Hey, hey people. Issex here.
Did you know it's difficult to write about a city you don't reside in? I didn't. If you're a New Yorker, hit me up. Let's talk about gangs and gang territories. I'm not a fed, I promise.
Anyway, I'd like to promote MABD's Overseers. It's a new but developing discord server filled with helpful and interesting individuals of all sorts from mundane to bizarre. If you'd like help with a story, need ideas for one or just want to chat with mellow fellows on the internet, feel free to join.
The code to MADB'S Overseers is: eUqX5X6jw
I'd also like to promote AizenTheGoat's discord server. It's constantly active, it's fun and it's filled with helpful, but no less interesting people as well as skilled authors like Helghy, Esdeath's Thicc Thighs and many others. Come on in if you want to discuss writing or just want to hang out.
The code to AizenTheGoat's server is: phhYyaRmH
It's No Nut November in a few hours, homies. Stay strong and I'd like to hear your success stories on December 1. Nothing graphic, please.
I also take commissions. Check my bio to know more.
Let's get to the story.
There were no dreams. No time to dream.
…
The first night had been a wash — he'd gone home immediately after the close call with the policeman — and the following ones weren't much better. For the first week, he saw little to no criminal activity in the admittedly small area he'd been searching. A pair of attempted home invasions, a single armed robbery and a few assaults were all he saw and stopped and like with the very first pair of thugs he'd interrogated, none of them knew who the crooks on his poster were, much less how to find them.
It wasn't until the second week that he decided, once again with Teach's encouragement, to go further out and continue his search in more unfamiliar territory. Even that did nothing but increase the danger he faced. More ground covered meant a higher likelihood to come across a crime, but those statistics did nothing to help what he'd set out to find. No one said anything, not when he threatened to hurt them badly, not even when he made good on his threat.
And as the weeks passed, so did his patience. He hadn't been expecting to solve everything on his first night out, but the lack of progress was becoming frustrating and he oftentimes ended up taking it out on whichever lawbreaker he chanced upon.
"Get him!"
Naruto winced at the ringing in his ears as he pushed away a fist thrown at him and punched a heavyset man square in the nose before ducking under the wild swing of another. Before his second attacker could recover, the masked blond lifted him and threw him at a pickup truck. The man hit the side of the vehicle with enough force to dent the frame and dropped onto the asphalt, wriggling from the pain.
Lawbreakers like these.
He'd been drawn to the sound of an alarm suddenly going off and found them tearing the burglar-proof bars off the wall in front of a jewelry store with a pick-up truck and as it turned out, they were just as bummed to see him as he was to see them.
Naruto's eye twitched as a phantom pain bloomed in his head and pirouetted with a raised leg that struck a man behind him in the side, forcing him to drop the pair of padlock-cutters he had raised. Still twirling, he fired a web at the tool, gluing it to the ground and leapt for a roundhouse kick that caught the man in the side of his head. He stumbled, dazed, but refused to fall. However, the moment Naruto's feet touched the ground, he lowered himself to do a split-kick that swept the man's feet off the ground and when the crook fell, brought down his second foot on the man's head, bringing it down on the ground with a nasty sound and knocking him out.
At least he was getting better at kicking ass. He'd had way too many close calls starting out for his comfort.
Another twinge made Naruto turn back to one of the men he'd stuck to a wall by the hand and upon seeing him with a gun, dodged the first shot and quickly shot a web at the muzzle, sealing the hole before he could fire again and covering both the firearm and the offending hand. "I don't know how you got free but I'm going to make you wish you hadn't."
"Fuck you!"
Naruto's eyes widened and he lashed out with an elbow that struck the same heavyset man whose nose he'd damaged in the jaw. The force of the blow moved the man's chin into an uncomfortable looking position but undeterred by what he'd done, Naruto turned around, punched him in the face twice and brought his head down to meet his knee. The man dropped and while not unconscious, Naruto doubted he'd be getting up to fight again. He stuck his whole body to the floor with an extra helping of webbing just to be sure.
Naruto idly glanced at his gloves, the black material stained with grime and blood, fresh and dried, and sighed. He looked back at the burglar he'd thrown at the pickup truck. The man was still awake, but he seemed to have trouble getting up.
Finally, he looked at the one he'd stuck the gun to. "Looks like it's just you and me now, friendo."
The thief, seeing as he was now alone, had gone pale. Word had gotten around in his set about a guy in black who'd been beating people up for weeks now and using webs like a spider. It had been easy to dismiss him as one of the many heroes who'd been showing up recently but what really set him apart was that unlike most of them, he wasn't afraid to mess people up. Bandz was now being used as a cautionary tale to avoid vigilantes in black.
"Hey look man, I-I know you, alright?" He started, "they say you're looking for something, right?"
Naruto tilted his head. Had he finally struck out? "I'm looking for someone. Two people."
"I can help you out, man," the thug pleaded, "I know peop-a guy! I know a guy who knows how to find people, alright? I can take you to them, man. Just…shit man, just don't hurt me, alright?"
