Chapter 5-3

November 2023

17 Days Later

It's been a while. Too long...

David kisses Cindy on the lips hard as he drives into her. Holding her hands above her head, David nips her lip before sucking on her neck. He sinks lower and takes a nipple of hers in his mouth.

... since I had a good fuck.

"David," Cindy moans.

David looks at her. "Yes, Cindy."

"When are you going to have your mother's funeral?"

David pauses. "As soon as I kill Kraven. Once I take him out of the picture, I'm going to lay my mother to rest. After that, life goes on."

"Why are you waiting? Why not give her the funeral now?"

"Because I don't want to bury her until all loose ends are tied."

"And why are you waiting on killing Kraven?"

"I'm giving him a few days to recover." He strokes her chin. "I made a deal with him and I'm waiting until he fully recovers before I give him the death of a warrior he wants."

"You already killed Mr. Negative and all the Demons. Just Kraven and all loose ends are tied, right?" She looks at him. "Right?"

David sits back. He pulls Cindy to a sitting position. "No. There's one more person I gotta kill before I kill Kraven."

"And who is that?"

David smirks. "You'll see tonight on the news. Probably."

David dives in and finishes Cindy off. After they both reach their end, David climbs out of bed and dresses himself. He tosses Cindy her bra before turning his back to her.

"I'm going to go out for a bit."

"But what about your classes?"

"I already turned in all my homework for the week so I'm going to be busy for the next few hours." He smiles but keeps his grin hidden from the Korean-American girl. "Remember, this next asshole I'm going to kill, you'll see them on the news."

"Is he guilty?"

"Yes. He is. Most certainly."

David steps forward and leaves Cindy sitting in bed. Cindy finishes dressing in her pajamas before climbing into bed.

NYPD

"This is unacceptable," the chief of police scolds Anderson in his office. "Because of what you've done, forcing Misa Dante out of her home without any evidence, that woman is dead because of you. She had to take shelter at F.E.A.S.T. when it blew up. This is truly unacceptable."

Anderson stands before the police chief with a rigid and stiff back. "Sir, with all due respect, I think that it was worth it. David Dante is fooling everyone by pretending not to be Spider-Man. Think about it; before, Spider-Man never broke his MO of attacking violent criminals during active crimes but on that fateful night a little over two weeks ago, after Misa Dante died, Spider-Man pulled an all-nighter and killed 347 Demons in a single night. He didn't spare any of them, even the ones in the hospitals and in jail."

"And I think Spider-Man did us a favor."

"Sir, he went out and murdered these criminals."

"And he's got my approval. You seem to be forgetting that these Demons are domestic terrorists. They crossed a line when committing mass murder and Spider-Man did what he had to do to contain these people."

"But sir, doesn't it seem odd that Spider-Man only killed all these Demons after Misa Dante died? I'm telling you; David Dante is Spider-Man. I'm requesting an investigation into him."

"Anderson, enough. Just because the mother of a former Spider-Man suspect dies doesn't mean shit without concrete evidence. Even so, the Spider Act is now in permanent effect; you couldn't get a warrant to investigate a Spdier-Man subject, even if I let you. Are you looking for some jail time, Sergeant Anderson?"

"I'm only trying to do what's right. I'm trying to bring that murderer to justice, which is more than what you and this entire police department are doing."

"Why do you hate Spider-Man so much? What did he do, offend you by wearing red?"

"He's responsible for my brother dying. My brother saw this Spider-Man guy as some sort of a savior and he took it upon himself to become a vigilante. He went out into a bad part of town, started picking fights with vagrants that were violent, and got himself killed, all in the name of following Spider-Man's brand of justice. That is why I hate Spider-Man so much."

The police chief laughs like it was a big joke. "Your brother's death was his own fault. He should've known better than to willingly go into a bad part of town, and pick fights with bad people. He only has himself to blame. You can blame Spider-Man all you want but in my opinion, if you loved your brother so much, why didn't you stop him?"

"Shut up."

