Chapter 1-2

August 2023

Arrangments had been made across the city, to everyone who was willing to listen. Even if they didn't want to listen, they had to. All the major crime families in Manhattan had been called to their quarterly meetings to discuss the progress they had made.

The meeting place was located in a warehouse in Chinatown, an empty fishing warehouse. The person entering the warehouse, Leroy, had no idea what a fishing warehouse was but it didn't matter.

Lights had been set up after the power had been turned on and the place was quickly cleaned up. A table had been set up for the five major crime bosses and the bodyguards they brought with them.

Leroy sat at the very end of the white table and smoked a cigar. The dark-skinned man looked to his left, where Ivanoff, the leader of that Russian mob, sat, taking careful sips of water. To his right, were the Antonio twins, Dane and Zane, each ruling two different major crime families but both were mostly Italian-American. And then there was the last one sitting across Leroy, Gene Galvan, head of the Galvan crime family, sat, staring at Leroy with dark circles under his eyes.

"So," Leroy began, "now that all the major crime families are here, it's time to get down to business."

"Business has been good," D. Antonion answered, "good so far. But I believe we can do better."

Z. Antion held up his phone. "I have some ideas but we must hear from you two first.

"No," Ivanoff said in an English accent as opposed to his usual Russian accent, which he got rid of six months ago, "no new ideas. We need to maintain the status quo."

"People," Gene spoke up, "before we start spitting ideas, we need to give a quarterly performance review."

Leroy spoke first. "Right." He took out his phone. "In light of recent Spider-Man activities, the drug trade has been steadily declining. The reason for this is because most of our customers turn violent when they use our product."

"Isn't that what's supposed to happen?" Gene smirked.

"Yes, but the more violent my customers will become, the more likely they are to track Spider-Man. That's why we've been picking our customers carefully, making sure they can stay sane even when hyped up on the worst crack."

"Thinking like that is going to get you put out of business," Ivanoff told.

"But it's practical," Z told, "very practical."

"True," Ivanoff agreed, "very true. As for me, I've been keeping my whacking deals to a bare minimum. As much as I want to kill those snitches and traitors, drawing a single drop of blood from them will most likely attract Spider-Man attention."

D spoke up and said, "We fire our clients. It's practical too. In the last three months, instead of killing our men, we fire them."

"Not a good idea," Gene said, "as practical as it may be, it's also dangerous. They could snitch."

"That's why we have insurance on them." D looked at Leroy. "By the way, "Leroy, how's your trafficking business going?"

"I had to shut it down; police were moving in."

"And the people?"

"A blindfold is simple but effective. All of them wore blindfolds whenever my men came into the room and none of them spoke so our pets won't be able to identify us. It is regretful that we lost the trafficking business because by far, that was our most successful business so far."

"You guys are way too tame," a new voice spoke from behind Leroy.

The mob bosses quickly got up and looked in the direction of the new voice.

A 40-year-old Chinese man wearing a black suit and white tie approached the table, hands in his pockets and a blank expression on his face.

"You guys are too afraid to run crime in this city, are you not?" The Chinese man watched each of the mob bosses and their bodyguards carefully.

"Who the hell are you?" Gene demanded.

"Your successor," the Chinese man answered. "Now, as I was saying-"

"Get him out of here!"

A bodyguard drew his gun on the Chinese man. The Chinese man looked at the gunman with a new look of anger in his eyes. He raised his hands and a beam of black and white light shot out from his palm and hit the thug and sending him launching into the wall, causing the wall to cave in on the gunman.

"How did you do that?" D and Z asked.

"Magic," the Chinese man snarked. "Now, let's try this again and forget that negative thing ever happened."

"Negative?" Ivanoff repeated. "I may not be a native English speaker but who in their right mind says 'negative'."

"Someone not in their right mind," D answered.

Leroy held his hands up to show he meant no harm. "Look man, whatever you want… I-"

"What I want is for everyone to sit down," the man warned, "before I do something negative once more."

The mob bosses and bodyguards all complied and sat down. The Chinese man stood over the men.

He tugged on his tie before he began speaking. "Alright, now, let's get down to business. How long have the five of you been running the crime ring in this city? Days, weeks, months?"

"Four years," Leroy answered.

