Chapter 13

Returning to school was surprisingly normal. I walked in the front door and headed for my locker. I didn't even need anything from it, I just wanted to see what was still in it. I didn't even get any looks. No odd stares or anything. Whether that was because my age mates didn't watch the news or simply didn't recognize me as Yukino's daughter, my trip through the hallways was hassle free.

Gwen, however, was not so lucky. There was a guy pressed up close to her and she looked distinctly uncomfortable. I shouldered my backpack into a better position and then walked up to them.

"Yo," I said.

Gwen's blue eyes lit up with relief when she saw me. "Oh hey, Alex!"

The boy looked over his shoulder at me, which gave Gwen the opportunity to squirm free and stand beside me.

The boy looked me up and down, "Are you two-"

"Friends, yes," I interrupted, "What's going on?"

He did that weird nod thing that guys do. "I'm just trying to get with a pretty girl."

I raised my eyebrows like I was interested. "Looks like bullying to me."

"Butt out, this has nothing to do with you."

I stamped on my irritation. "I'm sorry could you repeat that."

"I said this has nothing to do with you."

"Ah… let's run that back," I said. "Who is Gwen to you?"

"What's the point of asking me that?"

"Seems you're slow so I'll spell it out. Gwen is a pretty girl to you- whatever that means in your head. To me, Gwen is a friend being cornered by a pushy guy using his size as a weapon and telling me it has nothing to do with me. And that makes me angry. Do you have friends big guy?"

I said it calmly, looking him straight in the eyes. I was also fully prepared to fold him in two.

Go on. Challenge me, dipshit.

Gwen stared between us, visibly tense.

He hesitated and then backed away, "Whatever."

I snorted. 'Whatever.' A fantastic sign of romantic interest and empathy. I'm impressed already…

"Wow, that was intense." I turned around to find Gwen staring at me. "It felt like you were about to fight with him."

"I would have," I said.

"Alex, you're like… 5'6". And probably a hundred pounds give or take."

"132 pounds," I corrected her, "and yes, I'd still take him on."

Gwen shook her head. "He's going to try again. I just want him to leave me alone."

"I promise to just deck him next time."

"That's not helpful!"

"But he'll leave you alone."

Gwen sighed. She sounded frustrated.

"How long has this been going on for?" I asked.

"I haven't really been keeping track," she shrugged, "Since you left maybe…"

"Did no one ever tell you not to sit alone as a girl?"

Gwen levelled a dubious glare on me. "You sit alone all the time."

I nodded sagely. "This is why you shouldn't copy me."

She snorted at that one.

The bell rang.

"Ah, that's homeroom," Gwen said.

We walked toward class.

"By the way, your make-up isn't hiding the bags under your eyes," I supplied helpfully.

"Alex… please stop…"

xXx

Getting back into the groove of things was kinda tough after so many days where I didn't have to follow a class schedule but I slowly eased into it, over the passing days. The pushy boy didn't make another appearance but I would see him from time to time, staring at Gwen between classes. Now that I was in school and Gwen was spending most of her time with me, he didn't make another move.

I was also planning how to move around as Kumo and gain some experience. To that end, I'd already been watching videos of the two Spider-men and Spider-woman in action. Clips of them swinging through the city were closely analysed. Clips of some of their battles were even more closely analysed. If there was anything I was good at studying it was how people moved.

One thing I observed immediately was that the younger Spider-man derived his moves from the older one. He had a more extensive set of tools in the form of his 'venom blast' thing that he had worked into his style, but functionally speaking his moves were just a less efficient version of the older one. I stopped paying too much attention to him after that.

Spider-woman, on the other hand, was harder to study, mostly because she was much less active than the Spider-men. Perhaps living up to the name she'd given herself as Ghost Spider? Perhaps she just couldn't be seen most of the time. Nevertheless, there were clips of her all over the internet and I studied them just as closely. She was visibly more graceful than the other two. That was noticeable from the get-go. But again, functionally speaking, she was a travesty. Just as I had observed when she'd been training me, her moves were beautiful and flashy but of limited effect without super speed and strength to carry her. I did love the way she swung on her webs though and I planned to see what I could pull when I finally tried web swinging.

Then there was Spider-man. The OG. One of the first super-heroes to start roaming the streets supposedly. He was… a lot more interesting to watch. His older clips were full of shoddy movement, despite his agility and balance, but as I watched more recent ones, his movements improved. They sharpened until some clips were just blurs of motion bouncing between buildings and rooftops. His form was free and loose, comfortably conformed to his environment, rather than any strict principle of movement like a gymnast or martial artist's would be.