"I can make do with a name," Naruto refused, "tell me who to look for and how to get to them and I might not get back at you for trying to shoot me."
The thug gulped. "Oh shit, man. I'm sorry!"
"The name," Naruto pressed.
"Shit…shit!" The thug moved his head around frantically. "It's…uh..it-"
Naruto flicked his wrist, firing a glob of web that sealed the man's mouth shut and forced him onto the ground. He didn't have time to wait for the criminal to cook up some lie before getting the truth out of him, the shrill noise of the alarm was getting to him and he was sure the police were already on their way.
"Let's take this somewhere else," he said, already wrapping the man in webbing. After a few seconds, he'd completely encased the man in a white cocoon, leaving only his nose exposed.
Teach had demonstrated the act of cocooning on small animals and made him practice it on huge slabs of meat until he was able to fully complete the rather disturbing act in seconds. For a mild mannered creature, the spider was a huge perfectionist.
The only thing more difficult than learning how to wrap huge items in webbing in under a minute had explaining to the butcher why he needed said meat in the first place.
He lifted the man over his shoulder and just as he was about to fire a line of webbing that would precede his departure from the area, the noise of clacking soles reached his ears before a voice followed immediately after.
"Freeze!"
Naruto's eyes widened and he slowly turned his head to look at who'd made the order. The alarm had buried most other sounds and he'd been too focused on wrapping up the criminal to actively listen to his surroundings but he still hadn't been expecting to be snuck up on, much less by a man who walked so loudly.
He looked to be in his early to mid forties with graying blond hair, blue eyes and was dressed in a long sleeved police uniform and had a bodycam strapped to his chest. He held a weapon directly at Naruto with outstretched arms, but he gripped it in a manner that made it difficult to see if he was carrying a gun or a taser. What Naruto could see however, were the three blue upward arrows stacked on top of one another stitched on the man's right sleeve.
Sergeant. Great.
"NYPD!" Tahe man called, "Drop whatever you're carrying, put your hands behind your head and get on your knees!"
"Are you serious?!" Naruto asked incredulously. "These guys tried to rob a jewelry store and I stopped them. I did your job for you. You should be thanking me!"
The officer scoffed. "Oh yeah? Iron Man and the other costumed nutjobs might be allowed to run around freely but vigilantism is still a crime so how about you comply and we can sort it out in the station?"
A part of Naruto considered it. He'd rather not be on the wrong side of the law; what he was doing was dangerous enough without having to worry about the police actively hunting him down. He'd been hoping to avoid contact with any but he'd known his luck would eventually run out.
But if he did go with the officer, he'd get ID'd and it wouldn't take a lot of time before they connected the dots between him and the other people he'd fought and when that happened, he doubted they'd let him go. His trial would probably go public and whatever gangs the people he'd beaten belonged to would know about him as well as the people he was related to. If they couldn't get to him, they'd probably go after them. He could be rotting in jail while Peter, Granny and MJ were forced to suffer the consequences of what he'd done and that would beat the whole point of him even putting on a mask and setting out in the first place!
And that wasn't even counting what would happen when people realized he had actual powers. He was no conspiracy theorist but he doubted even the government would rather let someone with powers spend time in a cell rather than on an operating table.
He couldn't go to the station. It was too uncertain what would happen. He couldn't take chances he didn't have to. Life was hard enough without doing so.
"Yeah, I'm not sure I can," Naruto shook his head.
The officer frowned and Naruto saw the muscles on his arms tense. "Yes you can, son. Just drop that…thing you've got on your shoulders and get on your knees. You don't need a manual for that."
Naruto thought of how to get away, preferably without getting tased, shot or having to ditch the man he was carrying. It would be so much easier if he could see what the man was carrying. "And if I don't?"
"Do," the officer said. "I don't want to have to shoot you, son, but I will if I have to."
"I didn't even do anything."
"You're resisting arrest," the officer stated, "and you assaulted three men."
Naruto held back the urge to correct him and tell him it was four. "Three would-be robbers."
"That's for us to confirm, son." The officer shrugged. "Tell you what, you come with me and I'll make sure you don't get any extra charges pressed against you. We'll just put out bail for you and when it gets paid, you're home free. How's that sound?"
Naruto figured out what he'd have to do. He didn't like it, but he had to do it. He glanced at the unmoving bundle on his shoulders and sighed. I'm probably going to regret this. "No."
Before the man could respond, Naruto threw the cocooned thug at him. With reflexes and an agility uncharacteristic of his age, the man rolled out of the way just in time for the object to land where he'd been standing. He only spared it a glance before looking back at where the black clad male had been to see him gone.
"What the-" he holstered his gun and took out his radio. "Command, I have a suspect on the run. I repeat, suspect is on the run. The suspect is unarmed, but dangerous. He left an unidentified object at the crime scene."
The radio crackled as a feminine voice came out. "Noted, Stacy. We'll monitor the surveillance cameras. Can you attempt to identify the object left behind?"
