Chapter 12

Miles POV

Sunday night, as usual, Miles was assigned his next mission, but for the first time, he hesitated on whether he wanted to follow through on it.

Before this, every night he got to spend working with Spider-Woman had been highly anticipated, but with his newfound knowledge of her identity, Miles knew that everything would now feel different. He would no longer be able to look at Spider-Woman without seeing Gwen and vice versa.

But then, he still had a job to do, one that he couldn't easily quit, and bringing Spider-Woman along with him was certainly not optional. Still, that fact didn't stop him from determinedly keeping his eyes averted from Spider-Woman when he heard her drop onto the rooftop behind him, instead keeping his gaze focused on the entrance to a club across the street, where a large bouncer stood in front with his arms crossed, surveying the street and occasionally allowing certain people into the building.

When Spider-Woman arrived and Miles didn't even acknowledge her presence, she seemed to sense that something was wrong and asked, "What? No 'hello'? No, 'hey, Gwen, how's it-'"

"Nice as it was for you to reveal your identity to me, let's stick with the codenames while we're in the field, alright?" Miles cut her off, and though he asked it like a question, his tone was firm enough to make it clear that it was really an order.

Spider-Woman blinked at him in surprise at being interrupted like that, but recovered quickly and nodded, saying, "Alright, I got it. I mean, I guess you probably just want to keep it fair because I don't know your name, but whatever. That's cool."

"You know my name," Miles corrected her. "It's Prowler, and for now, that's all you need to know."

Spider-Woman put a hand on her hip and rolled her eyes at him, then said, "Right. Well, then I guess I'll at least still have to learn your last name. Or is it just 'Prowler'?"

Ignoring her joke, Miles cast her a short glance over his shoulder and asked, "Could you just get over here? We need to get to work."

Despite her general unprofessional behavior, no one could say that Spider-Woman was whatsoever negligent when she put her mind to something, and she predictably immediately acceded to Miles' order once he made it clear that they needed to get on the move. Walking up by his side and perching on the ledge next to where he stood, Spider-Woman looked down at the club entrance and asked, "Alright, who's getting a pest problem tonight?"

"Whitney Frost, otherwise known as Maggia leader Madame Masque," Miles responded. "Born in Rome and most of her criminal empire is mainly in Europe. She wasn't our original target, but she's taking a short break out of Madripoor and I figured that we could take her down while she's here in New York."

"So… Jameson's going to be ranting about us attacking a woman on her vacation tomorrow?" Spider-Woman asked.

Shrugging, Miles responded, "Pretty much, but we can't worry about that right now. Frost leaves tomorrow morning, so this will be our only chance to take her down."

"Which is why we can't leave anything to chance," came another voice almost identical to Miles' own from behind them, and both he and Spider-Woman spun around to face the source of the voice, Miles snapping out his claws defensively while Spider-Woman fired a small burst of webbing from her wrist. Her web struck the hand of the man that had snuck up on them, creating a small clang of metal on metal as the man's hand was stuck onto the side of a vent fan.

However, at that moment, both Miles and Spider-Woman recognized the man, and despite their shared familiarity with him, they were both equally surprised at his presence. The man looked down at his hand trapped in the webbing, then sighed and said, "Right. I didn't miss this stuff." Then, he effortlessly pulled his arm free of the webbing, ripping part of the fan off with it with the sound of tearing metal, then used his free hand to pluck the webbing off of himself as Miles' Uncle Aaron continued, "And it's good to see you again too, Spider-Woman."

Momentarily stupified by his uncle's surprise arrival, Miles asked, "Unc- I mean… Prowler. What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to help with the mission," Uncle Aaron replied like it should be obvious.

Spider-Woman stared wide-eyed at Aaron for a moment, taking in his own easily recognizable Prowler uniform, despite the fact that she'd only seen him wearing it once, and said, "Wait, what? ¿Dos Prowleros?" She then looked at Miles and questioned, "I thought you said that he was done permanently?"

Aaron looked at Miles and asked, "Really? You said that? Not gonna lie, kinda offended by that, man."

"I said you might be!" Miles corrected hurriedly. "Which I thought you were! Why- How are you here? I thought your arm-"

Hearing that, Aaron raised his right arm to show them, which Miles now noticed was some sort of advanced prosthetic, made completely of metal and painted black and purple except for the ends of the fingers, which were tipped with silver claws that looked smaller yet just as sharp as the claws of the gauntlet he wore on his other hand. "Honestly, I thought I was done too, but last night, I managed to get this thing. A prosthetic arm more responsive, more advanced than anything they sell anywhere, and custom-made specifically for the Prowler. And it comes with some improvements, watch."

And with that, Uncle Aaron walked over to the ledge next to them, stretched out his new prosthetic arm towards the building across the street, and his hand suddenly separated from the rest of the arm at the wrist, getting launched across the street while trailing a thin wire, and impaled its claws into the roof of the club. Then, before either Miles or Spider-Woman could react to this, Aaron jumped off the roof and got reeled in quickly by his cord, crossing the street and landing on the opposite roof with his arm once again wholly intact in a mere couple seconds, then looked back and waved for them to follow him.

Well, while Uncle Aaron's arrival may have been unexpected and he probably wasn't necessary for the success of this mission, Miles couldn't see any reason why he should be unwelcome. And so, getting ready to follow after his uncle, Miles took a couple steps back and prepared to jump across the street, but then noticed that Spider-Woman seemed distracted, simply looking at Aaron with his eyes furrowed in concentration.

Trying to snap her out of it, Miles told her, "Spider-Woman! Come on, let's go!"

It almost seemed like she didn't hear him, however, and after a few more seconds she turned to Miles and said, "You never mentioned that the other Prowler lost his arm."

At that moment, Miles suddenly recalled that Gwen had met his uncle when he had just barely had his arm removed, which had probably been the last time that she had met anyone with such an affliction, and he could practically sense the memory of the moment going through her mind. Well, it seemed that Miles had found a reason for his uncle to be unwelcome.

But he was probably just overreacting. There were plenty of amputees in the world, certainly no shortage of them in New York City, and there was no reason why Gwen should assume that his uncle had anything to do with the Prowler just because they were missing the same arm. Now he just needed to convince her of that.

"Didn't I?" Miles asked, acting like he was surprised at this information. Then, remembering that Uncle Aaron had told them that he had lost it just last Friday, he added, "Well, he got it removed a few weeks ago, just after it got crushed in your fight. It wasn't going to just heal, so he just had it amputated."

Spider-Woman seemed to think about it for a few seconds, then nodded to him and said, "Let's go. Frost isn't going to arrest herself."

Relieved that she had dismissed the thought of his uncle's arm, Miles watched her jump off the side of the building and pull herself over to the other rooftop next to Aaron, and then Miles followed behind her, leaping off of the rooftop and bouncing once again in midair to land gently on top of the club. Once his feet touched the ground again, Miles turned to Spider-Woman and told her, "Spider-Woman, look around and find us the best way inside."

Spider-Woman nodded to him again, this time in acceptance, and immediately jumped off the edge and began to crawl around the sides of the building, carefully staying in the shadows. After she was gone, Uncle Aaron began to turn away to begin his own search for an entrance, but Miles stopped him by quickly grabbing his arm and hissing, "Uncle Aaron, you can't be here."

