Peter and Karen

Chapter 10: Team Up

Peter had to admit that he didn't think he would be running into Mac Gargan AKA The Scorpion again so soon. It hadn't even been a full twenty-four hours but here he was. Fighting with the same villain as yesterday who was again trying to steal the same device.

Peter had come back to Silicon Labs to try and talk to someone who could tell him about the device and maybe he could figure out what it was for. But as soon as he got here, he saw a large hole in the building and people screaming from said building. What was actually kind of funny was that they hadn't even fixed the hole, it just had wood panels covering it until they could repair it. So, Mac had just tore through the wood and seemed to use the same path as last time.

"Okay I have no idea what this is but talk about returning to the scene of the crime," Peter swung into the hole and looked around. There was an alarm sounding, he could still hear people running in a panic and then the heavy sounds of metal being torn or broken.

"Guess I know where he went," Peter ran through the broken doors or walls towards the sound. He came across a few people hiding under desks or offices and quickly told them to get out of the building. He didn't need innocent bystanders in the way given that he doubted Scorpion would go quietly.

"Just once I wish they would go quietly," Peter sighed to himself. He felt a flare up in his ribs, they still hurt from their last dance. Swinging around yesterday with Power Girl, patrolling for trouble when you got bruised ribs hadn't been the best idea. Sure, he healed faster than normal people, but he needed to stop and relax or just sleep to get the full benefits. The bruises were gone but the muscles were still sore, so he'd have to try and not take too many tail strikes to the ribs this time.

Of course knowing his luck he either would or take a few to the head. God, just how many concussions had he taken in life? If it wasn't for his healing abilities he would seriously be looking at some brain damage by this point in his life.

He just got into what looked like a large lab when his spider sense went off as he jumped out of the way of what looked like a ripped apart vault door being thrown at his direction. Looking over there was Scorpion going inside a secure room. Apparently, he had thrown it behind himself and didn't even know that Spider-Man was even there.

Well, Peter felt it was time to say 'hello' then. He fired two weblines at either wide of the room, pulled back to get the tension and let the webs act like a giant sling, shooting him feet first into the armored back of one of his oldest foes. "Heeeeyyy Gaaaaargaaaan!" He yelled slamming his feet hard into the back of the over six-foot-tall villain.

Said villain was kicked onto his face as both entered the lab as Peter noticed the same device right there.

"Man, you are really obsessed with that McGuffin," Peter said landing as the Scorpion quickly rose up glaring at him. "Since you're not the science type I'm guessing there's a nice payday for you in stealing this."

"Good guess," Scorpion's tail lashed out making Peter dodge. There wasn't much room to maneuver in here, so he had to be careful as he jumped onto the walls dodged each strike.

"Okay I got to know, what is this thing and whose paying for it? It's been killing me since yesterday." Peter jumped off the wall and tried to fire some webbing to tie up his legs but he and Gargan had danced this dance many times and they knew each other's tactics. Scorpion jumped out of the way and was using his tail to block some of the webs being shot, it was powerful enough to rip the webs and because of the shape of the tail it was hard to get it immobilized at times.

"I ain't telling you squat," Scorpion didn't know what the device was, only that he was hired to steal it. He didn't ask questions like that as they didn't matter to him. What he did know was that the longer this went on the more trouble would come his way. He could always squash the bug later but first came the job. He shot his tail out to make Spider-Man dodge and when he was in midair he reached out with his hand and grabbed the device from the table it was on, pulling out wires and other equipment attached to it.

"Hey hands of other people's property," Peter fired a web line onto the device.

"Take your own advice," Scorpion then kicked the entire table, the secured table's bolts were sheared off from the force of his kick as it quickly flew through the air and slammed into Spider-Man making him lose his grip on the web. "Another time bug boy."

Scorpion quickly left the room as Peter groaned pushing the heavy scientific looking table off him.

"Again, with the ribs, why always the ribs with him lately?" Peter rubbed the same spot that had just healed the bruises only for more to form. It would hurt but not enough to stop him as he quickly gave chase. There was a large crashing sound as he came to yet a new hole into the wall of the building.

