The Spectacular Spider-man

by choejhulkp9

One happenstance trip to Central City in December changed the life of one individual in a way he never imagined. You wake up one day and all of a sudden, your body changed, you gain super powers and you find yourself wondering if it was an accident or maybe it was meant to happen. Who knows but all I know is with great responsibility comes...a lot of weird crap.

3. The Bird Man and the Magician

After taking down Shocker, the Big Man begins to think out of the box in taking down Spider-man and unfortunately for Spider-man, the Smythes are more than capable of creating new super villains to screw with him. But he won't have to worry about that because he's got to deal with the return of Malcolm Merlyn and his birthday. Not entirely sure which one will be the hardest but one thing for sure: if it was easy, it wouldn't be fun. Enjoy!

The Spectacular Spider-man: The Bird Man and the Magician

October 2014-Starling City

It was evening in Starling City as people were heading home from work or on their way to dinner or a night out. Barreling down Main Street was a car filled with a bunch of idiotic delinquents who just robbed a store. "Ha! Man, look at all this cash!" The guy in the driver's seat said as he looked at the small bag filled with cash.

"Yeah, easiest job ever and no Spider-man to stop us." The driver said when all of a sudden Spider-man landed on the hood of the car.

"Tadaa! Say my name and I magically appear!" He said. The two delinquents in the front fired their pistols at the windshield to kill him, but Spider-man flipped onto the top of the car. One of the guys in the backseat leaned out to shoot him but Spider-man kicked his gun out of his hand, webbed him and shot a web line at a light post. "Here's your stop!"

The dude was yanked out of the car as Spider-man flipped to the side and webbed up the other guy in the back seat and shot a web line at another light post. He jumped back onto the roof of the car and yanked out the guy in the shotgun seat and webbed him to a telephone pole. The driver then reached his hand out and fired some wild shots.

"Young man, stop that right now or I will pull this car over!" Spider-man quipped, flipping onto the hood of the car. "Or better yet, don't!"

He yanked the driver out of the car and slammed down on the hood of the car, shooting web lines at two buildings and forcing the car to a stop. "RAH!" Spider-man exerted himself and the car was forced to a stop. Once the car stopped, he backflipped off it and onto the ground.

"Geez, what is it with drivers in this city? Or am I just a crime magnet." Spider-man said before turning, and firing impact webbing at the driver who was trying to run away. The driver was hit and stuck to a tree. "You know what, don't answer that question."

He jumped into the air and web swung away from the crime scene. "It was all supposed to be simple. Head into the city to pick up some groceries for mom but no…end up stopping some idiot delinquents who couldn't stand to stay in school and live a normal life." He said to himself as he swung down the block on the way to a nearby grocery store but then he heard the sound of glass breaking and people shouting in fright. "And where there's one group of delinquents, there's another."

Two masked gunmen had stormed into a small family owned grocery store with one holding everyone else at gunpoint while the other forced the owner to dump all the money from the register into a bag.

"Hurry up!" The thug shouted as he pointed his pistol at the owner's wife. The man hurried up and dumped all the cash from the register into the bag. "Let's go."

He tapped his partner on the shoulder and ran out of the store as his partner grabbed some muffins with a smirk and followed him. "Coming through!" They heard as Spider-man swung by and shot webs at them, yanking them into the air. They flailed their arms as they were hoisted up like ragdolls. Spider-man swung by and spun around on a light pole and stuck the webs there, leaving the criminals hanging upside down and completely helpless. Spider-man fired a few more webs to ensnare the bad guys in web cocoons and then webbed their mouths.

"You two are seriously bad if you're trying to knock over a family run grocery store. Shame on you." Spider-man said, webbing the bag of money. He flipped through the air and landed by the grocery store door. "I believe this is yours."

Spider-man tossed the bag of money to the owner. "Thank you, Spider-man." The owner and his wife thanked him while everyone else in the store took out their phones to take photos.

"Don't mention it." He replied as he also tossed the owner the muffins they took. "Don't forget these. Have a safe night."

He turned to leave when he stopped himself at the door. "Actually, do you think I could do some shopping?" Spider-man asked as the owner and his wife were momentarily confused but then nodded.

Ten minutes later…

Spectacular, Spectacular Spider-man. Spectacular, Spectacular Spider-man. Will sang to himself as he swung through the city with a bag of groceries. In the bag was a carton of milk, a bunch of bananas, whip cream, cherries, chocolate sauce, and some ice cream. Kind of weird shopping list from his mom but food is food.

Spider-man, Spider-man, shops for groceries like anyone can. Spins a web, any size, catches thieves to do good in the community…that doesn't sound right. Look out, here comes the Spider-man

He swung through the city and made his way to down an alley where he left his backpack and got changed back into his normal clothes so he could take a bus back home. Swinging through the city was easy but the suburbs were a lot harder and he didn't want anyone to see him heading there and thinking that Spider-man lived in the suburbs. The bus took its regular route and stopped at the bus stop on the intersection by Will's house. He walked down the sidewalk and up to his house, seeing the lights in the kitchen on. He took out his house key and unlocked the front door and walked in.

"Mom, I'm home and I got the groceries you needed!" Will called as he put his backpack on the ground and locked the door.

"SURPRISE!" He heard and turned to see his mom, Aria, Spencer, Emily, Dr. Connors, Martha Connors, and their son Billy shouting surprise in the kitchen which was decorated with birthday decorations and a large birthday cake with a 20 number candle on it.

"What's going on?" Will was confused as he walked into the kitchen.

"It's your birthday, Will. What, did you lose your brain today?" His mother said as she walked over, kissed him on the cheek and hugged him.

"Sort of. Left it behind in a grocery store." Will joked when Aria hugged him and he hugged back.

"Well, let's fill that empty void in your head with cake, ice-cream and Mrs. Connors famous cream puffs." She said and Will went eye-wide.

"No way, her famous cream puffs that we tasted last year at the Science departments holiday party?" Will hope he was right as Martha and Dr. Connors chuckled.

"Yes. Now while I only make them for special occasions, the birthday for my husband's star pupil and lab assistant seemed like a good one." Martha said when Billy grabbed one.

"Yeah, hanging out with Will is awesome and any chance to eat my mom's cream puffs is great." The 10 year old happily ate the cream puff as Martha and Dr. Connors gave him a look.

"Well, I'm not going to argue with a 10-year old. Let's celebrate!" Will shouted in glee and everyone clapped. Will blew out his birthday candles and got to eating May's famous spaghetti and meatballs for his birthday dinner. It was nice seeing everyone that Will cared about enjoying a nice dinner and having a nice night in. Billy stuffed his face with spaghetti as Martha and Dr. Connors did their best to try and keep him clean and from getting sauce all over his face and clothes while Emily and Aria fought over the last meatball which ended up with Spencer sneaking in and stealing it. That led to Emily and Aria trying to kill her and May trying to stop them. It brought a smile to his face seeing everyone he cared about having fun. These little moments made everything he did as Spider-man worth it.

After dinner they ate Will's birthday cake and made ice-cream sundaes which is what May's grocery store run was about. Will took another slice of the cake and chuckled at the cartoony image of Spider-man on the cake and noticed it had the number 7 on it. He smiled at Dr. Connors and Martha as they ate their piece of cake and saw Billy sitting at the kitchen counter with three empty cake plates and was eating his second ice-cream sundae.

"Thanks again for doing this, mom." Will thanked her as May smiled.

"While I'd like to take credit for this, I couldn't do it without the help of your three lovely friends." May gestured to Spencer, Aria, and Emily who smiled. "They came to me last week and wanted to do something for your birthday and considering how crazy your second life can be, we thought a nice night in would do you some good."

"And it did. Thanks, girls." Will said and they smiled.

"Of course. You've been keeping the city safe so us taking care of you is the least we could do." Emily said.

"Thanks, Em. This is great." Will said as he one-arm hugged her. "But I have to ask, why does the Spider-man cake have a 7 on it?"

"Oh, I wanted to get you a cake with Spider-man on it so I told the baker I was getting it for a 7-year-old which sounded more plausible than a 20-year-old college student who is secretly Spider-man." Aria said as Will tapped his head.

"Smart." He replied.

"And it happened to work out that you have 7 people here. Happy coincidence." Aria said so Will hugged her.

"Thanks, Aria. It's perfect. And it's good to know that I make a cute birthday cake cartoon. Really starting to wish I trademarked my license." Will joked when Dr. Connors walked over.

"Will, Martha and I wanted to give you your gift now so we can get Billy home before his sugar rush kicks in." Dr. Connors said. They all looked and saw Billy finish his second ice-cream sundae.

"That's probably a good idea." Will replied so Martha walked over and handed him a nicely wrapped clothing box. Will opened it to reveal a sparkling white lab coat with his name embroidered on the pocket square. "You got me my own lab coat?"

Will excitedly took it out of the box and looked it over. "Rather than use the ones at the lab, it's time you get your own. Every scientist deserves their own lab coat." Dr. Connors smiled as he was happy Will liked his gift.

"And we included some new safety goggles for you as well." Martha said and Will saw a pair of new safety tinted goggles he could use instead of using the ones in the lab. "Curt always says that a scientist isn't a lab coat or clothing but the mind that wears it. Taking that into consideration, Curt did say that a mind like yours deserves to have his own clothing rather than use spares."

"Thank you, Dr. and Mrs. Connors. Thank you both. This is amazing." Will hugged Martha and Dr. Connors when Billy then ran over on his sugar high and tackled them in a flying hug.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILL!" Bill shouted as he handed him a Spider-man pencil case and composition book with a bow on it. "HOPE YOU LIKE IT! I GOT MY DAD THE SAME THING AND HE LOVES USING IT!"

"That would explain a lot." Will said, remembering the times he saw Dr. Connors use a Spider-man pen to jot down some notes. Martha then took Billy and held him back as he began to get jittery.

"We should get him home before he tries to eat another slice of cake. I'll see you tomorrow, Will. Emily, Spencer, Aria, Mrs. Detmer, always nice to see you. Good night." Dr. Connors bid them farewell as he and Martha took the jittery Billy away.

"Good night." They replied as the Connors left.

"Wow that seemed like one hell of a sugar rush." Spencer said.

"Glad I outgrew that phase." Will said, finishing his soda.

"Well, since Dr. Connors gave you your gift, we should do the same." Emily came over with a birthday bag. He opened it and pulled out a small Spider-man plushy and he chuckled. "I know you said you didn't want one, but it was too cute to pass up."

"I love it, Em. Thanks." He smiled as he looked it over. He did make a cute plushy.

"And there's something else in there as well that I think you'll like." Emily said so Will reached in and pulled out a pair of dark red and blue Asics Onitsuka Tier Ultimate 81 athletic shoes. "I talked to some of the trainers at my summer Olympic training program and they said that those shoes are perfect for someone who's into parkour. They got me a good discount."

"Oh, Em this is awesome!" Will hugged her tight and looked them over. "These are perfect. Can I just say I was a little upset we couldn't hang out during the summer but given you met Maya and got me these, I'm over it."

"Good to know." Emily replied with a smirk. "And it was hard not to spend the summer here too but it had its upsides."

"And that upside was named Maya." Spencer joked as Emily moved some hair behind her ear to hide a blush. "Now, here's my gift."

Spencer handed him a nicely wrapped rectangular box. He opened it to see it was a new Palmer Tech 5G smart tablet and a Palmer Tech Bluetooth earpiece. "Whoa, Spencer you went out of your way with gifts. A Palmer Tech tablet…this must have cost you a fortune?" Will was amazed to see such a great gift but was concerned because the table was easily 300 dollars and that's low balling it.

"Oh, no worry. One of the perks of having your parents work for a multi-billionaire tech inventor is that you get a whole bunch of free stuff. They got a whole bunch of the tablets but they use the prototype ones they get for work so these just sit in the box. I gave one to Emily and Aria so now you get one." Spencer said as Will grabbed Spencer and spun her around in a fierce hug. Spencer laughed as she hugged back. "I'm glad you like them."

"This is great, Spencer. Thank you." Will said. Aria came over with her present, settled nicely in a nice shopping bag.

"And this is for you." She said so Will reached in and pulled out a picture frame with two photos. The first photo was of Will, Aria, and Emily back in their freshman year before Will got his powers so he was the shorter, glasses wearing Will. The photo was taken by one of their classmates in front of the large mural/water fountain on campus. The second photo was of Will, Aria, Emily, and Spencer at the beginning of their sophomore year and taken in front of the same mural/water fountain as the first picture. The two pictures side by side showed how much Will had changed and was a nice memento to how the school year started and that they had a lot to look forward to. It seemed like it was a tradition that they take that photo every year.

"Oh my god, Aria." Will smiled as he looked at the photo. Emily, Spencer, and May looked at the photo as well and smiled. "This is perfect."

"That's not the only thing in there." Aria told him. He looked in the bag and froze for a second. He then pulled out his old fashioned Canon 35mm film camera.

"My old camera." Will looked it over and it looked brand new and clean.

"I got it from your mom and I had it completely refurbished." Aria said.

"I haven't used this since I was at Starling Academy." Will grabbed Aria and spun her around in a massive hug. "I love it, Aria. Thank you."

"It was my pleasure. Since it's become a tradition we take that photo every year, next year we should do it with your camera." Aria said and Will smiled.

"This is perfect. This is the best birthday I've had in a long time." Will said when his mom held out an envelope with his name on it. "This is dad's handwriting."

"I found it in his desk years ago and was waiting for the right time to give it to you. This seemed like it." May said as Will looked it over and opened it.

He opened up the envelope to see a birthday card that read Happy Birthday to my son, a man with a future as bright as the sun and who will change the world. He opened it and saw an old photo of Will and his dad when he won the science fair in middle school with his rocket project and then another photo of Will with his mom and dad at the Starling City museum when they had the NASA exhibit.

"I remember this. It was my NASA phase when I was in middle school. Dad joked that I'd work for NASA after college and by the time he'd retire, I would have gotten us to Mars." Will said as he remembered the fond memories.

"Your father knew from that moment on that you'd change the world. He was right." May said. The girls hugged him as it seemed that Will missed his father.

The party was soon over, and the girls helped clean up and were going to spend the night. Before he went to bed, Will went to the Starling Cemetery and walked the grounds until he came to the gravestone of his father. He looked at the tombstone that read Here lies Richard Benjamin Detmer, a loving husband, father, and servant of justice.

Will knelt down, moved some of the dirt apart and placed the birthday card and photos there on his grave. He touched the tombstone and looked at it, feeling a sense of happiness that his father had such a meaningful gift for him but also sad that he wasn't here anymore. He just hoped that he was making him proud.

"Thanks for the card, dad. I know I'm not a NASA scientist, but I hope that I'm making you proud." Will said as he kissed the tombstone. "Love you, dad."

Back in the city, Oliver was chasing his target down the main street of Starling City. His target ran as fast as he could down the middle of the street with the Arrow right behind him, having jumped down on the roof a bus to a van that went after him. The cars on the street swerved out of the way and began creating roadblocks so the Arrow jumped from the van and vaulted over cars as his target ran for his life. His target took a turn and ran down an alley so Oliver fired a rope arrow that wrapped around his neck, stopping him in his tracks. He pulled him forward and walked up to his target as the guy backed away, scared out of his mind.

"I didn't do it!" He begged for his life.

"A woman was killed on a rooftop last week. Black leather, blonde hair, wore a mask!" Oliver shouted.

"I didn't kill her." His target pleaded with him.

"You were there! Your fingerprints are on this!" Oliver said as he held up a piece of glass from a bottle.

"From a fifth I drank up there, but I—""What did you see?!" Oliver shouted.

"Nothing! I was on the roof with some buddies and this lady showed up and she—she told us to go! Look like she could handle herself, you know." Oliver could tell that was all his target knew and walked away. "Whoever it is you're looking for, I wouldn't want to be him."

Oliver arrived back at the bunker and saw Felicity, Roy, and Dig there. "Another dead end." He put his mask down and walked over to his display case to put his bow away.

"You're kidding. It took me a week to get a hit off that print. I had to reconstruct the partial using a predictive indexing algorithm. Appropriate, since it was his index finger…" Felicity saw that Oliver was in the mood for jokes and quickly stopped talking. "Not particularly relevant now."

"Don't worry, Oliver. We'll find him. He's out there somewhere." Dig assured him.

"No, he's not. The trail's gone cold." Oliver stated the facts.

"I hate to do this but I have to head out to work early." Felicity told them as she grabbed her purse.

"Tech village is open this early?" Roy asked.

"Not exactly." She replied.

"Have you figured out where exactly in Italy Thea is staying?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah, about that—she's not in Italy. Or Europe, or, well—"Felicity blab a bit causing Roy and Dig to chuckle.

"Where is she?" Oliver asked.

"I had to ping her cellphone to figure out where in Italy she was texting from. Turns out, came back Corto Maltese." Felicity told him before she left.

"Corto's an island off of South America. What's up with your family and Islands?" Dig asked as Oliver just gave him a look and walked over to his mannequin with Roy following him.

"Hey, Oliver. Thea's letter said not to come find her." Roy told him.

"That letter was addressed to you, not to me. I'm watching Laurel go through losing Sara. It's time for my sister to come home." Oliver said and Roy nodded before walking over to his display case to grab his bow. "What are you doing?"

"Thea's gone because of me. Because the lies that I told her. So I owe this to both of you to make things right." Roy said.

"No…what are you doing?" Oliver motioned to his bow. "You can't travel with that."

Roy looked at his bow and put it down. "I've actually never been on a plane before."

Line Break xxxxx

The next day was back to business for Will and the girls. They went back to campus and their regular schedules. Aria was getting a little busy working on a project for her design class, Spencer was at the DA's office today for her part-time internship, and Emily was at swim practice so Will went to the lab to do some work. He walked into the lab, put on his new lab coat, and got to work on the cancerous tumor trials for the Recombinator. Will walked over to get some vials and saw Pinky in his cage drinking some water.

