days later, at a bar somewhere on the road…
Mondo Oowada, the leader of the Crazy Diamonds was fuming in rage when hearing the news about some of his boys getting put in jails because of the new hero 'Spider Hope'.
He punched the wall with all his anger as he growled. Some members of the gang who were around him looked at him in worry.
"Boss! Is your hand ok?" one of his men asked.
"Whatever. Rather answer me this. Why the fuck would Spider Hoe beat some of ours and throw them to the police?!" Mondo roared, fuming.
"W-well I heard they got arrested because of drug dealing." another member of the gang said.
"That's BULLSHIT!" the leader punched the wall again, leaving a dent in it and blood on his hand. That hurt like hell but his anger was subduing the pain, "We Crazy Diamonds are not goddamn criminals! We're thugs! Our only 'crimes' are going beyond speed limits or beating up other gangs who dares challenge us! We don't do DRUGS or KILL! Those are for LOSERS!" he roared louder than before, getting approving cheers from his men.
Whatever that Spider Hope douchebag's problem with the Crazy Diamonds was, he'll have to deal with the leader now!
The next day…
Spider Hope was on one of his usual afternoon patrols, looking for people to help or accidents to stop, until he suddenly heard.
"Hey Spider Hope! Over here!"
Someone called for him… in the middle of a seemingly abandoned park? That was weird. The person in question was a tall man with a pompadour haircut and a black coat… A Crazy Diamond.
"Great…" the young hero sighed.
After a quick survey around the park, he made sure that the man waiting for him was all alone, no ambush waiting for him. He jumped down in front of him. As he looked at his 'caller' he noticed that the man was actually a teenager and very familiar.
"Ah, you came! At least you ain't some pussy who would hide, I give you that, asshole!" the teenager roared swears before Spider Hope could open his mouth.
"Uh… Okay? You're Mondo Oowada, right?"
"That's right! I'm the leader of the Crazy Diamonds! And I have a bone to pick with you! Why the fuck would you beat up some of my boys and sent them to jail, UH?!"
Wow, that guy was radiating anger from all angles. The young hero could already guess what was coming. But he still tried to calm things down.
"I fought them because they ganged up on me after I stopped them from selling some drugs to a ki-"
"THAT'S BULLSHIT! MY BOYS DON'T DO SHIT LIKE DRUGS! If you gonna keep going with these lies, you better be ready for some ass kicking! Raise' em up, douchebag!" Mondo yelled in anger as he raised his fist in a battle stance.
Spider Hope let out another sigh, that was stupid yet predictable.
He had no time for this. Should he just web him and deliver him to the station? Nah. Mondo did nothing really wrong. He just challenged him to a duel. Let's just web him and leave.
"Yeah right… Nope." Spider Hope said before firing a barrage of web shots on the gang leader, quickly wrapping his torso - damn it was huge for a teenager- in spider web to immobilize him, too confused, he tripped and fell flat on his back, unable to stand up.
"What the fuck?! Let me go you bastard! Fight like a MAN!"
That was too easy.
"Sorry, I'd rather fight like a spider. You'll be stuck for a couple of hours. Tell your boys to stop dealing with drugs, and I won't have to get in your big pompadour hair again."
That bad joke made Mondo yell some more.
Spider Hope turned around and was ready to leave but he then noticed that he was out of web in his web-shooters.
"Dangit."
As he was replacing his cartridges, Mondo was brute forcing his way out of the webs, and by some miracle, he did it. He popped one of his arms out of the sticky prison, with this free arm he pushed himself up and charged at the hero.
"Hey! Spider HOE!"
"Ah nonono! It's Spider Hope! I'm not going to let this- What the-" The spider senses went haywire a bit too late as Spider Hope only had time to look back at the danger before getting punched in the face.
The punch was hard and powerful enough to send the hero flying a few meters but he quickly got his footings back.
"How the hell?"
"Is that all? Damn you're weak, this is going to be easy!" Mondo laughed as he ripped the rest of the web away from him.
Well… He finished reloading… looks like he'll have to get serious. Spider Hope got into a defensive position as he waited for the bulldozer of a biker to charge at him.
Didn't take long for this to happen.
Mondo ran up to him with his fist raised, ready to punch the hero again. But this time he was ready. Spider Hope dodged without problem the first punch and jumped back when Mondo tried to follow up with a jab. Before the biker could complain about the dodges, he got punched in the face.
