SPIDER SECRET

Some spiders mimic bird droppings, appearing as a splattered mess of grey, white, and black.

She is slicken with a slime as light as sweat, but it pools out more & more – faster – as time goes on. The gray goop that secretes off her flesh when she transforms oozes out as her disguise dissolves. What is different, however, is that her own face doesn't surface from underneath. It's just an endless muddled mess of liquid. Her face droops and falls apart, forever stuck as one that is not her own either way. If she were to be lit aflame, there'd be no distinguishability between Himiko Toga and a candle's wax being wickered down.

Fruitlessly, she pushes and presses at the hanging flaps of her face. Her fingers smush the slime so that it spreads and her hands cause it to further lose any semblance of shape. "I used to be so cute", she refuses to glance at any sortof reflective surface for fear of seeing her sorry state – but she KNOWS how she appears – she sulks, "Now look at me…"

Jackal, the LOV doctor that underwent a physical change of his own, pays her complaints zero regard. He's busy with his back to her, working on something from his station of science. When he does speak, it's more-so a matter of factly statement that he takes pride in all for himself. "We all undergo metamorphosis at some time in our lives."

Himiko Toga does not share his sentiment. "Says the fucking furball", it shouldn't come as a suprise to the doctor that a shortsighted youngster like herself wouldn't be able to see the beauty behind his development of genome structure but it somehow does. When she asks him, "Are you going to help me fix this or not?", he chalks up the insult as her simply being stressed.

Jackal had put his other projects on pause for this interruption. He hopes that she can be grateful for that, at the very least. He finishes the temporary solution that he crafted for her – putting on the finalized touches – before turning around in order to hand it over, "There's not much that I can do on such short notice but this should help you."

In his clawed hand, his elongated fingers hold out a pure white mask. Down the middle, there's a split seam – but it's otherwise tight & compact, save for small slits to make for eye holes and a breathable mouthline. The fabric feels different, neither hard nor soft, when Himiko holds onto it for herself.

"A mask?", she turns it around in her hands while inspecting the material, "That's all you've got?" Even with her half melted face, she manages to make a skeptical expression that remains clear by her solid stare.

"It's a specialized mask to maintain and reformat your face", Jackal explains that it has more of a developmental use than merely covering up her facial flaws, "Until I can develop a serum of some kind, this is what I can do for you."

Himiko gets the gist. She doesn't like it though. "I don't need a band-aid for my boo boo – I need something serious!", she throws the mask aside like it's useless.

Jackal growls. "You want my diagnosis? Stop stretching the limits of your quirk so much", he takes offense to seeing any invention of his being discarded as though it's nothing more than trash and so he lets her hear what he has to say, "Like any muscle that is overworked, it may as well be torn and damaged – it requires time to heal and recover" He doesn't sugarcoat her condition anymore.

Himiko's 'work phone' buzzes. She checks it and sees that she is being called in by both the HPSC and Tomura Shigaraki. Once again, the 'Madame Director' disguise is required. "We don't have time..", she lets out an agitated growl of her own.

Jackal watches as Chameleon takes the mask that he crafted for her. But before he allows her to leave with it, he feels the need to tell her one last thing. Not for her sake of sparing her hardship, but for the sake of ensuring he still has an ally to turn to during his absence from the rest of the LOV. "The young 'master' seeks to destroy everything, Miss Toga.. that includes you…"

She pauses, probably taking a moment to soak that in. And then… "We all have our own agendas", she puts on her newly acquired mask and heads for the exit, "I'm gonna do what I do best and keep playing my part."

Numerous murmurs – more than the amount a person can count on two hands – create a collected series of under their breath grievances. "Oh, shit, here comes 'Fury'.." They each share a similar style of that statement.

Toshinori bites the inside of his cheek to withhold from sighing or saying anything. He's heard the whispers of his new nickname several times before already. No more is he 'the symbol of peace' or All Might. Now he's just Fury – for showing a little anger in the areas that matter.

But, so be it. If he can't wear a wide smile to be assuring anymore, then he'll lean into the hard sell of this newer title and force a frown on his face. He scares the room's occupants with a scowl and a stare, silencing their whispers. Whatever rumors about him have been circulating came from whatever was said about his confrontation with the Madame Director, so his reputation does wonders this way.

He was always the type of easy going guy who loved idle chit chat in the teacher's lounge at U.A – coffee, bagels, donuts, the works – Sir Nighteye managed & maintained anything serious for him within his Hero Agency. But now, it falls on him to be the tougher type of businessman model. He gets straight to business in such a case, "This morning's report?"