"God, I hate to see the repair bill for this place," Peter muttered jumping out. He was greeted to the site of Scorpion slamming a police car with his tail sending it on its roof. Peter could see cops still inside as two other squad cars came up as the police got out ordering him to stop.

While Peter respected the cops of this city as they always seemed to go up against super villains, he also was worried because bravery didn't equate to having the means to take down people like Scorpion, at least not easily and not without a lot of people getting hurt or worst.

Spider-Man saw the cops firing but the Scorpion's suit was impervious to small arms fire, you needed something that had a lot more kick to it then handguns. Peter flipped over the Scorpion as he fired webbing at his eyes as the villain took the time to try and claw off the webs, Peter looked to the officers.

"Although I appreciate what you Boys in Blue do, you might want to focus on crowd control and see if your buddies need help." Peter pointed to the upside-down car. "Your side arms will only piss him off."

"Damn it, we need something with more fire power for the damn crazies," One of them muttered knowing full well how too man super villains were either invulnerable to anything less than a rocket launcher or were so strong you needed a tank or something to get through to them.

One of the cops went in for the shotgun that was in their cruiser.

"Still not enough," Spider-Man saw the frustration in the police offers. "Look I can take him down, but I don't want innocent people to get hurt, you guys can help keep people save because there is always people that just stand around and gawk at everything…like them."

He pointed to a crowd across the street forming as some had their cameras out. While Peter loved the invention of mobile phones the downside is that everyone wanted to capture pictures or videos or something and put them on Tictok or other social media platforms. It put people in danger and honestly it was like people thought they couldn't get hurt if they were just filming for some reason.

"ARRRGH!" Scorpion's yell got his attention as he looked to see he had finally clawed enough of the webbing off his face.

"And that's my que," Peter said jumping back into action.

Not far away in the city Power Girl was trying to get into routine for her day. Doc Sampson had told her that was one way for her to start feeling 'normal' was to try and make a routine that would start to feel normal for her. So, she started with breakfast with the Fantastic Four, do some research to help catch her up on the world, therapy if she had it that day, patrol the city to get a feel for it, lunch, patrol, dinner, relax for the night and so on.

Currently she was flying around the New York getting used to the subtle changes from her New York. It was mostly the same but certain buildings were different as her mind kept telling her of what 'should' be there. Still, so far, she stopped a mugging, two car thefts and then helped out a fire crew. She could still smell the smoke and water on her costume, thankfully the unstable molecules were a lot tougher than her old suit.

She was focusing on the little things, just helping people. Helping others felt good and it helped to fill the void in her life, not completely but it was something.

Still, now that she was making this world her home, Karen was starting to think of what to do with her life? She had to move out of the Baxter building at some point, while she was so thankful for them, she couldn't be a free loader forever. All those documents she sighed made Karen Starr a legal 'human' woman so she could start a new life. She could get some fake glasses and do what Clark did, maybe change her hair style up?

Unfortunately, she also needed a job, what job allowed her to do work she liked, gave her at least a decent pay to start a life and then on top of it, allow her to slip away to be a hero?

She could restart Starrware Industries, or maybe call it Starrware Labs again? Maybe go incorporated? Whatever name she went with she would need investors, no one in their right mind would give a loan out to someone with no credit history. Maybe she could come up with something, paten it and sell it off? Kryptonation technology was still far advanced than the norm on his planet. Maybe she could make some security software or come up with an OS to rival Windows?

That last one she had been chewing on for years on if she should try and do it. Granted going up again Windows or Apple with their years as being the top two OS systems was going to be a bloody and long battle that she didn't really want to get into at the moment, especially for a startup company.

Her musings were cut short when a loud sound of what sounded like metal and people screaming caught her super hearing. She quickly flew to the area and saw Spider-Man fighting someone that looked like a large green scorpion themed costume.

Power Girl flew in like a bullet and punched the green villain in the face sending him onto his back.

"I was having a quiet day when I suddenly heard all the noise." Power Girl said to them.

