Chapter 8: Come Fly With Me
"AGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Laura yelled in pure rage as she charged at The Lizard. It yelled back and ran at her but she animalistically lunged at it, digging her claws deep into its chest causing it to shriek in pain. It tried grabbing her with one of its hands but she quickly pulled her claws out and savagely chopped it off.
She then dug her claws deep into its side and with all her might she dragged them across its whole entire upper body, having most of its organs be exposed and destroyed in the process. It howled in pain, staggering back, but Laura didn't relent as she jumped on it and used its body as a step which allowed her to slash its throat causing mass amounts of blood to squirt from it.
She then tackled it to the ground and proceeded to shred its inside's into microscopic pieces.
Her yells drowned out its screams of pain as she stabbed it again, and again, and again, showering herself in its blood as all it could do was lay there and take it.
From his beaten position, Peter watched with pure disbelief at the fact that she was alive. He tried to get up to assist her but stumbled and ultimately fell back down. He still needed a little bit more time to gather his strength back.
He watched how The Lizard's tail slowly made its way towards her.
"Look out!" he yelled but she didn't budge, instead she kept gouging its insides.
It wrapped around her body and instantly flung her through the nearest wall.
"Laura!" Peter yelled in worry but stopped as he watched her get back up, unphased and unscathed by The Lizards attack. The Lizard had gotten back up as well with its hand fully regenerated. The two looked at each other with their blood-red eyes as they growled and snarled with pure hatred for one another like wild beasts.
They both ferociously yelled before charging at each other once more.
They clashed like two rabid dogs fighting each other. The both of them took each other's attacks, seemingly unphased by the gashes inflicted upon each other as they were deadset on murdering the other. Any wound The Lizard would inflict on her would instantaneously heal and any wound she inflicted on it would heal as well. Laura had held her ground for as much as she possibly could but The Lizard was faster than her, bigger than her, stronger than her. It only took one swift hit to have her be sent tumbling away.
In her savage state though, she refused to lose to it and dug her claws deep into the concrete street, snarling and growling in the process.
The Lizard lunged at her, but she simply slashed at it's mouth, taking chunks of it off as its body crashed into hers. It pinned her to the ground and used one of its hands to restrain one of hers and his tail to restrain the other, it then proceeded to beat her using its freehand with hits that echoed into the street.
"Get off of her!" Peter yelled as he tackled the creature off of Laura.
The both of them rolled down the street hitting each other with blows of equal force that echoed. Neither of them were pulling their punches, but Peter couldn't keep this up for long as he wasn't lucky enough to heal instantaneously like Laura did.
However, he would take a page out of her book though and use one of his stingers to decapitate one of its hands. It was the farthest thing from a clean-cut, his stingers didn't have the luxury of being made out of metal so they stopped halfway at the bone but if you have enough force, you can make even the dullest of blades cut through the sternest of stuff as if it was butter, and Peter had plenty of force.
It was difficult, but he managed to decapitate one of its hands.
"Not so fun now that you're the one on the bottom, is it?" Peter asked as he pinned down its remaining arm and beat it. He was trying to come up with some type of plan, The Lizard's second wind had greatly increased its healing abilities, he and Laura had to make it back to the house to get another one of the cures before he gets another power-up.
His spider-sense went off.
"Oh crap," Peter thought as he braced himself for the oncoming attack from its tail, which he was seriously starting to hate a lot. He was smashed onto the ground and the Lizard had quickly reversed their previous positions.
Laura had once again come to his rescue for she lunged on its back and savagely made its resemble swiss cheese. His heart skipped a beat as he saw her claws effortlessly pierce through its body and barely graze his chest.
Did she forget that he was still here?
Her relentless strikes had caused The Lizard's body to be pressed against his and he tried his hardest not to get his face bitten off as he had his arm underneath its jaw to prevent that from happening.
"I'm still here!" he yelled at Laura in an attempt to have her cease, she didn't. The Lizard used its tail to strike the savage Laura once again, who once again, found herself flung by it.
But by having the Lizard focus on her, it gave Peter an opening to give it a powerful right hook sending it off of him. He quickly stood up and watched as Laura once again charged at it.
She attacked it in a flurry that only left blood again but because of her state, she was blatantly ignoring its attacks, leading to her getting backhanded by it.
Peter punched it, sending it spiraling back.
He was standing next to the savage Laura who went to attack it but he grabbed her arm in an attempt to stop her. This was going nowhere and if they continued on like this then…
His spider-sense went off immediately and he turned to look at The Lizard who was letting out a roar as it prepared to pounce at them.
It just wouldn't give him a break.
He really wanted a time out right now to digest all that was happening. It regurgitated the cure, it snapped Laura's neck, she died, came back, got a second wind like this whole Lizard and went all anime come back.
She died.
She came back.
That alone made him want to ball out in tears of joy right now but as you could see: he was really busy right with a ginormous sewer gator and Laura who was seemingly out of control.
He'd have to try and get through to her cause going on like this would waste time and he was really missing those pretty emerald eyes of hers.
His spider-sense was still going off like crazy though, he had to be missing something…
He froze as he felt the feeling of cold metal slice his chest open.
He looked at Laura whose eyes were still bloodshot as her claws diagonally ripped open his chest.
Oh.
In hindsight, it probably wasn't so smart to grab her hand when she was angrier than the Hulk.
He let go of her immediately and stumbled back a bit, clutching his chest tightly as blood seeped out of it. The cry of agonizing pain that came out from his mouth caused Laura's growls to instantly cease.
She blinked multiple times at the new scene in front of her. Peter wasn't pinned down to the ground by The Lizard now. He was stumbling away from her, holding his hand over two gashes that she hoped were from the Lizard.
"P-Peter.." she said shakily as she raised a hand in an attempt to reach him, however, she found that her right hand was covered in blood.
His blood…
Upon hearing his name, he raised his gaze from his wounds and onto the raven-haired girl who inflicted them. Her eyes weren't bloodshot anymore, and the usually stoic, usually angry face that belonged to her was full of fear, worry, anguish…
Laura could only watch as he quickly ran up to her and shoved her to the ground, moving her out of the way from The Lizard's imminent pounce. The both of them crashed to the ground with The Lizard using its talons to dig deep into Peter's body. It viciously dragged them down to his chest before hitting him across the face with the hand he had decapitated, cracking the other lens on his mask.
This was really painful, but he didn't have to say it as his agonizing screams did it for him.
Laura's heart sank.
It grabbed him by the neck with one hand and his legs with another. Laura could only watch in horror as it raised his body above its head before sinking its teeth deep into his hip.
He thought the last one hurt.
He let out another scream of pain.
Her heart sank further down as she heard this.
She quickly went to try and save him but The Lizard simply whacked her with Peter's body as if he was a ragdoll; It then slammed him powerfully into the ground multiple times before throwing him at Laura as she tried to get up.
If Peter didn't know any better, he was starting to think that The Lizard wanted him to have an intimate relationship with the ground.
Laura ignored the Lizards' victorious howl as she got up. She ignored its existence entirely as her main priority was looking for Peter. Her mind was in turmoil, her movements were frantic, her heart threatened to burst.
She attacked him.
Animal.
She found his body limply laying meters away from her and she quickly scurried to his side.
Weapon.
"Peter!" she screamed out in fear as she quickly used her hands to cover his wounds. He was bleeding everywhere, and severely injured.
Because of her.
Monster.
He violently coughed out blood underneath his mask as she said this, letting out a brief chuckle before weakly saying "..still here…"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I-" she frantically said as tears were welling in her eyes.
Logan was right about her, they all were…
How many times did she have to hurt the people she cared about until she accepted the fact that she was a monster.
"It's…it's alright, tis' but a scratch," he said lightheartedly as he wheezed out blood. To her shock he gently placed his hand on her chin, "I'm…I'm so glad…you're alive…" he said to her in pure astonishment in a hazy voice.
She held on to it, looking at him with a mixture of almost every emotion on the board.
She couldn't get to ask why, as a powerful footstep interrupted her.
Laura whipped her head backwards to see The Lizard walking towards them. Its tongue was out as it looked at Peter with hungry eyes.
She got up quickly and withdrew her claws once again. The worry, the shame, the guilt was quickly subverted by anger as she stared it down. Anger towards it for what it had done, anger towards herself for what she has done.
Killer.
She didn't care that it was a human once, nor that it had a family. It wouldn't stop her from killing it before it had a chance to hurt Peter more.
"Curt, that's enough!" a female voice yelled from down the street.
The Lizard immediately turned to face who it was, completely ignoring the two teenagers who were in a desperate situation.
Peter and Laura both looked on in shock as its wife, Martha, was the one who grabbed it's attention.
"No…" Peter said as he knew what was going to happen. He rolled himself onto his stomach and with all his might tried to get back up.
"It-it's me you want, right?" she asked in a shaky voice.
It was completely silent as it approached her.
"I know you won't hurt me," she said as her legs started shaking.
With it's guard completely down, Laura had gone to use this brief moment to deliver a fatal blow that would kill it but Peter taking slow steps forward made her instantly throw all those plans away.
He shouldn't even be able to stand, let alone walk.
He was losing too much blood.
The Lizard stopped right in front of Martha but she didn't budge as she looked into its eyes. "...That's right, you won't hurt me," she reiterated as she slowly stopped shaking in its presence.
"Dad!" the voice of Billy boomed from the left as he ran towards his family.
"Billy, I told you to stay in the house!" Martha urgently yelled as she looked at her son.
Laura had gone underneath Peter's arm in an attempt to support him but he remained unphased as he still strode towards The Lizard. "Spider-Man and his partner made a cure dad! It can help you!" Billy exclaimed while he was lifted into the arms of his mother.
The two teens who were left completely ignored watched with anticipation as The Lizard went to slowly grab Martha.
It brought its finger to stroke her cheek, "Curt…" she said as she knew her husband was still in there.
Curt in question gently placed his hands on both his wife and son.
"...dad?" Billy asked with a hopeful voice.
Its grip got stronger and before any of them could scream, they were taken blocks away with a massive leap.
"NO!" Peter yelled as he tried to run in chase but his wounds were still fresh and he collapsed to the ground instead.
Laura urgently went to his side and got on her knees, holding him tightly as he still attempted to get back up. The fears she had temporarily put to the back of her mind were quickly coming to the surface.
"Don't move," she commanded as she held on tighter to him.
"We…we have to go after them," he said weekly but she shut him down.
"You're hurt," she said worryingly as he breathed roughly.
"That doesn't matter," was what he tried to say but Laura interrupted him.
"It does matter!" she snapped instantly as she guided him to a discrete area. She gently placed him against a wall in an empty alleyway, before breaking into a desolate apartment through a window.
She searched for a first aid kit while her mind tormented her with flashes of her life as the voices she tried to ignore had come back. She could see her mother alongside hundreds of people, alongside Peter. All of them looking at her as they said a simple word: Weapon.
She instantly came back with a first aid kit and immediately tended to his wounds. She tended to his hip first for it was the gravest of all. Upon grabbing the disinfectant he told her "not…enough… time," the more time they wasted on treating his wounds the more time they gave the Lizard to do whatever with its family.
She didn't listen to him and tore pieces of his costume that obstructed her from cleaning them. He hissed as she proceeded to clean his wounds and she let out an inaudible mumble as her locks blocked out her face.
"...remind me not to get on your bad side," Peter said with a pained laugh.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled as she finished patching the bite wound.
"You better be…those claws of yours are real painful ya know," he said light-heartedly.
"I'm sorry…" she muttered once again, her voice trembling significantly more this time as she proceeded to clean his chest wounds. He noticed the trembling in her voice and it immediately made him shut up. Upon seeing the shaking of her hands he immediately berated himself, she was obviously beating herself up for attacking him, and his jokes weren't helping her.
In an attempt to console her he held it.
She whipped her head up to face him as he held her hands softly within his.
He could see the tears that were welling in her eyes.
"...It's alright, believe it or not, I don't really care about this…I'm just glad you're still alive," he said with all his heart before breaking out into coughs.
Sure she might have attacked him but considering the fact that she was growling and snarling, she probably wasn't in the right mind at the given time. He couldn't fault her for that, and even if he could, he wouldn't anyway.
He was just glad that she was alive.
"Why?" she shouted at him as she looked at his white lenses that reflected her own visage. "Because you're one of the three people I really care about," he said firmly. She looked at him with shock as she tried holding back the tears. The voices that were berating her had stopped, the flashes had gone away and all she could see was him. Her heartbeat grew louder and her fingers were slowly overlapping his but before they could, she looked at the two-deep wounds on his chest and violently released herself from his soft grip and shook her head with anger.
"You shouldn't!" she viciously yelled at him.
She was a monster.
A killer.
She didn't deserve care.