"Four," the Chinese man clicked his tongue, "the unlucky number. If you think you're going to make it to your fifth year, think again. The five of you, are out of business."

"Says who?" Ivanoff challenged.

"Says me. I am the one who is going to be cleaning up the crime ring in this city. Starting from this point from now on, all your men answer directly to me and no one else."

Gene growled and stood up. "What makes you think you can come in here and start barking orders?!"

The Chinese man pointed to the dead gunman. "Have you seen what I did to that bad person there? Negative eyesight, perhaps?"

"It's bad eyesight, bitch."

"English isn't my first language… duh." He held his hand out. "Now sit down before I knock you down." Gene sat down. "Obedient little mobster." He turned to the rest of the crowd. "I am not a fan of any of your tactics in controlling crime in this city. I understand that you all came to a mutual agreement, a truce of some kind to prevent all-out war but no, your attempts to control crime in this city are pathetic. But with me in charge, there will be new rules, new laws, no more wars, and most of all, no more fear."

"What are you talking about?" Leroy asked.

"One crime family," he declared, "my crime family."

"And what are you going to do about the Spider?"

"The spider, I don't care about the spider."

"You will when you draw his attention. The only reason he's not come after us is that we didn't draw any attention to ourselves."

The Chinese man laughed suddenly. "Trust me, by the time I'm through with this city, that spider will be working for me." He glared at them. "You don't believe me?"

"None of us said that."

The Chinese man grabbed a bodyguard beside him and his hand, which had a tanned skin tone, suddenly turned pitch black, and the same black and white energy formed before poured into the bodyguard's shoulder. The skin on the bodyguard's face changed from white to pitch black, almost like a negative filter.

"Shoot yourself with your gun," the Chinese man hissed.

Almost like he was in a trance, the bodyguard obeyed. He put the gun to his head and squeezed the trigger.

The five mob bosses went wide-eyed and their mouths ran dryer than sand on a beach.

"Now you believe me?"

"We never said anything about not believing you in the first place," Leroy tried to say with a calm voice but it only came out crackling. "We believe you."

"Good." He tugged on his tie. "Spider-Man is nothing but an obstacle in my plan."

"And what is your plan?"

"That's need-to-know and you don't…" he pauses with a smirk, "well, you get the idea." He adjusts his tie. "As I was saying, I'm the new crime boss of this city and this offer and deal I'm making is non-negotiable. You're going to accept it one way or another."

"What are you?" Gene asked. "Are you superhuman?"

"Where do these bastards get all these powers from?" D asked.

"I want superpowers," Z replied.

"You've already power," the Chinese man told. "It's time for my power now." He looks to the bodyguards. "Anyone here not a mob boss, you may leave. Except for you." He pointed to an unlucky bodyguard. "Come here."

The bodyguard stepped towards the Chinese man and averted his gaze, his hands trembling near the gun in his holster.

"Stand behind me."

The trembling gunman stood behind the Chinese man and kept his eyes focused on the ground.

"Take out your gun and turn the safety off."

The gunman obeyed. "What are-"

"No. Talking."

The trembling man gasped and closed his eyes, tears escaping him.

"Everyone else, leave the room. You have twenty seconds."

"We're not leaving," one of the bodyguards spoke, one of the muscular bodyguards.

"N-no," a shaking bodyguard spoke up, "not leaving our bosses behind."

The Chinese man laughed. "Now that's loyalty. True companionship. Perfect."

After pausing and becoming silent, the Chinese man sucked in a breath harshly and opened his eyes as wide as he could. The whites in his eyes turned black, his brown irises turning bone-white before the colors on his body turned negative.

"Die with honor," the Chinese man spoke, his voice becoming deep and distorted.

He shot both of his hands out and the black and white energy from before lit up the place like a bomb and sent debris flying all over the warehouse. The table crumbled into pieces and body parts of the give mob bosses flew across the building, their blood painting the walls and dismembered limbs making a mess on the ground.

The negative man turned around and faced the trembling bodyguard. He smiled at him before noting that the bodyguard didn't even bother to raise his gun to shoot the negative man when he was about to kill his crew.

The negative man headed over to the corpse of the gunman he killed earlier, whose body was still relatively intact, and returned a few moments later with the corpse's wallet.