Sergeant George Stacy slowly walked towards the white object. "Uh, it looks to be made of webs and…somewhat humanoid?" He slowly pushed it with a strained grunt. It was so heavy. How had the man carried and thrown it like a cheap paperweight?
Eventually, it rolled over, giving him a view of pink flesh underneath what looked to be white skin with bits scraped off from getting tossed onto asphalt. He frowned confusedly before his eyes made out two dark circles underneath. Nostrils.
"It's him…" George Stacy whispered. "Command, I have an attempted ten, a two-forty and another attempted twelve-ten. Put maximum priority on finding the suspect, it's the spider guy."
"Noted. Do you know what direction he fled in?"
George looked at the spot where the vigilante had once been standing. "Didn't even see him leave."
"Alright. Wait for the medic team to arrive. In the meantime, we'll scour the cameras. He couldn't have gone far. We'll find him."
The radio went silent after a beep and George placed it back onto his belt before finally scanning the area with his eyes or to be more specific, the fallen men with the last one groaning in pain as he attempted to stand. Whether he'd noticed the policeman standing a few feet away from him was anyone's guess.
He looked back at the cocooned body, the slight rise and fall of its chest indicating that the victim was still alive and squatted to pull at a bit of webbing. He'd half expected it to come apart like regular spider silk but it held strong, surprising him. He pulled at it harder and harder until he eventually gave up when his back began to hurt. The web was stronger than anything he'd had to pull before.
Probably strong enough to hold a human's weight.
George looked up at the buildings surrounding him. Command claimed they'd find him with the cameras and he wanted to believe it. A part of him hoped they'd find him running away, have another unit intercept and apprehend him, and have him brought to the station. But part told him a guy who somehow managed to make himself scarce without anyone noticing would be long gone by now and all they'd get would be recorded footage of him fleeing.
He sighed. "I hate vigilantes."
…
…
"...and on another note, a body camera captured footage of an encounter with the elusive 'Queens' spider' yesternight at approximately 13:32 post meridian outside the scene of what looks to be an attempted robbery in progress. There were no means of identifying his race or appearance, but the officer who encountered him claimed him to be a male in no more than his early twenties."
"Multiple videos taken from hidden eyewitnesses of the spider's brawl with four men outside of Benny Cho's jewelry store have surfaced on social media and consequently, the vigilante has been a topic of heavy debate since the videos were uploaded. Due to their graphic nature, the videos won't be played live but we've been granted permission to show a recording of the encounter. …"
Naruto, who'd been overhearing the news from his room, came down to the living room where he saw a frowning Tsunade watching the television on which a short clip taken from the policeman who'd tried to arrest him the previous night was playing. It looked to have started from the time the man had been bargaining with him and cut out when he'd thrown the bundled criminal at him.
As the news anchor spoke, another window appeared on the screen, this one showing a freeze frame of him looking directly at the man. It felt strange, watching himself as if he wasn't the one being talked about, but he now found himself grateful for the foresight of covering up as much of his body as he could.
The only thing likely to link the man in the screen to him was the webbing that probably contained DNA that could be traced back to him and seeing as how he hadn't had police knocking on his door since the previous months, it was safe to say they hadn't found anything.
He also realized he was somewhat recognizable now. The body cam footage was a bit blurry and unclear from the bright lightning from the jewelry store but the video quality was at least good enough to give anyone an idea of what to expect to see. People would be prepared for him now, that much he knew.
He'd have to be careful.
"What's that?" He asked as he sat next to his godmother.
Tsunade glanced at him from the corner of her eye, noting that he'd showered and dressed like he was heading out. "No good morning? Even after waking up so late?"
"It's nine."
"And you're just getting up," Tsunade shook her head disapprovingly. "You're a man, Naruto. You shouldn't be oversleeping."
"I slept late," Naruto replied. It wasn't a lie. After his escape from the policeman, he'd gone on to stop several other crimes before patrolling a few more blocks and finally, turning for the night…at five in the morning.
"That's a terrible habit too. You might not feel it now, but it'll take it's toll in time," Tsunade warned.
"Uh huh." Naruto nodded wearily. He'd have slept even more but he got woken up by bird sounds of all things. It wasn't even the sound itself as it was the sheer terror it had made him feel. Hundreds of thousands of birds chirping in different tones. It had formed a cacophony so fear inducing, his only escape had been by entering the realm of wakefulness and he'd done so while shaking like a wet leaf.
He just hoped he didn't have a phobia for birds now.
"What's that on the news?" He asked again.
"Another vigilante," Tsunade took a sip of her coffee. "I swear it's just sociopaths running around and beating the stuffing out of people thinking it's okay because they're wearing a mask."
"I don't know, granny. I heard he's only been going after criminals, that doesn't sound like sociopath behavior to me."
Tsunade snorted. "And how would he know who's a criminal and who isn't? Trial and error?"
"Or watching and waiting," Naruto argued. "I'm just saying, what if he's out trying to do the right thing? Look at Iron Man. People only found out about him after he killed a bunch of terrorists and now, he's getting called a superhero. How do you know he hadn't just gone there because he felt like killing people? You can't judge that quickly."