"Sorry, I tried to tell Scorpion to play nicely but he always just like to rough house a bit too much." Spider-Man told her glad for the backup.

"So, his name really is Scorpion huh?" Power Girl floated down cracking her knuckles seeing the villain starting to stand back up. "Well, that fits."

She wasn't surprised he was getting up since she pulled her punch, that was one of the things she had learned being a hero. Yes, she could most likely end this fight instantly but not without the strong possibility of killing him. She had learned when fighting new opponents to start with 'live-taps' and slowly increase the power until she gauged what she needed.

From how he shrugged that off she got the feeling he had some super strength of his own, it might be the suit, but it could be something else as well since she wasn't familiar with him.

"Great the Blonde Bimbo is here," Gargan sneered. Power Girl had been on the news lately, given a new hero just shows up in New York so of course the news feeds wanted to cover the new flavor of the week.

Karen's face darkened as she frowned. "I'm seriously getting sick of people assuming I'm some stupid air head just because of how I look."

"Yeah, come one Gargan," Peter told him. "It's the 21st Century, you can't just assume things like that these days. Plus, I can tell you, she's way smarter than you are, but then again you ain't the best measuring stick."

"Outsmart this!" His tail sailed right for him as Power Girl being very annoyed in a blink caught the tail. He tried to jerk it back, but the woman was strong, like crazy strong.

"Got your tail," Power Girl smirked.

"Wait watch out for his-!" Peter tried to warn her, but it was too late as the acid from the tail shot out right into her face.

Now a normal person would have had their face starting to melt from it, for her, however? It just really, really stung, mainly because it got into her eyes. Normally acid just stings a little on her skin but in her exposed eyes? It was the equivalent of putting salt in someone's eyes for someone like her. It wouldn't kill her or leave lasting damage, but the stinging wasn't pleasant, and her eyes were watering so much she couldn't see.

Letting out a guttural cry of shock and some pain made her loose her grip on the trail as she next felt metal slamming against her face. The hit made a slight ringing in her head, but she had taken worse as she stumbled to her knees.

"Power Girl!" Peter was quick to her side being careful of the leftover acid on her face. He noticed Scorpion was already quickly making a break for it.

"I got this," she waved him off, "get after him, I'll catch up."

"You sure?" Peter knew she was tough, but he didn't know how tough, shrugging off acid to the face wasn't something he was used to dealing with.

"Go!" She yelled out nodding her head.

Peter hated to do it, but he quickly left in pursuit as Kara tried to rib and blink her eyes clear. She looked around as her vision was blurred but thankfully caught sight of what she needed. She struggled to walk straight to a fire hydrant. She had to half see and half feel for it as she easily took one of the caps off with her hand and with her other turned the squared nob on top. High pressure cold water soon hit her face. A human would have been blown back but with her it was like stepping into a shower.

She felt the stinging slowly go away as her Kryptonian healing was starting to get to work. A few minutes was all it took to get the acid off her and she turned the hydrant off again, recapping it. Rubbing her eyes with her blue gloves she was starting to feel better.

She could now see a lot better even if her sight was a little blurred. Checking herself she saw she was a bit wet but that would dry off. She was annoyed seeing the black spots on her costume, apparently the acid had dripped in places and had tried to eat through it. She hoped those stains would come out and it wasn't permanently damaged.

"You okay ma'am?" One of the officers still in the area came over to check up on her seeing her take some of Scorpion's acid at point blank.

"I've had worst," She blinked a few more times. "Anyone here needs to get to a hospital?"

"No, thankfully," He told her. "I've seen that stuff he uses eat through solid steel once, surprised it didn't take off your face."

"I'm just build differently," She looked around but didn't see either of them. "Which direction did they go?"

"That way," The officer pointed.

"Thanks," Karen quickly flew off, they couldn't have gotten too far a head and they should be easy to track down.

Peter was still on Scorpion's trail and this time he was not going to let the guy slip into the sewers again, but the guy wasn't making this easy. Peter could easily overtake him, which Scorpion knew, which was why he was using his tail to try and slow Spider-Man down. He was throwing anything and everything he could at the swinging hero.