The police chief continues to laugh. "Anderson, you're even more pathetic than I realized. In fact, as of today, you are hereby suspended from work without pay, indefinitely."

Anderson growls. "You bastard."

"Internal Affairs will be doing an investigation to evaluate your work performance to determine if you're eligible to continue your career as a police officer. In my opinion, I'd suggest looking for another job but good luck finding a job willing to hire a pedophile."

"I"m not a pedophile!"

"I believe you, Anderson. But the public and everyone else in this police force doesn't so good luck out there." He stands up. "Hand over your badge and gun immediately."

"You can't do this," Anderson refuses, "I won't allow you to do this to me. I'm a sergeant, I've been here for over seven years. You think you can just wave your rank around?"

"I'm a police chief for a reason. Two more years and I retire with a forty-year pension. I've earned my spot. You, on the other hand, have not. Now, I am not asking you to hand over your badge and gun, I'm ordering you to hand over your badge and gun."

Anderson shakes his head.

"Oh, then, by all means, I will call security and I will have them escort you out of the building."

Eventually, security does arrive and they confiscate Anderson of his badge and gun before kicking him out of the building. Flippling the precinct off, he begins his long walk home.

Two Hours Later

Arriving at his empty home in Hunts Point, Anderson unlocks the door to his house. After getting evicted from his own home, the only place he could afford was this rundown house littered with rats and trash on both the first and second floors. There was a broken window on both floors and the door was starting to crack into pieces. At least there was a fireplace and a working gas line. He was only using this spot temporarily but the person who was living here previously, a vagrant, said he'll let him have this place if he paid him a fee so Anderson was paying this homeless man to let him live in this rundown house while the vagrant was somewhere else.

Anderson locks the door behind him before sitting down on an old couch with leather tearing away. He sinks into his chair and closes his eyes. Deciding to put his feet up, he rolls the ottoman toward him and plants his feet down. Feeling the cool breeze starting to catch up with him, especially with the fall season starting to slowly but surely makes it way toward them, Anderson sits up to turn on the fireplace. As he lights a match, he hears a knock at the front door. He quickly puts the match out before tossing it in the fireplace. He heads to the door and looks through the peephole.

Seeing nobody, he opens the door anyway and looks around. Seeing nothing but the rundown neighborhood, he growls before closing the door. "Asshole."

As Anderson goes to light up the fireplace once more, a loud crash in the other room makes him jump. It was coming from his bedroom and he pulled a floorboard in front of the fireplace free and retrieved a revolver. Loading six bullets in the cylinder, he aims the gun as he moves forward. Aiming his gun at chest level, he pulls the hammer as he heads into his bedroom.

Opening the door to his bedroom, he finds a brick lying down on his bed and glass on th floor. It looks like someone threw a brick at his bedroom window.

"Goddamn it." He grabs the brick and chucks it out. "Goddamn assholes." Closing the curtains over the broken window, he pockets his revolver before turning to head out into the hallway leading into the living room.

"Wow, Austie, wow. Look at this dump of a place. Do you really live here?"

Anderson draws his revolver and points in the direction of the mysterious voice. "Who's there?"

"An old friend, who just wanted to have a chitchat."

Anderson's eyes widen. "Spider-Man, is that you?"

"The one and only, baby."

Anderson steps into the living room and waves the gun around, desperately trying to find Spider-Man. "What are you doing here? Why did you break into here?"

"I just told you: I came here to have a chitchat with you. Man, I would compare you to being as dumb as a brick but to compare you to a brick would be an insult to all bricks alike."

"Don't bullshit me, why are you here?"

"Oh come on, do you really need me to say it? Come on, let's pretend that my presence here is a million-dollar question. Tell me, why am I here? You tell me?"

Anderson looks up at the ceiling, finding nobody. "Let me guess, are you here to kill me?" he snarks.

"Congratulations! Someone give the cocksucking bitch a million dollars."

Anderson feels his blood run cold. "Wait, a-are you being serious? You're here to kill me?" He stiffens his arms. "What's this all about, Spider-Man?"