"How're you doing today, buddy?" Will asked as he put another cheese cube in Pinky's bowl. "We're doing big things, little guy."

Will went to his computer and got the simulation running on the next set of trials for the Recombinator. Before they would actually use the Recombinator for a cancer tumor trial, there were simulations that needed to be run to account for anything that could go wrong. While the simulations were running, Will was multi-tasking and finishing up some projects he had started a while ago.

He was using the soldering iron to place in the last microchip he needed and clamped on the metal cover of what appeared to be a metal bracelet like his Web Shooters but didn't have a trigger device and was a lot smaller. The bracelet had a small little barb on the part by the wrist and a small spider symbol icon on the back. He put the bracelet in a box with three others like it and put it away in his backpack when Dr. Connors walked in. "Hey, Dr. Connors." Will said.

"Afternoon, Will." Dr. Connors replied.

"So, how was Billy's sugar rush and crash?" Will asked as he saw Dr. Connors shudder.

"Let's just say he won't be having sugar for a long time." Dr. Connors put his briefcase away and grabbed his lab coat. "So, I ran in to Professor Aldrich today and he wanted to show me your paper on occulated pneumatic neural networks for new mechanical prosthetics. Very impressive work."

"Thanks. It's something I was working on last year that I'm interesting in pursuing. Kind of another way to help people." Will said with a smile.

"Well, I know a lot of people will benefit from that." Dr. Connors said. "All right, let's get to work."

He and Dr. Connors got to work on the next set of trials for the Recombinator and within the next few days, they'd run another set of tests and if everything went well, then they'd have a viable beta-phase for a cure for cancer. After he finished up working with Dr. Connors, Will stayed behind to work on a new pet project of his. Something new to add to his arsenal beside his regular web shooters and he was just about done. It was something he stumbled upon by accident when he was trying to develop acid webbing. By mixing liquid cobalt, perchloric acid, hydrogen peroxide and super heating it to 4,000 kelvin, he developed a liquid that once electrified would cause chemical metal embrittlement. It would come in handy if he encountered something in the future so he put a small amount of the chemical compound in small corked vials. Once thrown and the liquid coated a surface, he'd use his venom blast to electrify it and boom…instant chemical metal embrittlement. He'd have Aria come up with a name later.

He made sure no one was around and corked the last of the 16 vials and pulled out his Spider-man belt from his backpack. He moved all his spare web cartridges into his two front and two back pouches and placed the 16 vials into another pouch and made sure they were secure. He then took out another spare pouch with a small belt loop from his backpack he had Aria help make. They were spare pouches he'd have tied to his ankles so he had extra storage for his other new weapons. He opened his secured drawer with his key and took out a small box with dozens of small vials of web fluid, spare parts, and 8 ready-to-use web bombs or web grenades. Either or, it's didn't really matter what they were called, they did the same thing. They were small, around the size of a golf ball made up of a scrap metal he got from the engineering lab and using spare tech he got from Red, White, & Blue Electronics. You'd be surprised at what you could rig up with a genius brain, some engineering know-how and discount electronics. One man's trash is another man's treasure trove. The grenades were very simple: they housed a web cartridge so all he had to do is pressed the button on the grenade, throw it and in three seconds, it would detonate the cartridge and cover the surrounding 2 meter radius in webs. It could entangle more bad guys then his impact webbings and would be useful in a lot of situations.

He put all his stuff in his backpack and went back to his dorm room. On the way there, he passed by Cece Drake, some new student who recently transferred here but barely attended class. They shared a literature class and she barely showed up. If anything, it seemed that she was more concerned with asking about Alison DiLaurentis. She has been asking about her ever since she showed up…and that wasn't the only thing. When they first met, she triggered his spider-sense for some reason and he didn't know why. There was something up with Cece Drake.

He walked into his dorm room and put his belt back on his suit which was hanging in his closet. He sat down at his desk and activated his laptop to bring up a command prompt that had a very complex digital code on it. He reached into his desk drawer to pull out a small box and in it was a prototype for something Aria dubbed as the Spider-tracer. It was small, about the size of a nickel and had a red spider symbol on it and it was a small GPS device. He designed it using some of the tech he took from the Smythe aerial drone that had followed him. Right now, it was still in the beta-phase but he just needed to program it and he'd be ready to take it out on a field test. He used some precision pliers to open up the tracer and plugged in an usb cable and began uploading the program he wrote on his computer which would then send a signal to his phone so he could track it. While the program uploaded, Will got to work on one last thing. He took out his mask, turned it inside out and took out the Bluetooth earpiece Spencer got him and began taking it apart so he could put it inside his mask. He entertained the idea of having some kind of earpiece in his mask so he wouldn't need to take out his phone all the time and this was perfect. He removed a lot of the bulk pieces which just left the circuits and wiring and he began using his soldering iron to fit them into place on his right ear.

Around 6pm, he texted the girls to come to his dorm room because he had a surprise for them. He finished with his mask upgrade just in time when he heard the electronic student ID card lock click and Aria, Emily, and Spencer walked in. "Hey, Will. We're here. What's up?" Aria asked.

"Well, I wanted you girls here because I have something for you." He said as he took out the small box from his backpack. "I wanted to give it to you yesterday but I needed to finish it. Voila."

He opened the box to reveal four silver metal bracelets with a spider symbol on it. "Oh, these are cute." Aria said as she, Spencer, and Emily looked them over.

"Cute and functional." He added. He took three out and put them on the girl's left wrist. "Given my new part-time job keeping the city safe, I can't always be here for you girls and I want to make sure that if something should happen I'll know. So, I made these. The small barb on the bottom by your wrist is for self-defense. If you guys find yourself in trouble, the bard can release a 2,000 volt shock against someone. Just press the barb against whomever and bang, they're stunned. And the spider emblem sends out a GPS signal once pressed so if you need my help, press it and I'm on my way."

"Wow, you thought ahead." Emily said and Will smiled.

"Of course, I have to keep my girls safe." He said as they smiled. "The fourth is for my mom. I'm going to go drop it off when I got out on patrol."

"You have really outdone yourself, Will. Where did you get the stuff to make this?" Spencer asked, curious to how he did it.

"Oh that's easy. Cheap tech at Red, White, & Blue and the recycle pile. One man's trash is another man's treasure." Will joked as Aria looked and saw a lot of tech on his desk and bed.

"Wow, you've been busy." Aria said, holding up a small corked vial of liquid. "What is this?"

"That is another tool to add to my arsenal along with these." Will took out one of the web grenades and put the tracer back together. "The designs you came up with inspired me to do a little inventing. These are my web grenades. Press the button, count to three and it encases a 2 meter radius area in webs."

He tossed it to Emily who looked it over. "Nice." She said.

"I'm using the tech I got from that drone to make spider tracers. Still a work in progress but almost done." He said as his program finished uploading so he put the tracer back together so Aria could see the small spider symbol she sketched in the book.

"Oh, that's my design." Aria said with a sense of pride.

"And that vial in your hand is something new. Once thrown at something it causes chemical metal embrittlement." He said but Aria and Emily were confused so Spencer decided to help.

"It means whatever metal gets hit with it will become brittle and crumble." Spencer said as Aria and Emily nodded. "Not bad."

"Yup, still need a name for it though. Aria, any suggestions?" He asked as Aria tried to think up of something but was drawing a blank. The look on her face made Will chuckle. "Don't worry, you have time to think of something. Tonight, these things are getting a test run. So, enough about me, anything new with you girls?"

"No, same old same old. My professor did say that there are talks about a charity fashion show here at the college. It's in the works but could be fun." Aria said.

"Nothing with me but the coach did say that he still wants us ready for the meet on parents' day this week." Emily said.

"Right, I completely forgot about that." Will said as he realized that parent's day was three days away. It was when all the parents came to visit their kids at campus.

"Well, of course you would forget. Yours and Spencer's parents live here." Aria said. "My mom and dad are driving over with my little brother, partially to see me and partially to see if they want to send Mike here next year. It's exactly what I don't want."

"My dad had to head back to base so it's just my mom." Emily said with a small smile. Things were better with her.

"Well, it's just for a day. They come here, tour the campus, listen to speeches and that's it. We just get through one dinner together with all our families and its back to business as usual." Will said.

"Sounds good to me. To be honest, my parent's haven't even mentioned parents' day because they've been too busy with everything at Palmer tech and Melissa and Ian." Spencer said.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Will asked as Spencer shrugged.

"A bit of both. They're here but not breathing down my neck 24/7 which is nice. Let's me focus on things here and with my internship. I helped Laurel track down a guy for a break-in case she's working. He's some guy who goes to Ted Grant's boxing gym." Spencer said and Will recognized that

"Wait, Ted Grant? As in Ted Wildcat Grant?" he asked and she nodded. "You're kidding, that guys a legend."

"Who is Ted Wildcat Grant?" Aria asked.

"He's a former professional boxer also known as the Starling Southpaw. He was a minor celebrity in the city during his title fight a few years ago until he retired and opened up his own boxing gym." Will said.

"Wow, Will. I didn't know you were a fan of boxing." Emily said.

"I'm not but my dad was. He took me to one of his earliest fights years ago when I just started middle school and even tried to teach me how to box to defend myself." Will said, remembering the fond memories…and the memories of it outcome. "Let's just say…it didn't work."

"Oh." Aria said.

"My dad was a dedicated fan and while I never got into the sport, I did watch with him." Will said as he got an idea. "Spencer, do you know where the gym is?"

"Yeah, it's in the city. Why?" She asked as Will rubbed his hair.

"Well, maybe we should head down there and see if he's got beginner classes." Will suggested and the girls were confused.

"Will, what do you need boxing for? I mean, you already have your own fighting style. You called it…the way of the spider, right?" Emily told him.

"I do, and it's perfect for me. Honestly, if I took up boxing it might not be the best but nothing wrong with expanding my horizons." Will replied. "But it wouldn't be just for me. Maybe you girls should think about it."

"Seriously?" Spencer thought it was crazy.

"Just listen. Ok, this might sound like me being paranoid and over cautious but after being Spider-man for a while and given what's happened in the city, it's kind of necessary. Just learning boxing to defend yourself sounds like a good idea." Will told them.

"Will, we're not damsels in distress. We can take care of ourselves." Emily replied.

"Well, maybe you can. I'm the one who needs to wear heels to even look normal compared to the three of you." Aria said. She was the least athletic of the group and the shortest.

"I know you can, Em and believe me the day a guy decides to mess with you he'll be in for a shock but this is me being serious. Ok, just after I got my powers when we went into the city with Aria and first met Yuri, those thugs tried to jump us." Will said.

"Yeah, and you took care of them." Emily pointed out.

"I did but what if I didn't get my powers a week before? Or worse, what if I wasn't there with you? I don't even want to think about what could have happened." Will was genuinely worried about them and completely serious about this which was different than most situations. "Look, I get that this might come off as alpha-male overprotective but is there anything wrong with wanting to make sure that the people I care about are safe?"

Aria, Spencer, and Emily looked at each other before sighing. "It's hard to argue against you when you get sentimental." Spencer said, causing Will to smirk.

"Look, our lives are busy enough as it is, I get that. With everything that's going on, finding rare free time is hard. How about tomorrow, we just head down there and think about it?" Will asked as the girls thought about it for a moment before they all reluctantly nodded. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. It's cute when you get all over protective." Aria walked over and hugged him. "Show you really care about us."

"Of course I do." Will told her. "You girls are more than just friends, you're family. And despite everything that can happen, I'm going to do everything within my power to make sure you're safe and nothing will change that."

"Aw…" Emily and Spencer hugged him too and the four friends had a nice moment which was ruined when his phone and computer went off. They looked and it was his police radio backdoor program that let him tap into the police frequency and it went off because of a bank robbery/hostage situation at Starling Mutual.

"Duty calls." Aria said as Will nodded.

"I'll be back." Will told them. He put on his suit and new sneakers that Emily got him and slipped on his mask, ensuring that the earpiece he put in fits in place. He put on his web shooters and pressed the triggers, hearing the click of them working so he put in web cartridges and made sure they were locked in. He grabbed his belt and secured it around his waist and made sure his chemical vials were set and he filled up on web cartridges. He grabbed two spare pouch belts and tied them around his ankles and put his web grenades in there. He placed his spider tracer in his belt and slipped his cellphone into his last free pouch, opened his window, jumped and swung away to the city.

He swung around a building and landed on the rooftop about two blocks away from the bank. He zoom his vision in and saw the police had set up a perimeter outside the bank and were under fire by armed men inside the bank. The robbers were wearing body armor, using automatic rifles and were wearing ski masks and one of the robbers had a female hostage at gunpoint so the SCPD couldn't shoot back for risk of shooting her. He super jumped to the roof of the next building and web swung down to the roof of the bank. He opened up an air vent and began crawling down to get inside the bank.

"Huh, banks have remarkable clean air vents. Good for them." He said to himself, impressed with how clean the vents were. He carefully ripped open the vent grate and crawled out so he was inside the bank. He shot a web at the ceiling and hung upside down in his signature spider style to take note of everything in the bank. Besides the five robbers at the front, there were two in the vault loading the money, one holding the other hostages at gun point and two more walking around the bank for a grand total of 10 bad guys.

'Ok, ten bad guys and one Spectacular Spider-man. Bad odds for them. Time to go to work.' He crawled along the ceiling until he was above one of the robbers doing a patrol. He shot a web line down at the robber's gun and yanked it up quickly, hitting the bad guy in the face. The gun to the face stunned the robber so he shot another web at him and pulled him up to the ceiling and stuck him there with webbing. He lowered himself down to the ground and slowly came up behind the other robber doing a patrol and touched his back, using his venom shock that momentarily paralyze him and then kicked his feet out from under him and web him to the ground. He quickly jumped away as the robber guarding the hostages heard some noise.

"Hey!" He shouted to one of the men who were shooting at the cops. "I heard something. Go check it out. Make sure the cops aren't trying to sneak in through the back!"

The guy nodded as he loaded a fresh magazine into his rifle and had his buddy come with him. They walked away from the front and made their way into the interior of the bank, staying close together in case something happened. They moved past the teller desks over to the financial consultation desks when they both felt a tap on their shoulders. They turned around to see Spider-man there.

"Hi." He said as he banged their heads together and knocked them unconscious. He picked up their guns and bended the barrels before dragging them away and webbing them together. He crawled along the wall made his way over to the robber guarding the hostages, shot a web at him and threw him into the wall before firing his impact webbing and sticking him there. The hostages all looked and saw him there but he quickly motioned them to shush and be quiet and they nodded. He crawled along the wall and saw the open bank vault. He jumped off the wall quietly and slowly moved to the vault door. He peaked in and saw two of the robbers putting money into bags. He pulled out one of his web grenades, pressed the button and rolled it into the vault before jumping away and sticking to the ceiling.

"Huh, what's this—ACK!" They shouted as the remaining three robbers by the front heard the shout. They turned and saw their man by the hostages was gone.

"Where'd he go?!" The leader shouted, still holding the woman at gunpoint. He heard two puffs behind him and when he turned around, he saw his two men were gone. He saw some of the police moving forward so he fired a few shots from his pistol to keep them back. "STAY BACK!"

He dragged his hostage with him as he turned to the others and pointed his gun at them. "WHERE'D THEY GO?! WHERE DID MY MEN GO?!" He shouted and the hostages cowered in fear when he heard something hit the ground so he turned to see Spider-man.

"Hey, yelly. I'm right here." Spider-man told him. The robber held the hostage tight around the neck and aimed his gun at Spider-an

"So, you're Spider-man?! I'd thought you'd be taller." He said as Spider-man shrugged.

"You are not the first bad guy to say that to me and something tells me you won't be the last." Spider-man said. He took one step forward but the robber aimed his gun at the hostage's head.

"Don't take another step or she gets a bullet in her skull. And you heroes don't want that to happen." The Robber said.

"That we do." Spider-man replied as he could see the robber smirk under his mask.

"You know, it might actually be a good thing you being here. My plans have kind of derailed with the police showing up and you taking out all my associates, so I want you to grab the money from the vault. You'll find ¾ ton pallets of bills inside, 30 million dollars." The Robber told him.

"Phew, that's a lot of money." Spider-man stated.

"You're gonna carry it for me, swing me away from this place with your stupid webs or I will execute every single one of these hostages." The Robber said.

"Hmm…tempting but I'm gonna have to say no to that." Spider-man joked. "Besides, I didn't come down here to talk…just to distract you."

He quickly shot his two web shooters and hit the gun and the robbers face. He yanked hard and pulled the robber away from the hostage. Spider-man quickly jumped forward and smashed the robber's face with a right cross, knocking him out cold but he webbed him to the ground just to be safe. "Are you all right?" He asked the hostage as she nodded and hugged him.

"Thank you, Spider-man." She cried into his sweatshirt and he hugged back.

"Don't mention it. All in a day's work for a superhero. The police will take it from here." Spider-man let go and shot a web line at the front door and zipped away. The police outside on the street saw Spider-man fling out of the building, spin through the air and land on one of the police cruisers. "Hey there boys in blue. Don't worry, the hostages are safe. I'll leave you too it!"

He jumped off the car and web swung away as SWAT and CSU secured the area. Will swung away from the bank, feeling good about himself until he realized something. "Aw, man. I didn't get to use my chemical metal embrittlement liquid…dang, I really need a shorter name for that." He said to himself as he swung over a building.

Line Break xxxxx

The next day, Will, Aria, and Emily took the bus into the city and made their way to Ted Grant's boxing gym like they said they would. They went after classes and Spencer would meet them there after finishing up at the DA's office. They walked in and saw some people there for training or using workout equipment. Will, Aria, and Emily looked out of place seeing as they just came from class but stuck around. They saw two men in the ring boxing against one another with one pushing offensively while the other absorbed some blows and waited. One wild right cross left the boxer open to an uppercut which knocked him on his ass, losing the fight.