Straight away, the room becomes a room full of workers. They all rattle off a bunch of inquiries and status updates, like they are reading from a list. Toshinori studies their monitors and workstations to ensure that nothing has changed since that information was written.

Out of all the divulged details surrounding crime and work studies, he doesn't expect what to stand out to be the base's airspace detective field picking up a recurring blip. He strides over to the station to see what was filed about this strange occurrence.

"Something occupied our airspace?", Toshinori notes the periodic comings & goings of an unidentified 'blip' up in the sky. This is too often to be coincidental or an easy writeoff.

"Every so often", the monitor-person doesn't seem to think all that much of it though, "it's so small though that it could be as insignificant as a bird."

"That wouldn't show up on radar", Toshinori puts his new nickname to good use and fixes the worker with a furious glare. That glare then gets shared equally with everybody else in the room, "Get a helicopter to circle the perimeter and scramble some jets!"

As though to prove his point that it's a matter that should have been taken seriously much sooner, it becomes much too late for anybody to do anything. The skylight above them all shatters as a metallic man comes crashing down. Sharp feathered wings flutter, casting off broken glass. A beaked helmet swivels – searching – and staring.

"That won't be necessary", The Vulture stands at the center of the room – he removes his helmet, unveiling a bald head & a wrinkled face, "I AM just a bird.. afterall."

Toshinori stares with his one good eye going wide. The former hero Hawks and what he has been reduced to is on full display – as ugly as the man's insides may have been are now displayed externally. "Keigo.. I hardly recognize you.."

Vulture turns himself around, simultaneously becoming airborne again. "That's a name I haven't heard in a long while", he dispels bladed feathers from his wings with a single motion – the daggers pin Toshinori to a nearby wall – and the villain grins. "But sorry, All Might, I'm more of an Endeavor fan to bother caring for you."

This hostile movement makes security spring into action. Guns are drawn. Quirks are activated. Vulture becomes surrounded. They shout an order, "Hands up where we can see them!"

"Stand down!", but Toshinori shouts an order back at them. Even with one eye gone, he can clearly see that they wouldn't stand a chance – not against a former pro hero that made the top ten ranking list.

Vulture chuckles. "Listen to your director or you'll wind up retired too", he relishes in the feeling of superiority over them all as security surrenders to his whim of holding a hostage.

Toshinori takes it upon himself to keep the mad man busy – distracted & talking – while he hits an emergency distress signal with a small handheld device hidden within his coat sleeve. He asks the fiendish flying foe, "Why are you here?"

Vulture gives the room a quick once-over, "I wanna chat with my former boss", and then he tells Toshinori why it is that he's there in it with them all, "Madame Director around?"

Toshinori sucks in a breath. The HPSC, like U.A, has had shady affairs. After the Madame Director's recent behavior with Ojiro, he isn't all that shocked to learn of her connection to the Vulture scandal. But… he won't sell her out. No hero – and especially not him – would ever give up a life, innocent or not. Besides, it's the truth when he says, "She's out of office today."

Vulture sneers. "Then get her IN office", he leans in close to Toshinori. It's not normally the hostages that are the ones being given the demands in these situations. But here they are. "You have three hours", Vulture makes his demands. "Otherwise, I start getting annoyed" And despite flying through the broken skylight to leave, Toshinori is sure he won't be the only 'hostage' when the villain returns.

Izuku shakes MORE sand out of his Spidey suit. Even after the fourth wash cycle and several spins in the dryer, it's somehow not been emptied of all those pesky little beach grains. There are some itches that baby powder doesn't fix and this happens to be one of them. He considers just using one of his spare suits but those have tears and unsewn holes in them. Izuku sighs. He hasn't had a laundry disaster this bad since the time he turned all of his whites red and blue by mixing in his costume.

He gets so caught up inspecting the crevices of his suit that he doesn't notice his mom coming up behind him. He jumps, startled, when she asks, "Do you have a month's worth of clothes in your hamper?"

"Huh?", he pivots between looking at her and his costume. He checks one of their clocks to see how much time has passed and realizes her lighthearted joke is meant to instead ask why he's taking so long. He huffs out a dry laugh. "Oh, no, just the one.." And then he holds up his vigilante uniform, the source of his troubles.

Inko raises an eyebrow. "Then why have you been spending all day bent over the washing machine like you have cookies in the oven?", she steps closer to conduct her own inspection of the problem that her son is having.

"A villain that can control sand got my suit all messed up", Izuku gives her the gist of it as she does, "Haven't been able to get it all out."

"Give it here", Inko sighs as she gently grabs ahold of the messy costume. "You should have just asked ME! It's not like you have to hide anything anymore", she goes about grabbing ingredients – cleaning chemicals – for her 'witchcraft magic' to resolve the issue.