"You should know," Spidey's voice came from the hallway. "I'm here to tie up loose ends."

"But... you already killed Mr. Negative and the Demons. I'm not so sure about Kraven but... I'm not a violent criminal."

"No, you're not. You are worse."

"How am I worse?"

"You broke the law and went behind your captain's back. A boy lost his mother because of you. Now you have to die."

"I knew you were a murderer! You son of a bitch!"

"You pissed me off one too many times now, Austie, now it's time for you to die."

"And here I was thinking that Spidey only killed violent criminals during active crimes. It looks like you're showing your true colors." Anderson looks to the kitchen to see the house phone gone. He reaches into his back pocket to find his cell phone gone as well. "Wait until everyone hears about this. About you killing police officers."

"Oh, trust me when I say this, Austie: nobody misses my victims when I kill them. Maybe a few but none of them will miss them. You on the other hand... you're disliked by everyone in the police force. The public won't miss you because you're a fucking pedophile."

"I'm not a pedophile?"

"Really?" Spidey's voice booms behind him.

Anderson turns and fires off a shot, hitting a vase but finding no signs of Spidey's presence. "You're the real villain." He runs for the front door, only to hit his shoulder hard against the wood. Groaning, he tries to open the door and ram his shoulder in again but fails.

"Don't bother trying to escape; I've webbed all the doors and windows shut. Now you and I are trapped in here for all eternity. Unless you want to pull a reverse Santa Claus and go out the chimney."

The chimney lights up suddenly. Anderson turns but doesn't spot Spidey. "What is wrong with you? You bitch! This is wrong!"

"You're expecting someone like me to care about wrong, even when he's been committing morally wrong acts all this time? How absurd can you be, Austie?"

"Who did I kill? This boy who lost his mother, who was she? How did she die?"

"Misa Dante."

Anderson gasps. "What?" he utters breathlessly. "M-Misa Dante?"

"That was my mother you killed." Spidey laughs echo throughout the house. "Yeah, you were right all along, Austie, I am David Dante. And you... you forced my mother into the F.E.A.S.T. the night it blew up. Now you have to die for killing my mother."

Anderson's lip quiver, his mind an utter blank as he looks around, eyes wandering without direction. Suddenly, the TV turns on and switches to a news channel.

"But I was right about something else too," Spidey's voice continues, "you are a pedophile."

Anderson turns to the television while keeping his gun raised and watches a news report.

"In other news, it seems what we have here in this headline is corruption in the New York Police Department. We've received information from a source working in internal affairs that a trio of officers led by Sergeant Austin Anderson have connections to child sex trafficking."

A photo of Anderson appears on screen, along with the two officers who accompanied him when he met David and Misa the day of the Demons attack.

"Sergeants Stall and Pepper are currently in police custody but the police have yet to tell if they are going to issue a manhunt for Austin Anderson." The news lady pauses. "The police have yet to inform us if they plan on issuing a manhunt for Austin Anderson but it looks like their chances of doing so are high."

"What?" Anderson stumbles back. "No, I'm not a pedophile."

"Course you are, Austie; you've always been a little kid lover. That's why you got evicted from your apartment; because your landlord found evidence that you might have connections to the human trafficking of children. When the IT guys searched your computer, they found several links to the black marker, dealing with children that have been missing for over a year and you bought a few of them but have yet to receive your shipment of children."

Andeson feels his face turn red. "YOU SET ME UP!"

He fires widely at the ceiling, hitting nothing and still seeing no signs of Spidey. "You planted evidence against me!"

"You deserve it. Had you not gone after my mother, I would've ignored you. But no, no, no, no. You played a role in my mother's death, you and the other two officers. Those other two officers also went behind your superior's back to aid you. I don't hate them as much as I do to you, but they still aided you. Therefore, they had to pay. And living the rest of their lives with 'suspected pedophile' on their permanent record would do. But you... no... I can't let you live. Especially after I told you my identity. But let's be honest here, Austie, you brought this on yourself."