"Why not?" Aaron responded quietly. "Look, man, this was always the plan, for me to eventually get back in. And yeah, for a minute it didn't look so good, but I'm here now. Mr. Murdock wanted me here, he gave me the arm so I could come help you. Now we can get back to being a team. And now that you're the Prowler as well, you're not my sidekick anymore. You're my partner."

"I already have a partner," Miles responded before he could stop himself.

Uncle Aaron scoffed and pointed back towards the ledge as he said disbelievingly, "Spider-Woman? She's just a job, Miles, whereas me and you, we're family. The two Prowlers, we're a natural team."

"I don't care, you can't be here right now. You're interfering with my mission," Miles protested.

Spreading his arms, Uncle Aaron demanded, "Oh, really? How? Because last I checked, your 'mission' wasn't going too well."

Miles opened his mouth to explain exactly how complicated the situation had become, wanting to tell his uncle about how he had already accomplished his mission but just couldn't bring himself to turn over incriminating information on his best friend, but just as they had with Mr. Murdock, Miles' instincts suddenly kicked in and silenced him before he could tell Aaron anything, though once again, he couldn't say why he was so hesitant to share this information with someone he should be able to trust.

Luckily, his inability to respond to Uncle Aaron's question was covered up by the sudden reappearance of Spider-Woman, who had a disappointed look on her face as she reported the unfortunate news that, "There doesn't seem to be any open entrance except the front door. We won't be sneaking in."

Aaron looked straight down at the floor beneath them and added, "And Madame Masque is on the middle floor, so we can't get to her any easier through the rooftop or the main entrance."

Miles thought it over for a second, then said, "Then we'll do both. We'll attack from above and below at the same time, pin Frost down and minimize any chance of escape."

"Or you and I could just blow open the wall right next to Masque and grab her," Uncle Aaron suggested, but Miles quickly shut him down.

"We're trying to avoid collateral damage if possible," he told his uncle firmly.

At that, Uncle Aaron folded his arms across his chest grumpily, clearly not much enjoying taking Miles' orders instead of the other way around, but consented and said, "Alright, fine. So we have our plan, let's get moving. Me and mini-Prowler will go in through the rooftop entrance, and Spider-Woman, you take the front door."

"Actually, the front door will probably be the best protected," Spider-Woman quickly pointed out, "so I think maybe mini-Prowler should come with me instead, and macro-Prowler can handle the roof by himself."

"Okay, first of all, both of you stop calling me 'mini-Prowler'," Miles spoke up before Uncle Aaron could argue, as he clearly wanted to. "Second, Spider-Woman's right. Me and her will take the front entrance, and Prowler, you go in through the roof."

Judging by the glare that Uncle Aaron gave Miles upon hearing this, he clearly didn't like that he had taken Gwen's side, but what was Miles supposed to say? It was true that the fight from the bottom up would probably be harder than fighting one's way down, and Miles had to make the practical decision for the sake of the mission.

"And what if extra backup comes my way when they see that there's two of you downstairs?" Uncle Aaron asked in one final attempt to change Miles' mind.

However, Miles just shrugged and responded, "Then I guess you'll get to find out what that fancy new arm of yours can do, huh?"

Aaron didn't respond to that, merely growled and cast one last glare at Spider-Woman and walked over towards the rooftop doorway. Meanwhile, Miles and Spider-Woman began to walk in the other direction, and Spider-Woman leaned over towards him to whisper, "I don't think he likes me very much."

"Maybe he's bitter that after you crushed his arm, you didn't offer him a 'hand'. Or maybe because I wouldn't be surprised if you did," Miles responded.

Spider-Woman looked at him in surprise and asked, "Did you just make a joke?"

"If you ever tell anyone, I will deny it," Miles answered, though he gave a slight smirk beneath his mask as he saw the evident glee on Spider-Woman's face reflected through the eyes of her mask in the way they furrowed upwards excitedly.

Looking down over the edge of the building, they could see the club's bouncer still standing in front of the building's entrance, looking around menacingly and flexing the large muscles on his arms like an unspoken challenge to all of the few people actually on the street. Sadly for him, no number of times that he visited the gym would prepare him for what he was about to face.

Miles looked at Spider-Woman and asked, "You want this one?"

She just shrugged and said, "Sure, why not?"

Nodding in acceptance, Miles jumped down and landed silently right behind the bouncer, then leaned casually against the doorway to the nightclub. Once he was satisfied with his positioning, Miles cleared his throat to get the bouncer's attention and as the large man spun around in shock to see Miles standing behind him, Miles held up two fingers and said, "Party of two, please. Sorry, we didn't bring our invitations, but will this do?"

With that, Miles gestured with his head over the bouncer's shoulder, and the man looked around in confusion just in time to get hit in the chest by a swinging kick from Spider-Woman that knocked him off of his feet and sent him flying into the open doorway of the club. The bouncer's unconscious body collapsed hard on the floor and instantly drew the attention of every person in the room, though their eyes quickly shifted instead to Miles and Spider-Woman as they stepped into the doorway and Gwen said, "Well, that was kinda disappointing. He just stayed there on the ground. Why even call him a 'bouncer', then?"

Whether due to the shock that came with the sight of the giant, unconscious, muscular man on the floor, the outlandish and unique appearances of Miles and his companion, or simply speechlessness following Spider-Woman's terrible joke, no one in the club reacted to their arrival at first.

Noticing that most of the people in here looked relatively innocent and not particularly like criminals, Miles used the silence to his benefit as he softly but firmly ordered, "Everyone out. Now."

There was an instant panicked outrush of people swarming past Miles and Spider-Woman on their way out the door, some sounding annoyed or frightened or just generally scandalized, but within less than a minute, practically everyone had left the building. The only people that remained were a group of gruff-looking men in matching blue suits and holding an assortment of pistols and stun batons in their hands.

"Is it just me, or do all evil goons look the same?" Spider-Woman asked with a slight inclination of her head, sounding genuinely curious as she watched the men approach with no trace of fear.

"You'll have to submit a complaint at the next criminal convention," Miles told her as he began to close the distance with Frost's bodyguards himself. "But for now, we have a job to do."

"Right, right," Spider-Woman agreed with a nod, then crouched down in preparation for a fight.

However, Miles decided that they didn't have time to fight these guys individually, and as the half-dozen men surrounded him in a semicircle, he looked back at Spider-Woman to say, "Shoot me a web, then hold on."

Apparently trusting his plan, Spider-Woman immediately shot a web line straight at him, which Miles easily sidestepped and grabbed ahold of with one hand, then used his strength to whip it around in front of himself. With Spider-Woman holding onto the other end, this allowed him to swing her straight into each of them and kick them all unconscious one by one within seconds and before any of them could even try to fire a shot.

Once this was done, Spider-Woman looked around as though expecting more guards to arrive, but when none did, she remarked, "Huh. Have I finally run into a bad guy whose hired guns don't grow on trees? I guess they just don't make 'em like they used to."

"Frost's security is weaker here, in a city outside her control," Miles explained. "Honestly, there was no chance that you really needed my help getting in here."

Spider-Woman looked at him fondly and said, "Maybe not, but I bet you enjoyed our team-up anyway, huh? I know I did."

Looking away, Miles managed to keep a straight face as he answered, "No," even as both his heart and mind disagreed with him most strongly.

