Chapter 5
"MAY!" Miles screamed.
All thought of the girl in front of him disappeared from his mind.
He jumped from his chair and nearly flipped the table. She was just here! Where did she go!? Why didn't I sense it!? Why didn't she–
"Miles!"
Miles froze. He knew that voice. The owner of that voice is never going to let him live this down. How was he ever supposed to? He lost Mayday! He lost his little Hatchling!
"What the hell got into you, Brooklyn?" Kaine asked. He and Ben stood next to each other carrying lunch trays. They looked around at the flipped chairs and crooked table. Then, their eyes landed on the empty baby chair.
Kaine's eyes narrowed, and his voice got dangerously low. "Where's May…"
Run!
That's all Shocker could think as he climbed the stairs of the Bell Tower. Run, and don't stop running. It didn't matter if he died of exhaustion on any floor. That would be preferable to letting the Scarlet Spider get his stingers on him. Or worse, he decides not to use the stingers…
"What are you after me for!?" Shocker shouted. He stopped for a moment and aimed his trembling gauntlet down the dark stairwell. "I haven't done anything!"
Shocker blasted the dark hallway, hitting nothing but the banister of the abandoned church. But the blast hadn't been a total loss. Thanks to the brilliant blue light, Shocker saw two menacing red eyes staring into his soul.
Fuck…
"What do we do!?" a thug shouted to his friend as he slammed the door shut behind him. He could hear the muffled screams and gunshots in the main storage area of the warehouse just beyond the door.
"It's Spider-Man, Tom," his friend said, not nearly as unnerved as Tom. "Worst comes to worse he'll just web us to a wall and we'll be stuck for a few hours!"
"Nah, Jerry, something's up with that Sensational guy!" Tom said, shakily reloading his gun. He backed up and aimed at the door, but he couldn't get a stable shot as his ironsights trembled.
"Wait, we're fighting that Spider-Man from Brooklyn?" Jerry asked. He jumped to his feet and wrapped a very thick-looking jacket around himself.
Tom stared at Jerry, confused. "What the hell is that!?"
Something thudded against the door and rattled the hinges. Tom and Jerry watched it with fear. "It's a special jacket. The guys in Brooklyn started wearing these cause that Sensational guy can shoot electricity out of his hands," Jerry whispered.
"No, the Spider-Man that shoots electricity is the black and pink guy," Tom hissed. "The Sensational guy used to be the Scarlet Spider! You know, the dude with the really big eyes and the Idiot Handle?"
Jerry froze while zipping up his jacket. "Wait, there's two Scarlet Spiders!?"
Holes popped up in the wall as bullets sailed into the room! Tom and Jerry dropped to the floor as bullets flew above them. Screams echoed and the dull cracks of fists connecting with skulls sang through the holes.
"What borough have you been in?" Tom asked, not looking up. "That new Scarlet is like, twice the size of any other Spider! I swear, he's gotta be from Australia!"
"They all have the webs and have the suit!" Jerry retorted. "They all look the same!"
Tom looked up and stared at Jerry in disbelief. "The new one has wrist blades!"
"I thought that was just a myth!"
"How do you still believe myths are myths when the actual Norse God of Thunder is flying around!?"
A shadow fell over them.
"Some people just like to see things for themselves," a voice said.
"AAAHHH!"
Tom and Jerry scrambled away from the Sensational Spider-Man. Their legs slipped and slid on the floor, making them look like cartoon characters attempting to run. Tom aimed his gun at Spider-Man and fired wildly.
Spider-Man didn't move a muscle. He didn't have to. Not even when the handgun clicked uselessly due to the lack of bullets.
I'm going to ask this once," Spider-Man said. Tom and Jerry froze. The usual annoying jokes and light cadence of voice that always told them that Spider-Man had the biggest shit-eating grin on under his mask was absent. Instead, a voice like chipped ice that had no room for jokes replaced it and sent chills down the thugs spines.
Tom and Jerry hugged each other.
"How many times do I have to ask this; have you seen Spider-Baby?" Miles asked.
The patrons of the Bar With No Name stared at Miles as if he'd grown two heads. Then, a chair flew at him, and he easily dodged it.
"Okay, guess I'll have to ask again!"
Another chair flew at him, followed by a sandwich, a tomato, and then all hell broke loose!
"Guys, seriously?" Miles groaned as he dodged, ducked, dipped, and dived out of the way of every projectile, fist, and blunt instrument that came his way. "I'm the nice guy! If you don't answer me, then the other two will come through here! And the big one makes Moon Knight look like a Care Bear!"
But alas, no one in the bar listened to his plea. Everyone had been more pissed that he had interrupted their happy hour.
Dammit, dammit, dammit! Where is she!
Miles paced across a gargoyle at the top of the Chrysler Building. The sun had started to set on Manhattan, and he was the first to arrive. That wasn't a good sign. Nor was it a good thing for Miles himself. It left him with more time to think about just how much he had screwed up! How could he face Ben and Kaine? Neither of them had screwed up this bad. And just when Peter had said he felt better knowing Miles was there to help take care of May!
"God, I'm the worst Spider-Man in New York!" Miles said. He walked over the edge of the gargoyle and sat on its underside.
"Kid, if this is what makes you the worst Spider-Man in New York, you should count yourself lucky," a dark and grizzled voice said. Miles whipped around to see Kaine crawling toward him. Miles' eyes immediately zoned in on the dark red splotches that littered Kaine's suit.
"Do I even want to know?"