"You keep saying that but then you give me so many reasons as to why I should," he said as he patted his hand over the bandage she had wrapped around him.
"I hurt you…" she said weakly once again.
"Now I know I said your claws hurt earlier but the truth is I barely felt-"
"-Will you shut up!" she aggressively yelled at him, grabbing him roughly by the chest, causing him to indeed, shut up.
"I know what you think about me and you're wrong!" she said as she once again looked down.
"Laur-" she had whipped her head back up to face him again and he could see the pain that was in her eyes.
"I know what I am! I'm not a hero! I'm not a person! I'm a weapon," she stated with shame as she looked down once again.
"I hurt people…"
"Laura, that's not true."
"It is true! I've hurt people! …I've killed people, it's the only thing I've done…it's the only thing I can do," she admitted as the tears she was holding back were now going down her face. Her grip on him had weakened and she expected him to forcefully remove her from him, to try his best to get away from her but instead he visibly relaxed his body and gently placed his hands on her shoulder.
"I already guessed that part Laura," he said softly, which surprised her.
"Well the killing people part at least. 'These claws were made for killing. What would you do if I told you I was a killer?" he mimicked her voice with a chuckle.
"Why then?" she asked softly as she was surprised by this revelation. Why did he let her tag along all this time when he knew she killed people? Why did he call her all those things?
"Because I've hurt people too Laura," he said softly as he removed his hands away from her, leaving her shoulders cold and barren. He took off his mask to reveal his solemn blue eyes that looked into her pained green ones.
"There's a reason why you're one of three people I care about…all the others are dead because of me, alongside a mountain of others," he said with guilt radiating off his voice.
She widened her eyes in response to this and lost her grip.
"I wasn't always like this Laura," he started to say as he gestured to his mask, "Once upon a time I was just an orphan kid from Queens who lived with his aunt and uncle who took him in within a heartbeat after his parents died. Despite them being anything but rich and barely middle class, they gave me everything I could ever ask for…but they couldn't give me friends. No one liked me in school, I was always made fun of and ignored as if I straight up didn't exist or didn't matter. It didn't take long for me to grow into someone who was bitter, someone who hated everyone else. I hated everyone so much that if the whole world burned alongside everyone in it, I wouldn't care as long as my aunt and uncle were okay," he said as it was his turn to look away in shame.
She believed his words but at the same time she couldn't.
She couldn't picture him bitter and angry at the world.
"Then on one fateful day everything changed. My passion for science led me to this public exhibition where this one in a million chance, straight up complete and utter accident, happened. A radioactive spider bit me," he said with an amused laugh at how stupid that sounded. "I gained all these amazing and spectacular powers. I was no longer this frail kid who had to wear rounded glasses and hide away from those who picked on him. I was built like an Olympian and had the strength of Hercules. I could walk on any surface, I had a sixth-sense that alerted me to danger. I could lift up a car with only my fingers and I wouldn't even break a sweat. I could jump stories high with minimal effort, I could do feats of agility no other human could," he said with complete wonder in his voice but that soon dropped. "...Do you know what I did with them Laura?" he sorrowfully asks her.
"What?" she hesitantly asked.
"I used them to beat up the people who bullied me and then I used them to get myself rich through wrestling. Did that for weeks, I even became a superstar. Contracts, signings, you name it, I got offered. I had everything I ever wanted: power, fame, money…I had everything that was owed to me," this didn't sound like him at all, Laura thought. "Then one day after a match with someguy who had a stupid name, I went to collect my money as I did the previous matches and I saw some guy running down the hallway approaching me. He had a bag of money in one hand, a gun in another and the police were chasing him. He had robbed the people I made a deal with for my matches…I guess he saw the money I was making and wanted a share or something….he was right in front of me Laura… the police were telling me to stop him… and I could've by simply sticking out my leg…Do you know what I did instead?" he looked down, ashamed at himself.
She looked at him with a soft expression.
"Nothing…I did nothing….It wasn't my job after all," he started letting out some chuckles and she looked at him worryingly. "When the officer asked me why I didn't stop him, I told him that I only look out for myself," he burst out laughing before putting his hand on his face as his expression dropped instantaneously. "...The man I let go later broke into my house and shot my uncle," he said as tears went down his face.
Laura's eyes widened.
"My uncle! the only person outside my aunt to ever care about me, died because of me…" he said in an overexaggerated tone as he pointed at himself.
"...because of me," he said in a lower tone as he dropped his head.
"Ever since that day I've used my powers for the sake of others, but at every turn I did the right thing someone else always got hurt, some of them even died. The only person to ever support me died because I failed to save him. He asked me to protect his daughter…" he tried to stop himself but it was too late now, the dam was open and there was no closing it.
"...She also died because of me," Tears were going down his face now. "Her name was 'Gwen Stacy.' She was the smartest, weirdest girl in the world. She wore lots of hair bands and raincoats but it worked for her. She died because some guy found out who I was. She died because of me…" he said sadly.
She didn't say anything.
"For the past month, I thought of myself as nothing but a failure, a miserable excuse as a hero, much more a person. I'm pretty sure you know how that feels too," she nodded at that.
He let out a couple of sniffs but the tears were done going down.
"You asked me why I let you come along Laura, and the answer is pretty simple really. You wanted to help me, and I wanted to help you," he said as he put his hand on one of her arms.
"You said you hurt people, that you've killed people, that it's the only thing you know how to do, well I'm here to tell you that you're wrong. You can do more than that, you've shown it time and time again for the brief moment I've been with you," he said with wholehearted belief.
"But I hurt you."
"And you're also bandaging me up. I know what it's like to see yourself as only your failures, but despite how hard it can be to believe it, we are more than them. No matter how much they hurt, we learn from them and then we do our best to make up for them."
"I could never make up for them…" she begins to say as she loosened her grip on him.
"...I wasn't born…," she said softly as she looked at him. "I was cloned from a man by a facility with the purpose of being the perfect weapon. For most of my life I was kept in a cell as they conducted experiments on me…." he looked at her with wide eyes at this revelation.
"Is that why your claws are made of metal?" he hesitantly asked.
She nodded.
"They took them out and coated them in adamantium before putting them back in," Peter looked at her with worry in his eyes as he couldn't possibly imagine what that must've been like, "They trained me to kill at a young age. They treated me as if I was a weapon, a machine…" her grip on him was slowly tightening.
"My master and mother were the only people who were kind to me…" her voice was trembling immensely when she was saying this.
He didn't like where this was going.
"They made me kill my master…" he didn't like where this was going at all.
"They made me kill my mother…" she said as she looked down in shame. She had relinquished her hold on him in an attempt to wipe away the tears that were going down her face. She froze as she felt his arms gently wrap around her, she didn't fight him as he pulled her in close to him. "They made me kill hundreds of people…" he just held onto her tightly and she rested her head on his chest.
"You don't have to say anything else…" he said softly.
"I can see them when I close my eyes…," she said in a low whisper as she brought one of her hands to hold on to him.
"You want to know something?"
She nodded.
"For the past month Gwen was all who I saw when I closed my eyes" he held her tightly as he said this. "This facility of yours, you said they made you kill all those people," he reiterated her words.
She nodded.
"It's not your fault then," he stated.
"It was me who killed them," she guiltily said.
"You didn't have a choice."
"Doesn't change the fact that I am a killer."
He pulled her away slowly and she fought him every step of the way but she eventually gave in. She dejectedly stared at the wound that she had inflicted on him instead of looking him in the eyes. "I know killers Laura, and I can tell you that you aren't one of them. Killers are people who can take someone else's life without a hint of regret, you're not that."
"Then what am I?" she said as she finally looked at him with a soul-searching gaze.
"That's up for you to decide, but I can tell you that from what I have seen, you're a girl who goes out of her way to help others. You care about others, it's why you helped me yesterday, it's why you're helping me now. You may be blunt, and snarky, and aggressive…very aggressive-" she narrowed her eyes weakly as he started listing off her traits, "but, you're also a very beautiful- extraordinarily beautiful, smart, intelligent, and while you may not believe it: a very kind girl, cause only someone kind would lament over the wrongs they were forced to commit," Peter stated in a matter of fact voice. She could feel her heartbeat getting faster and faster. "But more importantly, you're a girl who is trying to do the right thing and that's more than anyone could ask of you," he wiped away some of her tears which didn't help with her heart problem. "The people at the facility must've done a horrible job cause I don't see a weapon in front of me, I see a hero," he stated firmly with a soft smile as he looked directly into her eyes.
"And if you're planning on dismissing this by telling me some other wrongdoing you were forced to commit then save it. You aren't changing my mind. It's been set since the moment I've met you," She let out a small laugh at that.
As he was bringing his hand back to his side after wiping her cheek she stopped it, keeping it on her cheek as she grasped it within her own hand.
"Do you really think that I can be a hero?" she weakly said as she looked down.
"Have you been listening to what I've been saying this entire time? You already are one," he says with a big smile. She looked up at him and she smiled too. "Anyone can be a hero Laura, all it takes is just a little courage to do what's right. And luckily for you, you've got the baggage to be a good one too," he added with a small laugh, "This isn't a time for jokes," she said with a laugh of her own.
He had brought his hand down to his lap and she did the same, retaining her grasp on his hand and intertwining the other one with hers.
They looked at each other fondly.
"Who said I was joking? Everyone has pain Laura, but what makes us heroes, what makes us better, is that instead of letting it crush us or use it as an excuse to hurt others, we chose to learn from it and define it, instead of letting it define us. When I lost my Uncle Ben Laura, I learned the responsibility that comes with my powers. I learned that I can't just sit on the sidelines and wait for someone else to deal with a problem no matter how big or how small it is," he said with all his heart. "Gwen's death though… it was senseless and that's what hurt the most about it, but it doesn't hurt as much anymore because last night I gave her death meaning by promising to become a better hero, a better Spider-Man…I guess it's why I got these new developments, to help me with that," he said with a small smile.
She listened carefully to every word he said.
"You've already learned from your pain Laura, it's why I can tell that you don't want to hurt anyone anymore," he said and she nodded in surprise. "Now it's your time to choose how you can define that pain of yours," he told her gently.
She held his hands tightly as she thought about his words.
"They made me because they wanted a weapon, a weapon to hurt people, to kill people. I do not want to be what they made me to be…" she said with all her heart. "...But I do not know how to do that," she said sincerely.
"I think you do," Peter answered softly. "But if you need me to spell it out for you then by simply doing what's right shows that you aren't what they made you to be," he finished confidently.
"Sometimes I don't know what that is," she honestly said.
"Same here, but do you know what helps me?"
"What?"
"With great power comes great responsibility," he said softly.
"With great power comes great responsibility," she reiterated.
"My uncle used to say it to me all the time, I never really understood what it meant until he died. Ever since then Laura, I've been trying my best to live by those words every single day of my life. I know it's corny and not really specific but…" he was trailing off and looking away from her but she squeezed tightly to gain his attention.
"I think it is perfect," she said with a smile as she looked at him.
She thought about those words and held on to his hands tightly.
"...I want to help, Peter," she said earnestly. .
He warmly smiled at that and slowly proceeded to get up, still retraining his grasp on Laura.
"Then get back up Snikity-Snikt cause the Connors still need us and I can't do this without you," he said with a smile as he lifted her up on her feet still holding both her hands. "I told you to not call me that," she said in her usual Laura tone however she was still smiling.
"What are you going to do about it Snikity-Snikt?" he said teasingly.
She let go of him and glared heavily as she tried her best to threaten him with her claws but he merely pushed them gently back at her with his fingers, "I know you're not gonna hurt me," he said with a grin as he looked into her eyes.
She let out a huff.
"No…" she softly said, she looked at his mask however…
"...I'll tear up your mask though," she said, trying her best to sound threatening.
"I know you won't do that either," Peter said with a laugh as he was amused with her empty threats.
She sheathed her claws and let out a breath, "No, I wouldn't do that either," she said with a small smile.
"At least…. not at this moment," she said with a smirk.
"Well, you can tear it up all you want later when we're done saving the day," he said with a laugh as he put it on.
She looked at him with a heartfelt gaze as he put it on.
"What are we going to do? It beat us," Laura stated as defeat was foreign to her.
"We do what heroes always do: get back up, and never give up. Johnny taught me that," he said with a smile. "We still have two more cures thanks to you, we can still cure Connors, and last time I checked it only beat us with a stupid gimmick," Peter grumbled at that last part.
"How are we going to administer the cure if it can't drink it?" she asked him as they were quite in a predicament.
"We find another way," he simply said as they walked out the alleyway coming up with a plan.
"You said your claws were made out of adamantium?"
"Yes."
"Explains why it can cut through the Lizard's skin like butter. If Lizzy won't drink the cure then we'll force it through him another way, and we'll use your claws to do it," he said with a smirk.
