Chapter 17

*Thwip*

"Stay where you are," Spider-Man exclaimed as he swinged past Gwen.

Gwen, momentarily stunned by the suddenness of Spider-Man's actions, eventually tried to jump off & follow him, only to realize that her feet had been webbed in place by Spider-Man.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" she fumed.

"Let me guess, 'thug life' chose you too?" Spider-Man quipped before nimbly dodging the knife coming towards him.

"Shut up!" one of the last two remaining thugs yelled out, as he continued to swing his knife wildly towards Spider-Man.

After one swing too many, Spider-Man eventually kicked away his knife, & punched him in the face to knock him out.

The last remaining thug staggered back as he watched the others getting knocked down by the masked vigilante.

"F-fuck this, I'm not getting paid enough for this!" he exclaimed in panic, before running away out of the alley.

"Oh no you don-," Spider-Man managed, as he turned to fire his webs towards the thug.

Quick as a flash, Gwen dropped down from the rooftop onto the fleeing thug, knocking him out in the process.

"Wh-How?"

Gwen remained silent, while using her newly acquired web-shooters to trap the thug in place. Once that was done, she stormed angrily towards Spider-Man.

"Don't you ever do that to me again!" Gwen stabbed her finger towards Spider-Man's chest furiously.

Spider-Man took a step back, slightly taken aback by the furiousness of her voice.

"L-look, we don't have time for this," Spider-Man replied, having already fired off a web line onto a nearby building. "Stay out of this, it's too dangerous,"

Gwen placed her hand on his chest to stop him from leaving. "I'm not gonna just sit here, twiddling my thumb," she said firmly. "Let me help,"

"No, it's too early. You're not ready," Spider-Man said as he pushed away her arm.

Gwen closed her eyes to control her frustration. "Look, I'm going to go regardless, and you can't stop me," she glared at him, before walking away to the other end of the alley.

As she walked away, she could almost hear the gears turning inside Spider-Man's brain. As she reached the end of the alley, and getting ready to swing away, Spider-Man eventually called out to her.

"Wait. Stop," he called out to her, letting out a low sigh of defeat. "Fine, let's do this," he relented. "You're coming with me,"

"O-oh, I was thinking it was better if we split up. Cover more ground, you know?"

"What?! No way, you're nowhere near ready," Spider-Man frowned.

"It's just thugs," Gwen argued back. "And you've seen me in action before, I can take care of myself,"

"No. If we're doing this, you're coming with me," Spider-Man insisted.

"There's no way we can get to all of them in time!" Gwen fired back. "Look, the longer we stand here, arguing about this, the more time we lose,"

Spider-Man pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, as he considered the situation. "Urghh, fine. We'll split up,"

"Right," Gwen replied, her heart jumping slightly in joy for having won the argument. "Don't worry, I can take care of myself,"

Spider-Man shook his head, before walking off. "Look, if you get in trouble, just run away, ok?"

Gwen scoffed dismissively at him. "Ok dad," she rolled her eyes playfully before giving him a thumbs up. "See you later then, 'superhero',"

"Heh, what are you supposed to be? Some kind of, cheap, Spider-Man knock off?" one of the thugs goaded Gwen, chuckling with his friends.

"Hah, funny. That's exactly what the last group of guys said too," Gwen retorted back. "Can't you guys be a bit more original or something?"

"You shouldn't have put your nose into the Kingpin's business kid," growled another one of the thugs. "And there's a steep price to pay round these parts, if you catch my drift," he continued, licking his switchblade menacingly, trying to intimidate her.

"Sorry, but I have a 'bat'-ter idea," Gwen quipped, before firing her webs towards one of the baseball bats they were holding, and yanking them out of their hands, before throwing it back to one of the thugs, breaking their ribs in the process. "Oof, sorry about that,"

"Get her!" one of the thugs said, as they surrounded her.

"Yep, exactly like last time," Gwen retorted, trying her best to hide her nervousness. "How does it feel to know, you're gonna get your ass kicked by a girl?" she said, trying to taunt them into action.

Suddenly, one of the thugs screamed out in anger & came rushing towards her, swinging his bat in the process.

Using her years of ballet training during middle school, Gwen gracefully pirouetted herself away from the oncoming thug, and kicked his head as he went past her, knocking him out in the process.

