(At a warehouse somewhere...)
"So, no signs of Spider-Men and Black Cat?" Herman asked a warehouse security guard to make sure.
"No, sir. None so far," he replied.
"Good. Keep me updated. I'm gonna be checking other places."
"At this time of hour? Why?"
The man sighed, "I mustn't let the Kingpin down. And I have the responsibility to get rid of those clowns. Besides, can't have them going around to any location again like what happened to our security building and the warehouse."
The security guard nodded in understanding. "Hey, sir. Don't be too hard on yourself, alright?" he tried to assure him.
"Thanks," he gave a slight smile, "I'll try not to. And good luck with your shift tonight."
"Best of luck for you too."
Herman walked toward his van and entered it. "First to another warehouse, then a safehouse. Hopefully there won't be a problem tonight..." There was worry on his face, as he felt something might happen tonight. Nonetheless, he proceeded to drive away from the warehouse onto the next location, hoping for the best.
*
(Meanwhile, at said safehouse...)
"This is the headquarters? A safehouse?" Spider-Man asked as he crouched beside Scarlet Spider and Black Cat on a rooftop, observing the four-story safehouse. She nodded at him as a response.
Scarlet pointed at its parking lot and rooftop. "It's heavily guarded. Four guards with assault rifles in the parking lot, separated as two parties. Two others with sniper rifles on the rooftop."
"If we're not careful, we'll be goners for sure," Black Cat said, "Gotta do this stealthily. We don't want to attract unnecessary attention. Otherwise, it's gonna be another failure."
Taking a moment to think, Spidey then let out an inaudible "Eureka!" and snapped his fingers. "Okay. Just an idea. Scarlet and I first handle the snipers. After that, all of us take care of the parking lot security guards. What do you all think?" he asked his friends.
Both Scarlet Spider and Black Cat nodded in agreement.
"I'll wait for your signal on the ground. Let me know through the earpiece once the snipers are down," Cat told Spidey and he gave a thumbs up as a "yes".
Once the snipers turned to another direction, the trio jumped off the rooftop. Scarlet Spider and Spider-Man zipped toward the safehouse's wall with their web lines. While Cat popped up her claws and dug them into the wall's surface of the building, slowing her descent. She retracted her claws to drop to the ground when the descent stopped. Then, she crouched and walked fast to a nearby cover, waiting for the Spider-Men.
The spiders let go of their web lines when they reached the wall and planted their hands on its surface. They crawled up and arrived at the safehouse's rooftop. In front of them, were the snipers. Spidey looked at Scarlet and gestured him to deliver a light punch to one of the snipers' side neck. It earned a nod from Scarlet Spider. Both Spider-Men crouched and approached their targets carefully from behind. Spider-Man held up three fingers and counted down until all fingers were down. The two punched the side neck of each sniper to knock them out and laid their bodies down gently.
Suddenly, something came up in Spider-Man's mind. He remembered knocking out an opponent and not checking his condition yesterday. So he immediately placed his fingers on the sniper's wrist. He also did the same with the other. He breathed a sigh of relief as he could still feel their pulses beating. "Oh, thank goodness..."
"What? What's the matter?" Scarlet asked.
"Just checking if they're still alive. I'm...I'm worried that our punches killed them." Spidey let out a sigh and put his hand on his temple, wondering if his enemy from yesterday was still alive. Feeling a hand on his shoulder, Spider-Man turned to Scarlet Spider.
"Webs, let's take it easy, okay? We didn't kill anyone, so you don't need to panic," Scarlet gave a gentle squeeze.
Peter chuckled softly and nodded. "Thanks for the assurance, Coz."
"No problem," Kaine smiled underneath his mask.
With the snipers having been handled, Spider-Man double tapped his earpiece's call button. "Cat? They're taken care of," he told her.