His battles too were… interesting. Rather than leveraging his speed and strength in direct confrontation Spider-man seemed to prefer coming up with unusual strategies based on playing mental games with his opponent. His speed and strength were treated as tools to maneuver his opponent into whatever trap he had set. Watching him fight was like watching a puzzle get solved as opposed to an enemy overcome. It was not quite what I expected, but there was much to learn there.

"Something on your mind Alex?"

I turned to Uncle Jerry. We'd put together a small party for his return. I'd mainly sat quietly and let Aunt Amy and Candy have a well-deserved reunion. I made sure to always hover in the background and offer just enough input to seem like I was present. We'd had a nice lasagna, followed with cake and soda and now I was washing all the dishes. Technically, Candy was supposed to be helping me but I'd asked her to just let me do everything. Last I'd been paying attention Uncle Jerry was leaving with Aunt Amy for a private chat of their own…

Instead, here he was seated at the counter behind me while I stared into space. Wonderful.

"Yeah, I guess…" I replied, turning back to the sink.

"What is it?" he asked.

"You know, in the movies the parent usually asks if their kid wants to talk about the issue first," I said.

"Thank goodness this isn't a movie then," Uncle Jerry replied, "That sounds like a terrible way to find out what your kid is thinking."

I snorted. "Meanie."

I could almost hear him smiling behind me, "Come on now, don't play coy with me. I get enough of it from your father."

I sighed, "He told me to get strong…"

There was silence behind me, for a time, as I finished with the last of the baking equipment.

"Things didn't go well then, huh?" Uncle Jerry said.

I loved how I didn't have to over-explain. He just knew what I was talking about. I could feel alone in a room full of people but Uncle Jerry and Dad… they got things. And even when they didn't they just… made it work somehow.

I'm not just getting strong for myself.

It was acknowledgement of a basic fact I knew to be true, and yet my spirit resonated with the thought. A warm feeling spread from my chest to the rest of me.

"No, they didn't," I confirmed, "You'll probably see some of it on the news too."

Another silence as I scrubbed plates clean.

"So… have you decided how you're going to go about it?" he asked eventually.

"No," I admitted, "No clue where to begin really. Dad said to start small but that's about it."

"Hmmm…" Uncle Jerry said.

I finished the plates and started on the glasses.

"Have you considered helping people as a way to get strong?" he asked.

I paused. "What do you mean?"

"It's very easy to think only of yourself in these times," Uncle Jerry said. "Where are my weaknesses? What are my strengths? Where should I improve? That's a valid way of thinking, but in the wrong context, it is unsound."

"Aren't valid and sound the same thing?" I asked.

He sounded amused. "No. Valid thinking is thought that has a logical structure. Sound thinking, is thought that has a logical structure and is true."

I frowned. "I'm confused."

"For example," I heard him shifting in his seat, "Santa comes down chimneys, this house doesn't have a chimney, therefore the reason we never see Santa is because we don't have a chimney."

I turned around now. "That's so dumb."

"Why?"

"Because Santa doesn't exist."

"But you haven't made an argument Alex," Uncle Jerry prompted me, "You just asserted a statement of your own with no supporting evidence. How do you know that Santa doesn't exist?"

"Because you could search this whole earth and not find a trace of him."

"Have you searched the whole Earth?"

"Well, no…"

"Then you don't know that for sure either."

I was starting to doubt my own mental capabilities. "So… Santa is real…?"

Uncle Jerry shrugged. "Maybe. My statement doesn't actually prove that Santa exists. It's a chain of thought that builds on itself. My first statement was that Santa goes down chimneys, so if our house doesn't have a chimney- which was my second statement- Santa won't come- that was my third statement."

"Oh…" Now that I thought about it, he was right. He was assuming a number of things. That there was a Santa, for one. He was also assuming this Santa only came down chimneys. I could probably think of more if I worked at it.

Uncle Jerry nodded. "The argument would be sound, if it was based on things we know to be true. If it was a known fact that Santa exists and that he only comes down chimneys, the argument would then be sound."

I frowned in thought for a few seconds. "So what you're saying is, trying to figure out strengths and weakness when you want to train isn't sound."

