The sounds of a fist connecting to a solid surface echoed through a relatively small room, there were a few posters that also seemed to be in poor condition. May it be from old cartoons or bands, they decorated the concrete room regardless.
A mannequin donned by part of the Prowler costume, that being the vest, jacket and cargo pants stood right next to a desk where the Prowler's helmet and partially dismantled gauntlets laid there. With a loud tear, the sound of sand falling followed soon after as Hobie stood in front of the destroyed punching bag.
"I'll have to get a new one again.", Hobie remarked with a sigh as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. "How long has it been since I've been so... stressed?", he looked at himself within the reflection of his phone as he picked it up. "It feels like my chest is gonna cave in from the pressure..."
His thoughts wandered as he looked at the helmet of his alter ego. "Why did I ever accept this deal... I should've just died right on the spot. Not like he couldn't manage it... him and Octavius hasn't even tried to contact me."
He scrolled through the messages his family had left him, constant reassuring messages that he was alright, that he was staying at a friends place for a while to help him with his grandmother. "But by this, they haven't gone for them, or at least not at the moment."
The soon to be former bounty hunter looked at his helmet, he could feel a pit in his stomach slowly form as the guilt that he drowned out by simply ignoring it started to form. "From what I saw... Jonah has no remorse for killing the criminals he's dealt with. He hasn't even seemed deterred or even distressed from it. "
Hobie could remember countless of footage of Jonah's early start as the Bullet Spider to even now, multiple times he has killed quite a few but the most he's ever gotten was in a Maggia warehouse, he had completely slaughtered anyone in there. "He's killed more than I did in my first three months working for Kingpin and I felt disgusted... yet, he doesn't."
And right then, right there he could hear the sounds of the webbing leaving its nozzle as Bullet Spider zipped by, just as he usually would. "The Bugle seems to support his violent behavior, some regular folk support it to... maybe he just attracts the psychotic kind of crowd."
Taking a seat at his desk, he looked up at the cold stone ceiling. "I guess despite being similar... he's just got a better moral compass than me... well as good as someone who tore someone in half could be."
Hobie looked at his phone with a heavy heart. "Maybe...", he picked it up and went through his contact list. He looked at Jonah's contact for a moment that felt like forever... he shook his head and quickly went to Maya.
Bullet Spider landed on top of the small structure to the police precinct. "You're a bit late.", Yuri says as she smoked a cigarette, leaning against the rails as she looked back at him.
"Sorry, had to deal with a... issue.", Bullet Spider said as he shrugged, leaping over and landing right next to her. "So, what is it?"
"Well one, your most recent kill.", Yuri stated as she lifted up a finger. "Fredrick Meyers, twenty eight year old college drop out that was withholding several kilograms of meth in his apartment. Found dead with a bullet hole in he middle of his face."
"Yeah, and?"
"How long did you know about this, exactly?", Yuri asked looking at her acquaintance. "Genuinely."
"I noticed when the homeless shelter down in Chinatown had a new... smell.", Bullet Spider said with a shrug. "I didn't know what it was for a month... but after I got a whiff of something by accident... so I had to put him down and beat the suit out of his boss."
"And where is his boss?"
"Keeping his pale ass down in the gutters where he belongs.", the spider stated with little if any emotion. "He knows that if I ever hear his name again, I'll kill him."
Yuri shook her head as she looked at him sympathetically, she could just see a glimpse of her younger self in him. "Why do you do it anyways? What's your goal."
"I want to give the scum of New York a taste what it feels like to be preyed on.", as he said this, his talons shot out and sliced through the rails he held onto. "Rapist, murderers and whoever else deserve to be put down like mad dogs. But I don't need to crack all the skulls here... just give them a reason to stay in line."
Yuri nodded at this, taking another puff from her cigarette. "You want to take down the big dogs around New York then too right? Give them a better reason to not fuck around right?... but what will you do after that?"
"Once this cycle of violence finally only has me in it, I'll join the others I've killed. The Bullet Spider won't have a purpose and I can just live my life again.", Bullet Spider said looking at Yuri. "Who knows? Maybe I'll just turn myself in, make things a little interesting y'know?"
"Considering the amount of shit I can just pull out.", Yuri paused as she flicked the cigarette that was much less the original length away. "I can put you in Rhyker's without a trial."
"And why don't you do it now?"
Yuri looked at him with a blank expression, standing straight and walking back to the door that led up to the roof. "You want Hammerhead dead. That's all you need to know for now, so just stick to your plan and end this shit as soon as possible."
"Yes ma'am.", Bullet Spider saluted jokingly as she groaned, leaving him alone on the roof as he leapt off and dove towards the ground, catching himself on a web rope as he swung through the city. "I could really end Hammerhead right now, it wouldn't be hard to find out where his rat ass is hiding in. But I want that little fucking piece of garbage to be afraid, I want him to suffer like I did!"
He began to swing faster, his talons still sticking in as he ran across the side of a building. "What kind of sick fuck takes someone's father away and puts him down?! It's his fault that ma had to deal with all that bullshit for so goddamn long."