Izuku scratches behind his head, his freckled cheeks turning a tint of red. "Yeah but I didn't wanna burden you–"

"Pish posh!", Inko waves off his mild mannered consideration – though she is proud of raising her son in such a way – before taking another look at the costume. "This wasn't what I was expecting to come from your beach day though, I'll admit."

"You and me both", Izuku gives her a genuine smile at that. Before his smile dips and he thinks of the additional issues that comes with his secondary uniforms. "Uh, mom, do you also think you could sew up the rips in my other one?"

"Sure", Inko shrugs – she's used to knitting, and she has a sewing kit – it's just a hobby to her to now patch up her kid's vigilante costume apparently, "Gives me something to do."

Izuku breathes a breath of relief as he plops down onto the living room couch in order to relax. Relax. That's something that comes in small doses these days. He wonders how he ever managed to clean or fix up his outfits without her – or do ANY of this stuff without her, for that matter. "Thanks, mom~!"

Izuku taps at the screen of his phone, pulling up the Hero Feed app, so that he can pass some of his newly acquired leisure time. Normally, he'd find cool articles about hero rankings and rescue numbers. Today, he sees fan postings and theory threads about something going on over at the HPSC headquarters. Well, there's ALWAYS something shady going on there… but what he sees this time is what looks to be a blurry photo of a winged figure.

It doesn't take the vigilante long to connect the dots and figure out that his old buzzard buddy, The Vulture, is back. He doesn't know whether to be excited or annoyed. It'll be good to finally get another crack at the turncoat hero Hawks, but it couldn't have come at a worse time for him. As aforementioned, relaxation comes in small doses these days.

Izuku turns towards his mom, peeking over the couch. "Uh.. How fast do you think you can get that done?", his eyes move from her to his costumes. Both her and his eyebrows go up.

Izuku, now suited up as Spider-Man, finishes doing his fourth lap around the HPSC Headquarters. Yet, there's still no signs of Vulture also occupying that same airspace any more than he himself is. He starts to consider calling it quits. It's not like he's an invited guest so that popping inside to ask questions can be a welcomed idea. Spidey will just have to continue to do with the patrol-esk method of searching the building's surroundings so long as he's at odds with The Commission.

But before he can make a decision between doing a fifth & final lap or heading back home, he has his mind made up for him – by his Spider-Sense blaring in the back of his head. The agile character relies on his reflexes, falling into them easily – literally – he bends backwards to dodge a collection of bladed feathers. The projectiles go flying past his acrobatical evasion and he turns his head to see just who it was that threw them in his direction.

The lenses covering over his eyes expand when he spots only MORE sharp tipped plumage. "Whoa! Dude!", he has to cartwheel in mid-air in order to keep them from cutting past his suit and into his skin, "I JUST had this suit stitched!" Spider-Man's search is over once he finds the source of these incoming daggers.

There he is. The Vulture. A former pro hero turned villain. There had been a time that Izuku blamed himself for what Hawks has now become. But, his experience as Spider-Man showed him otherwise. He knows better now. Vulture chose this path of his own accord. It's up to the wielder of their power to use it responsibly.

Even so, Vulture himself has not let go of a grudge. "It's always YOU who interferes in my business!", he targets Spider-Man with a killing intent that no hero should ever have.

"I guess I'm the only one who cares about where the line is drawn there", Spider-Man maneuvers himself in a manner that keeps the bladed swipes of his opponent at bay – all while he gives the villain a lesson on heroics – this comes in the form of a swift bootie to the butt. "So, as long as I'm still swinging and kicking, count on me to be here to ruffle your feathers!"

Of course, this only aggravates the villain called Vulture even further. "A line between what's right and wrong?! You're a vigilante! What's the difference between you and me?!"

Spider-Man bends so that he can duck under another one Vulture's haphazard attacks, "Discipline", he holds back a powerful punch by shoving his enemy back instead, "Ethics", and REALLY holds back by jumping away from their fight rather than finishing it in an instant, "A code."

He lands on a building, trusting his Spider-Sense to know that there is a building at all for him to have landed on. But when he looks up, he sees that Vulture has ceased pursuing him. The villain stops and smiles – before pointing. He asks, "And how's that working out for you?"

Spider-Man turns around to see what may as well be a big ol' billboard behind him. It's a sign put up by the HPSC that condemns vigilantism to being the same as criminal activity. Just like when they had first fought and met one another, HE may as well be the fugitive here instead of Vulture ever still.

Spider-Man hangs his head, sullen – but only for a second. "Sometimes when standing up for what's right.. You gotta stand alone..", he comes up from his crouch and strikes a fighting stance.

