Chapter 26: Tracking The Demon
Izuku was eating a bit of katsudon as his mom walked into the room. She saw a semi-tired yet confused look on his face, the sight making her frown as she sat down beside him. "What's wrong?" She asked, the teen slowly glancing over at her.
"Just...thinking."
"What did you find out?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?" Inko replied, her head slightly going back at the response, "But you said-"
"I know." Izuku sighed as he took a sip of water, "Its just...nothing makes sense. Everything I found in Mister Li's room is nothing but names, numbers and locations. I don't understand any of it."
Inko shook her head, "No, you understand it, Izuku." He glanced back up at her. "You just don't know what to do, do you?"
Izuku stared at her for a few seconds before sighing again, "Yeah. Anytime I think back to Mister Li, all I see is this kind man who's gone out of his way to help me so much. I mean, I no longer stutter around everyone at FEAST. I feel like I can do actual conversations...though its no one my age. But...but I still see that in him."
Inko shook her head at this, remembering what Izuku had told her about Aldera. She always knew something was wrong, seeing him come home with bruises and burns, but the boy never said anything. He was always silent, trying to hide it all, trying to not make himself a burden for her. She should have known better, seeing her son come home with a huge, pain-filled frown.
But he was different now. Izuku came home with a huge grin on his face, happy as he found something he truly loved doing, and no one telling him otherwise...with the exception of some newscasters.
However, the sight before her reminded her of the old Izuku, one that came home from Aldera every day, broken and miserable. Granted, he didn't really look broken this time, more confused than anything, but still miserable. It made her put her hand on his shoulder, her son turning to her as she said, "Izuku...I want you to do what you think is right. If you need to go confront him, do it. And if you don't want to confront him, that's fine too. We'll call the heroes and let them handle it."
Those words made her son flinch, the teen glancing down for a second before eating another bite. And as he did this, he let out a deep breath before saying, "No. I...I feel I need to do this."
Inko's frown grew at that, "Why?"
"Because...because..." Izuku dropped his chopsticks at this, slightly shaking his head, "I don't know. I just-" He put his hand on face, slowly pulling it down before looking back at his mother, "Mom, if Mister Li really is a villain and I take him down...what do you think will happen to FEAST?"
Inko blinked at that, her frown trying to grow as she replied, "Well...I don't know." The response made Izuku grimace, only to see his mother's expression change, the frown staying, but her eyes now staring straight at him with a certain blaze, "But if Mister Li is a villain, I do know that if everyone in FEAST knew you were Spider-Man, they would accept you taking him down."
Izuku's eyes went wide at her statement, the teen wanting to say 'really?!' but unable too. Instead, he looked back down at his food. His mind went over everything that had just happened. The gang war right before the start of the week, Stain, Iida, and now this. The events flooded him, but his mind went back to everything he had been going over the past two days. The documents and maps, all showing some big thing happening between Li and someone called Kingpin.
As such, the teen grabbed and ate the last piece of food. A long gulp followed as Inko saw a new look appear on her son's face. It was one she knew all too well. It was that fire that would appear in Izuku's eyes when he talked about wanting to be a hero. To save anyone and everyone. A flame that scared her so much, but in recent days...it made her so proud.
He turned to her before doing a small nod, "Thanks mom."
"No problem. Though...what are you going to do?"
Izuku took a long swig of water before replying, "I'm gonna take a small nap and then sneak into one of the hideouts. I need to...well, I need to know everything."
Inko nodded back, "I understand." She patted his shoulder at this, "And Izuku?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm so proud of you." She shined a small smile at this, "I know I...don't say it enough, but I am."
Izuku blinked at her, small tears appearing in his eyes as he hugged her, the mother embracing him back, "Thanks mom. Love you."
"Love you too."
Izuku woke up a few hours later bright and ready. He checked the clock for a second, seeing there was still one day left of the week, though it was now nighttime, but that didn't matter in his mind. Instead, he quickly changed into his outfit, putting on the mask before going to the kitchen and making himself a small bento. He had asked his mom to get some supplies yesterday while he was replicating the pictures, having a feeling he needed to be extra prepared for this. Granted, it was also because he kept trying to tell himself to not just leap into everything.
After a few more minutes of preparation, the teen went invisible and snuck out of his room's window, inhaling a deep breath before web-swinging into the city. He had decided to go for the closest of the three hideouts, knowing it was just about 8 to 9 streets over from FEAST. He was a bit surprised, as it made it only a bit aways from UA, but still significantly far enough that heroes and police would take a bit to respond to such a location.
As such, he got there during a little over two hours before midnight, the darkness already settling in. The night cover made invisibility pointless, as he knew no one would be hunting him right now. And so, he landed on the hideout's rooftop, a four-story building, and took out his self-made bento. Putting it in a little bag along with a water bottle, he placed it on the roof before taking out his spider tracer tracker, only to find two signals from the tracers he used earlier were right below him.
