TRIGGER WARNING: Blood
(Meanwhile...)
Exiting a convenience store, Annabelle carried a bag containing groceries, some instant noodles, a couple of drinks, and other supplies with one of her hands. Her other hand was in her jeans' pocket, holding a pepper spray canister in case she encountered thugs or someone with bad intentions. She began to head home, walking on the corner of the street while keeping an eye on her surroundings.
When she crossed a quiet part of the street, she heard faint steps closing in behind her. Anna estimated them to be three people. And she was correct when they gathered around, two in the front and one in the back. Her heart started to beat faster, just as her breathing becoming more frantic.
"Hmm. What we got here? A lonely pretty girl with pretty eyes," the lead thug said with a smirk, malice in his voice.
Annabelle gave a look of disgust at all of them. "What do you want?"
"Oh nothing. Just your belongings," he replied, before pulling out his knife and pointed it at her, which his men followed suit. "Give them to us. And we'll leave you alone. Or..." the man let out a dark chuckle, "We'll give you absolute pain."
For a moment, Anna didn't say anything as she assessed her situation. "Okay... I only have one pepper spray. That means I got to spray the ones in front of me and the one in the back. Should I...stab them after that?" She gritted her teeth and cursed under her breath when she realized one thing. "Fuck! Of course not... Damn laws. Don't wanna get into trouble. Alright, running it is then."
She put down her bag on the ground gently and pulled out her wallet, laying it next to the bag. But the thug gestured her to bring out whatever she was holding in her other pocket.
"You don't want it. Trust me," she warned him.
"Just. Take. It. Out." He didn't care whatever it was.
"Okay. Don't say I didn't warn you." Anna then pulled out the canister and sprayed it at all of the thugs. She put it back in her pocket and gathered her belongings before running away.
The spray made the thugs cough and their eyes irritated. But they remained determined and decided to pursue her.
"Hey! Stop right there!" the leader yelled at her but Annabelle kept on running, this time she ran faster. However, he managed to catch up with her and tackled the girl. Anna gasped and lost grip of her bag as she fell to the ground.
"Nice try," he grabbed the collars of her shirt and pinned her against the wall, before pointing his knife at Anna, "But you have nowhere to go now."
"Take your hands off of me. Now," Anna growled, with her pupils becoming constricted. But the man didn't do what she said. So she kneed his groins and delivered a punch to his throat, causing him to choke and fall. Annabelle picked up the lead thug's knife, took out her pepper spray canister, and looked at the rest of the thugs, waiting for their next move. "Leave me alone to my own business and fuck off," she told them.
That didn't change anything as one thug screamed and dashed forward with a knife in his hand. Anna aimed the canister at his eyes and sprayed its content, blinding him for the moment. Because of it however, he inflicted a cut on her cheek, which earned a painful grunt from Anna. So she hit the back of his head with the canister twice to knock him out and stabbed him in the shoulder, before pulling out the knife. Blood squirted to her hands and face.
Annabelle then faced the thug. "Still want me?" she grinned and let out a maniacal cackle. She shook the canister to check if she still had enough. It was empty. Sighing, she kept it just in case to deflect her opponent's attack.
Somewhere nearby, Scarlet Spider was swinging his way home. But his spider sense zinged and he noticed Annabelle and a thug, who was about to lunge at her. His eyes widened underneath the mask. "NO!" Kaine let out a yell as he dropped to the ground, shot a web line to the thug, and yanked him, just so he could beat the hell out of him.
The sight of Scarlet delivering punches to the thug's face didn't scare Anna away. Instead, she threw the blood-soaked knife and her empty canister into a nearby bin and turned around to pick up her bag. Though she wondered...why did Scarlet Spider yell like that?
"You dare lay a finger on her? You dare?!" Kaine shouted as he continued the beating.
"P-Please, mercy!" he pleaded.
"Not after what you did to her!" With one last punch, Kaine knocked out the thug.
His words and his voice... Anna glanced over her shoulder at the masked hero in curiosity. Why did that sound familiar..?
As she just stood there, Kaine approached her. "Are you okay?" he asked in a frantic voice, not terrified of the blood on her face and hands, "What did they-" He paused when he noticed the cut on her cheek. Afterwards, he glanced at the thug he had beaten and the others who were unconscious. This made him extrude a stinger from one of his wrists and walked past Annabelle, intending to finish the two thugs first.
"Wait." She grabbed Scarlet's arm gently and looked at him. "I haven't cleaned my hands from the blood. Forgive me. But you don't need to do that."
"Why..? They hurt you!" he said.
"They have been dealt with, okay?" Annabelle chuckled at his response, "You know, for a hero who just saved a random stranger, you take it really personal, Scarlet. Like, "an awful lot" kind of personal. As if we've known each other."
"...Because it is personal to me, Ann. If you only knew..." A silent sigh escaped his mouth. "Let's just say I don't want others to die. Everyone matters."
"Says the one who was about to kill the thugs."
"I have my own reasons. However, I may not kill some if they deserve...redemption."