Vulture's smile shifts into a sneer. He attacks again as he screeches, "Then alone you shall also fall!"

Spider-Man confronts the assault head on, dashing forward with his eyes focused on the fight at hand. "It's gonna take a lot more than what you've got."

Web wrapped and packaged, Vulture is dropped through the already broken skylight opening of the HPSC. The bound body of the unconscious villain bounces & bobbles, just shy of hitting the floor, when a single string serves as a suspending bungee thread to suddenly stop the man's descent.

Toshinori and several members of the SHIELD division look up to see Spider-Man poised overhead. The vigilante is peeking over the ledge of the rooftop opening – he waves despite looking briefly as surprised as they do to see one another. The character in red & blue then hops down to join them at their level.

"Spider-Man.. !", Toshinori's singular exposed eye looks on at the masked individual with a mixture of shock & surprise.

Spider-Man is just as amazed to see the former pro hero currently present. "Good to see you again, All Might" He glances around the scene's setting, taking in everybody else that he is not so sure of. "Just didn't think it'd be in a place like this.."

Toshinori wears a small smile. Politics are as boring as they are capable of dividing. But it's a necessary evil in their world. "Not all of us are still so young that we can be out in the field", he supposes such is the fate of everyone eventually when they can no longer fight on the frontlines.

"Ah, come on, you're not THAT old!" Spider-Man is kind enough to try saying otherwise. "You aren't balding!", he gestures between Toshinori and the captured villain, "Not like buzzard brain over here!", trying to lighten the mood.

"Thank you for bringing him in for us", and that works just enough to make Toshinori's smile slightly bigger, "The Madame Director may not believe so but you do tight and efficient work."

Spider-Man stumbles back a step. He's floored by the compliment from the former number one hero. "I, uh, thanks" But he forces himself to shake off that stupor, since… There's more pressing matters to attend to. "About that though.. I was originally planning on confronting her about her pet that had gotten loose again, but now–"

"Yes, it seems that this particular problem is one that has come back to bite the organization – or, perhaps just her alone" Toshinori grimaces while assessing the situation, that if not for Spider-Man's interference, could have spiraled out of control.

Spider-Man nods. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity then", he hopes that this means they can be more on the same page than they had previously been beforehand.

Toshinori gives the vigilante a curious glance, "To do what?"

"Let's set a trap", Spider-Man steps closer. He intends on beating two birds with one stone today. "When you tell her that you've got Vulture, I guarantee that she'll come running here to wanna sweep her mess under the rug herself!"

Toshinori had been familiar with the director's gray middle area between the black & white work of hero-ing, but he never thought that it would be taken to such an extreme extent as Spider-Man is implying. "You believe she'd kill a prior pro hero to cover– ?"

"All Might, she's way worse than the real director was, because she's not even the real director" And so, Spider-Man elaborates on their predicament a little more. He keeps his voice lower for the sake of considering the others in the room with them. "For some time now, I'm not really sure when, Himiko Toga took her place."

Toshinori swallows a gasp – hell, he swallows his whole breath. He would ask why Spider-Man didn't come forward with this information sooner but he can understand why that'd be difficult to do – vigilante status aside – there's nobody he could have told who would be able to do anything since Toga herself is who holds all the power per position standing. "We'll just have to confirm that for ourselves then", he starts to formulate an agenda to help Spider-Man expose Toga while they can, "We'll give your idea a try."

Spider-Man breathes out a breath of relief, grateful. "Thank you", part of him had been worried that All Might wouldn't have believed him or that there would still be nothing that could be done about it.

But NOW is the true moment of truth. Toshinori gives the director – Toga – a call.

She answers after one ring. Toshinori wastes no time in telling her, "We have Vulture."

She pauses, possibly processing that news. Then she asks, "You do? Who caught him?"

Toshinori looks over at Spider-Man, uncertain of whether to answer that honestly or not. But Spider-Man nods, giving the go-ahead.

Reluctantly, Toshinori tells Toga exactly who came crawling into the HPSC. "..Spider-Man.."

Unaware of the plan that has been developed, an HPSC agent assigned to guard the hallways later doesn't expect to see Spider-Man roaming those very same corridors. "Um", they falter as the vigilante strides forward, "H- Hey!"

Spider-Man stops, surprisingly considerate. But there's a look through the narrowed eye lenses of his mask that also might suggest otherwise. He waits for the guard to say something more.

The guard struggles to say anything at all though. They bashfully rub behind their head. "Er.. This is awkward, but.." However, instead of turning Spider-Man away, the guard surprisingly proves to be forthcoming. They produce a pad and a pencil while asking, "Can I have your autograph?"