"Oh, that's got to hurt." Aria said as Will grimaced. He had hit plenty of bad guys with uppercuts and knocked them out but his punches were a lot stronger with his super strength…not to mention his fight with Shocker showed him how much it hurts when he gets hit. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Yeah…but I'm starting to sway from that a bit." Will walked over to grab one of the gym's pamphlets and looked it over. It read learn self-defense and had information on class schedules and things like that. "Here."

Emily and Aria took the pamphlets and looked them over. "Hey." They turned and saw Spencer had arrived in her business casual wear which was heels, business pants, with a button up and blazer over that. "Sorry, I'm late."

"No, you're on time. We got here a few minutes ago. How was your day?" Will asked.

"Fine but I think there's something going on with Laurel. I'll tell you later." Spencer said as Aria held up one of the pamphlets.

"Here, Spence. Check this out." Aria and the others looked over the pamphlets. "You know, Will I love that you want to look out for us but maybe this isn't the answer. I mean that punching bag is bigger than me. What can I hope to do against an actual person?"

"Big, small, tall or short, it doesn't matter." They turned and saw Ted Grant there taking off the tape around his knuckles. "What matters is knowing how to throw the right punch. What can I do for you?"

"Wow, Ted Grant." Will said as Ted looked at him. "Sorry, my dad was a huge fan and he had me watch all your matches when I was a kid."

"Thanks. Always nice to meet a fan. So, what brings you here?" Ted asked.

"Well, our resident over-protective nerd wants us to take up boxing as a means of self-defense." Emily told him.

"Hmm…well, I'm more than happy to help. A lot of the people in here come to work off anger and rage because of the bad hand the city deals them but most of them come here to learn how to defend themselves. It's something that everyone should think about unless you own a private army or have super powers." Ted said.

"Pfft…yeah, right. I wish. It would make things so much easier." Will joked.

"Have any of you taken a self-defense class before?" Ted asked and Emily, Spencer, and Aria pointed to Will. "You have?"

"It wasn't self-defense but my dad tried to teach me to box to protect myself against the bullies at my school…it led to me getting an atomic swirly." Will said as Ted was confused. "That's the one where they dunk your head in the toilet and flush it."

"Oh." Ted looked at Will and noticed he seemed very fit and not the subject of bullies. "You seem like you can handle yourself now."

"The wonders of puberty and being a late bloomer. Life is full of its little ironies like that." Will told him. "They call me over-cautious but I just worried."

"It's fine. I take it you four are students." Ted guessed.

"Yeah, we go to Starling University." Aria said as Ted nodded.

"Normally, my beginner's classes are during the week. But I can set aside some private lessons for nights and weekends if you're interested. And if you come as a group, I'll give you guys a discount." Ted said with a smile. He had them follow him to his office, wrote down some stuff on applications and handed them to Will, Aria, Emily, and Spencer and the price was very reasonable. "Take some time to think about it and let me know."

"Thanks, Ted but why the discount price?" Will asked.

"Call it a bonus for the son of a fan…and to make sure you never get another atomic swirly." He joked as he walked over to his next lesson.

"He's kind of cute." Aria stated causing Will to roll his eyes.

"So, what do we think? Give it a day to think it over?" Will suggested and the girls seemed to agree. "Ok. Spencer, there's something you said you wanted to talk about?"

"Yeah. Laurel came to me before and told me to get a file on some guy named Andrew Rozak. Some guy with multiple assault charges and warrants on him all the way to Coast City. Normally, I'd make a log of any file request in the DA's computers for something like this but Laurel specifically told me not to make any kind of record that she wanted the file. And I checked the pending cases, we have nothing on this guy except for warrants out." Spencer told him in a very worried tone. "I'm scared that Laurel might be up to something."

"If she didn't want a record of you pulling his file…it means she doesn't want anyone to know what she's doing." Will guessed and Spencer agreed with his logic.

"Yeah, when I felt something was weird, I took some photos on my phone." Spencer sent him the photos of the file which included the picture and some general information. "Do you think you can have Yuri do something?"

"Don't worry, Spencer. I'll handle it." He assured her, giving Spencer some relief.

8 hours later

It was nighttime in the city and Will was suited up in his Spider-man gear. He made a call to Yuri about the guy Laurel was looking into, Andrew Rozak and was able to get some last known locations and possible places he likes to hang out. Most of them were bars…no shocker there. Once he got the list, he plugged his tablet Spencer got him into SCPD's CCTV uplink center from the uplink tower on the roof of the SCPD to hack into traffic cameras and found Rozak's car at a bar. Time to ruin his night.

He clung to the wall in an alleyway and saw Rozak's car parked. He had been there for a few hours waiting for him to come out and he eventually stumbled out of the bar, obviously drunk off his ass.

'Ok, note to self, don't end up like that guy. Granted alcohol doesn't really affect me but that's beside the point.' Will narrated in his head as he watched Rozak grab his keys when he saw a masked woman in black leather come out from the side with a bat. He focused his eyes on the figure and saw familiar looked blonde hair and leather jacket. The masked woman hit Rozak in the back, knocking him into his car.

"I hear you like to hit women. How about one who likes to hit back?" The woman asked and Will recognized the voice as Laurel Lance. Laurel slugged him with her bat twice before he caught the bag and yanked it out of her hand. He punched her twice, knocking her down to the ground and kicked her in the gut.

"You're right. It's better when they hit back." Rozak said with a sadistic smile when Will jumped off the wall and kicked Rozak into his car, smashing the windows and knocking him to the ground. He landed in a crouch in front of Laurel as Rozak got back up.

"How about you try that against someone who has a thing against dirt bags hitting women?" He taunted him. Rozak grabbed the bat and swung it at Spider-man but he ducked and slid between Rozak's legs. He kicked Rozak in the back, launching him through the air before shooting some webs at his back and smacking him into the ground. He shot some impact webbing and stuck him there so he could check on Laure. He took off her mask to see she was conscious but had some serious bruises and cuts on her face. "Hang on, I'll get you to a hospital."

He pressed his Bluetooth headset and hit the dial button to call 911 and tell them there was an assault at his location. He then picked up Laurel and swung her to Starling General and dropped her off at the ER. Laurel was immediately taken and when Will's mom heard what happened, she went to see her and help. Laurel was going to be fine, just some bruising. Nothing was broken.

May was writing something on her charts when he saw Quentin hurrying down the hall to see his daughter. "Mrs. Detmer…sorry, May. How is she?" Quentin asked.

"Laurel is fine. Just some bruising on her face and side, maybe a mild concussion but she seems fine. We're just keeping her here to rest up. You can discharge her if you want but we'd recommend she stay the night." May said as Quentin nodded, breathing a sigh of relief. "Your daughter seems to be going through something. Is everything ok?"

"I'll let you know when I find out." He said, walking in to the room to see Laurel laying on her hospital bed, bruised but alive. "Oh, baby. Baby, are you ok?"

"I'm so sorry." Laurel told him.

"I'm too relieved to be made at you, I really am." He said as he kissed her head. "But, sweetheart…this is crazy. What the hell were you thinking going after that girl's boyfriend?"

"There's just something I needed to work out. I know that the world isn't fair. I know that it's a terrible place where…where people deserve to get punished. And they don't. I just… [Sighs] for one night, I needed the world to be different." She said. Quentin could tell something was bothering her.

"Ok, Laurel, Laurel…what's going on with you, huh? You're not being yourself lately. And now you're running around, you're tuning this guy up. What are you doing? Baby, you can talk to me about anything, you know that right? You know that." He said as Laurel looked at him.

"I know." She replied.

"Talk to me then." He begged her but she wouldn't say anything. "Laurel, you're not the Arrow or your sister or Spider-man. You promise me you'll never do anything like this again, ever."

"I promise. It was a mistake. I wasn't thinking." She said, looking at the jacket her sister gave her hanging from a chair. "I'm just glad Spider-man showed up when he did."

"That makes two of us. If I ever see this guy, I'm gonna kiss him on the mask." He told her before kissing her forehead. "Get some rest."

Quentin stepped out and sighed as he ran his hand over his face in exasperation. "I'm guessing the talk didn't go well?" May asked and he shook his head no.

"No. She's like a completely different person and won't talk to me." Quentin said as he looked at her. "Did you ever have that problem with Will?"

"I did." She said, thinking about during the siege when she found out about his powers and the secret he had kept for months. "I guess it's natural with kids that they keep secrets."

"I thought she'd grow out of that. What did you do with Will?" He asked.

"It took kind of a big moment for him to be honest with me. I was beyond mad but then I realized he didn't tell me because he was afraid or ashamed but more to save me from worrying." May told him. "Granted, I still worried but you just have to wait for Laurel to be ready to talk to you. Give her a little time."

"I'll take your word for it." Quentin said. "Thank you for looking after her."

"It's my pleasure. Granted, it's not something I really do anymore but I have some pull around here and I more than know my way around the ER. To be honest, considering I first treated you and then your daughter you might want to put me on as your personal physician." May joked and Quentin chuckled.

"I wouldn't have any problem with that." He said as she smiled back. "It wouldn't be so bad."

"Maybe. But my charity has limits so I think the next time you need my help…it'll cost you." She said and Quentin smirked.

"I'm sure that my insurance will cover it." He said so May took out her business card and wrote something down.

"Here's my card. In case something comes up again or you need a doctor's opinion." May handed him her card and he saw she had written down her cellphone number as well. "Don't wait too soon or too long to call."

"I'll try not to." Quentin said when he glanced to the window and saw a red cladded figure outside. The figure motioned him to follow so Quentin put the business card in his pocket. "Excuse me."

"Of course." May replied as she walked back in to check on Laurel while Quentin walked over to the window and saw the figure was gone. He walked down the hall and saw a note webbed to the outside of the mirror that read Go outside.

Quentin took the stairs and walked outside by the loading dock area. He turned around to see no one was around. "Hello?" Quentin called out.

"Up here." He heard a grizzled and baritone voice call out so he turned and saw Spider-man crouched against the wall of the hospital. "Hello, Captain Lance."

"What's the matter with your voice?" Quentin asked.

"What do you mean? This is my regular voice." Spider-man replied.

"Not from what I've heard and it sounds like you've got a bad case of strep throat." Quentin said as Will sighed.

"Well, so much for that working." Spider-man said to himself in his normal voice. "I figured that considering everything I've done that it's about time we meet in person."

"I guess you're right." Quentin said as he looked over Spider-man. "I thought you'd be taller."

"Something tells me I'm going to be hearing that for the rest of my life I spend in this suit." Spider-man sighed, shaking his head. "I swung by to see how the ADA was doing. It's not every day I save a notable city figure."

"She's doing fine, she'll pull through. Thank you for saving her." Quentin said.

"It's my job. Granted no one pays me so I guess you could call it more of a hobby." Spider-man stated. "Having said that, I don't suppose the SCPD is looking to deputize superheroes? I could use a good paycheck."

"Sorry, I don't think the mayor would like that unless you're willing to take off that mask." Quentin said but Spider-man shook his head no. "I figured as much. Besides, you are technically breaking the law."

"I like to think of it as being a proactive member of society and being diligent with my citizen's arrest." Spider-man quipped which actually made Quentin chuckle.

"I'm not sure the Mayor would go for that." Quentin replied so Spider-man shrugged.

"Well, you can't win every fight. But, I can't complain with what I do now. Besides, I love screwing with the bad guys. And I figured that you're probably the one person in the police department who would speak to me without arresting me on sight." Spider-man said, hiding the fact that he was speaking to Yuri on the side.

"What makes you say that?" Quentin asked.

"Well, word has it through the superhero/vigilante grapevine is that you are buddy-buddy with the Arrow. I figured speaking to you is better than a patrol officer who is a little too trigger happy." Spider-man stated.

"You and he are friends?" Quentin asked.

"Not even close. The first time we met in person he said he didn't want me doing my Spider-man thing to keep the city safe which is a little hypocritical since I'm doing a better job. Frankly, I think he's just jealous and considering he tried to shoot me with an arrow doesn't help which says a lot about his personality. Not a very amicable person." Spider-man said.

"You had no idea how right you are but he gets the job done and he's saved the city plenty of times." Quentin told him as Spider-man held up his hands.

"I'm not arguing that but his first instinct is to point arrows at your head." Spider-man replied and Quentin conceded his point. "Anyway, just wanted the chance to tell you in person that I'm here to help the city."

"And after everything I've heard and seen, I'm starting to believe you but why show up now? Why not years ago?" Quentin asked.

"Well, you know the universal saying…timing is everything." Spider-man was about to leave but stopped himself and looked at Quentin. "That might have come off as menacing but that's not how I meant it."

"Noted." Quentin said. "How I get in contact with you if I need your help?"

"I'll contact you. Don't worry, Captain, if there's something going on in the city I'll be there. See you later." Spider-man shot a web line and swung away.

"He's friendlier than the Arrow, that's for sure." Quentin said as he walked back into the hospital.

Line Break xxxxx

The next day, Will was with Aria, Spencer, and Emily at the coffeehouse on campus talking together at a seclude table in the corner. "So, was I right to be worried about Laurel?" Spencer asked and Will nodded, finishing his decaf coffee.

"You were right. She went after the guy like an amateur vigilante. Leather jacket, ski mask, and a bat." Will told her.

"Oh my god. Why would she do that?" Emily asked.

"I'm not sure. Considering the guy's a deadbeat asshole who hits women, I'm not crying over spilled milk." Will replied, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "Besides, I did kick his butt and he's now in jail. He already had more than a dozen assault charges filed against him so now he's where he belongs."

"Why would Laurel go after him like that?" Aria asked and Will shrugged his shoulders.

"She's clearly going through something with Sara's death. Maybe going after the guy was some kind of way to get rid of her stress." Will said as he tossed his coffee cup over his shoulder and it sunk right into the garbage can with no problem.

"Showoff." Aria joked causing him to chuckle. "Are you going to tell Captain Lance about Sara?"

"I don't know. How would I even bring it up? It's not like I can walk right up to him in the precinct and tell him that I have a hunch that your daughter is dead based on a conversation between Laurel and the Arrow and suspecting that she worked for him as the Canary." Will suggested. "That conversation's likely to get me arrested or shot and I just spoke to him last night saying that I was on his side."

"Well, if Sara really is dead then he deserves to know." Emily said and Will nodded.

"I know he does but do I have the right to tell him that or should I get Laurel to do that? I mean, where's the line I shouldn't cross in this situation?" Will asked, not sure how to proceed with this. "Ugh, things were easier when I was fighting Shocker."

"You really wish to get attacked by another supervillain over dealing with this?" Spencer asked and Will shook his head no.

"No, of course not." Will knocked on the wooden table to stop from jinxing himself…if only that worked.

After their little coffee chat, Will went to the science lab with Dr. Connors to put the final touches to the Recombinator sample for their first cancerous tumor trial. Will finished up calibrating the RNA sequencing liquid as Dr. Connors prepared the Recombinator for the first test. Rather than use an animal like Pinky for this test, they were testing the Recombinator on a cancer tumor sample on a petri dish which was still viable and alive. It still gave them the same results of a live subject and it didn't involve animal cruelty of subjecting an animal to cancer which just sat wrong with both of them.

Will finished up the last of the gene sequencing and energized the vial, causing it to glow for a bit before it went back to normal. Will took the vial and walked over to the Recombinator and put it in as Dr. Connors powered it up.

"All right, DNA genetic sequencing Recombinator test on malignant tumor sample TR-1 commencing. RNA dosage number 13.257 loaded for testing." Dr. Connors spoke into a tape recorder as he and Will put on their safety goggles and got behind the machine. "Commencing Recombinator beam in three…two…one…mark."

Dr. Connors pressed enter on the keyboard and the mechanical arm moved the Recombinator into position. The Recombinator hummed and powered up, then fired a beam of green energy at the petri dish for duration of 20 seconds. It was twice as long as the regular tumor trial but eventually the beam stopped and the Recombinator powered down. "Recombinator sample depleted. Beam duration 20.2 seconds." Dr. Connors spoke into his tape recorder. "Status?"

Will checked on the sample with the computer and based on the readings there was improvement with the malignant tumor. "Tumor growth reduced by 25% percent and the vitals has improved." Will replied as Dr. Connors nodded.

"Let the record show that RNA number 13.257 caused tumor reduction by 25% and improved vitals. RNA 13.257 will start as viable base for future trials." Dr. Connors spoke into his tape recorder and then turned it off. "All right, we use this one as a base and see what we need to improve its effects."

"Roger that." Will replied as they got to work on what improvements could be made to the serum, unknown to the fact that tonight he'd encounter his second supervillain.

At the secret hidden Smythe secret lab where Spencer Smythe housed the Black Widow, he and his son were working as fast as they could to make sure it would be ready but still required some more time before it was operational to take down Spider-man. Unfortunately, time was not on their side.

Hammerhead strolled into the lab to see both Smythe's working on the Black Widow. Spencer looked over some data on a tablet when he saw the flat-headed enforcer of Mr. Lincoln walk in. "Hammerhead, what need brings you here to distract us from our work?" Spencer Smythe asked.

"What do you think? It's the bug. Ever since he took down Montana, he's been upping his activities in the city and it's been hurting the Big Man's profits. Get that machine of yours up and running and hunt the web head down." Hammerhead ordered.

"We can't. The Black Widow isn't fully operational at the moment and still requires time to complete construction." Alistair replied.

"How much time are we talking here?" Hammerhead asked.

"By the end of the month is the earliest we can guarantee. If you want Spider-man dealt with permanently, then you'll have to be patient." Alistair told him so Hammerhead grabbed Alistair by the shirt and hoisted him up out of his wheelchair.

"Patience is something the Big Man is running out of." Hammerhead warned him. Spencer saw this little show and needed something to stall for time so brought up a project file on his tablet labelled VLTR-05. "The longer Spider-man is out there, the more money the Big Man loses and the more he loses, the angrier he gets and you don't want to make the Big Man angry."

