Chapter 16

Miles perched on a ledge across from the Germa building, watching the last of the workers leaving. Lights were still on within the building, suggesting that there were those burning the midnight oil to finish whatever they had to do. This was as good as he was going to get it. What he was really gunning for was the basement anyway.

Miles leaped across the street, swung around the back of the building and dropped at the backdoor. It didn't take much strength for him to force the lock with brute strength. Once he did so, he waited to see if anyone would respond to that. When nothing happened, he stepped in, leapt onto the ceiling and began his exploration from there.

Here's hoping I'm more successful than Pete was…

xXx

It was evening and Aunt Amy was rushing around the kitchen making dinner.

"I honestly don't understand why you don't try to have everything as close together as possible," I said, "That way you don't have to move around as much, and it's easier to keep track of stuff you take, and it's easier to put stuff back when you're done."

Aunt Amy went over to the cupboards to get a pan, then to a cupboard completely opposite to that one for spices and then past the fridge for some onions.

"I can't have the fridge in the sunlight," Aunt Amy said, "Plus it's exercise."

"You don't have to have the fridge in the sunlight," I said, "And you could start with the cupboards."

"Maybe I like the movement."

I shook my head. I organized my kitchen so everything was right next to each other. I could cook most of the meals I regularly made without moving more than two steps in any direction. Kept me focused. Watching Aunt Amy putter around was just painful.

"Instead of commenting on my cooking why don't you go down and call Jerry up?" Aunt Amy said, "I'll be done by the time he closes up."

"Sure," I said.

I slid off my seat at the island counter and went outside. The gym downstairs still had people in it and I could see Uncle Jerry talking to a brunette woman. I pushed through the doors and made my way toward them.

"Excuse me, sorry," I spoke to both of them before looking at Uncle Jerry, "Aunt Amy says dinner will be ready soon."

Uncle Jerry nodded, "I'm about closing up."

"Hello," the woman said.

I nodded at her, "Hello."

She was kind of pretty honestly. Black hair, dark eyes, dainty features. Very… hmmm… I forgot the word for it. Cute? No that wasn't right. Beautiful was too intense too.

"You need help with anything?" I asked Uncle Jerry.

"Well, you can start getting people to leave and put the weights away," he said.

"Aye, sir," I left the two of them to whatever they were discussing and did as he asked.

The customers didn't give me too much hassle thankfully, in the course of a half hour they were all packed up and gone. By then Uncle Jerry came back in to help me pack the weights away, not that I needed the help really.

"Who was that lady?" I asked, "New member?"

"Yes," Uncle Jerry said, shaking his head, "Seemed to think that she could trim fat in specific places and was hoping to pay me to help her do just that."

I snorted.

"I almost turned her away, but she agreed that those expectations were neither healthy nor realistic."

"You don't look pleased about it."

"I'm pretty sure it was lip service…"

"Women…"

"You do realize that you are also a woman right? Young perhaps but still-"

"Are you saying only men can make cracks about women? Are you being sexist right now?"

"… I sometimes hate that you're your father's daughter…"

xXx

Germa's basement was surprisingly mundane. It was just a bunch of normal, quaint research labs full of normal looking plants. It was also surprisingly easy to get into. All of this only put Miles on edge. If security was this lax, how had Peter been caught and thrown out? He moved invisibly down the various halls, examining rooms. They didn't have those specialized containment doors Miles had seen in other really advanced labs. Everything was incredibly… normal.

He was on the verge of calling the whole trip a farce, but given that criminals were acting up over what was here and lives were at stake, he had to be thorough. So Miles crept and crawled along the ceilings, taking note of all the rooms and their contents. He eventually made it to a large vault-door embedded in a wall of solid steel.

Now this is what he was expecting. Miles crawled up to it, expecting that he would have to do some hacking… only to realize it was slightly open and there was light coming through. He crawled in.

The room was large, that was true, but it consisted only of floor mats and a table in the far back. Said table was visibly bare, even all the way from the door. There was nothing else in the room, besides those things. Not even decoration.

"Who makes an empty vault?" Miles muttered to himself. And who left it open?

