PART 1 - Chapter 26 - Night of The Owls - First Blood
'His velvet wing sweeps through the night:
With magic of his wondrous sight
He oversees his vast domain,
And king supreme of night doth reign.'
'What Sees the Owl', by Elizabeth Sears Bates
Final arc of Part 1, starting now!
WORD OF WARNING: This author has STILL NOT played the new PS5 Spider-Man 2 game nor watched any "let's play", trying to keep the surprises still surprising, and probably that could be the same for many other readers, so, be considerate and avoid spoilers in the reviews, please!
Gotham City
6:59 pm
Curtains closed, shrouded in darkness, Bruce Wayne kept staring at the city model in front of him, the very same he had used weeks before in the Wayne Manor Gala to captivate the 'who's who' in Gotham City into supporting his 'Gotham Initiative' Project.
'I thought I could remake this City. Never imagined there would be a shadowy conspiracy to stop plans like mine.' The attack he had suffered on the Old Wayne Tower, it all made sense, in retrospect. An attack on the man trying to change the status quo of Gotham, as well as a most likely future progressive mayor. Two birds with one Talon.
'If it wasn't for… Spider-Man, I could have died and Lincoln would not have had medical aid in time.' That had been another tough pill to swallow. Spider-Man had been a secondary matter, something to investigate, approach and either recruit or shut down. His feats of vigilantism over Gotham had, indeed, helped during his absence, but there were ripples on the criminal underworld.
'AnarKings. Synthetic drugs. Criminals and Rogues fleeing the City. Something is in the way…', Bruce considered in his own quiet self-imposed exile.
His 'children' had attempted to talk to him for hours, he had not been ignorant to that, but ever since his discussion with Dick, he could not brave any other human contact. Not now, not when he felt so… raw.
He had failed. The Batman had failed. The Dark Knight, knocked down from the pedestal he had unknowingly put himself on top of.
Free from the Court, Bruce was loath to admit but he had needed the time to recover.
'All this time… and not strong enough.'
Gotham City
7:35 pm
The sunset had long gone, as Spider-Man stood at the top of a large skyscraper, one of his preferred locations to overlook the Upper East Side District, as well as the old reservoir in Gotham Park, his current source of frustration.
'So... Poison Ivy or patrolling?', he meditated on the matter. He knew the super-villain was his best shot at finding any leads on the kidnapping of Barney and all those other people. However, Batman's rogues were anything but easy to find.
'And then, there is the small fact about Gotham City always being in trouble', he scratched his chin, chewing on that thought. The few months he had spent in Gotham had been almost as bad as all his years of heroism in New York, easily. 'People like Batman and his allies are truly the last and only line of defense this place has at the edge of the precipice.'
"Spider-Man", the familiar altered voice on his earcomm made him grin. "Reporting to duty, Miss Oracle, the Monitoring Maven!", the vigilante answered, cheerfully.
A pause, then, "... please don't ever call me that again."
"The Code Commander?" "No." "The Software Sorceress!" "That is-" "The Hacking Hero?" "You are enjoying this way-" "The Network Ninja!" "Acceptable." "The Algorithm Alch-wait, really? I had like twenty more…" Peter heard the pleased huff, so he counted that as a win.
"Well, I'm currently at the Southern area of Upper East Side, near-" "Janus Cosmetics?" Peter stopped, as the voice in his ears sounded way too pleased. "You're scary, you know that?" "So I've been told." 'And there's the smugness.'
"You haven't been trying to hack my systems again, have you?", the wall-crawling wondered, remembering the previous day's attack.
"Don't have to, when you make a point of showing off in several security cameras on your path to Colgate Heights."
'That… is troublesome, if Oracle has that much control over random building security systems around the city, I'll have to take extra precautions when I leave the Chrysalis.'
"Hope they caught my best angle, then."
"Well, you won't be outshining Nightwing any time soon…"
"What! Are you telling me all those leg-presses and squats have been for nothing?"
"Hardly. In any other occasion you would be a great contender, but, in this case, the man is gifted."
"Surely you can't be serious!"
"I am serious… and don't call me Shirley."
Oracle's smirk had been so obvious it could have been heard from the comms, making Peter smile silly as he jumped from the building.
"So, what can I help the Bat-Family at this-" *click!* Spider-Man had to double-check to confirm that, yes, Oracle had just ended the call by herself. 'Well, that's not weird at all?', he wondered, letting himself lazily swing along Alphonse Street.
His first bit of action of the night occurred merely a block away, as a purse snatcher tried his luck over some lady entering a taxi. One web-pull and one kiss to the asphalt and there was a perp web-tied to a fire hydrant and another happy reunion between theft victim and their stolen goods.
As Spider-Man aimed his next shot, there was the sound of glass being smashed on the opposite direction, hero and common folk staring back and upwards, all witnesses to a horrible sight.
Amidst falling shards of glass, there were two shapes, very distinct of one another. One, a wheelchair, the shine of metal and the dark of black rubbered wheels, while the other was pale and much larger, a young woman, striped shirt, black pencil skirt, spinning out of control and freefalling.
People gasped. The man inside the Spider widened his eyes, his strong and oftentimes frantic heart almost seemed to stop beating. ("She's doomed, do you hear me? DOOMED - - AND SO ARE YOU!") An eternity in the blink of an eye ("I've got to catch her - -"), cruel memories crossing the hero's mind. ("I'VE GOT TO! I'VE GOT TO!")
