Chapter 5

Gwen POV

The next school day was mostly average, at least while school was still going on. Gwen rushed through all of her classes as fast as she could, eager to get done with it so that she could return to working on her new suit.

While it was true that not many crimes in the city really needed Spider-Woman's intervention, she still felt quite a lot of pressure to have her costume ready as soon as possible, just in case. You never knew when a supervillain would show up, after all. Besides, she was practically fully healed by now and would soon be able to resume her hunt for Prowler, and this time, he wouldn't be able to catch her off guard… assuming she could find him again.

She'd gotten lucky both times that she'd managed to find the Prowler… Or a Prowler. She really hoped that there were only two of them. Even more, she hoped that the first one was indeed going to stay down. The last thing she needed was to have to deal with two Prowlers at once. The new one was even worse than the first one, and the first one hadn't exactly been a pushover. If she had to fight both supervillains at the same time, she didn't like her chances.

The first odd thing to happen to her today was when Miles walked by her side as they left their last class. Not that it wasn't a pleasant experience, but it was a rather unexpected one. Before now, she had always been the one to initiate any sort of time that they spent with each other. Even now, he didn't say much, just kept his hands in his pockets and walked by her side, but Gwen would be lying if she said that she didn't appreciate the way that he seemed to be warming up to her. Perhaps it had been the hug that she gave him yesterday. If she remembered correctly, Gwen thought that she'd read somewhere that physical contact helps to strengthen relationships. Whatever the case, she was happy to enjoy his company, at least for a while.

Unfortunately, though, she did have other things to take care of today, things that Miles couldn't be present for. Luckily, they had promised to give each other their space whenever one of them asked for it. However, just before she was going to tell Miles that she needed a day of privacy, the second strange thing for the day occurred.

From down the hall, she heard a familiar voice call out, "Stacy!"

Rolling her eyes in annoyance, Gwen turned towards the source of the yell and saw Ned Leeds running through the halls towards her. Now, the running by itself was unusual. Usually, Ned would just casually strut through the halls and "accidentally" bump into any kids that he considered "uncool". But it certainly wasn't the weirdest part.

The really weird part was how he was running. He seemed panicked, and had an expression on his face like he suddenly had a desperate need to talk to her, like it was life-or-death. Normally, Gwen would probably just chalk it up to some elaborate prank he was doing, acting like he had something really important to tell her when he really just wanted to pretend to trip and knock her over or something.

But once again, it got even stranger. Despite his apparent panic, Ned was being extremely careful in the hallway so as to not even come close to running into anyone. For a large guy like him, this slowed him down quite a bit, but apparently he thought it was well worth it. Every time he nearly ran into someone in his path, he would come to a screeching halt and look down at them with an expression of terror, like he'd come close to running off the edge of a cliff, then hold up his hands and slowly inch his way around them while everyone in the hallway watched him with shock and wonderment on their faces.

After a considerable time, during which Gwen and Miles just stood watching Ned's slow approach with confusion, Ned stopped in front of Gwen and gulped before he began to speak. "Look, Stacy… I mean, Gwen! Gwen!"

Already, Ned seemed to have lost his concentration, as his eyes suddenly widened and he began to look around at the walls, sweating with agitation.

Seeing that he looked like he was about to faint, and certainly didn't seem like he was about to shove or insult her, Gwen quickly told him, "Ned! It's okay. Whatever it is you have to say, just say it."

Ned looked down and nodded repeatedly, like he was trying to convince himself that she was right. Gwen had no idea what was going on with Ned, but as much dislike as she held for him, she was distressed to see him looking so… rattled.

Still nodding to himself, Ned took a few deep breaths and muttered, "It's okay. It's okay." Gwen gave Miles a questioning look, but he just shrugged and looked back at Ned, waiting for him to go on.

Finally, Ned seemed to collect himself slightly, and looked up at Gwen as he spoke, sounding like he'd rehearsed what he said. "Gwen, I am deeply sorry for the way I treated you and Peter Parker. You are both good, decent people and deserve to be treated with respect. I will never do such a thing again. If there's any way I can repay you for the unkindness I've shown you, I'll do it."