Tsunade gave him a suspicious look. "You're not one of the guy's fans, are you?"
"I'm not a fan, I just don't believe in calling people psychos because they don't want to put on a police uniform before going around to stop crime." Naruto said. "Imagine if he hadn't been there. Those guys would have made off with millions in jewelry before that cop showed up. Do you still think him stopping them is a bad thing?"
"Would a serial killer become any less of one just because they happened to be targeting only criminals?" Tsunade asked. "No. They want to kill, they just use criminals as an outlet because they think it'd be 'right'."
Naruto frowned. "It's not the same, granny."
"How do you know that? Have you asked him why he's doing what he's doing?" Tsunade gulped down the rest of her coffee.
"No, but…" Naruto went quiet, thinking of an argument that wouldn't imply he knew or was the vigilante.
Tsunade glanced at the television before looking back at her godson. "Look, Naruto. I get that he might be doing the right thing but…vigilantism got outlawed for a reason, you know. I get that it's easy to admire someone who runs around in a costume and beats up crooks, I blame the comics for those, but you've got to ask yourself: what if he's not doing it for the right reasons?"
"He works outside the law, he probably breaks it a lot too. It's not just about what he's doing, it's also about how what he's doing will affect others," Tsunade explained. "The government lets Iron Man get away because Tony Stark's taken responsibility for him. They know if Iron Man fucks up, it's Stark's ass and they can reach Stark easily. There's still that bit of accountability there. But with this guy? There's none. They've got nothing to find him with even if he switches up. All he has to do is change clothes and he's gone."
"What happens if the cops let him go and you get everyone thinking they can get away with anything so long as they put on a mask or god forbid, a costume and do a few acts of good first? Many of these costumed 'bad guys' started that way too," Tsunade pointed at the screen towards the frozen frame of the vigilante.
Naruto quietly mulled over the woman's words. She was right, like she was most of the time, but her opinion was based on what she'd seen in the past.
"How's Peter now?" Tsunade asked out of the blue, as if uncomfortable with the silence that had fallen over them.
"He's doing better, he can move around in a wheelchair now," Naruto rubbed his face. "The doctors said he's recovering quicker than they expected, especially since they already knew what was wrong."
Tsunade nodded satisfactorily. "Skin and bones but he's a fighter, huh."
"He's stronger than people think. At least in spirit," Naruto said, "it also helped that you somehow got the second bullet out of him with any damage. They keep asking me to tell you the job offer's still up if you want it."
Tsunade groaned. "And I keep asking you to tell them that I'm retired. If he wasn't your friend, I wouldn't even have left the house, much less picked up a scalpel to operate on him."
She had been a surgeon in the same hospital her grandfather had founded and according to all of her co-workers he'd met, the best they had ever seen in their lives and it had shown when the doctors in the hospital Peter was in said she'd taken the last bullet out of his spine like it was child's play.
Unfortunately, she had retired early after Dan died and refused to do any work she didn't have to, much less one that would bring her to an operating table.
"And for that, we appreciate you." Naruto pecked her on the cheek, making her smile, and got up. "I've got to go check up on Peter now. I should be back in an hour."
"Buy some eggs when you're coming, I might make meatloaf tonight."
Naruto grimaced. "Really? Can't you just make a casserole or something?"
His reaction made Tsunade flare up. "You don't have to eat it if you don't want to, you little shit. It's not my fault someone keeps buying a ton of half-cut meat for no reason."
Damnit, Teach. Even though the spider wasn't anywhere near him, Naruto felt it's amusement bleed over to his mind. "Yeah whatever, I'll see you later."
"Don't forget the eggs!" Tsunade called out to him as he opened the door.
Ugh.
…
Yo, y'all seen the video of that spider guy? Bro looks like a gangbanger lol.
He's about that action fr.
Naruto saw someone send a photoshopped picture of him on the street with a bottle of Hennessy in his hand and a cuban link chain around his neck.
No way
Yooo lmaoooooooooooo
How did you make this so fast?!
He's definitely black under those clothes, bro.
Dawg…
"At least they didn't get one with the hat," Naruto muttered to himself.
"What hat?"
Naruto looked up to see Peter wheeling himself towards him from the toilet. "The class group. Someone sent a picture of the spider dude. Look." Naruto leaned in to show his friend the picture.
Upon seeing it, Peter's lips twitched. "Yeah, he needs a yanks hat to complete the look…aren't those the same shoes as yours?"
"Yeah they are," Naruto agreed. "I keep mine for special occasions and this guy uses his to kick people's teeth in."
"One man's trash."
"That's how it goes." Naruto pocketed his phone. "How are you feeling now?"
"My back still hurts if that's what you're asking," Peter replied. "Not that I don't appreciate it, but you don't have to come everyday, you know? Don't you have anything else to do?"
"Not so much that I wouldn't be able to visit," Naruto shrugged.
Peter chuckled. "At this point, I'm worried MJ might have some competition. I like girls, just so you know."