'They brought two of them here.' he thought before seeing the tracker display a third and fourth signal that were together and far away, but also hadn't updated on the tracker due to distance, 'That must be Mister Li's car and the other tracer. I can't tell if those have been moved, but I'll get to that later. Hopefully, they're still at the other hideout. Still...maybe this place is where they stash all their cars and loot.'
Putting the tracker back in his hoodie, he started crawling down the side of the building, soon finding what he was looking for: An air duct. 'Nice! Time for some duct crawling.' He slithered into the vent, still surprised at how easy it was before clambering through the area. It wasn't long till he found a vent he could look out of, glancing down and seeing a room that's lights were off. But despite them being off, he could vaguely make the outlines of the room he was staring at.
'A garage? Well, they do seem to have an infinite amount of cars.' he thought before quietly grabbing the grate, slowly putting it aside before crawling out of the vent. He then began to crawl on the ceiling, mentally commenting to himself just how cool it was that he could do that. And as he did this, he went over to the wall and made his way down to the floor. He began to tiptoe around next, only to hear a door open. Turning invisible at this, the room's light suddenly turned on, making Izuku almost drop his invisibility. He quickly began to crawl back up the wall, only to glance down and see that a door from the opposite of the room had been opened, a masked man coming in and flicking another light switch.
"Is everything ready?" the thug asked another masked man that walked through the door, "The master will be coming here tomorrow."
"Everything is here. I have taken inventory." the second masked thug replied as they walked through the room.
"Good. The master wants to up the timetables."
"Because of the spider? He seems to interfere much more than the heroes."
"I do not know." the first masked man said as they got to the other side of the room, pulling out a key as he opened another door. Izuku was right above him, staring the duo as he invisibly crawled down to their level. And as they walked out of the room, Izuku got down the floor, slowly opening the door behind them.
And as he did this, he glanced inside and saw the room's lights were on. Several masked men were there, some moving crates while others were just standing around and talking. Izuku wanted to sigh as he still couldn't understand what they were saying, but instead just invisibly crawled up the wall. He felt his head start to hurt, cancelling the invisibility as he reached the ceiling. He then glanced down and started counting everyone in the room.
'Only ten. But I don't see any weapons on them...maybe their swords and guns are somewhere else in the building?' He took a deep breath, 'Should I go for it or see if there's more guys somewhere around here?'
He looked back at the door he had went through, only to feel a tingle in his head. He knew what it meant. He couldn't keep his invisibility much longer. The teen quickly crawled down, going through the top of the door's frame and back into the car room. Izuku turned visible a second later, putting a hand to his head. 'Urgh...gotta be more careful.'
The teen glanced around at this, not seeing anybody else in the room. He then crawled over to the other side of the room, going down to another door and grabbing the knob. However, it wouldn't move. 'Locked. Hmm...' He glanced back at the first door, 'The only way to get past it is to break it open, and that'll make a lot of noise. Looks like I'm just gonna have to go and beat those guys.'
He fired a web line and swung across the room, silently landing on the wall before going over to the top of the door and slowly opened it. Izuku released himself from the wall and spun around, landing before quietly opening the door regularly. As he did this, he saw the masked men still didn't notice, the teen quickly crawling up the wall before surveying the area.
'They still don't have their weapons. Good. Let's do this.' He pointed his wrists at three that were all standing around each other, talking.
Thwip!
A big glob of webbing hit the trio, sticking them all together. "What the-" one of them yelped before another blast of webbing hit one of their feet, Izuku yanking it a second later.
They let out a yell as the rest turned to the webbed-up trio, only for Izuku land right beside another masked thug, electricity surging through a fist. "Venom Punch!" he exclaimed as the thug turned to him, only to feel an electrified punch to the gut, knocking him flying.
"The spider!" another yelled before energy poured out of his fists, the thug roaring as he charged at the vigilante. He then threw a punch at Izuku, the teen ducking under it before thrusting a jab into the thug's face, shattering the mask and knocking him off his feet.
"Get the spider!" two more thugs roared, only for Izuku to fire two web lines into their feet, yanking both a second later. Globs of webbing then hit their chests as their backs hit the floor, sticking both to the ground.
Danger!
Izuku spun around at this, only to see an energy wave to hit him, knocking Izuku off his feet. "Augh!" he yelped as his back hit the floor, only to quickly roll back onto his feet. But as he did this, two other thugs charged at him, both now wielding katanas. Energy poured out of them as they leapt at Izuku, thrusting both weapons down at him. Spider sense blaring, Izuku fired a web line to the right and pulled, yanking himself away just in time before landing. The two katana thugs charged at him again at this, Izuku then firing a web line at the ceiling and yanking himself upward. He flipped over them as the thugs tried to slash at him, only for Izuku to fire two more web lines, grabbing the thugs' backs and yanking them. As he did this, both were knocked off balance, Izuku then firing more webbing and sticking them into the floor.