Shocked and confused by this change of behavior, Gwen began to say, "Uh… Thanks, Ned, but I don't think I need-"

"PLEASE!" Ned begged loudly, apparently unwilling to accept her denial.

Several more students looked over at his sudden outburst, and Gwen hurriedly said, "Okay! Okay, Ned, you can… Er, take my books back to my locker for me."

Immediately, Ned snatched Gwen's books out of her hands, and when she instinctively lurched forward to try to stop them from being stolen from her (partially due to her fingers automatically sticking to the covers), Ned wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up in a big hug, his eyes glistening with tears as he told her, "Thank you! Thank you so much."

Pulling her face out of Ned's oversized yellow sweater, Gwen gasped out, "You're welcome!" She wasn't quite sure exactly what he was thanking her for, but at the moment, she could only think about trying to get him to let go. As tight as he was hugging her right now, he was managing to hurt her even despite her powers, re-bruising some of the places where she had been injured during her fight with the Prowler at Oscorp.

A moment later, Ned released her and rushed off to find her locker. Meanwhile, Gwen rubbed her sore sides and turned back to Miles before asking, "What was that about?"

Miles just shrugged as he watched Ned go and responded, "I guess Ned must've had a spiritual awakening of sorts last night. Anyway, Gwen, were you about to tell me something before he showed up?"

Suddenly remembering why she had opened her mouth right before Ned had called her name, Gwen agreed, "Oh, right! Well, Miles, I'm sorry, but I need to take a personal day. I have some things I need to work out, even more now that Ned's acting so… different, but I might see you tonight just before lights out."

To her surprise, Miles shook his head and said, "No, you won't. My uncle's going to come take me out of school soon so I can help him with something, but we'll talk tomorrow, alright? After school's over, before we go home."

Gwen nodded her acceptance and agreed, "Deal. See you tomorrow."

"Hasta mañana," Miles said with a wave and turned to walk away, but as Gwen turned to leave as well, he suddenly ran back over to her and said, "Sorry, I meant 'See you tomorrow.' That was what I said. In Spanish. I was just saying-"

"Miles," Gwen suddenly cut him off with a smile. She thought it was cute how- Cute? No, not cute. Since when did she think anything was cute? She found it amusing how Miles was tripping over his words like this, but she needed to be on her way and so decided to relieve him of his misery by informing him, "I have a Spanish class, Miles, and I'm pretty fluent by now. I understood you."

Miles seemed surprised and his expression soon changed to embarrassment, shifting uncomfortably on his feet as he said, "Right. Of course you do. I just didn't want to assume… But alright. Good. I'll, uh, quiz you on that some more then. Yep, that's what I'll do. I'll just talk to you in Spanish some more to… help you. If you need it. Which you probably don't, but-"

"Thanks, Miles," Gwen cut him off once more, still smiling at him.

Miles gave her one last serious nod, then saluted her, turned around, and walked off into the crowd, leaving Gwen chuckling as she began to head back to her dorm room.

Miles POV

I saluted her! Miles lamented in his mind as he allowed his feet to automatically take him towards his destination.

Why did he always have to act so weird around Gwen? Why couldn't he just act suave and cool, maybe play with her heartstrings in the way that he had managed to do before with other girls, flirting shamelessly just for the fun of it? Instead, with Gwen, Miles felt like he was always just embarrassing himself.

Ever since Gwen had hugged Miles yesterday, he hadn't been able to stop thinking about how he'd frozen like an idiot. It wasn't weird for friends to hug each other. He knew this. He'd had friends once. Before Gwen, that is. So why had he reacted in that way?

The answer was simple, yet so incredibly complicated. None of his previous friends had been Gwen. None of them had ever taken note of his own interests and asked for his help as they tried to do it themselves. None of them had ever taken his personal opinions and preferences to heart despite their own disagreements. None of them had ever gone out of their way to thank him, especially not for something so trivial as art tips. None of them had ever held onto him like his mere presence meant the world to them.