"You had a clear shot to take me down, save your employers, yet you didn't do it. Do you know why?" He paused. "Fear. Fear can do anything to a man. But, where there is fear, there is respect." He grabbed the bodyguard's shirt.

He removed all the dollar bills from the wallet before carefully placing them in the trembling bodyguard's breast pocket.

"Don't forget what I can do to you, but don't forget what I can do for you." He pats his shoulder. "Follow my orders and I won't hypnotize you into killing yourself. And don't forget that when you work for me, I can make your life very comfortable." He rests his forehead on the bodyguard's forehead. "What is your name?"

"C-Carmine," the man cried.

"Carmine. My new right-hand man. It's an honor, is it not?"

"Yes," Carmine shouted, "it is an honor."

"Are you ready to obey your first order?"

"Yes… what is it?"

"I need you to weed out the rest of the crime family. Find out who is loyal to the now-late mob bosses and who isn't. Start with everyone from Leroy's crime family; his family's the smallest so he should be easier to invade."

"Okay…" Carmine panted and wiped tears from his eyes, "okay."

"Go, now."

Carmine turned and walked away, leaving the warehouse with the Chinese man still inside.

The negative man smiled and looked at the mess behind him. "The things I have to do to clean up this city."

September 2023

Empire State University

"Davey," Misa sobbed as she cradled her son's head. "Promise me... promise you'll come home."

David gently reached over and hugged his mother. "Mom, I'm leaving for college, not going to war."

"Promise me you'll come home every holiday," her voice cracked.

"I will," David nods, "I promise to visit every chance I get."

Humans are fragile creatures, both in terms of physical structure and emotional structure. For a long time, it was me, Mom, and Dad. And now that Dad is dead, it was just the two of us. And with me going off to live on campus, we're going to be alone. I will admit that I did not like the idea of being away from my mom because she made me feel comfortable, but we all have to separate from our parents at some point. With everything that's gone on with my mother, she deserves to be happy. She's kept my serial killer identity so it's only fair I pay her back to make sure we're both comfortable.

Misa kissed David on the forehead. He returned the gesture before getting out of the passenger seat. Before he moved on, he gestured for his mother to roll down the window so he could speak. "I'll visit this Saturday."

"I'll prepare dinner for you." She wiped her tears. "Love you."

"I love you too."

After that, Misa drove off, leaving David alone on the college steps of Empire State University. The place looked bigger than the brochure said and he clicked his tongue when he saw the mass amount of students walking in and out of the campus.

He walked on the sidewalk and waited patiently for his friends to show up; it was better that they all explored together so they were all on the same page. When Eddie's car pulled up, he said goodbye to his parents but no tear was shed. When Felicia showed up, her mother and little brother wished her good luck goodbye and cried. Cindy's parents had the most emotional reaction with Cindy promising her baby brother that she'll visit.

They lost their daughter for five years and now that they got her back, they're losing her again to college.

Once everyone arrived, it was time for them to get to their dorms.

David and Eddie made it to their dorm and they began setting up. As they began setting up, Eddie finally took the time to talk.

"So... how does it feel to be a college boy, now?"

David shrugs. "Eh, like I'm a student."

"But you're in college, man, and a scholarship, no less."

David looked at Eddie. "I only chose the scholarship route because it would mean Mom wouldn't have to pay for college."

"Aww, you care about your Mom." He takes out a pack of M&Ms from his pocket and eats them. "And, thank you for helping me with the SATs."

"You want to thank me, make sure this scholarship doesn't go to waste."

"Got it." Eddie started setting up Spider-Man posters on the wall. "Hope you don't mind."

"No, I like seeing myself clinging to the wall."

Eddie was about to say something when he paused. "Nah... he's not."

David rolled his eyes. "What's Venom saying?"

"He thinks you're a narcissist."

"I'm not... I'm just snarky." David checked the mini-fridge in the corner. There were some cans of soda inside and he helped himself to some Mountain Dew. He tossed a Coco-Cola to Eddie and the two of them savored the taste of their drinks. "Have you thought of what classes you're going to take?"

"Well, I'm a journalism major so my classes are mostly related to journalism."

"What degree do you plan on getting?"

