DEAD VICTIMS SPUN IN WEB IN OLD TUNNELS!
SPIDERMEN CONTINUE TO DENY INVOLVEMENT!
Miles shook his head at the latest article to come out. Having done the minimum amount of his school work and other things to go on patrol today, things he would finish later in the day, he was taking a break on top the Empire State Building, sipping on coffee.
"Media sure likes to spin things for clicks..." Looking at the comments he could see people sharing the same sentiment or outright denying the possibility these incidents were caused by the Spidermen.
The key piece of evidence that couldn't link either Miles or Peter to these sites was the fact that the webs themselves were organic. Something that both of them are unable to do, as they had both said to the public on social media, even showing their alibi by showing their webs to the organic webbing shown side by side in a photo comparison.
This, as well as their reputation, was enough to bring the public opinion on their side. But, of course, the media relies on baiting titles and the like, digital media relies on clicks and views after all. Something that both Miles and Peter admit, they don't blame the people writing them. After all, they had Jonah.
A call from Peter rang on his phone:
"Yeah?"
"See it?"
"Yup. Don't understand how these incidents are going under our noses."
"No witness reports, no finger prints, no evidence of the perpetrator once again."
"I keep thinking that we're dealing with some kind of ultra professional. But, I keep thinking two things - either we
are dealing with some kind of professional, or they are just that fast to go in, do their thing, and leave without any evidence besides... well, the cocoons."
"I honestly wouldn't be surprised if we're dealing with some kind of scientific monstrosity. After all, Connors gave me a run for his money back in the day."
"Maybe we should take a closer look at these sites these murders are showing up."
"Already closing in on one. I'll let you know if I find anything. How's that thing you were working up?"
"Still a prototype, but this might be a great time to get data on it."
"Its done? Thought you said it would take a while."
"A friend helped me out."
"Someone other than Ganke?"
"Someone new. A girl named Cindy. She's going to Brooklyn Visions in a few days."
"Would've been able to meet her if I still had that job... She know?"
"No. I heard from my mom that she was home schooled, but I didn't think she would be that smart. We were stuck on an equation for the programming and she took one look at it and solved it right away."
"Wow... Sounds like she's as bright as the sun."
"Little too nervous to be a sun, I think."
"We'll talk about this later, got a job to do."
Miles finished his coffee, "Right. Call you once I got something on my end."
Miles leapt off and his web shooters swung him down to the streets. He calculated and tossed his coffee cup into the trash as he sped by. He went off towards the recent crime scene.
In his approach, he saw that there were still a handful of police officers there. One of them noticed him and waved as Miles landed.
"Spiderman. Good to see you're here." The officer said.
"You guys are still here?"
"Yeah. Orders from HQ. Technically, we're off duty. But with everything that's happened recently, people are getting nervous, even a little jumpy. Gun sales have gone up."
"Yeah. I don't blame them." Even though the Symbiote invasion was two months ago, many peoples' scars are still fresh, some with wounds that are still healing.
"The other Spiderman snoopin' around, too?"
"We gotta. Its our job."
"Help yourself. We've swept the place and found nothing but dust or what we don't already know."
"Thanks. Don't work yourself too hard on that burger."
The officer chuckled, "Bite me."
Miles took a deep breath, "Okay." He tapped the side of his mask where his temple would be, turning a new function of the interface on, and the whole world was filtered in false color - grey with a few things red.
The red objects were things that were of possible interest, something that he and Ganke stole from video games that had the same mechanic. They had trouble pulling that out of video game mechanics and into a real life function. They figured to take the filter that marked enemies and tried to reverse engineer it, but the desired effect was much more finicky. But after Cindy's correction, all the hills became bumps easily traversed, leading to their first usable prototype.
Miles scoured the site -
"Hmm... No, don't think that's anything." He said looking at one red object.
He looked down at saw footprints, but they ended in a point instead of being rounded. No ridges in those prints either for foot traction.