But maybe that was what made Gwen feel so much more special than any of his previous friendships. When a friendship as rare as theirs existed, it made it so much more valuable, and so it felt better to have one true, reliable friend than a dozen friends of a lesser quality. Of course, he'd loved the friends that he'd had before, but… none of them were like Gwen. The hug she'd given him hadn't felt like it came from a friend. It felt like it came from family. Maybe something stronger than family.

All he knew was that he felt like he could trust her. He felt that he could safely confide anything in Gwen… Except one thing.

Miles and his Uncle Aaron walked up the steps of an enormous skyscraper, Aaron with his injured arm still wrapped in a sling over his chest and his left hand in his jacket pocket while Miles carried a small duffel bag over his shoulder. As they climbed, Miles looked up at the side of the building and read the name written in large, gold letters over the doorway: Fisk Tower.

They stepped into the building through a double-wide glass doorway and walked up to a long receptionist's desk, behind which sat a young, female secretary. She looked up at the two as they entered, and as Uncle Aaron was the adult here, her eyes immediately drifted to him as she said pleasantly, "Hello and welcome to New York City's esteemed Fisk Tower. How can I help you today?"

Aaron gave the woman a smile as he pulled a card from inside his jacket and held it out to her to examine, then said, "We have an appointment."

The secretary took the card and looked it over carefully, then handed it back to Aaron and said, "That does seem to be in order. Please take the VIP elevator to your left, and have a nice day."

Aaron accepted the card back, then nodded to the woman gratefully and stepped over to an out-of-the-way elevator directly to the left, and Miles walked dutifully after him. There was no button on the elevator, but Uncle Aaron swiped his card in a card-reader device mounted on the wall like he'd done it many times before, and the door immediately opened for them. After they stepped inside and the doors closed behind them, Uncle Aaron inserted his card into a slot in the wall, which sucked the card inside, and then the elevator began to move upwards. Just like on the outside, the inside of this elevator had no buttons and seemed to operate solely on whatever that card was.

While they went upwards, Uncle Aaron told Miles, "Suit up."

Immediately, Miles set his duffel bag on the ground and opened it, then pulled off his school jacket, shirt, and pants. He then reached into the duffel bag and pulled out the pants, shirt, and jacket for his Prowler uniform before putting them all on and putting his school clothes into the bag instead. Then, he reached into the bag one more time and pulled out his clawed gauntlets before putting them on. Finally, he willed his mask to form over his face, but the second that he put it on, Uncle Aaron said, "No. You won't need the mask here, man."

Miles gave him a look of surprise, but didn't ask questions as his mask folded back into the device on the back of his head.

By now, they were only a few floors away from the top, and Aaron used the last bit of time they had left to say, "I've done some work for this guy before, Miles. He's one of my best contractors, and now, he wants to talk to you. They call him the Kingpin. You don't want to get on his bad side. But he'll be polite if you are. Just show him the proper respect and we'll be fine."

As soon as he'd finished speaking, the elevator doors in front of them opened, and Aaron led the way as he and Miles stepped into an enormous room. It almost seemed like the entire floor had been entirely devoted to a single massive office space, with only one enormous desk at the back of the room and four thick pillars holding up the ceiling, forty feet above them. The only things that broke the illusion of how big this room seemed was a set of beautifully-carved wooden double doors at the front of the room and a massive glass wall in the back behind the desk, through which the words "Fisk Tower" could be seen, once again written on the wall in massive golden letters, revealing that this floor did indeed have other rooms, small as they must be.

As they stepped out of the elevator from along one of the black marble walls, Miles looked back and saw the doors of the elevator close behind them to show that they had been designed to blend in perfectly with the wall itself, making it seem like the elevator wasn't even there.

Miles followed behind his uncle as they walked up to stand in front of the overly large desk, behind which sat an even larger man, writing something on a piece of paper that was itself abnormally large, yet still seemed like it would easily fit in this man's palm. The man was wearing a crisp white suit coat and pants with a rich black dress shirt underneath, all of it without a single crease in the fabric. He was bald with a hard expression on his face, and so well-built that one could easily confuse his sheer size and muscle as fat. He appeared to be about as solid as a brick wall, yet far more immovable. Miles had destroyed a few brick walls in his time, but he didn't imagine that this guy would go down so easily.