Miles dropped from the ceiling and walked up to the table. There was nothing special there. It was just a table.

"There's nothing here for you, intruder."

Miles whirled around to find a girl dressed in grey behind him. Her outfit was all leather and straps and thick looking boots, her face hooded and masked, and with a sword sheathed at her back. She was about the same height as Miles and just as skinny looking.

I'm still invisible, Miles reminded himself, there's was no way she can-

"I'm talking to you, Spider-man."

Miles paused and let his invisibility drop, "How can you see me?"

"Why would I tell you that?" the response was condescending.

"Alright, look I'm sorry about sneaking in but-"

"You will be," the girl interrupted, drawing her sword and flipping it in her hands. "I've decided to make an example of you."

She blurred.

xXx

Sometime late in the evening, Gwen swung through the streets of Queens in her Spider-woman persona. She came down to Queens every once in a while hoping to catch Kumo. Ever since the one night where she found Kumo fighting Spider-man. She'd been largely unsuccessful. Kumo was definitely on the prowl. People she saved and bystanders often took videos. Daytime rescues. Nighttime brawls. Kumo was in there but somehow, Gwen could never seem to run into her.

She just so happened to take a turn on a street where a bank had recently established a new branch when she heard…

"I AM SICK OF RUNNING INTO YOU!" A brick rattling explosion followed the proclamation.

Gwen instantly spun a new line to tighten and hasten her swing. She swung around the corner and landed on a nearby streetlight just in time to catch a black shape in mid-flip over a section of pot-holed road.

Kumo landed smoothly and darted toward the Shocker. "We've only met once."

The man clad in yellow and brown fired multiple shockwaves at her. "Everywhere I pick for a job, you're miraculously there!"

She side-stepped the first, spun past the second and leaped clear of the third. She bounced off a wall just as Shocker shot another one at her, flipped over two more and landed right on Shocker's upraised bracers.

"I never noticed. You must be unlucky." She kicked off his arms before gravity could fully kick in. Shocker's arms were knocked downward just as he fired his gauntlets. The road crumbled beneath him and he fell into the sewers below.

Shocker burst back into the air and took aim at Kumo. "Do you have any idea how much planning goes into a robbery you little shit?"

Kumo dove off the wall she was on in time to avoid the blast. "Nah. I don't rob people." She did a handspring into a series of flips. "You're destroying property though."

"If you'd just stay still you'd save these poor people a lot of money," Shocker said.

Kumo sprung into a backflip, bounced off a wall and made another bid for Shocker.

"Or you could just stop shooting at me."

Right when she was on Shocker he unleashed a shockwave from his entire body, knocking Kumo away. Kumo landed gracefully on her feet.

"I hate that move," Kumo said.

"I hate the way you move," Shocker retorted.

"Am I interrupting something?" Gwen said.

They both glanced at her.

"Oh come on!" Shocker growled.

Kumo only grunted and turned back to Shocker. Unsurprising, given the terms they'd last met on.

"Need some help?" Gwen asked.

"He's got an accomplice in the bank. A boomerang man," Kumo said. "If you could get him that'd be great."

Gwen made for the bank but had to zipline away from a blast from Shocker. "Oh no you don't! I've delayed a heist long enough. I need my bills paid."

Gwen landed in a crouch. "You pay bills?"

xXx

It had been a terrible few weeks for Herman Schultz. Ever since his first encounter with Kumo, he'd taken to observing, trying to plan his heists around her, and yet every time he committed to the day. She was present, ruining his entire plan. He'd studied her enough to know that she wasn't like Spider-man. She just went straight in with a speed and strength that made her hard to catch, hard to avoid and hard to put down. Daytime, nighttime, it was never clear when she'd be around, for how long and which places she'd cover.

Right when he thought he had found something where he could make a clean getaway, she showed up halfway through and ruined everything. And now… right when he'd committed to holding her off so Boomerang could make away with the goods… now there were two of them.

"You pay bills?"