Naruto halfheartedly cussed him out and after a short exchange, the two friends fell into a comfortable silence.
It was Peter who spoke first afterwards. "You're him, aren't you?"
Naruto's stomach dropped and the blood that rushed to his head gave him a slight ache. On the outward, he only blinked and tried to sound clueless as he asked, "who?"
"This vigilante," Peter specified. "MJ's been showing me the news. People keep getting found stuck to different surfaces with webbing, most times after having been beaten black and blue. They're always criminals and some have been revealed to be gang members."
"That sucks, but I do not see what I've got to do with any of that."
"You said you were bitten by a spider, Naruto," Peter continued. "And you've changed a lot over the time since. Your sclera are darker, you've gotten leaner, you heard the nurse coming before she even knocked on the door and you said you could smell disinfectant soap on me."
"But you said you had a shower."
"I had one yesterday," Peter stressed.
"None of this means anything, Peter," Naruto said. "I might be different, but that doesn't mean I run around beating up gangsters. I can't even make webs."
"Spinnerets exist in the the lower extremity of spiders. On a human, that'd be the anus, the mouth, the feet-" Peter grabbed Naruto's hand, turning it over to reveal thin slits on his wrists. "-or the hands."
Naruto yanked his hands back"They're not."
"You get too straight-faced when you lie," Peter pointed out. "And you haven't so much as frowned since I asked you the first question."
Sometimes, Naruto hated how perceptive Peter could be. Coupled with his brains, it made him very difficult to deceive. "And let's say, let's assume that hypothetically, I confess that I am the guy, which I'm not, what would happen?"
Peter smiled a tad smugly. The blond only got like this when he realized he'd lost an argument or couldn't get away with a lie. "I'd tell you to stop because I'm worried about you."
"And I'd tell you I'm fine, Peter," Naruto placed a hand on Peter's shoulder. "Really."
"I was afraid you'd say that," Peter sighed. "Does this really mean so much to you? Finding these guys?"
Naruto nodded. "You wouldn't be here if it weren't for me."
"You don't know that, Naruto," Peter told him for what felt like the umpteenth time. "There's no guarantee that they'd have been found even if you did call the cops and even if they woud have, I don't blame you. No-one does."
Naruto sighed and got up. "Maybe, but I won't feel better until they're behind bars."
"I want that too, Naruto. I want that more than you," Peter said, "but not at the cost of anyone. I'm worried about you, man. We all are."
"What?"
"Miss Tsunade called, she told me you're getting distant and you don't talk as much," Peter explained, "even Flash said you're shorter tempered than usual. These nightly activities are taking a toll on you."
Naruto stayed quiet. Had he really gotten that different? He scratched the side of his head. "It's only for a short while, Pete. I get these guys and everything's going to go back to normal. You'll see."
Peter gave him a knowing smile. "You shouldn't wait till it's over, Naruto. The things you probably do or see, they don't just go away. They stick with you for the rest of your life. I don't want you to end up like those people who duck and scream everytime a firework goes off."
Naruto smiled. "You're a good person, Pete. Thanks." He got up. "I should give you time to…process this."
"You're leaving?" Peter asked.
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I have to head to class and…well, you know."
Peter frowned, "I can't convince you not to do it, can I?"
"No. No you can't," Naruto said. "I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah, tomorrow." Peter watched the blond walk over to the door. "Be careful."
Naruto looked back at him. "I always am."
With that, he exited the room, gently shutting the door behind him and leaving his friend alone.
…
It wasn't until hours after meeting with Peter that Naruto began feeling bad about how quickly he'd left the hospital. The boy was worried about him and he'd just excused himself the moment he got uncomfortable with where the topic was going. However, the feeling was quickly forgotten when he changed clothes and took to the streets, swinging high above the streets.
"I just don't get what else to do, Teach," Naruto complained to the spider that something clung onto his jacketed shoulder even as he did a barrel roll in the air to right himself, fired two webs at the corner of a building and yanked on the lines so he made a hard right turn. "Five weeks and the first guy I get who might know something useful, I have to ditch him to get away from the police."
Find someone else, Teach said to him.
Naruto grunted as he hit glass, but kicked himself off and quickly shot out a line of webbing at another building as he fell. He dropped for another second before being jarred into a swinging motion. He let go early, letting the momentum catapult him further and shot out another web.
He grasped the web with two hands and as he swung long and low to regain momentum, he spoke. "And what? Wait another five weeks? I can't do that. It doesn't help that most gangs would have caught on that I'm after them. They'll be moving more carefully now."
Can ask others… they can help you look.
"That'd be great, Teach. Thanks a lot-shit!" Naruto slammed onto the wall and clung to it, running upward on the surface and out of sight of the small group of people who'd gathered, having noticed him swinging above them.
This was why he hated swinging out in the open, even at night. It got him too much attention.
When he finally stopped running and turned around so he stayed perched on the wall with his feet, Teach peered over his shoulder at the ground. What will you do now?