"And using your anger against us won't do you any good seeing as how our technology is the only hope you have against Spider-man. Now put me down." Alistair told him which actually made Hammerhead smirk seeing his bravery.

"Perhaps there is another option." Spencer Smythe suggested so Hammerhead put Alistair down. "The Black Widow will not be ready for a while but perhaps another one of our projects can be used to stop the Spider-man, if not at least slow him down."

"I'm listening." Hammerhead said as Spencer brought up the image of the file onto a bigger screen so they could see and what he saw made Hammerhead smirk. "Not bad."

"All we shall need is a volunteer, preferably someone with flight experience." Spencer said and Hammerhead nodded.

"I'll find someone. Get that thing ready and pray it works better than the thing you gave Montana." Hammerhead warned him before leaving. Spencer Smythe walked over to the elevator, inserted a keycard and input a four digit code to head down to a specialized vault located underground where Project VLTR was waiting.

A few hours later, Hammerhead returned with the volunteer for Smythe's special suit and they had flight experience and were more than willing to take down Spider-man. His name was Adrian Toomes, a former Airforce engineer and pilot who was dishonorably discharged for recklessly modifying fighter jets and he was suspected in the theft of various parts and equipment used in heists. It was never proven so he was discharged and ever since he's been a bad guy for hire and he's been employed by the Big Man. (1)

"So, what's the job?" Toomes asked as they walked into the warehouse.

"Simple. Smythe's gonna give you a fancy suit like he did with Shocker and you use it to kill Spider-man. You do that, the Big Man is willing to pay you handsomely for his corpse." Hammerhead told him causing Toomes to smirk.

"Fine by me." Toomes replied as they walked into the lab to see Spencer and Alistair waiting.

"Is this your man?" Alistair asked.

"That he is. Toomes, meet Smythe and his son." Hammerhead made the introduction. "Your suit ready for Toomes?"

"Of course, it is. And it will be more than enough to take care of Spider-man if Mr. Toomes is capable of flying it." Alistair said.

"I can fly anything," Toomes said with pride causing Spencer Smythe to chuckle.

"There has never been anything like this." Spencer pressed a few buttons and a part of the floor rose up to reveal something that made Hammerhead and Toomes smirk in delight. It was an Exo-suit that resembled a high-tech flight harness. Razor sharp metal blades fanned out and resembled the wings of a bird with a 12-foot wingspan. There were two high-tech turbines on each wing with a specialized Hydrium energy core on the back that powered the whole suit and an additional back thruster/engine for additional speed and maneuverability. The wings were attached to a harness with hydraulic/pneumatic pressure rigs to the arms and legs and attached to the feet of the harness were clawed talons like a bird made up of a razor sharp metal. There was a high-tech helmet and breathing mask on the side with a flight suit/jacket. (2)

"I give you the Vertical-Lightweight-Tactical-Reconnaissance air suit or as I call it, Project Vulture." Spencer announced as Toomes walked over to the suit and looked it over. "While originally designed as a specialized air force suit that would allow the pilot to stealth recon an area, I've repurposed it for combat. It is powered by a Hydrium energy core, making it the most powerful flight suit known to man. It can easily reach up to speeds of 200 miles per hour and its maneuverability in the air is unmatched by even the most advanced helicopters. The wings are made up of a titanium/obsidian carbine polymer blend making them lightweight, durable, and razor sharpened along with being fully articulated. The turbines on the wings and engine on the back are your primary means of propulsion. The breathing mask and flight jacket will protect you from the force of the flight and provide you with oxygen while the helmet gives you an advance HUD system and helps you control the suit."

Toomes walked up to the suit and looked it over, running his finger along one of the wing blades and the sharp metal pricked his finger and made him bleed a tiny bit. He smirked before he grabbed the helmet and turned it on, causing it to light up a dark green. "You said you repurpose this for combat, so what do I have to work with?"

"You have two razor sharp clawed talons on the feet which also aid in moving through the environment. Your arm harnesses have extendable arm blades and grant you increased strength. The right arm gauntlet has a .45 caliber Gatling submachine gun capable of firing 50 rounds per second while the left has twin gas-powered grapple spears along with triple explosive heat seeker rockets." Alistair Smythe explained.

"More than enough firepower to deal with Spider-man." Spencer Smythe said and Hammerhead nodded.

"All right, Toomes. Get suited up and get hunting for Spider-man. The Big Man wants his suit decorating his office." Hammerhead told him as Toomes nodded.

"Give me some time to personalize this stuff and tonight, the Vulture is going hunting." Toomes said with a smirk.

Line Break xxxxx

Will finished up with Dr. Connors early for the day at around 5pm which gave him more time in the afternoon than usual. He went to the coffeehouse and scarfed down a muffin before he decided to go see the girls. He walked through the quad when he saw Aria talking with someone. He was older than they were, not by much but didn't seem to be a student so he was most likely a professor or teacher. Aria said goodbye and saw Will so he walked over.

"Hey, Will. What are you doing out here?" She asked.

"Dr. Connors let me leave early so I just scarfed down a blueberry muffin and was on my way to come find you." Will said when he noticed the smile on her face. "So, who was your buddy that you're thinking of replacing me with?"

"Oh, Will, nobody can replace you." She said with a smile. "That was Mr. Fitz. He just came to the school and is working for the English Department as a junior professor. He's awesome. He's writing a book so I talked to him about it after class."

"Awesome. He seems cool and from the way it looked to me, it seems as though he's likes you too." Will said as Aria punched his shoulder. "Then again, I'm not the expert on things like that so take my word with a grain of salt."

"Duly noted." Aria replied when Emily texted her saying that she was with Spencer and wondering where they were so Aria texted them where they were and that Will was with her. "Emily and Spencer are on their way over. We were planning to head into the city to check out the new Thai place. Want to come with?"

"Sounds good to me." Will replied. "So, how's everything going with you? Any news on that fashion show your professor said was a possibility?"

"Yeah, actually. You remember that?" Aria asked.

"Aria, it was only two days ago and I have a near eidetic memory." Will reminded her.

"I know but given everything that you've been dealing with, I didn't think you'd remember." Aria said as Will looked at her. He stood up straight with her and held her by the shoulders.

"Aria, you are my best friend. I wouldn't be the person I am…the hero I am without you. Never doubt that. Anything that's important to you is important to me no matter what Spider-man deals with." He told her, causing her to smile.

"It's cute when you get all sentimental like that, Will." Aria smiled at him as she moved some hair behind her ear and tried to control her blush. "And you do know you just referred to yourself in the third person, right?"

"Not really. Sure, I wear the mask but as far as I'm concerned, Spider-man's world and Will Detmers are two separate things and besides the fact that I make his tech, I'm not going to let those worlds intertwine." Will promised. "I need to make sure that the world doesn't suspect that Will Detmer, college nerd who underwent a drastic body change could possibly be Spider-man. Best part of the mask is that anyone can be under there."

"Wow, way to get deep." Aria joked causing Will to chuckle. "Well, I'm glad to know the man behind the mask. He's the hero this city deserves."

"Save that statement till I get more of a handle on the whole superhero thing." Will joked as the two looked at one another. Will smiled at Aria, to this day she was one of the most beautiful girls he'd ever met and unlike the girls he knew growing up a school she was one of three that treated him with respect. He was glad they were friends but…could there be something more. NO! She was his best friend and she probably didn't even feel the same way…she deserved better.

"Uh, excuse me." Will and Aria heard as they turned and saw Emily and Spencer standing there. "Are we interrupting something?"

"No." They both replied as Aria adjusted her hair and Will cleared his throat. "Just waiting for you two to show up."

"Uh huh." Spencer replied with an all-knowing smirk.

"So, shall we go eat?" Aria asked and the four took a trip into the city. The Thai restaurant was awesome, reasonably priced and had a great atmosphere. The Pad Thai was delicious and the food they ordered was good and it didn't do any damage to their wallets. They sat at their table having just eaten a lot of food and were feeling stuffed...well, Aria, Spencer, and Emily were feeling stuffed but Will felt fine and was happily munching on his desert.

"You ate those spring rolls, dumplings, Pad Thai, Curry and the sticky rice. How can you still possibly eat?" Spencer asked.

"One of the benefits of my powers is that I burn up a lot more calories than I normally did, which means I can eat a lot more and not worry about gaining weight. Besides, I burn it off every night going out into the city." Will said as he finished his ice-cream and wiped his mouth.

"I hate you so much right now." Aria glared at him. "God, I wish I had your powers right now."

"Really?" Emily asked.

"Sure, it'd be kind of cool to swing through the city, grow taller, be a hero." Aria listed.

"Yeah, beating up bad guys, dodging gunfire and dealing with police who don't like you and civilians who constantly ask if I wear a mask to hide the fact that I have a spider face is fun." Will told her causing Aria to think a moment about her answer.

"I take back what I said." Aria replied. "But, maybe my new workout regime will help."

"What workout regime?" Will asked.

"Boxing." Emily said as Will looked at her. "We talked it over and we're up to trying boxing lessons."

"But only if you do it with us." Spencer told him. "You suggested the idea and it's not fair if we're the only ones who are getting punched."

"Fair enough." Will replied as he took out some money to pay his bill. "So, we can head to Ted's gym now if you want to drop off the forms and figure out a workout schedule?"

"Sounds good." Emily said so she and the girls paid their share, grabbed their stuff and left the restaurant.

They walked through the city and made their way to Ted Grant's gym. They walked in and saw him finish up a beginners class with the students packing their bags and leaving. Ted wiped his forehead with a towel when he saw Will and his friends. "Hey there. I was hoping you four would be back." Ted said.

"Well, you must be intuitive because here we are." Will joked as he and the girls handed him their forms. "We're up to taking some boxing lessons."

"Ok. Let's get you guys ready." Ted took the forms and placed them in his office and grabbed some stuff they would need which included tape for their hands, some beginners gloves and Wildcat boxing hoodies. "So, Red or Black?"

"I'll take red. It's been my color for a while." Will said as he took the red hoodie and saw the Wildcat logo on it. "Nice logo."

"Thanks. So, I can set aside Tuesday and Thursday nights for lessons along with the weekend if that works for you." Ted said as Will, Aria, Spencer, and Emily seemed to think that would work. "All right, let's get everything squared away."

Ted helped them organize their schedule and told them what the lessons would entail and what they should do when they're not training at the gym. Their first lesson would be start next week given that this weekend they had parent's day so they'd be busy and Ted understood that. He just told them to try and get some cardio in for the weekend so they don't gas out for their lesson. They settled the payments for the lessons and once they were happy with how things were set they made their way back to the city.

"All right. It doesn't seem so bad. And the new sweatshirt is nice." Aria said, looking it over.

"We'll see if you say the same thing after our first class." Will replied. "Something tells me your excitement will turn into groans of pain."

"Ha-ha." Aria punched his shoulder causing him to chuckle. "You may be agile and have spider sense but I promise I will land one punch on your pretty face."

"Oh, I'd pay to see that happen." Emily joked as she got an idea to make Will fluster and have some fun. "But if I were you, Will I'd be more concerned about myself and keeping it together during our lessons."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Will asked.

"Oh, only that we're all going to be taking boxing lessons so we'll all be sweating…wearing small workout clothes…together…close together." Emily suggested and Aria and Spencer caught on.

"Yeah, I mean I know a bunch of guys on campus that would love to be in your position." Spencer suggested causing Will to gulp and a bead of sweat to drop down his forehead.

"You think you can handle yourself, Spidey?" Aria asked, making Emily and Spencer chuckle.

"Oh, ha-ha. Very funny." Will exhaled, cleared his throat, and opened up his collar a bit to cool himself down. "Sure, mock the nerd who never had a date. Good grief."

"Oh, you may be a superhero but you're still too easy to mess with, Will." Aria laughed when they heard a whole mess of sirens and four police cars sped past them on the street.

"That's not a good sign." Spencer said when they heard a phone ringing. Will opened his backpack and saw it was his burner phone.

"That's a worst one." He took out his phone and answered. "Yuri, what's up?"

"Hey, we've got a situation. An armored car was attacked en route to the Starling Mutual bank. The guards were attacked by something and whoever did this has a lot of fire power. We've gotten reports of a lot of damage and destruction by some unknown assailant. There's already four officers injured." Yuri told him.

"All right, where am I heading?" He asked.

"Our latest reports suggest that Laurence Square is the sight of the latest attack. I have no idea what you're running into so be careful." Yuri said to him.

"Thanks. I'm on my way." Will hung up and put his phone away. He saw a cab coming down the street so he waved and it pulled up. "Hey, take them to Starling City University."

"You got it." The driver replied as Emily, Spencer, and Aria got in the cab and closed the door when they all got in.

"Head back to the dorms. I'll be there when I'm done here." Will told them.

"Be careful." They said and he nodded. He pats the top of the car and the taxi drove away. Will checked the street and saw he was alone so he ran into the alley, pulled his suit and equipment out of his backpack, quickly got changed and put on his web shooters, slipped his mask onto his face before web zipping high into the air and landing on the rooftop. He webbed his backpack to the ground there and super jumped off the roof, flipping through the air and fired a web line at a building. He swung low and ran on the side of a building before shooting another web line at a taller building and yanked himself into the air and began swinging to Laurence Square.

He swung over to a building and ran straight up it, then used a web line and banked across the roof before nose diving to the ground. He shot a web line and used the momentum to swing high into the air. He swung down the street and heard the sirens and saw the smoke of whatever incident Yuri told him about. He swung and flipped through the air and landed on the side of a building to see what looked like a small battle had occurred on the street. The armored car looked like it had been ripped in two, the guards were tied up with some kind of metal cable, and the two nearby police cars were destroyed. One was on fire while the other was upside down and had crashed into a fire hydrant. Additional police, emergency services, and paramedics were on the scene to take care of the injured officers and bystanders who got caught in the crossfire.

"HELP!" He heard as he saw some people trying to move rubble off of a man who was trapped. He jumped, flipped through the air and landed next to the group of civilians.

"Stay back, I got it." Spider-man told them as he grabbed the large chunk of rubble, grits his teeth and heaved, lifting it off the man and pushing it away. He grabbed the man and took him over to the paramedics.

"DAD! RICHARD!" He heard as the man's husband and son came over, hugging him and glad he was alive.

"Richard…that's a good name." Spider-man said.

"Thank you." The wife thanked him and he nodded back. He jumped away and landed by the drivers. He grabbed ahold of the metal cable holding them together and ripped it two.

"Are you two all right?" He asked.

"Yeah, we're fine. A little bruised but we'll live. Thanks, Spider-man." The driver said.

"Don't mention it. Who did all this? It looks like a min-war just took place." He said as the driver shook his head

"I don't know. Something just came at us out of nowhere." The driver said.

"It just rammed into the truck, yanked us out and tied us up before taking out the police escort. Just a blur of green, I think but I could have sworn I saw metal." The guard said as he rubbed his arm to try and ease the pain. "But there was a tracker in the duffel bags of money that activates if they're taken from the truck."

After the guard finished his sentence three police cars raced by with sirens ablaze and were heading north. "And I think they got it." Spider-man said, super-jumping forward and began web swinging through the city to follow the police cars. Soon, more police cars and SWAT vans joined the caravan which meant he was going likely going in the right direction to find the robber. He flipped through the air shot another web when his spider sense went off big time. "What the—UGH!"

He was cut off as something fast blindsided him from behind and bashed him through the air. The impact was like being hit by truck as whatever it was came in fast and was made up of metal. He fell through the air and quickly shot a web line at a building but was too late and crashed on the hood of one of the police cars which screeched to a stop. The officers in the car saw Spider-man crash on the hood and break the windshield but miraculous he sat up.

"Ugh, that's gonna hurt tomorrow." Spider-man twisted his neck and cracked a few bones when he saw the two officers looking at him in awe. "Sorry about your car. You guys have insurance, right? Do they cover superhero damage? Do we need to exchange info—"

He was cut off again when a metal rope wrapped around him and yanked him through the air. "AH!" He shouted as he was being dragged by something powerful and moving very fast. He was dragged low to the ground and smashed into the street a few times. "UGH, talk about road rash!"

Whatever was dragging him sped up and he caught up the police caravan and was tussled around so he smacked into four cars. The driver of the SWAT truck looked out his window and saw a tied up Spider-man being smacked into police cars like someone was using him as a lure to string up a car. Spider-man hit another police cruiser and managed to jumped off the roof, flip to his feet and began running as fast as he could so he didn't smash into another car. Spider-man looked to his side and saw the driver looking at him funny.

"Hi there! Does this road take me to the DA's office or the hospital?!" He asked as he was lifted into the air very rapidly. "NEVER MIND!"

Spider-man was being taken up into the air by whatever was holding him. The metal rope around his body was tight and clung his arms to his side so he wiggled as much as he could to try and get his hands into a position to help. He looked up at what was carrying the rope but because of the night sky he couldn't get a clear view of his attacker. He heard the sound of some kind of engine and the distinct glow of green eyes.

Spider-man aimed one of his hands up and shot some webs into the eyes of his attacker, momentarily blinding him. His attacker began shaking a bit which gave Will an opportunity to escape. He ripped himself free of the metal cables and was in freefall before he shot a web line at the mooring mast of a tall skyscraper and began swinging through the air. His flying attacker hovered in the air and began firing a machine gun but the bullets whizzed past him in the air as he swung around the skyscraper. Spider-man fired back and shot web bullets at his attacker who hovered and veered through the air to avoid them until he got hit in the chest and face. The attacker then flew forward and sliced his webbing with some kind of metal blade, sending Spider-man falling to the ground. Before he could shoot out a web, the flying attacker knocked him through the air and he slammed into the side of a building.