"How?" she asked as she was wondering what his plan was.
"We administer the cure through a syringe. Now I know you might be thinking: a syringe can't break through its hide but that's where your claws come into play. Just like last time we're gonna tire it but this time you'll administer the cure through a deep wound courtesy of your adamantium claws," Peter said as he laid out his plan.
She was impressed by it.
"Not a bad plan… Spider-Man," she said as they entered the Connors house.
"Of course it's not bad, I came up with it," he said as he ran towards the lab to grab the remaining cures. He quickly came back with one syringe webbed to his side.
"Only one?" There should've been two.
"We'll only need one," he confidently said.
While she found it foolhardy to not take the third one, a part of her agreed with him.
"You have its scent?" Peter asked as they walked out of the house.
"Yes," she said as she looked in the direction where it went.
"Good, let's go," Peter said as he started running in that direction.
"What are you doing?" she asked him as she watched him runoff. "What do you think I'm doing? I'm going after the Lizard," He said as if it was obvious. She shook her head and made her way towards the car that was parked in front of the Connors family household.
"What are you doing?" He asked as he watched her smash open the driver seat window.
"Going after the Lizard," she stated as she started hotwiring the car.
"By stealing their car?" he exclaimed as he walked towards her.
"It will get us there in time. Now get in, before I make you get in," she said threateningly as the car started.
He looked at her not really knowing if he should enter the car or not.
"Do not make me repeat myself," she said as she watched him just stand there completely dumbfounded. He let out a sigh as he entered through the passenger seat.
"I feel like a criminal," he grumbled.
"Vigilantism is indeed a crime, so that does make you a-"
"Oh will you just get on with driv-AH!" she immediately floored the gas making him shut up immediately and look at her as if she was crazy.
She merely smirked.
She was crazy.
"Where did you learn to drive!?" Peter screamed from the passenger seat as he looked over his shoulder and out the ginormous empty space where his car door should be.
"The facility," she responded as she made a sharp turn to the right. He had to use the handle to stop himself from falling on her.
"They did an awful job at that too! If Connors doesn't kill them-which he won't, then the costs for repairs will!" He yelled as he looked at the bullet holes that were on the back window.
"You are overexaggerating," she flatly said as she continued to follow the scent.
"The police were after us!"
"We lost them."
"The police were after us!" he reiterated.
"You want to drive?" she annoyedly responded.
"I can't," he responded.
"Then be quiet, we are almost there."
As Laura made an attempt to run a red light, a truck that was crossing suddenly appeared and she made a hard turn to the left so as to not collide with it.
The whole entire time his spider-sense was going off.
"I'm gonna die," he said as he accepted his inevitable death.
"No you won't, I won't let you," she said confidently as she started driving on the wrong side of the road. There was no way in hell that he was going to die after what they just went through together, it wouldn't matter if The Lizard would suddenly have another mutation or if the sky were to fall.
She would not allow him to die.
She kept her word as they safely made it to the Central Park Zoo in one piece.
"The zoo," Peter said as he looked at the entrance of the desolate park. "Of course it's the zoo, why wouldn't it be the zoo?" he said out loud as he exited the car.
"You have their scents?" Peter asked as he looked at Laura who observed the park.
She nodded.
"They are alive, and from what I can tell, unharmed," she said as she detected no sign of blood. "That's a reliever. We get them to safety first and then we can cure Connors," she agreed with his choice of action.
They entered the park with caution.
"I've never seen this place so quiet," Peter said as he took in the silence. Only the sound of the animals inhabiting the place could be heard and he wasn't gonna lie, it was quite nice.
"I have never been here before," Laura said as she looked at the pool in the middle of the park where the smell of sea lions remained.
Peter looked at her with disbelief, "Really?"
"The majority of my time spent has been running from the facility, and for the months I have spent here in New York, it was as a forced prostitute," she admitted with zero emotion in her voice.
Peter looked at her with a sympathetic gaze.
"Is the facility still after you?" Peter worryingly asked.
"They will always be after me," She said sadly.
He gave a glance at her before looking away and letting out a sigh.
"Well, they'll be after us now," he simply said to her which caused her to whip her head in his direction in surprise at his words.
"You don't know how dangerous they are," She said as she tried to deter him from such a thought.
"Hasn't stopped me before, and besides Laura, after everything I've told you, you think I'd turn a blind eye to you and your problem?" he rhetorically asked her.
She looked away, "...No, no you wouldn't, but they'll become your enemies," he laughed when she said this. "Lady, do you know who you're talking to? I'm just about enemies with practically every evil organization and person on the planet? Adding this facility of yours to the mix is like adding chocolate sprinkles to a triple chocolate fudge cake," Peter said with a laugh. "Besides, if anyone's making enemies here it's you, being seen with me. I am the dashingly handsome superhero here," Peter pointed out as he struck a stupid pose.
She thought about that sentence.
"Am I wrong?" Peter asked with a raised brow.
She let out a huff, "No, you are right."
"On the enemies part or the dashingly-handsome-superhero part?" He asked once more.
"Both," she simply said with a small smile that caught him off guard. His confident demeanor quickly dropped as he started looking around the park, ignoring the burning sensation on his cheeks.
"You um…you said you've never been here before right?" he asked her as he looked where the sea lions would be.
"Yes," she simply replied.
"H-How about I take you sometime…you know? When we're not hunting a giant-mutated-lizard?" Peter nervously asked. She thought about his words, "Y-you don't have to answer right now, in fact, you don't have to answ-"
"-No," she simply said.
"Oh," he simply said as he put his hand on his face as he was incredibly embarrassed. "I will answer now," she added, causing him to look at her surprised as he was anticipating her answer.
"I would like to go to the zoo with you," she said with a small smile as she looked at him. Everything in his body stopped at that moment. He blinked multiple times. Did she just say yes?
"When we're not hunting a giant-mutated-lizard," she added as she noticed his odd behaviour. He let out a cough to excuse himself, "Y-yea…of course," he said as he still couldn't comprehend what just happened.
"W-where is it anyways," he said as he shoved all those thoughts to the back of his mind. "In there," she said as she looked at the entrance to the tropical zone. "Of course," Lizards were cold-blooded creatures so they relied on getting their warmth from external sources, and the tropical zone just so happened to have an artificial heating source to replicate that of a natural environment.
They were greeted with the sound of an artificial waterfall alongside the sounds of various animals, croaks from frogs, chirping from birds….
"Spider-Man will save us! Spider-Man will save us!"
Laura instantly withdrew her claws upon hearing that and Peter let out a shriek as he was startled by the high-pitched voice that screamed that phrase. They both looked into the direction those words came from only to stare deadpanned as they were greeted with the sight of a colorful bird.
"Stupid parrot," Peter mumbled as Laura sheathed her claws, agreeing with that statement.
They walked through a dark hallway that was only illuminated through the displays that were in it. The animals were all rattled, the bats that were inside their own display were all screeching as they flew around in circles. He went to give them some light using his spider-signal but she stopped him.
"Don't, it will alert it to our presence. Use your spider-sense, I can see perfectly well in the dark," she said as there was no need for it.
He nodded.
They made it to the rainforest and Laura looked around the enormous room full of animal and plant life. The Connors family was here, and so was The Lizard. The room was dark, only briefly illuminated by the moon that shone through the glass ceiling.
It was eerily quiet as the only thing they could hear would be the sound of the waterfall.
Peter followed closely behind Laura as they traversed down the wooden pathway. She followed the scent to the edge of one of the pathways and looked down towards the small river that was below them.
The river led into a small cave, and inside that cave was where the Connors family were.
She gave a glance towards Peter and he nodded silently.
They both jumped down to where the river was and cautiously made their way into the darkened cave. Peter let his spider-sense guide him through the cave for he could sense that there were two people huddled up within a corner.
Laura could see the frightful expression on their faces as they tried their best to keep quiet upon hearing the sound of footsteps on the water.
"Curt?" Martha frighteningly whispered.
"Yes honey?" Peter jokingly responded as he tried putting on a deep voice.
"Spider-" Billy tried to say in an excited voice but Martha had stopped him by putting a hand over his mouth. "Spider-Man," Martha said in a relieved whisper, "and Claw-Girl," Peter added, causing Laura to give him a deadpanned look.
"Where's Curt?" she asked him worryingly.
"I don't know, probably shopping in a re-tail store," Billy chuckled at this.
He could feel Laura staring at him, "That was a good one," he defended.
She rolled her eyes and started sniffing the air.
Just like the sewers yesterday the area was rich with its scent so it was hard to track it.
"Look, Mrs. Connors, I wouldn't worry about your husband. Right now we need to get you to safety first before any of you get hurt," Peter said as he slowly got her up. She nodded as she lifted Billy into her arms.
Laura stood in front leading the family while Peter stayed behind, guarding its back. His spider-sense was going off softly, it was watching them but where? They had exited the cave with it still being unnervingly quiet, he noticed Laura's sniffing was becoming frantically faster.
She had picked up its scent the moment they had exited the cave.
It was fresh, as if it had exited the cave while they were still in it.
It wasn't as if.
It did.
Peter's spider-sense was going crazy as the trees started rattling and the birds frantically flying. The Connors family had to hold in their panic as they were quickly overwhelmed by the sounds of things escalating.
They could hear something jumping around the trees.
"Claw-Girl! get them to safety," Peter said as he braced himself for a fight, she tried to refute but he quickly interjected, "Don't worry about me, they are the number one priority," he stated as he looked around.
She nodded and hastily grabbed the hand of Martha and ran towards an employee-only pathway. This sparked a reaction from The Lizard who leaped to give chase but Peter intercepted it by punching it square in the face sending it back to where it came from.
"Alright Doctor Connors, I'd like to prematurely say I'm sorry," Peter said as he landed on the wooden platforms as he watched the Lizard slowly get up from his blow, "Cause this is gonna hurt," he finished as he clenched his fists.
Laura was running down a narrow hallway leading the Connors family to safety as fast as she could so she could return and assist the injured Peter.
"Will he be okay?" Billy asked worriedly.
"Yes, he can take care of himself," Laura stated.
Peter came crashing through the wall right in front of them.
"Oh, man…It did hurt…" he said from his comfortable crater in the wall.
She abruptly stopped running alongside the Connors and stared at him as he immediately got back up to grab the Lizard who had aimed to leap on him and proceeded to slam it into the ground before throwing it back out of the hole they had created. He looked at the three who were staring at him and simply gave them an 'ok' gesture before jumping into the fray once again. Peter's throw had the Lizard slam its back on one of the many ginormous tropical trees that were in the room. It latched on to it and with its might, tore the upper half off and used it as a weapon to swing at Peter. He dodged the attack and ran on the tree before hitting its face hard, sending its scaly eight-foot figure off of the tree it was latched onto and down into the ground.
"You know, you'd be a real danger if you had a brain," Peter quipped from the torn tree before running down it and towards the Lizard. It roared angrily and aimed to lunge at Peter once again but he prepared for this and like a bullet from a gun, he propelled himself off of the tree and hit it once again, harder this time.
On impact, The Lizard was sent back down to the ground viciously but it wouldn't accept defeat and landed on its feet with a loud 'thoom.' As this was happening, Peter landed on his hands and launched himself off the ground and onto another tree, and bounced off of that and back into the Lizard and punched it square in the face, causing it to viciously stagger back. He continued his assault, bouncing off the trees and using his insane speed and strength to continue to stagger the Lizard. Each hit grew louder and louder with him getting more confident that it could take more and more of his strength.
The Lizard clenched its fists and let out a roar angrier than it ever has before and took one of Peter's hits, ending his assault and starting its own. It went to hit him and he dogged it so it went to swipe him with its talons and it just barely grazed him, scratching his uniform. Its pace started getting faster and faster and Peter struggled to keep up despite his own speed and processing power. It speedily went to punch him with all its might and Peter dodged it, and was glad he did as that punch collided with one of the enormous thick trees, instantly demolishing it.
Peter managed to get a hit on it and stagger it once more and proceeded to repeat his previous assault but the Lizard grew tired and caught one of his hits before coming to the conclusion that it was best to take Peter out of this environment.
So it simply threw him through the glass ceiling.
Laura was guiding the family out of the park when she heard the loud sound of glass cracking. She looked on with a blank expression as Peter's body sored high into the air like a shooting star before crashing back down to the ground right in front of them.
The cement they were standing on cracked as he let out a groan.
She looked at him with a blank expression as he struggled to turn his head to face her.
"Don't let this fool you, I was actually winning," He said from the ground as the bandages she had placed on him earlier had gone completely red.
She whipped her head towards the building and saw the Lizard jump out of it and land on the roof before letting out a roar that would echo throughout all of New York.
She let out a growl before unsheathing her own claws.
