Peter Parker

Over the next some odd days, Shadowcat and I patrolled the city as a team. During that time, she was able to help keep my violent tendencies in check. I realized I needed it when my very presence at a crime was able make criminals drop what they're doing and make a run for it without even trying to put up a fight, if not just outright surrender. Was it beneficial? Maybe it was. But it got to a point where, on one occasion, a graffiti artist saw me and started begging me not to hurt him. I didn't feel the least bit good about it. I let Shadowcat do the talking as I stood some feet away with my back turned towards them.

It was at this point I was wishing that Beck would just show up already. This wasn't like the time before we faced (the fake) Scorpion or the time before we faced Kraven. There was no warning from a press conference or some picture shown on the screens in Time Square or any of the sort. The only people who knew that Beck was alive were the people who may be working with him, the X-Men (except for Craig and maybe Carmilla), and the other American Idiots. I knew enough about Beck to know that he was a glutton for attention. The fact that we haven't seen even a glimpse of him had me worried. He had to be planning something big. And that scared me a bit.

"Another night, another bodega robbery stopped," Shadowcat said as we walked out of the front door of said bodega. The two of were wearing our quick change uniforms. While I had a Coke in my hand, she was eating a Chopped Cheese, a bit to my chagrin.

"Yup," I replied as I lifted up my mask until my mouth was exposed.

"You should've gotten one of these."

"I'm good." As I said this, I cracked open my Coke to distract myself from the mouth-watering smell of her sandwich and the memories it was triggering.

"You sure? I don't mind splitting it with you."

"I'm sure. I'm just not in the mood." I could feel her giving me a look. I ignored it and took a sip from my can.

"…Okay, well, suit yourself."

A little later on, we were on a rooftop looking out towards Manhattan. Things were a bit quiet.

"…You know, Kaine never had ice cream before until some days ago," Shadowcat said out of nowhere.

I turned my head towards her. "First of all, I'm not surprised," I replied. "Second of all, how do you know that?"

She smiled in embarrassment. "The day I found out about Craig, Kaine and I were hanging out."

I tilted my head slowly. "Hanging out."

"…Yeah. When I got off the phone with you – after the conversation about what happened in Phoenix and… you know – Kaine called me out of nowhere and asked to hang out. And, we did. We went for a walk and got ice cream when he told me he never had any before, and we ate it after sitting on a park bench."

I nodded slowly. "I see." I looked back out towards the city.

"…Spill it."

I looked back towards her. "Spill what?" I couldn't keep the smile out of my voice.

"Spidey, I know you got something smart to say."

"I got nothing."

"Bullshit."

I chuckled. "It's nothing, it's just…" I shook my head. "It sounds like a date."

Shadowcat shook her head. "It wasn't a date. We were just hanging out and…" She paused for a moment. She then scoffed. "Ah, who am I kidding? It was a date." I smiled smugly. "And screw you, because I know you're eating shit underneath that mask."

"I'm not," I said, not even hiding the amusement in my voice. "But, seriously, did you have fun?"

"I had a time," she replied.

"You want to go out with him again?"

"…I don't know yet." She tilted her head. "Like I said, I found out about what happened to Craig when I was on the date, so things got cut short. Though, I did lean against him a bit, and he wasn't put off when I did that, so…"

I nodded. "I'm happy for you. You deserve to be happy."

"Thanks. Who knows, maybe Kaine and I can go on a double date with you and…" She trailed off. She bared her teeth as she cringed. "…Spidey, I'm –"

"Don't worry about it," I interrupted gently. I looked out towards the city.

"You two should really talk it out," Shadowcat urged. I looked at her. "I don't think it's healthy for you and MJ to have this tension between you, especially given the circumstances you're both in."

I opened my mouth to say something. I didn't know what I was going to say. She was right, and a part of me knew it. But I was still too angry over seeing Michelle with Brad, and I had conflicting feelings over me feeling that way.

Emotions are complicated.