Naruto sighed. "I don't know, I don't have much else to do other than to keep going around."
He stuck his hand into the pocket of his jacket — he'd had to switch them to make room for small items after his old bag got shot to pieces — and brought out the sketch, now torn, faded from getting folded multiply and stained with bits of blood. He turned it to the back, revealing a list of blocks he'd written down. He'd been noting down which ones had more criminal activity than others, marking them as potential gang territory and making sure to frequent them.
"So, any advice?" Naruto looked around.
Teach crawled onto the sheet, his big black eyes scanning the surface as if trying to tell him where to go. When you are searched for, first thought is to hide, wait. You will have to stay long.
"That's what I was afraid of," Naruto sighed. "Granny's going to be pissed."
Nevertheless, he folded the sheet again and placed it in his pocket just as Teach reappeared on his shoulder. "You should probably go talk to your buddies for me right now. See if they can keep their eyes opened for those guys or if they can hear any conversations about crime or something."
Teach bobbed a little as a nod. I will teach you to talk to the others. One day.
"Can't wait," Naruto muttered unenthusiastically and after Teach's form dissipated into nothing, he leapt off and swung away towards the nearest area he'd written down.
…
Spiders heard a lot of things, surprisingly. Teach had been happy to relay everything he had gotten from a house spider, from the fact that a lady had taken on five guys only three buildings away, to another five guys planning a drive-by in Queensbridge. Finding them based on the accounts of a spider known for it's bad eyesight hadn't been easy, but luck, patience and a lot of searching had eventually led to him finding the guys who matched the description given to him.
And now, hidden by his spot on a fire escape, Naruto watched a group of masked men picking the lock of a large car parked in a small lot. They didn't speak much but the large containing metal objects that clanged together when they were dropped on the ground gave him an idea of what they were planning.
"Hold on now, Jo, where'd your guy say they were again?" Naruto heard one of them ask.
Another one, Jo, opened the bag and brought out a new looking MICRO DRACO. "Weren't you on Spico's live? Dude got a bag and now he's trying to ball out in Grad's spot. Rico saw him pulling up in that coupe he keeps flexing with his guys."
One of the two idling around looked up at the one who'd asked the question. "This shit's like what, the third time you're asking now? Losing your nerve or something?"
"Nah man," the guy shook his head, "we're not rolling with kitchville no more, remember? I just don't want us cruising around their hood for too long."
" Everybody knows Spico smoked Magic, Zee,"Jo beckoned one of the others to come look at the guns. "If kitchville let him come to the club with them, they know it too and they know we're looking for him."
"They don't know we're going to be getting back at him on their turf," Zee argued, "fuck, man this shit better be quick."
A click alerted Naruto to the last man finally shimmying the car door open and started the engine. The car came to life with a dull rumble and the head and taillights lit up the lot. "I hate doing this shit with them new models. Get in, let's head out."
Jo continued to inspect the guns. "Relax, Vock, Grad's only ten minutes away. Nobody's leaving the club at this time anyway."
Vock frowned. "Man, I don't want to be sitting on my ass out here while there's masked freaks running around the city. Ain't you heard of that spider guy and what he did to Bandz?"
Jo scoffed. "You really think he'd be here?"
"He's been everywhere. That man took out BLK motherfuckers outside their own apartments."
Naruto frowned. So that was gang territory. He'd keep that in mind.
"Man, I don't care about no vigilantes coming after us,"
"Yeah man, we're all strapped. Shoot him before he even gets a word in, none of that "only the shooters get guns" shit." One of the last men raised his shirt, revealing a handgun in his jeans. "Look, man. I got a forty on me right now, I ain't never scared."
"You should be."
"What?" The man looked up just in time to see Naruto's black clad figure shoot a web straight into his eyes. "Shit!"
Naruto leapt off the fire escape just as the others looked up at him and halted his fall by placing both feet on the blinded man's face, his soiled timberlands leaving a muddy imprint, and using it as a springboard to flip onto the car. The man collapsed onto the floor, clutching his face, but had his legs stuck to the floor and his hands stuck to his face, putting him out of the fight.
Naruto grinned underneath his mask. "Man, I hate to be that Spico guy right now. Five guys looking to gun him down? That sounds like overkill to me."
Even under the shadow of his hood, the light of the car's lights bounced off his goggles as he stared directly at Jo. "It's a real shame he's got a guardian spider for the night, isn't it?"
Jo took a step back. "Freaks like you don't scare me!"
Naruto jumped off the car's roof as Jo drew a handgun out of his hoodie and let off three shots. His retaliation came in the form of firing two webs that the gangbanger somehow managed to dodge before getting into a firing stance and shooting at him once more.
Naruto dived out of the path of the bullets before they were even fired and as he fell, kicked the only man not in the car in the knee. The man's leg buckled and as he placed a hand on the car for support, Naruto quickly shot a web that nailed him to the frame.
It was just in time too, as Jo's next shot passed through where the man's head had been. Naruto grunted and took cover behind another car as the man continued to fire at him, content with laying down cover fire on his way to the car.