Perhaps Spider-Woman didn't believe his denial, or perhaps she was just having too much fun to care, because she ignored him and said, "We should work on that combo move again some time. That was so cool! And when you swung me around like that, it was so much fun!"

Trying to maintain his focus, Miles looked up and activated his infrared scanner to locate Madame Masque, then said, "Frost is still on the second floor, and it looks like Prowler's dealt with most of the other security team. We'd better get up there, and fast."

At that, perhaps on instinct, he looked at Spider-Woman questioningly, silently wondering if he could get away with picking her up to carry her up there again, as that was certainly the fastest way for them to get upstairs. However, she noticed him looking and apparently managed to piece together what he was debating, because she glared at him and vehemently said, "Don't even think about it."

Miles put up his hands innocently, though part of him was actually somewhat relieved that she had forbidden him to carry her again, as he imagined it would feel slightly more awkward now that he knew she was Gwen under that mask. But with that option eliminated, Miles looked resignedly towards a door along one wall labeled "Stairs" and said, "Alright, walking it is."

With no further words, he and Spider-Woman both ran towards the stairway door and Miles wrenched it open to allow Gwen to step through first, then he followed closely behind her. With his scanner still active, Miles could see Uncle Aaron enter Frost's room before they finished climbing the stairs, but they burst into the room as well mere seconds after Aaron had arrived.

The woman who must be Whitney Frost stood in the back of the room, her hands folded behind her back as she looked back and forth between the two entrances on either side of her, seeming perfectly at ease despite the three masked vigilantes that had just invaded her private parlor. She was a slim woman with long, black, silky hair flowing down her back and wearing a form-fitting bodysuit with a belt covered in numerous small pockets around her waist.

However, the most striking part of her appearance was a mask that looked like it was made of solid gold that covered her entire face, only open in a pair of small eye holes and textured with a pair of lips engraved in the gold right above where her real mouth should be, the whole thing contrasting greatly against her black and white uniform.

Upon seeing Miles and Spider-Woman arrive, Frost began to say, "Well, well, well. So three fools thinking themselves some kind of heroes show up to challenge-"

However, at that moment, Spider-Woman cut her off by pointing at her face and saying, "Oh, I get it! Madame Masque, like Madame Mask! Because… your mask!"

Frost paused in stunned silence for a moment, then said, "Er, yes. Now, as I was saying, you all have come here thinking that you could intimidate the mighty Madame Masque with your masks and-"

"I don't think you're really in any position to judge us for that," Spider-Woman once again interrupted her, Miles trying and failing to suppress a smirk beneath his own mask next to her as she did so.

Frost took a deep breath to calm herself and continued, "But you made a grave mistake, for I am Madame Masque, international scourge and master of crime, and I will not be bested by you and your cheap parlor tricks." She then whipped her hands out from behind herself, drawing two pistols to direct one at each of their groups on either side of her, and challenged, "So take your best shot, then beg for mercy from-"

But that was as far as she got before a burst of webbing landed over her eyes, obscuring her vision and making her grunt in pain. At the same time as Gwen, it seemed, Miles had run out of interest and now pulled a device from one of his pants pockets and threw it onto the ground in front of Frost. As soon as it hit the ground, the device lit up and emitted a powerful if momentary magnetic wave that pulled both guns out of Madame Masque's hands, also making her stumble forward as her arms were pulled inwards by the magnet. While she was off-balance, Spider-Woman shot a web onto one of her ankles, then tethered the other end to the ceiling to dangle Frost upside-down, the older woman letting out a yell as she was blindly pulled into an inverted position. Then, Miles mercifully ended Madame Masque's torture by firing one of his Constrictors to pin her to the wall, pressed firmly face-first and upended against the vertical surface a few feet off the ground.

Satisfied with their work, Spider-Woman lowered the hand that she had used to fire her webs and said, "Thank goodness. We managed to stop her from saying her terrible nickname again."

"Then this city will sleep a little more soundly tonight," Miles agreed.

He then winced to himself at the same time as Spider-Woman looked at him with amusement and said, "You should joke more often, you're pretty good at it."

"No," Miles simply responded once again, though he once again experienced a few internal misgivings about the matter.

After a few seconds, Uncle Aaron stepped forward and looked at the results of Miles and Gwen's handiwork, then looked back at the two of them and said, "You know, you two make a good team. I can see why you like working together."

At that, Miles' expression fell with annoyance, knowing what was coming, and sure enough, Spider-Woman turned to look at him with mock flattery and asked, "Aww, did you tell him that you like being my partner? Oh, Prowly, I knew you liked me."

"Yet you're constantly reminding me why I shouldn't," Miles told her in return.

Apparently enjoying their banter, Uncle Aaron chuckled at them as he held open the door on his side of the room and allowed them to walk past him, heading back towards the roof. The whole way, Miles continually tried to vocally deny his fondness for Spider-Woman while she managed to ignore all of it, possibly due to a fact that Miles knew deep within himself: that his heart wasn't in his argument.

When they arrived back on the rooftop, Miles and Spider-Woman walking side-by-side with Uncle Aaron trailing a short distance behind them, Spider-Woman turned to face Miles and cut off his latest protest by saying, "Alright, say whatever you want, we both know the truth. I need to get going, it's a school night, but I'll see you for the next mission, yeah?"

Miles nodded his affirmation and Spider-Woman gave him a wink and a soft tap on the shoulder before running over to jump off the edge of the building and swing out of sight.

Miles watched her go until she disappeared from view, and Uncle Aaron soon stepped up by his side. "Do you know where she goes to school?" Uncle Aaron asked, staring into the distance also.

Once again, Miles felt the inexplicable urge not to be truthful about this matter and answered, "No. I can't ask too many personal questions without risking her getting suspicious."

Uncle Aaron nodded in understanding, then said, "Well, it looks like you've made good progress. You two seem like you've gotten close."

Miles shrugged. "I guess you could say that. All part of the mission, right?"

Aaron chuckled and shook his head to himself, then said, "Oh, Miles. I know you too well for that. This is more than the mission, isn't it? You like her! And I mean really like her!"

Rearing back in shock, Miles questioned, "What? No no no. She's just a friend-"

Still obviously not believing him, Uncle Aaron said, "Yeah, you like her. Man. First the girl from your school, now the Spider-Woman? And your mission of all people? And the best part, they both like you, too! Finally, my nephew's got some game!"

Scowling to himself, Miles pushed his uncle away and said, "Man, get out of here. You don't even know about either of them."

"Well, we'll see," Uncle Aaron claimed, sounding supremely confident. "Just make sure you watch how much the spider one messes with your head. She could be dangerous to you, Miles. Still, it was fun to watch you two together. I hope I get to work with you guys again at some point."

Picking up on the implication of that last line, Miles asked, "Wait, what does that mean? Are you not planning on sticking around?"

Aaron shook his head and answered, "No, the boss told me to help you for one night, and one night only. After tonight, he said he was gonna put me on 'standby' for a while, whatever that means."

Miles was confused by this information. Why would Mr. Murdock only want Uncle Aaron to help him for one night? It hadn't been enough time for him to do much good, but it had been just enough to nearly cause a big problem for Miles, almost allowing Gwen an opportunity to discover both Miles' and Aaron's secret identities. And yes, they had managed to relieve her suspicions, but they had been very fortunate to do so, and it had been a big risk to take.