Before I could say anything, I saw something in my peripheral. I turned head out towards the city and…

"…Whoa, when did that happen?" I said as I took to a step forward. Out in the distance, I saw a huge fire, causing a huge cloud of smoke to rise into the air.

"That's not good," Shadowcat commented. Without looking at her, I brought my arm around her and pulled her close.

"Let's go." After I said that, I jumped into the air and shot a strand of webbing out towards a building in front of us.

We made our way over as quickly as we could. As we travelled, I heard sirens out in the distance. I didn't know if they could make it in time. After some minutes, we arrived. I landed carefully on the ground before I cut my line. As I set Kitty on my feet, I looked at the burning building. It was looking very bad.

"How do you want to play this?" I asked as I looked at Shadowcat. She looked at me for a moment before she looked at the fire. After a few seconds, she looked back at me, looking ready to lay out a quick plan. Before she could, however, I heard a woman screaming, getting both of our attentions.

"Paula!" she yelled out as she screamed out and ran towards the building. I quickly zoomed past her and stood in front of her.

"Lady, you don't want to go in there!" I warned. She stared at me, looking hysterical.

"But my daughter is on the roof!"

I looked at the roof for a moment. I then looked past the woman and at Shadowcat. She made eye contact with me.

"Handle that, Spidey!" Shadowcat called out.

"Are you sure?" I called back.

"I'll go look for anyone stuck inside of the building! Get this woman's daughter!"

I nodded at her. I then looked at the woman. "I'll save her," I promised. With that, I turned around and ran up to the building. I jumped upward and landed on a wall before I crawled upward as I quickly as I could, doing everything I can to avoid the flames along the way. Despite moving as I quickly as I did, it still felt like it was taking a while. Then again, when it came to a human life that needed saving, was there ever such thing as fast enough? Eventually, I did reach the top of the building. I tried to look around, but the flames weren't doing any favors for my view. Eventually, I started to hear crying sobbing among the flames. Carefully, I navigated around the fire. It felt like I was playing a video game as I navigated towards the sound of the crying. I knew if I touched the fire, I was in for a bad time.

It was then that logic and basic physics hit me. I realized I wasn't feeling much heat. Actually, I wasn't feeling heat at all. If anything, I felt a bit cool, much like I how felt during the current weather. That shouldn't be happening. With the amount of fire that was on the root, I should've felt like I was being cooked because convection. I stopped in my tracks in front of a flame. I then lifted up my right hand.

"This could go badly," I whispered to myself. I took in a breath before I suddenly stuck my hand in the fire. I expected excruciating pain. However, nothing happened. The fire didn't even bend around my hand. I took my hand out. "It's fake!"

That was when my Spider-Sense went off.

My eyes went wide.

It was a trap!

Suddenly, the crying stopped and the flames suddenly disappeared. Well, most of them did. Floating inches above the roof a few feet in front of me was a woman shrouded in fire. Below her was the only spot showing any signs of fire damage. I looked around. The roof looked rather normal – no damaged HVAC units, no burns… nothing. I looked back the woman again. I then tilted my head. Why did I feel like I've met her before?

"There's a Fire Marshall joke here somewhere, but I can't seem to find it," I deadpanned. My Spider-Sense went off again. She brought her arm forward before she suddenly fired a stream of fire from her palm towards. The stream of fire moved so fast that I barely had time to jump to the side. When I hit the ground, I rolled away before I moved to one knee. On instinct, I brought my arms out and shot out two strands of webbing towards her. Much to my surprised, she caught both strands with one hand. I then realized how stupid it was for me to try and web her down when flames started to run along the webbing, leaving falling ashes in their wake. I quickly broke the lines just before the flames could reach by web shooters. I looked at her, and she looked at me with a look as if to ask what I expected to happen. "Yeah, not exactly my smartest move."

"No shit, Spider," the woman in flames deadpanned. Her voice sounded a bit distorted. Still, I couldn't help but feel like I heard her voice somewhere – but where?