Herman lost it and started firing. The streets and walls were covered in little potholes caused by his blasts. All level one blasts because property damage meant more time for the banks and neighbouring businesses to recover. Which was bad because it would take more time for them to become viable for robbery again. The stolen money needed to be laundered, accomplices paid, favors owed and received… crime had its own overhead. And these heroes were eating into his profits.

"Always getting in my way!" Herman ranted as he shot at them.

Kumo's movements were gliding, fast and insidious; Spider-woman's were long, acrobatic and graceful. Both hard to track for completely different reasons. None of his shots touched either of them. And then they started to gain ground.

The first blow came from Kumo, a fast punch to the jaw that knocked him clean off his feet. Then Spider-woman came flying down from above with some kind of spin-kick, knocking Herman to the ground when he stood up. And they just kept coming. Kumo would stay in until Herman blew her back with something she couldn't avoid and Spider-woman would constantly dive in and out.

Herman knew the limitations of his suit. Throughout his many battles with Spider-man he had come to know them well. It was true that his suit protected him from damage, but it did not protect him from impact. He could still be knocked off his feet, he could still feel the blows even if they didn't hurt. They still drove the air from his lungs, still made his head spin and his brain confused. If he kept taking the abuse there was no question that he would eventually blackout. The only question was whether it would be fatigue from getting consistently winded or a concussion from his brain constantly rattling against his skull that would put him down.

And Kumo, at least, was getting more brazen. Her every hit came harder and faster than the last. As if she was testing how hard she could hit him. Her next blow came with a fury. Herman only saw her blur before him, saw her hand flash. Felt impact rattle his entire body. And then he was shot backwards through the walls of the bank. He crashed through the Tellers counter and lay there trying to fill his empty lungs and to blink the spots in his vision away.

"Kumo! That was too much!"

Was Spider-woman lecturing Kumo? Was he hearing right? Were they holding back on him? Herman was too frazzled to dwell on it long. Already they were coming in after him.

"I got the money and I'm in the car."

Words Herman was grateful for. He wasn't sure how much more he could take. But there was the problem of getting away from two Spiders. One was problem enough, but two? Herman lifted a trembling hand to his ear as Spider-woman walked into the lobby with Kumo behind her.

"Alexei…" he wheezed. "Back up."

He let his hand flop to the ground and inhaled as deeply as he could, cursing the thickness of his mask as he did so.

xXx

"Look he's fine," I said to Spider-woman.

She seemed unconvinced but didn't argue with me. "I'll go get Boomerang."

"I'll keep Quiltskin tied down," I said, moving toward him.

"It's… Shocker… you troglodyte…" the man said.

"Ah, I see. I'll note that down."

Spider-woman leapt past the Tellers counter and into the back rooms of the bank. Shocker lifted his head to stare at me as I pinned him down with webbing.

"You're actually serious aren't you?" he said.

I paused, "What?"

"You say it sassy, but you genuinely don't know who I am…" Shocker said, "You don't know anyone do you?"

I raised my eyebrows, not that he could see it. "Speak plainly yellow man."

"You thought my name was actually Quiltskin… I bet you picked that up from that Spider-clown," Shocker said. His voice was faint but there was no denying the hatred there. "Oh… kid… you're not prepared for any of this. And here I was taking you seriously."

He started laughing again.

"I go out. I see a crime. I stop a crime. What else matters?"

"What are you five?" Shocker sneered. "You think it's that easy? There's guys that'll straight up murder you and all your loved ones if you go in blind like that."

I paused. "I'll deal with that when it happens."

"If you're waiting for it to happen you're already too late," Shocker spat. "You gotta learn and anticipate, kid."

[A big grey shape. Solid wall busting apart. A horn.]

Spider-woman came sailing from the backrooms of the bank just as a giant Rhino man burst through the walls like it was nothing. I tried to jump out of the way but I'd underestimated the man's sheer size. His arm lashed out and he clotheslined me clean through the banks walls and out to the streets. I smashed into the building opposite the bank and fell to one knee.

I blinked the haze out of my vision in time to see an absolute giant of a man dressed in Rhino suit rear up to his full height at the entrance to the bank. Next to me, Spider-woman picked herself up off the ground with a groan.

"You aight?" I grunted.