As the remaining thugs blinked in surprise at seeing their friend getting knocked out so quickly, Gwen immediately used that opening to leaped towards the remaining thugs, and made quick work of them.

After a few seconds of the ensuing chaos, Gwen eventually knocked out the muggers, leaving one of them for questioning.

'Right, just like in the movies,' Gwen reminded herself, before trying her best to walk menacingly towards the last remaining mugger.

"Who's the Kingpin?" Gwen demanded.

"No idea what you're talking about," the thug feigned ignorance. "We just came here at random,"

"Your friend said his name earlier," Gwen insisted. "You better tell me who he is if you know what's good for you,"

The man looked around nervously, trying to find a way out. "Wow, you're messing around in his part, but you don't even know who he is? Talk about being an idiot," he snickered, trying his best to put up a brave front in front of her. "Do your worst kid, I'm more afraid of the Kingpin than some two-bit, dress up wannabe," he said, as he spat those last words to Gwen's face.

Gwen bit her lip, as she considered interrogating the man further, but at the back of her mind, she realized there's a more pressing matter, as her senses gnawed on her to notify her of another crime.

Gwen then took a deep breath, & punched the man to knock him out, before lumping him together with his gang & webbing them up in place.

She then turned towards the terrified victim, and tried assuring her.

"Uhm, you're okay now ma'am," Gwen beamed from under her mask. "Help me call the police later?"

"O-Oh, okay, sure," the terrified lady whimpered, taking out her phone with her trembling hands.

"Right, later then," Gwen tap her shoulders assuringly, before making her way towards her next destination.

"W-wait! Who are you?" the lady yelled at her before she swinged away.

"Uhh, me?" Gwen paused for a moment. "Uhmm, Spider-Man's apprentice? I guess?"

"Oh, does that make you Spider-Girl then?" the woman asked.

"Eww, no," Gwen blanched from under her mask. "I'm nobody. I'm just helping out," Gwen nodded, before swinging away.

As she swinged away, Gwen began thinking to herself on how she wants people to identify with her. She eventually pushed the thought to the back of her mind, choosing instead to focus on what she was seeing in front of her.

"What do we have here?" Gwen mulled to herself, slightly intrigued by the scene unfolding in front of her.

Apart from the usual, varsity jacket, or tracksuit wearing thug, her eyes immediately focused on the three, jet black hoodie wearing individuals mixed in among them, noting mentally on how different they looked to the other thugs. Without missing a beat, Gwen immediately jumped down & landed herself in between the surrounded victim & the thugs.

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Gwen quipped, goading the thugs to focus on her instead of the man cowering behind her.

Suddenly, before she could react, the man pushed her from behind, into the thugs, & ran away in a panic.

"Rude!" Gwen exclaimed, as she did her best to take out the thugs surrounding her as swiftly as he can.

"Ahhh! Get away from me!" Gwen heard the man screaming. As she was delivering an ass-whooping to the thugs facing her, she noticed the man was now waving a gun at one of the black-hooded man she saw earlier.

Before Gwen could leap to his rescue, the hooded-thug suddenly rolled underneath the man's outstretched arms, and within one fluid movement, disarmed the man, & threw him onto the pavement.

Gwen eyes widened in surprise, not expecting such a maneuver from a common thug. Gwen immediately tried to get away from the remaining thugs & reach the now unconscious man, but to no avail as the thugs kept swinging & stabbing their weapons at her, causing her to have to avoid & take care of them before anything else.

From the corner of her eyes, Gwen could see the hooded thug, now combing through the victim's briefcase & rummaging through it, almost as if they were looking for something specific.

Slightly distracted, Gwen eventually put down the last of the thugs that were attacking her. She then turned towards the unconscious man & his attacker, & fired a web to the briefcase to yank it out of the thug's hands.

Suddenly, another of the black-hooded thugs jumped into the way & blocked the web-strand with his knife. He then took out another knife with his other hand, and quickly sliced the web-strand off before Gwen could yank it away.

Gwen was slightly stunned by what she just saw, not expecting the finesse shown by the two thugs in front of her.