"Thats it!" she angrily yelled as she saw the Lizard leap high into the air after them. She wouldn't play the babysitter any longer. If her mission was to get them to safety then she'd do that by getting rid of The Lizard.
It landed and shaked the ground beneath them, scaring the Connors family but she wasn't scared. She was angry. She ran towards it and waited for it to attack her before dodging it and countering with an attack of her own. With each hit it tried landing on her, she retaliated with deep gashes on important muscle groups which would weaken it.
The more she weakened it, the more her dodge and hit approach changed into one of complete and utter decimation. Her assault relented though as with each gash she created, two more healed. She had reverted back to her dodge and counter but like with Peter's encounter, she found herself struggling to dodge its attacks as they started to barely graze her.
She let out an angry yell as it tried sweeping her with its tail but she decapitated it, alongside the right hand that it tried to follow up on but she was open to a hit from its left hand that sent her tumbling.
It stomped on the ground, cracking it before launching at her fallen body, its fist pulled back as it aimed to destroy her but a red and blue blur prevented that.
Peter's fist collided with the Lizards, creating a loud "boom," that beings made out of pure physical power could only make.
"The kiddie gloves are off!" Peter yelled as he overpowered The Lizard.
It shrieked in pain as the force from his hit traveled throughout its body. Peter assaulted it as Laura proceeded to get back up, she was 'wowed,' by the display of strength but that was quickly put aside as she noticed how its tail wasn't regenerating and how its arm was at an increased rate.
It was learning how to prioritize certain spots with its healing factor, she didn't even have that much control over hers.
It was time to end this before it could continue to learn more.
As Peter was barraging the Lizard, he was caught off guard by how fast its arm had regenerated and had to halt his advances in order to dodge an attack from it. As it was attacking him he could hear an angry yell come from Laura and he immediately backflipped over her as she lunged at the Lizard digging her claws deep into its chest. As it went to attack her, she pushed herself off it, doing a flip and using one of her foot claws to send a gash from its neck up to the tip of its chin. Peter came up from under her and uppercut it, widening the gash and causing it to scream in pain. He continued his attack by planting his feet on its chest before jumping and kneeing its chin; he followed this up by turning his simple knee into a flip kick that sent its head soaring up into a powerful overhead slam that brought it back down. He launched himself off the Lizard, pushing it towards Laura who slit its throat before going underneath its arm and slicing deep into its armpit leaving its arm dangling, before severing the still healing tail again.
It turned around, hellbent on striking her in her open position but there was a funny thing when you work in twos.
You had someone watching your back.
As it turned around it was met with a fist from Peter who's force made the two-deep gashes in its neck even bigger. As he landed from his attack she didn't waste a second as she ran on his back and jumped off of it, doing a front flip over the lizard and striking the back of its neck upside down.
Temporarily paralyzing it
Peter was impressed by this.
With all his force he swept the Lizard off his feet with a sweeping kick before doing another uppercut, sending it into the air. He jumped immediately after this and, once again, with all his might, he hit The lizard and sent it tumbling away.
The two teens stood beside each other as they saw The Lizard slowly get up, its body battered and beaten but still regenerating at a fast rate but with all the blows it had taken, it wouldn't matter, the concussive force that Peter had dealt to it was enough to tire it physically, all that was left was to bleed it dry.
It was the final hour, Peter could already hear the chorus kicking in on this little dance.
The Lizard knew that too as it stared at them, too damaged to run, the only thing it could do was fight.
The Lizard roared, giving the two its last stand.
Peter and Laura took a glance at each other, "You ready?" he asked her.
She gave a smirk, "Let's end this!" she yelled furiously as she charged at The Lizard.
Peter followed suit and so did the Lizard.
All three of them let out a yell as they charged at each other.
The Lizard prioritized Laura for she was the closest but she effortlessly dodged its slow attack and chose to slide underneath its legs and slice open the back of them as Peter striked it causing it to take steps back. It tried to fight back but with the two working together seamlessly it was outclassed. Every time it tried hitting one, the other would strike, however, it still stood its ground as it could still heal at an accelerated rate.
Which would work in their favor as they didn't want Doctor Connors to suffer permanent damage if they were to cure him.
After most of its wounds had healed, Peter and Laura stood on opposite ends from the mutated reptile and she gave him a glace and he took out his stingers.
"Try and keep up," he cockily said
The both of them slashed both sides of The Lizard effortlessly exchanging sides.
"Like I said, 'I'm faster,'" she cockily said as she looked at him.
"And like I said, Let's test that!" he exclaimed as he attacked The Lizard again.
They danced around him in a flurry of red blue and black, the both of them trying to one-up another by picking up speed only to find that the other could go faster. To the human eye, they were nothing but blurs that left splatters of blood in their wake, going so fast and creating so many wounds that the Lizard's healing factor couldn't keep up with them.
They had smirks on their faces as the Lizard shrieked in pain, unable to match them as they worked in complete synchronization. After inflicting enough wounds that its healing factor was completely negated Laura broke the pattern she was in with Peter and he realized what she was doing.
He continued to blitz it as she let out a yell as she dug her claws deep into its upper right trap down its lower left hip, she repeated the process by circling around it starting again from its upper left trap and down to its lower hip, leaving a nicely shaped 'x' right in the middle of its chest.
Peter pushed himself off the Lizard and landed right in front of it before striking the sweet spot Laura had created sending it flying. The Lizard tried its hardest to get back up but all it could muster was to get on its knees. Peter grabbed the syringe from his side and offered a hand to Laura who took it without a second's worth of hesitation.
"Lets finish this dance for real this time with a power move," he said excitedly. "I'd like to call this one: The fastball special," He said with a smirk as he threw Laura with all his strength at the Lizard.
The Lizard could only watch in complete and utter despair as he flung her at the speed of a bullet, aimed right towards the 'x' that was on its chest. In an instant, her claws had pierced the make shift target and the force of the strike had the Lizards' back get dragged on the ground for meters.
"Bulleseye," Peter said proudly.
As they stopped moving, Laura immediately stabbed the syringe right in the middle of the 'x' she had made. While it was better to administer it through one of the gashes on its arm she thought that it would be more fitting to do it in the spot she had chosen.
She got off of it and stepped back as the cure slowly made its way throughout its system. She was breathing heavily as the high from the fight was starting to wear off. Peter quickly made his way towards her and watched with anticipation as the Lizard's body cringed.
The Lizard let out shrieks as its skin started peeling off of it. It struggled to get back up as its form began shrinking, its tail slowly rotting away, eventually falling off its body. More and more the body became human as the green was getting replaced with caucasian, and the reptilian face was slowly morphing into that of a man.
The high from the fight at this point had long since faded with Laura looking on in surprise and complete anticipation.
In a matter of seconds the Lizard was gone and in its place was a blonde-haired caucasian man who looked at himself with disbelief and relief. He was also naked. He looked at the two heroes, instantly recognizing the situation as he recognized Spider-Man but before he could ask who Laura was the sound of the footsteps that belonged to his family caught his attention.
"Curt!" Martha yelled with joy as she ran towards her husband "Dad!" Billy followed suit. Peter and Laura looked at the scene with fond eyes as the family was reunited with each other. Dr. Connors held his family tightly within his arms as they all cried tears of joy with each other.
Dr. Connors held his family tightly with both his arms.
Laura looked at Peter with confusion. If what Mrs. Connors had told them was true then Dr. Connors should only have one of his arms, unless Peter did something.
"You did something so that he could have his arm back," Laura stated.
"Well, let's just say the cleanser kinda cleanses ninety-nine-point-nine percent of Lizard cells, just keeping enough so that he could still retain his arm," Peter explained.
"You didn't have to do that," Laura said.
"I didn't but he dedicated all his life into getting his arm back, I just thought he deserved it after everything he's been through. It's like I said earlier Laura, we don't just save people. We help them too cause that's what heroes do," Peter said sincerely with a smile.
"And we are heroes," Laura finished as she looked at him with adoration.
He let out a breath at that.
"Yes we are Claw-Girl. Now c'mon, we're done here," he gently said as he proceeded to leave the scene. She nodded and followed suit, smiling in the process as a warm feeling found its way around her body.
This was how it felt to do good…it felt… It felt good.
It felt right.
"Wait!" Curt yelled as he saw the two figures retreating. The two teens turned around to see him stumbling towards them, his naked body covered by Martha's jacket.
"Thank you…Thank you so much," he said with pure gratitude as he looked at the two.
Peter let out a quiet chuckle before crossing his arms confidently.
"It's nothing, just all in a day's work Doctor Connors," Peter said as he relished saying those words once again. "Well it means everything to us Spider-Man, we will never forget this," he gratefully said to him before turning to Laura, "The both of you, thank you…"
"...all in a day's work," she reiterated before leaving.
"Before you go, I just want to ask one thing," Curt asked as he looked at Laura. "Who are you? I want to be able to remember the hero who helped save my family's life and my own as well," he said with a smile.
She looked at him for a moment and then back to Peter who simply had his arms crossed.
She didn't need to see his face to see the smile he had.
She smiled at him too before turning to Connors family.
"Talon. My name is Talon," she stated confidently.
"Thank you for saving my family, Talon," he said warmly.
Peter nudged her with his shoulder as she simply nodded at the Doctor.
She liked this.
"What are we going to do about the Kingpin Curt?" Martha worryingly asked.
"I wouldn't worry about that, he's next on my list," Peter said as he reassured the family. "I know where he is," Laura stated to the shock of everyone around her, "I won't let him hurt you," she said firmly towards the family who let out sighs of relief.
Everyone perked up as they heard the sound of sirens approaching them.
"We lost them," Peter said as he mocked Laura's voice.
The family looked at them confused for a moment.
"We kinda stole your car to come to your rescue," Peter said nervously, causing the family to laugh, "it's okay," Curt responded. "We uh, we also broke a lot of laws while driving it…and it's kinda damaged," he added.
They raised an eyebrow at him as Billy let out an innocent chuckle.
"Our car was destroyed yesterday," Martha said to the two heroes.
Peter was left dumbfounded for a moment.
"Oh….you wouldn't happen to have two cars would you?" he hopefully asked.
"No," she responded.
All of them, with the exception of Laura just stared blankly as they realized they didn't take the Connors family car.
They could hear the sound of police cars opening and closing in the distance.
"And that's our cue to leave," Peter said to Laura as he turned to make a run for it.
She rolled her eyes and followed suit.
The family let out a laugh as they looked at the two with smiles and gratitude plastered all over their faces.
"Go Spider-Man and Talon!" Billy yelled gleefully as he watched the two heroes disappear into the dark. They looked at each other and smiled at that.
Spider-Man and Talon.
They liked that.
"Wilson Fisk is the Kingpin?" Peter asked as he gazed on at Fisk Tower.
"Yes," she simply stated. "He hired the facility to kill for him once. They used me," she guiltily said.
Peter looked at her with a sympathetic gaze.
"Maybe it's best if you stay here so that he wouldn't recognize you," Peter said to her. She nodded agreeing with that, if he saw her then he would no doubt inform the facility.
"I'll be back," Peter said as he went to make his entrance but Laura had made an attempt to stop him. Initially, she went to grab his hand but stopped herself, the sudden burst of movement though was all that was needed to stop his advance.
He looked at her questioningly as she formed the words she was going to say.
"Dont…dont do anything stupid," she said worryingly as she looked at him. Peter was surprised by this for a moment but he let out an amused "hmph."
"When do I ever do anything stupid?" he simply asked before going to make his introduction.
Two heavily trained, very strong, six-foot men simply came flying through the doors of Wilson Fisk's office.
"I'm here to see a Mr. Fisk," Peter said as he walked into a fine room with wooden walls and a marble floor that had purple carpet which led to a lonesome desk that stood at the other end of the room. The huge figure that was looking out of his window simply spun around to face the wall-crawling hero.
Underneath his cracked lenses his blue eyes met who he could assume to be the Kingpins hazel ones as the fat man in the white suit simply raised his head slowly, clasping his hands together as he rested his elbows on his table.
"I was expecting you," he simply said with his deep voice.
"So you're the Kingpin of crime?" Peter asked as he looked at the bald Caucasian man.
Fisk nodded.
"I knew you were 'big' but… I didn't think you were this big," he said with mock astonishment as he referenced his size.
"You'd be wise to watch your tongue boy when in the presence of a man," he said threateningly.
"Man? All I see is a five-hundred-pound whale," he joked as he proceeded to get closer.
"What are you here for," Fisk merely said as he narrowed his eyes at Spider-Man, unamused by his antics and casual disrespect.
"We have not been properly introduced have we?" Peter said as his casual demeanour quickly shifted into one of seriousness, "I'm the guy who's gonna stop your plans," he said threateningly. "You're going to leave the Connors family alone, and I'm gonna bring you to the nearest police station and-"
"-And what? You're gonna arrest me?" he mockingly said as he raised a brow. "Yea, I'm glad you already know what's going to happen, makes things a lot more easier," Peter said as he walked closer towards him. "For what?" Fisk challenged. "For…turning Doctor Connors into a giant Lizard," Peter stated.