Anderson turns his back and runs to a door at the end of the hallway. Opening it, he is about to charge through when-

"AAAAH!" Anderson screams and clutches his chest, dropping the revolver. He staggers back, holding the wound on his chest, and lands on his ass. Looking up, he sees Spidey standing above, holding a shovel with blood on the end.

Spidey removes his mask, revealing a sadistic grin.

"You dug your own grave, Austie." David continues to smile at him before marching forward, holding the bloody shovel tight in his hand. "Too bad there won't be anything left to bury when I'm done with you."

Anderson crawls back, fruitlessly trying to get away from Spidey before he bumps into the decaying leather chair. Moving to the right, he crawls near the fireplace and lands on his back. David stands above him and holds the shovel high above his head. Holding the pointy part down, he stabs Anderson through the stomach, impaling him through and through with the shovel getting stuck in the ground.

Anderson continues to cry in pain before trying to pull the shovel off but seeing the demonic look on David's face is enough to make him forget that he was impaled to the ground with a shovel. David sneers at him, still smiling. "Whatever torture the Devil puts you through is nothing when I see you in Hell."

David turns and heads toward the stove. He quickly severed the gas line. "They say there's no kill like overkill." He puts on his mask. "Bye-bye, Austie." Spidey quickly leaves the place.

Anderson desperately tries to get to remove the shovel from his stomach but the shovel is buried too deep and he's not strong enough. Smelling the natural gas, the fire seems to be getting hotter as the flames suddenly jump out of the fireplace.

BOOM!

The rundown house blows up a fiery blaze of glory with Spidey walking away from the destruction like a badass action hero. Not looking back, he smiles under his mask before leaping into the air and lands on a rooftop. Turning around, he watches the flames die down before perching down and reveling in the glory.

The smile disappears behind his mask.

That's for my mom, jackass.

He stands up and looks into the distance.

Now there's just one more loose end I have to tie up and then I'll be done.

Later That Night

"Sergeant Austin Anderson was discovered early this morning after a house exploded in Hunts Point. According to witnesses from the scene, no bystanders were killed with the only casualty being Sergeant Austin Anderson himself. Did Anderson commit suicide to avoid getting captured by the police? A lot remains to be solved but the police refuse to comment until they have something concrete to share with us."

Melissa turns off the news and turns to meet Spidey standing before her.

"There you go," Melissa says. "Your Austin Anderson is dead and gone. I would say he would be missed but that would be a lie."

Spidey chuckles. "Yeah. Thank you."

"No, thank you for killing the Demons and Mr. Negative."

"I'm not done yet; I still have to kill Kraven."

"And what's taking you so long?"

"Kraven isn't evil. He's earned my respect so I'm waiting for him to fully recover so I can give him a fight to the death, just as he wanted."

Melissa laughs. "You're an interesting fella, Spidey. But I understand."

"Once again, thank you for using your connections to set up Anderson."

"Please, if it was my mother he killed, then I would want to ruin his life too."

Spidey tilts his head. "I'm not sure what you-"

"Your secret's safe with me, David."

She called me 'David'. Not good.

Spidey stares at her. "Are you going senile or something? My name is Spider-Man, not David."

"What makes you think I'm a 'David'?"

No sweat, calm heartbeat, relaxed shoulders; she's not in the least bit threatened by me. But she also doesn't seem to be on guard or possess malicious intent.

"Misa Dante. Anderson forced Misa Dante back into the homeless shelter the night it blew up. You killed all the Demons in such a gruesome and bloody fashion that there was emotional intent behind their death. That's when I suspected that you were David Dante. Then, you came in, demanding that I use my resources to destroy Anderson's life before you killed him... that was when my suspicions were confirmed. My condolences for your loss, David. But... your secret is safe with me."

Huh, I underestimated the mayor's intelligence.

"I told you that I would owe you a favor if you visited my daughter and I did."

"The Spider Act?"

"No, the Spider Act was a favor on the house. The favor that you cashed in today was tearing apart Anderson's life. We're even now and another favor on the house is your secret is safe with me."