*Tingle*

Suddenly, her spider-senses started blaring, as she instinctively ducked down to avoid an incoming kick coming from behind her. As she turned up to look at her attacker, she sees the last remaining black-hooded thug, now rolling in front of her, recovering from the missed kick & positioning himself to face her once more.

The two men looked at each other, their faces covered by face masks & their jet-black hoodie, with only their eyes visible, and proceeded to leap, an almost super-human distance towards Gwen.

Relying on her Spider-sense, Gwen's vision started to slow things down as her powers starts to kick in, allowing her to better gauge the incoming attacks that were flying towards her. To Gwen's surprise, even with her powers helping to slow down the strikes, the attacks were still coming at an incredible speed, causing her to have trouble just keeping up & avoiding the hits.

Furthermore, after a few moments of barely avoiding the attacks, Gwen realized that the two attacks were coordinated & in tandem to each other, limiting her openings for her to react & barely giving her time to breathe.

With each strike, the misses were getting closer and closer, until eventually, the coordinated strikes hit her, flinging Gwen several feet away.

"Urgh," Gwen groaned. Gasping for breath, Gwen picks herself up and stood panting, rubbing her sore chest.

'What the hell was that?' Gwen frowned internally, her brains racking through her library of action movies for her next moves.

As she was busy getting up, the last thug seemingly pocketed a device from the briefcase & immediately sprinted away, scaling a nearby fire escape as he made his way onto the rooftop.

Gwen gritted her teeth & immediately fired a web line towards the fire escape hoping to stop the thief in his tracks. As she pulled herself towards the fire escape, the two thugs suddenly leapt in front of her & slammed her down into the pavement.

Slightly winded, Gwen blinked in confusion from underneath her goggles, as she sees the thief reaching the rooftops & out of her sight. As she laid groaning in pain, the two remaining thugs slowly approached her, knife in hand.

"ARGHH!" a cry of pain rang out from the rooftops. As the two thugs turned their attention towards the cry, Spider-Man suddenly sprang out of nowhere & immediately slammed one of the thugs into the ground.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Gwen quickly swept the legs of the last remaining thug & knocked him off balance. Before the man could get back up, Gwen immediately tackled him into the ground & punched him several times to knock him out.

Still dazed by what just happened, Gwen remained there for a few moments, panting heavily as she tried to regain her breath.

Spider-Man quickly made his way towards her & kneeled down next to her. "Hey, you okay?"

Gwen took a deep, steadying breath, before turning towards the wall-crawler. "Y-yeah, I'm fine," she said. "There was another one that got away, at the rooftops,"

Suddenly, a bright-red blur, dropped down from the rooftops and landed next to the pair. As he stood up from his landing, Gwen sees the bright red costume & the pair of horns sticking out from atop the head.

"I took care of that one," the man said in his gruff voice. "Seems like they were looking for this," he then proceeded to take out a small flash drive and showed it to the pair.

Gwen, still stunned by the sudden appearance of the man & his striking bold costume, remained still, unsure of what to do or say at this moment.

Spider-Man, noticing the stunned reaction coming from Gwen, immediately explained the situation. "This is Daredevil," he explains. "He's kinda like the de facto hero for Hell's kitchen. We've worked together before,"

Daredevil turned towards Gwen, frowning slightly. "Who's this?" he asked.

"Err, an apprentice? Sort of? I'm kind of teaching her the whole hero thing," Spider-Man shrugged his shoulders comically.

"Uhm, nice to meet you Mr. Daredevil," Gwen immediately offered her hands out for a handshake. "I'm Spider-Man's friend,"

Daredevil gave her an acknowledging nod, before turning back towards Spider-Man. "You think you can look into this? I'm wondering what Fisk wants with this," Daredevil mulled. "I'd do it myself, but… computers, and this, you know?" he said, tapping the side of his eyes while smirking jokingly.

"Oh, right," Spider-Man seemingly understood the joke, and grabbed the drive from Daredevil's outstretched hands. "I'll look into it,"

Gwen feeling a bit confused, quickly took her hand back and turned towards Spider-Man. "Mind explaining what just happened?" Gwen asked. "Those thugs we fought back then, they weren't your run-of-the-mill kinds,"

"They're from the 'Hand'," Daredevil interjected. "They're an ancient order of martial artists, ninjas, that takes on contracts as mercenaries or assassins for hire,"

"Excuse me, what?"