"If my facts are correct, he turned himself voluntarily into that thing," Fisk stated. "Well…yea, because you sent men to his-"
"And where are these 'men' you speak of?" Fisk asked once again. Peter paused himself, "Oh wait, they're dead. Connors killed them," Fisk said with a smirk. "If anything, I should go to the police station right now and-" with one hand Peter flung Fisk's desk across the room before grabbing him viciously.
"You're gonna do nothing to the Connors family," Peter threateningly stated.
"Or what?" Fisk asked as he stood tall, dwarfing Peter, "You're going to fight me?" he menacingly asked.
"I wouldn't call a one-sided beatdown a fight," Peter stated confidently as he stood his ground against the Kingpin who growled at him but did nothing.
He turned around to face away from our red and blue hero and onto the city of New York.
"I have all I need from Connors and his pathetic family," Fisk simply said.
"Good, that only leaves one more thing then," Peter replied as Fisk looked at him curiously.
"You're coming with me," Peter stated.
"I am going nowhere," Fisk powerfully said.
"The police sirens say otherwise," Peter retorted as he heard sirens approaching them.
Fisk laughed.
"You think they're coming for me?" he asked with a laugh. Peter looked at him confused, "They're here for you," Fisk finished.
"You must be delusional because last time I checked I wasn't the Kingpin of crime, you are!" Peter stated. "You should check again boy because the records say I'm Wilson Fisk, multi-millionaire philanthropist, owner of Fisk industries and co-owner of Damage control," he stated with confidence.
"I've got proof that says otherwise!" Peter replied back fiercely.
"And where is this proof?" Fisk cockily yelled. "Is it the scientist that turned himself into a monster and killed three of my men ?" he rhetorically asked.
Peter started to stutter which caused him to laugh.
"You've got nothing on me boy and if you don't want to hear it from me, hear it from him," Fisk pointed from behind Peter. He turned around to see…
"Daredevil?" he asked as he saw the adult man in a dark red and black kevlar uniform with horns on the top of his head standing behind him. "Let him go Spider-Man," Daredevil said calmly.
"But DD he's-"
"He's right," he flatly stated to Peter's surprise.
Fisk merely smirked at this.
"We can't just let him go unpunished," Peter yelled.
"He won't," Daredevil threateningly said as he eyed Fisk while putting a hand on Peter's shoulder.
"Mark my words he'll be going to jail with the rest of them," Fisk scoffed at Daredevil's words. "But it won't be today," he said as he looked at Peter.
At the sound of the police entering the building Daredevil simply walked out the way he and Peter came.
"We have to go," he simply stated and Peter reluctantly followed but not before glaring at Fisk.
He merely dusted his suit before looking at the two with a smirk on his face.
"Next time we meet Spider-Man you're going to wish that you never came back. New York isn't your city anymore, just ask your friend here. I'm sure Mr. Murdock would be glad to explain the whole situation to you," he said as he manically laughed.
Daredevil didn't respond.
Peter looked at him with wide eyes.
He knew who Matt was.
Fisk's laugh echoed the hallways as they left the building.
The two heroes traveled blocks away from the tower until they found a suitable building.
There was a pause between the two.
Neither of them not really knowing what to say.
"It's…it's good to have you back Spider-Man," Daredevil said with a relieved tone as he smiled at him.
"D.D…he knows who you are…how?" Peter asked as he was still taken back from him.
Daredevil looked down, "That's…that's not important right now. What is: is you being here," he said once again in a relieved tone.
Peter could tell that Matt was tired, exhausted. His uniform had wear and tears all over the place, the small beard that was growing had shown he hasn't shaved in weeks, and well, he smelt like blood.
He was worried.
"How….how bad is it?" Peter asked and Daredevil began to speak, however he stopped as he sniffed something coming at a fast rate, instantaneously retrieving his signature multi-purpose billy clubs in response.
"What is it?" Peter asked as he also got prepared.
"Someone is coming our way, a girl…" he said as he started deciphering the scent more and more. Peter instantly relaxed, "oh, she's with me," Peter said as he instantly knew who was approaching them, Daredevil put his weapons back in his holster in response to his casualness and was surprised at the fact that Spider-Man was working with someone for once.
Laura had instantly appeared and upon recognizing the scent, Daredevil faced her with pure shock and surprise written all over his face.
"Daredevil, this over here is Talon," Peter said as he walked towards her.
Laura didn't respond as she looked at Murdock, a surprised expression on her face too, although much more hidden.
"Talon, this is Daredevil, another one of my superhero friends," Peter said as he tried introducing Laura to Daredevil.
"We've met before," she simply stated as she eyed him.
"What?" He was left dumbfounded.
"I thought Captain America arrested you?" Daredevil said in surprise.
"What?" he asked once again.
"He let me go," she stated once again.
"What?" was someone going to explain what they were talking about?
"I was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. months ago, arrested for the killings I had committed while under the facility," she explained as she looked at the dumbfounded Spider-Man. "He acted as Captain America's legal advisor when he was interrogating me," she said as she pointed at Daredevil.
"Oh," Peter replied.
That explained a lot.
"What are you doing here?" Daredevil asked her.
"Helping people, with him," she firmly said as she looked at Peter.
Daredevil was surprised for a moment before breaking out into a small smile.
"That's… good," he said with an almost proud tone.
"How did it go?" Laura asked as she turned her attention to Peter. "Went as good as that broadway musical that was based off of me," Peter bitterly said, causing Laura to raise a brow. Upon seeing her confusion Peter remembered that she most likely wasn't aware of that disastrous play.
"It was horrible. We've got nothing on him, we can't even arrest him," he explained with frustration.
"What?" Laura said with disbelief as she looked at Daredevil.
"Wilson Fisk is a legit businessman as far as the records go," Daredevil bitterly stated.
Laura scoffed at that, "I said 'public records.' He's a supposed legit businessman slash philanthropist by day, criminal overlord, murderer, by night," Daredevil responded to her scoffs. "We can't just beat him like you do with everyone else. We have to do this legally," Daredevil said as he looked at Peter.
"What's stopping us from killing him right now?" she simply said as she unsheathed her claws.
Peter whipped his head at her upon hearing the word "kill."
"No!" Both Peter and Daredevil sternly said however Daredevil's voice was much more louder.
"We don't kill people Talon, we do what's right, and that's by bringing him to justice," Peter said to her.
"I couldn't have said it better myself," Daredevil added. "As much as I'd like to wrap my hands around his neck and end him, that would be selfish and wrong. We have to do this legally, and get justice for the people he's hurt and the lives he's taken," Daredevil said with conviction.
Laura didn't understand but sheathed her claws and decided to let the two talk as they were well versed with the hero business.
"I've set up a meeting with Chief DeWolff tomorrow," Daredevil said to the surprise of Peter.
"How'd ya do that? DeWolff has gone on record and said that she doesn't like us supers," Peter said as he recalled his few encounters with her.
"She doesn't, but she doesn't have a choice. Fisk has the mayor and the force all under his payroll alongside most of the crime in the city, if not the state, possibly the country," Daredevil stated to the shock of Peter.
"Even the Maggia?" Peter asked as he knew Hammerhead wouldn't go down without a fight. "Fisk has forced the Hammerheads to work with the Nefarias," his eyes were practically bulging.
"Hammer Head and Madame Masque?"
"Unlikely allies," Daredevil said.
"What about Tombstone? I thought he was supposed to be 'The Bigman.' There's no way he'd let Fisk take control of his whole entire empire," Peter said as he recalled the pale man in a suit.
"Fisk has. He's turned Tombstone's whole entire drug operation into his own and has used most of his fronts as a means to smuggle in more than just drugs," Daredevil added to the surprise and shock of Peter.
Laura clenched her fists, she knew where this was going.
"Fisk is smuggling illegal weapons from and into the country, alongside humans as well," He said bitterly and Peter could feel his blood boiling, Laura on the other hand was struggling to not make the tower before them covered in blood.
The only thing that stopped her would be the red and blue hero that stood beside her right now.
"No way…" Peter said with disbelief.
"That's not it," Daredevil said sadly.
"It's not!" Peter exclaimed.
"Fisk is in business with a new organization that traffics superhumans," Peter was stunned by that, trafficked superhumans? "The number of superhumans grows each day Spider-Man, people are starting to take notice," Daredevil said as he looked at the horizon. "And more importantly, people want to capitalize. They want their hands on human beings who could lift tons with a finger, who could fire lasers out of their eyes, who could survive a nuclear bomb without even a scratch. Fisk is supplying these traffickers, in turn, they add on millions of dollars to the billions he's already sitting on. He uses that money to buy real estate in the city, constantly raising prices for the denizens who live there, keeping them poor and having them fuel him by turning to a life of crime because it's the only option they have," Daredevil finished with pure disgust.
Peter wanted Daredevil to run that by him again but he was too shocked to even say the words. Superhuman trafficking? Forcing people to turn to a life of crime by making them poor?
Peter shook his head, "This…this is all my fault," he said to himself as he lowered his head.
Despite her blood boiling at the things Daredevil was saying she turned to Peter with a look of confusion, she couldn't see how this was his fault. She aimed to tell him that but the horned hero in red beat her to it.
"It's not, Fisk has been planning this for decades," Daredevil said adamantly in a vain attempt to console him. "And I gave him the perfect opportunity to enact it!" Peter said as he was enraged with himself.
Daredevil sighed, he knew he couldn't sway the young man's mind.
"You're back now, that's all that matters. And together we will bring him to justice," Daredevil said strongly as he clenched his fists.
"We?" Peter asked.
"Fisk has almost all of the super-criminal underworld, that's not in Rikers or the Raft, under his payroll. We can't beat him by ourselves, so I'm assembling a team that will meet with DeWolff on the nineteenth precinct tomorrow."
"Well count me in, I know I'm not much of a team player but I'll do whatever it takes to take the fatman down," Peter said determinately.
Daredevil smiled.
"Good, I'll send you the details later. Tomorrow we plan to take the city back. Until then, rest. We need you for this war. Fisk might not look like it but he's afraid of you, it's why he's put a cease on all criminal activity the moment he heard of your arrival, it's why he only stepped out of the shadows when you left," Daredevil stated with slight admiration.
"With you on this team, I know we can take him down," Daredevil said with complete conviction. Peter nodded and turned to leave but Daredevil stopped him.
"And Peter….I meant what I said, it's good to have you back. You're one of the few I trust now," The man without fear vulnerably said.
"I won't let you down DD," Peter said firmly.
"I know," Daredevil said with a smile.
As he and Laura turned to depart, Daredevil once again stopped them.
"And you," he said as he turned his attention to Laura, "I want to speak with you privately."
Peter looked at Laura and she nodded, signaling that it was alright.
He left to let the two speak with each other.
"So you're with him now," he asked her.
She nodded.
"Why?" he simply asked.
"Because he gave me a chance to do good after a lifetime of wrongs," she stated confidently and he softened his gaze at that. "You know who he is don't you?" Daredevil stated more so than he asked.
"And he knows who I am," she said softly as she looked down.
Daredevil understood her words and let out a huff which grabbed her attention.
She could see him smiling proudly.
"You know, if I was given custody to you all those months ago, I would have introduced you to him," Daredevil told her much to her surprise. "He's a good man, and despite his jokey exterior and age, he's one of the best. Him being here after everything only cements that, but you already knew that didn't you," he said with a small smirk.
"Yes," she said fondly.
"The both of you are good for each other," he said lightheartedly, causing her to once again look at him in shock, her pale face turning a lighter shade of red.
Was he implying…
He let out a small chuckle upon her reaction.
"I'll be seeing you tomorrow then?" Daredevil once again stated more so then he did ask. "If he is there, then yes," she said firmly.
"Until then, Talon," Daredevil said as he jumped off the building.
Laura quickly made her way to Peter who was far enough away so that he wouldn't eavesdrop even though he really wanted to.
"So what was that about?" he curiously asked her.
"He was glad to see me doing this. When I was getting interrogated by Captain America, he vouched for my goodness, like you did for me today," she said softly.
"Well, we are good judges of character," he said as he praised himself and his friend.
He didn't really know where to go from here.
"This Kingpin talk has left a sour taste in my mouth," Peter said with disgust. She looked at him curiously, "I'll deal with him tomorrow but for the rest of the night, would you like to celebrate that we saved a family today?" Peter said as he raised a brow underneath his mask.
She thought about it, saving a family was something worth celebrating.
"Yes, we should celebrate," she said, agreeing with him.
He was happy at that response.