"Useless!" He heard Jo growl at the man who'd been stuck to the car and peered under the frame at the man's feet as it steadily approached the backdoor.
"Don't fail me now," he muttered. He crawled under the car and stretched out a hand, firing a line of webbing that passed in between the wheels and struck Jo in the foot, making the man jump. He yanked hard on the web, pulling the gangbanger's foot out from under him and loosening his grip on the handgun and crawled out from under the car.
"Shit, he's got Jo," He heard Zee curse. "Step on it, V!" The car roared as it was turned on all the way.
"Oh no you don't!" Naruto fired another web at the man. It clung to the unlowered window and panicked the man enough for him to step on the throttle. The car jerked, but moved, running over Jo's foot and dragging the other man with it as it quickly left the parking lot.
Naruto grunted as the car pulled him with it, but was able to silence and incapacitate the screaming Jo with globs of webbing that caught him in the mouth and hands before firing another line of webbing at the bag of guns, pulling it with him as he left. After a hard yank, he pulled the bag close enough to grab and sling it haphazardly over his shoulder before the car shifted gears. He let go of the web before he could get dragged off his feet and leapt, firing a web at a random building and pulling on it hard, forcing himself in the direction of his choice.
He did it multiple times, building up speed until he finally clung onto a web, using it to swing fast and low in the direction of the car, beginning the chase in earnest. Naruto came to find out very fast just how efficient cars were for transport and how much of an advantage they had over swinging traversal-wise. He lost and regained speed with each swing while the vehicle continued at the same pace, slowing down only to negotiate turns that he had to stress to follow after. It
After many minutes of their game of cat and mouse, he got tired. "You know," he yelled at them, "it'd be easier on you if you stopped the car now!"
He saw one of them bring his arm out of the window and when the car passed under a street lamp, the yellow light bouncing off the metal in the man's hand, his eyes widened. He let go of the web and let himself go down as shots rang out and bullets slammed into the spots he'd have been otherwise.
He flipped in the air to right himself and kicked off the building's wall, twirling in the air as he approached the steadily distancing car. It was time to experiment. Teach would be proud if he was here. As he dropped, he fired a web that clung to the same streetlight the car had passed under and fired another at the one opposite it before stepping back, pulling the webs taut as he did. He continued to move backwards as much as he could, all the while watching the car get further away.
When the lamps began to groan their protest, he lifted his feet off the ground.
And screamed as he was catapulted forward much, much at breakneck speed, closing the distance between himself and the car in mere seconds and when he was directly above the moving vehicle, he fired a web at the roof and pulled. The sudden change in direction ragdolled him briefly, but he managed to recover just in time to slam against the roof feet first.
"The hell?!" He heard from under him, but quickly rolled away until he was clinging to the backdoor. He shattered the glass with a punch and shot a web at the sole man at the back, blinding him long enough to fire another web that was used to pull him out of the car. Naruto tossed him onto the ground and only spared a moment to see him roll to a stop and lay still.
He was about to move to the passenger's side when the car began to swerve left and right in an attempt to throw him off. Had he not been clinging to the surface with his hands and feet, he was sure it would have succeeded. Nevertheless, he crawled over to the passenger's door and saw Zee slightly stretch out of the window with a gun in his hand.
"Not this time," he swiftly slapped the weapon away, surprising the man. He saw another light appearing and just as Zee was about retreating, he grabbed the man's hand and leaped off the car's body, pulling the limb with him. The light collided with the gangbanger's arm, snapping the bone on impact. Naruto let go of the limb and kicked off the light to cling onto the car's trunk before crawling back forward and pulling the screaming Zee out of the car.
As the man flew out, Naruto jumped into the passenger's seat right next to a heavily sweating Vock. Underneath the mask, he grinned and relaxed on the seat. "I don't suppose you could drive me to the nearest deli? I need to pick up some eggs."
"Shit man…"
Naruto sighed. "That's what I thought. Stop the car."
Vock nodded shakily and slowly brought the car to a halt before turning the engine off. "H-hey, I don't know anything, I just drive-"
"Shh." Naruto brought a finger to his lips, silencing the man. "Let's take this somewhere less public."
Before the man could respond, Naruto socked him in the face, knocking him out, and took him out of the car. The steadily increasing sound of sirens told him the police were close and he didn't want another encounter with them. He looked around, noticing the few people who slowly approached, drawn to the noise of gunfire and a speeding car, and sighed.
This was not how he wanted his first car chase to go down.
…
When Vock regained consciousness, the first thing he felt was the lack of solid ground beneath him. The second was a pain in his head and a feeling of tightness in his body, as if his whole body had been tied up. The third was the faint noise of passing vehicles coming from beneath him and an uncomfortable feeling of vertigo, almost as if he was swaying in mid air or upside down.
"Wha…" his eyes slowly opened and the first thing that greeted him was the sight of small, blurry lights that moved around above him. But his senses returned and his sight became clearer, so did the realization that the lights weren't above him, they were below him.
