PART 1 - Chapter 12 - Trust (and) Fall

Where the first shot in the war is fired, and the city witnesses a clash of predators.

Today, someone tried to kill Bruce Wayne.

I repeat: someone actually tried to kill the Son of Gotham, the Socialite of the Satellites, the man rich enough to get himself in all sorts of rich guys' crazy trips and lucky enough to not have ended up dead yet.

Honestly, people are just betting that his death will be because of an avalanche while skiing or choking while eating Japanese blowfish. And he almost died because of both already. Twice, in the case of blowfishes - man has some bad case of getting himself food poisoning or something every month or so.

This time, however, someone decided to innovate and toss the richest man in Gotham - in the World? I don't know, I guess? - out of the old Wayne Tower's panoramic deck and-

Okay, let's pause, because I have to ask, why is everything here named after a Wayne? Not everything-everything, but whatever Wayne existed in the last three hundred years has their name on an important building or road or park, I swear. Yeah, there is a Kane here, a Pikney there, but Waynes? Gotham's their turf.

Back to the important stuff… yeah, falling billionaire.

Back home, the only capitalist billionaire I know, Tony Stark, always has like two armors at ready and three personal gadgets that can save him at all times.

Bruce Wayne doesn't have the smarts for that, so he had to make do with the one and only Spider-Man, aKA, me, the very same guy who, not even twenty hours before, insulted the rich boy in his own house, during his own party, and in front of all his influential friends.

Talking about Bruce Wayne's dumb luck, I had just decided to perch on the upper level gargoyles…

(Also, what is up with Gotham City and so many gargoyle and bird statues every-freaking-where?!)

(Nevermind, focus!)

... when shards of glass cascaded from the sky, right in front of me, followed by a billionaire full of knives sticking out from both arms, then by a man dressed up in leather suit, brass armor and a bird mask.

Well. That's new, I'll give you that.

No time to prepare, I jumped right after them, deciding to figure out the best way to stop their fall on the fly.

Wayne seemed to be spasming in mid-air, but that actually helped him struggle against the would-be-assassin. I could almost swear he was Jackie-Chan-ing in mid-fall, but I'm no Danny Rand to know better.

Seriously, weeks of training with Shang-Chi, after I had lost my Spider-Sense, for him to declare me on Novice level. But that's okay, when I get a rematch with the good ol' Mr. Chi, I will John Wick him back to the dojo with my Spider-sense at full power, whole new moves in my repertory and these tricked out web-shooters!

Or he will most likely wipe the walls and floor clean with my face. Again.

Anyway! Bird Mask tried going for Wayne's eyes, and that is when I crashed into the duo, swiftly kicking the would-be assassin to the right while I pulled the rich man to the left.

"Word of advice, don't go falling for Bruce Wayne. Guy is always single for a reason!" The Birdman-assassin was good, I had to admit, as he almost nicked my leg with a quickly thrown blade. "Sir! I Don't think you get the gravity of the situation!"

That's when I spotted this lone gargoyle, down below, separate from all the others, for whatever aesthetic reason.

'Wayne's dumb luck', I wondered, as I quickly swung the billionaire by his collar on an arc upwards, negating his almost terminal velocity and making him land safely (on his butt) on top of the large gothic statue.

My next worry was rescuing the assassin, and, as I felt time slowing down, I took careful aim on his body and got him right on his chest, quickly pulling towards me while getting another web line connected to Wayne's gargoyle.

Bird guy tried going for the jugular, literally, or so I thought. As a reflex, I dodged the blade he shot for my neck, only to realize he was actually aiming at the web strand that was holding us, cutting it off.

We fell.

There was a left hook to my face, when I finally recognized the kind of bird motif was sculpted on his arm guard.

A white owl.

"So, a fan of the Potter books, I take it?" A right punch to the face but I caught it, my other hand managing to web up the blades kept in his bandolier. "No more Mr. Knife Guy-Oof!" He jabbed my right kidney. Guy was no Captain America or Hulk, but even then, ouch! Did not let go of his closed fist though.