"Do you wanna know how Spider-Man celebrates happy endings?" Peter said excitedly.
"How?"
"With a good ole fashioned Neapolitan pizza from a place called 'Song'E Nauple," Peter excitedly said.
"Song'E Nauple?" she wasn't aware of such a place.
"Ever heard of it?" he asked as he tilted his head.
She shook her head.
That's right, most of her time being in New York was spent doing things he didn't want to think about.
"Ever had pizza before?" he asked her.
She shook her head again.
Peter looked at her sympathetically, there are probably many things in life she hasn't experienced.
"Come, they make the best pizza in all of New York. I'll even get a sixteen-inch pizza for us, it'll be my treat" he said as he offered her a hand.
"Don't you only have twenty dollars?" she asked as she recalled how he told her that he was flat broke. "Yea, but I can make it work. I saved the owner's daughter once so I get a lifetime supply of free pizza. Any type I want, as much as I want, and anytime I want," he said as he reiterated the owner's promise to him.
"Best pizza in all of New York," she said as she reiterated his words. "In the country, in my opinion," Peter said confidently.
"I'd like to try it," she honestly said as she took his hand.
"I just want to know one thing: what type of food do you like?" He asked her as he wanted to know what pizza would suit her tastes so that she would enjoy this as much as she could.
"I like…Spicy food," she answered.
"Spicy food? I never took you as one who would like spicy food," Peter responded truthfully.
"The food the facility served me was bland as it was meant for nutrition, not pleasing of one's taste. That is why I like spicy food as it is full of flavor," she answered. "...and it is one of the few things that are as far away from them as possible," she said in a low voice.
The more he heard about the facility the more Peter wanted to punch a wall or destroy the world.
He noticed that she was looking down, she must be remembering her time there.
He grabbed her other hand to bring her back to the present.
She looked at him as she was surprised by his gesture again.
"How about we order a diavola pizza then? It's got this spicy salami that's imported from someplace in Italy."
"I would like that," she said softly as she looked at his white lenses.
She wished that he had it off so that she could look at his face.
"Great! we'll just head back to where our stuff is and I'll order it," he said as he let go of her much to her disappointment.
She nodded and followed his steps.
"First one there gets the first slice?" He asked her competitively.
"If you want the second slice you can just say it instead of making a pointless competition where you know I'd win," She said with a small smirk.
"Oh it's on," Peter said determinedly as he abruptly took the first step in their race.
He lost.
Laura sat quietly on a tall rooftop that was beside the small pizzeria, donning the pink shoulderless sweater she wore earlier once again.
She gazed at the soft purple sky as she pondered about today's events. Her argument with Logan felt like ages ago. She had met the Fantastic Four who had greeted her warmly as if she were a part of their family, they had even included her in that family to an extent. She had met Daredevil, a man who she thought she would never see again.
She had saved a family today.
She felt good today.
She felt right today.
She felt like a person today.
She felt like a hero today.
And it was all because of a boy named Peter Parker.
In that moment as she stared at the sky, the mention of his name made her heart flutter. It provided warmth in places that she now realized were cold.
It made her smile.
She had instinctively brought a hand close to her chest the more she thought of him.
She dropped it though as she heard him plop behind her.
She looked at him as he carefully made his way towards her with a ginormous box of pizza in his hands which smelt delightful.
"Okay…" he said as he slowly approached her, careful as to not drop the pizza he held in one hand while he held drinks in another. He handed her a simple can of coke as he gently placed the pizza box beside her.
He took a seat on the other side and took off his gloves alongside his broken web-shooters. He lifted his mask over his nose and she watched with a fond gaze as he licked his lips and rubbed his hands together before opening up the box.
"Ho, ho, ho," He said as he laid his eyes on the Pizza.
Boy it looked good.
The fresh mozzarella shimmered with a heavenly light, the tomato sauce filled his nostrils with a pleasant smell that made every cell in his body want to devour the cheesy dish and the spicy sausage looked like it was cooked by a man named "Giuseppe Giovanni."
It wasn't.
But he'd like to believe that it was as the pizza looked like it was crafted by the gods.
He raised his gaze to look at Laura who was looking at him with a soft expression on her face.
He nudged his head towards the pizza.
"Go on, you get the first slice since you won. I promise you'll love it," he said with a smile.
She nodded and went to slowly grab the pizza with one hand. She immediately used her second one though as the cheese on the piece she grabbed was getting dragged off by the other slices.
Peter chuckled as he saw her awkwardly take out a simple pizza slice.
She looked at it briefly, observing all the ingredients before finally taking a bite out of it.
Peter watched as she chewed ever so slowly on the Pizza.
It was cute.
It took a while but she finally swallowed the bite she took.
"How is it?" he eagerly as he hoped that it was to her liking.
"It is good," she simply said.
It was really good.
The cheese had a nice creamy and chewy texture, the tomato sauce was perfectly sweet, and the spicey meats on it provided flavour that was much to her liking.
It was really good.
"Yes!" Peter exclaimed as he was happy that she liked it. It was her turn to watch as he took his own slice with ease. She raised a brow when he started coughing a few seconds after taking a bite.
The pizza was spicier than he remembered.
He tried cooling his mouth down with the coke at his side but the burning sensation from the spice combined with the burning sensation from the coke was a horrible combination. It was like the gates of hell had opened up inside his mouth.
The pizza was really good though.
He noticed Laura looking at him again, a concerned expression on her face.
He let out an embarrassed laugh, "Spice…isn't really my strong suit," he admitted.
"Then why did you order the pizza?" she asked him questioningly.
"Cause… you'd like it," he simply said as he took another bite.
She looked down in response to this.
"Could you…remove your mask?" she asked him as she looked back up to him.
"Why?" he asked as he tilted his head at her.
"I like it better when it's off," he was taken aback by this, and he was wondering if the pizza was spicier than he thought because all of a sudden it felt like he was getting a heartburn alongside a roasting of the cheeks.
He was reluctant but his spider-sense would tell him if anyone was looking.
He took off his mask and she looked at him for a good while which got him all nervous.
She much preferred looking at his long angular face and his bright blue eyes then she did his mask.
"So uh…how'd ya like today?" he nervously asked as he took another monstrous bite from his pizza slice. "I liked it alot," she sincerely said as she took a small bite of hers.
"Is every day like this for you?" she asked him.
"Well it's not every day that you get new powers and find out you're a part of a secret race of people but outside of that…yea, pretty much," he thoughtfully said. "Sometimes it's hard though, actually, a lot of the time it's really hard…" he solemnly said, "but that sight with the Connors, seeing them be so happy and relieved because of us…knowing that I at least do some good…makes it all worth it in the end," he said softly.
"You do a lot of good," Laura stated, causing him to look at her with surprise. "Many people would have just killed him and been done with it, but you went out of your way to cure him, even allowed him to retain his arm," she said admirably as she looked at him.
"Well, that's what we do Laura, we do more than just save people, we help them too," he said with a gentle smile. "You care a lot about people," she said with adoration.
"I'm not the only one," he said as he looked at her with a big smile on his face.
"I want to do more of it. I want to save more people with you," she said earnestly.
He was surprised by this once again but looked away which caused her to worry.
Did she say something wrong?
"I appreciate it Laura…but…I work alone," he said with hesitance in his voice.
"I wasn't asking," she replied, causing him to whip his head at her. "The Kingpin is still out there and with what Daredevil said, you need all the help you can get," she said strongly.
She was not going to take "no" as an answer.
He shook his head at this though.
"Maybe I do, but this is my responsibility, not yours. The Kingpin is here because of me and I have to be the one that stops him…alone," he said sternly.
"...It's better this way," he said in a lower, more solemn voice.
"How?"
"Because I'm the only one who gets hurt," he admitted truthfully. "Laura, the people near me, when they get involved, they get hurt and I don't want them to get hurt. I don't want you to get hurt," he somberly said with all his heart.
"I can take care of myself," she borderline yelled.
"You already got your neck snapped Laura-"
"-And I came back," she said fiercely.
"And what happens when you don't? I don't want you to die Laura," in the short time they've known each other he's grown to greatly care about her, he didn't want to rope her into his life, into his problems.
Despite how much it hurt, he wished that she would go her own way and leave his life after this.
"You're scared that I might end up like Gwen aren't you?"
"I'm scared that you'll end up like everyone else who gets close," he admits.
"Everyone who gets close to me gets hurt too," she said as she placed a hand over her pendant. "But I'm not like everyone else, I was created to be the perfect killing machine. Anything short of drowning, decapitation, or complete annihilation won't kill me. I am an expert in every martial art, stealth, strategy, deception, I know every possible way how to kill a person, I know-"
"Alright, Alright, I get it, I get it, but still I-"
"-You don't have a say, I will help you, whether you want it or not."
"Why?" he simply asked her as she had destroyed any reasoning he had against her like a wrecking ball.
"Because with great power, comes great responsibility. I have the power to help, to do good, so I must," she said with a smile. He was extremely caught off guard by that, although he should've seen it coming.
He let out a small laugh, "What happened to not being a hero?" he playfully asked.
"You showed me that I was wrong," she stated fondly.
They shared a gaze but he quickly looked away and faced down.
"You should know that not too many people like me," he said once again trying to fruitlessly dissuade her from her choice.
"That doesn't concern me."
"Some of them aren't just villains."
"It doesn't matter what they are, if they start a fight, I will end it," she threateningly said as she unsheathed her claws.
He got the point and she quickly put them away.
He let out a sigh and looked at her softly.
"Are you sure about this?"
This was the surest she has ever been in her entire life.
"Yes," she said firmly as she too looked at him softly.
He let out a smile while briefly closing his eyes.
"Well then partner, to Spider-Man and Talon?" he said as he lifted up his pizza into the air.
She lifted up her own pizza slice, "To Spider-Man and Talon," she finished with a smile.
They bite into their pizzas again and Peter coughed immediately because it was too spicy. She watched with amusement as he once again downed his soda only to instantly regret it, again.
"You know, despite my taste buds being completely annihilated and my mouth in constant agony when I take a bite, I actually really like this," he said with a chuckle.
She let out a small giggle at that.
He was surprised to hear her giggle and he looked at her to be met with a soft smile plastered on her face as she looked at him with her gorgeous emerald eyes while her long black hair flowed with the soft wind.
He let his mouth go on autopilot.
"You know you should stop glaring every now and then, you're really beautiful," he said with a smile of his own. She was surprised by this comment and he immediately wanted to punch himself in the face at this. "S-sorry…I-I…," he was stuttering.
He looked away from her.
She kept her gaze on him.
&*^$, he hated his mouth.
She remembered the things he called her earlier.
Why can't he ever shut up?
Smart. Beautiful. Kind.
He didn't know what he hated more, the intense heat on his cheeks or his heart literally screaming at him for not knowing the most basic human skills.
While she found his ceaseless talking to be headache inducing sometimes, it was nice and comforting, It reminded her that she wasn't alone.
God just kill him now before he did it himself.
He was too embarrassed to wonder why it sounded like the pizza box was moving.
He felt a small weight on his shoulder and the intoxifying warmth that came with it.
What?
He turned his gaze to see her resting her head on his shoulder.
"I will try," she said softly.
He was glad that she couldn't look at him because right now his face was just about as red as his mask. She was nervous when she did this, she feared that he didn't like this because his heart rate was beating fast.
She was relieved when she heard it go down and felt his shoulders relax immensely
It took a while but he managed to get words to come out of his mouth once again.
"So…this...this institute of yours…you live there right?" he asked her as he remembered that she briefly mentioned that there was a place for mutants, and that she had been there for a week.
"Yes," she simply answered as she ate her pizza peacefully.
"And the people there are like us? powers and all?"
"Yes, if you want, I can inform the professor and we can come to your house tomorrow and talk about your enrollment," she said as she was informed of the procedure they conducted when recruiting mutants with families.
She could feel his muscles get stiff.
"You are worried that if you enroll that the others will also be put in danger," she stated more so than asked, he nodded. "Do not fret, the headmaster alongside another student are powerful telepaths that can render the whole world including you and me into vegetables if they were pushed. One of the teachers has complete control over the weather, and the other one, the man I was cloned from, has all my abilities alongside an adamantium skeleton which makes him virtually indestructible," she stated, quelling his worries.
"Does he growl too?" Peter asked with a small laugh.
"Yes," she simply said.
"Great," Peter said as he finished a slice of pizza. Laura had noticed this and had grabbed one from the box that was beside her and given it to him.
"Thanks," he said as he took it with his left hand while her head rested on his right shoulder. "So the students, do they also have emotional baggage like us?" Peter asked as he took a bite.
"No," she wasn't aware of anyone in the institute who had gone through the same amount of tribulations they had.
"Aw, and here I was hoping I could start a club for super-teens who feel sorry for themselves," he said through a mouthful of people.