Uncle Jerry leaned back. "Yes. The problem here is that you're trying to figure out strengths and weaknesses without a frame of reference. Without a premise you know to be true. Thus your process is valid, but unsound."

"I…" I paused, thinking it over, "I think I get it. I don't know what's a strength and what's a weakness yet so any method I try to apply probably won't work."

"Might work," Uncle Jerry said. "Even shots in the dark can land sometimes." He looked at me with his soft brown eyes. "You're standing on a completely different stage than any you've ever been on in your life. Physical strength on its own isn't impressive. Cunning on its own isn't either. There is no singular trait you can acquire that will put you on top."

He'd been a ninja once. He'd killed people, I remembered. He'd once roamed on the same stage he was now telling me I was on.

"Then how do I proceed?" I asked. "I just throw myself out there blind?"

"Help people instead," he answered, his voice was lighter now, less intense, "In helping people weaker than you, you will learn what is truly useful and what is not. The way up is down."

"The way up is down…" I repeated, measuring the words.

I could work with that.

xXx

It was a Monday morning and Greg had a delivery to make. He revved his engines and dodged traffic on his bike. He was speeding sure, but he really wanted to get his morning shift over with. He was still tired from the weekend activities. If he could move fast enough he'd be able to take a half-hour or two to rest between now and his next set of deliveries.

It was only when he was well past the red light that he realized he'd reached a junction and there was a car coming at him.

Oh shi-

The car crashed into him, flinging him off the bike. The stack of pizzas tied to the bike was jarred loose and thrown into the air. Terrified and flailing, Greg could only watch from the air as his entire morning went to hell.

Suddenly an arm was wrapped around his torso, "Loosen up. You might break something otherwise."

Greg felt a pair of soft things touching his back just before he suddenly went into a violent spiral. It was so quick that the world seemed to blur and suddenly he was on the sidewalk, on his feet facing a masked woman who was carrying his pizzas.

She held them out to him with both hands. "Here. I snagged them mid-air. I haven't checked if they're still intact though."

Greg just stared. She was wearing some kind of ninja outfit but with a black spider-man style mask. No web patterns to be seen anywhere.

"Hello?" she said.

Greg blinked, trying to catch up with where he was now.

"I'll just put these down then," the woman said, putting the stack of pizzas next to him, "Bye."

She leaped up and was gone.

What, Greg thought, the hell just happened?

xXx

The man pulled out a gun. "Bring the cash out of your register right now-"

This is not how I pictured my Wednesday going…

The man was yanked backwards and a black gloved fist slammed into his guts mid-flight.

Anna the cash-register watched as she went from being robbed to watching a man curl in on himself whimpering. Some kind of ninja Spider-woman was standing over the man.

"You have an alarm right?" the woman said.

Anna blinked because this was New York and heroes were normal. She pressed the alarm and said, "Cops will be here soon."

"Great," the woman turned to leave.

"Wait."

She turned.

"Are you a new hero?" Anna asked. "You've got a whole Spider-man design on you and everything."

The woman seemed uncomfortable, "I wouldn't call myself a hero per se. I'm just trying to help people."

"That's what all the heroes say," Anna nodded knowingly. "Did you know Spider-man used to patrol this area?"

The woman shook her head. "No."

"Oh yeah, it's why I chose to do my part-time job here," Anna explained, "but these days he's been a lot more active in Manhattan. I guess one person can't cover the whole of New York. Sucks that it happens right when I finally start working here."

There was the sound of sirens in the distance.

"I'll be leaving now," the woman said.

"Sure," Anna said, waving. "Come around every now and then, 'kay?"

The woman was already outside and leaping into the air.

Anna smiled. "She seems nice."

The man on the floor groaned. "Yeah, real nice."

Anna looked at him thoughtfully. Then she kicked him.

xXx

He was almost to the Queensborough bridge when his Thursday went south. Of all the places for his tire to have a meltdown. That was okay though. He had a spare. Except now his jack was broken so he couldn't jack the car up to change the wheels.

I am going to be late today, thought Fred.

And he'd been yelled at about lateness just yesterday. His boss was not going to be pleased.

"'Too many times and too many excuses Fred!'" Fred muttered, suppressing curses.

Maybe if he tried the neighbours?

"Want some help with that?"

"Ah!" Fred jumped.

There was a ninja Spider-woman behind him.