"Seems like they're involved in this whole plot by Kingpin to steal this flash drive," Spider-Man added into the conversation. "The whole mugging fiasco was like a cover-up. They wanted to make it look like it was just some random mugging,"

"Yes, I'm assuming the large number of muggings was meant to distract us, hopefully allowing them to carry out the theft from under our noses," Daredevil continued.

"Lucky for us, you're here!" Spider-Man chirpily turned towards Gwen.

Gwen stood in silence, jaw agape for a few moments, as she tries to wrap her head around the recent revelations.

"Wait, what?" Gwen asked in disbelief. "Fisk? Kingpin? Ninjas? What are you talking about?"

"Wilson Fisk is the Kingpin. He basically controls the criminal underworld of New York," Daredevil explained off-handedly, as he turned towards the two knocked out members of the 'Hand' lying on the alley. "These are just the low-level grunts. I doubt the organization is gonna care about them even if they got captured,"

"So, what? All of that mugging, just so he could take a flash drive? That doesn't make any sense," Gwen frowned in confusion.

"Depends on what the content of that drive is," Daredevil interjected.

"Yeah. If it's that important, it's probably encrypted," Spider-Man mulled to himself. "I know a guy who's good at decrypting these things. Maybe I'll try & see if he can crack it,"

"Wait, how do you know all this?" Gwen asked.

Daredevil took a few moments to answer the question. "I used to be part of the 'Hand', I even used to work for Fisk," he grunted under his breath. "Not anymore though,"

"O-ohh," Gwen blinked in surprise, not expecting the answer from the man in red stood in front of her.

"Are we done here?" Daredevil grunted towards Spider-Man.

"Yeah sure," Spider-Man gave him a thumbs up, before seemingly getting flustered, and dropped his hands back to his hips. "I'll find you when I've found out what's inside.

Daredevil seemingly smirked in amusement, before giving Spider-Man a thumbs up back, before swinging away with a whip like baton.

"Urgh, I'm never gonna get used to that," Spider-Man mused to himself.

Gwen sat in silence on the rooftops, her feet dangling beneath her as she thought about the events of the night.

*Thwip*

Spider-Man nimbly lands next to her, and hands her another canned coffee for the night.

"Sorry, it was a 2-for-1 deal," he said haf-jokingly.

Gwen took the canned coffee and held it with the sleeves of her sweater. "You really like your coffee huh?" she smirked from underneath her mask.

"Oh yeah. I'm pretty much addicted to coffee at this point," Spider-Man jokingly said as he took a seat next to her.

After taking a few sips from their drinks, Spider-Man eventually turned towards Gwen. "How's your chest feeling?" he asked.

Gwen instinctively rubbed her chest with one of her hands. "It's okay now, it doesn't hurt anymore," she smiled. "Sorry, I should've listened to your advice,"

Spider-Man shook his head softly. "Nah, we wouldn't have stopped all of the crimes otherwise. Splitting up was the right decision," he relented.

Gwen couldn't help but grin. "Right? Glad to see you being able to see some sense for once," she teased.

"Hey, I thought we were going for the whole 'apology train' thing," Spider-Man retorted.

"Nah, that's boring. I wanna lord my win over you," Gwen joked.

As they sat there grinning at each other's jokes, Gwen eventually turned towards Spider-Man. "Who are you?" she asked. "I feel like I've known you my whole life,"

"Aww, you're gonna make me blush," Spider-Man grinned, his smile visible for once since they were drinking their coffee. "Also, you still haven't told me who you are,"

"Well, I asked first," Gwen argued.

"No. I asked first, when I first met you remember?" Spider-Man retorted.

"That was then, this is now. That one doesn't count," Gwen said simply.

Spider-Man shook his head softly, still grinning at her antics. "Fine. I'm your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man,"

"That's bullshit," Gwen frowned.

"What? It's true," Spider-Man argued playfully.

"Alright fine, I'm also a fucking nobody then," Gwen retorted back. "Just some weirdo in a mask, how about that?"

"Ehh, too long. Let's just shorten it down to 'weirdo'," Spider-Man joked playfully. (Hey!)

Gwen continued sitting there, sipping her cold coffee.