"I would be the only one who could attend," she said as she was amused with that possibility.
"Well, no offense to them, they're probably great n'all but you'd be the only person I'd want to attend," he said in a mock whisper. "We're like, two of a kind you and I!" he said with a raised brow.
She thought about it, despite the many differences they really were, "Two of a kind," she reiterated as she crossed her legs which dangled off the rooftop.
She liked that.
"So what are the other kids like if they don't come with an overbearing amount of baggage and angst?" Peter asked with a small laugh. "A girl our age named 'Kitty Pryde' is a big fan of you, she has pictures of you on her walls and she can phase through objects," Laura said as she remembered the brunette girl.
"Okayyyyy," Peter said nervously.
"Another one is a boy named 'Bobby Drake' who is exactly like Storm with the only exception of his powers being the elemental opposite," Peter shuddered at that, one Johnny Storm was enough for him. "Kurt Wagner is also a fan of you, but not to the extent of Kitty. While I haven't interacted with him, the others say he is nice. His mutation causes him to have an imp-like appearance and teleportation powers but despite that, he is a devout Christian," Peter chuckled at the irony.
She continued to give a description of the others but he was noticing a trend, she didn't really know much of the other students.
"How come you don't really know the others well?" He asked her with a raised brow.
"They…aren't like us."
"You mean they aren't baggaged and damaged when you say 'like us' don't you?" Peter said as he understood her tone, she nodded. "You don't hang out with them do you?" he asked her as he's been down this route before, she nodded.
"I prefer to be alone."
"Well that's a shame Snikety-Snkit, cause now that I'm around that's not going to be happening anytime soon," Peter said with a little nudge to her side. "You are different though," Laura said as she appreciated his comment, "You understand, they do-"
"-Ughh, don't give me that," Peter said as he shook his head, "Is that why you don't hang out with them? Because 'they don't understand,'" Peter said as he tried to make his voice as flat and depressing as possible, she nodded. He looked at her softly, "You know I've been there before so believe me when I say, just because they haven't gone through the same things you have doesn't mean they can't understand, it just means the only way they can is if you let them."
"What does that mean?"
"It means, you gotta give others a chance," she didn't respond to that.
"People might not seem like much but if you give them a chance Laura you'd be surprised," Peter said encouragingly. "If I gave them a chance, would they give me a chance if they know what I am?" Laura hesitantly asked as she shuffled a bit on his shoulder to get more comfortable.
"If they're worth anything, then yes," Peter said as he hoped that she would take his advice.
She thought about his words, the people back at the mansion weren't bad but telling them what she told Peter…"You don't have to tell them everything now," Peter said as he saw the look of hesitance on her face, "but you know…maybe a nice 'hello' or a 'good morning' could be a start," He recommended.
"I'll think about it," Laura said as she thought about the others back at the mansion.
"Good," Peter said with a smile as he gazed on at the horizon with her.
"Anyways, if I agree to join you at this institute, will you guys come to my house tomorrow?"
"Yes."
"Will you come?" he asked with a hopeful voice.
"Yes," she simply answered.
"So I'll see you tomorrow then?" Peter said with an excited voice.
"You will see me tomorrow regardless," she said as she looked at him, still retaining her spot on his shoulder. "But yes, if you agree to join then I will come with the professor, and we can see each other much earlier."
He liked the sound of that.
"Well then…sure, I'd like to at least hear you guys out."
She nodded, "I will tell them then."
She was glad that he had agreed to hear them out.
"What will we be doing?" she curiously asked.
"Well, I gotta go to the Daily Bugle first," Peter answered.
"Why?" what business did he have to go to the news company that ruined his image.
"I work there."
"Do they not slander you?" why would he want to work there if they made the city hate him?
"They do, but it's the only job where I can make money to support my aunt while helping people as Spider-man."
That's why he does it, so that he could support his aunt while helping others. She wasn't surprised by this answer, however, weren't there better options?
"There are the heroes for hire," she recommended as she remembered the conversation from this morning.
"See, I don't know them, but I have read about them. While I would love to get paid being able to do this superhero gig it would never work out cause I'd do it for free anyway so nobody would pay me, cause why pay someone when they'd do it for free? Now if I was smarter I would find a way to get paid but I'm an idiot so just helping people is enough for me, despite the fact I'm constantly desperate for cash," he said with a laugh.
"You may be an idiot-" Laura started to say.
"Hey," Peter interrupted with mock annoyance.
"-But you are a very noble and admirable idiot," she said with adoration as she shifted to get even more comfortable.
He smiled at that.
He pushed his luck and put his hand over hers.
She froze a bit, but she ever so slowly found herself putting her fingers over his.
"Could you say that again? I don't get complimented a lot," he asked in a teasing manner.
"You are a very noble and admirable idiot," she stated once again with a smile.
"What was that? I couldn't hear you?" he said with a small laugh.
"Shut up," she replied with a laugh of her own as she closed her eyes.
He let out a small chuckle and remained silent as he watched the streets.
It was a comfortable silence.
Peter was happy.
Laura was happy.
They wanted this moment to last forever.
Peter looked at her figure with a soft expression all over his face.
"You know… I was wondering about something. You haven't experienced much of life because of the facility have you?" he asked her wondering if his suspicions were right, she nodded confirming that they were.
"I was wondering that maybe… maybe I could uh, show you all the things that you haven't done yet?" he nervously asked.
"What do you mean?" she curiously asked as she opened her eyes to look at him.
"I mean that when we're not superheroing that I could…maybe… take you to not just the zoo but amusement parks as well…or nice restaurants with a wide array of cultural foods or build that lego set that's been sitting in my room for months," he's been lazing around from building that lego N-sixty-four but its proved to be a good thing.
She didn't waste a second on answering that.
"I… would like to do those things with you Peter," she said with a smile.
Peter was inwardly bouncing around his brain in joy however he had to clarify one thing.
"Now don't expect anything fancy like trips to Paris or five-star restaurants but-"
"I do not need any of those things," she simply stated.
"Well…uh…well good, that's good," Peter said as he was surprised by her instantaneous answer.
He briefly looked up to the sky and thanked God.
She closed her eyes as she let his scent fill her lungs.
They didn't say anything for a long time and just found joy and peace within each other's company. They took their time before they departed from one another and while they were saddened by the day ending, the promise of seeing each other tomorrow was what kept them smiling long after they had said their goodbyes.
Peter arrived home much later than intended but upon seeing the smile that was on his face his aunt quickly forgave him and eagerly asked about his day, most of her questions involving the name "Laura."
He answered them with a smile on his face.
He took a shower and entered his darkroom, a smile plastered all over his face as he thought about Laura.
"Didn't know a girl was all it took to get past your spider-sense," an amused voice said from the corner of his room.
Peter jumped as he watched the figure of Nick Fury emerge from the shadows.
"Does everyone have to break into my house?" Peter said as he looked at the bald African American man who wore his iconic trench coat alongside his famous eye patch.
"I did it first," Fury defended as he took a seat on Peter's computer chair.
"Yea…yea you did, but you know, there's a thing called a 'front door,'" Peter said with both annoyance and fondness as he took a seat on his bed and looked at the man who ran the world from behind the scenes.
"You're right, next time I'll be sure to knock and explain to your aunt why the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. wants to speak to her nephew," Fury quickly retorted.
"Touché," Peter said with a small laugh as he found Fury's rebuttal funny.
Fury let out a breath in amusement before getting to the point.
"So you're back now," Fury stated to Peter who simply nodded and said,
"I'm back."
"You're a mutant now too," he stated to the surprise of Peter.
"How?" he questioningly asked as only the Fantastic Four and Laura knew about that. Fury merely smirked and Peter rolled his eyes, "Forgot who I was talking to for a moment," of course Fury knew.
"Xavier's people are good, if I were you I'd accept the offer tomorrow. It would do you some good, alongside your aunt as well," Fury had a point, if he left that would greatly relieve the stress she had of taking care of him. "How come you know about Xavier? I thought mutants were supposed to be this super-secret race," Peter asked as he was wondering how Fury came across this.
"Kid, there's more than just mutants on this planet," Fury said to the surprise of Peter. "You can't hide a race of people for long without others finding out and you can't hide anything from me. Right now, Xavier has an agreement with the president to allow him to mentor and hide mutants away as the government figures out what to do when they eventually become revealed to the public but I'll get to that later. You're going up against Wilson Fisk," Fury said as he pulled out a big file from his coat and passed it to Peter.
"You're gonna need to know what you're up against," Fury said as Peter looked at the folder named "Wilson Fisk."
"It has information on the fat man and his operations but nothing steady that can be used to incriminate him. I have agents working on the inside collaborating with the FBI on this," Peter was surprised by this.
"Why?"
"Fisk runs the biggest criminal organization that spans across the country, parts of the world even. He's connected to one of the biggest superhuman trafficking operations in the world. We don't know where the trafficking is situated in but we know that multiple enemies of the state alongside enemy countries are a part of this in an attempt to get a head start in a superhuman arms race. The only exception to that list would be Latveria," Fury finished as Peter skimmed through the file.
"Of course," he thought as he read on the intel, only someone like Doom would refuse to take part in a superhuman arms race because he was confident that there would be no threat that could best him.
He skimmed through most of the file before putting it underneath his bed.
"Do you think that he'll leave Doctor Connors alone?" Peter asked Fury.
"No, he already sent men to his house to kill them," Fury flatly stated much to Peter's surprise.
"What?" Peter said as he looked at the eye-patched man in shock.
"They would have killed them if it weren't for S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel to come and help them with relocation," Fury said to the relief of Peter. "We're going to be moving them somewhere…close by," Peter raised a brow, Fury was hinting at something. He hated whenever he did this. "We'll have agents watching over them as well. They'll be safe," Fury reaffirmed and Peter let out a sigh.
"Back to Fisk, he's also linked to a rogue government group called 'Weapon X," Fury said to Peter which grabbed his attention immensely.
"Weapon X?"
"Information on Weapon X is classified but they are linked to a certain organization that your new friend is running from. You'll see all of it in here," Fury said as he gave him another folder called 'Weapon X-23,' he looked at it for a second before shaking his head and refusing to take it.
"You should know what she is," Fury firmly stated.
"I do," Peter said strongly.
"She's killed hundreds of people and is currently wanted by multiple government agencies, S.H.I.E.L.D. being one of them," Fury stated again with a tone of voice that Peter couldn't decipher. "I could march to the institute and arrest her, and I should," Fury with an authoritative voice.
"But you're not," Peter said following his trial of words, Fury nodded.
"This file was created by one of the smartest people on the planet, and one of the few I trust. It tells me exactly what she is: a cold-hearted, unkillable, killing machine and one of the most dangerous weapons on the planet, but I don't care about that. I want to know what you think she is," Fury said as he put the folder back on his lap as he looked at Peter with a soul-piercing gaze.
"She's a person just like you and me, who's been forced to do horrible things all her life, and it haunts her. But despite that, when given a choice, she chose to do what's right. She's a hero. And her name isn't 'X-23', it's Laura Kinney. Talon." he said strongly towards Fury who simply let out a smile.
He was satisfied with Parker's answer.
"That's all I needed," Fury said as he simply took out a lighter and burned it.
Peter let out a smile.
"You're not as bad as you set yourself out to be Nick," Peter said, grateful for his action.
"You haven't seen me when I'm angry," he said lightheartedly.
Peter let out a mock shiver.
An angry Nick Fury was the stuff of nightmare fuel.
"I do want to know one thing Peter," Fury said, gaining the interest of him.
"Being a mutant, does it change anything?"
Peter thought about it for a minute before shaking his head.
"It's the same thing with a different name Nick," Peter confidently answered.
Fury was expecting that.
"I wish it was but you represent people now, you hold newer responsibilities. Not too many people know about mutants, but the ones that do overzealously persecute them; it doesn't help that the self-proclaimed 'leader' for mutant-kind is a terrorist," Peter raised his brow at that, "Wha-what are you getting at Nick?" Peter asked as he was hesitant to draw conclusions as to where Fury was going. "When mutant-kind goes public it'll shake the world to its very core. People will get scared about something they don't know and they'll look towards certain people to try and get their answers."
"I still don't know what you're getting at."
"I want to know what you're going to do when the world calls for you," Fury said, getting to the point.
Peter let out a huff, "You already know the answer to that."
"I do but I want to hear you say it," he said strongly as he got up from his seat and towered over the boy.
"The same thing I always do Nick, I'll answer it, because with great power comes great responsibility," Peter said confidently as he stood up strongly to face the eye-patched man.
The look of conviction in his eyes, the spark that Fury saw in them was more than enough to convince him. He let out a small smile before putting his hand on Peter's shoulder.
"Glad to have you back Spider-Man," he said with a relieved voice.