Then again, Miles couldn't blame Matt for making such a mistake. He had no idea how close Spider-Woman was to Miles, so it could only be an unfortunate coincidence. Yet it had unquestionably been mere luck that had saved them tonight, and they couldn't rely on luck to protect their identities for long, especially not from someone as smart as Gwen.

Gwen POV

Gwen couldn't focus at all in school the next day. Her mind was distracted with a crucial question that she just couldn't answer, no matter how hard she tried.

Finally, she decided that there was nothing else to do than to simply talk to her best friend about it. And so, after the last bell rang at the end of the day and Miles walked out of the classroom, Gwen ran after him and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. He looked around and saw her, then raised an eyebrow and quickly stepped to the side of the hallway so they could have a private conversation out of the way of the other students going past them. "What's up?" he asked once they had come to a complete stop.

"I need to ask you something," Gwen told him seriously.

Miles shifted his backpack on his shoulder and looked around almost nervously before saying, "Alright, what is it?"

Gwen took a deep breath, somewhat embarrassed about having to ask him this at all, and questioned, "What's scarier? Encountering a hippo or a lion right in front of you?"

There was a pause, then Miles asked her, "Are you serious?"

Nodding with determination, Gwen confirmed, "Dead serious."

Miles sighed as though her question had underwhelmed him and answered, "Obviously the hippo. Do you have any idea how many lions a single hippo could take down?"

And with that, he began to walk away, causing Gwen to hurry to keep up with him as she said, "Maybe, but it's not about which one would win in a fight, it's about which one you'd rather encounter. And, I mean, lions have sharper teeth and those claws!"

"Look, I enjoy claws as much as the next guy, but hippos have an average bite force of over 1800 PSI, nearly twice that of a lion. And their body weight and thick skin make them way harder to kill or even survive getting close to them," Miles responded, seeming uninterested in the conversation even as he made good contributions to it.

Seeing his point but still not entirely sure that she would agree with his opinion, Gwen asked for clarification. "So you would definitely prefer to fight the lion if you had to?"

Miles shook his head and muttered, "Somehow I imagine that either of us would be fine fighting either one."

Gwen wasn't sure how much of that he had meant for her to hear, but the comment did interest her. She would've thought that Miles was too smart to believe that their minds alone would be able to save them if they were cornered by one of those creatures, but that did seem to be the assumption he was working under. Of course, Gwen could undoubtedly manage against either creature physically with her spider-powers, but she wouldn't bet too highly on Gwen Stacy or Miles Morales being quite as capable as Spider-Woman.

Gwen began to fall behind as Miles didn't slow his pace while he continued to walk out of the building, but she still followed after him, having nothing better to do at the moment. Eventually, Miles walked outside and slumped down against Visions Academy's exterior wall, in a nice shady corner that was out of sight and technically still on campus yet far enough away from the crowds that their fellow students' voices were faded into the far-off background, then let out a deep breath as he pulled one of his engineering textbooks out of his backpack and began to read through his latest couple chapters of homework, apparently eager to get a head start on it.

He also seemed to think that he had left Gwen behind, judging by the way that he looked up in surprise when Gwen walked over and sat down next to him with an identical groan of relief as she settled against the wall, then said, "Oof. You sure know how to pick a spot to relax, Miles."

For a moment, Miles looked as though he were about to protest her presence here, but then he changed his mind and simply looked at her for a moment curiously, then went back to his textbook and noted, "You kept the pink in your hair."

Gwen reached up and grabbed a lock of her hair to examine the pink tips she had dyed in for Homecoming night, which she had indeed kept as they were, and shyly said, "Yeah, I, uh… decided to keep trying it for a while." She paused for a moment, then nervously asked, "Do you like it?"

To her elation, Miles nodded in response, though he didn't look at her again as he said, "I didn't trust myself to bring it up on Friday night. My mom told me not to be too forward, and I think I may have said too much about how great you looked already."

Smiling to herself at the memory, Gwen responded, "Well, I thought it was just the right amount."

Miles smirked smugly at that, but then his expression fell as he asked, "But didn't you have more important things to be doing that night?"

Tilting her head at him curiously, Gwen asked, "Like what?"

Miles shrugged and responded, "Well, I mean, I can't be the only person in this city that occupies your time, right?"

Gwen stared at him in confusion for a moment, then reminded him, "Miles, we spend most of our days stuck in the same school."

"And what about the nights?" Miles questioned, but before she could respond, he looked away and groaned as he buried his face in his book and said, "Actually, forget I said that."

Gwen smirked at him with amusement. He seemed to have realized what a foolish-sounding question it was right after asking it, but the irony of the situation still was not lost on her. If only Miles knew what she really did with her nights…

They sat there for another couple moments in silence, until Miles seemed to feel safe enough to go back to studying his textbook, apparently satisfied that Gwen wasn't going to tease him about his shortsighted question.

However, shortly thereafter, Gwen began to get bored with nothing of her own to do to occupy her time, and instinctively pulled out her flip phone and opened it up to stare at her contacts, waiting impatiently for a call or text from Prowler. He usually texted her around this time of day, shortly after school had ended, and she was eager to hear about their next job.

Unfortunately, Miles apparently hadn't been as distracted as she had thought, as he looked over at the phone in her hands and abruptly leaned his head back against the wall, looking up at the sky and mouthing something to himself in Spanish while he shook his head.

Seeing him obviously in some sort of distress, Gwen asked him, "What is it?"

He looked back over at her in an unimpressed way, then glanced at her phone once again and said, "It's just… that's not your phone."

Acting innocent to throw off his suspicion, Gwen nervously threw the phone back into her backpack and zipped it shut as she responded, "What are you talking about? Sure it is!"

"You handed me your cell phone last week," Miles reminded her. "It definitely didn't look like that."

Now even more flustered, Gwen said, "Well, er… my other one broke! So I'm using this one while I get it replaced."

After she'd said it, however, Gwen could see in Miles' eyes that he didn't believe her, even as he nodded and responded, "I see."

Knowing that she was trapped in dangerous waters, Gwen took that as her cue to leave and hurriedly stood up while saying, "Well, anyway, this was nice. We should do this again sometime. I'll see you tomorrow, Miles."

And with that, Gwen began to speed-walk away from Miles, but she stopped upon hearing her friend call after her, "Gwen!"

Slightly worried, Gwen turned back around and found some small object flying towards her, almost moving too fast for her to catch. However, with her spider-proportionate reflexes, Gwen just barely managed to catch the object right in front of her face, though she immediately mentally chided herself for using her powers right in front of someone, her best friend, no less. Hopefully Miles would simply attribute the improbable catch to luck or perhaps a sudden rush of adrenaline. After all, he had thrown it rather forcefully.

While these thoughts were going through Gwen's mind, Miles put his textbook back in his backpack and stood up to walk away from the area as well. However, as he passed her, he leaned over and quickly told her, "Better not forget this."

And then he was gone, walking right by her without another word, and Gwen spun around to watch him leave, but as soon as a crowd of students walked past in front of Gwen's sight line, by the time they had passed, Miles' back had vanished from view, a trick he had demonstrated in front of Gwen before, but only now did she realize for the first time that he was disappearing on her deliberately. It was odd to come to that conclusion, both because she still didn't know how he'd managed it and because she couldn't imagine why Miles would want to leave her behind like that.