"The Court of Owls has sentenced Bruce Wayne to die." His voice was both cold and angry, as if I had been in the wrong in stopping him.

"How about we file a motion to appeal?" He answered my 'offer' with another two jabs, right under my rib cage. I let him wail on me, despite the super strength behind those punches, because I could take them, and because that got him distracted.

"Quick lesson on laws for you and your 'Court' -" thwip! "- Newton's Laws, that is."

The web line I just made stretched just enough to slow down my fall, as I let go of the assassin's fist. "Inertia!" Half a second later, I snagged him by the feet with another web line, pulling it with a swipe, "Force!"

His body ragdolled straight to the large tower like a whip, and as soon as he crashed into it - I really held myself back, I swear-, I webbed him tight onto the Tower with some impact webbing. "And trying to assassinate someone while I'm around, you get 'Action and Reaction'!"

Using that webline, I pulled myself up, catching the Billionaire by surprise, as he was staring at me with a fierce look I had never seen him make before.

A blink of an eye and the playboy returned to how he usually looked, but I swear that, at that single moment… I felt a serious tingle in my spider-sense…

Oh God, that phrase went in a completely wrong direction, now that I think about it.

"You… need…"

"Woah, there, Mr. Pincushion", I stare at the large man with several blades still firmly stuck in his shoulders and arms. "Calm down, I've already signaled for the police and the ambulances-"

I admit, the warning from the Spider-Sense still did not get me ready for Bruce-freaking-Wayne grabbing me by the wrists. "Up there, the observation deck. Lincoln March and others were also attacked. Go!"

I am not in the habit of taking orders from billionaires, but I would let that slide, because I could see the worry on the guy's face. "Not leaving you behind, Mr. Wayne.", I said, hoisting him up by his waist. I pushed hard with my feet and used a quick web pull to reach the broken window in barely the blink of an eye.

I found a massacre.

Three men were spread on the floor, a fourth one still at the staircase access, so many knives sticking from their bodies. I noticed, with some morbid curiosity, that not a single blade was dropped on the floor or stuck onto the walls.

Whoever that Owl Guy was, he hadn't missed a single knife toss, just like with my web.

I heard the heartbeats and my mask helped me identify the only surviving victim, Lincoln March. I saw him just the night before, at the Wayne Gala. People had been talking about the mayoral candidate. The biggest critique of the C.O.O. of March Ventures was that he was too bland for the political field.

And there he was, laying on the floor, a blade shaped like a surgeon's scalpel stuck right between his ribs.

I let go of Wayne, the man at least steady enough to stand, and I sped towards the survivor. I took the man's hands off the blade, luckily he had been trying to hold the bleeding, not to remove the large sharp piece of metal, as I feared.

Luckily, because had he pulled it out, then there would have been four bodies at the Observation Deck, instead of three.

"Good job, Mr. March, now let me keep the pressure on the wound, don't worry, keep your strengths…"

The tall man - because wow, he was tall, like, Thor tall? - grabbed my wrist and started… saying something to me.

A poem.

Later, when the medics had arrived to check on the Billionaire and his politician buddy, that was when I found out that the guy I caught in my web had got himself loose, apparently his gauntlets could pop off a set of sharp curved claws, which he used to cut his biddings and fall.

And, unlike a certain Canadian he was trying to emulate, he fell down and crash-landed into a parked car, killing himself.

"That's okay, son." The Commissioner told me, when I came down the Tower after leaving Mr. March and Mr. Wayne with the paramedics. "You did good. Thank goodness, you were around."

There was already a crowd of people taking photos of the body inside the crushed car, and the Crime Scene Investigators were already doing their job, bagging throwing knives and bits of web that had fallen down.

"We found a death threat in a crime scene yesterday, promising that Bruce Wayne would die today. The victim had been a man, tortured for hours then used as target practice for knife tossing. The same ones this perp used today." I still heard the Commissioner's voice, but I could only stand there and observe the dead assassin.