"But you've never killed, haven't you?" she asked him.
"No," Kaine answered, "It's all just my desires. My urges. Last time I wanted to kill someone, I stopped because I didn't think I'd be able to simply go on if I took a person's life... It would leave devastating consequences."
She gave a gentle squeeze to Scarlet Spider's arm to comfort him and so, he retracted his stinger. "By the way, to answer your earlier question, I'm okay," Anna assured him.
Kaine responded with a nod of understanding. "May I wipe the blood off your face?" he asked Annabelle. She nodded, let go of his arm, and he carefully wiped the blood from Anna's face, especially the one from the cut.
She frowned as she processed this situation. It felt strange, yet so familiar too. "This is so bizarre..."
"How come?"
"It's..." Anna tittered, "It feels like I'm talking to my close friend?"
Kaine froze as he finished wiping the blood off his friend's face. "Close...friend?"
"Yeah. You sound just like him for some reason. And what you did recently reminded me of him. I just don't understand... Why is this happening..? Am I being weird?"
"No, you're not being weird," he replied. "Anyway, do you mind if I walk you home or swing you to your place? I happen to be going home and it's dangerous at this hour too," he offered her.
"Eh, I'm good. But thanks, Scarlet," she refused, "Also, thank you for earlier."
"No prob," he nodded and shot a web line to a building. "Hey... Be careful and take care, okay?" Kaine reminded Annabelle before zipping away and started swinging to his apartment.
As Scarlet Spider disappeared from Anna's view, the look on her face was of curiosity and an increasing suspicion. She had seen it with her own eyes—Kaine almost crushing Kenny's arms with ease, and what Scarlet did to the last thug and how he reacted earlier. Both were violent and protective of her. One was someone she knew personally while the other was just a hero saving people. But why would Scarlet Spider become so protective of a stranger..? Her eyes widened as she thought more and more. Could Kaine be the Scarlet Spider? Could it be..? And so, she ran quickly to her home with her bag, intending to find the answer.
*
(Later, in Anna's bedroom...)
After cleaning her hands from blood stains, Annabelle sat down on a moving chair near to her wooden desk. She opened and turned on her laptop. Next to the laptop was an open black leather notebook, a pen, and a mug of cold water. After she waited for its desktop to appear, she clicked a browser and began to type down letters on the default search engine. Then Anna clicked the news section to find out about any articles regarding the Spider-Men's first appearance.
"Where are you... Just where are you?" she scrolled down the results of her search until one Daily Bugle article from a month ago caught her attention. "Hmm... "Two Spider-Men Shock Citizens! First Real-World Supers?" Gotcha." Anna clicked it and noticed the date and time, which piqued her interest. It was on the day she and her friends went to Oscorp as part of a school trip from morning to afternoon. Except the article and the video were posted in the evening. She skimmed the article and found an amateur recording taken from YouTube from that very day.
When she played it, she saw two hooded figures swinging from building to building; the one taking the lead was wearing a black jacket and the other a white jacket. There was a look of recognition painted on Annabelle's face. Pausing the video to take in the information, she thought of Kaine's black jacket and Peter's white jacket. "No... No... It can't be, right?" she shook her head as she started to write down about what she gathered so far along with her thoughts on the notebook.
This is just bizarre... Am I being mindfucked right now? Apparently, my close friend is...Scarlet Spider and Pete is Spider-Man. The Oscorp trip. The Daily Bugle article and that recording. All on the same day. My two friends got hurt by something when we were at the...Genetic Engineering floor with Professor Miles Warren. We came across superspiders. Does that mean..? I don't know for sure... Probably. It's all there, isn't it?
She stopped for a bit before continuing, still in disbelief...
Or have I lost my sanity? It's probably just a stretch... But the evidence, Kaine and Scarlet's behavior. They all lead to one thing: my friends' secret identities. I... I think need to dig deeper to make sure I'm right on this. That's for later though... I still have school and other stuff for tomorrow. Gotta end it here for now.
Annabelle then turned off her laptop, closed the notebook, and drank the water from her mug, before heading off to bed. As she laid on her bed and hugged her soft pillow, thoughts and questions popped up in her mind... Why? Why wouldn't her friends just tell her the truth? But Gwen said there must be a good reason behind their actions. Was there one though? A sigh escaped Anna's mouth and she pulled up the blanket to cover her. Soon, she closed her eyes and drifted to sleep, with the feeling of unease however...
A/N #1: This isn't the end of Part 2A, though for now it is ;-; I'll be taking a small break from this because I'm having mid-exams this week. And somewhere between, I will try to write the three remaining chapters to conclude this part. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading it so far! As usual, subscribe and make this story your favorite to stay tune with future updates. Comments and shares are appreciated too! And I hope everyone has a good day :D
A/N #2: The part where Annabelle digs up the past and recalls past events is actually a simplified and shortened version of some parts of Kaine and Peter's origin story. There will be more recaps of their origin from "Scarlet Spider: Sin" in future chapters so readers who haven't read "Sin" will understand.