But rather than wondering about that in her mind at the moment, Gwen decided to instead focus on whatever Miles had given her. Looking down at the object still clutched tightly in her hand, Gwen turned it around for a second before she recognized it; it was her personal cell phone, the one that she had been sure was safely hidden in her back pants pocket while she talked to Miles about it being broken. How could he have taken it from her, especially without her notice?

However he'd done it, his point was made clear, that he obviously knew that she had lied about her phone being broken. Looking back sadly towards the spot where Miles had disappeared, Gwen thought guiltily about how it must've made Miles feel to know that she had told a lie straight to his face. Of course, she had never expected him to be able to find out about her lie, but that didn't make her feel any less like a terrible friend.

Line Break

Late that night, long after the building's lights had gone out, Gwen laid awake in her bed staring thoughtfully at the ceiling. For the first time since she had started working with Prowler (not counting Homecoming as that had been special circumstances), Gwen had not been called or texted about a mission, and it was setting off her nerves, especially considering that she had not even been given an explanation.

She briefly wondered if maybe he had gone on his latest mission with that other, original Prowler, but she still felt like she would've at least been told about that. Unless her preferred Prowler thought that he no longer needed her as a partner now that his old mentor was back?

Now that her thoughts drifted back to that original Prowler, Gwen decided to use her free time trying to complete some of the mental debates she'd had about him last night. The return of the first Prowler she had ever encountered had been confusing, and not just because she'd suddenly found herself working with two guys who had the same name, nor because of the awkward reunion with someone that she had accidentally dropped a tower on.

His appearance had simply been unexpected, especially considering how confident Prowler (That is, her Prowler. Well, not her Prowler, but… Whatever!) had been that his mentor would not be returning to the job. She had figured that mini-Prowler would know one way or another, despite how surprised he had seemed when macro-Prowler had showed up. After all, he'd said that they were family…

Gwen abruptly sat up in her bed, her eyes wide. She wasn't sure what she'd just stumbled upon, but her mind suddenly seemed convinced that it had been crucially important.

Trying to recall the thought process she'd just been following, Gwen thought back to the older Prowler and traced back her mental faculties regarding him, soon settling on what she'd been thinking last night. Prowler (the old one) had arrived, and she recognized him instantly. She could hardly believe that he was there, but she had certainly recognized him. There was no forgetting his costume, so similar yet so different to Prowler 2.0's, those dark eyes with narrowed white slits that seemed to stare into her soul at all times, no matter what expression was on his face beneath the mask.

He had looked exactly as she'd remembered him… except for the arm. Yes, that was it! His new prosthetic arm had gotten her attention, she remembered getting distracted by it, wondering where it had come from, if he'd gotten it from the same place as the rest of his gear judging by how advanced it looked. But then… her thoughts had been left unfinished, because the other Prowler had reminded her of their mission, prompting Gwen to put the thought aside until the job was done, but she had forgotten it until this moment.

Seeing Prowler's prosthetic arm, she had briefly wondered if she could somehow acquire one from the same designer, but why? What could she have wanted with an arm? She didn't remember thinking about the possibility of needing it for herself… So for someone else? Well, she only knew one person that needed an arm, Miles' Uncle Aaron.

Poor Aaron, who had lost his arm in an unfortunate accident with some heavy machinery on Friday- Wait, that wasn't right. Miles had started helping his uncle at work around the same time Gwen had met him, right at the beginning of the school year. So his injury must've happened sooner than that, and his arm just wasn't amputated until last Friday. And if his injury had happened just before the school year started… then it would've happened around the same time that Prowler had been injured. In the same place on his body…

Gwen's eyes widened as she received yet another revelation. Could Miles' uncle… possibly be the Prowler, the one she had accidentally hurt? Miles had mentioned that he had a career in advanced mechanics, the perfect background to design some unique tech like the stuff Prowler used. He had the Prowler's same lanky frame, the same speech patterns, the same sense of humor.

Of course, Gwen realized that she couldn't assume that any one amputee was necessarily like any other, but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense for Aaron Morales to be the original Prowler. Even the comment Miles had made about his uncle's flair for the dramatic fit. Oh, no. Miles, Gwen suddenly thought to herself.

If she was right about this (and she now found herself hoping that she wasn't), then Miles' uncle, some of the only family he had left, was a superpowered thief. If it came to it, could Spider-Woman possibly fight him again with this suspicion in the back of her mind?

She couldn't send Aaron to prison, he was her best friend's uncle, her best friend who practically idolized his uncle, who was currently helping him with work at night and was taking advanced engineering classes to help himself become more like Aaron.

Wait a minute…

A terrible thought struck Gwen, something so mind-melting that her head began to hurt just thinking about it, causing her to put her head in her hands to try to ease the pain. She recalled how Miles had pickpocketed her this afternoon, and how he could vanish on her despite all of her enhanced senses. She remembered the younger Prowler freezing and quickly leaving her alone after she revealed her identity to him.

All the times Miles and her had taken "personal time" at the same times while she secretly snuck out to work with Prowler, the night that she and Prowler had gone back to Brooklyn together and stopped right next to the academy, the way Gwen's Spider-Sense never reacted to the new Prowler, even before she had ever considered him a friend. The evidence continued to mount up in Gwen's mind, even more than she'd had for her theory about Aaron being the original Prowler, and she thought to herself, It can't be. Could it?

But if it were possible, if Miles could somehow be… the other guy, then he already knew her secret identity. Could that explain why he had acted so strangely towards her today?

Part of Gwen didn't even want to find out, perhaps because she was afraid of what she may find if she investigated further, but she also got the sense that she may already be too late. Now that she'd considered the possibility, she wouldn't be able to rest without knowing for sure if she was right or wrong.

And so, just like that, the decision was made for her. Climbing off of her bed, Gwen walked over to her desk and got down on one knee to reach beneath the desktop and grabbed her bundled-up Spider-Woman suit from underneath the wooden surface, then stood up once again while quickly brushing leftover residue of her web fluid off of the surface of the suit. She then took off her pajamas and pulled on her suit, then pulled on her hood before walking over to open her dorm's window.

As she climbed out the window, Gwen shook her head and muttered to herself, "I can't believe I'm doing this." She reached up and pulled her mask on beneath her hood, then jumped away from the wall and began to swing around to the north side of the building.

She'd been inside Miles' dorm before, on the day that she had gone to play video games with him last week, and though she recalled the view outside his window fairly well, it still took her a few moments to figure out which window was his. When she did eventually locate it, she stuck to the wall outside and looked within to see Miles sleeping in his bed, his face not currently visible to her as he was rolled over on his side and facing the wall, but his lights were out, he was underneath his covers, and his breathing looked steady and slow, so Gwen decided that it was safe to assume that he was already unconscious.

Still, she was careful not to make a sound as she stuck the tips of her fingers on one hand to the surface of the glass and slowly pulled it open, then climbed inside and began to crawl through the room on the ceiling, looking around for any evidence that could prove her reluctant suspicions, the glow of magenta eyes or the glint of silver claws.

To her disappointment (or perhaps her relief), she found nothing whatsoever out of the ordinary. Miles' room looked completely average for a Brooklyn Visions dorm, almost exactly the same as her own. He didn't have much here, just a few pairs of clothes, his backpack resting against the door, and the standard single-person bed with a desk in the corner with a computer screen on it, on which he and Gwen had played video games together not even a week ago.