"M'fine," she mumbled, trying to catch her breath. "You?"

"Good. Wasn't as hard as it could've been," I stood up and eyed him as he glared at us.

He bellowed a loud warcry and then charged at us, but this time he did not catch us lacking. We leaped clear as he crashed into the wall behind us. It caved in and dust filled the street. I landed on both feet, waiting for him to turn around and come back. Instead, the dust cleared to reveal a hole clean through to the other side of the building and the sound of heavy stomping and screams.

Spider-woman shook herself. "We need to stop him!"

I looked at her. "But the robbers-!"

"This is more important!" She leaped onto the buildings roof and then dove into the other street.

I hesitated, looking back toward the bank. I sighed, turned away from it and jumped after her.

In my short moment of indecision Rhino man was long gone but for the sounds of people screaming and cars crashing. I followed the noise and caught up quickly enough, given I could just skip over entire streets. I came to meet mayhem. Rhino man had promptly ran into the busiest street he could find and started smacking cars into the air as he ran past. Spider-woman was intercepting them as she swung, weaving new web lines- sometimes in combination with the one she was swinging on- to catch the cars as she chased him down.

Maybe she was right after all…

I started using web lines to yank myself through the air in combination with swings in order to catch up with them.

"You're here. Good." Spider-woman said.

In response Rhino-man sent a car sailing toward me. I let go of my web-line, curling backwards just as the car went sailing over me. It was close enough that I could see the individual details of its undercarriage.

"Kumo there's someone inside that!"

I finished my flip to see that Spider-woman was correct. It was only a glimpse. A man screaming. Cigarette pack. Car key in his right hand. I swore, webbed the car and zipped back toward it. I landed on it, yanked the door off, grabbed the man and leaped off of it. I spun a web and looped around the car mid-swing, landed on the opposite building and attached the web to it. The end result was a car suspended over the street and a screaming man wrapped under my arm.

I lowered him to the ground where he promptly vomited. Ew.

I turned away from him to find that Rhino man had already made considerable distance.

So I can't just dodge and forget, I thought as I swung after him. The thought irritated me. I need to be more efficient to make up for the time I'd lose keeping people safe.

Except I wasn't that good yet. Case in point, in the time it took me stop one car Rhino man was pretty far away. I was catching up but still. There was no question that without Spider-woman harassing him I may have lost him already.

"Ah, Yukino… look! Alex has mastered the straight punch," Grandpa said proudly.

Mum raised her eyebrows. "Just that?" She looked at Grandpa and amended her statement. "Impressive."

My heart started to pound in my ears and I lunged after them, working myself into big leaps combined with yanking myself through the air on web lines. I bounced off walls, cars, street lamps and traffic lights. Distance disappeared. Buildings blurred. There was just the target. There was just… winning.

xXx

Rhino was keeping Gwen just busy enough that she couldn't engage him and whenever he was running out of targets he switched streets. Each time the street was populated. This was calculated. Rhino was following a path. Gwen knew this. Gwen knew she was being led on. But the alternative was leaving these people to potentially die. Because as a hero, she couldn't gamble on whether Rhino was actually murderous or not.

So she saved as many as she could, as fast as she could. She grabbed people out of Rhino's way. Webbed up cars mid-air so they didn't cause any damage, human or otherwise. All while chasing after Rhino, who constantly gave her more to do. There was a T-junction up ahead and Rhino wasn't slowing down. And then Gwen heard… rage.

She turned mid-swing enough to see a black blur shoot down the street and launch itself into the air, arcing down toward Rhino like a missile with a roar of challenge. Rhino, in a full sprint, couldn't even begin to turn around before he got hit.

Kumo slammed into Rhino's horn from behind, feet first. With all his weight leaning forward into his sprint, there was no resistance, and Rhino's horn was jammed into the ground through the asphalt. The fact that his head was jammed in the ground didn't stop his momentum and Rhino's horn became a lever that tossed him completely off his feet. The gigantic man went tumbling head over heels until he crashed straight into the building at the head of the junction.