Jonah could remember that rage building, building for years and years. The murderous rage that was aimed at criminals of all types, the rage released on his first ever outing with his new powers. "Out of all the scum of New York, Hammerhead's punishment is gunna fuckin hurt!"
His deranged and incoherent thoughts rushed into his head, ideas and methods of slowly torturing the Hammerhead before finally caving his skull in. But he was so... confused.
"I don't remember being this angry, not before I got my hand bit. There's not a doubt in my mind that I've wanted to kill him... but man, it's like I just can't help getting that angry.", Bullet Spider thought to himself, of course he was angry towards all the criminals in New York. Their involvement doesn't matter, his father was taken from him... but his flare ups of obsessive anger wasn't something he expected.
"Not like it changes anything.", the thought quickly inserted itself into his head. "Those piles of shit deserve what's coming to them."
His train of through was rudely interrupted as his phone vibrated, he flinched in mid air and quickly caught himself on the ledge of a building. Pulling out his phone he put it on speaker. "Yea MJ?"
["Hey uh... I know you're busy n all but I gotta tell ya sumthin."]
"Ight, what is it?"
["Hobie called me earlier, before you freak out or whatever, he just checked up on how I was doing and all."]
"What else?", Jonah said as he could feel his talons slowly piercing the stone of the ledge.
["He wants to talk to you, no bullshit, no lie or anything. Hobie just want to speak to you face to face."]
"Time and place?"
["Oh fuck... yeah I didn't ask, completely spaced out on that one not gonna lie."]
Bullet Spider couldn't help but laugh at this. "Wow, you don't say? Don't worry, I'll figure it out... I'm not lying this time."
["Good because everytime you say "I'll figure it out" you either forget or solve it with a pistol whip."]
"IT WAS BY ACCIDENT!"
["NO IT WASN'T! Okay gotta go, I got shit to do. Don't die out there."]
"Yeah yeah.", he sighed as she hung up, he turned his head to see a fat dude peering out the window at him. "What the fuck are you looking at fatass?!", the man swiftly backed away. "That's what I fucking thought, loser."
Quickly hoisting himself onto the roof, plopping his ass right onto the small claw marks he left as he let out an annoyed groan. "Ugh... guess I have to scratch this off the bucket list one of these days."
Gracefully swinging through the streets of Harlem, he landed directly on the peak of the church that was near the graveyard. Bullet Spider looked around and tapped his finger along the stone spire.
"I've been expecting you.", The Prowler said as Bullet Spider immediately looked down to see him standing on the side of the spire.
"Yeah... we talked about this. Also how long were you even there for?"
"Way too long.", The Prowler says with a shrug as the spider leapt down and landed on the top of the roof. "You look great, put on some muscle lately?"
"Yeah, y'know beating the snot out of drug dealers, one man jumping muthafuckas and a lot for running around is an actually great exercise routine.", Bullet Spider says nonchalantly before pointing his Glock at the Prowler. "What do you want Hobie?"
The Prowler seemed unbothered by this. "I'm not here to fight or just convince you as to why you should join... just wanted to know something."
Bullet Spider tilted his head in confusion, to which Hobie continued. "I was thinking about it for a while, the difference between you and me that is.", to this, Jonah lowered his firearm with intrigue that you could feel despite the mask. "I killed a lot of people, some good, some bad. But I had to drown that out with the idea that if I don't do my job... I die to, so does my family. But why do you do it? Be the Bullet Spider I mean."
"If I had a dollar for everytime someone asked me that I'd have two of them by today alone.", Bullet Spider remarked as he clicked the safety on and shoved his Glock back in its hidden holster. "Twelve years ago the Maggia took away my father, the criminal underworld that festered for years, I saw it all. I hated every day of my existence after that, my mother decided instead of taking care of a child she would wallow in her own little pity party until she got kicked out. She can act like I forgiven her, but I will never forget it."
The Prowler nodded, allowing his friend to continue. "The Justice System doesn't help at all, they disrespect the graveyards of victims a criminal can claim by shoving him into a dirt hole for a few years. The scumbag rapist, drug dealer and murderer deserve to die, but on the other hand I'm no fan of following orders, especially from the corrupt. That's why I do it, I'm helping those who beg for a savior. The little plague rats that infest this city will know that their actions have consequences, they're going to feel the fear that I felt when I was a kid."
Hobie was... surprised at this, he didn't know why but he expected mindless murdering or simple satisfaction from it. "Wow... no offense, but I never took you for the type to kill for anyone besides yourself."
"Hey, can't fight crime without cracking a few skulls.", the arachnid-based vigilante causally states. "Is that all you wanted to know or are we going back to radio silence?"
"No.", The Prowler says as he flipped off the side of the spire, popping his neck. "Fisk and a business friend of his have documents of shit to get me incarcerated for life, not just that but they know everything there is to know about every single one of my siblings and my mother."
Bullet Spider titled his head at the mention of this. "I'm listening."
"You don't have to do this, but... please, help me keep them safe.", The Prowler said as the helmet began to retract, showing Hobie's exhausted and tired expression. "That's all I want."
There was something about him that Hobie just never could get, because even with the mask, he could feel the anger from just his stance.
"Just point and I'll pummel them."
/End/