At that thought, Gwen felt a quick rush of shame for suspecting her friend of lying to her, and turned to go, but suddenly noticed something else lying on the desk, something that hadn't been there last time: Miles' sketchbook.

After a moment's hesitation, Gwen's curiosity won out and she picked up the sketchbook and began to flip through the pages one by one. Her shame continued to build as she found nothing suspicious in any of the first few dozen pages, featuring only exceptional pieces of what looked like graffiti art, done in the same style as Jeff Morales' mural outside Miles' apartment.

However, she didn't stop looking through each and every page, some including things like grocery lists placed carelessly next to amazingly stylized words or phrases, or astonishingly accurate drawings of people such as his mom, dad, or his Uncle Aaron (still possessing both of his arms).

Then, as she turned one page, she froze in shock as the tone of his drawings shifted drastically. Instead of light-hearted representations of his hobbies or recreations of his family, a familiar symbol popped out at Gwen from the center of the page. It was the symbol that she had always known both Prowlers to wear on their chests, drawn in a dripping magenta that looked just like the one that the younger Prowler wore.

Silently praying that this was some kind of nightmare, Gwen muttered to herself, "No…" Trying to convince herself that this was all in her imagination, Gwen turned to the next page, then the next, and the next, but rather than convincing her that this was a lie, each page only further convinced her that it was true.

She saw schematics for advanced technology including a clawed gauntlet, broken down into masterfully drawn, detailed pieces that were all labeled in Miles' handwriting. There were drawings that looked like early designs for a Prowler suit, including a reference model that was a perfect replica of the older Prowler's suit followed by numerous new designs such as one that had V-shaped eye lenses or one that had a cape.

Soon, Gwen didn't see how much worse things could seem, but then she turned to the final section of the sketchbook and had her question answered.

Stretched across the pages of both sides, Gwen saw dozens of drawings of herself. Or, at least, of Spider-Woman. In each drawing, she was wearing her original suit, frozen in dozens of different positions, some looking like she was fighting an invisible adversary while others featured her simply swinging from a web or even just standing still and looking up sideways back at the real Gwen.

She dreaded what she would find on the next page, and sure enough, Gwen turned the page to find yet more drawings of her, but it got even worse. Gwen felt herself blush beneath her mask as she recognized the last picture on the pair of pages to be not Spider-Woman, but Gwen Stacy herself, back before her hair tips had been dyed, wearing her school uniform and smirking upwards humorously, one hand on her hip while she smiled with amusement, and Gwen embarrassedly noted how Miles had even carefully replicated the small gap between her two front teeth that Gwen had disliked for so long.

Turning the page yet again, Gwen found more drawings of herself alongside drawings of Spider-Woman, and on the next page as well. On the page after that, however, she saw something interesting; a drawing that seemed to have combined the two of them, featuring Gwen Stacy's face on top of Spider-Woman's costumed body, holding her mask in one hand as she gave a mischievous smirk over her shoulder. Miles always seemed to draw her smiling, Gwen noticed as she continued to look through each of his creations, which were now growing in the number of pictures featuring both Gwen and Spider-Woman combined.

Each new image that Gwen laid eyes on made her feel more and more conflicted. Regardless of whether Miles had drawn either Gwen Stacy or Spider-Woman, she couldn't help but notice that he also drew each of them in the best possible light. In these pages, Miles had captured the best parts of both girls and had completely left out all the bad, almost as if in his eyes, there simply were no flaws in either of them. It made Gwen feel… conflicted, to say the least.

Strange as it was for her to find these pictures hand-drawn in her best friend's sketchbook, it was also somewhat… flattering? If these pictures suggested about Miles what she thought they did… she'd never imagined that he'd felt that way about her.

Finally, Gwen reached the last page, which featured only a single drawing. It showed a masterfully drawn image of a single figure in a simple standing position, but split perfectly down the middle to create two different sides of the person. The left side was clearly Gwen Stacy, her hair tucked behind her ear save for a few strands that hung down by her eyebrow piercing as she smirked up at the real Gwen. The right side of the image, however, was wearing the Spider-Woman suit, mask, and hood. Across the top of the image were large words in artistic cursive that spelled out, "Mi ángeles".

"You know, oddly enough, all of the pictures of you mixed with the other you were drawn before I knew that you were both of them," said a low voice behind Gwen.

Jumping slightly at the unexpected announcement, Gwen quickly spun around to see Miles sitting on the edge of his bed with his arms hanging down over his knees and his hands crossed in the middle, still wearing his school uniform as he calmly watched her examine his sketchbook.

"Miles…" Gwen asked in shock as she stared at him, almost afraid to ask what she knew she had to. "You- You're-"

"Yeah," he sighed out in response as he looked down at the ground sadly. A moment later, metal plates began to unfold from the back of his head and wrapped all the way around to form a mask over his face. Then, as magenta shapes lit up to form the familiar eyes on the mask that Gwen had grown so used to while working with him, Miles continued, "I guess neither of us has been completely honest with each other."

Hardly able to believe her own eyes and ears, Gwen asked, "Miles? You're the Prowler?"

Looking down regretfully, the Prowler mask wearing her best friend's body responded, "This isn't how I would've wanted you to find out, but I'm glad you know now."

Gwen looked him up and down, then was forced to face the facts and weakly asked, "How? How could you keep such an important part of your life a secret from me, Miles?"

There was a pause, then Miles tilted his head and narrowed his eyes at her and asked, "You're kidding, right?"

"No, I'm not kidding!" Gwen told him fiercely, pushing down her hood and pulling off her mask to have a more personal conversation, then took a deep breath and mentally reminded herself that the building was supposed to stay quiet at this time of night, before continuing, "You dropped a building on me, Miles!"

"Okay, first of all, we've already been over this, and I already apologized," Miles reminded her. "But knowing who you are now, I agree that I definitely owe you another apology, so I'm sorry!"

Hardly even listening to his apology, Gwen asked, "How am I supposed to process this, Miles? After weeks of becoming friends with both you and Prowler, I suddenly find out that they're the same person?"

Miles' mask retracted from his face before he responded, "Well, I mean, I dealt with the same thing, so-"

"No, you didn't, Miles!" Gwen argued over him. "You don't get it! You were supposed to be the one normal part of my life! Miles Morales was the only thing I had that didn't come with any sort of baggage, and now… this!"

Suddenly getting defensive, Miles glared at her and said, "Hey, don't think that this is fácil for me either. I never expected this to happen. I never even planned on working with Spider-Woman at all. But I did, and now, everything that I did with Spider-Woman, I only found out a couple days ago that it was all you. I didn't want to believe it, but you know what? I haven't had a normal life in a long time, and I'm starting to think it's seriously overrated."

Glaring back at him, Gwen asked, "What happened?"

Miles paused at that, confused by her question, and asked, "What do you-"

"You said that you didn't originally plan on working with me," Gwen noted. "So what happened to make you do it? Because you were the one that came to me and offered to work together."

Miles shifted uncomfortably in place, but when Gwen didn't let up on her look of determination, he sighed and admitted, "Okay, look, I was given a job. I was supposed to figure out your identity for someone."