Peter had to dodge a bike and web it to the side of a building so it wouldn't fall on someone, then Gargan threw a person not fast enough to get out of the way. Peter caught them in the air and quickly landed and safely put them down before swinging back at him. Scorpion even threw a whole car that Peter had to drop to street level and catch the thing. He tried to place it gently onto a sidewalk given that finding an open parking spot this close to downtown was nearly impossible.

The car alarm going off in his face wasn't helpful as he had to double time it to catch back up to Scorpion.

"Come on Gargan, we've done this how many times over the years?" Peter said finally catching up to the man. "You cause trouble, we fight, I stop you, you go to jail, you break out and we all do this merry-go-round all over again. How about we just skip to the jail part and save us all a lot of trouble?"

"You'll never stop me Web-Head!"

"271."

"…What?" Scorpion was genuinely confused by that as he slows down wondering what he meant by that.

"You've said that to me 271 times over the years," Peter landed on the wall of a building next to him as the Scorpion had paused.

The villain blinked before suddenly being very angry. "You've been keeping count!?"

Actually, he hadn't, he just threw out some random number to get him distracted, which thankfully it worked out. Maybe he should try this out more often? It did seem to have an effect on confusing them enough to stun lock them for a bit. The downside was that apparently that really pisses off the villain and now was focusing all that anger on him. Which was fine, it meant fewer civilian damages, at least he hoped.

He had to jump off the wall as the tail smashed it.

'Okay maybe less civilians getting in the way then,' he mentally sighed. I just know that JJ will blame all this on him anyway.

"Stand still you little-AAACKK!" He was cut off from a white blur as this time Power Girl slammed into his torso, harder this time. The villain was blown off his feet as was slammed to the ground, the device knocked out of his grasp.

Karen stood up planting a strong foot on his back, Gargan felt like a train was pinning him down as he tried to push up but couldn't get enough strength. He sent his tail, but she was ready for it this time as she grabbed it with both hands and made sure the part that fired the acid was pointed away from her and anyone else.

"Not this time," she told him clearly annoyed by what he had done last time. She looked at the back of him activating her x-ray vision. From the looks of it the tail was some kind of cybernetic system linked to his spine. She hadn't been sure if it was something like that or if he had an actual tail in there. It moved much too quickly and fluidly to not be linked to his brain in some way.

"Is it safe for me to rip this tail off?" Karen asked Peter. "It won't kill him, or anything will it? I can see it's linked to his spine, so I wanted to make sure before I did anything."

"Don't you dare you bitc-AHH!" he cried out as she put just a little bit more pressure on him.

"He'll feel like you ripped off a limb if you do, there's a powerpack for it on the back around there." Peter pointed out.

Karen shifted her focused and saw it under the armored section. "Okay time to deal with this then." She fired her heat beams just enough to melt the amor plate and fried the powerpack. There was a small explosion and smoke but nothing too big as Scorpion cried out more in shock than anything as his tail 'went dead' to his sense.

"And now to wrap him up," Spider-Man said as together they left Scorpion's arms and legs webbed up as the police and a SWAT unit were just starting to arrive. They could take it from here as they wanted to return the device back to the lab it was stolen from.

"So…you have ray vision too?" Peter asked as they walked up to the building now with more police and a fire truck and ambulance outside of it.

"Heat vision actually," Power Girl told him as she was carrying the device.

"Good to know and that you're acid proof," he said.

"Still stings when it gets in my eyes, once got up my nose this one time, not fun." Karen had to admit it did leave her with clear sinuses for a few days, but it hadn't been worth it. It was like someone snorting chilly powder. "A little fact about me is that unless it makes me bleed, don't worry about it. Plus, I heal superfast too."

"Yeah, I know someone like that," Peter nodded. "Might be why he chain smokes, doesn't have to worry about cancer."

"What about secondhand smoke?"

"I think he just doesn't smoke around people he likes."