Spidey scoffs. "I hope so. Because... you know what they say about a boy losing his mother: if a mother is all that boy has and she dies, then that boy has nothing left to lose."

"If there's anything you ever need, David, just... come talk to me."

"If there's one thing I need... don't call me 'David' when I'm wearing my mask."

She nods. "I understand."

Spidey turns on his heels and leaves.

Huh, someone else besides my teammates knows my identity. And they said they'll keep it a secret. I'm going to keep my eye on the mayor for the next few days. I'm going to make sure she follows through with her end of the deal. If she gets any bright ideas, then I'll tell her that I used Venom to heal her daughter of her terminal illness. That way, she'll feel even more indebted to me and the favor I'll cash in is that she keeps my identity a secret.

Hideout

"You killed Anderson?" Cindy yells in David's face. "He wasn't a violent criminal."

David laughs at her yelling. "True, he wasn't a violent criminal, but looked at what he did? He may not have pushed the detonator to blow up the bomb at F.E.A.S.T. but because he got involved in our lives, he's indirectly responsible for my mom dying. He couldn't be allowed to live. He had to go."

"You could've just got him fired or thrown him in jail; you didn't have to blow him to bits!"

"Cindy, weren't you feeling something similar last year? When you lost your teammates and you wanted someone to pay? To die for killing Ben Reilly and Miles Morales? I thought you'd understand but I don't care either way. So... what are you going to do? Strangle me? I'm into being strangled so it won't do much to offend me."

"You're a killer."

Ooh, shocker.

David kabedons her. "Yes, you continue to hang out with me. You still don't attack me or do anything to expose my identity. You hate me for my flaws but at the end of the day, you are flawed yourself." He smiles. "Answer this question and be honest about it: if Anderson killed your little brother and parents, would you want him dead?"

"I wouldn't kill him."

"I said 'want'. Would you want him dead?"

Cindy licks her lips. "Yes, I would want to kill him."

"Good to know. Empathy, I think is what humans would call this moment. But I don't care."

"He was innocent."

Ahh, Cindy, so sweet and innocent like candy.

"True, but look at the damage he's done. Sometimes, in life, a nonviolent person can cause just as much damage as a violent person. It's not a black-and-white world here, Cindy, and sometimes, you gotta eliminate less violent people from this world."

"But there's gotta be better ways, right?"

Yeah, like blowing them to kingdom come.

"Anderson broke the law and was going to continue to break the law. There was no getting around this. He had to go and since he's been harassing me and my mom for over a year and had a hand in my mom's death, he had to die." He looks her in the eyes. "Be honest, Cindy, do you blame me for killing Anderson?"

"You shouldn't have... but I don't blame you." She averts her gaze. "Are you going to start killing nonviolent criminals now?"

David smiles. "No." He leans forward. "I won't. The OG MO of SM is here to stay. Only violent criminals during active crimes. Nothing is going to change, Cindy, as far as the public knows, but as for Dear David, he's never going to waste a chance to kill his enemies. I should've killed Mr. Negative in the warehouse a long time ago. I should've joined in instead of being a bystander watching you and Venom fight. Had I killed Mr. Negative, Mom would still be alive. I'll never make that mistake again."

Cindy leaps and wraps her arms around David's chest. "I should've saved your mother, David. I'm sorry that I wasn't fast enough."

David looks down at her before wrapping his arms around her. "Not your fault, dear Cindy. At least I made Mom happy in her final moments alive so that's all that matters."" He strokes her hair. "You and Mom were the only people in this world I wouldn't lift a finger to hurt. Eddie and Felicia two but I feel more drawn to you than those two."

"Why?"

"Mom raised me, and you were the first person I ever saved."

"Are you getting emotional on me?"

"Maybe."

Right now, Cindy is the most emotionally fragile out of all the Spider vigilantes in New York. I need to keep her happy and mentally stable for her to continue to function by my side. Acting and pretending to be a little emotional to get her on my side will be child's play.