"Unless you can somehow lift-"

She bent down and lifted the back end of the car, exposing the burst tire to him. She was doing it with one hand. Fred swallowed his words and got to work changing his tires. People were watching them as they passed by. Some even stopped walking and took pictures. A woman came right up to them with her phone taking video. The spider-woman didn't seem to react to any of this.

"So uhhh… do you always help out randoms like this?" Fred asked.

"That's the idea," she replied. Her voice was muffled but it sounded very young.

"Thought you hero types were busy with more important stuff," Fred got the old wheel off, put the new one on and started screwing it in.

"I'm not a hero," the woman replied. She didn't sound the least bit like she was straining.

"Way you're dressed up you coulda fooled me," Fred replied, finishing his work at last. He patted the wheel and stood up, collecting his tools. "I'm done."

"Alright," the woman let the car down gently and then dusted her hands, "I'll be leaving now."

"No wait, I should give you something-"

"No time and no need," she waved him off. "Have a nice day, Fred."

She did a backflip that took her over the rooftops, leaving Fred behind.

Fred scratched his head as he stared at the spot she'd disappeared over. "So there's a new one… huh…"

xXx

Monday dawned miserably for a certain Peter Parker.

"Parker!" Jameson barked. "What rock did you crawl under? There's news abroad and I need pictures!"

Peter sighed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Sorry, JJ. I've just been dealing with some family issues…"

Family issues being that he'd spent all night yesterday trying to find a kidnapped little girl. Criminals were getting creative now that they expected some hero or other to always drop in. They'd led him on a merry chase through a part of the subway system Peter hadn't even known about. An entire city of homelessness.

Jameson didn't budge an inch. "There's a new Spider about. We have everything we need except the pics. Get on it!"

"Right away, sir…"

Peter left Jameson's office, searching up new spider on his phone. A video of Kumo helping a man change tires on the street came up. Pete sighed. Given how easily bystanders could take pictures the only reason he was still employed were the quality of his pics, his own skill with getting just the right angles and, of course, the fact that he got right up in the action in a way basically nobody else could. Jameson, didn't seem to care about that and used just about any excuse to drive the amount he had to pay Peter downwards. The photography job might not be sustainable for Peter if JJJ took it too far.

"Pete? Pete?"

Peter blinked and turned around to see who was calling him. It was Betty Brant. She was seated at her desk right outside Jameson's office and he'd walked right by her without even noticing.

"Oh, gee, sorry Betty, I didn't see you there," Peter apologized, rubbing his hair sheepishly.

"I'll say," the brunette smiled, unoffended, "What's got your head so high in the clouds?"

"Just trying to make ends meet," Peter shrugged.

"Don't you worry Pete, whatever's going on will work out," she replied.

Peter nodded. "I certainly hope so. So… did you need me for something?"

"More like you need me," Betty corrected him, holding up a sheet, "I made a sheet of last sightings to help you get those pics quicker."

Pete smiled, "Thanks Betty. You're a lifesaver."

She waved him off, shaking her head, "I just thought I'd help you out a little. You've been looking pretty stressed out lately."

Peter walked over and took the sheet, thanking her again, before leaving. Once outside the main office he took his usual shortcut to the roof while making it seem like he went downstairs. He stripped his clothing once he reached the rooftop and stuffed them in the backpack he used for storage when moving around the city. He was wearing his suit underneath his clothes, just like always. All he needed to do was remove the mask from his backpack and he was good to go. He stuck his phone and camera in their respective slots in the utility belt beneath his suit and only then did he stop to take a look at the sheet Betty had typed up for him.

Peter immediately noticed that Kumo was most active around Queens, much like he was when he was first starting out. And she was helping out the little people, just like he did. Saving people from accidents, delivering a forgetful school boy's lunch, rescuing a man from a car crash, preventing a car crash, helping a man change his tyres… and the list went on. Multiple sightings every day. Peter remembered the short, aggressive conversation he'd had with her last and wondered what changed.

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Or maybe this isn't the same person?"

Nevertheless, he'd have to meet her to find out. Pete stood up and went for his backpack, deciding to dump it at his apartment before he went out to find Kumo. He put it on, took a little run and then dove off the roof of the Daily Bugle.

xXx

I twisted through the air, getting my feet under me just in time to stick the landing on the rooftop below. I straightened up, not the slightest bit winded. It was evening. The air was cool, lights flooded the streets and the sky was a blanket of blackness up above. The rooftops were mostly shadowed, given most people had no business on top of buildings.