I shook my head. "Who are you?"

"I'll give you a hint – I'm someone looking for revenge."

"…I mean, okay, but that doesn't really do much to narrow it –"

Before I could complete that statement, she suddenly flew forward. Once again, I jumped off to the side. I dodged her. Or so I thought. I felt a burning sensation around my ankle before I was tossed into an AC unit back first. I arched my back in pain as I took a few steps forward. She was suddenly in front of me again. Deciding to take my mind off of the pain in my back for a moment, I quickly moved into a boxing stance before I tried sending punches towards her face. She weaved around them effortlessly. I tried to send a kick to the outside of her left knee, but she lifted her leg up and checked it, causing me to burn my foot a bit. She then stepped backward, dodging and blocking the many punches and kicks I sent towards her. With each blow that she blocked, I felt parts of my body starting to burn. I finally landed a leg kick that caused her to stumble. I thought I had an opening as I tried to send a right hook to her jaw. That's when she caught the fist with her left land. I tried to press forward, but the heat in her hand was too much. I screamed out as I tried to pull my hand away, but she was a lot stronger than I figured she'd be. She had to have super strength. As if to confirm that, she sent an uppercut to my jaw that sent me several feet into the air.

"Okay, let me regroup," I said to myself through a clenched jaw. I turned and sent a strand of webbing towards another building. Once it hit, I tried to zip line over. Just as I was in motion, a stream of fire blasted through the strand of webbing. I felt myself start to fall. I turned into the air, putting my back towards the ground below. Before I could shoot some webbing to catch myself, I saw a streak of fire shoot out in the distance. It turned in the air, doing a Figure 8 before it suddenly fired towards me. I realized a bit too late that it was the mysterious woman streaking towards me. Before I could react, I was tackled out of the air and slammed back first into the ground. Yup, there goes that pain my back again – with a vengeance. I even felt the crater forming from the impact. I couldn't keep myself from screaming out. I clenched my eyes in pain. I then screamed out even more when I felt a burning sensation on my chest. I looked up to see the woman in flames looking down at me with disdain as her foot was planted on my sternun.

"You took everything from me, Spider," she spat out. "I'd finish you off right now, but that would be too good for you. I'm going to make you suffer until you feel the way I felt. And then I'll end you." She then flew off into the air. I just laid there, hand on my chest and… yup, she burned through my suit. I just knew I had a foot print burned in my chest. I then heard footsteps. Seconds later, Shadowcat was kneeling over me.

"Spidey, are you okay?" she asked.

I slowly sat up. I took in a breath and shook my head. "No," I finally replied. "…We need to take that woman down right now."

"No, Spidey, we're done. We're turning in for the night."

I turned my head towards her. "But Shadowcat –"

"But nothing, Spider-Man! Whoever that was just handed you your ass on a silver platter, and we have no idea what else she's capable of. Take me to your home. I'll treat your burns before I go." I sighed. I didn't bother arguing. What was the point? Shadowcat was right and I wouldn't be able to convince her otherwise. I stood up.

"Fine."

We went home, only stopping at a drugstore along the way to grab medicine and gauze. When we arrived, Kitty had me strip down to my boxers. I felt a bit embarrassed. Still, I didn't protest when she treated the burns on my stomach, hands, shins, and chest. After bidding me good night, Kitty left for home.

For a while, I sat there on my bed. For a while, I just pondered how much I really, really didn't need this shit. Who was this woman? What did I to her? She seemed familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it… or even near it. It was already bad enough that Beck was somewhere out there. I had to deal with this… this…

Ugh, what the fuck?

Out of habit, I reached for my phone, pulled up Michelle's name, and started typing up a message to her. I think I got about twenty words in when I stopped myself. I looked down at the screen for some seconds. Despite the urge to continue writing and send the messaged, I deleted the words.

"I don't need another headache," I muttered to myself.