His senses were sharp enough to see her swaying hair, even in the dark heights of the building.
("DID IT!")
Blonde hair.
…
*snap!*
Two webstrings and Spider-Man shot himself straight and upwards, a red, white and blue blur, his body moving automatically, as his brain hardly needed to process his next course of action.
It had been years since what had happened at George Washington Bridge, but he never let himself forget his greatest failure. In a moment of desperation, when he didn't think, just acted, an innocent person had paid the price.
And so, Peter had forced himself to study all he could about his mistakes and he had learned what should have been obvious, especially to himself.
'It's not the fall that kills the person, it's the sudden stop.'
The anecdote was, unfortunately, true. Physics dictated that a freefalling human body had to reduce its downward momentum over time instead of suddenly, or it would result in catastrophic damage to multiple organs and major joints.
Therefore, shooting himself forward had not been precipitated, but a cold and calculated action.
Spider-Man catapulted himself up and ahead, as if shot from a cannon…
… arching upwards…
… arms extended, body flipping on its axis…
… momentum bleeding energy, his head now aimed towards the street below…
… as gravity took hold, his downward trajectory paralleled the screaming woman's…
… he was about to pass her by…
… right arm extended, pulling her torso near him, as the left one aimed a careful shot…
… the web hit its mark, a superhuman pull altering their plummet…
There were more yells, as the two swung mere feets above the city traffic, Spider-Man's body now right side up and his target safely held in his arm.
"You okay, Ma'am?", the hero asked in worry as he examined her as well as he possibly could, finally noticing how her hair was actually light brown.
'Must have been… a trick of the light', he tried convincing himself.
"H-He… pushed…!"
"Who did this to you-", Spider-Man almost asked, but there was the familiar feeling at the back of his head, making him look behind himself… to a black clad figure about to crash into them in mid-air.
'They jumped after her?!', Peter thought in surprise, and then there was the glint of a blade, and the hero had only time to spin the rescued victim out of the way, pain erupting from his ribs as the knife slashed over his left side.
The hero quickly changed trajectory, letting go of the web-string and shooting another, web-zipping them both away, towards the top of the lowest building around.
Their rushed landing had been rough, to say the least, Spider-Man managing to roll and take most of the impact upon himself, careful not to harm the woman, but not enough to avoid his own injuries. The hero set the victim to the side, the sudden gush of hot liquid streaming down hinting he now had an even more gaping wound.
'Whoever that had been, I… I could not save them', he admonished himself as, by pulling the woman out of harm's way and fleeing to the top of that building, he had let the person fall to their own demise. He heard her thanking him, and tried to focus on her voice, and not on the lacerating pain and the throbbing guilt.
"Any…anything hurt, lady?", he asked, in what he hoped would be a reassuring and not at all pained tone. She shook her head, visible tears on her face. "Can you stand up?", he noticed the cuts on her legs, and he suspected she might have twisted her left foot, but the woman only stood by his side, supporting herself on her arms.
"No, I… my wheelchair?", she tried speaking, and the hero finally pieced together the facts - and felt extremely ashamed.
(And less sorry about whoever the attempted murdered had been.)
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't-" "Don't", she raised her hand, a smile suddenly appearing on her face. "You… saved my life… not offended, trust me…"
('Falling to her death and now asserting control. Honestly, Gothamites must be made of adamantium or something!')
The hero nodded, feeling his body working on healing the wound. "That's good… because… back home? This could have been… such a PR disaster!"
Her body was shaking, but she gave a small guffaw. 'Score!'
He knelt near her, observing her wounded foot. "What's… your name… Ma'am?",
"I'm… my name is Valerie."
"Valerie… can I… may I check…?" She consented with a nod, the hero carefully touching and prodding the limb. "I'm no doctor… but I think you broke some bones here."
"I…", she started answering, but no words would come out. At the same time he saw her panic, Spider-Man felt his spider-sense tingling once more and he turned around.
There was a masked man on the edge of the rooftop, and it was the one who had slashed his torso not a minute before, the blood-stained knife on his hand hinting to that.
He was dressed in black garbs, almost ninja-like, all too similar to another man, another would-be assassin he had foiled almost the same way, weeks before.
("or they'll send the Talon for your head.")
This man, however, was not as tall or as buff as the other one had been. The owl-motiff was different, there was a leather waistcoat, adorned with knives, instead of a bandolier. And he wore a cloak over his shoulders as well, a black, feathery cloak. But the voice?
"Valerie Venderman", he spoke, the same cold and dispassionate tone the other man had used before. "The Court of Owls… has sentenced you… to die."
To Be Continued!
Author's Notes:
Thanks to all of you readers, new and returning, Arachnomaly reached 28 thousand views, I thank all of you so much for the attention and the follows and favorites, thank you all so much!
Fun fact! Spider-Man rescuing Valerie Venderman was one of my first ideas I planned to write about as I set the major plot points that would happen in the future of Arachnomaly, along with Peter saving Bruce in Old Wayne Tower and the meeting with Blue Beetle II.
If you liked my story so far, I would like to also recommend the fics that inspired me to write this one, if you haven't read them, please, give them a go, you may enjoy them even more!
Also, no updates on this weekend, sorry!