Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
A Tangled Web We Weave
Five
Caterina, the 'fixer' working for Wilson Fisk, lurked in the background as she listened to him gave a speech.
"... and Fisk Enterprises will be making substancial donations towards repairs to businesses damaged by the Collider event," Wilson finished.
They were, basically, paying off the city for the various damages. But this way, Wilson got good PR out of it. Plus he could point to it later and go 'See, I do good charitable works!'
'I am possibly a bit too cynical,' Caterina mused.
Wilson finished, "Thank you all for your time."
"No questions," Caterina cut off the reporters. "Mr Fisk won't be taking questions."
There was loud grumbling as Wilson left the stage, getting into his car. Caterina followed, the doors locked and they were off. Before anything was said, Caterina took out a device to scan for bugs. She nodded after a moment, "Clear."
"I wanted to take questions," Wilson complained.
"It's still too soon for that," Caterina said firmly, "we need to get public opinion more on your side, first."
Wilson grunted, but didn't argue. "The donation is tax deductable?" he asked.
"Yes sir,' Caterina confirmed. 'Scumbag,' she thought, keeping her deadpan expression.
"The new Spider-Man... what's he up to?" Wilson frowned.
"I feel we're managing him fairly well," Caterina noted calmly, "other than Tombstone, he's mostly hitting our rivals."
"Which you've arranged," Wilson noted.
"News pieces, and a few bribes with our police allies," Caterina admitted calmly.
"LARGE bribes," Wilson noted.
"You have to spend money to make money," Caterina replied coolly. "Once you get your people in place, you could make millions."
Wilson nodded slightly. "Fair enough," he conceded.
"The dealer near Horizon Academy... you're not replacing him?" Caterina noted.
"I have SOME standards," Wilson said dryly, "we do not deal to children."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Spider-Man swung across the city, the black and red clad teen crossing town quickly.
'I'm late! I'm late! I'm LAAAATE,' Miles thought as he dropped into a deserted alley. He used a scrambler that Tony Stark had developed for urban heroes to kill any cameras, then swiftly changed to street clothes.
"You're late," May Parker teased mildly.
"I'm really sorry," Miles said sheepishly, then froze at who he saw with her.
Mary Jane Parker smiled faintly, the gorgeous redhead standing by May at the coffee shop counter. "Don't be angry with May," she said, "I insisted she bring me along."
"Ah. Right," Miles said tentatively.
May passed over the cartridges of web fluid as she noted, "She knows you're Spider-Man, but not your name. I thought you'd want to keep that quiet."
"Peter was like that too," MJ waved it off.
"I'm very sorry for your loss," Miles said quietly.
At May's prompting Miles told his version of meeting Peter, as well as the whole Collider mess. "I still have no idea where the weird spider that empowered me came from," Miles admitted.
"Fell out of an alternate universe?" MJ suggested.
Both Miles and May blinked.
"We KNOW they test fired the Collider a few times, so...," MJ shrugged.
"That... makes a lot of sense, actually," Miles admitted thoughtfully. "I nosed around the whole area, and other than the one facility I found nothing."
"It's a good theory," May agreed.
MJ pushed hair back, then smiled firmly at Miles. "I just wanted to say, I'm happy you're carrying on with the identity. I think it's what Peter would have wanted, too."
"Thank you," Miles said quietly.
"Be careful, though," MJ added. "This is a crazy life you're getting into."
"I'll try to keep him out of trouble," May added wryly.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Gwen Stacy had known Peter Parker a LONG time.
They had gone to high school together. Even dated for a while. She threatened his bully, Kong, with a knife.
(It had been a fucked up sort of year.)
Anyway, Peter had put his efforts into being Spider-Man. (Yes, she had known) And Gwen ended up signing on with SHIELD after various stuff happened.
(Being killed. Revived as a Carnage-symbiote. Being seperated OUT of the Carnage entity. Getting a clean bill of health.)
So now, ironically, the nearly thirty year old was the Agent In Charge of New York operations. Fucking weird on a huge series of levels. Still, one did one's best...
"Commander Danvers," Gwen saluted her boss.
Carol Danvers, head of SHIELD when Nick Fury wasn't around, nodded. "Agent Stacy," she said, "status report."
"We're monitoring Fisk closely," Gwen reported, "he's apparently looking to rebuild his superhuman resources. He's recruited Electro and Kraven, alongside his Scorpeon and a new Prowler."
"Has Fisk made direct contact with them?" Carol asked dryly.
"No," Gwen admitted, "only through his fixer."
"Then just keep watch," Carol said, "we need to nail Fisk, not his minions."
"Understood," Gwen nodded. "We\re keeping an eye on May And Mary Jane Parker. So far, only a few c-listers have tried anything."
"Make sure no one succeeds," Carol ordered. "Captain America himself is taking an interest. And rumours are the Punisher is too."
Gwen made a face. The Punisher was a very bad man... him rampaging in the city would be bad for all concerned.
"I'll do my best, ma'am," Gwen promised.
Carol looked thoughtful, "The new Spider-man... do you know who it is?"
"We do," Gwen admitted, "he's been in regular contact with May. Both are decent at evasion, but not on our level." She paused, "Do you want me to send you the data, securely?"
Carol paused, "No, not right now. Let's not spread it around."
"Understood!" Gwen nodded.
"If the new Spider-man gets in over his head... be ready to step in. We clearly didn't react fast enough last time," Carol added.
'Well, we didn't even know what Fisk was doing. We totally dropped the ball,' Gwen thought, but kept a deadpan expression as she said. "Yes ma'am."
To be continued...
Notes: It's probably NOT canon, but with Spider-Verse Wilson Fisk having a school aged kid I'd think he'd not want drugs anywhere near him.
With cameras being EVERYWHERE now, heroes would have to have some way to kill them.
Gwen Stacy had a REALLY fucking weird life in the Ultimate-verse. Her joining SHIELD is not canon...
Shorter chapter, not feeling well.