"Bachelor's." Eddie paused. "And you said you want to be a psychologist, or therapist or whatever when you get out. You'll need to get a Ph.D."

"PsyD."

"So you should take the longest to finish. You might need to do about five years of college and then residency and then an internship. That could take a very long time."

"I'm taking advanced classes," David answered. "Empire State University allows some of its students to graduate early if they take advanced classes. If I play my cards right... I can graduate with my PsyD in four years, the same time as you all are."

Normally, I would rather take normal classes and stay average as a way to avoid attracting unnecessary attention, but I don't want to stay in this school any longer than I have to. I can take advanced classes but I will still be average. I will make sure I barely pass the course. A D is a failing grade in college so as long as I have a C or a very low B, then I should be fine and not draw too much attention to myself.

Eddie took a sip of his soda. "So, roommate, when do we start our part-time schedule?"

David clicked his tongue. "Let's see, the plan we came up with was that while we take our college classes, we have Venom bond with a criminal's corpse and then have that corpse take on the appearance of Spider-Man and patrol the city. And then, after our classes were done, Venom would reunite with you." He rubbed his lips. "It's the perfect way to establish alibis, for Spider-Man and David Dante, of course."

Eddie paused. He opened his mouth to say what Venom had been telling him. "Venom says he can only control a corpse for so long and he needs to bond with a living host."

"Tell Venom that when he's done controlling that corpse, he can eat his brain."

"Okay... Venom-" He went silent. "He says he heard you."

"Good."

In the two months since the four of us have been together, so far, we have mostly been in sync with each other. Silk has been staying out of my way and vice versa. Venom's been eating the brains of criminals and Black Cat has been robbing crime bosses rather than innocent people.

It's going to take me a while to adjust to this college life, a lot of planning and remembering to see how things went and how the students around us are, but it will be worth it. I can have alibies established for me while I'm taking my college classes and then at night, I can web-sling in the sky and kill. I could have Venom do all the killing for me but there's no greater feeling in my world than killing a vile, vile person myself.

Let college life begin now.

In a few dorms down the hall, Felicia and Cindy set up and the first thing Felicia did while they set up was steal a pencil holder.

Cindy looked at her. "This place is smaller than the bunker I stayed in. But at least I have a roomie."

"Don't worry, Cindy, with me here, you'll have the company of five people watching over you." Felicia laughs. She jumps into bed. "The beds feel comfy already." She looks at Cindy. "Wanna join me?"

"Not today, sorry." Cindy sits down on her bed. She fakes cough. "I think I'm catching a cold."

"No harm, no foul then. But if you're looking for something warmer than a blanket, I can help you." She jumped out of bed and began unpacking her bags. She put all her clothes in the nearest dresser before heading for the desk with the mini-fridge underneath. She pulled a few items out of her bag and placed them in the bottom drawer. Cindy looked over her shoulder after seeing what looked like a pack of pills.

"You're not planning on overdosing, are ya, Felicia?"

Felicia chuckles. "Not today." She holds out the pills and a small box.

Cindy's eyes widened upon realizing what Felicia was holding. Condoms, birth control, and morning-after pills. "Wow, you've come prepared, huh."

"Yeah. After all the sex David and I have, I gotta make sure I'm secured. After all, I don't want to end up carrying his baby anytime soon." She looked at him. "Do you plan on getting pregnant with spiderlings?"

"No," Cindy blushed.

"Do you take any of these pills?"

"No."

"Then we'll share."

"Really?"

"Well, we already share a man so why not share contraceptives?"

Cindy laughed. "Sure." When she was handed a birth control pill, she popped it down her throat and washed it with Sprite she found in the fridge. "Thanks."

"Good to know something good came out of robbing that pharmacy."

Cindy stared at her.

Felicia laughs. "Kidding, these were from my Mom."

"Good Mom you got there."

"She'll have my little brother to keep her company."

"So will mine." Cindy sat down. "So, Felicia, you said you were majoring in... Thievery 101?"

"Nah, I already aced that class... so I'm majoring in crime."

Cindy nods. "Good choice; who would ever suspect a thief to major in criminal law or whatever."

"Precisely. And who would ever suspect that Cindy Moon, the girl who weaved her own Silk costume would major in art and design?"