I rested one foot on the rooftop ledge and gazed up and down the street. Truthfully, the helping people thing had gotten stale real fast. Once people got to know I was on the prowl as some kind of super-powered protector/odd-job man, their attitude towards me changed real quick. Suddenly, they all had these verbal essays about why the problem wasn't their fault and they deserved to be helped- sometimes over someone else. People would try to flag me down as I was moving around the city. They never had just one request either. I often had to do three or four more things before I got anything close to a thank you.

When they remembered to say it of course.

But I wasn't out here because I wanted 'thank you's', so I let it slide. I'd since acquired the ability to pretend I didn't see hands being waved at me. I kept an eye out for the thoughtful ones all the same. I wanted to keep giving them reasons to remain that way. They were nice people. Besides, some people genuinely needed help to overcome circumstances they couldn't control. So there was that.

The window of the jewelry store down the street suddenly burst open. The alarm rang loudly as the perpetrator made their escape.

"You've got to be kidding me…" I muttered, staring at the rapidly retreating figure.

Some kind of mechanized man-beetle had just burst out of a jewelry shop and was currently flying away on a jetpack.

"That doesn't even make any sense," I said, spreading my hands in confusion, "If you can make something like that why do you even need to rob a jewelry store in Queens?"

Then I remembered that I should probably stop him.

I gave chase, jumping from roof to roof and using small web lines to get distance every now and then. I'd tried swinging like Spider-woman did, but Queens didn't really have buildings tall enough to warrant the effort. Free-running with the odd web line here and there was more than sufficient- and also a great starting point for learning to use my webbing for travel.

I'd learned a lot these past few weeks. I maintained even pacing, resisting the urge to take multiple large jumps. It was faster to keep yourself grounded as much as possible for maximum speed. Multiple small jumps were easier to keep momentum through than large ones. At least, without losing control. I was catching up.

Homeboy looked over his shoulder and seemed to notice me. Fresh flame burst out of his jetpack and he zoomed ahead, zig-zagging over the rooftops. I suppressed a curse and did my best to speed up. He led me on a merry chase, zooming and looping all over the place. He even had me circle the same block three times, to my irritation, before heading for the Queensborough bridge.

Homeboy looked over his shoulder at me again. I decided to be cheeky and waved at him mid-jump, comforting myself with the knowledge that when I hit him it would be very cathartic. When we hit the bridge I leaped off the building and began my first proper swings of the day, attaching web lines to the various pylons that hung so high above the bridge.

I was mid-swing when my sixth sense flared. [Flash!]

I twisted backwards just as something hot flew past my chest. I shot another web-line off to the side and yanked myself toward the other side of the bridge. The swing took me too far and before I knew it I was swinging out over the East River- and he was aiming at me again. I let go of the web, back flipping as another bolt of searing heat went sizzling past me.

I'd caught sight of it that time. Lasers. He was shooting lasers at me. I attached a new line to the bridge and swung back over the asphalt road. I alternated between sides of the bridge, further switching between swinging and free-running to throw him off. Bolts of gold energy flew past me, melting holes in whatever it hit.

And then we hit Manhattan, where he immediately veered upward, then left, then between two skyscrapers. I grit my teeth and swung up to one of them, running up the building and leaping around the corner once I was a decent height off the ground.

Keep your eyes on the prize, I told myself in an effort to take my attention off the height I was currently free running at.

Beetle-man was way ahead of me by this point because my swinging skills were complete ass. He was going to get away from me. A few more twists and turns and…

I landed against a building and crouched on its side, panting. "He got away…"

I looked around carefully, searching for anything that might hint at the direction he'd gone. Heat waves, more flashes, anything. I got nothing.

"I think I'm mad," I muttered to myself.

I turned around to head back to Queens-

My sixth sense flared. [Bomb!]

I leaped off the wall just as something round hit it and promptly exploded. A blast of yellow... what even was that? Liquid light? Poison? The section of wall I had been on was reduced to sludge.

Holy shit…

And then I remembered I was falling through the air toward the street below from a height that most people would turn to pancake at. I windmilled myself into a better orientation, shooting a web line toward a building. I snagged it but then the line was too loose. I kept falling for a time and then the line went taut, jarring my shoulders. I slammed into the building and lost my grip on the web.

Nonono!

I swiped for the wall but I was just out of range. I'd have to do another web line.

[Bomb!]