Miles and his uncle stood silently in front of the colossal man's desk for a few minutes, waiting for him to finish whatever he was writing. When he finally did look up, he looked directly at Uncle Aaron, and a flicker of recognition crossed his face as he said, "Aaron Davis. It's been a while. It's good to see you. Come to offer your services again?"

Aaron shook his head and wrapped an arm around Miles as he responded, "No. To offer his."

The enormous man seemed to realize that Miles was there for the first time, as though he was a mere flea not worth his time, and raised his eyebrows as he questioned, "This kid?"

Ignoring the question, Uncle Aaron told his nephew, "Miles, this is Mr. Wilson Fisk. He owns Fisk Industries and by extension, about a quarter of New York."

"Closer to a third," Fisk corrected, but leaned forward and offered a hand to Miles, which the younger man took as he said, "Mr. Fisk, I look forward to working with you and helping any way I can."

Fisk smiled at him and said, "Oh, do you? That's very good, Miles. In my experience, there is nothing as valuable to a warrior as their desire to serve the cause. Commitment. Responsibility. Willpower. I like that. Hm. You're very young, but maybe you do have what it takes. I suppose we'll find out."

Fisk reached over to press a button on the top of his desk and spoke into a microphone, saying, "They're ready for you, Son." He then reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small remote, then pressed a button. Immediately, the glass wall behind Fisk retracted upwards into the ceiling.

During all this, Uncle Aaron remained stone-faced like this was all normal, but though Miles kept his expression neutral, his mind was suddenly filled with questions. Leaning over to ask his uncle the most prevalent one, Miles questioned, "Fisk isn't the Kingpin?"

Aaron shook his head and answered, "Nah. Not anymore. He used to be, but these days, it's his kid."

Able to tell that his uncle didn't seem to plan on elaborating further, Miles didn't ask any more questions, knowing that he would meet the true Kingpin in a moment.

From around the left corner behind where the glass wall had been, a young man with straight, blonde hair coming down past his neck and wearing a gray suit with a blue tie stepped into view and stood at attention while looking at them, clearly waiting for them to approach. Maybe this is the Kingpin? Miles wondered to himself, but he rather doubted it. This guy didn't look like much, certainly not compared to Fisk. He guessed that this guy was here to escort them to the real Kingpin, though why anyone would need this much deception as security, Miles couldn't guess.

At the unspoken prompt for them to approach, both Miles and Uncle Aaron stepped around Fisk's desk and walked over to the man in the gray suit, who looked them over and asked, "Do you two have weapons?"

Aaron looked at Miles, who declared, "I have two extendable daggers, several mini-explosives, anti-gravity and force-projecting shoes, and clawed gauntlets that can punch through a steel wall."

The man nodded his understanding, then looked at Aaron, but Aaron shrugged and said, "I forgot mine."

The gray-suited man let out a sigh, then, to Miles' shock, pulled a folded-up pocket knife out of his pocket and tossed it to Uncle Aaron, who caught it with his uninjured arm and slipped it into his own pocket. Seeing Miles' look of confusion, the long-haired man explained, "The Kingpin doesn't allow anyone to enter his presence unarmed."

That seemed like a strange rule to Miles, but he just nodded his acceptance and allowed the man to lead him and his uncle around the corner and into another room.

This new room was much smaller than Fisk's office just outside, only about twenty by thirty feet with a 15-foot ceiling, and nowhere near as grand. Whereas Fisk's office had looked like a majestic throne room, this room looked more like a mostly-unused cafeteria, complete with only one small, square-topped table with four chairs positioned around the sides. Still, the room was far more beautiful than most places that Miles had ever visited, with smooth floors of polished black marble and floor-to-ceiling windows along the walls that allowed one to look out at a gorgeous view of the New York City skyline, which the one person already in the room was doing right now, standing right by the window looking outwards. His back was facing them but Miles could see that he had brown, combed hair and wore a clean, black suit, though it was far more wrinkled than Fisk's or the blonde-haired man's suits were, and he had his hands clasped in front of himself like he was praying.