Kumo landed in a roll and then did some kind of explosive step that launched her right after the Rhino. Gwen landed on a wall completely stunned. Before she could even decide how she was going to respond to this there was a smack and Kumo came flying out of the hole in the building, bounced once and rolled several feet before coming to a stop.

Rhino stomped his way out of the busted building and let out a roar of defiance before charging off again.

Gwen hesitated, then swung down to Kumo. "Kumo! Are you okay? What was that?!"

Kumo was trying to get to her feet but was struggling. "Forget about me and get after him," she wheezed.

Gwen stood up, "We're not done with this." She shot a web line without looking and yanked herself back into the chase.

xXx

Spider-woman was back on his trail. Alexei ignored her. Herman had told him what to do. Herman was the planner. All he had to do was trust Herman. Alexei continued to smack cars, crush walls and charge pedestrians as he ran.

The earbud in his left ear sparked, "I'm in position Alexei. You remember the way?"

"Yeah," Alexei grunted.

"Alright. Bring it in."

xXx

The chase got wilder. Gwen found herself ramping up her speed to keep up with Rhino as he pounded his way down the streets of Queens. Every now and then he would jerk sharply onto a new street, or crash through a construction site. She was losing him.

xXx

Herman sat on the roof of a small building that faced a long stretch of road. The streets were clear here and the buildings were too short for Spider-woman to spin any long webs that might get her out of danger.

Herman dusted his suit off, stood up and took aim. Right on cue, Alexei branched into the road and stormed right toward Herman. A few moments later Spider-woman, swung around the corner right behind him.

Alexei juked onto another street.

Herman fired.

xXx

A solid wall of raw force slammed into Gwen. There was no dodging. The sheer size of the blast filled the streets and vibrated the entire thing like there was a small earthquake. Gwen screamed. Her suit screamed. The world boiled down to pain and noise and sound and impact. A thousand agonies, bombarded her mind and her body, and pain multiplied by her own mind and the symbiote assaulted her brain until all she could process was white and suffering.

xXx

Herman made his getaway while Alexei took the series of shortcuts they'd outlined to the hideout. By the time Spider-woman was conscious again they'd be long gone. As Herman hustled through the shadows of the sewer system, his comms beeped.

"Jesus, Herman did you see that?"

"I'm the one who shot her," Herman said pointedly.

"What the hell was that?"

Herman reflected on the screaming, monstrous thing that Spider-woman had transformed into.

"An opportunity," he replied.

xXx

It took me a while to recover. Whenever I tried to get to my feet my stomach would heave and my legs would shake beneath me. That Rhino man hit hard. I did manage it eventually and I set off after Spider-woman and Rhino man once again.

The chase is probably over, I thought to myself as I swung through the air.

I followed the trail of destruction throughout Queens until I eventually reached an utterly ravaged block of buildings. The streets were full of trash, twisted light poles and debris. The buildings were covered in deep slash marks. Spider-woman lay in the middle of it all, motionless.

"Spider-woman?" I found myself mouthing out loud.

I swooped down by her side and reached out to touch her. There was no response, but she was still warm. There was no bleeding too. I looked around the street once more.

So much damage… Did she get into a fight?

I looked back at her again and shook her gently.

[A black shadow. A lashing tongue. A mouthful of razor teeth]

I flinched backwards as Spider-woman stirred. She groaned, struggling to get her feet under her. I would help normally… but that warning from my… senses- I needed to come up with a name for that- was still on my mind. That danger. That lethality. There was something predatory about her just now… I was sure of it.

Spider-woman made it to her feet and stumbled slightly, visibly dazed. She looked up me, her posture implying a squint. "Kumo…" Her voice was raw and whispery. "Is that you?"

I remained tense and yet… Was it all in my head? Could my senses be wrong? Nothing was happening so far… "Yes."

Spider-woman leaned against a nearby mailbox to steady herself. "I lost them."

"What happened to you?" I asked.

"I followed him… Tried to limit collateral… Then I got hit… Sound… Shockwaves… Big ones."

I looked around again. Does that explain the slash marks all over the place? Can sound be made into blades? And why isn't she bleeding then?

"Shocker got you then," I said instead.