"Ugh…that's gonna hurt tomorrow." He said to himself. He pulled himself out of the hole in the side of the building and saw his attacker hover in the air in front of him, giving his first good look at whatever attacked him. It was a man in some kind of flight suit with massive metal wings. The wings were sharp and had turbine engines on them and the harness had weapons and clawed talons on the feet with the pilot wearing a dark green flight jacket and breathing mask. "Either I'm seeing a giant flying birdman or I was hit harder than I thought."

"And you're about to get hit harder, web head!" The man shouted as he unsheathed one of his arm blades and flew forward with the full intent of killing him. Will saw him coming so he quickly flipped upward and his attacker stabbed the impact crater. The man looked up and saw Spider-man hanging upside on the side of the building.

"I don't know what I did to you but is there any chance we can talk about this?" Spider-man asked. Toomes unsheathed his other arm blade and swiped at the wall crawler but he flipped to the side. "Seriously, I think talking about his might deescalate the situation!"

"Shut up!" Toomes shouted and pulled off the side of the building Spider-man was stuck to and sent it careening towards the ground. Spider-man held on for dear life as he and the chunk of building he was stuck to spin through the air. He quickly fired four web lines at two buildings which slowed his descent and the falling debris. He grits his teeth and held onto the chunk of wall with his feet to make sure it didn't fall down and injure a bystander. The webbing sprung back upward so Spider-man flung the chunk of wall at his attacker, thinking it would be enough but he was wrong.

His attacker smashed through the chunk of concrete and brick with his wings and punched him in the face, knocking him through the air. He flew forward and bashed him with the flat side of his wings like he was a tennis ball and Spider-man was sent flying. Spider-man tried to fire a web but his winged assailant just knocked him to the ground.

"Oh, shit!" Spider-man shouted as he fell to the ground but Toomes grabbed his leg. He flew through the air and dragged him alongside buildings where Spider-man bashed his head against brick and concrete every second. Toomes then threw Spider-man through some the windows of an office building and he came out the other side. "This is ridiculous!"

Spider-man fired a web line at a building and saw his attacker flying straight at him so he fired a thick web net and ensnared him like a bird. Spider-man swung to the roof of a building and quickly reloaded his web shooters as fast as he could. Toomes hovered in the air with the engine on his pack while he articulated his wings and snipped the webbing like he was using scissors. He looked down and saw Spider-man on the roof of a building so he fired two missiles at him. Spider-man's felt his spider sense go off so he quickly dove to the side and then quickly shot a web line at a water tower to zip up and avoid both missiles. He flipped and swung around the water tower as Toomes fired a barrage from his Gatling submachine gun and riddled it with bullet holes. Spider-man slipped underneath the tower and vaulted through the rigging before flipping onto the top of the tower and fired a barrage of web bullets that his attacker avoided.

"So, do you have a name or should I keep calling you birdman? I don't mind sticking with birdman but if I keep calling you that then we might get in some legal trouble!" Spider-man shouted.

"Call me…Vulture." Vulture proudly pronounced when he heard snickering from Spider-man.

"Seriously? You're gonna name yourself after a carcass picking trash chicken. Vultures aren't even that cool; they're just oversized rats with wings. Now, eagle or falcon would have been a better name but that's more for heroes I think. Besides, isn't there a guy named Falcone flying around?" He asked out loud.

"God, do you ever shut up?!" Vulture fired another missile at Spider-man but he flipped out of the way and it destroyed the water tower.

"Geez, someone is getting a little testy because they have a stupid name." Spider-man joked and quickly back flipped off a building before shooting two web lines and slingshot himself right at Vulture. "INCOMING!"

Spider-man blindsided Vulture with that slingshot tackle and began nailing some punches to the chest but when he punches the helmet, his fist hurt. "Geez, dude what is that helmet made of?" Spider-man grabbed his hand in pain which was a bad idea because Vulture used his distraction and punched him in the face. Spider-man fell to the ground but shot a web line at Vulture's legs and swung himself back up and onto his back where he saw some turbines and a jet engine. "Ok, this looks importan—"Before he could do any kind of tampering, his spider sense went off again. He turned and one of Vulture's wings articulated itself and knocked him off. Spider-man shot a web line and swung onto the side of a building, clutching his chest in pain. He looked down and saw some blood on his hand along with three massive slash marks on his sweatshirt and body suit. "Argh, that hurts…and will take all night to stich back up."

His spider sense went off and he quickly back flipped up the wall to avoid Vulture impale his wings into the buildings. "Yikes! Those wings are a serious safety hazard!" He shouted as Vulture plucked his wings from the wall and swiped at him again so he back flipped up the wall. Vulture swiped three more times so Spider-man side flipped, ducked and butterfly flipped to avoid them. "Seriously! I mean those things need safety covers on them!"

Spider-man shot a web line at his helmet and yanked down hard so he slammed Vulture's face into the building. He quickly back flipped to avoid Vulture's wings and then jumped over, falling straight to the ground but one of Vulture's foot talons caught his leg.

"I don't think so, web head!" Vulture threw Spider-man up into the air and latched his left talon around his body and slammed him into the side of a building. Vulture unsheathed one of his blades and tried to impale Spider-man's head but the web head moved it at the last second and got it stuck in the wall. Spider-man elbowed Vulture in the mask and then punched him in the chest before firing impact webbing at his left wing turbine. The webbing gummed up the turbine and caused it to stop moving. He shot some webs at Vulture's free arm and webbed it to the wing when Vulture picked up Spider-man with his talon and threw him through the air.

He quickly shot a web line and began swinging through the city while Vulture cleaned up the webbing in his turbine and followed him. Spider-man sped up a bit to gain some distance when he saw a narrow alleyway between two buildings and zipped through. He fit through easily but Vulture wouldn't be able to with his massive wings. He flew over the buildings to try and locate Spider-man but he seemed to disappear so he flew away.

Will poked his head out from the side of a building and sighed in relief before grabbing his chest in pain. He looked and saw the blood stain his gloves. "This is gonna be a pain in the butt to clean out." He said to himself and made his way back to school as quickly as he could.

Aria, Spencer, and Emily were in their dorm room wondering where Will was and if he was ok. They kept checking the news for any kind of information on what Will got into but there wasn't a lot to go on. They were dressed in their pajamas which consisted of shirts and shorts and were worried sick. Aria was pacing back and forth in the dorm room while Spencer and Emily were sitting on her bed and thought she looked a little manic.

"Will's fine, right? I mean, it's not like this is the first time he's been out late to protect the city. And those times he didn't even tell us but he'll be fine. But it seemed pretty serious and he would have let us know if he was hurt, right? I mean, Will would keep us in the loop." Aria said.

"Aria, where is your off switch? You're gonna blow a circuit." Emily told her.

"No. This is just level two. Do you two wanna see level three?" Aria asked, obviously racked with worry about Will. "Oh man I should have continued those yoga classes. I need ice-cream. No, I need coffee. No, what I need is a little sanity back in my life guys."

"I think she just hit level three." Spencer whispered to Emily and she nodded.

"Okay, ujjayi breath, Aria. Just breath." Aria took a few sharp and deep breaths to try and calm down.

"Better now?" Emily wondered.

"No, ok I'm freaking out. What is Will's really hurt or something? Isn't the not knowing driving you two crazy?" Aria asked.

"Of course it is Aria but panicking isn't going to help us at all." Spencer told her. "We're just as worried about Will as you are but it's not like we can go to the police and file a missing person's report or tell them he's Spider-man."

"Then maybe we should call Yuri. They're friends so maybe she could go look for him." Aria suggested.

"Aria, we don't even know where to start and if Will's in any danger. Half the time you call him when he goes out it goes straight to voicemail because he's busy fighting or snooping. He'll be fine." Emily told her while Aria sighed in exhaustion and exasperation.

"I'm sorry, but all this suspense and not knowing is killing me." Aria said. Emily and Spencer shared a look of confusion. Ever since Will's become Spider-man and his patrols out into the city became a regular thing they all worried from time to time but Aria seemed more worried than usual…like something changed. "I don't even know why I'm freaking out this."

"I think I do." Emily said with a knowing smirk.

"Am I supposed to understand that underlying tone you have in your voice?" Aria asked.

"Aria, is the reason for your…more manic than usual worrying about Will because…you're extra worried about him?" Spencer asked.

"Of course, I'm worried about him." Aria replied when she saw the looks she was getting and understand what she meant. "Oh, wow. Guys."

"Seriously, Aria…is there something going on with you and Will?" Emily asked.

"No, ok. Nothing is going on with us. We've stayed the same as we always have. Best friends…and I name and design his Spider-man stuff…and I talk to him when things are tough or I need someone to listen…and…" Aria seemed to lose track of where she was going with that sentence.

"And maybe you two have something more going on." Spencer suggested. "Because I could have sworn that you two almost kissed before Emily and I showed up."

"It wasn't like that." Aria said, sitting down in her desk chair and putting her bathrobe one. "We were just catching up about what was going on like we always do. I told him about the new professor and he wanted to know about the fashion show my design professor wants to host here, which by the way is officially greenlit so ladies prepare yourselves in a month." Aria told them.

"Noted, now go on." Emily said.

"And I thought it was kind of cute he remembered given everything he's been dealing with and he told me that no matter what he'd make sure I'm a priority in his life. And how he wouldn't be the person he is…he wouldn't be the hero he is without me." Aria said, smiling at the memory and how sweet it is. "For a guy who has never been in a relationship he really knows the right things to say to sweep a girl off her feet."

Emily and Spencer shared a smirk at that statement because it pretty much confirmed what they were thinking. Aria took a second from her own mind and realized what she just said out loud. "Oh my god, did I say that out loud?" she asked.

"You did and you can't take it back." Spencer said.

"The reason you're so panicked and worried is that you like Will…as in more than just a best friend." Emily told her.

"No, that's crazy…" Aria said, looking at Emily and Spencer who gave her a look. "Am I that obvious?"

"A little." Spencer motioned her over so Aria got up and sat between the two. "I think that if Emily and I hadn't shown up so soon in the courtyard…he would have definitely leaned in and kissed you."

"Or I would have kissed him." Aria said before dropping her head into her hands. "Oh my god, what is wrong with me? I never been this confused or neurotic with any other guy I've dated."

"Maybe because we all know that Will is different. I mean, besides the glaring super-powered different." Emily joked and they shared a chuckle. "He's just that kind of guy that makes you feel…"

"Like the center of the universe?" Spencer asked. "It's a rare quality that few men have. And a guy like Will is a rare one-in-a-million find. I'm just lucky enough I managed to see how great of friend he's been. You two have known him longer."

"Aria, you should talk to Will about this. Knowing him…I know he feels the same way about you." Emily said to her.

Before Aria could reply, they heard a knocking on their window. Spencer walked over and saw Will stuck on the side of the dorm building. He had his backpack slung over his shoulder but his sweater was a little bloody and he looked like he was breathing heavily. "Oh my god!" Spencer opened the window and Will looked at her.

"Hey there, Rapunzel, can you let me in?" He joked as she grabbed his hand and pulled him in.

"Oh my god, Will!" Aria rushed over to help him inside.

"I'll get the first aid kit." Emily rushed to the bathroom as Aria and Spencer helped him.

"Will, what happened?" Aria asked as she and Spencer helped him sit down against the bed.

"Don't worry about me, you should see the other guy. The other guy, in this instance being a guy with metal wings." Will told her, pulling off his mask and taking a deep breath.

"Take off your sweatshirt and suit." Spencer told him as she grabbed some towels and water. Aria helped him take off the sweatshirt and saw the small amount of blood and three fairly large slash marks across the white spider emblem. Will took off the top part of his red suit so Aria could see the scratches and cuts on his chest.

"Oh my god, Will." Aria was beyond worried but he grabbed her hand.

"I'm ok." He told her as Emily came back with the first aid kit. "I managed to get in a few good attacks on him, but I've never dealt with a flying supervillain."

Emily took out some cleaning alcohol and doused a cotton swab with it. "This will sting a bit." Emily told him.

"I've been through worse." He nodded to her and she dabbed one of his cuts. He recoiled a bit from the pain. "Tch…ok, maybe I was wrong."

Aria went to the bathroom and wet a towel before rushing back and helping to clean his cuts. Spencer, being the brainy one of the three girls looked at his wounds while she helped clean the cuts on his face. "These don't look too deep. It looks like you got lucky." Spencer told him.

"Or maybe I knew exactly what I was doing, Spence and he just got one lucky shot?" He joked as she rubbed one of the cuts on his head vigorously causing him to recoil in pain. "Or several lucky shots."

"How can you joke about this so casually, Will? I mean, look at you." Aria was more worried than normal and Will could tell. "He could have killed you."

"Hey, Aria…" Will grabbed her hand. "Don't worry about me."

"Well, too little too late for that." She told him.

"Aria…what's wrong?" Will asked. "You're more worried than usual. Tell me what's wrong?"

"Honestly, I'm beyond terrified for you." Aria replied.

"Why? I've been doing the same thing I have been for the past couple of months." Will told her.

"But's it's different now!" Aria blurted out, putting the towel down on the ground. Emily and Spencer saw this little back and forth between the two and decided to give them some space to talk.

"Emily, come with me to get some ice and more towels." Spencer said and the two quickly left, leaving Aria and Will to talk.

"Aria, I've known you long enough to know when something else is bothering you. What's wrong?" Will asked.

"What's wrong? I said it before, Will…I'm beyond terrified for you now." She told him.

"Aria, I've been doing my Spider-man thing for nearly five months now and you've never said anything before. You made me my new suit. What changed?" he asked.

"Before it was just garden variety bad guys who never poised a threat to you. But it's changed." Aria told him. "You fought a guy with supersonic gauntlets and now some winged guy nearly gutted you."

"He didn't gut me, just scratched with his talons." He replied.

"Will, I'm serious. Ok, whatever crusade you started as Spider-man is changing. It's not just regular criminals but supervillains and they can kill you." Aria said in a worried tone. Will looked at her and saw she was beyond worried about his safety. All this time he thought having his best friends and his mom knowing his secret was a good thing and it was but it also had a flipside. The worry and guilt Aria was feeling now was a byproduct of his actions. Sometimes keeping people in the dark about who you are and what you do might be able to save them the heartache.

Will felt his heart break seeing Aria like this so he reached up and cupped her cheek, pulling her close. "I'm so sorry, Aria. I really am. If I could go back and spare you from all this worry then I would." Will told her.

"It's not that, Will. I'm honored to be by your side through this but every night you go out I worry that you're one lucky bullet or knife away from ending up dead in a dumpster. But now you're dealing with high-tech supervillains." Aria said. "They can kill you."

"Maybe…" Will took a deep breath before he steadied himself. "But it's my responsibility to do this. If I don't, a lot of innocent people could get hurt. If I stop doing what I do, then there are lots of people out there who get hurt or worse. People the police can't help or the Arrow can't get to in time."

"But it shouldn't be your responsibility to save them." Aria said but he shook his head and cupped her other cheek with his hand as she held onto his wrist.

"It is. I made it mine the second I put on that mask. Starling City needs Spider-man….as much as I do and as much as I need you and the others." He admitted. "I wouldn't be able to do any of this if I didn't have you, Emily, or Spencer in my corner. I guess I never realized how much you would worry about me."

"Well, now you know how much." Aria told him and he smiled.

"Well, I'm beyond lucky to have you here taking care of me. I'm sorry there's nothing I can do to alleviate the worry you must feel but I will make you this one promise here and now…no matter what happens out there in the city, I will always come back." Will promised.

"You can't possibly promise that." Aria told him.

"You'll find that you can do anything when you're a superhero." Will joked and Aria chuckled. The two looked at one another and in that moment they felt something. "How lucky am I have you in my life?"

"Very." She replied.

"I mean it, Aria. Before you, I don't think my life could have turned out any better." He said.

"You know just what to say to melt a girl's heart." Aria told him.

"Not sure where this is all coming from. Maybe I'm just speaking the truth? I was always good at that." Will replied. The two looked at one another before Aria began to slowly lean in. Will wasn't sure what came over him but he leaned in to meet her as the two locked eyes. There was a certain stillness in the room, as if time had decided to stop all together. It was like Will and Aria were the only two people on the planet. They moved closer to one another as their eyes began to close. They froze just inches apart and waited for something to happen. "What's happening right now?"

"Something I'm ok with." Aria leaned in and kissed him. It was a gentle kiss but perfect. Aria's heart was beating so fast that she felt as if she couldn't catch a breath. Will went on autopilot kissing back but seeing as how he didn't have really any experience with this, he let her take the lead. Will kept his hand on her cheek while Aria moved her hand down his arm and felt his new muscles. The two continued kissing but kept it gentle and innocent until Aria's hand skimmed one of the cuts on his chest causing him to recoil in shock. "Sorry."

"It's ok. I'll heal. But I'd tough through it for another kiss." Will replied and she kissed him once more. "Please tell me I'm dreaming and if I am, don't wake me up."

"You're not dreaming. This is real." She told him, causing him to smile.

"Even better." He replied causing her to chuckle. Will leaned in and kissed her this time and she kissed back but before the two continued the kissing they heard a knock on the door.

"Sorry to ruin your moment guys but could you save it for later while we finish cleaning up?" Spencer asked.

"We'll pick this up later, I promise." Aria told him and he smiled and gave her one last quick kiss. "Ok, you can come in."

Emily and Spencer opened the door to see Will and Aria on the ground by the bed. "Sorry to interrupt the moment but it is probably a better idea to get Will cleaned up and bandaged first." Spencer said.

"You're right, Spence. You always are." Will said.

"But we're happy for you two." Emily told them.

"Now, Emily and I just have to deal with the fact that you two are going to get all mushy, lovey-dovey on us." Spencer said.

"We'll try and keep it to a minimum, Spencer." Aria replied.