But as this happened, the final thug ran out of the room. He grabbed a phone and began yell into it, "Master! The spider is here! He-"
Thwip!
Webbing covered the phone and was yanked out of his grasp, Izuku grabbing it, "So...who ya talking to?" Izuku then stared at the phone, only to see it was showing a restricted number.
"Give that back!" the final thug yelled as he pulled out a pistol. Spider sense began to yell at this, Izuku firing another shot of webbing, hitting the pistol before yanking it away as well. And as this happened, the thug began to charge at Izuku, the teen ducking under the punch before slamming a Venom Punch into him, knocking him flying. Webbing covered him next, sticking him to the floor.
"And...that's that. " Izuku commented as he looked back at the phone, now seeing the call had ended. "Darn. Well, I hope he doesn't know I'm coming, but I don't know what that guy said before I took the phone." He let out a sigh and put away the phone, "I'll use you later." He then walked back into the room full of knocked out thugs, Izuku's eyes glancing around, 'Dang. I think I'm getting pretty good at this.'
He walked around the room, seeing it seemed to be a break room, only to see another door. Izuku shuffled up to it, grabbing the knob and seeing it was also locked. 'Well, I don't need to be quiet anymore.' He pulled on the door, yanking it off its frames. He then put it to the side, walking into a small hallway, which had another door at the end. Going over there, he found he had to break this door as well, only to go into another room.
However, this room made him go wide-eyed. It was filled to the brim with money and jewels. All of them were on desks, stacks upon stacks of cash and bags of jewels on the floor. 'Is this from the banks they stole from?' He glanced back and forth at the money, putting a hand to his chin, 'Mister Li...did you really do all this? I mean, I know these masked guys did this, but if you're their boss...'
He closed his eyes next, his mind going through everything that he had just done over these past two days. Finding the mask, the secret room, and now this...it was almost too much for the teen. He took a deep breath before looking back at the hallway. 'No. I'm going to finish this. I will catch Mister Li and find out why he's doing this.' He pulled out the tracker again, seeing that the dots still hadn't moved. 'Here's hoping he still hasn't left that first hideout.
Izuku went back to the room with the knocked-out thugs, firing a web line into the ceiling before cricking his hands. 'But before I go get him, I wanna try something.'
Naomasa was not happy. It started with an anonymous phone call to the police station, which was obviously Spider-Man. It didn't help that he said he was Spider-Man, and he stated that he had found a hideout of the 'masked men', (Which surprised him that the vigilante didn't know what the gang was actually called) and they were all knocked out for the police. This was followed with him calling Aizawa and heading over to the building.
And as he entered the place, he found himself looking at a room with a giant web cocoon with all the masked thugs in it, along with a small card. Naomasa took it and read aloud, "Here's a wrapped-up present for you! I'm gonna go fight the big boss of these guys now. Also, here's the location of another one of their hideouts. Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!"
Naomasa growled as he wanted to rip the card up, only to groan and put it into an evidence bag. As he did this, one of the officers ran in and yelled about a room full of money. He followed him and saw it, the sight making him facepalm just as he was then told Eraserhead was here.
A minute later, the two were now talking as the rest of the force there began to tape down the area. "So what do we got?" Aizawa asked as he took a sip of coffee.
"A lot that we definitely need to cover up."
"That bad?" Aizawa asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yup. There's a whole room back there with a ton of stolen money." Naomasa sighed, "Apparently, Spider-Man knows where the hideouts for the Inner Demons are." He held up the bag with the card in it, "He even gave us an address."
"Oh?" Aizawa took the bag, squinting his eyes. "He knows where their boss is?"
"Apparently so." Naomasa sighed again, "I already told the force about the card and they're preparing a strike team. Granted, I would like more time to plan it, but-"
"I'm guessing you want to do it now because Spider-Man is going after their boss." Aizawa finished before taking another sip, "Did you tell the chief?"
Naomasa groaned at this, "First thing I did." He pulled out his phone as it suddenly rang, "Here we go..."
Li had his eyes closed as he sat behind a wooden desk. Energy began to sizzle around his fingers as he them crossed in front of his face, his elbows resting on the desk. He took a long, deep breath before opening his eyes, staring straight ahead. In front of him was a room full of masked men, all wielding guns and katanas.
"The spider has found our hideout." Li hissed, slightly gritting his teeth, "I can only assume he will now come for me."
"What do you want us to do, master?" the thug in front of the rest asked.
"Some of you will wait for the spider. The others will get the truck ready." Li then ascended from his chair, spinning around before taking a sheathed blade off the wall. He unsheathed the sword, revealing a thin, yet deadly katana. He rubbed his finger down its side, his shining white eyes staring at the blade as his mouth slightly contorted, showing pure white teeth. The man slowly turned back to the group of thugs at this, energy now surging around the blade, "And when the spider arrives, you will kill him."
"As you wish, master."