And those weren't lights. They were cars.
"Ahhhh!" He shrieked, terrified and writhed, trying to free himself. "What the fuck?! What the fuck?!"
"Quite the sight, isn't it?"
He turned to see the guy who'd taken out Jo and the others dangling by a web upside down near him, casually staring below as if unbothered by the possibility of falling. "Let me out of here!"
"I wouldn't move around so much if I were you," Naruto said, "my webs are tough, but they only last for so long before evaporating and you've been here for…"
He checked a small watch on his wrist. "A while." He finished vaguely.
"Holy shit, man, I just drive," Vock lamented. "I don't know anything!"
"That means you've driven people. Lots and lots of people," Naruto gently swung on the web so he neared the man. "And that means you know people. Or people who might know people."
"God, what the hell do you want?"
"First," Naruto used a hand to bring out the sketch. "Have you seen these guys?"
Vee squinted at the painting. "W-who are they? I've never seen them before."
"Are you sure?" Naruto asked. "I can wait for you to rack your brain, but you better do it fast; the web's looking really thin now."
"Uh," Vee shook his head. "Shit, I don't…ahh!" He shrieked when the web snapped and he dropped for an inch before stopping courtesy of Naruto who'd grabbbed him by the leg with his other hand. He held on to his own web by his feet alone.
"Holy shit, did you really think I was bluffing?" Naruto laughed.
"You're a psycho!"
"And it's Halloween so unless you feel like cosplaying as a pancake on the pavement, you'll tell me what I want to know right now." Naruto took off a finger. The man went pale.
"Shit," Vock whispered. "These guys? Uhh.. I've seen them before but I don't know who they are."
Naruto blinked. "Really now? Where'd you see them?"
"Err.." Vock went quiet as he tried to think. He'd driven so many people, he rarely bothered committing names or faces to memory.
"Well?" Naruto let go of him and caught him again, making him shriek. "I don't have all night."
"Jesus man, I'm trying to think!" Vock wailed. "Uh…I remember now! It was in Gramercy! They were with some of the boys from the SHK set in goonward territory. Not the black goonward, those are in Harlem. It's the white ones!"
Naruto raised a brow. "How do I find those 'SHK' guys? Secret handshake? Regular spot?"
"N-no, but one of them hit me up yesterday. He said he's trying to rob a pawn shop in two weeks, he's just waiting for the guns to drop and shit."
"He say where and when the guns are dropping?"
"Nah man, just that the boss' getting them himself."
"And who's this boss?" Naruto asked. "Where do I find him?"
"Shit man, I don't know! I've been telling you everything"
He's lying.
Naruto's eyes widened when he heard the unfamiliar voice once again. Like the first time, it felt so natural, he couldn't help believing it as he heard. He glared at the man. "I don't like it when people lie to me."
"I ain't lying!" Vock cried.
"Five seconds." Naruto dropped the man again and this time, only caught him with a web. "And if you haven't told me at the end of that five seconds, I'll drop you. If you lie to me again, I'll also drop you. So if you want to live to drive gang members another day, you'll tell me the truth and you'll tell me fast."
"I've told you everything, man!"
"Four." Naruto loosened his grip on the web, letting it slide slowly out of his hand.
"You've gotta believe me, man!" Vock began to cry.
"Three."
"Oh God!"
"God's not helping you here, man. Two."
"Just wait, wait!" Vock screwed his eyes shut. "Let me think!"
"Best do it fast. One."
"I'm trying-"
"Maybe the fall will bring back the memories." Naruto let the rope slip out of his hands. "Adio-"
"Herman!"
He grabbed the last inch, stopping the man's fall. "What?"
"Herman Shultz!" Vock screamed. "Those guys and SHK. They're working for him! His nname is Herman Shultz!"
…
Naruto watched from a distance as two police officers rounded up the injured men in an ambulance before placing Vock in the back of their cruiser. He'd made sure to web the bag of guns to the man's body after hanging him off the same car he'd taken him out of.
Teach appeared on his shoulder and watched the proceedings too. Your arms hurt.
"Yeah," Naruto admitted. He'd pushed himself harder than he'd had to tonight, especially with the swinging.
You have to get better.
Naruto nodded his agreement. But Teach's unspoken reprimanments and the pain in his limbs didn't do anything to lessen his good mood. He'd gotten a major lead, figured out the head of the same set Peter's attackers were probably a part of, prevented a murder and kept a few guns off the streets. It was a more productive night than he'd ever had.
"I will," he said. "But tomorrow. Tonight, I've got to hit the sack. I'm wiped. Thanks a lot, Teach. I wouldn't have gotten these guys without you."
Teach preened under the praise. Home?
"Yeah, home." Naruto leapt off the roof and clasped the wall to turn around a corner before swinging away. It was when he was only a few blocks away from his house that Teach spoke again.
You forgot to buy the eggs.
"...shit."
I love the Spider-Man games, especially the beat-em-up style of combat but let's be honest, there's no way the fodder enemies survive half the shit he does to them.