Letting out a low snarl in the back of her throat, Gwen asked, "And who was this 'someone'?"

"Look, Gwen, once I found out who you were-"

"Who was it?!" Gwen repeated firmly.

Rearing back under Gwen's anger, Miles informed her, "Okay, fine. His name is Matt Murdock. People call him the Kingpin."

"You sold my identity to some mob boss?!" Gwen asked furiously.

"No!" Miles denied. "I mean, I was going to, but things got- And he's not exactly-"

"Where is this 'Kingpin'?" Gwen cut him off angrily.

"He's in Fisk Tower, in an office hidden behind a glass wall in Wilson's Fisk's office, but you don't get it, Gwen," Miles said, trying to calm her down, but Gwen was already turning back towards the window, prompting Miles to get up from his bed and go after her while saying, "Look, he's not a bad guy, he's-"

He broke off as Gwen abruptly spun around and grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt, angrily lifting him off of his feet with one hand, and she forcefully told him, "If this guy sent you after me, he's a bad guy, whether you see it or not. So I'm gonna go take him down, and after that, I don't want to see the 'Prowler' in my city ever again. I need a partner that I can trust."

Looking down at Gwen sympathetically, Miles responded, "You can trust me, Gwen. If nothing else, you can trust that I'm always going to be there for you, no matter what."

Those words left a pang in Gwen's heart, sounding so sincere that it instantly decreased her anger, not quite making it disappear, but certainly causing the intense fire in her eyes to fade a little. Miles had a point that was difficult to argue against. Whether as Miles Morales or as the Prowler, regardless of how much she had wanted to keep those two people separate, he had always been there for Gwen, even before he'd known about her own dual identities. With that realization, it became much harder for her to blame Miles for being the Prowler this whole time under her nose, no matter how much she wanted to place the blame on someone.

Then, holding her friend up by the front of his shirt as she glared at him, Gwen abruptly surprised them both by pulling Miles down to her level and pressing a quick, hard kiss to his lips. It lasted only a couple seconds, and after it was done, Gwen lowered Miles back down to the ground and pushed him back so that he sat on his bed, where he looked at her in astonishment with his expression unfocused. Then, she told him, "After I get back, we'll talk. About all of it."

Miles nodded vaguely in response to her claim, but Gwen had already turned back to the window and pulled on her mask before swinging away in the direction of Manhattan. Gwen Stacy may have a whole mess of complications to deal with right now, but she was leaving them all behind for the moment. Spider-Woman had one more thing to do tonight, and she would afford no distractions.

Line Break

To Gwen's great surprise, Wilson Fisk's office, if it could even be called that as it took up an entire floor of Fisk Tower almost by itself, was left completely empty when she arrived. She was unable to find a way into Murdock's secret office through the ventilation shafts she snuck in through, but she was able to get right outside Fisk's office and practically walk straight in from there.

Wilson Fisk and his security had all gone home for the night, apparently, even though the lights in the office were left on. The security cameras were still active throughout the building, but Gwen was able to easily avoid them by crawling on walls and ceilings only.

She found the glass wall behind Wilson Fisk's desk immediately, and she considered breaking it for a moment to get inside, but then found a little remote with only one button on it laying on Fisk's desk. Curious, she picked it up and pressed the button, which immediately began to raise the glass wall into the ceiling. Amazed by her good fortune, Gwen walked through the back wall entrance and closed the glass wall behind her once again, just in case the Kingpin tried to make a run for it, then tossed the remote carelessly aside.

She walked down the hallway to the left and soon arrived outside a darkened room that Gwen couldn't see anything inside, but she heard a repetitive tapping sound emanating from within. Deciding to investigate, Gwen opened the door a crack and poked her head into the room to ask, "Mr. Murdock?"

"Yes?" came a voice from the darkness.

Excited to have reached her target so easily, Gwen stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, then felt around on the wall to her side for a light switch, knowing that a sudden bright light in darkness could have massive disorienting effects on whoever saw it. Once she found it, Gwen smirked confidently and taunted, "You know, Mr. Kingpin, I'm disappointed. Madame Masque had better security, and not nearly as cool a nickname."

She then threw the light switch upwards, making sure to brace herself for the sudden flash first so that it wouldn't affect her, then looked ahead of herself and got her first glance at the Kingpin. He was a handsome, thin man with sideswept brown hair and wearing a black suit. He didn't react whatsoever to the sudden flash of light, perhaps because he was wearing circular-framed, red-tinted sunglasses despite the darkness of the night, almost like he had been expecting her plan.

Then Gwen noticed that the sound of the repetitive tapping she'd heard was coming from a thin red and white cane that the man held in his hand, still tapping it around on the floor, and she realized the real reason why he had been unaffected by the light. Murdock was blind. However, Gwen wasn't going to let this man's blindness allow him to get away with whatever crimes he had committed.

"I will choose to only acknowledge the complimentary part of that statement, and thank you," Murdock said. "Now, if you don't mind my asking, who exactly is speaking?"

Stepping into the room, Gwen answered, "The name's Spider-Woman, and your reign is over, Kingpin."

Upon hearing that, however, Murdock simply smiled, which Gwen had never known to be a good sign with bad guys. He then said, "Spider-Woman, you say? The Amazing Spider-Woman. The Spectacular Spider-Woman. The Sensational Spider-Woman."

Starting to get annoyed by this guy's casual attitude, Gwen said, "And a few other choice adjectives Jameson uses, yes. But did you not hear me? I'm here to stop you!"

"Oh, but Spider-Woman, you are the one that gave me much of my power," Murdock told her.

Confused, Gwen asked, "What?"

"Well, not just you," Murdock quickly amended. "You and your partner, my agent, Prowler. All those big bad mob bosses you took down? Didn't you ever wonder what happened to the bodies after you and Prowler cut off the heads? After all, you put hundreds of criminals out of business. They were bound to end up somewhere."

Gwen thought about it for a moment, then realized, "You?"

Murdock stood up and spread his arms, then agreed, "Me. Power hates a vacuum, and the Kingpin was perfect to fill the hole left behind by those criminals' former employers, my former competitors."

Gwen was appalled by the revelation of what she and Miles had truly been getting encouraged to do, but then shook her head and began to walk even closer to Murdock as she said, "It doesn't matter. You can act as smug as you want, but you didn't win, not yet."

"Agree to disagree," Murdock told her with a smirk.

"I found you!" Gwen angrily said, trying to convince him that there was nothing to disagree on. "I'm here now, and I caught you! Unless you want to try to stop me with another glass wall!"

"It's reinforced sheets of polycarbonate strong enough to stop a rocket, actually," Murdock corrected, "and it was never supposed to stop you, Ms. Stacy."

Gwen opened her mouth to retaliate, then froze and quietly asked, "What did you just say?"

Murdock nodded in an immensely satisfied way and said, "Yes, I know who you are, Gwendolyn Stacy. And before you ask, no, Mr. Morales didn't turn you in. It seems that he's developed a certain protective urge for you. Sadly, he will have to be punished for that. It's a shame, really, I rather liked him. Having a younger, faster, smarter, and more adaptable Prowler at my disposal is something I will sorely miss, but… ah, the old one was more loyal. Still, he was useful while it lasted. And he accomplished his mission, more or less. He gained your trust. He helped me discover who you really are. And, of course, he brought you to me. It was no easy task getting you here with my operative on your side. I had to give you a way to uncover both Prowler's identities in order to do it, but I think it was well worth the cost."