Spider-Man continues to stare, saying nothing. But, he soon takes the pad and pencil. The guard smiles, gratefully relieved. But Spider-Man doesn't use the pad to write on – he uses it to muffle a swift punch to the guard's face.

This would have likely gone unnoticed. If not for another Spidey – the REAL Spidey – having a danger detection ability that alerts him to trouble. Spider-Man comes running around the corner to see his imposter fleeing. He also sees the knocked down guard and chooses to go to their aid first.

Spider-Man shakes the guard, trying to get them to wake up & recover. "Hey.. Hey.. You okay?", he handles the injured person a little more gently when seeing that the shaking isn't working.

That's when a group of more guards come running around the corner – backup. They stop short when seeing the scene of their comrade laid out beside a wanted vigilante. "What happened here?!"

Whatever conclusions could have been drawn from simply seeing this, promptly becomes worse. The injured guard whimpers, "S- Spider-Man… Hit me..", slightly delirious and dazed.

Spider-Man's eyes widen when he looks between the guard that just outed him to look like a bad guy and the guard's fellow guard friends. "Oh..", he sighs and stands up, "Oh. No."

Just when things had started to look up for him – just as he had thought he'd be able to work alongside the HPSC through his connection with All Might – he's forced to fight them.

Spider-Man pulls his punches. Of course he does. He typically always does. But he holds back much more than usual in this case. These guards may as well be innocent for all they know by being mixed up in this severe misunderstanding. But it's not like he can take the time out to explain things to them about Chameleon. He has to catch his imposter quickly before it's too late. Which means he has to take them down quickly too.

Fortunately, he's fast enough to subdue them and make it to Vulture's containment zone before Chameleon can further damage his reputation or cause any more trouble. His imposter is holding Toshinori up – likely having tricked the subdivision director with the Spidey disguise.

"You may have fooled them but there's one thing about the genuine article that you'll never get right!", Spider-Man snares his copycat with a web line and PULLS. Chameleon can't replicate that. Nor his spider strength.

Spider-Man proceeds to web Himiko Toga to a wall. Sludge secretes off the villain's form, unveiling her true form as The Chameleon.

Spider-Man dusts his hands off before placing them on his hips and admiring his handiwork. "I catch criminals just like flies!"

Conveyor belts move on an automatic timed basis. Glass containers are filled on a rotational round of programming. This assembly line of perfume bottles is apart of Detnerat's stocking system. What the general public doesn't know about this process, however, is that the bottles are periodically being mixed in with the drug called Trigger.

Rikiya Yotsubashi, the CEO and head of Detnerat, watches from a catwalk. He swirls a small portioning of wine that resides within a small glass in his hand before taking a sip from it. He oversees this coverup operation on a regular basis to ensure that it continues to run smoothly.

Once comfortably confirming that there are no hangups, he nods to the workers who are on his 'special payroll' so that they keep up the good work. And then he steps into one of his spare office rooms in order to attend to other business affairs.

He has a call waiting for him from the HPSC. Detnerat is always looking for a way to expand its growth and to assist with the furthering of community growth by extension. That goes for hero society too. Biding his time during the process of a power struggle between Tombstone & Silvermane has now granted him a chance to make a move at long last.

Afterall, the recent change in management at the HPSC is an opportunity for him to assume such a position.

AUTHOR NOTES

Hopefully Chameleon & Vulture being defeated & captured so swiftly doesn't seem too anti-climatic, but I wanted to demonstrate the skill & strength growth Izuku has achieved through his recent experiences. With foes now like Venom, Goblin, and Doc Ock, some of the 'lesser' rogues are going to become 'villain of the week types'.

That being said, onto review reads!

Pikapowerz: Thanks for the continued support!

CapoPerk: It's hard for Izuku to catch a break being Spidey but some more slice of life moments will hopefully have their time to shine! One thing you can always count on are Izuku's poor excuses to slip away and be Spidey!

Nova-x-Prime: Chapters are significantly shortening lately, which has a bit to do with trying to maintain the regular weekly release of chapters, but I will try and get as much written into them as possible as I can - whereas Morlun would probably make for a good final villain, I'm not too keen on doing Spider-Verse stuff with other Spider People but have been considering some potential 'Deku-Verse' stuff, so we shall see!

asura4309: That can very well sometimes be the case, but I got enough backlash as it was with Izuku catching the bad luck Spidey curse so I can't go too extreme unless it's on occasion, haha!

Next time, Spider-Man sees the return of yet another foe from the Sinister Six! Till then!

-Courtesy of your friendly neighborhood author!