"You there!" Someone shouted out grabbing both their attention as a man with a dressing on his head came over to them in that kind of authority that only someone who is used to being in charge can bring. "That's private property you have there!"

He was pointing to the device that Power Girl was carrying. "Yeah that's why we're bringing it back." She told him.

"Again," Peter added. "Seriously what is so important about this that someone hired Scorpion to steal it not once but twice."

"That's confidential information," The man told them. "we've spent too much time an effort on this project and if you damaged it, you'll have set us back years."

Power Girl didn't like being talked down to like this, they had saved their precious device and as far as she knew it wasn't damaged. She looked at it as she used her x-ray vision to see inside of it. It took her a minute to realize what she was looking ag.

"Oh, it's a power amplifier." She said setting it down.

The man only blinked, not sure how she had guessed that.

"Really, that's it? I've seen Reed make way more impressive stuff. That's can't be all there is." Peter looked at the grey boxy device.

"I think they're trying to have it generate more power than it gets." She explained.

"Well, that's not physically possible."

"I think they're trying to use some kind of strange matter or something to compensate but it won't work."

"Isn't that stuff supposed to be very dangerous and only found in neutron stars?"

Power Girl shrugged. "Mostly but you can make artificial strange matter if you know what you're doing but they don't." The man was sputtering at this point that these two were verbally taking apart their research project. "The design is all wrong, they could generate it but it won't be stable, I see that they didn't compensate for all the heat it will build up and also to even make the minimum amount to get this running they would need a larger core to contain it."

"How much larger?"

"I'd say a basketball size, they got it as a softball size."

"Ah so not enough fuel in the tank, I get it. "He nodded his head it was fun being able to geek talk with someone that knew what they were talking about. He could count the people on mostly one hand that he could do that with, well outside of Horizon that is. "So, after all this, it's worthless?"

"At it's current design I guess," she shrugged taking another look at it. "Maybe they could learn from it but it's still years away from being perfected."

"But…but this is out company's big break, we were going to change the energy market." The man who Peter guessed was either the owner or maybe one of the people in charge of the labs looked like they had just beaten his pet or something.

"Sorry but I believe her," Peter shrugged at the man. "On the bright side if this gets out you won't have to worry about someone breaking into your building anymore."

Seeing the look on the man's face, wasn't a comforting thought.

It was later in the day we find our two heroes on top of a random building, both sitting on the ledge with their feet dangling off the side. There were two drinks as they were eating some hotdogs they had gotten off a street vendor. Karen was surprised the guy hadn't been shocked by a pair of heroes just showing up for some food, but Spider-Man explained to her that he came by now and then, the guy made good food.

Karen had to admit he was right; they were pretty good. Both had taken two dogs each given they both worked up an appetite.

"It's a shame we never found out who hired him," Power Girl stated finishing her first dog and now working on the second.

"It happens," Peter shrugged. "But now that you said that device wouldn't work, if word gets out they won't try again, although I feel sorry for that company."

"Yeah, two high profile robberies and now their bride and joy wont work," Karen winced knowing full well the troubles that company was going to go through now. They would most likely either had to eventually shut down or get bought out by a larger company wanting to expand. The business world could be ruthless like that, one bad day could destroy it all depending on the size of the company and what happened.

"So, I take it you and him have fought a lot?" She asked him.

"Oh yeah, he's one of my oldest enemies," Spider-Man nodded with the lower part of his mask pulled up.

"Ah, so one of your rogues then?" Power Girl asked him.

"One of them," he nodded as he paused to think about it. "Let's see I got Scorpion, several different people how were Green Goblins and Hobgolins, there was Venom for a time but he's…complicated now. Then there's Carnage, The Lizard also complicated, Doctor Octavius…there was also a woman that took his name and gimmick for a time, but I don't know what happened to her. Then Vulture, Rhyno, Shocker, two, no wait…three different Mysterios, Kraven and his whole psycho family, his half-brother the Chameleon."

He had to take a breath by this point. "Sandman, Electro, two different Beetles, Smythe and his Spider Slayers, Hydro-man, and that's just the major ones. I got a whole list of lesser villains I usually end up fighting a lot too."