"Alright. Wait for me, I'm going to jam the cameras." She switched her pistol cartridge to the one with jammers. Readying her gun, Cat vaulted over the cover and walked to a nearby car in a crouching manner, her eyes remaining alerted. She then peeked out of the car, spotting three cameras nearby. Black Cat aimed her gun and shot the jammers in rapid succession, disabling them. "Cameras taken care of, guys. Now for the rest," she said through her earpiece.
"We're heading down," Scarlet replied as he and Spider-Man were crawling down the building. "Do you have any idea how to approach this, Cat?"
"The two of you can handle two of the guards while I handle the rest."
"Noted. On the ground now... Approaching the targets from behind."
Cat exited her cover and walked toward the other two guards as she switched the gun's cartridge with the one with rubber rounds. She shot two rounds at a guard's head, making him fall to the ground unconscious. His fellow cursed and turned around, only to see Black Cat rushing to him. Before he could react, she tackled his legs and punched his side neck, knocking him out.
While the Spider-Men repeated what they did earlier with their respective targets.
Afterwards, Black Cat looted two RFID cards from the guards' pockets. She and the others dragged the unconscious guards to nearby bushes and hid them there. For good measure, the Spider-Men webbed their mouths to silence them and their bodies to the ground.
"That'll do it. Let's get inside before the cameras start working again and someone finds something suspicious," she told them, earning a nod from both heroes. Cat holstered her gun and handed one of the cards to Scarlet Spider, which he put inside his pocket. They all walked to the glass doors, which slid open when recognizing the RFID signatures. Before going into the safehouse, they took a few glances at their backs to make sure there was no one left.
Once inside the lobby, the trio noticed a building layout hanging on the wall. It showed the rooms on the first floor, including a security room. They snapped a photo of it in case they'd have to explore other rooms. As they were about to move on to somewhere else however, Scarlet Spider and Spider-Man's spider sense zinged. Both spiders could feel danger coming from the right side of their current position.
"Someone's coming. Hide!" Spider-Man ordered his allies and the three heroes rushed to a wall close to them, backing against it. Leaning right to take a peek, he saw one security guard heading to the lobby's door. "Spotted one bad guy. He's about to go outside. Probably from the security room and gonna investigate," he said.
"You sure it's just one?" Scarlet Spider asked. It earned a nod from his cousin. "Alright, I'm gonna pump some info from him," he extruded a stinger from his wrist and exited his cover, sneaking toward the unsuspecting guard from behind. He rose up, put his other arm around the man's neck, and pointed the stinger at his back. "Don't make a sound, unless you wanna die. Got it?" Scarlet threatened him.
The guard gasped. "W-Who are you?!" he asked in a startled tone, "You're...a hero, aren't you? Don't kill me, please!"
"Testing my patience, I see."
"What? No, no!"
"How about you tell me something useful instead, hm?"
"Oh God... What do you want? A complete layout of the safehouse? It's in the security room on this floor," he said.
Scarlet shook his head. "A good piece of info but not what I want. Where do you store your data?"
"It's...stored in an intel room guarded by two men on the fourth floor. But you can't simply go through it. The room is locked and requires a multi-factor authentication to unlock it," the security guard answered.
Hearing that term for the first time, Scarlet Spider raised an eyebrow. "Explain what you mean with multi-factor authentication."
"An electronic authentication method to gain access through more than one factors. We use retinal scanners, fingerprint scanners, and door locks with keypads. The process must be done simultaneously."
"And only the two guards can unlock the room."
"Y-Yes."
A satisfied smile formed on Scarlet's face. "Nice. Is there anything I need to worry about?"
"L-Laser security system and cameras. You can disable them in the security room."
"Thanks for the help. Now, sleep tight." He retracted his stinger and hit the back of the guard's head to knock him out, before dragging his body into a room and closed its door upon exiting it.
Spider-Man and Black Cat left their cover after they were sure it was safe. "Where to now?" he asked Scarlet.
"The security room," he said, "We can find the complete layout for the safehouse and disable the security system there. After that, we go to the fourth floor. The info we need is in an intel room."