Line Break xxxxx

Will spent the night in the girl's dorm room so they could look after him in case something happened. Will didn't like the idea of taking one of their beds so he got himself a spare pillow and slept on the floor. The next morning, Will was feeling a little sore from his fight with Vulture but was on the mend. His cuts and scratches had already healed over so he was good to go and now he just needed to find this guy. He opened his eyes and felt something on his side so he looked and saw Aria cuddled up next to him with her comforter around them. He used his free hand and moved some hair out of her face. Will leaned down and kissed her head which caused her to wake up. She opened her eyes and saw Will looking at her.

"Hey." She said.

"Hey, back. It's a good morning." He said to her as she leaned up and kissed him. "I could get used to this."

"So could I." Aria said, before taking a deep breath. "Will, you don't regret last night at all, do you?"

Will looked at her and smiled. "Of course not." He assured her.

"Good, me neither. I guess it makes us official." Aria leaned up and kissed him. She got up from her position on his shoulder as Will pulled her close and the kissing got a bit playful until they heard some shuffling from a bed. They looked and saw Spencer wake up.

"Ugh, guys come on, it's too early for this. The only thing I want to see in the morning is the sun and coffee, not my two best friends kissing on the floor and going to town." Spencer told them, wiping her eyes and trying to wake up.

"We're keeping it strictly PG here, Spencer." Will replied which woke up Emily.

"What's going on?" Emily asked, sitting up on her bed to see Will and Aria on the floor. "What happened?"

"Nothing happened." Aria said before giving Will another quick kiss. "We should get ready. You have an early class."

Will looked over and saw the clock and had about an hour before class started. "That I do and I need to wash up." Will grabbed his backpack. "I'll see you girls later."

"Definitely." Aria gave him a quick kiss. "Leave the upper suit and sweatshirt. I'll stitch it up quickly."

"Thanks." Will gave her one last quick kiss before he left. Aria smiled as she closed the door and leaned against it when she noticed the coy look Spencer was giving her.

"I know, I know. We'll try and tone it down." Aria told her before grabbing some clothes and a towel before heading to the bathroom.

Will managed to make it back to his room without anyone seeing him and took a quick shower before heading to his morning class. He did his best to try and focus on class but his mind was scattered. A quarter of mind tried to focus on the advanced math the professor was explaining while the other quarter was thinking about Vulture and how he was going to take him down. The remaining half of his brain was preoccupied with what transpired last night and this morning with Aria. Never did he think that he would get a girlfriend and he never thought it would be his best friend Aria. Aria's been there for him even before he got his powers when he was nerdy Will Detmer and she's been by his side through the whole Spider-man thing. She made him his suit, helped design his gadgets and she has helped him through it all.

"Mr. Detmer." His professor called. "If you seem so preoccupied with something else then that means you can answer the equation on the board."

Will looked at the board and saw the advanced math equation. "Four over Pi." Will answered.

"Correct but don't think because you answered correctly that it excuses you from not paying attention." His professor warned him.

"Yes, Professor." Will replied.

The class went on as normal and Will did his best to pay attention but it was hard. After class, Will made a call to Yuri to let her know about Vulture and see if she could track down a lead on where he could have gotten the tech and it most likely was the same place Shocker got his. He leaned against the wall of the math academic building on campus and called Yuri to talk. He was completely ignored by the other students and professors which was exactly what he needed.

"Detective Yuri Watanabe?" Yuri answered her phone.

"Yuri, it's me." Will said. "How'd everything go last night?"

"Other than the earful of cops who want payback for what happened, nothing new. Nice job with the cleanup at the Laurence Square but what the hell actually happened? No one seems to have a clear indication of the attackers and their motive." Yuri told him.

"I'd thought that'd be obvious. Wasn't it the money they took from the armored truck?" Will asked.

"No, we recovered that. Our units tracked the signal from the GPS tracking beacon in the bag to an old warehouse. We got there in time because some Los Halcones almost took it." Yuri told him which just didn't make sense.

"Wait, so he attacked the armored truck but didn't take the money because…because I was the target." Will said, realizing that the whole armored truck robbery was a decoy to draw him out. He was the target. "Vulture wanted to draw me out."

"Excuse me, Vulture?" Yuri asked.

"Yeah, we've got another supervillain nutcase in the city so Shocker isn't alone. He called himself Vulture and had some high-tech flight harness." Will told her.

"Ok…that's a first. I guess putting an APB on a flying bird man is out of the question." Yuri said. "So, how do we find this guy?"

"That's why I'm calling. I think Vulture might be the second super villain created by the mysterious Big Man crime boss we've been dealing with. The one Hammerhead reports to. Did you get anything out of Shocker?" he asked.

"Nothing useable. Shocker's real name is Montana, a career criminal, mercenary and leader of Fancy Dan and Ox. He lawyered up immediately and gave us nothing." Yuri replied.

"What about his tech? High-powered sonic vibration gauntlets and a combat suit aren't exactly something you can find on the black market." Will suggested.

"We struck out there, too. The tech was custom made and nothing like it has ever come up on our database. I even checked the FBI database and got nothing. I had our tech team go over it and all they could say is that the entire suit and weapons are cutting edge military quality. Nothing that Montana could get himself." Yuri told him.

"Then my hunch is right. Hammerhead and his mysterious boss are arming their idiots with high-tech weapons to take me down." Will said.

"Looks like you got to them. And it means we're making them desperate. All the trouble we've gone through to take down their rackets means this Big Man is losing money and needs to take you out. This is a good thing." Yuri told him.

"Wow. Didn't know you had such a low opinion of me that you want to use me as live bait for two supervillains. I'm fine, by the way, thanks for asking." Will joked and heard Yuri chuckle over the phone.

"You know what I mean. If the Big Man and Hammerhead are arming their associates with high-tech weapons, then it means they're desperate. And desperate people slip up. I'll work it from my end and see what I can dig up on the weapons. You just take down Vulture and try not to get yourself killed. I don't want to go through the headache of finding another partner." Yuri told him.

"Oh, so you see me as a partner. Well, Spider-cop knew he would get the young detective onto his side. She was hesitant at first but now sees the value of working alongside such a grizzled veteran." Will said in his Spider-cop voice when he heard the call drop. "Yuri? Yuri? You there? Hello? Now, I feel alone."

Will put his phone away and checked the time, seeing as how he didn't have another class for the day and that Aria was going to get out of her literature class soon, maybe he'd surprise her. He went to the coffee shop on campus and got Aria's favorite, a soy-milk latte and a blueberry muffin. He walked over to the English building and saw her class get out. Aria walked out, talking to that new professor Fitz she told him about yesterday and it seems like a fun conversation. Once Aria saw Will waiting outside, she bid him goodbye and walked over.

"Hey, you." Aria said, playfully.

"Hey, back. I figured you could use a pick me up." Will held out the latte and blueberry muffin. "Soy milk latte with a pump of vanilla and two sprinkles of cinnamon and I got you the last blueberry muffin."

"Oh, you know what I like best." Aria took a sip of her latte and it was perfect. "I guess besides being a superhero, you're also a super boyfriend."

"Save that idea until we're more than a day in our relationship." Will joked. Aria gave him a quick kiss on the lips and he kissed back, both of them missing the odd looks they were getting from Mr. Fitz before he left. "Wow, I'm still trying to get use to that."

"It's so cute when you get flustered." Aria joked as the two walked through the quad to see the other students relaxing on the grass and enjoying the day. "How are your cuts from last night?"

"Fine. They healed up already. A few scars but nothing too serious." Will assured her.

"Oh, well I always thought scars were kind of sexy." Aria smirked. She then chuckled seeing how flustered Will was getting. It was cute. "How long before you think you'll stop getting flustered?"

"I'm not sure. I'm kind of compensating for my entire high school life without a girlfriend so; maybe…give it a day or two?" Will asked.

"Sounds fair." Aria kissed him once again.

"Aria, I know I'm probably not the ideal boyfriend at the moment, seeing as how I have zero experience with this but I'll make it up to you. I promise." Will assured her.

"Hey, that doesn't matter to me. I don't care if you zero experience or were a raging playboy. Actually, scratch that last part because that wouldn't be fun." Aria said, causing him to chuckle. "I don't care about experience or anything like that. All I care about is you."

"Then I promise you'll get 100% bonafide Will Detmer." Will told her. "Now, I'm not entirely sure about how this works but I believe taking you out on our first date is the first thing I should do as your boyfriend."

"Actually, the first thing you should do as my boyfriend would be trying to figure out what I like best but seeing as how you already know that, you're ahead of the game." Aria joked.

"Good to know. I'll set something up for Friday night, how's that sound?" Will asked.

"Sound's great. Now, do you think you can give me a hint on what I should wear? More casual or should I get dressed up?" Aria asked.

"I'll let you know but I can promise you one thing that I'll just be you and me. No Spider-man, no crime fighting, just lovable science nerd Will Detmer." Will assured.

"Already sounds great." Aria gave him another kiss when she checked the time and saw she had to get to class. "I better go and head to my design class. I'll see you later."

"Definitely." Will gave her one last kiss goodbye and she left. Will looked and got a good view of her walking away when she stopped and turned to him and he realized he got caught.

"Take a picture, Spider-man, it'll last longer." She joked giving him a final playful wink before walking away.

"Phew, my luck is on the up." Will said to himself. He eventually made his way to Dr. Connors lab to get some work done on new prototype web shooters he was designing. He loved his current ones but there was always room to improve and maybe he could figure out a way to improve the capacity.

He tinkered with some components when Dr. Connors walked into the lab. "Afternoon, Will." Dr. Connors greeted him. "What are you working on?"

"Just tinkering with some ideas in my head." Will replied as he continued working. He was just working with basic parts so Dr. Connors couldn't tell what he was building. "I checked our cancer sample and tissue degradation went down 42%."

"Excellent." Dr. Connors walked over to a computer to check the sample himself. "It seems RNA 13.257 might be our basis going forward."

"Yup." Will replied when he began thinking about the date he had to plan for Aria and he could use some advice. "Dr. Connors, can I get your advice on something?"

"Sure, what is it?" Dr. Connors asked, doing some quick chemical formula adjustments on the computer.

"It doesn't have anything to do with our project or science in general. Rather…dating." Will said which made Dr. Connors stop and look at him.

"Dating?" Connors asked and Will nodded. "Who's the lucky lady?"

"It's Aria." He replied.

"Huh, interesting. Congratulations are in order. Aria's a great girl and you two are good together. So, what advice do you need from me?" Dr. Connors asked, happy to help his prized student anyway he could.

"Honestly, just all the general advice you could give me about dating and relationships. This is…well, my first real relationship with someone and its Aria. She's my best friend so I honestly have no idea how to go from here except to take what I learned from movies and TV shows." Will told him.

"Yeah, please don't do that." Dr. Connors told him and he nodded. "Honestly, Will the best advice I could give to you is to just be you."

"All right, ok. Be myself. That's not too hard." Will said. "What does that mean?"

"Sometimes in relationships, you try to be someone you're not. Don't make that mistake. Martha loved me for who I was when we first started dating and believe me I was a lot like you." Dr. Connors told him.

"I find that hard to believe." Will replied.

"No, it's true. I was a by the books science major and when I met Martha, I was beyond terrified of what to do or how I should act. But she didn't like me because I was trying to be something I wasn't, she liked me because I was being honest with who I was." Connors told him. "I can tell Aria likes being around you when you're in your natural element. And the fact that you've known each other so long kind of takes away all the awkward components of a first date with the trying to get to know each other. I'm sure she likes you for you, just remember to be all Will Detmer all the time."

"What if I want to keep one part of me away from all this?" Will asked and Dr. Connors was a bit confused by that question. "I'm just…concerned if being all of me is best if I want to be with her?"

"I'm a little confused by your question but the only thing I can tell you with certainty is that…no relationship should have secrets. What you and Aria have is something unique, so let her know all of you and I know she'll like it." Dr. Connors told him.

"Thank you, Dr. Connors. Sorry if this was kind of awkward." Will replied.

"I'm happy to help. Don't hesitate to come to me if you have any issues or questions." Dr. Connors told him.

"Hopefully, I'll figure it out as this goes along." Will replied and the two scientists got back to work.

After a couple hours of work he got a text from Aria that his suit was ready for him so he left to go pick it up. He knocked on her door only for Emily to answer. "Hey, Em. Is Aria here?" Will asked.

"No, she should be on her way here though." Emily replied, letting him in. "So, how are things between you two, huh?"

"Uh…good, I guess. We've been together for less than 24 hours. I still have a hard time believing what happened last night." Will told her. "Did Aria give you any indication…that she was interested in me? Romantically, I mean?"

"A little bit." Emily replied. "She was kind of having a little meltdown before you showed up and there was a bit of a moment we saw yesterday that we interrupted."

Will nodded but she could tell there was something bothering him. "Is everything ok?"

"Yeah, it's fine. Aria is amazing…if anything, I'm worried because as you girls know, this is my first real relationship. Aria's probably been in…" Will stopped himself from saying anything because the look Emily was giving him. "She has had her fair share of nice relationships, I'm sure but this is my first. What if I do something stupid and I not only ruin a relationship with an amazing girl but lose one of my best friends as well?"

"It's funny. You can recite Pi to 100 places and handle advance physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering like it's a piece of cake not to mention fight crime while cracking jokes but going on a date and having a girlfriend is your Achilles heel." Emily said with a small chuckle afterward.

"I'm so glad my social crisis is amusing to you, Em." Will gave her a sarcastic glare.

"Will, I know you won't do something stupid and so does Aria. She knows all this is kind of new territory for you. She's not excepting you to show up on a white horse and be her prince charming or be this romantic guy right out of Pretty in Pink. She just wants to be with you." Emily assured him. "Don't over think this like you do with your science things. You know Aria as well as she knows you. Use that to your advantage and just enjoy yourself."

"Right. Ok, I can do that." Will said to himself. "I'm freaking out, aren't I?"

"Yeah, you are." Emily replied when they heard the electronic click of the door lock go off and Aria walked in.

"Hey." Aria greeted them.

"Hey, Aria." Emily replied back.

"Glad you came here. I've got your suit all stitched up." Aria opened her shoulder pack and took his upper suit which was rolled up. Will unrolled it and saw the nice stitching made it look like it was brand new and you couldn't make out the blood stains. "I stitched it up so it should be good to go and washed out some blood but with it being red, you don't even notice it's there. I also got you a new sweatshirt."

Aria took out a new looking blue sweatshirt with the black spider symbol. "After the whole garbage thing with Shocker, I figured you should have a spare." Aria told him.

"Thanks, Aria." He pulled her close and kissed her and she kissed back. "Maybe we should work on getting me some new suits."

"I'm ready and waiting. I've been even drawing up some new designs." Aria held up her sketchbook, excited to get to work on a new suit for him. "So, which one do you think we should start with?"

"Why don't you surprise me? You made me this one so I think I'll leave my next one up to you." Will told her, giving her one last kiss. "I'll call you later."

"Where are you going?" Emily asked.

"I'm going to see my mom about something and then I need to talk to Yuri. I need to find Vulture before he ups the carnage to try and lure me out again." Will told them.

"You think you can take him down this time?" Emily asked.

"I might. I saw an energy core on his back last night. I think if I take that out, it'll clip his wings. But said wings are the problem." Will replied.

"Why not use your acid bombs?" Aria asked.

"Acid bombs?" Will asked for a clarification.

"Those chemistry vials you said that erode metal. If Vulture's wings are metal then those should more than even the playing field. And chemistry metal melting vials is too long. Seeing as how you've taken a spider as a motif and that one horror movie you made us watch has spiders with acidic webbing, acid bomb seemed like a good name for them." Aria stated causing him to chuckle.

"Chemical metal embrittlement but it's ok. It's cute when you try to get all sciencey." She gave him a quick glare which made him chuckle more. "But I like it. And it'll probably work. Like I said before, I couldn't do this without you."

"Be careful and come back to me." She said. He nodded and gave her one last kiss.

"I'll be back." Will told her, leaving the room to head out into the city.

Line Break xxxxx

A group of four bad guys were waiting stealthily in a parking lot for someone to stop by because they had a message that needed to be sent. A young man walked out of a store so one of the guys nodded to the others and they quickly put on ski masks as two guys got in front of the civilian. "There's the snitch!"

"What? I'm no snitch!" He said when two of the guys grabbed his arms to keep him from running while the other took out a gun.

"The Big Man hates a lot of things but the one thing he despises of all of them is snitches!" He pointed the gun at the snitches face when Spider-man flipped above them and webbed the gun away. He landed on the ground and hurled it at one of the bad guys, hitting him in the back of the head.

"Oh, eight ball, corner pocket!" Spider-man shouted before shooting a web line at the other bad guy holding the snitch and yanked him away. He flipped forward and kicked the bad guy in the face before back flipping up into the air to avoid a baseball bat to the back. He landed on the bad guys shoulders and back flipped, throwing him through the air and into a fire hydrant. "Ooh, that's gotta hurt."

The fourth bad guy pulled out a knife and tried stabbing him but he kept missing. "Oops, so close! Almost there! Almost had it!" Spider-man quipped before grabbing his arm and flipping to the side. He threw him through the air and shot some impact webbing at him, sticking him to a fence. "Oh, nice try but A for effort."

The last bad guy conscious made a break for it but got hit in the back with some webs and slammed onto the ground. "And another bites the dust." He said to himself before webbing up the four bad guys together on the fence. "A bit of modern art, if I do say so myself."

"Thanks, Spider-man. I don't even want to think about what they would have done if you didn't show up in time." The civilian said.

"Don't worry about it. Saving people is what I do. But I could use some information on the Big Man." Spider-man told him which shocked the civilian.

"You know about the Big Man?" the civilian asked.

"I know about him. Mysterious crime boss the police have no idea who he is, has Hammerhead as his number two and that's about it. Anything you can give me?" He asked as the civilian looked around before giving a small nod.

"You saved my ass so it's the least I can do. Word has it that you've been hitting the Big Man's profit really hard so he hired some special super muscle to take you out." The informant told him.