Power Girl had a look of surprise on her face. "I swear you have as many enemies as Batman."

"Yeah…I seem to make more enemies than friends huh?" He chuckled. "Can't understand why with my sunny personality."

"All I got is Ultra-Humanite which I guess you can say I share with a few others, same with Psycho-Pirate, Satanna and a few villains Superman had…well there was Divine." She sourly said given that evil clone of hers had actually ruined a date she had been on.

"I take it this Divine was personal?"

"Evil clone."

Peter groaned. "Oh god, not more clones. A dead villain of mine named Jackle made several clones of me. I've had enough trouble with clones as is."

"What is it with people making clones out of heroes anyway? I mean sure get someone on equal footing I guess but why not try for something stronger?" She took a sip of her drink.

"No idea but don't give them any ideas," he joked. "Still at least mine weren't evil…well…mostly not evil." He thought about Kaine and boy did that guy go through a character arc of his own. He was like a dark reflection to Peter on just what he could have become if he didn't have people keeping him on the right path in life.

"Sounds like there is a story there."

"You have no idea," Peter sighed. "But one is dead and the other…last I heard he's in Texas, after he stole my stealth suit."

"You have a steal suit?"

"Had a steal suit," Peter groaned. "I still need to rebuild that thing at some point. It had these cool features where is canceled out sound and bent light, so I was totally silent and invisible."

"I know of a few people who would have loved that kind of tech," The whole Bat Family in particular would have loved to have had that. Sure, Batman had that whole ninja vanishing trick of his but to be able to turn invisible and totally silent? The man would have used that technology to good use fighting crime. He also would insist in everyone that worked under him have that technology, as much as he put young people into the field, he didn't want them to be hurt.

He did his best to train them up to the best of his abilities but that would have given them an edge.

She frowned thinking back of her old life and world that was now gone. The Batman that existed now she wasn't sure how many people he had taken in as she hadn't had the chance to find out. Well, it wasn't her world anymore, and she had to learn to live with it.

Peter saw her expression and how quiet she got knowing she was thinking of home again. He wished she could go back but it was just gone. He decided to try and get her to think of something else.

"Well stick with me and you'll get plenty of chances to make some villains, hell I'll give you some, please take them, I could use less work."

She grinned at him. "I don't want your caste offs, I want my own."

"Oh, come on, please?" He begged. "I'll give you a Hobgoblin and throw in Sandman for free."

"I don't know…" she made a show of thinking on it as a joke.

"Okay, one Hobgoblin, a Sandman and Electro, which means a lot as he's one of the first guys I ever fought."

"I'll think on it," Power Girl said. "I have to hear what I can get from the Fantastic Four and Avengers first."

"Oh, come on how can I compete with their enemies? They need a whole team to deal with them," Peter playfully groaned.

Power Girl shook her head, but she was smiling at least now, so he was glad he got her mind out of whatever it was she was thinking about. He knew how life can kick you when you're down and leave its mark on you. So, seeing her smile even a little was a victory in his opinion. Another idea hit him as he thought about their conversation about the amplifier that apparently wouldn't work.

"So, you mind if I pick your brain on something?" He asked her as she tilted her head in interests. "I got this project I'm working on and what I was thinking…"

The two of them spent the entire afternoon going over a few ideas Peter had going on in Horizon as she gave him unique insights into a few roadblocks and clearing up some work arounds he had been thinking about but needed to smooth over the ideas to get them more viable. Power Girl was just glad that someone was taking her seriously with her intelligence. Most people saw just a knockout blonde and assume she was all body and no brain.

It felt good that Spider-Man saw her as more than just some kind of sex symbol and talking to him reminded her of Jimmy Olsen, someone kind and had a good heart in them that wanted to do good and see the good in others. If Jimmy had ever been a hero she figured he would have ended up a lot like Spider-Man, just not as tech savy as the man next to her was beginning to show her.

She knew he was intelligent but not to depths of his intelligence until this very moment as they got lost in each other's conversations.

TBC…