On their way, Scarlet Spider, along with Spider-Man and Black Cat, entered a hallway. They walked past rooms carefully while keeping an eye on their surroundings. When they stopped outside the room, Cat attached an endoscope camera to her phone and slid it under the doors. Taking a few moments to observe inside, she turned to the Spider-Men and said there was one man facing the front side. He sat on a chair and looked at the monitors, oblivious that his friend from earlier hadn't returned.
"That one is mine. Be right back in a bit." Black Cat placed her hand on the doorknob and twisted it gently. She pushed the door slowly, trying not to make a sound as she walked in. After closing it, she pulled out her gun as she approached her target. Then, she held the man at gunpoint, startling him. "Don't think about doing anything stupid."
"What the?! Who are you..? What have you done with my friend?"
"I'm the Kingpin's bad luck," Black Cat replied, "And your friend is sleeping soundly. Now, to the point. How about a little cooperation?"
"Fine. What do you want?" he asked.
"Just something simple. I need you to disable the lasers and cameras in this building. Nothing else."
"The hell? No, I ain't doing that! I-" The sound of claws popping up from Cat's glove interrupted him. Realizing he had no other choice and it was better not to piss her off, he sighed and proceeded to do what she wanted. It took some time but he managed to turn off the laser security system along with the cameras.
"Much thanks." Black Cat hit the back of his head with the butt of her gun. When he fell down to the floor, she dragged him to a spot where no one would at least notice. Looking around, she found the layout hanging on the walls, snapped a photo of it and shared it to the group chat. Cat exited the room and turned to Scarlet Spider and Spider-Man, nodding at them as a sign to continue the mission. The two nodded and they followed her to the stairs with Black Cat using her sonar mode to detect any hostiles along the way to the top floor. As they got closer, she began to feel confident on the prospect of succeeding this mission. It was only a matter of time before someone stopped them however.
*
"What in the..." Shocker frowned as he got out of his van, which was parked on a nearby empty spot, and looked at the safehouse's parking lot. "Why is it so empty here? Where are the guards?" He walked into the area carefully with his eyes scanning the surroundings. It was quiet. Too quiet. He didn't like where this might go.
While walking around to check, he suddenly heard muffled sounds coming from the bushes. Shocker turned to the direction of the noises and rushed toward it. Much to his shock, he found four men bound and their mouths covered by webbing. He clenched his fist, realizing his enemies were here. Without wasting any more time, Shocker got rid of the webbing from their mouths and pulled out a pocket knife to free the guards of their bindings.
"Are you okay?" Shocker asked them in a worried tone.
"Y-Yeah, we're okay," one of the guards replied, "Thank you, sir."
"No worries. Any of you know where Black Cat and the Spider-Men headed to?"
"I'm not sure, sir. We didn't even see them. We all got knocked out of the sudden."
Shocker gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath. For a moment, he took a deep breath to regain his composure. He looked at the guards and gathered them. "Alright... Listen up. We don't know where they are so we'll do a quick check in the safehouse," ordered Shocker, "One or two of you check a floor while I go to the fourth floor. Those three must be after a piece of info. Report to me about your findings. And be careful. Are we clear?"
"Yes, sir!" They all nodded in understanding.
Shocker then pulled out a small walkie-talkie from his pocket and synced it with each frequency of the security guards' respective walkie-talkie. After that, he and the rest entered the safehouse and separated to check each floor.
Meanwhile, the intel room's door had been opened and the guards were nowhere to be found. Scarlet and Cat forced them to unlock it earlier and knocked them out, before hiding their unconscious bodies in another room. Now, Scarlet Spider stood outside to watch over his friends as Spider-Man and Black Cat looked for the piece of information they needed.
"Anything on your end?" she asked him while scrolling through documents on a computer, clicking each and skimmed it to find any address or a map.
"No, nothing," said Spidey, who was also doing the same.
"Darn it..." Cat continued to look for the documents. She kept scrolling and clicking the files. Yet, she still found none. Black Cat stopped and looked down, letting out an exasperated sigh. "No way this is just it. We came all this way here. If in the end it's all for nothing..." She clenched her fist and looked up to the computer with determination. "No. I can't give up now. Must not let my dad down. Gotta keep looking!" And she resumed her search.