"Looks human enough...What would someone wear that would leave a print like that? Then again... Could it just be a smear of a footprint? Hmm... The sooner the kinks on this thing are worked out, the better."
Looking at the foot prints alone, however, suggested that there was a fight here, one that was very one-sided. With further evidence that the thought that the prints were smeared were proven false upon seeing more of them. But, that would suggest that the one fighting had solid footing in their fighting moves.
Miles looked up, thinking about the possibility of there being evidence in places that the investigators wouldn't reach. Miles blinked, then squinted - there, high up, on the side of the nearby building.
Miles catapulted himself up with his webs and landed near it -
Finger prints.
Putting his hand to the side of his head again, he took a close up shot of one.
"Hey, Ganke. Busy?"
"Finishing my essay - what's up?"
"Got a finger print I found where the police can't reach. Think you can track it?"
"Shouldn't be too hard, now that we've upgraded our stuff..."
A moment passed.
"...Whoa."
"What's up?"
"I'm... not getting anything."
"Really? Sure there's nothing wrong?"
"Trying again for a third time... Yeah - still nothing. Whoever these prints belong to, they officially don't exist."
A call - Peter. Miles answered, "Got something, Pete?"
"Yep. Found a sample of that webbing our mysterious spider-person uses. We got something, finally - its a woman."
"Really? You sure?"
"If I'm remembering my existential got-my-powers-for-the-first-time crisis right, yeah."
"Anything else?"
"Even though the webbing is organic, its tensile strength is as good as ours. Not something you would think about, huh? You find anything?"
"Yeah. Finger prints on the side of a building. Ganke tried to match them only to come up empty."
"So, our friend's a woman who doesn't exist."
"And with how quickly the cocoons are cleaned up - sounds like someone's got some skeletons in their closet. Think we got a traditional super villain plot going on?"
Peter chuckled, "Traditional... It would be nice for a change, honestly. And there's talk of that 'Imposter' going around at night."
Another call was coming in - an unknown number.
"Sorry, Pete. One sec. Hello?"
"Hello? This is Miles, right? Dad didn't give me the wrong number?"
"No, definitely the wrong number, Cindy."
"Cool." She said flatly, not entertaining joke, "Uh, Dad's busy with FEAST, since he's working there now, and, uh, I have no one else to ask for help in cleaning my room. ...Actually, I don't want Dad to help me at all."
"...Is it that bad?"
"Uhhhh..." Cindy trailed off, and Miles could hear her looking around her room.
"I can spare an hour," Miles said, "That alright?"
"Uh, yeah! Sure! If we're not done by then, I can just do the rest myself." Cindy laughed nervously.
"Alright. You live over in Brooklyn, right?"
"Yeah, I think so. I'll send you the address."
Cindy ended the call and soon a text of her home address came to his phone. He heard police sirens nearby - he texted back that he would be there in thirty-ish minutes.
He resumed the call with Peter, as he swung towards the sirens "Sorry, Pete. Anything else?"
"Nope. Gotta answer the call of duty."
"Same. You know what they say - New York never sleeps."
Miles saw the crime in progress - a stolen vehicle driven by armed robbers.
He thwipped into action.
Miles knocked on the door to Cindy's home and a moment later Cindy opened the door with rolled up sleeves and a face mask.
"Hey, Miles. Sorry about this." Cindy said as she let him in.
"You're fine, Cindy. Nice place you got."
"Yeah. Lucky it didn't cost Dad a fortune." Cindy went quiet for a moment, "But, um... when we go to my room...
Don't make a big deal out of it."
"Sure." Miles merely said, not wanting to make her nervous any more than she usually was.
But, when she led him to her room seeing the sheer clutter, the mountains of clothes, the books - the manga, anime, things he recognized from the east like the figurines of green man with a red flowing scarf, and how little space there was to move inside her room, he could only say, "...You live like this?"
Cindy winced and closed her eyes, "...Please..."