"I've already met a few of them." He replied.

"Yeah. I've heard that the Big Man has his claws in some kind of tech company from Central City to make all the weapons. High tech stuff that no one else can get and specially made." The informant said.

"Anything else?" He asked.

"That's all I know at the moment. Hammerhead keeps most of his guys away from the special stuff. But I got wind of some new locations he's set up for income." The informant told him.

"Perfect." Spider-man looked at the bad guys webbed to the fence and fired another shot of impact webbing at them so they couldn't hear the conversation. "It's not going to be safe out in the open. Hammerhead and the Big Man will send more men after you. Go see Detective Yuri Watanabe and give her the information on Hammerhead's fronts and she'll help you get out of the city. You can trust her."

"Sounds good to me. I hear Central City is nice this time of year." The informant bid him goodbye and left just as the police arrived to arrest Hammerhead's goons. Spider-man left, swinging through the city when he saw 8 masked men on the roof of a building, trying to break into a door so he decided to ruin their evening.

One of masked men was using a crowbar to break open a locked security door to the roof of a diamond exchange. He broke the lock off but before he opened it, it was webbed shut and Spider-man landed down on top of the door. "Sorry fellas, but I'm pretty sure this place is closed now." He webbed the guy with the crowbar in the face and pulled, knocking his head into the door.

He then jumped into the air and flipped over the bad guys. Two of them pulled out pistols and fired some shots but missed. He landed on the ground and fired webs at the two guns, yanking them away and whipping them in the air at a goon's face, knocking him onto his back. He jumped over a goon who tried to punch him and double kicked him in the back, sending him flying into one of his friends. He uppercut one of the goons into the air, jumped up and then kicked him in the face, knocking him through the air. He shot a web line at the goon, landed on the ground and slammed him into two others. He fired impact webbing at the group, incasing them in webbing before he back flipped to avoid being grabbed. He landed on the bad guys shoulders, scissor his legs around his head, spun around and swung his legs downward doing a head scissors takedown. A goon grabbed one of the pistols off the ground and fired a shot at Spider-man who dove to the side and shot a blotch of webbing at his face. Spider-man fired a web line and web zipped towards the goon, landing a flying kick to the face and knocking him out. The last goon grabbed a piece of metal from the ground and charged only for Spider-man to web zip forward and land a flying knee to the bad guy's face, knocking him out. He gathered up all the bad guys, webbed them together and placed a call to the cops.

"Pro tip: if you're not good at breaking or entering, don't commit a B&E." Spider-man quipped before jumping off the roof and swinging away. He swung around a building and down an alleyway when the police scanner on his phone went off and routed the information to the Bluetooth earpiece in his mask so he could hear it.

"Attention all units. We just got a call about a possible narcotics sale. All available units head to Adam's and Jones Streets. Attention, possible sightings of the Calebra cartel enforcers. All units proceed with caution." The Police operator spoke over the radio frequency.

"All right, one more Spider-man appearance should get Vulture's attention." He said to himself, speeding up and heading to Adam's and Jones. He shot a web line and skimmed low to the street before letting go and swinging up high and doing some back flips just because. He shot another web line and swung up into the air and did some forward rolls. He neared the ground when he shot another web line and swung over some civilians. "Evening everyone!"

He jumped up from his web swing and ran alongside a building before shooting a web line and banking around the corner. He shot web lines at the roof of a building and web zipped up before point launching forward and into the air. He flew through the air before shooting another web line and zipping to a water tower and perching on the top. He focused on the roof of a building and enhanced his vision to see some Calebra cartel members on the roof of a building doing a drug deal with another gang from the Glades. "Oh, I smell a drug deal. Time to ruin their nights."

The Calebra dealer opened up a small duffel bag that was filled with Cocaine. "100 kilos of the product, as promised." He dropped the bag to the ground along with others. "Now, where's the money?"

Their buyers opened up a duffel bag full of cash but before they could trade, it was yanked out of his hand by a web line and into the hands of Spider-man who landed on the roof in a crouch. "Young man, do you know that drug deals are illegal? Then again, you probably don't care about that." He quipped before throwing two web bombs at the groups. He super jumped high into the air with a corkscrew spin to avoid a hail of bullets from the cartel and the gangbangers. He was the distraction because they weren't focused on his web bombs which blew up and incased all of them in very sticky webbing. "You know, I'm not the biggest fan of magicians but I will say this, they got it right with the whole misdirection thing."

"You'll pay for this, Spider-man, you hear me?!" the cartel leader shouted so Spider-man webbed his mouth shut.

"Yeah, I hear you." He replied, before using two more web bombs to make sure they weren't going anywhere. One of the gangbangers had luckily avoided the web and hid behind a chimney pipe. He ran for it and made it to the fire escape only for Spider-man to web his hands to the stairs and web his mouth shut. "Oh, you didn't think I forgot about you, did you? Don't worry, I treat all the bad guys I stop with equal attention."

He webbed up the drugs and money together before making an anonymous call to the police. He saw them arrive soon after and decided to make his exit. "Nothing puts a pep in my step like stopping an illegal drug deal." He swung through the city and made his way to his regular skyscraper rest point and took a seat next to Bob the gargoyle. "Hey, Bob. You'll never believe what happened to me last night. I think I actually have a girlfriend. I know, right? Crazy."

He pressed a button on his phone to call his mom. She was most likely just getting off her shift at the hospital so it'd be a nice chance to talk. He relaxed on his little perch over the city as he heard the dial tone from his earpiece until it was picked up.

"Hey, Will." His mom greeted. "This is a nice surprise."

"Hey, mom. Just thought I'd give you call when you got off shift. So, you heading home?" Will asked.

"No, actually. For your information, my life is more than just work and home. I'm heading out to dinner." May told him. "I'd ask you to come along but….uh, it's a dinner with a colleague so we'll be talking about work."

"It's fine. I'm out doing my Spider-man thing and I've got a winged supervillain I plan to turn into drumsticks tonight so I'll be busy." Will replied.

"Ok…I'd ask if you're joking but knowing you, you probably are." May commented.

"Partially joking, partially telling the truth. Anyway, I didn't just call to check-in and I'm glad you're ok, but I called to get some help." He told her.

"Wow, help from me? Well, you stopped needing help with your homework when you turned ten so it's not academic help you need. Is there an issue with your scholarship?" She asked.

"No, it's not that. Um…its help regarding a date I'm trying to set up with my girlfriend." Will told her but all he got was silence. "Mom? Mom, you still there? Did our call get dropped?"

He checked his phone and saw he was still connected and she wasn't muted. "THANK YOU GOD FOR ANSWERING MY PRAYERS! MY SON HAS FINALLY GOTTEN HIMSELF A GIRLFRIEND! I WON'T DIE WITHOUT GRANDCHILDREN!" She shouted at the top of her lungs so loud that Will freaked out and nearly fell off the skyscraper but managed to hug the wall at the last second.

"Jesus Christ. I'm starting to rethink the earbud in the mask thing." Will took off his mask, stuck a finger in his ear and jiggled his eardrum to try and alleviate the pain. He slipped his mask back on and heard her babbling about how excited she was, who his girlfriend was, and when she could expect to meet her. "MOM! Calm down."

"Sorry, Will but I'm just so excited for you. You have no idea how long I've been waiting for you to finally get a girlfriend. I had my hopes on that Hannah girl you were friends with Freshman year of high school before she transferred. Now, tell me who is the lucky girl? Aria, Spencer or Emily?" May asked.

"Aria, of course. Mom, Spencer has a boyfriend and Emily has a girlfriend, not to mention that Emily is gay." Will told her.

"Ok, sorry but I'm so happy. Aria is so sweet and you two are adorable together. I can just imagine the babies." May said, daydreaming about her future grandchildren.

"Ok, stop! Mom, I love that you're happy for me but if it's it at all possible, I'd like you to bring it back down to 1 so I could get your advice." Will said, hearing her take a deep breath.

"Ok, sorry, again. But can you at least tell me how this happened?" May asked, causing Will to sigh in exhaustion.

"Ok, it happened last night. I got a little scraped up last night and the girls helped clean me up. Aria and I got to talking about me being Spider-man." Will said, remembering their conversation. "I never realized how much me being Spider-man would affect the girls and you, mom and I'm sorry. Sorry if I make you extra worry."

"It's all right. I know how important this is to you. You've been doing a lot of good out there. I can't tell you how many times we've had people show up at the ER saying they were attacked only for Spider-man to save them. I'm proud of you." May said, causing Will to smile. "Ok, so continue."

"We talked last night, and we got closer and closer and the next thing I know…we're kissing." Will said, remembering all of last night. "It was amazing. Kind of like those moments you see in movies…but real."

"Oh, my little boy is so sweet." May chuckled over the phone. "Ok, so what do you need my help with?"

"Well, I'm taking Aria out on our first date Friday night before Parent's weekend and I could use some help planning. I want to do something she won't forget but I'm not sure what to do and how things will move forward after that, especially with how crazy my other life is. I promised myself that I would always keep Spider-man away from her so I need to make sure I'm not Spider-man at all when we have our date." Will told her. He waited for her to respond and heard her take a deep breath.

"You know, when your dad asked me out on our first date he was terrified. I mean a full nervous mess that I saw his hand shake when he grabbed the dinner menu at the restaurant. He was so nervous that the dinner was a little awkward and kind of memorable but not in the good way." May told him.

"Really? Dad was like that?" Will asked, curious because he never thought his cool and collected FBI dad could be so nervous. He never saw him nervous once in his life. "What happened?"

"Well, our first date wasn't anything to talk about. When he wasn't nervous, he tried to act all cool and smooth like he was a player. To be honest, I was waiting for the dinner to be over and it kind of made it so I didn't want a second one." May told him. "I didn't see him for another week after that when he showed up at the hospital I was doing a residency at, dressed in regular clothes, with a small bouquet of flowers and some Chinese takeout. Kung-pao chicken and lo mein."

"Your go to order." Will commented.

"Yeah, he remembered me mentioning it during our date. He came to the hospital to apologize for being such a nervous wreck and explain why he was so nervous. He was nervous because he was trying to be something he wasn't to try and impress me but in doing so, he forget to be himself." May told him.

"I'm thinking there's a lesson in the story but could you just help me get to the point?" Will asked.

"The point is just be yourself." May assured him. "Will, you know Aria already so you know what she likes and what she doesn't. Just make it something she won't forget."

"Ok, something she won't forget." Will repeated.

"And do me one more thing as well." May said.

"What?" Will asked.

"Don't try and hide who you really are…both sides of who you are." May told him. "You won't be able to be happy with Aria unless you're a hundred percent yourself. That means not forgetting who you are when you put that mask on."

"Mom, I promised myself that I would keep Aria, Emily, and Spencer far away from Spider-man as I could to keep them safe. No one can know I'm Spider-man." Will told her.

"That's not what I mean, Will. You can protect Aria while still being both sides of who you are. I know that your powers are still kind of odd for you but they are a part of who you are now and like it or not, they will be a part of Aria's life now as well. If you and her ignore that part of you then your date might end up like the first one your father and I had." May told him. "You can't pretend like Spider-man never happened. He's as much a part of you when you wear the mask as when you don't. Spider-man and Will Detmer aren't two different people, they're two sides of the same coin. If you try to ignore one part, the other is not enough. Will Detmer is as much a part of Spider-man's life as the mask and gadgets. Never forget that."

"All available units, we have reports of a…flying winged creature causing havoc in Middlepark. Officers down. All available units respond." The police operator reported over the frequency.

"I've got to go mom. Superhero business. Thanks for the advice." Will told her.

"No problem. Be careful." May replied. He ended the call and front flipped off the building, nose diving straight to the ground. The wind rustled past his suit and sweatshirt as he sped towards the ground. To bystanders who looked up, they saw Spider-man diving straight down and looked like he was trying to kill himself. His speed kicked up and at the last second, shot a web and swung low to the street which sent him high into the air. He did a few flips and began swinging to Adam's square to end Vulture's threat and ground his wings. He swung around a building when his spider sense went off so he quickly shot a web and pulled himself into the air at the last second to avoid getting tackled by Vulture. He shot another web and pulled himself to the side of a building.

"Uh huh, beaky. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, ain't gonna happen." Spider-man taunted him.

"I don't need to take you by surprise to end you, Spider-man. It's time that the Spider gets eaten." Vulture said, firing his minigun but Spider-man flipped along the side of the building to avoid the gunfire.

"Ugh, if Hammerhead is going to send you idiots after me, the least he could do is try and find bad guys with better material." Spider-man told him. He back flipped to avoid a grapple spear and shot some web bullets that Vulture avoided. "If you want, I could give you some pointers."

"If you want to help, just die!" Vulture fired a missile at him so he quickly jumped into the air to avoid the blast. He shot a web and web zipped to the roof of a building, quickly taking out some acid bomb vials.

"Time to clip his wings." Spider-man said to himself. He ran along the roof of the building as Vulture hovered in the air and fired his minigun at him but missed. Spider-man fired some web bullets at him which he flew around to avoid. Vulture flew down straight at him and fired two missiles so he slid down onto his knees to avoid them and Vulture, sliding right under him. He shot a web at Vulture's leg and held on as the winged supervillain flew straight up and took Spider-man with him.

"Get off me, bug!" Vulture shouted, flying high into the air and kicking Spider-man away from him. He let go and fired multiple web lines and web nets at Vulture, ensnaring him in the sticky substance as he tried to get free. He quickly web zipped to Vulture and kicked him in the face before firing another web line at Vulture's back and pulling himself closer. Vulture articulated his wings and snipped the webbing which gave Spider-man enough time to latch onto his back and smash the acid vials on his wings. The chemical formula coated parts of the wings and turbines.

"Ok, time to clip your wings, beaky." Spider-man said, firing two venom blasts at the wings and electrifying the chemical solution. Once that happened, the reaction took place and began to chemically degrade the wings in seconds, causing them to dry up and crack like someone took a high-heat blow dryer to wet pasta noodles.

"What did you do?!" Vulture shouted. He tried to move his wings but the articulation software wasn't responding.

"I put these things where they belong…the garbage." He flicked the wings with his fingers and the parts that had been affected crumbled like brittle sand.

"My wings! I can't steer!" Vulture shouted, trying to move but couldn't.

"Yeah, but you're still airborne. How does that work exactly?" Spider-man asked, seeing as how both wings and turbines were gone so they shouldn't be in the air when he noticed the humming sound from the back turbine along with the glowing energy core. "Vultie, I think you've got a serious tumor in your hump."

He punched the back energy turbine and ripped out the energy core, causing the turbine to shut down. "You idiot! You doomed us both!" Vulture shouted as they began to fall to the ground.

"[Laughs] You so have not been paying attention." Spider-man told him, grabbed Vulture with his legs and began swinging through the city. "Yee-haw!"

He swung them down to the street and webbed Vulture upside down to a light post. He called Yuri who was going to send some police officers on the way. Some bystanders began to gather and take pictures of Spider-man and the tied up Vulture. Spider-man grabbed Vulture's mask and took it off to reveal just a regular person. "Ugh, now I understand why you wore this thing." He said, tossing it in the air and webbing it to the post. "Now talk, Vulture. Where did the wings comes from?"

"Radio shack." Toomes replied with a smirk.

"Ok, seriously that's a bit of a dated answer. BestBuy would have been funnier answer but I appreciate the progress we're making here. Talk, beak breath. Who does Hammerhead work for? Who's the Big Man and where can I find him?" Spider-man asked, wanting to know who the big bad he was dealing with.

"You think I'll tell you. I'm smart enough to know not to snitch on the Big Man. You may think you're tough but Hammerhead is tougher and the Big Man is tougher than him. I'd rather be in jail then cross him." Toomes replied.

"You are of no help." Spider-man webbed his mouth shut when he heard some bystanders talking. He looked and saw they were taking photos and looking east to see a large pillow of purple smoke. "From one odd thing to another. See you later, Vulture!"

Spider-man web swung towards the purple smoke, thinking it might be a crazy warehouse fire but as he got closer, he didn't see the faint flicker of fire or anything. Like the smoke wasn't from a building fire. He got closer and saw the smoke was coming from the chemical distillery factories but considering it was after hours, it likely wasn't an employee that did this. He swung by and landed on the roof of a building across from the factories when he got a call to his earbud.

"Spider-man, we've gotten reports of purple smoke by the chemical factories on Muller avenue." Yuri told him.

"Those reports are accurate. I'm going in to take a look and see what's going on." He said, shooting a web and swinging to the factory.

"Patrol units are already on their way. Be careful." Yuri said before handing up.

He swung down to the factory where the source of the smoke was and saw it was some kind of fire pit. He fired some impact webbing at the pit that smothered the fire but noticed no one else was around so who put it there. He looked around and stretched out his super hearing and senses and picked up some voices in one of the factories. He opened up one of the air vents and began his crawl inside to figure out what was going on. He made his way through the network of air vents until he reached another vent grate that led inside the factory. He crawled out and shot a web at the ceiling, zipping there and crawling on the roof. He looked around and to his amazement saw Thea Queen tied up and strung upside by a rope with a woman in a red and black standing by. Will enhanced his vision and saw the woman was wearing armor and was carrying weapons including a sword and a bow with a quiver.

"Huh, not at all what I was expecting to see when I arrived. Oh well, time to do my hero thing." He said to himself, moving into position to help.

"I'm going to get free of this and when I do I'm going to kill you!" Thea shouted at her kidnapper.

"I apologize for involving you in this. My quarrel is with your father." Nyssa told her.

"My father's been dead for years, you crazy psycho bitch." Thea told her.

"Not Robert Queen. Your true father—Al Sa-Her. The Magician." Nyssa said.

"Incoming!" They heard and Spider-man swung by, grabbing Thea and ripping the rope off of her. He landed and put her on the ground before ripping off the ropes that bound her. "GO!"