"If you wanted me here, I don't think you really thought this moment through too well," Gwen spat at the tall, blind man, instinctively acting defensive in the face of the first of her enemies to ever uncover her secret identity.

However, Murdock's infuriatingly confident smirk didn't waver as he argued, "Once again, Ms. Stacy, I'm going to have to disagree with you."

Suddenly, though Gwen didn't hear the door open nor did she see anyone near the light switch, the lights in the room abruptly turned back off. Immediately, Gwen went into combat mode, backing away from Murdock, and looked around herself warily, but all she could see was darkness.

Suddenly, Gwen's Spider-Sense tingled in warning, but a split-second later, before she could even react, something struck her across the face. It was the size of a fist but a hundred times more forceful, nearly comparable to the average punch that the Prowler could deliver, but whatever hit her had not been wearing metal gauntlets. Then, before Gwen's head had even finished getting knocked to one side, a second attack struck her on the opposite cheek, this time even harder, and sent her flying off her feet to land in one corner of the room.

Upon hitting the ground, Gwen drew in a rattling gasp of air to get over her surprise, then hurriedly climbed back to her feet and jumped up to stick to the ceiling. She couldn't see what was attacking her, but she could still vaguely tell which way was up, and in her experience, the ceiling was usually a pretty safe place.

In the few seconds-long pause that Gwen received, she mentally questioned if it were possible for Murdock to have been the one that attacked her, but in addition to his blindness making the notion ridiculous, he suddenly spoke up, seemingly from the same place he had been standing originally, and said, "You know, Ms. Stacy, I had hoped it wouldn't come to this."

Suddenly, what felt like a gloved hand wrapped around Gwen's ankle and tugged her roughly back towards the floor. However, despite how surprised Gwen was that someone had managed to grab her while she was on the ceiling, she was currently stressed enough that her sticking powers kept her hands and feet firmly pressed against the surface of the ceiling, not letting go. Yet that fact didn't seem to stop whatever was insistently tugging on her ankle, and Gwen felt and heard the pieces of plaster that she was clinging to get ripped out of the ceiling right along with her before she was thrown to the floor.

Before she could hit the ground, however, someone caught her in their arms from underneath her own arms and set her down gently on her feet. Woozy, Gwen was about to offer thanks to the unseen figure that had saved her, but then her Spider-Sense tingled once again just before the hands released her and she felt herself get hit in the face yet again, first by a right hook, then a left hook, then a powerful uppercut to her chin that lifted her a few inches off the ground. Then, with a soft whoosh of the air in front of her, Gwen felt a foot catch her in the gut and kick her right through the wall behind her.

She flew bodily down the hall and grunted as she crashed into the glass wall separating this chamber from Wilson Fisk's office, though the polycarbonate didn't even crack under the force with which she hit it.

Whatever was happening, it was reminding Gwen uncomfortably of when she had first met the second Prowler, who she was still having trouble mentally connecting to Miles. Flying through walls and getting knocked around by an opponent that her Spider-Sense seemed unable to account for was something that she had first experienced while fighting Miles at Oscorp, but this was almost worse because she could tell that her enemy (or perhaps enemies judging by the number of fists she'd felt hit her in the last couple seconds) wasn't pulling any punches.

Speaking of, Gwen saw a shadowy figure leap out of the darkness in front of her, moving so fast that she was unable to register more than a blur before it was upon her. However, a small amount of light was shining through the window behind Gwen, so this time, she was able to move out of the way of the first punch, though she needed to react faster than her Spider-Sense in order to do so.

She moved her head to the side as a fist landed where she had been a moment earlier, just barely dodging the attack even with her advanced speed, but Gwen heard the ballistic glass behind her crack under the force of the punch that missed her.

Okay, she was definitely dealing with some superpowered opponent here. That meant that she got to let loose a little bit.

Whoever was attacking her was still moving too fast for Gwen to register much about their appearance in this light, but they threw a left cross punch, then another right cross, both of which Gwen dodged as well with simple movements of her head, then lunged forward and tried to throw a punch of her own, but her enemy suddenly grabbed her fist in their gloved palm, stopping her dead, and Gwen looked at her trapped hand in shock.

Apparently not nearly as surprised by their achievement as Gwen was, her opponent pushed Gwen's hand backwards to make her hit herself in the face, then they threw a few extra punches of their own, twisting their hips back and forth while their fists flew into Gwen again and again, striking her in the gut, then the gut again, then the jaw, then doing another uppercut to her chin, repeatedly bouncing her body against the nearly indestructible glass surface behind her with every hit.

They then took a step back and braced themselves against the floor, then did a backflip more graceful than any professional gymnast and kicked Gwen with both feet halfway through the move, this time sending her crashing straight through the glass and finally letting her collapse on the floor right behind Fisk's desk, groaning to herself in pain with her eyes tightly closed but feeling physically incapable of movement. One side of the lower half of Gwen's mask had been ripped off, revealing part of her mouth, and she could see the edges of her hood were frayed and full of holes caused by the broken glass ripping through it. With her current head position, she couldn't tell what state the rest of her costume was in, but she doubted it was anything good.

After a few seconds, Gwen heard two figures walk over to stand over her fallen form. One of them, whom she recognized as Murdock by his voice, taunted, "Alright, Ms. Stacy, I give. By all means, go ahead and arrest me."

Determined not to let herself be beaten like this, Gwen strained to get back up, but to her horror, her body refused to respond to her whatsoever. The most she could do was to open her eyes to look at the two figures next to her, Murdock right in front of her with his arms held out towards her like he was waiting for her to slap on the handcuffs and the second figure standing just out of sight behind him.

After a few seconds in which Gwen was still unable to respond in any way, Murdock lowered his hands and stared blindly down at her as he said, "Shame. Beaten so easily. But perhaps you want to meet the one who beat you, at least? The two of you will be spending quite a bit of time together, after all."

Apparently interpreting Gwen's silence as an affirmative response, Murdock then stepped back and waved for the other figure to step forward, and they wordlessly did so, revealing themselves to Gwen's full view for the first time, prompting her to stare at them helplessly in disbelief.

Standing above her was an image that was both startlingly familiar and completely unique. It was a man, clearly a full adult and significantly older than herself, yet wearing a skintight costume disturbingly similar to her own. It was mostly black from the head down except for some dark blood-red color on the palms of his hands as well as across the upper torso, though the large shape of a spider was drawn across his chest in black, and he also had silver vambraces running up the back of his forearms, perhaps his imitation of a web shooter instead of the compact version that Gwen wore underneath her gloves.

His mask was also almost entirely red except for the eyes, which were similar to the reflective lenses that Gwen used, except that the lenses were a dark gray instead of white and surrounded by black instead of pink. All across the red of his suit was the same web design Gwen used along her forearms and on the inside of her hood, though drawn in black instead of cyan, and his suit didn't include a hood as hers did.

"Spider-Woman, meet Spider-Man," Murdock said, obviously relishing the moment.

At that moment, the stress of the moment must've finally gotten to Gwen, or perhaps her body simply shut down under the pain of all her injuries, because the next thing Gwen knew, her eyes rolled into the back of her head and then all she saw was darkness.