"Yeah, the world's a weird place."

After Felicia finished her first can of Sprite, she grabbed a second can. "If... it's not too sensitive for me to ask, I have a question about your time in the bunker."

Cindy stiffens and stares at the other girl. "I... what is it?"

"Are you sure it's okay for me to ask?"

"Yes," Cindy said, determined. "As long as it's not about what I used to go to the bathroom in, I'll answer anything," she joked. She looked at Felicia. "There was a working toilet."

Felicia laughed. "I would hope."

"Yeah, I really lucked out there. I just wished I had a plunger."

Felicia laughed again. "I'm sure we all thought that at one point or another." She clenches her chin. "Okay. So... uh... did you have food in the bunker or was it provided to you?"

"I had food in the bunker" the young girl nods. "I had enough food in there to last me a few years. Whenever I ate a large portion of it, it would always be restocked but always when I was asleep so I never saw the people coming in or out of the place."

"What did you do to pass the time?"

"There were a couple of books in there to keep me busy. There was a toilet, a shower, clothes, and even a chessboard. When I was playing against myself, I always won. And a deck of cards so I taught myself a couple of dribbles and shuffles."

Felicia chuckles. "Why do you think you weren't sold?" Felicia narrows her eyes. "You were abducted along with several other girls... yet, after they were all sold, you remained in the bunker for the past five years, no new girls joining you and you never moved locations." She rubbed her chin. "If you ask me, it sounds like something went wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"I think you were meant to be sold off but something went wrong. Or... I'm hoping I'm wrong on this one... someone wanted you alone, to slowly be driven crazy from isolation."

"I don't care," Cindy admitted, "Not anymore. I'm just glad to be out of that place."

Felicia looked at her. "I'm glad you're out too, Cindy. And I promise to find out what happened to you. Who abducted you, why they abducted you, and why you were put in isolation for five years? I will answer all three of those questions." She paused. "Well, I can answer the 'why they abducted you' question as human trafficking but the other two, I'll try and solve it."

"Why?"

She shrugged. "Just want to."

Cindy wanted to say something. She wanted to say something but she just couldn't find the right words for it. There was a tingle in her mind that said that Felicia might have ulterior motives but she doubted that. Maybe she was too trusting since she's been separated from humanity for about five years but so far, there was nothing deceptive about Felicia Hardy.

Why would this person, this cat burglar, go out of her way, to solve the mysteries of Cindy's past? When Cindy finally found the words, she didn't hesitate in speaking them out loud.

"Thank you."

Alleyway

"Who the hell are you?" a mobster asked this person who dared interrupt this meeting. "I asked you a question, now you answer it."

The person standing in front of the three mobsters was a man in a Spider-Man suit loosely clung to his body. Even in the dead of night, the three mobsters could tell this man was a faker and the real Spider-Man had a skintight costume.

No need, they could always pop a cap in this rude bastard's ass and be done with it. But he was a civilian and targeting civilians would definitely put them on Spider-Man's radar. So, a good scare will have to do.

The mobster pulls out a gun and cocks it. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood today or else I would be-"

BANG!

The lead mobster fell to the ground, dropping his gun. The other two quickly raise their gun but the spider imposter shot them with his concealed gun. The three mobsters all lay down on the ground, wincing and groaning and clutching at their bulletholes.

The dead of night had concealed the sight of the spider imposter's suppressed gun and allowed him to get the drop on them. Once he was sure all three of them were incapacitated, the imposter sprinted to the three downed criminals, kicked their guns away, and pulled out a knife.

"You deserve this," a thick Brooklyn accent spoke behind the mask. "You are criminals." He plunged the knife into the lead mobster and watches him convulse and gag on his own blood. The other two mobsters attempted to crawl away but the imposter pounced on them and began slashing and stabbing their back. He couldn't let them get away; the real Spider-Man would be disappointed if that were to happen.

Once he finished off the three mobsters, he looked at his bloody knife and quickly dropped it to the ground. The real Spider-Man didn't use a knife so he couldn't be seen leaving with it. Then again, the real Spider-Man didn't use a gun either so he had to ditch it but the gun had saved him a lot of time dealing with those three mobsters so he opted to take it instead.

A/N: Tell me what you think of the story so far.