Kaine waved Miles' concern away. "Herman's fine," he said, scooting his boot right up next to Miles. His shaggy hair dangled as he looked out into the City That Never Sleeps. Miles cast him a skeptical glance and Kaine shrugged. "He'll live. And so will the others."
Despite the nagging voice in his head telling him it was hopeless, Miles still found it in him to ask "So…no good news?"
Kaine glanced at Miles. A sense of comradery that Miles had never expected to experience with the black sheep of the Parker family fell between them. As if Kaine had been in the same kind of boat that Miles found himself captaining now.
"Kid, they ever tell you how I met the Wonder Twins and that firecracker?" Kaine asked, his gaze pierced through Miles' worry.
Miles shifted on the gargoyle. What the hell is this about? "You and Ben were clones made by the Jackal. The three of you took him down when he tried to make a clone army to take over New York."
Kaine turned to look back out into the city. "Yeah, thought not," he said. Kaine looked down at his hands and stared. He stared so long that Miles thought he turned into another gargoyle. It struck him as odd. There was no blood on Kaine's hands. "I was not a good guy. I was angry, and I hurt people. I used to enjoy leaving my mark on people, even if no one knew it was me, I knew it was me and I liked it. I even had a name for it; The Mark of Kaine."
Miles furrowed his brow. That name–The Mark of Kaine–was familiar to him. He remembered his dad talking to his mom in hushed voices before he got his powers. Talking about how the last place that Mark had been seen was on a few victims in Salt Lake City before it appeared in New York. Before Ben went to prison for Pete.
Sure, Kaine was a dark guy that reminded him a little too much of Uncle Aaron at his worst, but beneath the hard outer shell was a small and vulnerable fleshy underside. Sometimes Miles found himself wondering why Kaine hadn't taken on the title of Scorpion instead. The psychopath that used to brand people couldn't have been the protective uncle that sat next to him…could it?
"Then, a whole lot of confusing ass shit happened with Warren, Aunt May…then Norman, and" –Kaine cleared his throat– "MJ…" he shook his head and placed his hands at his sides. "The first time I met MJ, I was stealing her child away."
Miles froze. He knew the story about what happened to Mayday when she was born, but Peter, MJ, and Ben had always said that Kaine is the one that saved Mayday from Norman and brought her back to them.
"Norman had promised me a cure to my degeneration, and I was stupid and angry enough to believe he'd honor his word," Kaine said. "It wasn't until I actually had a moment to look at May that I saw a kid who didn't know anything about me. She looked at me like I was the greatest hero in the multiverse. And I realized that what Norman had promised me wasn't what I wanted. Deep down I wanted to be that hero May thought I was. Even if it meant I'd look like a shriveled old zombie."
Miles didn't know what to say to all that. How could you? But, it explained why he felt closer to Kaine than ever before. He too had screwed up with May. And–while he still felt like a terrible uncle–he didn't feel so bad anymore. He knew Peter and MJ. So long as he brought May back to them safe and sound, they would forgive him.
"That doesn't mean it won't take a while before Pete and MJ fully trust ya with her," Kaine said with a wry smile.
"H-How long did it take for you?" Miles asked, dreading the answer.
Kaine gave Miles a look, and immediately everything clicked.
"Then how can you be this calm!?" Miles exclaimed, jumping to his feet on the underside of the gargoyle. It made no sense! Why was the edgy Spider-Man calmer than him!? "Why are you not pissed off at me!?"
Kaine shrugged. "I know you, kid," he said. "I know you'd jump in front of a glider for our Hatchling."
Miles gave Kaine a deadpan glare. Kaine was way too calm. There was something he wasn't being told. He folded his arms and glared at Kaine, putting on his best scary face.
The corners of Kaine's mouth quirked upward. Then his brow followed. Then, he did possibly the scariest thing Miles could think of; he laughed.
The laugh was nothing like Miles expected. Instead of the dark, muted, singular chuckle he assumed Kaine's laugh sounded like, a booming bark-like laugh exploded out of Kaine's mouth. The force of it nearly knocked Miles off the gargoyle.
"Oh god, he's lost it," a familiarly sarcastic voice drawled above them. The big white lenses of Ben Reilly's self-proclaimed Sensational Spider-Man suit peeked over the edge. He took the mask off and his blonde hair dangled. "Time to call Dr. Kafka and see if Ravencroft has a spare room."
"Where have you been!" Miles shouted, shooting a line of webbing at Ben's face. Ben dodged the web and rolled over the edge of the gargoyle. As he fell, he spun himself a little web hammock and smirked at Miles.
"Same as tall, dark, and bloody," Ben said. "Blowing off enough steam to allow us to figure out who really took May."
Miles whipped his head back and forth as the Spider-Bros shared a telepathic conversation. "Well!?"
Kaine and Ben glanced back at Miles, and Miles felt his Spider-Sense tingle.
"Oh, you're in for a treat!" Ben remarked.
"Why is my Spider-Sense tingling then?" Miles asked sharply.
"That's one way to describe her," Kaine commented.
"Her!?" Miles asked again, this time his voice raised an octave.
"Hey, she's always a delight whenever I meet up with her," Ben responded. "She was the first to notice my butt was bigger than Peter's!"
Kaine rolled his eyes and stood up. He collected his hair in his mask and put it on while Ben did the same and prepared to swing off his web hammock.
"Who is this she!?"
Kaine and Ben looked back at Miles. Ben smirked, very clearly looking forward to what he had in store for Miles. Kaine on the other hand–while he didn't show it as clearly–just nodded to Miles. An understanding between the two about their shared screw-up.