"Glad to be back," Peter replied.
Peter watched the form of Nick Fury effortlessly slip through his window and he let a simple question escape his lips.
"Nick…. Do you know who took the Goblin gear off of Norman's body?"
As he was halfway out his window Fury paused to look back at him.
Fury shook his head and Peter's heart sank.
"We will find out eventually. Rest easy though Webhead, Norman Osborn is dead, and he'll stay like that for the rest of eternity," Fury said as he left the Parker household.
"Yea…he is…" Peter thought as he was left alone in his room.
He is.
Laura had walked to her room slowly as she recalled the events of today, instinctively putting a hand over her heart as she was still smiling.
When she stopped right in front of her room she recognized a familiar scent in it and gave herself a second to hide any sign of emotion before entering her room. She had opened her door to find Logan sitting on the side of her bed, a briefcase in between his legs as he sat beside a simple lamp which warmly illuminated her room.
"Took you long enough," Logan said light-heartedly.
She narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists.
"I'm not going to stop," she states firmly.
To her surprise, he simply let out a soft chuckle before saying "I know." He patted to the spot beside him and she slowly made her way to it.
"Heard you and him saved lives today," he said as she sat down beside him.
She nodded.
"Tell me about it," he asked her as he was interested as to what happened. "...There was a scientist, who was forced into becoming a monster by a man named Wilson Fisk. Spider-Man manufactured a cure to reverse the transformation and we cured him alongside saving his family," she said as she looked at Logan.
"Spider-Man manufactured a cure?" Logan asked with a raised brow.
She nodded, "He used his expertise in the sciences alongside the Doctors notes to create a serum that would cure the doctor while also allowing him to maintain the arm he sought to recover. He thought that with everything the doctor has been through that it would be nice for him to still retain his arm," she said warmly which Logan caught.
"So…Spider-Man…he's a brainy?" he asked her as he wanted to learn more about him from her
"Yes…he is incredibly smart with an IQ that rivals that of a young Reed Richards," she said, answering his question as her lips slightly went upwards the more she thought of him. "Who's that?" Logan asked as he was unfamiliar with that name. "A scientist who's a part of the Fantastic Four. I met him today," Logan was surprised by this.
"You met the Fantastic Four?" he asked her with disbelief.
She nodded again, "He took me to their base. He is very close with them and because of that they greeted me warmly and already liked me because I helped him the day before. I also saw someone I'd thought I'd never see again: his name is 'Daredevil' he was the Lawyer I told you about, the one who took my side when shield interrogated me," he nodded, recalling what she had told him a couple days ago. "I am going to be seeing him again tomorrow alongside a handful of other superheroes with Spider-Man in a plan to get rid of Wilson Fisk who is the man behind the crime wave in New York," she said, finishing the small part with minor hatred.
He took a second to digest this.
"So, you and Spider-Man...what are you two exactly?" Logan asked as he was curious about their relationship. "We're… partners," she said fondly. "Partners with Spider-Man huh?" Logan asked again, she nodded. "And you also met and befriended the Fantastic Four?" she nodded again, "They even gave me the same level of security access they gave Spider-Man, allowing me to come and go into their base freely alongside their numbers."
Logan let out an exaggerated huff at that.
"Don't tell Kitty that or else she'll latch onto you like a bunch of fleas that'll never leave," he told her with complete and utter seriousness. "I have no intention of telling her or anyone else," she stated.
"Good."
He noticed something weighing her down.
"Is there anything else ya'd like to say?" he asked, trying to get her chest free.
"When we tried curing him the first time, it didn't work, the mutated scientist snapped my neck…I lost control…I-I attacked him…you were right," she said softly as she looked at him with guilty eyes.
He chuckled at that, "I was… but I was also wrong…you can do more than just kill," he said with a small smile of his own. She widened her eyes briefly before looking down "...he also said that ...even after I told him what I was, he said that I was a person…a hero…" she said with endearment and a genuine smile as she brought her hand over her heart once again.
Logan noticed the smile on her face and the gentle tone she spoke with and was surprised immensely.
"He was right," Logan stated as he looked up. She looked up at him to see him smiling at the ceiling, "You know kid…I…I didn't really know what to do with you this past week. A child who was raised from birth to kill, calling you 'problemed' would be an understatement," he said with a small laugh, "Hell, even Charles didn't know what to do either outside of respecting your space…but I think I've got the right idea on what to do with you now," he said as he put the briefcase he was holding on his lap.
She looked at it with keen eyes, "Just one question," he said as he looked at her.
"Why?"
She paused for a moment
There were so many answers to that question, and yet there was only really one…
"Because I want to help…because with great power comes great responsibility," she said firmly.
"That's…That's a good answer," he told her with a smile as he handed it to her.
She opened it up to be greeted with a whole bunch of documents, she looked at them all with wide eyes, "Birth certificate, social security number, driver's license, passport, citizenship, you name it," he told her as she looked at the documents.
She looked at the documents where it labeled her parents.
She saw the name of her mother, "Sarah Kinney," and the name of her father…
Unknown.
Her heart sank a bit and Logan gave a solemn gaze.
He tried lifting her spirits up by pointing one more thing out that would surely raise her spirits.
"You've still got one more thing," her disappointment was put aside in favour of her confusion.
She couldn't smell anything else.
"There's a cover, made it so it hides the scent underneath it."
She saw it.
"Go on…take it off,"
She took it off only to be left stunned.
"If your going to be a superhero kid you're gonna have to wear more than just a bra,"
She looked at the gray mask with long pointed ears. She turned to Logan with surprised eyes, it was exactly like his, just excluding the yellow. "Thought you'd like it," he said as he put an arm on her shoulder.
"I…do," she said as she gazed at it.
"There's more, Kitty helped me with the rest of the costume because I don't know what girls like nowadays," She pulled out the top half of the costume to reveal a short-sleeved crop top that was black in the middle and gray on the sides, on the sleeves, there were gray stripes. The rest was quite simple with black gloves, and black and gray pants alongside a belt with a red circle and an 'x' in the middle.
"I know you like them boots of yours so I decided not to do anything for the feet," Logan said and she let out a small smile.
He watched as she stared at her mask and he decided to pass on something he wished he learned long ago.
"This is going to be one of the few good things I'll ever say so remember this alright?" Logan said gaining her attention, she waited to hear his words.
"You said that it was about trafficking? Now I know that you have…history….I just want you to remember one important thing. When you're out there being a hero, it's not about getting revenge nor is it even about hunting down the guilty. It's about saving lives, as many as you possibly can and doing whatever you see fit to accomplish that," he said with his voice unwavering.
She nodded, but decided to add a part herself.
"It's not just about saving lives, it's about helping them too," she said with conviction to the surprise of Logan.
He was quite proud to hear her say this.
He put a hand on her shoulder and simply nodded agreeing with her.
"I'm sorry about earlier," Logan said with regret in his voice. "I just didn't want you to be making the same mistakes I did. I wound up hurtin' a lot of people before I started out actually helping," Logan said finished with a deep sigh.
"I almost did that today. I wanted to kill the doctor without even trying to cure him first. He showed me that there was another way," Laura said fondly.
Logan let out a soft smile at that.
"Spider-Man doesn't sound so bad," Logan said lightheartedly.
"He isn't," Laura said instantly. "He is very kind and caring and humorous when he isn't annoying," Logan was surprised by her instantaneous defense of him. "The people who know him speak highly of him and he even gets free pizza from the best pizzeria in all of New York."
"What would this pizzeria be exactly?" Logan asked with curiosity.
"Its located in the Greenwich Village, it's called 'Song'E Nauple,'" Logan widened his eyes at that."That is the best Pizzeria in all of New York. It's expensive as hell though, twenty dollars for a twelve-inch…" Logan mumbled as he started stroking his chin, "He gets it for free?" he asked her with a raised brow.
"Anything he wants. As much as he wants. Any size he wants. The owner told him that on the day he saved his daughter from dying," Laura stated.
"Hmmmm…" Logan said as he started forming ideas in his head. "Well I'm glad he's a mutant now," Logan said with a grin that surprised Laura.
"We detected him earlier," He explained to her, Laura wasn't surprised by this. "Peter Parker, huh?" Logan said questioningly and she nodded. "Lives in Queens, fifty-one Ingram street," Logan factually stated and Laura nodded confirming his statements.
"I told him about us, he said that he'd be interested to hear us out," Logan patted her shoulder. "We'll go to his house first thing tomorrow, immediately after breakfast. It'll be just us and the instructors, no one else," she nodded, liking his choice.
"And then the two of you can be doing the superheroing. Be careful not to be in the spotlight though, you don't want to grab unwanted attention," she nodded, knowing what he was referring to.
He patted her back one more time before leaving her with her stuff.
She watched his retreating figure, expecting more but she was grateful for all the things they covered.
He stopped at her door frame ever so slightly, there was still something left unsaid.
He just didn't know how to say it.
"And Laura,..." he said with a bit of nervousness as he looked over his shoulder.
She watched him with keen eyes as she anticipated what he was going to say.
"You did good," he confidently said before leaving her room.
She was taken aback by this immensely and looked down as she comprehend his words.
He was proud of her.
She looked up towards her mirror and stared on at her own visage once again.
She stood up and grabbed the top half of her uniform, putting it over her body in an attempt to see what it would look like on her. She didn't hear the voices that plagued her, she didn't hear the psychopathic and malicious voice that called her things such as 'animal' or 'weapon.'
She smiled to herself as the voice of a gruff man told her that she did good and her heart fluttered when a soft yet strong, jovial voice called her things such as beautiful and kind. She could feel that warmth again, she could feel her heart beating for a singular name. She didn't know what this was but she would allow herself to bask in this nice feeling for as long as she could.
Logan walked outside the mansion to gaze at the stars far above.
"Spider-Man…" he said out loud once again.
He is a superhero, the students looked up to him, and the others spoke highly of him, Ororo, McCoy, Charles…Fury.
He's been requesting those documents for days now but Fury always fought him on it every single step, but the moment Spider-Man stands up for her and defends her, he gives him the documents, renames all of her files personally to 'Talon,' and flags them all. When Nick Fury flags something there is no way you can access it, and if you do, he would know.
He took out a smoke.
"Peter Parker…"
He let out a sniff.
There was no blood coming from her room for two days now.
Whatever problems he might add, what he could do for her was well worth the risk.
Logan wasn't an idiot, he knew what he was. If this chance meeting never occurred he would've just used Laura like anyone else, a weapon to be aimed at, cause if you asked him, he would have never imagined Laura doing the things she did today outside his dreams.
There were just some things he couldn't teach her but Parker could teach her those things.
He already has.
She was smiling whenever she was talking about him, she was laughing, she was even excited.
That smile alone was all it took to convince Logan about Peter Parker.
"Parker…" he mumbled as he looked at the stars.
Why does it feel like he's heard that name before?
"I see that you're already looking forward to our new student," a calm voice said from behind Logan.
"I am Chuck. After seeing her today, I am. The question is: why are you?" He asked the man who sat next to him on his chair.
"Same reasoning as to why I have you old friend," He said solemnly. "Cause' mutant-kind needs a weapon," Logan said, reiterating his words from long ago. "He isn't a weapon though," Logan said aggressively.
"I know, he's something more, something better…" he trailed off as he looked up to the stars.
"He's a hero," Logan stated.
"And mutant-kind needs just that: A hero."
"You want him to be a figurehead don't ya?" Logan asked as he knew that Charles had big plans.
Charles nodded.
"That's a lot of weight to put on a kid's shoulder," Logan said in an almost accusing fashion as he narrowed his eyes at the bald man.
"I know, but I have hope that Mr. Parker will rise to the occasion. After all Logan, isn't that what heroes do?" Charles rhetorically asked as he gazed at the soft light of the moon.
Kept ya waiting huh? Sorry bout' that, i've been busy with school, work, storyboarding, procrastinating, and research cause i want to do characters justice. I also wanted to make the chapters as best as i possibly could and the only way i could do that was was finish future chapters.
This is going to be a monthly release, most likely bi-monthly but we'll see. (I lied)
I'd like to end this first arc by paying respects and giving credit to all the creators of the characters used.
Spider-Man created by Stan Lee (1922 - 2018) & Steve Ditko (1927 - 2018)
X-23 created by Craig Kyle (1971) and Christopher Yost (1973)
The Fantastic Four & X-Men created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (1917 - 1994)
All other characters used are owned by Marvel.
I don't want to stray far from the creators original intentions for these characters and I'll try to keep the core aspects of them.
If anyone from Marvel has any problems and tells me to stop i'd happily oblige cause these characters aren't mine.
If Christopher Yost happens to be reading this, i'd like to say i love everything you've done, I love all your marvel cartoons alongside your x-23 books.
I also like your twitter content.