Seconds later, she came across two documents. "Wait, wait! I think I found something!" She checked and found them to be two bill of ladings from two separate warehouses, with their addresses written down. Not wasting any more time, she plugged in her flash drive to the computer's CPU and copied the files into it. To ensure the bad guys wouldn't outsmart her and the others, she deleted the recent activity history. She also decided to slow down Kingpin's operations by uploading a computer virus from the flash drive into the computer's network. Black Cat let out a mischievous laugh as the process completed and plugged it off, putting the drive in her pocket.
Spider-Man turned to Black Cat and asked anxiously, "We got it..?"
She looked over her shoulder and nodded. "We got it." A smirk painted on her face underneath the mask.
He jumped and threw a punch to the air, letting out an inaudible "We did it!" And it amused Black Cat. The two then exited the intel room.
"How did it go?" Scarlet asked her.
"We got the lead we needed," she replied, "Oh and I uploaded a virus to this safehouse's network. Whoops for the bad guys."
Hearing that, Scarlet Spider breathed a sigh of relief as he realized the mission was a success. Not only that, but Cat did some damage to a part of Kingpin's network. So, he gave a nod of respect to Cat. "Great work, all. Alright, let's get out of here before-" His spider sense and Spider-Man's suddenly buzzed at a presence coming closer and closer to them. "Someone's here. Spidey, Cat, get behind me!" They did as he opened his hand, ready to shoot a web at whoever was coming after the three.
When Shocker appeared from the corner, Scarlet wasted no time shooting a web directed at him. Unfortunately, he managed to dodge it and the web hit a wall instead. It only pissed off Scarlet Spider.
"You again!" he hissed.
"You just keep popping up, don't you?" Shocker chuckled darkly, "But now, all of you ain't gonna be nuisances to me anymore." He aimed one of his gauntlets at them and pressed down the button on his vibro-shock gauntlet to charge and it began beeping.
"Shit. We need to get out of here fast." Panicking, Scarlet Spider frantically glanced over his shoulder and saw a wide glass window. An idea popped up in his head. "Guys, run to the glass window behind us and jump!"
"What the?! Scarlet, we might not be able to break the fall! " Spider-Man argued.
"You two, think fast! His gauntlet is charging!" Black Cat said in a panicked tone.
"Then just make a big cushion from our webbing! Now run!" Scarlet told Spidey before the trio turned around and ran as fast as they could.
When Shocker saw this, he released the button. As it wasn't done charging, the gauntlet didn't shoot a blast. Instead, he opted to shoot an uncharged shock blast. It caused the Spider-Men's spider sense to buzz.
"Ah fuck!" Scarlet realized Shocker decided to shoot an uncharged blast from his gauntlet.
But before he and the others could dodge, it sent them flying toward the window, breaking its glass.
As the group plunged down, both spiders realized they didn't have much time so they quickly aimed their fingertips at the ground and shot multiple webs to create a big cushion. At best, they'd break a few ribs or get away unscatched. At worst, they'd break all of them.
"Everyone, brace!" Scarlet Spider yelled and he and the others covered their faces before finally hitting the ground. To their luck, they landed on the big web cushion, the wind rushing out of their chests. The trio groaned in pain. "D-Damn... You all okay..?" he asked as he stood up. It earned two thumbs up from Spider-Man and Black Cat.
"My chest feels a bit sore," Spidey tried to stand up, "Other than that, I'm okay." He extended his hand to Cat. She accepted it and he pulled her up. "Nothing bad happened?" he asked her.
"Sore chest and back," she said as she twisted her body, making cracking sounds. Black Cat sighed in relief. "But that's all. Thank you, Webheads. You are lifesavers."
Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider simply nodded at her as a way to say "You're welcome."
After that, their attention returned to Shocker, who stood near the broken window.