He wasn't sent flying but god damn was that painful, he could already see stars and was about to fall down. So that's what it feels to get punched by a superhero?
"F-Fuck…" Mondo managed to let out before trying to punch Spider Hope again.
But again the agile hero saw it coming miles away and dodged again to retaliate with an uppercut. Normally these two hits with minimal restraint would knock out any thug's lights out but not Mondo, and that really impressed Spider Hope. But unfortunately there was no time for admiration, he should finish this quickly.
So he shot a web on the biker's fist and with some quick maneuvers around the young leader, the latter was now facing his own fist, ready to be pulled by the hero to punch himself.
"H-Hey! Wait a sec!"
"Sorry. But I have stuff to do." Spider Hope said before pulling in one swift movement.
The impact between Mondo's face and his own fist echoed throughout the park.
"Oh crap! Did I go too hard?! Are you okay?! I'm sorry, I'm still- Oh thank God you're just unconscious." Spider Hope panicked after hearing the noise and seeing Mondo fall to the ground, barely moving.
He calmed down when he saw that the only real injury was a bleeding nose.
After some debate with himself, Spider Hope decided to not deliver Mondo to the authorities. After all, he didn't really do anything illegal right now. He just challenged a superhero to a duel and lost. Spider Hope lifted the unconscious body of the biker and put it down on a bench nearby. After making sure he's alright and well, he webbed a nearby try and swung himself away from the park to resume his patrol.
Mondo would not be happy when waking up, remembering that he lost to the young hero.
The next few weeks were very very redundant for Spider Hope. It was like some broken record on loop.
He would be on patrol, helping some people. He would then notice some Crazy Diamonds doing something shady, most of the time was drug dealing, he would then web them up and report it to the police. Nine out of ten there would be a fight. And then a few days after the arrest, he would be challenged by Mondo Oowada, again, for a duel that he would win easily.
But he had to admit that despite the first impression, Mondo was getting more adaptive despite being completely obvious with his strikes. He punches hard but he was now slowly showing less and less openings for Spider Hope to strike.
Unfortunately for him, Spider Hope had the agility and webs. So the duel would never last long after a quick dodge and using webs to immobilize the thug. And like before, Spider Hope wouldn't report him to the police. He learned that the gang leader was actually using some of his goons to keep civilians away from the 'duel ring' for no witnesses and interventions but thankfully they were never violent with keeping them at bay. Mostly just asking them to stay away or looking scary enough for no one to approach.
In any case, this has been his routine for a few weeks.
But today was a bit different. He could hear some sort of mayhem in another dark alleyway in the city. Curious, Spider Hope swung towards the source of the noise and landed on a roof before looking down.
Crazy Diamonds, again, but this time it wasn't a drug deal or anything of the sort. From the look of it, it looks like some gang fights. He could discern another gang in the rumble. After one good look at the fight, Spider Hope let out a sigh of relief when he saw that they were all just fist fighting, there was no weapon involved, and there was no beating up someone who was already down, surprisingly enough.
He wondered if he should get involved, that's something the Police can take care of, right? As long as no innocent civilians get injured.
And since he could see a few pedestrians looking at the brawl with their phones out, he could guess that someone already called the police to stop them… but they were probably stuck in the traffic.
So just in case, Spider Hope will just stay there and watch over the fight until the policemen arrive.
But just as he was starting to get himself comfortable, one thug got punched hard enough he landed near a young civilian.
Kid must have had a good heart as he tried to help the fallen thug, but the latter didn't see it that way it seems. The thug stood up, yelled at the kid and raised his fist- Time to intervene.
Spider Hope jumped from his hiding spot, webbed the thug and pulled, throwing the man in the air. The delinquent was left hanging from a nearby balcony, already yelling insults at the young hero. But one web to the mouth and he was quiet for the rest of the afternoon.
"Are you alright, kid?" Spider Hope asked the young nice kid who was on the verge of crying, who the hell threatens to punch a nice kid?
"H-Hmhm!" the kid nodded, fighting through the tears.
"Great, are you with your parents, frien-"
"What the fuck are you doing here, Spider Hoe?!" he heard a very familiar voice yell behind him.
With a sigh, the hero shooed the people away from the battlefield, they should get back into their normal lives, he would 'clean up' this mess of a fight behind him. Once all the civilians left, he turned around and found himself face to face with Mondo Oowada.
His day was getting very tiresome already.
To be continued…
Baka's notes: Well, to be continued.
Next update will be Zombi Mari then Slayers. Look forward to it!