Miles didn't want to seem rude, but if this guy was the Kingpin, he felt kind of underwhelmed. This guy was smaller than either of the other potential Kingpins Miles had met in the last few minutes.

As they entered, the gray-suited man that had led them in here stood against the wall, his hands clasped behind his back, and announced, "They're here, sir."

"Thank you, Foggy," the man at the window responded, but still didn't turn to face them. The man in the gray suit gave a small bow, then turned and left the room, closing the door behind himself.

They stood there in silence for a few minutes, until Miles began to think that maybe this guy had forgotten that he had visitors. Trying to begin some sort of conversation, Miles followed the man's gaze out the window and said casually, "Nice view."

Immediately, his uncle elbowed him in the side, and when Miles looked up at him questioningly, he saw his Uncle Aaron vigorously shaking his head in warning. Miles was confused, but the man at the window just chuckled and asked, "Is it?"

Then he finally turned around to face them, and Miles' heart dropped as he realized why his uncle had seemed so eager to stop him from complimenting the view. Now that he was facing them, Miles could see that the man wore glasses with circular lenses that had been tinted a dark red, a color that matched the tie he wore over his white shirt, and the hands that he held clutched in front of himself were holding a long, red and white collapsible cane.

The Kingpin was blind.

Desperately trying to excuse his unintentional rudeness, not just because his uncle had warned him not to insult the Kingpin but also because he was truly appalled to be insensitive to a disabled man, Miles quickly said, "I- I am so sorry, Mr. Kingpin. I had no idea that you were-"

To his surprise, the man just grinned widely at him and said, "I believe you. Actually, it's my fault. Teasing people by making them think I'm looking out the window is my favorite way to meet new people. Yes, I'm blind, but please don't pity me. There's plenty of ways to experience this city besides the sights."

The man walked over to the single table in the room, tapping his cane around on the ground to avoid running into it, and reached across the table to offer his hand to empty air, introducing himself, "Matthew Murdock. Call me Matt."

Stepping over to where his hand was, Miles removed one of his gauntlets to shake the man's hand, and returned, "Miles Morales."

They then both took seats sitting directly across from each other, and Uncle Aaron came to sit in a seat between them as he said, "Aaron Davis. I don't have a double 'M' name. But you both already knew that."

Both Miles and Matt laughed at Aaron's joke. When they were done, Matt smiled and said, "I always enjoy your visits, Aaron. I'll miss working with you."

"With any luck, my break from work is just temporary," Uncle Aaron said hopefully.

Matt grinned at him and said, "But if you do successfully rebound, you'll have the challenge of keeping up with some competition for once. The Prowler was always my favorite, but now I understand that there's a new Prowler, and from what I hear, he's even better."

Aaron nodded and looked at Miles proudly, saying, "You heard correctly, Mr. Murdock. My nephew is settling in nicely. Only a couple days into the job, he's done several jobs that I never could."

Turning to smile directly at Miles, Matt said, "Which is why we're here, of course."

Miles remained silent, as he was currently lost in thought, and he was only brought back to reality when his uncle reached over and gently shook his shoulder, asking, "Miles?"

Not having paid attention to the last bit of their conversation, Miles said, "Sorry, what?"

Still smiling pleasantly, Matt asked him, "Is there something you'd like to ask me, Miles?"

Looking down at the table with shame at how he'd already embarrassed himself twice in front of his potential future employer, Miles admitted, "Yeah. I heard Mr. Fisk call you 'Son' earlier. Are you-"

"-actually related?" Matt finished for him, then shook his head. "No. Wilson Fisk is my adopted father. My biological father was killed due to gang violence, and Mr. Fisk took me in from Hell's Kitchen and helped me avenge my father. When I was old enough, he wanted me to help him run Fisk Industries, but I decided to start my own law firm in my old neighborhood. So instead, Mr. Fisk taught me to take over for him from his other job, controlling the criminal element in our city."

Surprised, Miles asked, "That's what you do? The Kingpin's job is to… be some sort of mob boss?"