"Why do you keep your identity a secret?" she eventually asked. "Why do you wear a mask?"

Spider-Man turned towards her, & considered the question in silence for a few moments. "That's two questions though. Which one do you want me to answer first?"

"Aren't the answer the same?" Gwen mulled.

"Not really no," Spider-Man smirked. "I keep my identity a secret to keep my loved ones safe," he continued. "I don't want my selfish actions, stopping crimes at night, getting into trouble, to endanger them. Make them a target for people who wants to get to me,"

"I wear a mask, to hide my own fears," he smiled ruefully. "This work is dangerous, you know? You never know what's gonna happen, if you're gonna get done in one day or not," he continued. "Honestly? I'm still scared every night, every single time I stop a crime or save a person in trouble, I can't help but shake in fear, worried that I'll mess up somehow,"

"But I know at the very least, no matter how scared I may feel, the person I saved might've just had the worst day of their life, you know?" he explained. "They're probably trembling in fear after they just got attacked or mugged. And the last thing I want to do, is transfer my fear over to them. So that's why I wear a mask. It's a lot easier to hide what I'm feeling from under my mask,"

Gwen sat in silence for a few moments, stunned by the answer she just received. Having thought for the longest time that he must've had something to hide (I really need to stop reading the Bugle), Gwen has a newfound appreciation & respect for the masked vigilante now.

"So, have you thought about your Superhero name yet?" Spider-Man suddenly asked.

"Huh?" Gwen blinked, slightly surprised.

"You know, a superhero name, for people to call you by," Spider-Man smirked playfully. "I mean, we can stick with 'Weirdo', but that's kind of a weird name to call yourself,"

"O-oh, uhm, I'm kinda, wasn't really thinking about being a hero actually," Gwen said softly.

Spider-Man sat in silence for a few moments, slightly stunned by the unexpected answer. "I-I just thought…," he said softly. "Because of the powers, you know?"

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna just walk away if I see people in trouble like today," Gwen said, feeling slightly guilty at her choice. "But…, actively looking for trouble…," Gwen trailed off, as she hugged her hands involuntarily.

"Oh, no no it's okay, it's my fault," Spider-Man quickly offered his hand up as an apology.

"Wha-No! No, it's my fault. I'm sorry," Gwen quickly interjected.

"No no, I was wrong. I shouldn't have assum-,"

"No, I should've been clearer," Gwen said softly. "I-I'll think about it," she conceded.

"Oh no, it's okay. It's your choice, don't feel pressured into this," Spider-Man assured her.

"I'm not," Gwen smiled weakly from under her mask. "It's my choice, I want to think about it," she assured him.

Spider-Man lets out a low sigh before turning back towards her. "I feel like we're just gonna stand here all night, trading apologies at this point," he joked.

"Yeah," Gwen chuckled.

They both stared at each other, as an awkward silence fell over them for a few moments.

"Uhm, ok. I, uh, I gotta go," Spider-Man eventually said. "I'm, uhm, so busy,"

"O-oh yeah, me too," Gwen quickly nodded. "With, you know, stuff and all that," she continued nervously.

"Y-yeah, same, stuff," Spider-Man rubbed the back of his head as he chuckled nervously. "But, uhh, maybe uhh-,"

"Y-yeah," Gwen chuckled back, slightly flustered. "Just, you know-,"

"Some other, uhm-,"

"Time…?" Gwen hesitated.

"S-sure," Spider-Man nodded softly, before the silence fell upon them once more. "See you later then," he said, as he shot a web across a nearby building, getting ready to swing away.

"Y-yeah, later then," Gwen nodded along, before Spider-Man quickly jumped off & swinged away.

As she stares at the ever-reducing size of the web-swinger, Gwen couldn't help but look at her hands, feeling slightly overwhelmed by the events of the night.

"A hero, huh?"

"Gwen?"

"Yeah?" Gwen yelled back from inside her room.

"I'm going to the station this morning," George announced from under the stairs. "Are you going out today?"

"No, I'm studying," Gwen said off-handedly, her focus mostly placed on her desk & her brand new project.

"Ok, call me if you need anything," George replied, making his way out of the hallway & out of the front door.

Gwen mentally blocked out the last few words from her father, as she sat, focused, tinkering away at the web-shooter that are lying on her table.