Thea ran for the exit while he turned and saw a very angry lady in red. "You know, I'm sure the Queen family has its share of enemies, but I am kind of curious to know what kind of grudge involved a scary lady in red and black. Or is this a ransom kind of thing?" Spider-man asked. He quickly ducked to avoid an arrow to the head from Nyssa. "Seriously, what is it with bows that make people think the best answer to their problems is to shoot them with arrows? Haven't you ever heard of talking your problems out?"

"In a normal situation, I'd find your behavior amusing but you have no idea what you've done." Nyssa said, shooting three more arrows but Spider-man jumped into the air and avoided them with ease. He landed on the second floor railing in a crouch.

"You mean, rescue an innocent kidnapped victim from whatever you were planning to do?" Spider-man asked.

"Saving the daughter of a mad-man and denying me my vengeance." Nyssa said in anger, firing another arrow at him. He flipped through the air and landed on the ground as Nyssa unsheathed her scimitar and attacked him. He ducked and dodged with ease and while Nyssa had the superior hand-to-hand combat skill, Spider-man had the agility, speed, and spider-sense that more than evened the playing field. He ducked under the scimitar before doing a backhand spring into a corkscrew spin to gain some distance. He shot a web at her bow and yanked it out of her hand before she tried to impale him with her sword. He spun to the side and then spun to his knees to avoid a head slash, moving into a breakdancing flare and kicked her across the face. He spun into a windmill and kicked Nyssa onto her back before flipping onto his feet. Nyssa flipped back to her feet and growled in anger when another arrow shot near her head. She turned and saw the Arrow above her. "Clearly we both handle grief differently."

The Arrow jumped down and the two engaged in a hand-to-hand fight, moving through the close quarters of the factory floor. Nyssa slashed and swiped with her sword while the Arrow blocked with his bow. She lunged at the Arrow, forcing him back into some pipes but before she could stab him again, another arrow knocked her sword out of her hand. Nyssa and the Arrow looked up to see The Dark Archer standing above them. "There's a misunderstanding the three of us need to clear up."

"A conversation I'm eager to have…over your rotting corpse." She told him. The Dark Archer fired three arrows at her but she used a piece of cloth to knock them away and ducked under the last one. He jumped to the ground and the three archers got into another fight with Spider-man watching from the ceiling.

"A part of me would like to just kickback and watch the fight while another part of feels like I should intervene in…whatever this is. Maybe a disagreement on hoodie colors?" He joked before he swung forward and kicked Nyssa and the Dark Archer away from the Arrow.

"What are you doing?!" The Arrow yelled.

"My job. Besides, it looked like you could use some help." He quipped, flipping forward to avoid an arrow from the Dark Archer. He fired a web and yanked the bow away only for him to pull out a sword and a knife. He ducked and dodged with ease when Nyssa joined in, both trying to kill Spider-man but he was too fast. Ducking, dodging, and flipping in the air with ease. Nyssa and Dark Archer swung at his head but he back flipped to avoid being hit and jumped up to hit them both with kicks to the face. Dark Archer rolled from the impact and back to his feet, lunging forward but Spider-man moved to the side and blocked the sword. He kneed the black clad archer in the gut then flipped over his back and did a jumping back kick, knocking him away. Nyssa charged at him so he jumped and hung upside down from the second floor railing above. Nyssa swung her sword but he kept moving his head to avoid her. He pulled himself into the air before firing two webs and slingshot himself at Nyssa, kicking her in the stomach and onto the ground. He kicked off her stomach and flipped forward over a pipe, shooting a web at her leg and pulled hard, hoisting her up into the air by her leg and shooting some impact webbing at her to keep her from moving. He quickly ducked to avoid a sword slash and then back flipped to avoid having his legs cut off before engaging in another fight with Dark Archer.

The Arrow pulled out a special arrow from his quiver and held it ready, watching the impressive agility and athleticism of Spider-man to not only take out Nyssa but to go toe-to-toe with Malcolm Merlyn and be as successful as he is. Spider-man blocked a push kick and responded with a tornado kick that the Dark Archer ducked under only to get hit with a spin kick to the face. He pulled him forward with a web hit then him with side kick to the chest and then landed another spin kick to the face, knocking him back. He kept up the pressure by firing two webs and web zipped forward, hitting the Dark Archer with one final flying knee to the chest and sent him flying into a wall that knocked his mask off. The Arrow fired a flashbang arrow that concussed the Dark Archer and Spider-man fired some webbing, wrapping him only to see that the Dark Archer was in fact Malcolm Merlyn who was very much alive and not dead.

"Malcolm Merlyn? But how?" Spider-man wondered but before he could do anything, the Arrow walked forward with another arrow on his bow.

"Do it, Oliver." Nyssa told him, wanting him to end Merlyn right then and there. "He kill Sara. Tommy. He will corrupt your sister."

Merlyn spit out some blood from his mouth before looking right at the Arrow. "There is blood on my hands. Almost too much to contemplate. But none of it is Sara's." Merlyn told him.

"Kill him!" Nyssa shouted.

"I did not kill your beloved!" Merlyn told her. "Your father doubted Sara's loyalties the moment you brought her home. You know your father. What he is capable of. He will kill without hesitation. Do you really need me to tell you what he would do to the degenerate who would steal his daughter's heart?!"

Nyssa shouted in anger at him. Merlyn cut himself free of the webbing and stood up. "Nyssa doesn't believe me, Oliver. If you don't believe me…listen to her. Kill me." Malcolm told him. Oliver hesitated for a second but didn't lift his bow. Merlyn walked to the exit only for Oliver to aim an arrow right at his head.

"You may not have killed Sara…but you're still a murderer." Oliver said.

"What are you going to do? Arrest me?" Merlyn asked.

"I could have SCPD here in three minutes." Oliver told him.

"And in half that time I will escape from whatever prison they put me in. You know that, so does she—"Merlyn was cut off when another glob of webbing ensnared him up and trapped him.

"You know…" They heard as Spider-man was crouched above them on the second floor guard railing. "You should really keep these personal conversations for when you're sure you're alone. Anyone could have walked in and heard…whatever this is. Besides, I think it's time Mr. Merlyn has his facetime with the police who are right outside."

"You clearly have not been paying attention, Spider-man. No prison can hold me." Merlyn hid a playful smirk on his face as the entire time Spider-man talked; he cut his hands free with a knife hidden in his sleeve. He threw down a large flashbang grenade that concussed everyone. Will covered his ears and eyes in particular because his senses were so much sharper that it hurt more. Once the light and ringing died, he looked and saw Merlyn was gone.

"I really should have taken him outside instead of talking, huh?" Spider-man asked, getting a glare from the Arrow and Nyssa. "Well, I'll take this as a personal loss today. Now, if you'll excuse me…I'll cry myself to sleep."

He shot a web at the ceiling and swung away, going out a window and swinging to the roof of a building and perching himself on top. "Then again…" He took out his phone which had three photos of Malcolm Merlyn when he was taking to the Arrow. "Spiders have been known to be sneaky."

He took out his phone and dialed Yuri's number. "Hey, saw that the smoke is gone. You take care of the problem?" She asked.

"I did…but we have another one. Meet on the roof of the precinct." He told her, swinging towards the police station but realizing the situation, he needed to do more than let Yuri know what happened. "And bring Captain Lance with you."

"Why?" She asked.

"Trust me, Yuri. This is something he'll need to know. Besides, it's not like he can fire you for doing the same thing he does." Will told her.

"And what's that?" She asked.

"Superhero assistance. It would be a little hypocritical if he did that but I don't think he would. Trust me, Yuri. This problem is something the Captain is going to need to know." He said.

"All right." Yuri replied, ending the call.

Yuri put her phone down and took a deep breath before she got up from her desk and walked over to the captain's office. She heard him on the phone with someone so she knocked and opened the door. Lance motioned her to come in as he finished up the call. "Sorry about that, Yuri. Just got off the phone with the lawyer for the armored truck company. What do you need?" He asked.

"I got a contact who has a lead on the whole smoke situation tonight but he wants to talk to you." Yuri said, which drew an odd glance from Lance.

"And your contact has good intel?" Lance asked as Yuri nodded in response.

"He does." She replied. Lance nodded and followed her through the station but raised an eyebrow when she led him not outside but up to the roof. They walked out onto the roof to see that no one was there.

"Watanabe, what are we doing here?" Lance asked when he heard something thud behind and turned to see Spider-man perched on an air conditioning unit.

"Captain Lance." Spider-man greeted him and Lance froze for a second.

"When you said you wanted to meet again, I never figured it'd be this soon or like this." Lance said, looking back at Watanabe. "I guess this explains how you've been the lead on so many cases the past few months."

"Don't be angry at her, Captain Lance. I sought her out." Spider-man said. Yuri gave him a look but he subtly motioned her to not say anything. "I needed to find someone in the police department I could trust to help me with the bad guys I've been putting away and their escalation."

"By escalation, I'm guessing you mean why an old theater was demolished and why I've got my tech guys going over a high-tech flight suit?" Lance asked.

"Partially, yes but that's not what this meeting was about. I told you before that I was here to help the city and after what I saw tonight, this is something you should know." Spider-man took out his phone and pressed send. Yuri got the text and once she saw it, she couldn't believe her eyes.

"You sure about this?" Yuri asked.

"Positive." He told her.

"What is it?" Lance asked as Yuri walked over and showed him her phone and he saw the pictures of Malcolm Merlyn in his Dark Archer get up. "Merlyn's alive?"

"Oh yeah. The Dark Archer still lives. I had a run in with him at the chemical factory and saw him with my own eyes and kicked his butt with my own feet. It's him." Spider-man told him.

"But how? Merlyn's dead. The Arrow killed him and we have the coroner's report." Yuri said.

"Merlyn was a wealthy CEO with a lot of reach. He could have paid someone off at the coroner's office but why come back to Starling?" Lance asked and Spider-man shrugged.

"I don't know. When I got there, there was another lady and the Arrow which led into some kind of brawl but Merlyn was there and alive. The Arrow and I tried to capture him but he got free." Spider-man said when he noticed Yuri looking puzzled. "Yes, the bad guy managed to slip out of my fingers. Don't rub it in. After I saw he was alive, I figured you needed to know so we can plan our next move. I could take him in a fight but I highly doubt a regular prison cell is gonna hold this guy."

"All right. The photo looks real but I can't go the mayor's office with a photo from a vigilante. No offense." Lance said.

"None taken." Spider-man replied. "So, what's the plan?"

"For now, we keep this between us. I'll contact the Arrow and see what he wants to do. He took care of him before, maybe he can do it again. The last thing this city needs is a panic that Malcolm Merlyn is alive but we have no idea how to catch him." Lance said as Yuri and Spider-man agreed with that logic. "Anything else happened you can tell us?"

Will thought for a second if he should tell Lance about his suspicions about his daughter Sara. Merlyn's whole interaction with that woman and the Arrow seemed to suggest that they think Merlyn killed but apparently he didn't. Oh…and he was right that Oliver Queen is the Arrow. They really should be careful about the conversations they have in the open. "About what happened there and why? Honestly, I've got no clue. Only guesses but I think there's something you should know, Captain Lance…and it involves your daughter."

"Was Laurel there?" Lance asked and Spider-man shook his head no.

"No. You have another daughter, Sara, right?" He asked and Lance nodded yes. "Look, I honestly have no idea if what I'm about to tell you is the truth or if there is more to it but I figured you had the right to know."

"Know what?" Lance asked.

"A few weeks ago, I stopped that copycat archer at the Palmer Tech fundraiser. The guy with the weird mask and dark jacket?" Spider-man said and Lance nodded. "You should know that your daughter Laurel arrived with a gun pointed at his head and was ready to kill him…because she said that Sara was killed."

"What?" Lance asked.

"But it wasn't him. And honestly, I'm not even sure what happened but from what I saw, Laurel seemed like it was real that Sara was killed." Spider-man told him and Lance froze for a second. "Again, Captain Lance I know that this may be uncomfortable and I have no place telling you this and if it is even remotely true but I felt that you deserved to know so you could figure out for yourself."

"No, I'm sure she's fine." Lance said, wanting to believe that but needed to know for sure. "Uh…thanks for telling me. It might explain what's going on with Laurel. Um, look I got to go. You go do your Spider-man…thing."

Lance left in a hurry and Will instantly felt like he got gut-punched by Shocker. "Did I do the right thing, Yuri?"

"You did. He deserved to know the truth." Yuri told him.

"Then why do I feel like I got gut-punched by Shocker?" He asked.

"Don't feel bad, Spider-man. You did the right thing in telling him what you knew; he deserves to know if something happened to his daughter. Now he can find out on his own." Yuri said. "Don't worry about him. Captain Lance is tougher than he looks."

"I hope your right." He replied. "You get anything on Vulture?"

"We did. Real name is Adrian Toomes, former air force pilot and mercenary for hire. I'm guessing you can predict who he went to work for." Yuri said.

"Hammerhead and the Big Man." He replied. "Did he give you anything else?"

"No, he's not talking at all. Like Lance said, we've got our tech team going over the flight suit but like with Shocker, its state of the art tech." Yuri said. "But we might have a lead. I got a visitor today that you saved."

"Oh, the informant I saved. He give you some useful information?" Spider-man wondered.

"That he did. The locations of the rest of Hammerhead's construction fronts which is a good start. The more we take down, the more we impact the Big Man and the more we learn. He did also say that Hammerhead's been using a tech company out of Central City for weapons." Yuri told him.

"He told me the same thing and I think I have an idea as to what company it could be. Smythe Technologies is one of the most advance technology companies in the country so if anyone can make the weapons Shocker and Vulture used, it might be them." Spider-man said.

"That's kind of a leap, if you ask me." Yuri said.

"Would it help if I said that the night before Montana, Ox, and Fancy attacked me in the helicopter, I found a Smythe reconnaissance drone following me?" Spider-man suggested.

"That's less of a leap. I'll do some digging but if the Big Man really does have control of that company than he's likely done everything he can to cover his tracks. I'll see what I can find." Yuri told him.

"All right, I'll see you later. And tell Captain Lance I'm sorry if I was out of line." He bid her goodbye and went back out to the city.

While Will informed Captain Lance of the truth, Oliver, Dig, and Nyssa returned to the bunker from the factory where Roy and Laurel were waiting for them. "Is Thea ok?" Roy asked.

"I spoke to her. She's fine. Doesn't know who took her or why." Oliver said only for Nyssa to sucker punch him in the face. Dig reached for his gun and was ready to shoot her if she did something else. Oliver stood up and glared at her. "I may have deserved that."

"You deserve worse." Nyssa told him.

"Um, what's going on?" Roy was confused at what just happened.

"Merlyn didn't kill Sara. Which means whoever did is still out there." Oliver told them.

"You're a fool, who insults the memory of a woman he once loved." Nyssa said.

"I will honor Sara's memory by finding and punishing the person who did this. The real person." Oliver said, while she just scoffed and walked away. "Nyssa. So long as Malcolm Merlyn is in my city, the league will make no move on him. He's under my protection."

"You would incur the wrath of the League of Assassins?" Nyssa asked.

"I would do…what I have to in order to buy the time necessary to find out what really happened with Sara." Oliver told her.

"You have made an enemy tonight. One with a long memory." Nyssa gave him a final warning before leaving.

"Oliver." Laurel walked over to him. "Are you sure?"

"If I wasn't sure, I never would have let him go. I promise." Oliver assured her only for Felicity to arrive.

"What did I miss?" She asked.

End of Chapter 3

1). Adrian Toomes from Spider-man: Homecoming played by Michael Keaton but younger.

2). Spider-man: Homecoming Vulture suit but with additional retractable weapons attached to the arms and harness.

I hoped you guys liked the chapter. Again, it was kind of a filler chapter but a lot did happen here with Will and Aria finally getting together and him learning about Malcolm Merlyn being alive. Not to mention he dealt with another supervillain and told Captain Lance the truth. A lot of things happened here that will set up for later plotlines.

Will's made some new web gadgets to his arsenal that are going to help him moving forward. The web grenades and acid bombs in particular will prove their usefulness in future battles. Also, yeah Will and Aria are together. That'll be fun to write as the two figure out the dating thing while Will is a superhero which should be fun. With Will telling Lance the truth earlier, Lance's reaction will be a little different than from the show but similar. Lance's relationship with the Arrow and Laurel will change going forward because of the lie that was told and he won't trust him but he will begin to trust Spider-man which makes Oliver hate him even more. Will's general existence will change some stuff going forward so watch out for small hints to that.

Next chapter, the fallout from Laurel and Oliver's decision to hide the truth about Sara's death comes out as Lance pretty much cuts them both off. Spider-man works hard to try and keep his trust as the two keep the city safe. Will has to deal with that along with his first real date with Aria, parents weekend, and then a mysterious hacking group that makes Starling City their little pet project. Plus, Halloween is around the corner and that night brings its own problems. Enjoy!

William Alexander Detmer-Age 20: Birthday, October 8th, 1994

Moniker: The Spectacular Spider-man

Appearance: Tyler Posey

Uniform: Ben Reilly's Scarlet Spider suit.

Weapons: Mark 1 Web Shooters, Web Grenades/Bombs, Spider tracer (work in progress), acid embrittlement bombs,

Skills: Genius intellect with 250 IQ, Super human strength, Super human speed, Super human reflexes, Super human agility and balance, Super senses, accelerated healing factor, wall-crawling/adhesive stick, Spider-Sense, Night Vision, and enhanced range vision, Bio-Electrokinesis/Venom strike-blast

May Detmer: Marisa Tomei (in case anyone was wondering)

Aria Montgomery: Lucy Hale

Emily Fields: Shay Mitchell

Spencer Hastings: Troian Bellisario

Dr. Curt Connors: Dylan Baker (From Sam Raimi's Spider-man series)

Disclaimer: I don't own Spider-man, Arrow or any above mentioned products. All rights belong to their respective owners, I'm just a big fan.