Luckily, Lieutenant Bullock was not in the case today. I was already a mess, Mr. March's blood staining the blue parts of my suit.

"It's not your fault, the man was probably a professional killer.", the older policeman told me. "Might have had some code of not being caught alive or something."

"That mask… and Mr. March's words.", I spoke up, the memory still fresh.

"Words? What words, son?"

I had a good memory at the best of times, but those words, the way Lincoln had spoken them? They had weight. "'Beware… the Court of Owls…'"

"'That watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime'." James Gordon perfectly recited Lincoln's words.

"So, you heard that before?", I half asked, half stated.

"You must not be from the city, heh? Yeah, I've heard it, it's an old legend of Gotham's. A nursery rhyme about boogeymen. There's more, though."

"They watch you at your hearth,
they watch you in your bed,
speak not a whispered word of them,
or they'll send the Talon for your head."

I took the time to absorb that. "Of course, if it's a Gotham's nursery rhyme, of course it's gothic and macabre. What else could one expect?"

That made the older cop chuckle. (Still got it.)

Though, hearing the name 'Talon' didn't make things any easier. Not after what I could see from the body. "There is something really wrong going on here, Commish." I replied.

"How so?"

I got near the body and crouched in my usual spider way, just by the tip of my feet, checking the exceedingly sharp blades that Owl Guy had kept hidden even during our fight.

I looked up, back to the spot I had stuck Mr. Owl Man. There were cracks in the concrete. I made the mental calculations, the angle, the speed of the fall. "Very wrong."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Him and I, we scuffled in mid-air, hanging by a literal thread, which he cut trying to get to me. He was too good to just let himself fall and die, when he could have used these claws to climb up and go after Wayne, or down and flee from the scene."

I stood up and observed, getting as many details as possible with my mask's digital microlenses as I could. "He fell on his back into the car at seventeen feet of distance from the base of the tower. And I had webbed him with his back against the concrete."

Commissioner Gordon's expression morphed as well. I knew the guy was smart.

"Meaning the perp had to purposely push himself from the Tower, while cutting off the binds, then aimed his fall against the vehicle, while spinning in mid-air, to make the bullseye into the parked vehicle."

Gordon gave a good look at the body. DOA, he had told me. Then upwards again. Then down at the distance between the landing zone and Tower, then all the concrete that he could have crash-landed into, then upwards.

"He wasn't caught, and yet, he opted to kill himself. I think you're onto something, Spider-." He looked back and stared at me, a look of surprise.

"What?" I asked.

The mustache raised with a large smile. "Sorry, I'm just not used to having a vigilante staying around long enough for me to finish speaking."

"I feel the same. Been some time since I could speak to a cop and not get arrested."

"Oh, there is a warrant for your capture. This is just me and the rest of the boys and girls of the PD dealing with something more urgent first. You understand."

"Of course.", I replied and, as if on cue, the closest police radio started buzzing, and a terribly familiar voice came out of it.

"Commissioner, I just heard about it, keep Spider-Man at the Tower until I arrive!"

Gordon shrugged and picked up the radio.

I'm already swinging just around the corner and about twenty meters away, barely hearing Gordon's reply, "Sorry Lieutenant…"

I guess the other heroes of Gotham have the right idea, sometimes.

(... now, time to wash my new suit, it may be treated to not get stained, but blood was still not a great look, even in the Goth-Dreamland of America.)

To Be Continued!

Author's Notes:

Oh-oh, Spidey interfered with a major event and with a major threat. If he wasn't in the spotlight before, now it is unavoidable!

That aside, THANK YOU VERY MUCH! The support, the reviews, simply clicking the kudos button because you liked my story so far, all of you are amazing and I hope to keep and improve the quality of my story the way you all expect (and in some that you won't)!

Next chapter: Fire and Darkness! It's the beginning of a night in the Narrows, and Anarchy will reign!