"Intruders are found. They are in the parking lot," he spoke to a guard through his walkie talkie.
"Roger that, sir. On our way!" he responded and proceeded to alert the others.
Shocker crouched and looked at the bushes, before unleashing a small shockwave from his gauntlets, propelling him forward onto the bushes. When he landed safely, he rose up, walked out, and turned around to face his enemies. "Smart and determined. I'll give you that," he smirked, "However, I'm afraid I can't let you clowns keep running around and causing trouble." Then, Shocker pressed a button to active his gauntlet's energized battering ram attachment.
"Really? You keep calling us bozos or clowns?" Spider-Man laughed in a mocking way, "What, do we look like a travelling circus, Quilt Man?" This made Scarlet and Cat snort a little.
Shocker let out an annoyed groan and snarled. "Yeah, very funny indeed. Let's see if you'll still spew out humor after I teach you all a lesson."
The lobby's doors slid open and four guards from earlier exited the safehouse with their rifles aimed at the heroes.
"Fuck... Alright, how are we gonna handle this? Any suggestions?" Black Cat asked.
"I'll handle Shocker," Spider-Man answered, "You guys can handle the rest."
This didn't bode well with his cousin. "What?! Webs, I can handle Shocker! I can't lose-"
"Scarlet... Please. It's okay, don't worry about me." He placed his hand on Scarlet's shoulder, "I'll find a way to beat him. It won't be like the first time, promise."
Kaine stared at Peter intently. He was filled with hesitation and worry over his cousin. Thoughts about losing someone again popped up in his mind. But in the end, he relented. "...You better. After I take care of the guards, all of us will handle Shocker, okay?" As a reply to his question, Peter nodded in understanding.
Now, the group faced their respective foes. Scarlet Spider opened his hands, ready to shoot his web and Black Cat entered an offensive stance, clenching her fists. While Spider-Man looked at Shocker, anticipating his enemy's move.
As his first move, Shocker threw a punch to Spidey with his battering ram. However, Spider-Man's spider sense zinged and he immediately jumped backward. When Shocker was about to shoot a shock blast at the spider with the other gauntlet, Spidey shot a web at it, obstructing said gauntlet. Spidey rushed and vaulted over Shocker. In mid-air, he shot two web lines directed to the man's back and used them to propel himself toward Shocker and hit him, making his opponent fall and face the ground.
Meanwhile, Scarlet shot multiple web lines at the guards' rifles and yanked them away. In response, the four men pulled out stun batons. Scarlet and Cat looked at one another and nodded, before returning their attention to the guards. Each picked two of them. Both then rushed toward their respective pair of opponents.
Two guards swung their batons forward to electrocute Scarlet Spider. However, he instinctively grabbed their hands, shook his head disapprovingly, and made them tase each other instead. As they were stunned, he tackled them to the ground, delivered punches to knock them out cold, and webbed them.
For the remaining guards, Black Cat popped up the claws of her gloves and grazed their legs. They screamed in pain and was about to attack her back. Before they could however, Scarlet shot two web lines to their arms and held them back. This allowed Cat to deliver a hook to the side of the jaw of each guard, causing them to fall unconscious.
"Thanks for the assist, Scarlet," Black Cat said.
"No prob." Scarlet Spider released his web lines and turned to Shocker, "Now, let's take care of him, shall we?"
"We shall."
Shocker, seeing what had happened, let out a frustrated scream and flipped over. It prompted Spider-Man to leap away. "THAT'S IT. YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR. YOU'VE MADE ME RUN OUT OF PATIENCE. I WON'T LET YOU WALK AWAY ALIVE!" Then, he stood up, tore off the web obstructing one of his gauntlets, and shot a blast to the spider. But Spider-Man performed a barrel roll to the side to dodge the attack and shot a web splat to blind Shocker's vision.
"GAH- You!" he grunted as he tried to remove the webbing from his face.