This time I saw the thing looming right in my face. There would be no dodging this one…

Something wrapped me from behind and suddenly I was sailing through the air.

"Gotcha!" said a voice next to my ear.

We reached the next building over, and for a small irrational moment I panicked, thinking that whoever it was would fall and I'd have to catch them somehow. But we hit the side of the building and stuck to it. I looked up to see a red web-patterned mask with white eye pieces.

"Hi," Spider-man said cheerfully.

I stuck my feet to the wall and moved out of his bridal carry. A part of me was grateful that he'd caught me, but I was more annoyed by his interference. It would make learning my opponents habits and strategies more difficult. If he was splitting his attention between two people the beetle-man's actions would be more random.

Spider-man cocked his head. "Not going to say anything?"

"Thanks," I said, "I can take it from here."

More flashes as the beetle-man opened fire. Spider-man and I dodged in opposite directions. I made a bee-line for beetle-man to interrupt his fire and close down his offense. Spider-man was content to hang back and keep dodging.

"Kumo, don't rush in!"

A bomb was chucked directly in my face just as I got within leaping distance of beetle-man. Instead of trying to re-adjust, I jumped straight at it and kicked it back at him. It exploded in his face and beetle-man was sent crashing through a skyscraper window. I leaped in after him, finding myself in a room full of office cubicles. No one was working late.

My sense gave warning and I immediately went into a series of flips and spins, avoiding several shots of that strange substance all of beetle-mans weapons seemed to use. While I was mid-flip, beetle-man flew right at me. I shot web into his eyes and he missed but kept flying right past me. I caught his foot with a web-line and was pulled right after him.

A few seconds of flight and beetle-man was aiming more blasts at me. I let go of him immediately. I let myself fall as much I was comfortable with, then swung back up and socked him in the guts with both feet. I heard him grunt beneath the suit.

Progress, I encouraged myself.

I grabbed his arms, wrapped my legs around his neck and began to squeeze. "We're going down, sir."

I didn't even get a scream of terror out of him. He just bucked and fought as we spiraled wildly through the air.

"By the way, where's the jewelry?" I asked. "Just saying, do you really want to fall to your death over a couple hundred?"

No answer. His struggles were weakening. We started to fall.

"You're not going to fake me out sir, it hasn't been ten seconds yet," I informed him.

His struggles renewed with vigour. We dropped low, swerving vehicles until we lined up with a truck and he slammed me into it. He dropped even lower, slamming into more vehicles in an effort to knock me off. Dazed by the repeated impacts, my grip loosened and he bucked me off entirely. For a moment I was flying helplessly through the air- again.

No.

I reached out and snagged a lamp post and swung myself back into the air, chasing beetle-man once again. But then he tossed a bomb down in the streets and several cars were launched off their tyres and into the air. Six vehicles rose and fell with the wall of flame and sound, all in the time it took me to finish a swing.

"Shit," I cursed, dropping to the ground.

Cars crashed to the ground around me as the man-beetle swerved around a corner and disappeared from sight. I didn't have time to chase after him when people could be dying so I turned away from him and focused on the explosion instead. He'd a made a big pothole, but most of the damage seemed to have come from the overturned cars- some of which were smoking!

I rushed over to one, ripping the door open and sticking my out to the person inside. "Here!"

I pulled them free and moved on to the others. I finished with one car to see Spider-man had caught up and was working on flipping an overturned car off of someone.

"Kumo!" Spider-man called out, "Get them out of the cars while I make the hospital runs!"

I disliked that he was giving me orders but it was the sensible thing to do right now. Besides I wasn't good enough to take passengers yet. There were two cars that got flipped into the second and third story of a nearby building, 3 on the side-walk and one that had gone straight up and crashed back down upright. Some were bleeding, most were shaking in terror at how easily their lives could have just ended, and one was unconscious.

Spider-man was surprisingly quick with his hospital runs. He was taking them away almost as quickly as I could get them out of the cars. In a matter of minutes the streets were clear except for the rapidly gathering peanut gallery.

I made to leave.

"Kumo." It was Spider-man again, just arriving from his last run. "We need to talk."

I wasn't interested in talking to him, truthfully. It was tempting to blow him off. Then again, what he had to say might be important in some way that I had not foreseen.

"Fine," I said, "but we will speak in private."

Spider-man nodded, "Sure. You lead, I'll follow."

I jumped onto a wall and began to run up the building, Spider-man close behind.