Shaking his head calmly, Matt explained, "No, no. We don't encourage crime. We simply know that it's inevitable, so the Kingpin's job is to oversee and control the more civilized criminals so that they don't run rampant. Take yourself and your uncle, for example. You aren't bad people. You just aren't afraid to do bad things for good reasons. Because of the things you do to make ends meet, you are considered 'criminals', but we all know that it's much more complicated than that. The other criminals, the lowlifes and scum that are simply a cancer to the world, we use our power to help take them down. Does that help you understand?"

It sounded somewhat complicated to Miles, but it also made some kind of sense. Frankly, he was mostly just relieved. For a moment, he'd thought that his uncle had been trying to hire him out as some kind of enforcer.

Miles nodded in response to Matt's question, and then looked down embarrassedly as Uncle Aaron told the man, "He nodded, Mr. Murdock."

Matt must've been familiar with people forgetting about his blindness, because he managed to keep his smile on his face as he nodded in understanding. He then looked directly at Miles and said, "Well, then we can get down to business. First of all, Miles, I want to hear what it is exactly that you're looking for with this job. Not necessarily the work environment, but what it is that you hope to accomplish."

Never having been interviewed for a job before now, Miles looked nervously at his uncle, but Aaron just shrugged and gestured for him to answer the question. Only able to hope that his answer would be satisfactory, Miles honestly told him, "Well, I've got these abilities, skills and powers that no one else has. And I just feel like I've gotta use them to help people, whatever it takes. My dad taught me to be there for people. My mom taught me to take care of my community. And my uncle taught me how to do it. So whatever job you need me to do, I'll do it. You want me to steal, destroy, sabotage, even torture or kill, I'll do it. I'll do all the wrong things for all the right reasons and won't let anyone or anything get in my way, because the one thing no one ever taught me was how to quit."

At the end of his passion-filled response, Miles felt his Uncle Aaron clap a hand onto his shoulder, smiling with pride over the man that his nephew was becoming. Matt was also smiling, looking not only satisfied but also somewhat impressed, leaning back in his chair as he stared at Miles for a moment.

Then, after a few seconds had passed in silence, Matt stood up and walked back towards the window, tapping his cane around as he went, and said, "Aaron, can you give us a minute? Close the door behind you, please."

Uncle Aaron winked at Miles and stood up from his seat as he answered, "Of course, Mr. Murdock. I'll be right outside, Miles." Uncle Aaron then walked over to the door and opened it to step outside, shutting the door firmly behind himself.

Once the door was closed, Matt stopped next to the window and called behind himself, "Miles, will you come here for a minute?"

Without a word, Miles stood up from his seat and walked over to stand next to Mr. Murdock at the window, looking out at a view of New York from a higher point than Miles had ever been on. As he walked, at first he tried to make his footsteps louder so that Matt could hear when he arrived next to him, but he'd forgotten that his shoes absorbed all sound upon impact with the ground, so instead he just tapped the glass once he reached it.

Upon hearing the glass thud, Matt's head suddenly jerked sideways to look at Miles, clearly surprised by his new location, then he cleared his throat and said, "Look out at the city, Miles."

Miles did as ordered, admiring the beautiful view outside the window, which showed almost the entire city at this height and angle.

"Now, you may have noticed that due to my blindness, I don't really care for the same luxuries as my father enjoys," Matt said. "As such, you may wonder why a blind man has this sort of view outside his office window."

Miles almost nodded again, but this time he caught himself first and instead said, "Yes, sir."

Matt looked out the window and continued, "The reason is kind of complicated. The truth is, I love this city, Miles. My father taught me to love this city as he does, but I know it better than he ever could. I may be blind, but my eyes are everywhere in this city, and I know its inner beauty. Because of my love for this city, I have made a point of knowing everything about it. I know every movement of every food vendor in the city. I know where every single citizen lives. I know that you drank a slightly expired carton of chocolate milk this morning with your school-provided breakfast of bacon and eggs."