"He's mine," Black Cat sprinted toward Shocker and delivered punches and kicks to him. "This is for ruining my family." Her voice was filled with fury as she attacked him, before delivering a jab to Shocker's face and a kick to his chest. "And that...is for my dad, you fucker!"
The kick from Cat sent him to the safehouse's wall behind him. Shocker let out painful groans and angrily tore off the web on his mask. To the beating he got earlier, he responded by pressing a button to deactivate the battering ram attachment of his gauntlet. He then pressed down the buttons of both gauntlets to charge his shock blasts.
Black Cat drew her gun as fast as she could and fired a rubber round at Shocker's head to stun him. The impact of the round caused him to get dizzy and stop charging up the gauntlets. Soon, the Spider-Men joined in. And together, they shot their respective webs to stick Shocker on the wall.
Spider-Man turned to Scarlet Spider and chuckled. "See? Told you it won't be like first time."
Scarlet looked at Spidey and smiled, "Yeah... I'm glad."
"Damn you three..." Shocker gritted his teeth, struggling to break free, "Next time, you won't be so lucky!"
Cat sneered, "Yeah, sure. We'll see."
"I guess you could say it was a...shocking defeat, huh?" Spider-Man laughed, along with his allies, "Hey, when you see Kingpin and Tombstone. Say hi from the Spiders and Cat Circus, will you? And tell them we had fun clowning around here."
"You... I'll chase you to the ends of the earth just to shut your mouth!" Shocker snarled.
This made Scarlet Spider growl and lean closer to Shocker's face. "Or perhaps I can humiliate you like you did to me and Webs... No. I don't need to. You already have been. I bet your superiors will be real furious when they find out what happened."
"Alright, that's enough!" Black Cat cut in, "We gotta go. We don't want to stick around any longer. Someone else might come here soon"
Scarlet Spider and Spider-Man nodded in agreement. So, the trio exited the area and zipped away to a rooftop far from the safehouse, leaving Shocker alone, still stuck.
Moments later, the man reached for his pocket knife after realizing it was useless to wiggle around the web. So he used it to cut the webbing, setting him free. After that, Shocker glanced at the fallen security guards and sighed deeply, lowering his head in shame. It was quite a tiring night. An embarrassing one too, to be precise. Now he had no choice but to go back to his HQ and report the break-in. He would have to face Kingpin's wrath too. But first, he needed to help the security guards and must perform another check at the safehouse, especially the intel room.
*
"We did it!" Spider-Man exclaimed in a cheerful manner and extended his fist, "Great job, guys. Now we have the advantage."
Black Cat shook her head in amusement as she watched how childlike Spidey could be. She and Scarlet Spider fist-bumped Spider-Man. "Indeed. Our efforts paid off," she commented, "But this is not over yet. We haven't discovered Shocker and Tombstone's headquarters."
"Hey, at least we beat them this time. That's something, right?" Scarlet asked her, which Black Cat responded with a nod. "I think we should take a break from our mission though. Like, for a day or two."
Cat tilted her head slightly, confused with what he said. "Why, what's wrong?"
"I..." he sighed, "There's something I gotta do. A private matter. Non-superhero stuff, you get what I mean. I don't know if it can wait..."
"It's okay. Do what you need to do. I understand," she said, "Besides, we deserve some rest from this. Also, we have other stuff to do, don't we?"
"Thank you for your understanding, Cat," he replied in a grateful tone.
"Anytime, Webhead," she chuckled.
The three told each other to be careful and bid farewell to one another, before leaping off the rooftop and started swinging from one building to another. They went their separate ways to their respective homes, followed by the satisfaction of a job well-done. However. Their next mission might not be easy for them.
A/N: Sorry for another lengthy chapter ;-; But I hope you enjoy it! Anyway, the next and last chapter of Part 2A will focus solely on the villains, especially Tombstone because he hasn't been fleshed out. It's gonna be a shorter chapter too! That's all for today. Don't forget to favorite and follow this fic. If you have any comment or criticism, feel free to write it in the review. Follow me too if you want to read my future works! See ya next time and I wish everyone a good day :D