"Most likely," Spider-woman agreed. She was looking less wobbly. And whatever triggered my senses still wasn't happening.

I just watched her warily while she recovered. Until sirens rang out in the distance. It was time to leave.

I turned away-

"Kumo wait."

I turned back to see Spider-woman standing straight again. She still appeared tired but she was upright.

"I've been wanting to talk to you for a while," she said. "Not here obviously, but now would be nice. I'm not sure how long it'll be before I see you again."

Wonder what she wants.

"Sure," I agreed.

xXx

Miles groaned, trying to move paralyzed fingers toward the blade in his stomach and failing. He couldn't move, couldn't crawl… could do nothing but suffer, pinned to the side of a building and suspended off the ground. All he could do was bleed until the light of dawn came. Bleed until the world saw him stuck up here as a warning. A warning that would be cemented long before the dawn.

xXx

Yukino stood on the roof of her penthouse suite, overlooking the city.

Four shadows stood behind her.

Belinda. Isabella. Isadora. Laura.

"I think things are well set," Yukino said. "We can finally send a message to the criminal elements. One that lets them know that their numbers are meaningless."

Each girl was silent. They had their orders.

"You have your targets. Go."

Four shadows leapt past her.

Yukino smiled.

xXx

We found a nice rooftop well away from the emergency services.

"So, what is it?"

Spider-woman looked uncomfortable but she soldiered on. "So uhhh… I wanted to find out how you were doing, after the whole thing at the penthouse. And with Spider-man, when you guys were fighting. It was tough to talk about that with Spider-man there."

"I already told you what I thought about that," I frowned, not that she could see it.

"Not about Alex and her mum," Spider-woman said. "I don't know what your relationship was but it was clearly personal for you too. And I helped get you into this-"

"The ultimate decision was mine."

"You're right. But when I saw you like that, I just couldn't leave you alone."

I paused, reflecting on that for a second, "Why do you even care?"

"I…" she stopped, seemingly lost.

I just waited. I genuinely didn't see what her issue was. We did a thing and it didn't work out. Simple. Time to move on.

"A friend of mine… some time back," she started. "He wanted to be a hero too you know? Wanted to be… 'special'."

I already didn't like whoever she was talking about but kept my mouth shut.

"And I didn't even notice. I kind of ignored him really, looking back on it. I was so caught up in my own things. So caught up in being Spider-woman and being amazing that I never saw what he was going through until it destroyed him and he died."

There was a lot being left out there.

I could press her on it…

It was an idle thought but I put it aside. It gave me nothing of value here.

"And I feel like, with you, I might be repeating that mistake."

"I'm not-" I stopped.

Spider-woman cocked her head. "What?"

I'm not your friend.

That was what I was about to say. It came so naturally, was so reflexive that it was only in the middle of saying it that I realized it didn't feel quite right. Seconds passed between us. My brain offered no response.

"Kumo?"

"I heard you."

"It's just, you're not saying anything so I don't know what you're thinking."

I sighed. "I'm not like your friend. I don't care for heroism or the spotlight and-"

"And?"

And I don't need help.

But that wasn't right. The entire reason I was still around was because I'd gotten help. From dad, from Uncle Jerry, Aunt Amy, Candy, Gwen, Spider-woman herself…

"And I can take care of myself now," I said flatly.

"In a fight yeah," Spider-woman replied, "Better than I could when I just started out to be honest. But that's not the point of what I'm saying." She wrapped her arms around herself. "Can't we just… patrol together? Like we used to. I miss that."

I hesitated. She watched me expectantly.

I sighed. "Sure. Why not?"

It wasn't like I particularly enjoyed the hero business. This was a lesson. Uncle Jerry said there was something to learn here. Something that my father wanted me to learn. Was it really such a bad thing, to do it with someone else?

A little pep seemed to return to Spider-woman. "Great!" I could hear the smile in that response. She immediately grew animated once again. "We should have a meeting spot. Maybe more than one so we don't get tracked and ambushed by super-villains who want us gone."

"They do that?"

"Of course, some of them have really good tracking skills. There's this guy called Kraven, for example…"