For most of Matt's speech, Miles had listened politely, but had internally been thinking that the man was being a bit dramatic and was greatly exaggerating his knowledge. But that last sentence had brought Miles' mind to a screeching halt. He hadn't even remembered what he'd had for breakfast today, but when Matt had told him, the memory had come rushing back to Miles in perfect clarity. Matt was completely correct about what Miles had eaten this morning, even down to the slightly strange but largely unnoticeable taste of his milk.

Looking at Mr. Murdock in amazement, Miles asked, "How did you-"

"Like I said," Matt said seriously, "I know everything about my city. Or at least, almost everything."

Taking one of his hands off of his cane, Matt reached into the folds of his suit jacket and suddenly pulled out a small pile of colored images before holding them out in front of Miles. Miles gently took the images from Matt and began to browse through them one by one.

Every image was taken in a different place, from different angles and heights, but they all had one thing in common. Each picture showed the familiar shape and colors of the Spider-Woman, the vigilante that Miles had defeated a couple nights ago. Combined, the pictures allowed Miles to see every imaginable angle of Spider-Woman, sometimes in the air and sometimes on the ground, but always showing her at the top of her game. In some she was swinging high above the buildings of New York, in others she was seen knocking out criminals in the middle of their illegal activities (and Miles noted with interest that some of the images were from PDNY-owned surveillance footage, which Matt shouldn't have been able to access). Every image made her look majestic and untouchable, far from the sight Miles had seen the other night when he'd nearly killed her.

"I have hooks in every influential figure in this city… except Spider-Woman," Matt said with mixed bitterness and grudging admiration.

A lump growing in his throat as he thought he saw where this was going, Miles hesitantly asked, "And you want me to kill her?"

The smirk came back to Matt's face as he said with amusement, "Kill her? Of course not! I don't want the Spider-Woman dead. She's much too unique for that. No, I just want to control her."

"Didn't you say that you already control most of the people in the city?" Miles asked in confusion.

"The Kingpin needs to control all of the pieces. 'Most' isn't enough," Matt said. "The trick is, to control anyone, I need leverage, and despite a year's worth of effort, I don't have anything on Spider-Woman. Everyone and everything that's ever fought her has been defeated. I had hoped that the Prowler might manage it… but the first time your uncle encounters her, she puts him out of commission, maybe permanently. But then, I hear that there's a new Prowler, one who's not only considered better than the original, but has already gone toe-to-toe with Spider-Woman and won. I immediately knew that I had to meet him."

"So you want me to capture her?" Miles asked, still trying to get a feel for what he was being asked to do.

However, Matt once again responded in the negative, shaking his head and saying, "Not at all. Or at least, not yet. I don't want you to capture her. I want you to join her."

Thinking that he must've misheard, Miles asked, "Sorry, what?"

Matt placed a hand on Miles' shoulder and turned the younger man to face him, then explained, "I want you to join her on her little crusade. Sympathize with her as a fellow vigilante trying to save the city. Earn her trust… and find out who she is. Get her to reveal her identity to you, then tell me her secret, and I'll finally be able to control her. And if we can't do it the easy way… Well, you've beaten her before. You can do it again."

Miles was uncertain about the plan, but he mustered his courage and formed a look of determination on his face as he said, "I'll do my best, Mr. Murdock."

Matt smiled at him and said, "You know, Miles, you make a fine Prowler. The thing I liked best about your uncle was that he was always reliable. It's good to see that you have that too. In that case, you're hired. Welcome to the family, Miles Morales."

A/N: Okay, so several people have now told me that I need to incorporate more Spanish dialogue in this story as a result of Miles' closer relationship with his mother. To those of you who have experienced that concern, I want to assure you that I will attempt to meet that expectation, but I also don't want there to be too much Spanish dialogue. Many readers of this story may not know Spanish and I don't want them to have to translate every few sentences. Besides, even if Spanish is now spoken much more in his house, it's still been less than a year since Miles became closer to his Puerto Rican heritage. However, as I said, I will be including more Spanish-speaking from Miles from here on out, and maybe a bit from Gwen as well. That said, I also want to make it clear that I myself am not particularly fluent in Spanish, even though I am learning it. If I make a mistake in how I write Spanish dialogue, please inform me so that I can make the necessary alterations. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and thanks for reading!